Parents who had so grievously sinned against him How happily graced would a poor offender think himself if he night be admitted to the presence of his Prince there to say what he could either for his defence or excuse or else to sue for mercy and move compassion By how much therefore God is greater than the greatest Monarchs of the world even as much as they are greater than nothing so much is this indulgence of God here expâ—essed in my Text to Eve as before to her husband surpassing all the favour and â—ondescent of men who sent not for man but came himself unto him yea who vouchsafed then to seek them out when they ran away from him Now all this is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the fashion of men and therefore not so much to express what God himself did as what men ought to do Let it be a Lesson therefore to those who are set over others not to be too hard of access to such as are obnoxious unto them If God himself vouchsafed so far unto his creature so wretched much more should man unto his brother The fourth Circumstance is The manner of his speech to Eve in that he that was the Lord God should so mildly speak unto her What is this thou hast done The Lord God said it saith my Text but who would not think it rather the speech of a familiar and condoling friend than of so great a Iudge so greatly offended Here is no word of asperity but of lenity no menacing no upbraiding terms but only What is this thou hast done And should not we learn hence not to insult over such whose offences make them liable either to us or others should we upbraid rail triumph and vomit our impotency upon them Certainly we seem not to remember what a gentle and commiserating Iudge God is or that our selves are men and have to deal with humane frailty and man's miserable condition which we ought to behold with pity and not handle with bitterness THE next thing is The Inquisition it self What is this thou hast done Some read Why hast thou done this expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Eve's answer following where she saith I have eaten plainly argues the question was What she had done and not Why she had done it And therefore I take the words as our Translation hath them and understand this manner of asking by God to be a Scheme of admiration and to imply an exaggeration of the woman's sin as if he had said O what an horrible sin is this thou hast committed How grievously hast thou transgressed O what hast thou done And therefore God enquiring of her sin with exaggeration she makes answer with diminution Indeed she had offended because she had eaten but yet the offence was the less for the Serpent had deceived her This then being the meaning of the words let us behold in them the greatness of the sin of our first Parents which made the Lord God himself to say What is this thou hast done The greatness of this sin I will first consider as it concerns them both in general and then as in particular The greatness of the sin in general appears in these four Considerations First It was a transgression of such a Law as was given only to prove man whether he would be under God or no. For the Moral Law which was written and engraven in the Hearts of our first Parents was for the doing of things simply good and abstaining from things simply evil such things as a good man would do were there no Commandment and such things as he would not do were there no Prohibition so that in these there was no trial whether man would obey God or no only because he commanded him and merely for obedience sake And therefore had God ordained this Symbolical Law prohibiting a thing in it self neither good nor evil neither pleasing nor displeasing unto God but indifferent that man's observance thereof might be a profession and testimony that he was willing to submit himself to God's pleasure only because it was his pleasure And that it might yet the more appear God made not choice of such a thing as man cared not for but of a pleasant and desirable thing whereunto the more his inclination was carried the more by his abstaining might his willing subjection be approved The violating therefore of this Law was an open profession that he would not be under God and renouncing of him to be his Lord. And this is the first respect wherein appears the greatness of Adam's sin The second Consideration arguing the same is That he on whom God hâ—d bestowed so many glorious endowments whom he had as it were stuffed with so manâ— excellent abilities and adorned with so many precious graces that he should sin against him and set so light by his commandment For of those to whom God had given so much he might justly require and expect much Therefore those whom God hatâ— furnished with the best gifts either of knowledge or other abilities they if they sâ— sin most grievously So that in this respect the sin of Adam and Eve exceeded the â—â—ns of their posterity as much as their integrity did our corruption The greater â—he person the greater his sin The sin of a Prince greater than the sin of a vulgar person and therefore in the Law there was a greater Sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the Prince and Priest than of the people The third circumstance aggravating his sin was The easiness of the commandment and the easiness man had to keep the same Both in regard of himself whom no itching Concupiscence urged as being altogether free therefrom and not as we his off-spring are continually vexed with the boiling thereof Secondly in regard of the thing it self he was to abstain from being only one fruit in so great a liberty of all the garden besides How easily might he have abstain'd from one to whom God had given the use of all saving this one He wanted not to feed him he wanted no variety of food he had even enough to surfeit on only to approve his obedience to Him who had given all the rest unto him he was to abstain from one and yet he would not Quanta â—uit saith S. Austin iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat uon peccandi facilitas How great an iniquity was it there to sin where it was so easie a thing not to sin The fourth circumstance aggravating this sin was The place which was Paradise as it were in God's own presence even afore his face For as Heaven above other parts of the world is the place of God's special presence so was Paradise above other parts of the earth as it were an Heaven upon earth the place wherein he singularly revealed himself and therefore an Holy place and the Temple of God Do not men otherwise giving the loose rein to wickedness yet abhor
from all your transgressions for why will ye die O ye house of Israel namely that death wherewith God threatned them if they should continue in their sins they might prevent by returning to him by repentance And so saith God to Ieremy in chap. 26. 2 3. Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings Lo here If we repent us of our Sins God will also repent him of his Iudgments that is he will not send them Thus when the Ninevites repented in Sackcloth and ashes it is said Ionah 3. 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil may and God repented of that is he brought not upon them the evil that he had said he would do unto them And so if Laodicea in my Text should leave her Lukewarmness God who would have chastised her because he loved her would yet withhold her chastisements because she repented Would we then avoid the Iudgments of God hanging over our heads Let us not then defer our Repentance Would we not have the flaming fire of God's wrath and vengeance to consume us Let us repent of our Lukewarmness and get this sacred Fire of Zeal the only means to preserve us Be zealous therefore and repent DISCOURSE LIII 1 Ep. IOHN 2. 3. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments MAN that is born of a woman saith Iob is of short continuance and full of trouble Nay our days are not so few but they are also as full of sorrow full of unquietness and discontent no hour is without no estate is free from him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in the earth and ashes from him that is clothed in silk and wears a crown even unto him that is clothed in simple raiment He that had attained the highest pitch of worldly felicity King Solomon who was great and encreased above all that were before him in Ierusalem whose eyes had whatsoever they desired who withheld not his heart from any joy yet when he had considered all he could see no good thing under the Sun nothing wherein he could find true hearts-content but cryed out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of Spirit All things are full of Labour man cannot utter it Yea Pleasure it self is linkt with pain and sorrow Extrema gaudii semper occupat luctus In vain then do men take up their rest where they have not long to stay in vain do they seek for comfort in those things where no true comfort can be found There is but one thing in the world that can make this miserable life happy unto us and that is so to demean our selves while we live here as that we may be assured of the Life to come This is that will make us not to feel the sorrows and troubles of this life This is that will make us with ease to swallow the bitter pills of Death it self when we can say with Iob I know or I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and that these eyes shall see him though worms consume this body of mine But the greatest part of men think no such Assurance can be had and therefore think it but labour lost to seek after it Others on the contrary are too credulous assuring themselves of God's savour and of eternal life without any proof or trial of their Assurance whether it be true or no. That both these sorts of men may see what a dangerous Error they are in let them peruse but this one Epistle of S. Iohn and out of the whole Epistle let them consider with me a while the Verse which I have read let them hear what the Spirit saith by the beloved Apostle of the Lord By this we do know or come to be assured that we know him if we keep his Commandments The first part of these words tells us of an Assurance to be gotten and lest we might deceive our selves the other part tells us what that is whereby we come to be assured and whereby we may prove insallibly whether our Assurance which we have conceived be good or no viz. If we keep his Commandments By this we do know or we are sure so the former Translation and it comes all to one that we know him if we keep his Commandments In the first part of these words all is plain and there is nothing hard to be understood but only what is meant by this Knowing of Christ what manner of Knowledge this should be which is here spoken of For there are diverse kinds of knowing Christ. There is a Knowledge which the very Devils have the Devils saith S. Iames believe also and tremble and in Luke 4. 34. we read that the Devil said unto Christ I know thee who thou art the holy one of God and in verse 41. that other Devils also came out of many whom they possessed crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God but Christ rebuked them and would not suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say that they knew him to be Christ. There is a Knowledge likewise which the wicked may have but it is like unto the Knowledge which Devils have For the wicked may know Christ to be the Son of God they may know he died upon the Cross for the sins of men they may know that he is gone up into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory everlasting but alas this Knowledge if they have no more than it will not profit them at all it will never stand them in stead but rather make them more inexcusable at the Day of Iudgment But the Knowledge which the Text speaks of it is the Knowledge of the Faithful yea it is the Knowledge of Faith yea it is Faith it self For this Knowledge of Christ is to know him to be our Christ to know him to be our Redeemer to know him to be the Propitiation for our sins as well as for the sins of other men This you see is Faith it self and this is the Knowledge here meant as you may easily see further if you do but read the words going next before my Text where our Apostle saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and then come the words of my Text And hereby we know or we are sure that we know him that is Hereby we know him to be as was said before our Advocate our Propitiation all this we are sure we know he is to us if that we keep his Commandments If therefore Faith be a Knowledge If to believe in Christ to be know Christ how then can Faith and Ignorance stand together how can an ignorant
Bent of the Times the Rule of his Opinion For being free from any aspiring after Applause Wealth and Honour and from seeking Great things for himself he was consequently secured from Flattery and Temporizing the usual artifice of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that will be rich that are resolved to make it their chief design and business to be great and wealthy in the world their heart is wholly upon it they are dead to the World to come and relish not the things above and are alive only to this present world being as eagerly intent and active about earthly things as if their portion were to be only in this life But such was the excellency of his spirit that he could not but abhor all Servile obsequiousness whatsoever as accounting it a certain argument of a Poorness of spirit either to flatter or to invite and receive Flatteries and withal considering that if those of Power and high degree were men of inward worth and excellent spirits they would shew themselves such in their valuing him not the less but rather more for his not applying himself to those ignoble arts and course policies proper to Parasites and ambitious men who speak not their own words nor seem to think their own thoughts but wholly enslave themselves to the thoughts and words the lusts and humors of those by whom for this pretended doing honour to them they seek to be advantaged Besides he might well think that he should rather undervalue and lessen them if he suppos'd they would regard him the more for those or the like Instances of an officious flattery as if they were not able to discern that Frankness and Openness of Spirit and Conversation Singleness of Heart and a Cordial readiness to serve others in love out of a pure heart is truly Christian Generous and Manly and on the contrary that Flattery and Fawning is Dog-like Base and Mercenary and lasts not long for though Parasites pretend to serve their Masters with great devotion a devotion so great as if they thought themselves rather their Creatures than God's yet in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rather serve their own belly and when their Masters cease to be in a capacity of serving them these men also cease to regard them and value them no more than an useless Tool or to use the Prophet's expression a broken Vessel wherein there is no pleasure Other particulars might be added but these may suffice to shew how Free he was from that which is apt to tempt men to judge amiss For it appears from the nature of the things themselves that Partiality Prejudice Pride and Passion Self-love Love of the World Flattery and Covetous Ambition do importunely sollicite men to make a false judgment corrupt their Affections wrong their Understandings enfeeble their Faculties unhappily dwarf their growth in useful Learning and keep them back from such an excellent improvement in Knowledge especially Divine Knowledge as otherwise they might attain And therefore had not Mr. Mede been free from the power of these Lusts he could never have perform'd so well as he hath done in any of his Tracts or Discourses especially upon the more abstruse and mysterious passages of H. Scripture Those therefore that are not of such a free and enlarged spirit but are fondly addicted either to themselves or Parties and are enslaved to Honour Wealth and particular narrow Interests and are under the power of Pride Passion serving divers Lusts and Pleasures they must needs be less excellent less improved in their studies less succesful in their Intellectual adventures than otherwise they might have been had they been established with a Free spirit Nor had some Authors of great reading and fame for Learning ever fallen into such mistakes but their Writings had been freer from imperfections and a greater respect they had secured to their Memories had they been less Passionate less Envious Proud and Self-conceited more Free and unbiassed more Humble and Modest as also more faithful to that excellent Rule of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is somewhat of that great deal more which might be observed of the Author's Largeness and Freedom of spirit which yet in him was not accompanied with any unbecoming reflexions upon others as if he design'd to lessen the due esteem of what was laudable in their performances much less with any irreverence and opposition to the established Articles of Religion and prejudice to the Peace of the Church or State but on the contrary was an innocent ingenuous peaceable Freedom of enquiring into such Theories only as do not at all clash with the Doctrine established and was ever attended with a sweet Modesty a singular Sedateness and Sobriety of spirit and a due regard to Authority And whosoever would read the Author with most profit and judgment must read him also with a free unpassionate and unprejudiced spirit That Saying Omnis Liber eo spiritu legi debet quo scriptus est is true as well of every useful Book as of the Divinely-inspired Books of Holy Scripture Thus much of the Fourth Help or Instrument of Knowledge I shall mention but one particular more but it is a very weighty and important one of singular use and absolute necessity for the gaining the Best Knowledge wherein I might be as large as in the foregoing but because I would hasten to conclude the Preface I shall dispatch it in fewer lines V. The Fifth and Last Means whereby the Author arrived at such an Eminency of Knowledge was His faithful endeavour after such a Purity of Soul as is requisite to fit it for the fuller and clearer discerning of Divine Mysteries The necessity of such a Purity of Heart and Life in order to this End appears by several express places of Scripture as where it is said The Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psalm 25. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knowledge of the holy ones is Understanding Prov. 9. their way of knowing is Knowledge and Understanding indeed and again The pure in heart shall see God Matth. 5. But none of the wicked shall understand says the Angel to Daniel concerning the Mysteries mentioned in Chap. 12. And agreeable to these and many such passages of H. Scripture is that in the Book of Wisdom chap. 1. Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the Body that is subject unto sin The same Truth is plainly acknowledged by the Best and more Divine Philosophers and accordingly they frequently discourse of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purgative Vertues as necessary to prepare the Soul for the knowledge of the most Excellent and Highest Truths as the Mystical or Contemplative Divines speaking of the way to Divine knowledge place the Via Purgativa before the Via Illuminativa and it is a known Maxime of Plato in his Phaed◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying that
touching the Necessity and Contingency of these Subordinate Causes That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii in the way of direct and natural subordination But that here the Chain is broken off because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii does beget or produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis in man only contingently and without any necessity And thus è contrà That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii This naturally as before But that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii should beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis this is from no necessity because it is in mans power and liberty who is naturally ill-disposed yet through the emprovements of Art and especially by the Grace of God to become good or better as the Divine Goodness shall minister opportunity Which is as much as can be said in so few words and might determine the question to all judicious and knowing men concerning the power of the Stars and those Celestial Influences into and upon this inferior world where their Operations are genuine and natural and properly efficient and where they have their stint and their Nè plus ultrà nothing at all to do unless by a remote disposition which is properly no Cause at all This is enough also to vindicate Man born to Liberty and to command the Stars from that supposed vassalage whereunto the jugling Astrologers of our days would fain subject him and cast the credulous world into a Trance of blindness to believe Lies and Follies and gross Vanities for very Truth 16. But leaving the hot pursuit of Astrological fancies the busie idleness of some even to their old age he applied himself to the more useful study of History and Antiquities particularly to a curious enquiry into those Mysterious Sciences which made the ancient Chaldeans Egyptians and other Nations so famous tracing them as far as he could have any light to guide him in their Oriental Schemes and Figurative expressions as likewise in their Hieroglyphicks not forgetting to enquire also into the Oneirocriticks of the Ancients Which he did the rather because of that affinity which he conceiv'd they might have with the language of the Prophets to the understanding of whom he shew'd a most ardent desire His Humanity-studies and Mathematical labours were but Initial things which he made attendants to the Mysteries of Divinity and though they were Preparatives as he could use them yet were they but at a distance off and more remote to his aim for he had more work to do before he could be Master of his design A well-furnish'd Divine is compounded of more Ingredients than so For Histories of all sorts but those especially which concern the Church of God must be studied and well known and therefore he made his way by the knowledge of all Histories General National Ancient and Modern Sacred and Secular He was a curious and laborious searcher of Antiquities relating to Religion Ethnick Iewish Christian and Mahumetan the fruits of which studious diligence appear visibly in several of those excellent Treatises which have pass'd the Press particularly in his Apostasie of the Latter times The Christian Sacrifice his Discourses upon Daniel his Paraphrase and Notes upon S. Peter's Prophecy and in his great Master-piece those elaborate Commentaries upon the Apocalyps where the Fata Imperii i.e. the Affairs of the Roman State there predicted are to admiration explain'd out of Ethnick Historians and the Fata Ecclesiae illustrated with no less accuracy out of Ecclesiastick Writers His Writings best speak his eminent skill in History yet it may not be amiss to superadde upon this occasion the Testimony of a very judicious person and one of long and inward acquaintance with Mr. Mede and his studies we mean that forementioned ancient Collegue and Consocius of his Mr. W. Chappell who before his going into Ireland was heard thus to express himself That Mr. Mede was as judicious a man in Ecclesiastical Antiquities and as accurately skilled in the first Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latin as any man living 17. Unto Histories he added those necessary attendants which to the knowledge of the more difficult Scriptures must never be wanting viz. an accurate understanding of the Ichnography of the Tabernacle and Temple the Order of the Service of God therein performed as also of the City of Ierusalem together with an exact Topography of the Holy Land besides other Iewish Antiquities Scripture-Chronology and the exact Calculation of Times so far especially as made for the solving or clearing of those difficulties and obscure passages that occur in the Historical part of Scripture which the vulgar Chronologers have perplex'd and the best not fully freed from scruple And how great his abilities were for the Sacred Chronologie may appear to omit other proofs from that clause in a Letter of the then Archbishop of Armagh to him I have entred upon the Determination of the Controversies which concern the Chronology of the Sacred Scripture wherein I shall in many places need your help That great and laborious Work which this equally Learned and Humble Prelate was now entred upon was his Chronologia Sacra wherein he intended to confirm those dispositions of Years and accounts of time he had set down in his Annals of the Old and New Testament lately published by him This Work had exercised his industry for many years and he labour'd in it to the last minute of health he enjoy'd but he lived not to finish it Yet that the fruit of all his travels herein might not die with him so much as he had elaborated was published by the Learned Dr. Barlow Provost of Queen's-Colledge in Oxford whose great care and industry herein did deserve in this place an express celebration For such useful Labours justly entitle a man to the honour of being a Benefactor to the world 18. By the fruit of these Studies particularly by his happy Labours upon the Apocalyps and Prophetical Scriptures what honour our Author purchas'd abroad besides what he gain'd at home among men studious in this way and therefore capable of judging is evident by the many Letters sent him from Learned men in several parts expressing their own and others high esteem of his Writings As the above-mention'd Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher who also acquainted Mr. Mede with the great esteem that another Archbishop in Ireland had for his accurate labours upon the Apocalyps The judicious and moderate Paulus Testardus Pastor of the Reformed Church at Blois in France who was so highly pleas'd with his Clavis Commentationes Apocalypticae as to take the pains amidst his other pressing labours to translate them into French designing the printing of them for the benefit of his Countreymen
downfall was to be wrought by the Stone viz. the Kingdom of Christ who should first demolish the Gods and Idols thereof and then the State it self The time therefore when our Saviour spake was fulfilled and the Kingdom of God was at hand Thus you see how the Time was pointed out at large now hear the precise and punctual Time whereby they might know not only that the Kingdom of Messiah should be set up in the Roman Monarchy but also in what time thereof The Angel tells Daniel ch 9. 24. That when the Temple City and Commonwealth of the Iews which then lay wast by the Babylonish captivity should be restored and set up again it should continue 490 years or 70 times 7 years and no more and that before that term ended Messiah should come and be anointed and make atonement for sin His words are these Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy For understanding this reckoning you must know that the Iews according to the Law counted their time and years by Sevens every Seventh year being a year of rest for the Land and freeing of Servants and so called a Sabbatical year according to which account the Angel tells Daniel that Seventy of those weeks of years were allotted for the standing of their Temple and Commonwealth when both should be restored again after the Captivity which make in all 490 years Now if Messiah were to appear before these 490 years were ended it could not in likelihood be much later than this time when our Saviour published his Gospel because within 40 years after the Temple and State of the Iews was utterly destroyed whereby it was apparent that the 490 years were ended and therefore the Time of Messiah's appearing past But Daniel yet points out the Time more nearly and punctually For he tells us moreover that from the Edict for restoring the State of the Iews and re-building Ierusalem which was some years after the re-building of the Temple should be unto Messiah the Prince 62 of those weeks or sevens of years and after those 62 seven years Messiah should be cut off Now if we reckon this number of weeks of years from that week wherein Ezra received commission from Artaxerxes King of Persia to restore and settle the Church and State of the Iews and Nehemiah soon after to build the walls of Ierusalem we shall find the Time when our Saviour began this publication of his Gospel to fall out in the last week of those 62 weeks As a woman therefore with child when her tenth and last moneth is come may truly say Her reckoning is fulfilled and her travail is at hand so might our Saviour when the last week of Messiah's weeks was begun say The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of heaven is at hand The Lesson to be learned hence is for confirmation of our Faith against the blindness and obstinacy of the Iews who will not believe that Iesus of Nazareth who came at the time appointed was their King Messiah but look for another yet to come O blind Miscreants If the time of Messiah's coming were then fulfilled when our Saviour preached unto them how are they so besotted as to look for that his coming still Shall he come 1600 years after the time of his coming was fulfilled Their Fathers looked for the coming of Messiah at that time when our Saviour preached amongst them yea had filled all the East with the fame of their expectation which thâ—y would never have done had they not seen the time appointed for his coming and kingdom was to come out in that Age. Why did their Fathers never alledge against the Apostles That the time was not yet come Had not this been the readiest way to stop their mouths when they told them They had crucified their Messiah Nay when our Saviour made this fulfilling of the time to be the ground of his doctrine why did not their great Doctors their Scribes and Pharisees oppose and gainsay it unless they had known it to be so indeed Nay at his blessed Birth when the wise men came from the East to Ierusalem saying Where is he that is born King of the Iews when Herod and all Ierusalem was troubled when he assembled all the chief Priests and Scribes of the people about it why did they not tell him the Time was not yet come unless they had known it had been come But of the Time there was no question only the Place was inquired of In a word All the exception the Iews could find against our Saviour was the meanness of his Person because he came not like a King and the Place of his education because he was a Galilaean But against the Time of his coming they took no exception Nay which is an invincible confession the most of them at this day have no other shift but to say That Messiah was born then namely before their Temple was destroyed and lies hid all this time somewhere for their sins but at length shall shew himself unto them Let us pray unto Almighty God that he would at length open their eyes to see him to be their King whom they have pierced and that there is no other to be looked for And let us continually magnifie his goodness unto us unto whom being Gentiles and Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel a people without God in the world he hath nevertheless vouchsafed this great light and made known that Mysterie which is hidden from his own people to whom appertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises Whose were the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever What are we that it should please the great and mighty God to look upon such dead dogs as we are DISCOURSE XXVI S. MARK 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel WHilest our Blessed Saviour preached here on earth what else in likelihood could the argument of his preaching be but the Mystery of Christian Religion or way of attaining Salvation through himself Accordingly this Brief of his Sermons recorded by our Evangelist contains no less than the Sum of all Christian Divinity For the Knowledg of the Kingdom of God and the means how to attain to be a member and so to have interest in the benefits and priviledges of the same which is Salvation containeth the Sum of all a Christian is either to know or do The first of which The knowledg of the Kingdom of God is in the first words The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand of which I have spoken already The second is contained in the next words Repent ye
be Proper for so it belongs unto the High Priest to have Vrim and Thummim nor Typical because the Priests only and not the under Levites were Types of Christ but the sense must be Analogical signifying some endowments common to all Levites which resemble the Vrim and Thummim upon the Breast of the High Priest Now what these are the words themselves import namely Light of Vnderstanding and knowledg this is their Vrim and Integrity of life this is their Thummim The first makes them Doctores Teachers the second Ductores populi Guides and Leaders of the People He that wants either of these two wants the true ornament of Priesthood the right character of a Levite For though these endowments may well beseem all the Tribes of Israel yet Moses specially prays for them in Levi because by him they were to come to all the rest and the want of them in him could not but redound to all the rest Ita populus sicut sacerdos Such as the Priest is such will the People be the Priest cannot erre but he causeth others to erre also the Priest cannot sin but he causeth others to sin also And this is it that Malachi saith from the Lord unto the Priests of his time Ye are gone out of the way and have caused many to stumble at or in the Law But the Levites of old saith the same Prophet The Law of Truth was in their mouth and iniquity was not found in their lips they walked with God in peace and equity and turned many from iniquity Here you see when the Levites erre the people erre also when the Levites walk in equity the people are turned from iniquity The Ministers of Christ must be Lux mundi the light of the world Vos estis lux mundi Ye are the light of the world Ye are the world's Vrim faith Christ unto his Apostles For the lips of the Priest should preserve knowledg and they should learn the Law at his mouth This light of knowledg this teaching knowledg is the Vrim of every Levite and therefore Christ when he inspired his Apostles with knowledg of heavenly mysteries he sent a new Vrim from above even fiery tonguâ—s tongues of Vrim from Heaven He sent no fiery heads but fiery tongues for it is not sufficent for a Levite to have his head full of Vrim unless his tongue be a candle to shew it unto others There came indeed no Thummim from heaven as there came an Vrim for though the Apostles were secured from errors they were not freed from sin And yet we who are Levites must have such a Thummim as may be gotten upon earth for S. Paul bids Titus in all things to shew himself an example of good works and this is a Thummim of Integrity But besides this Thummim the Ministers of the Gospel have received from God more especially another Thummim like unto that which was proper to the High Priest namely the power of binding and loosing which is as it were a power of Oracle to declare unto the people the remission of their sins by the acceptance of Christ's Sacrifice And this directly answers to Thummim in the first sense DISCOURSE XXXVI IEREMIAH 10. 11. Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens THESE words are written in the Chaldee tongue whereas the rest of the Prophecy is in the Hebrew the reason whereof you shall then have when we have first seen the Occasion Coherence and Summe of the words which is as followeth The Prophet having in the end of the last Chapter threatned the Iews and all the neighbouring Nations with captivity Edom Ammon Moab with the Arabians of the wilderness in this Chapter leaving out the rest he singles out the Iews to instruct them for their demeanour and carriage in their captivity to wit that they should not learn the way of the Heathen whither they should be carried that they should not be dismayed at the signs of Heaven nor regard their Gods of Gold and Silver which could do neither evil nor good But lest they should think they had acquit themselves well if they abstained from what they should see the Heathen do he tells them they must yet do more than this they must make open profession against their Gods they must proclaim against their Idolatry and false worship and therefore in the middle of his exhortation he enterlaceth these words in the Chaldee tongue Thus shall ye say unto them c. These words then contain a Proclamation which the Iews are enjoyned from God to make against the Gods of the Gentiles when they should be carried captive to Babylon wherein are to be considered two things 1. The Proclaiming it self 2. The Summe of the Proclamation The Proclaiming in these words Thus shall ye say unto them The Summe of the Proclamation in these The Gods which have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shallperish from the Earth and from under these Heavens In the Proclaiming are three things considerable 1. The Persons Who. 2. The Persons To whom 3. The manner How The Persons Who in the word Ye that is Ye Iews who are the worshippers of the living God Ye captive Iews carried out of your own land and living as slaves and vassals under your proud Lords the Babylonians Ye shall say unto them 2. The Persons To whom To them what Them even your Lordly Masters of Babylon Ye shall say unto them 3. The manner How Thus that is not in cryptick or mystical terms or in your Hebrew mutterings a language which they understand not but in the vulgar tongue of Babylon in plain Chaldee Thus shall ye say unto them c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gods which have not made the Heavens and the Earth c. In the second part which I called The Summe of the Proclamation are two things contained 1. A description of false Gods in these words The Gods which made not the Heavens and the Earth 2. Their doom in these They shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens I shall speak of these in order and first of the Persons who must make this Proclamation namely The Israelites Ye Israelites Ye Servants of the God of Heaven Ye Sons of promise and peculiar heritage of the Lord of hosts Ye upon whom the dew of grace is shed from heaven Ye to whom the most High hath given his Oracles and made his Name known amongst you Ye shall say unto them Hence I observe That it is the office of every one who is a member of God's Church and the child of Grace to endeavour to bring others to the knowledge of God and godliness First All things in nature desire and covet the propagation of that kind wherein themselves are ranked The Fire is no sooner kindled but presently it will turn all it lays hold upon into
man be a faithful man or how can he have Faith who knoweth not the things of Faith Here is a Lesson to be learned of those that think it needless for a man to busie his head in the knowledge of the things belonging to his Salvation that think it is enough if they have a good meaning though they know nothing else They are proud of their Ignorance and will say they have as good Souls as the best of them all but alas they know not that Light and Darkness cannot agree together they know not that to walk in darkness is to walk in the shadow of death they remember not that Light is come into the world and that those that love darkness rather than light should be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gâ—ashing of teeth What will you answer at the great day of hearing when Christ will not know you because ye knew him no better Will you say as some do That you were not Book-learned and therefore could not read Will you say you had no Learning and therefore hope to be excused These Fig-leaves will not serve to cover your nakedness withal I confess there are many things which the Learned know which you are not bound to know Those who are expert in the Scriptures know many things both concerning God and his Works which others may be ignorant of without endangering their Souls safety yea matters of high Controversie those who are simple are forbidden to meddle withal for so saith S. Paul Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations But things which concern our Faith things which are needful to our Salvation things which concern our Obedience unto God these things no man must be ignorant of that regards the safety of his Soul these things God will require at the hands of every one who shall be saved whether they be learned or unlearned whether they be of the wise or of the simple whosoever knows not Christ and the means to come to Christ whosoever knows not what it is to have a Redeemer to have God to be his Father what it is to be reconciled to God to have Christ to be his Advocate and Mediatour whosoever knows not such things as these must hear that heavy doom of Go ye cursed into everlasting fire For want of this knowledge of things needful to be known God had a controversy with his people Israel Hos. 4. 1. The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For want of this knowledge it was that God saith Esay 5. 13. My people are gone into captivity because they wanted knowledge And our Saviour in Luke 19. 42. wept over Ierusalem and said O that thou hadst known the things which belong unto thy peace c. As it befel the Iews so will it fall out with every one of us that knows not the things which belong unto our peace that is unto our reconciliation with God in Iesus Christ God will have a controversie with us he will send us into everlasting captivity from whence we shall never return again Let me therefore beseech you Brethren in the bowels of Iesus Christ If there be any among you that have not yet gotten this needful knowledge that do not yet know the things belonging to their peace that they would now look unto themselves and use the means which God hath appointed If you may have the best means use the best if not yet make use of those which God hath given you despise not the least and weakest means despise not the bare reading of the Scriptures for they are the Oracles of God and God's Spirit may be in the mouth of the reader Pray therefore unto the Lord that he would give you hearts to understand that his Word may dwell in you plentifully in all wisdom that he would open unto you the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that you may relish the heavenly Manna and that you may long after the sincere milk of the Gospel that by this means your ways may prosper your sorrows may be easie and your comforts may your lives holy and your deaths comfortable And thus much I have spoken to those who are ignorant and please themselves therein Now let me speak a word or two also to those who covet and desire knowledge and take delight in the understanding of rare and excellent things Surely it is a commendable thing to be desirous of knowledge in any thing which may lawfully be known and this desire in Solomon pleased God so well that because he asked wisdom and knowledge God gave him riches also and such honour that there was no King like unto him among the Kings that were before him neither after him ever came the like Art thou then desirous of knowledge wouldst thou know rare and excellent things wouldst thou know things secret and foreknow things which are to come Lo here is a Knowledge the best of all knowledges the knowledge of Faith to know Christ to be thy Redeemer What more secret thing wouldst thou know than to know the Mystery which was hidden from the beginning of the world What higher knowledge than to know thy name to be written in heaven What more gainful knowledge than that knowledge that will bring thee a Kingdom whose glory shall never have end What better knowledge of things to come than to know that thou shalt live in the life to come If thou knewest the tongues of Men and Angels if thou knewest all Arts and Sciences if thou were wiser than Solomon and couldst discourse of Trees and Herbs of Beasts of Fowl and of Fishes and yet wantest this Knowledge of Faith all thy wisdom is folly and thou art not worthy to wipe the shoes of those who are truly wise indeed Nevertherefore count thy self wise before thou art wise in the Lord never think thou knowest any thing before thou knowest thou hast a part in Christ Iesus For Faith is the Wisdom of wisdoms he that knows Christ knows all though he knows nothing else So that we may say with Solomon Prov. 3. 13 c. Blessed is the man that findeth this wisdom and getteth this understanding For the merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her There is yet a third sort of men to whom this which hath been spoken may give profitable instruction I mean the nice and dainty hearers of the Word who grow almost weary of hearing because the Ministers sing nothing but this old song of Knowing and Believing in Christ they always beat upon this one point How men
time of the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel So Antichrist and his Mystery of impiety was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times of those Last times that is as I shall better shew hereafter in the Last times or Last Scene as I may so speak of the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel When Christ came the Sceptre was to depart from Iudah and that Common-wealth to be dissolved So when Antichrist was to come the Roman Empire was to fall and He that hindered was to be taken out of the way 2. Thess. 2. 7. The Iews expected Christ to come when he did come and yet knew him not when he was come because they had fancied the manner and quality of his coming like some temporal Monarch with armed power to subdue the earth before him So the Christians God's second Israel looked the coming of Antichrist should be at that time when he came indeed and yet they knew him not when he was come because they had fancied his coming as of some barbarous Tyrant who should with armed power not only persecute and destroy the Church of Christ but almost the World that is they looked for such an Antichrist as the Iews looked for a Christ. Wherefore as Christ came unto his own and his own received him not so Antichrist came upon those who were not his own and yet they eschewed him not But yet as some Iews though few knew Christ when he came and received him so did some Christians though but few keep themselves from the pollution of Antichrist Lastly as the Iews ere long shall acknowledge and run unto him whom they pierced as not knowing him So hath the Christian Church for a great part discovered that Son of perdition whom a long time they had ignorantly worshipped because they knew him not O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past finding out But for our part seeing our case is so like unto that of the Iews let their lamentable and woful error in mistaking their Messiah by wrongly fancying him be a warning and caveat unto us that we likewise upon like conceits and prejudice mistake and misdeem not the Man of sin TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME CHAP. X. The Second Particular in the Description of the Great Apostasie viz. The Persons Apostatizing exprest by TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME The Great Apostasie was to be a General one That the word TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME doth not always imply a Few or a Small number proved by several passages in Scripture The true Church of Christ was never wholly extinguish't Wherein we and the Papists differ about the Churche's Visibility In what respects our Church was Visible and in what it was Invisible under the Apostasie and Reign of Antichrist This is further cleared by the parallel state of the Israelitish Church under the Apostasie of Israel NOW I come unto the Second point expressed in this Description of the Great Apostasie namely The Persons Revolters They should not be all but TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some shall Apostatize Some that is not as we in our English do often use it a Few but Some that is not All yet Some that is So many as that the whole visible Church should be said thereof to be Apostatized So many as should like a Cloud over-spread the face of the Christian Firmament in such sort as the Stars and Lights therein should not easily be discerned For the Great Defection so much prophesied of was to be a Solemn and General one such a one as wherein the chiefest of the Churches honoured as a Mother in Israel should become a Babylonish Whore a Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the Earth Revel 17. such a one as whereby the Outmost Court of the Temple of God should not only be prophaned but troden down by Gentilism Revel 11. such a one as the World is said to wonder after the Beast and to worship him and such a one as should not only make war with the Saints but overcome them Rev. 13. Otherwise if our Apostle here and S. Iohn there should mean no more but the Errours of some particular ones and their Revolt from the Faith of the Church they should make either no Prophecy at all or at the best but a needless one For who knows not that in S. Paul's S. Iohn's and the Apostles own times were many Heresies and Hereticks grown up as weeds in the Wheat-field of Christ but as yet the wheat overtopped them and the visible body of the Church disclaimed them If these had been the worst the Church should look for the Apostles should seem to prophesie of things present and not as they do of things to come yea and more than this they should foretell of a thing as proper and peculiar to the Last-times which was no Novelty in their own times We must take notice therefore that the Apostasie and Corruption of Faith so much prophesied of was another manner of one than that which was so frequent in those first times such a kind of one as should not be disclaimed by the Visible body of the Church but should surprise eclipse and overcloud the beautiful face thereof which manner of Desection never had been before nor should the like be after it Now that the word TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or SOME useth in Scripture to imply no small number but only serves to intimate an exception of some particulars though there were but two or three to be excepted I will make manifest by a few examples lest ou◠English use might deceive us First Iohn 6. 60. Many of the Disciples saith the Text when they heard this said This is an hard saying and v. 66. Many of his Disciples from that time went back and walked no more with him Nevertheless concerning these many Christ himself saith v. 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there are Some of you which believe not Here we see that Some is a great many So Rom. 11. 17. S. Paul there saith of the rejection of the Iews Some of the branches are broken off Now what a Some this was appears in the same Chapter v. 32. when he saith God hath included them ALL in unbelief that he might have mercy upon ALL. But to seek no further the 1 cor 10. will store us with examples as v. 7. Neither be ye Idolaters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Some of them were this was a great Some for Moses saith of it Exodus 32. 3. And ALL the people brake off their golden Ear-rings and brought them to Aaron In v. 8. Neither let us commit fornication as Some of them which were so many Numb 25. 4. that the Lord said unto Moses Take ALL the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned
testimony to God's truth not contemporating but succeeding one another for many generations against all which the Beast warred and prevailed against some in one age some in another Every ones Testimony seems to be finished in his death And as long as Antichrist reigneth God hath his Witnesses in some place or other prophesying in sackcloth But this I submit to your better judgment I shall heartily desire God to bless your labours and at this time desiring to be commended unto your love I rest Newbury Nov. 2. 1629. Yours in all truth of hearty affection William Twisse I would intreat you to take into your consideration one thing more S. Paul writes Rom. 11. that the conversion of the Iews shall be by way of provocation from the Gentiles Whether this provocation doth not imply some great Prosperity wherewith God shall bless his Christian Church and what in this kind comparable to the ruine of Antichrist and the consequents thereof EPISTLE XIV Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's First Letter concerning the 1000. years Regnum Christi as also of the Clades Testium and of the Iews Conversion Worthy Sir THat any man so learned and judicious as I have heard your self to be should conceive any Meditations of mine worthy not only of approbation but of so much affection I must ascribe it if they be but in any degree such as you make them to God's goodness towards me who hath in any sort enabled me to endeavour ought whereby I might not live in the world altogether unprofitably I know and am conscious of mine own weakness and insufficiency in many points of knowledge which others have yet if this one thing be my Talent though but a single one I have sufficient wherefore continually to thank the Almighty and to beseech him that my husbanding thereof may be by his gracious instinct such as may be some occasion of further light to others in some manner of recompence of what I have and still daily do receive from others But whatsoever my Speculations be this I am sure of that I am not a little obliged to your self for your so kind and affectionate entertainment of them as rests not in them only but extends even to the person of the Author otherwise utterly unknown unto you Wherefore for my part if I should not reciprocally answer you I should shew my self of too unworthy a disposition As for my Interpretation of the Seals and Trumpets where I leave others and take a way of mine own I do it to maintain an Uniformity of notion in the Prophetical Schemes and Allegories throughout the Scripture which I am perswaded were once no less familiar and usual to the Nations of the Orient than our poetical Schemes and Pictures are to us And the only way for us to learn the meaning of them is by finding out that Uniformity I speak of by comparing the several applications of them together and such other helps as remain unto us But whether some of the Interpretations usually given of the Seals and Trumpets will abide this Touch-stone your self I know can judge Such voluntary Interpretations may delight the Fancy and commend the Wit of their Author but they will not satisfie him that cannot think any mans Wit a footing firm enough to rest his Faith upon FOR the Thousand years Regnum Christi it was time for it to be silent under Regnum Antichristi and the Reign of the Martyrs in the first Resurrection to be cried down when Antichrist was blasphemously to advance them before-hand to a Reign derogatory to the glory of Christ their Lord to be as compeers with him in the office of his Mediation and pattakers of the honour and worship which was due to him alone I speak not here altogether at random For after the opinion of the Chiliasts was cried down when the sentence of Damasus had once given it the deadly blow they fell to expound this Reign of the Martyrs in the twentieth of the Apocalyps of the Idolatrous reign of them which themselves had then devised by occasion of those signs and wonders said then to be wrought by the power of the Martyrs upon such as touched their Reliques and approached their Sepulchres Two of the ancientest Commentators extant after the Chiliasts opinion became silent are Andreas Caesariensis and Aretas in whom you shall find what I say even totidem verbis The words of Andreas are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quin reliquis quoque sanctis Martyribus qui pro Christo mortem perpessi sunt neque mysticae Bestiae qui Diabolus est characterem hoc est imaginem Apostasiae ipsius susceperunt judicandipotestas data est per quâ—m Daemones ut ob oculos videmus judicare non desinunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usque ad praesent is seculi consummationem cum Christo glorificati à piis rursum Regibus fidelibusque Principibus adoraâ—i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinâ denique virtute contra omnem corporum morbum frandemque vim Daemonum conspicuè donatiâ— Aretas almost in the same words Ex quo igitur inquit neque capti sunt hi scil decollati isti neque per impudentiam neque per opera mala insigniti meritò cum Christo vixerunt regnârunt idque usque ad consummatiâ—nem Quemadmodum videmus cliam sub fidelibus Regibus atque Principibus dum adorantur contra omnem etiam corporis infirmitatem ac Daemonum energiam ostendunt datam sibi à Deo gratiam Nam quia inquit non adorârunt Bestiam neque imaginem ejus idcirco etiam vixerunt id est vivorum opera praestiterunt miraculorum videlicet patrationem Yet even S. Augustine and Primasius applied this Prophecy of the Martyrs though not to the adoration of them yet to that preeminence of honour then given them in the Assemblies of Christians and their power of working miracles after death Vid. de Civil Dei lib. 20. cap. 9. cum cap. 9. lib. 22. And if with Mr. Brightman and others we begin the Thousand years from Constantine there is no place of Scripture for a Papist to urge for Saint-worship like unto this because the time will fit so just For it began much about that time though the Papist had rather have it thought to be ab initio which Andreas notwithstanding expresly denies Etenim saith he quae nunc per experientiam rcrúmque eventum videntur Sanctorum miracula meritorúmque praemia quando Evangelistae Ioanni haec patefiebant adhuc fatura erant I shall be glad to see your Quaere's and Answers to them But before I received yours I had written to Doctor Meddus that my thoughts would be diverâ—ed and my time taken up about some other business between this and Christmas whereupon he transcribed them not My brains are so narrow that I can tend and minde but one thing at once whatsoever it be and therefore I must desire my friends to bear with that imperfection as also with my slowness
I approve your Reasons for not proceeding to publish any more at this present but as Mariners provide against a storm so may we for a calm I have heretofore observed how after Civil Wars in Christendom many excellent things came forth which were studied in the time of Trouble Did not Cicero the like in times of like condition I am glad your thoughts reflect and I hope ever and anon on the same subjects that your friends in private may enjoy the benefit of your labours and talents In the matter of Gog and Magog you have acquainted me with new Mysteries that I never thought of Yet to one who first embraceth your way so I call it because God hath made you his Minister to bring it to light but I account it the way of Truth and so carried by you that in no particular I find just cause of exception concerning Regnum Sanctorum such light you bring to justifie your Conjecture that he will be driven to confess that you deliver nothing without fair ground fair probability and that in such a degree that any other way seems to me for the present nothing capable of the like Your grounds are very fair and clear to every one but never I think taken into consideration by any before your self to that end and purpose whereunto you direct them You cannot easily conceive what content you give me herein and what refreshing it is to my spirit First I perceive that Expedition of Gog against the Land of Israel is reckoned by you after their calling unto Christ and thereupon possessing themselves of the Holy Land the Prophecies of the Old Testament leading thereunto though Iews in former ages have joyned themselves with the Christian Churches of the same Countrey amongst whom they conversed Secondly Also that now you are resolved concerning the place of New Ierusalem namely the land of Iury. Thirdly I guess also you conceive the destruction of Gog and of Antichrist shall be at once by the coming of Christ. Fourthly And that the restoring of the Temple in the latter end of Ezechiel following upon the destruction of Gog is a Type of New Ierusalem Fifthly And that Gog is the Turk For which light that you have given me in all these particulars I most heartily thank you NOW I beseech you let me know what your opinion is of our English Plantations in the New world Heretofore I have wondered in my thoughts at the Providence of God concerning that world not discovered till this old world of ours is almost at an end and then no footsteps found of the knowledge of the true God much less of Christ. And then considering our English Plantations of late and the opinion of many grave Divines concerning the Gospel's â—leeting Westward sometimes I have had such thoughts Why may not that be the place of New Ierusalem But you have handsomely and fully clear'd me from such odd conceits But what I pray shall our English there degenerate and joyn themselves with Gog and Magog We have heard lately divers ways that our people there have no hope of the Conversion of the Natives And the very week after I received your last Letter I saw a Letter written from New England discoursing of an impossibility of subsisting there and seems to prefer the confession of God's Truth in any condition here in Old England rather than run over to enjoy their liberty there yea and that the Gospel is like to be more dear in New England than in Old and lastly unless they be exceeding careful and God wonderfully merciful they are like to lose that life and zeal for God and his Truth in New England which they enjoyed in Old as whereof they have already woful experience and many there feel it to their smart I am ashamed to urge you unto that which I do extremely desire that you would afford me your interpretation of the last verses of Dan. 11. concerning the Fourth Kingdom For I am confident by that you make of the first of them you have in like manner considered it throughout and your fetching the matter off from Epiphanes and the Greeks to the Fourth Kingdom gives great light to the whole Thus over shoes over boots I am run so far in your debt and withall I am so much in love with it that I care not how deep I plunge my self thereinto I commend me heartily unto your love which I prize more than I can express I shall rest Newbury March 2. 1634. Yours ever to love and honour you W. Twisse Post-script I had almost forgotten a special Argument against Regnum Sanctorum whereof I should crave the solution which is this All the Saints departed this life are with the Lord Christ 2. Cor. 5. 8. If all at his coming be not brought with him they shall be divided from Christ and consequently in worse condition than they were before Though he bring all with him yet in that Kingdom there may be place for different degrees of glory and that 1 Cor. 15. Every one in his own order is applied there only to Christ and them that are Christ's EPISTLE XLIII Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse his Fourth Letter touching the First Gentile Inhabitants and the late Christian Plantations in America as also touching our Saviour's proof of the Resurrection from Exod. 3. 6. with an Answer to the Objection in the Post-script of the foregoing Letter SIR COncerning our Plantation in the American world I wish them as well as any body though I differ from them far both in other things and in the grounds they go upon And though there be but little hope of the general Conversion of those Natives in any considerable part of that Continent yet I suppose it may be a work pleasing to Almighty God and our Blessed Saviour to affront the Devil with the sound of the Gospel and Cross of Christ in those places where he had thought to have reigned securely and out of the dinne thereof and though we make no Christians there yet to bring some thither to disturb and vex him where he reigned without check For that I may reveal my conceit further though perhaps I cannot prove it yet I think thus That those Countries were first inhabited since our Saviour and his Apostles times and not before yea perhaps some ages after there being no sings or footsteps found amongst them or any Mounments of older habitation as there is with us That the Devil being impatient of the sound of the Gospel and Cross of Christ in every part of this old world so that he could in no place be quiet for it and foresecing that he was like at length to lose all here bethought himself to provide him of a seed over which he might reign securely and in a place ubi nec Pelopidarum factaneque nomen audiret That accordingly he drew a Colony out of some of those barbarous Nations dwelling upon the Northern Ocean whither the sound of Christ had not yet
corruptione itidem mutatione liberabitur Itaque hominis causà in cujus gratiam major hic mundus creabatur primùm renovatus tandem faciem induet multò â—ùm jucundiorem tum pulchriorem M. Deinde autem quid superest Aud. Vltimum generale Iudicium Veniet namque Christus ad cujus vocem mortui omnes resurgent animâ corpore integri atque in throno Majestatis suae residentem videbit totus mundus post excussionem autem conscientiae cujusque extrema sententia pronunciabitur Tunc temporis filii Dei perfectè possidebunt Regnum illud immortalitatis aeternae vitae quod illis praeparatum fuit ante jacta fundamenta mundi regnabunt cum Christo in aeternum Impii verò qui non crediderunt abjicientur in ignem aeternum destinatum diabolo angelis ejus I send you this passage as I did the former that you might admire with me what this Author meant whether such expressions could fall from him by mere chance or whether they argue not some further notion in this Mystery than was common and ordinary though those to whom the review and approbation of the Book was committed were not capable to observe it CONCERNING Ezekiel's Vision of the measuring of the Temple I have no no Notions either general or special worth relation Only I suspect some Mystery to be in the Numbers as in the New Ierusalem in the Apocalyps I observe all the Numbers to be 12 or multiplied thereof with reference I suppose to the 12 Apostles But whether the Number of Ezekiel's measures should have reference I cannot yet so well comprehend I have been sometimes tampering that way and methought they seemed to suit very well with the Name of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the letters whereof are 3 in each and the Numbers they signifie 1. 5. 6. 10. 30. For these are the Numbers or the Radices of the Numbers of nigh all Ezekiel's measures Notwithstanding I give my self but little satisfaction in so Cabbalistical a conceit Yet seeing the measures of the City in Ezekiel cap. ult in sine are diverse from those of S. Iohn in the Apocalyps if the Cities be the same the Numbers also must have some identity in a Mystery which they have not in the Letter one fitted to the time of the Law the other to the time of the Gospel But he that can tell me how to unfold this Mystery shall be my Master CONCERNING my application of the King of the South and the King of the North to the Saracen and Turk who should plunder the Roman Empire in his latter end 't is not my conceit alone but Mr. Brightman's upon that part of Daniel And 't is true which you guess that I incline to apply the King of the North's going forth upon the tidings from the East and the North in a fury to destroy and to that purpose to plant the Tabernacles of his palace in the glorious mountain of Holiness to the Iews return and the expedition of Gog and Magog into the Holy land For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is constantly in this Book a description of the Holy land See chap. 8. 9. and this chap. vers 16 and 41. The tidings from the East and North may be that of the return of Iudah and Israel from those quarters For Iudah was carried captive at the first into the East and Israel by the Assyrian into the North namely in respect of the Holy land and in those parts the greatest number of each are dispersed at this day Of the reduction of Israel from the North see the Prophecies Ier. 16. 14 15. and chap. 23. 8. also chap. 31. 8. Or if this tidings from the North may be some other thing yet that from the East I may have some warrant to apply to the Iews return from that of the Sixth Vial in the Apocalyps where the waters of the great River Euphrates are dried up to prepare the way of the Kings of the East If you can digest this application of the Kings of the South and North to the Saracen and Turk I will then desire you to consider the notation of the Time when which saith the Holy Ghost v. 40. should come to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the time of the End that is of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Roman Kingdom which what they are you will find in my Discourse upon 1 Tim. 4. And to this you may refer that Question of Daniel in the next chap. vers 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How long shall this latter end of wonderful things be which the Angel answers For a time times and a half referring to his former Vision thereof chap. 7. 25. Of the same Latter times he asketh yet again vers 8. incertus mirabundus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation turns but untowardly And further than this I cannot go in Daniel The next is all dark But it may seem the Angel tells the Prophet in those last Numbers when and how long it should be before this Mystery of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be understood For so he intimates both vers 4. Shut up the words and seal the Book until the time of the End and again vers 9. The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the End and then None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand vers 10. Now you know the Mystery of Antichrist whereon the knowledge of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly depends was not discovered till a good part of them were run out What if those Numbers vers 11 12. point out that time counting from the Prophanation of Epiphanes But I confess I know not here which way to take This I intimate was an old Notion which I can neither satisfie my self in nor yet meet with another better grounded Io. Mede EPISTLE LV. Dr. Twisse's Seventh Letter to Mr. Mede desiring to know his thoughts touching Genuflexio versus Altare Worthy Sir and my dear Friend THese are only to give you to understand that your Packet is arrived safely in my hands your Letters your Manuscripts two larger upon 1 Tim. 4. and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a third less Time will not serve me to express the content I take in them the satisfaction you give me in your Letters I am taken with the meditation of the slavery of the Creature ever since the Fall of Adam in bondage to them that are slaves to sin and what that bespeaks of better times both for the Creature and for us the passages of the Form of Doctrine prescribed by the Council of Nice the Catechism in K. Edward's days and the rest And like enough the land of Canaan shall have preeminence above all the
Times But whether your meaning were not That for God to be robbed of such a Sacrifice was a great Sacrilege I know not And by Mr. B. I heard as from your self the practice of Bishop Andrew's Chappel was that which first cast you upon such a way so as from thence to observe the course and practice of Antiquity But in my poor judgment it is very strange that a matter of such importance as you seem to make it should have so little evidence in God's Word and Antiquity and depend merely upon certain Conjectures That which you style your Conjectura de Gogo Magogo in my poor judgment is more rational by far and yet the matter thereof you know to be very strange but it prevails very much with me That Declaration of the Palsgrave's Churches since I came home I have seen I remembered your Censure of it as a laxe thing Others passe other judgments upon it on my knowledge and those Divines were accounted in those days as grave and learned Divines as most in Christendom Indeed the matter of Bowing at hearing the name of Iesus is nothing pleasing to some in these times But how doth B. A s. reading in Antiquity serve his turn for that Cornelius à Lapide is a Papist and a Iesuit he saith ad nomem Iesu in S. Paul is no more than ad Iesum I know it is the Father's pleasure that as we honour the Father so we should honour the Son and all the world shall never bring me to shew more reverence at the hearing of the name of Iesus then at the hearing of the name Iehovah and when we are as we should be intent upon our religious comportment before God according to the inward adoration in spirit that we should watch when a word comes to perform outward obaisance in my judgment is very strange And I remember how faintly Mr. H. carries himself in this and others in pleading for it most of all urge this that no body is troubled about it but now more than enough must yield or suffer I never had experience of the practice till now and that makes me the bolder to write as I do Yet whatsoever we shall be put unto I am glad that I have such liberty to confer with you thereabouts I am lately grown acquainted with my Lord of Armagh being encouraged to write unto his Grace about the matter of the Sabbath which I willingly apprehended and acquainted him with all my Grounds whereupon I proceeded and he justifies them all I intreated also help in Antiquity about the Notion of a Sabbath given to the Lord's-Day and he profest unto me that he never inclined his mind to observe that in all his reading and added this reason For he never thought to see such times as these to call into question Whether the Moral Law contains Ten or but Nine Commandments And Dr. Reynolds being ask'd what he thought of Beza's judgment concerning the Sabbath made no other answer but this You know the Commandment Thus have I made bold to write freely as to my dear friend I doubt not but whensoever I am put unto it I shall find you the readier to afford me your best satisfaction for certainly I will neglect no means to keep me out of the paw of the Lion as well as I can I commend you to the grace of God and with many thanks for your love and free communication of precious things I take my leave ever resting Newbury March 20. 1636. Yours to love and honour you Will. Twisse EPISTLE LXXI Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's several Expostulations together with his judgment of Mr. Potter's Discourse touching the Number of the Beast 666. Worthy Sir I Have received yours and heartily thank you for the Book you sent me which I find to be no laxe but a nervous close and well-composed Discourse as written by an abler hand than Voetius or any Dutch-man of them all yea I believe the ablest in that argument now living Concerning Mr. Potter's Discourse before I tell you my opinion I find I have some things else to answer and such as press me so hard as I cannot deny them the first place especially one of them which complains much of being mistaken As that I bad you hearing Prayers in our Master's Closet to stand up at Gloria Patri I 'le assure you you were mistaken My words were We stand up or They stand up I know not certainly which intending only to have you take notice of our manners and fashions as I did also the night before when they bowed at the name Iesus in the Creed I confess indeed when I saw you so suddenly to alter your posture I had some suspicion lest you misunderstood me and repented me I had spoken and thought of it sometimes afterward Yet mine was but doubting I would yours had been so too For why would you suppose me to be so uncivil as to speak unto a stranger and my better in degree in such a rude manner or note as you call it Surely in this you were to blame Nay I do not remember that ever I bad any one little or great either to stand up at Gloria Patri or how at the name Iesus or to conform to other the like posture all days of my life however my opinion hath been concerning them The plain truth is I had a desire to have talked with you about these things and to have acquainted you with something I had that way which now I find your mind so averse I shall never do For this end it was that I ever anone put you in mind to observe our postures and now and then at other times in our discourse touch'd upon something of that kind to have given occasion of conference about those matters And the rather I desired it because I had declared my self so far in my Letters unto you formerly as I thought might require more to be added to prevent such scruples as might arise from thence You may remember what hint I gave you in our Gate-house the first night concerning that place in Daniel And he shall think to change Times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand for a time times and half a time I would fain have entred with you upon that Scripture and told you I had some Notion thereabout which some friends of mine had termed Dog and Cummin-seed c. As for my Sermon at S. Marie's if I could have enjoyed you privately sine arbitris which I much but in vain desired in all probability you had been together with some other things better acquainted with some of the Contents thereof And as for preaching for Bowing to Altars if my memory fail me not the word Altar unless in citing a place of Scripture was never mentioned in my whole Discourse Sure I am there was no Bowing spoken of either with respect to it or to the Communion-Table but only of Bowing in general without any