to think what is false or else that they never had any opportunity of falsifying in the Points they propound to our Belief Certainty of Sense is also required For if the Sense be not certain there could be no infallible Testimony of matter of Fact and Moses's conversing with God in the Mount may be but a Dream nor could there be any certain Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension if God will delude our Senses Wherefore to take away the Certainty of Sense rightly circumstantiated is to take away all Certainty of Belief in the main Points of our Religion Secondly Sense and Reason are rightly circumstantiated the one when the Organ is sound the Medium fitly qualified and the distance of the Object duely proportionated and the like the other when it is accompanied with Moral Prudence rightly so called such as it is defined in the above-said Enchiridion Lib. 2. c. 2. that is to say That this Reason be lodged either in a perfectly-unprejudiced Mind or at least unprejudiced touching the Point propounded For there are some Truths so clear that Immorality it self provided it do not besot a man or make him quite mad puts no bar to the assenting to them that is puts no bar to their appearing to be true no more then it does to the Eye unhurt to the discerning of Colours which the Wicked and Godly do alike upon this Supposition Wherefore The third Conclusion shall be That there be Natural Truths whether Logicall Physicall or Mathematicall that are so palpably true that they constantly and perpetually appear so as well to the Wicked as the Good if they be Compotes mentis and do not manifest violence to their Faculties The fourth That these Natural Truths whether Common Notions or Scientificall Conclusions that are so palpably true that they perpetually appear so as well to the evil as the good are at least as certain and indubitable as any thing that the Reason and Understanding of a man can give assent to that is to say There is at least as great a Certainty of these Axiomes that they are true as there can be of any And therefore because there is acknowledged a Certainty in some Points that our Understanding and Reason closeth with let us set down for The fifth Conclusion That these Natural Truths that constantly appear such as well to the evil as the good if they be not crack'd-brained nor do violence to their Faculties are in themselves most certainly true The sixth That what is a Contradiction to a certain Truth is not onely uncertain but necessarily false forasmuch as both the parts of a Contradiction cannot be true The seventh That no Revelation which either it self or the Revealing thereof or its manner of Revealing is repugnant to the Divine Attributes can be from God The eighth That no Tradition of any such Revelation can be true forasmuch as the Revelation it self is impossible The ninth That no Revelation is from God that is repugnant to Sense rightly circumstantiated This is manifest from the first Ground That Certainty of Faith presupposeth Certainty of Sense duly circumstantiated For if our Senses may be mistaken when they act in due Circumstances we cannot be assured that they are at any time true Which necessarily destroys the Certainty of all Revelation ab extra and of all Tradition and consequently of our Christian Religion Wherefore God cannot be the Authour of any such Revelation by Conclusion the seventh For it were repugnant to his Wisedom and Goodness The tenth That no Revelation is from God that contradicts plain Natural Truths such as were above described This is abundantly clear from Conclusion the 1 2 3 4 6 7. For if Reason where it is clearest is false we have no assurance it is ever true and therefore no Certainty of Faith which presupposes Reason by Conclusion the first Besides by Conclusion the sixth That which is contradictory to a certain Truth is certainly false But Divine Revelation is true Therefore there can be no Revelation from God that bears with it such a Contradiction Nay we may adde That if there were any Divine Truth that would constantly appear to Reason rightly circumstantiated contradictory to any constant Natural Truth God would not communicate any such Truth to men by Conclusion the seventh For the revealing of such a Truth were repugnant to his Attribute of Wisedome it making thereby true Religion as obnoxious to suspicion and exception as false For there is no greater exception against the Truth of any Religion then that it proposes Articles that are repugnant to Common Notions or indubitable Science Besides that one such pretense of true Revelation would enable a false Priesthood to fill the World with Figments and Lies Wherefore God will never be the Authour of so much mischief to mankind And lastly since the first Revelation must be handed down by Tradition and Tradition being but humane Testimony and infinitely more lubricous and fallible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural Science how will it be possible for any but Sots or Fools to believe Tradition against solid Science or a Common Notion So that the Result must needs be either blinde Superstition gross Irreligion or universal Scepticism The eleventh That no Revelation that enforces countenances or abetts Immorality or Dishonesty can be from God This is manifested from the seventh Conclusion For it is repugnant to God's Attributes his Justice Fidelity Goodness and Purity or Sanctity The Image of God is Righteousness and true Holiness Wherefore no Doctrine that tends to Injustice Unrighteousness and Impurity can be a Revelation from God The twelfth That no Interpretation of any Divine Revelation that is repugnant to Sense or Reason rightly circumstantiated or to plain and indubitable Morality whether it be made by a private or publick hand can be any Inspiration from God There needs no new Confirmation of this Conclusion For the same Arguments that prove that no Divine Revelation can be in this sort repugnant do prove also that no Interpretation of any Revelation in this sort repugnant to Sense Reason or sound Morality can be Divine The thirteenth That no Interpretation of Divine Writ that justifies Sedition Rebellion or Tyranny can be any Inspiration from God This is easily evinced from the foregoing Conclusion For Sedition and Rebellion are gross and ponderous Species of Injustice against the Magistrate as Tyranny is also against the People both such high strains of Immorality that no Interpretation of Scripture that justifies these can be true much less Divinely inspired The fourteenth No Church that propounds as Articles of Belief such things as are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason or sound Morality can rightly be deemed Infallible The reason is plain For it appears out of what has hitherto been said that they are already actually deceived or at least intend to deceive others The fifteenth That the Certainty of Faith cannot be grounded upon the Infallibility of any Church
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are
this childish condition Whence the World is full of wrangling and vexation even about the pettiest Points of Religion that are Whereby mens minds must needs be exulcerated and the Government disturbed and the Safety of the Church hazarded Which would not at all be if this wholesome searching Doctrine had but place in the hearts of men For it would so ripen their growth in Christianity that all their Harshness and Sourness would soon mellow into Christian Love and Sweetness For believe it there is nothing more civil nothing more humane nothing more gentle and governable then a mature and well-grown Christian. Again in the Description of the Character of the Elias to come a main Note of him is that he is a Reconciler of the Magistrate to the People and of the People to the Magistrate that he is for Peace and Vnion in the Church of God and a declarer against Rents and Schisms And lastly that great Point of all That the Pope with his Clergie is that Antichrist and the Roman Church that City out of which God's People are bid to depart as it is most certainly true in it self and of huge Consequence to be known upon the account of a Spiritual Interest so does it most manifestly also consolidate the Secular Interest of all Protestant Princes and People against the Pretensions of the Pope and is a safe Cynosura to steer their Counsels by For I dare appeal even to the Pontificians themselves upon supposition that the Pope and his Clergie be Antichrist and the Church of Rome that Babylon out of which God's people are bid to depart whether any thing in counsell that makes towards the reduction of God's people nearer to that City and the ensnaring them again in their former Captivity can be adviseable for any Protestant Magistrate either upon point of Piety or Policy or supposing a God in Heaven can promise any prosperous Success Wherefore for any Protestant Subject so persuaded to conceal so important a Truth would be the greatest Perfidiousness even to his Terrestriall Sovereign as any man can stand guilty of These I think were sufficient Motives for the publishing these Dialogues But for the preposterous Order in publishing them the plainest account is the will of the Authour of which no worse Construction ought to be made then that as it seems he has a greater Concern for the Interest of Christianity then for the Curiosities of Philosophy For such is the Subject of the three first Dialogues Which had he had as great a propension to gratifie the Curious as to edifie the Church of Christ he would not have failed to have published at least as soon as these the matter of them being both Philosophicall as I said and that concerning the most enticing Points in Philosophy and also intermixt with much Pleasantry and Humour which by reason of the extraordinary Gravity of this present Subject it was thought fit I suppose the more strictly to abstain from But though I have no commission to publish the three first Dialogues themselves yet I thought fit for the more punctually understanding these two last to publish the Arguments of those they being sufficient for the understanding any References or Reflexions on them occurring in these And lastly Reader I have added for thy farther Entertainment by way of Appendage though not altogether so necessary I confess yet sutable enough to some Points in these Dialogues if not to the whole Design A brief Discourse of the true Grounds of the Certainty of Faith in Points of Religion as also some few plain Songs or Divine Hymns on the chiefest Holy-days in the Christian Kalendar agreeable enough with these Divine Dialogues both in Purpose and Title Wherein the Writer of them has observed always this Method to adde to the Historicall Narration an Application to the Emprovement of Life Which whether in Verse or Prose if it were diligently observed in the handling of the Historicall Articles of our Christian Faith would be of so great force for the making men good that I doubt not but Philotheus had he thought of it would have added this as a ninth Instruction tending to the Acceleration of those happy Times of the Church which he presages These Reader if thou pleasest candidly to accept for the present it will be the greater Obligation to the Authour to let what still remains in his hands in due time see the Light and be as willing to condescend to gratifie the Philosophicall Genius in those three first Dialogues as he has been in these ambitious to edifie the Religious G. C. The proper Characters of the Persons in the ensuing Dialogues with some Allusion to their Names Philotheus A zealous and sincere Lover of God and Christ and of the whole Creation Bathynous The Deeply-thoughtful or profoundly-thinking man Sophron The Sober and wary man Philopolis The pious and loyal Politician Euistor A man of Criticism Philologie and History Hylobares A young witty and well-moralized Materialist Cuphophron A zealous but Airy-minded Platonist and Cartesian or Mechanist Ocymo Cuphophron's Boy so called from his Nimbleness DIVINE DIALOGVES CONTAINING Several Disquisitions and Instructions touching the ATTRIBUTES of GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE In the WORLD THE FOURTH DIALOGUE Philotheus Bathynous Sophron Philopolis Euistor Hylobares Cuphophron Philoth. OUr Conference hitherto I A brief Recapitulation of what has hitherto passed in their discourse O Philopolis has been spent either in proving briefly the Existence of God or in clearing of his Attributes or in defending of his Providence which was but a necessary preparation to them that doubt of these things for the due understanding of the Mysteries of his Kingdome For if there be no God nor any Divine Providence there can be no Kingdome of God upon Earth as Hylobares well noted at first And indeed if the Providence of God be not every-where it is a very suspicable business that it is in truth no-where Whence appears the necessity of admitting such Hypotheses as will make sense of all occurrences and appearances of things which we meet withall in what-ever Nations of the Earth or parts of the Universe And such I conceive were those that were suggested in our two last days Conferences With which if Hylobares who seemed to be the onely man dissettled touching these Points be fully satisfied I am now ready to serve you Philopolis according to the best of my skill touching your demands concerning the Kingdome of God Philop. I humbly thank you Philotheus and my eager desire to hear you discourse of so important a Theme and my jealousie that we shall be much streightned in time makes me beg of you that without any farther delay you would be pleased to fall upon the matter Hyl. Which Philotheus will doe the more couragiously II The great force of a firm belief of a God and his Providence for the fixing a man's Faith in the truth of Christianity O Philopolis after I have briefly acknowledged my thanks for
ratified by the New Is this the body of the Sun you mean Philoth. Some such thing I drive at you understand me very well Now I say the pouring out the Vial upon this Sun is the enlightning it with clear and convictive Expositions by Holy men assisted by the Spirit of God or rather the removing the clouds of Obscurity from before it that it may shine in its full strength to discover plainly the unrighteous mysteries of the Kingdome of Antichrist and shew to all the World in what a foul and horrid condition they are how apostatized from God and Christ and how plainly and reprochfully their abominable doings are characterized by the finger of God in the Scripture and how lively their most direfull and diabolicall Image is there described This is the pouring out the Vial upon the Sun whereby power is given him to scorch men with fire and so vex them that they blaspheme the Name of God by reason of these Plagues and rather vilifie and reproch the Scriptures and the Spirit that writ them then repent them of their sins and give glory to God by acknowledging the Truth This I conceive may be one sense of the fourth Vial. Philop. But this is a more Mystical or Spiritual sense Is there not also Philotheus a Politicall one Philoth. Yes there is Philopolis and it is a very obvious one For nothing is more confessed then that in the Prophetick style the Sun signifies the greatest person in the Politicall Universe as he is the most glorious Luminarie in the Natural Now who do you think is the greatest person in the World the Pope rules in Philop. He and the Pope has disputed it a great while and I think it is hard to say whether is at this very day Philoth. Wherefore the next Vial seeming more peculiarly to concern the Pope this is likely to appertain to the Emperour Philop. What therefore do you think the pouring of the fourth Vial upon the Sun to signifie in this Politicall sense Philoth. I hope it signifies the Conversion of some Emperour illuminated with the true knowledge of the Gospel For thus the general Reformation which he will introduce in his Empire through the Light and Zeal he has conceived for the Truth will scorch and burn and vex the Vassals of the two-horned Beast to the very heart This is a sense natural enough I think but whether it or the former be more natural I leave to you to judge Philop. There is abundant Concinnity in them both Nor do I think it is at all necessary that that Subject on which the Vial is said to be poured should always suffer Mischief but that at least Mischief should be thence reflected upon the Beast But is there no other possible sense of the fourth Vial Philotheus Philoth. There may be an * See Synops Prophet lib. 1. cap. 3. sect 3. Henopoeia adjoyn'd to this Iconism of the Sun so that it may signifie as it does Isay 24. at the last verse But then the Signification will be very congenerous to the later of the foregoing senses the meaning being also Politicall Philop. That intimation sufficeth For I understand thereby the taking in of more Kingdoms or Principalities into the Light of the Gospel distinct from those that appeared on the behalf thereof at the rising of the Witnesses I know not but this may be a right meaning as well as any of the other and a farther preparation to the times of that Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apoc. 19.12 on whose Head it is said there were many Crowns I pray you Philotheus proceed and tell us the meaning of the fifth Vial poured on the throne of the Beast Apoc. 16.10 whereby his Kingdome became dark Philoth. The throne of the two-horned Beast is the same with the Throne of the Whore who is said to sit on the seven Hills IV The Interpretation of the fifth and sixth Vials Wherefore this in a Politicall sense seems to boad ill to the City of Rome which is the Seat of the Beast But whether it be the sacking of Rome and banishing the Pope from thence for ever or whether from the Effects of the former Vial Politically understood the Trading and Revenues of that greatest Merchant of the great men of the earth will grow very low and slender and so a great deadness and obscurity and darkness seise even his principal Seat or what other thing it may be analogous to this time must determine I cannot Philop. But is this the onely sense Philotheus of this Vial Philoth. It is that which I suppose is most to your tooth Philopolis But sometimes another occurrs to my minde What if we should conceive the Pope's Chair here perstringed by this Throne of the Beast I mean that Chair of Infallibility that he and his Pseudoprophetick Body boast they sit in and so dictate infallible Oracles to the world for their own Profit and Interest facing down the people whatsoever they finde gainfull to the Church that it is really true be it a Figment never so foolish or incredible never so blasphemous or impossible but it cannot seem so to the people while they take the Church to be infallible Now I say as the present Vial in the Politicall sense may be in some kinde a consequent of the former politically understood so the Efficacy of the former more spiritually understood may introduce in time the Effect of this present Vial in the more Spiritual meaning also and the pouring thereof on the Throne of the Beast may be the abolishing of that false Opinion of the Pope's and his Churche's Infallibility out of the generality of mens mindes which false Light once removed they must needs finde themselves much in the dark their Religion being such as neither Scripture Reason nor any thing else that has any Autority with it can afford any light to or the least colour for wherefore his Kingdome must needs be overwhelmed with more then Egyptian darkness and the Sticklers for the Papacy seeing so general a dissatisfaction in the people and that they through the penetrancy of the Light of the Gospel have lost this great hold on them it will make them gnaw their tongues for very anguish and pain Philop. Nay I know not but this may be one sense too But I pray you Philotheus proceed to the sixth Vial. Philoth. The sixth Vial Philopolis seems to touch upon the Conversion of the Iews Mr. Mede Comment Apocalypt ad cap. 16. as that late excellent Interpreter has with great judgement and credibility made the discovery And the comparing of the Vision of the treading of the Wine-press without the City Apoc. 14.18 and the Battel and Victory of that illustrious Heros riding on the white Horse Apoc. 19.11 with the last Vial does as he also suggests make much for the probability of this Exposition For that there is an Identity or Coincidency of Events signified by the treading
the Succession of this Family then they that are still unwholesome and diseased Philop. I think the sounder the better Family as being of a nearer affinity or consanguinity with the most ancient Progenitours of them all And therefore questionless we are not the less of the Succession of the Apostles for cleansing our selves from After-corruptions and reducing our selves to their ancient Apostolick Purity The Succession indeed is continued in the Church of Rome as a diseased Family is the Continuation of the Family of their Ancestours but the Apostolicall Succession is not onely continued but rectified again and perfected in the Reformation So that I conceive there is no hazard at all to Succession in admitting those due but sharp Invectives in the Apocalypse and other places of Scripture to belong to the Church of Rome they all not amounting to the making her no true Church or no Church but an Idolatrous one a Murtherous one and an Imposturous one As an adulterous murtherous and cheating Wife is a Wife and therefore a true Wife till she be dead or divorced Philoth. XXVII That although the Church of Rome were not a true Church yet it follows not but that the Reformed Churches are You understand me right Philopolis But besides this suppose the Miscarriages of the Church of Rome were at last so high and that for some Ages that she plainly ceased to be in any sense a true Church which yet I must confess I cannot believe no more then that the Church of the Iews ceased to be a true Church when they ston'd the Prophets and shamelesly polluted themselves with Idolatry yet the true Church was continued elsewhere and the truest Church of all the Elect of God every-where There was a Woman in the Wilderness when the Church had become a Wilderness Though I must confess this respects rather the Perpetuity of the Church at large then the continued Succession of Pastours But neither do I hold that necessary that every true visible Church should have a visible Succession of Priests from the Apostles to their time The Ierusalem that is said to come down from Heaven will be a true Church Apoc. 21.2 and will be approved to be so though she could not make this Boast in the flesh that she can number a visible Pastoral Succession upon Earth from S t. Peter at Rome or S t. Iames at Ierusalem And suppose at that call of God's people out of Babylon Apoc. 18.4 Come out of her my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues that all the Priesthood had hung together upon Interest and would not have stirred had a whole Kingdome that had reformed without the leave of the Priesthood been no Church nor the Prince had any power to appoint the most able and eminent of his Subjects in the knowledge and practice of Christianity to preside in Rebus sacris in the Affairs of Religion and begin a Succession from them whom we will suppose to order all things according to the Word of God and the Practice of the Apostles and to profess no other Doctrine then what they taught and is evident out of the Scriptures What shall such a Nation as this be no Church for all this in these Circumstances of things O Philopolis Philop. I promise you it is a very nice Controversie Philotheus I know not well what to say to it of a sudden Bath It is a nice point indeed Philopolis But I 'll propound to you a point that is more clear Whether is not every Sovereign Supreme Head of the Church as well in Ecclesiasticall Affairs as in Civil in his own Dominions Philop. Surely he is Bathynous or else he is not absolute Sovereign For I conceive that to be the Supreme to which is committed both the trust and power of ordering all for the welfare of the Subject which consequently must needs include Religion of which therefore of necessity the Supremacy is Judge Whence every supreme Magistrate is if not formally yet eminently as well Priest as King else he were not King or the King not supreme Magistrate as being bound to be ruled by the judgement of the Priest in matters of Religion which unquestionably all Mundane Affairs ought to stoop to Whence it will follow that all Power that does not include the Priesthood in it at least eminently or virtually must stoop to that Judicature But being the Supremacy of any Nation is to stoop to none but God it is plain that he that is Supreme has at least virtually the Sacerdotal Power in himself Bath I profess unto you Philopolis you are so subtil in Politicks that I conceive it will be very hard for any one to evade the force of your arguing Euistor The anointing of Kings and Emperours at their Coronations as also the Emperour's Crown comprehending in it the Episcopal Mitre methinks Bathynous bears a notable Compliance with this Conclusion of Philopolis Cuph. You may as well argue for a communion of Kingship in the Priesthood because the Priests be anointed in the Church of Rome Bath It 's likely they would catch at that greedily enough Cuphophron But in that Kings are crowned as well as anointed Exod. 40.13 15. but Priests anointed and not crowned with royal Crowns it is an intimation that both the Kingship and Priesthood in some sense is in the King but onely the Priesthood in the Priest But a more notable Correspondence then this of Euistor's occurrs to my phancy that is the Vision of the twenty four Elders with the robes of Priests and the Crowns of Kings upon them Apoc. 4.4 which assuredly intimates that in the best state of the Church every Sovereign will be confessedly both Priest and King over his own people Philoth. You say well Bathynous And it is very remarkable in that Vision that there is no one visible Head of the universal Church such as the Pope pretends to be but every Sovereign is there set out as a Kingly Priest or a Priestly King in his own Dominions Philop. Gentlemen you have finely adorned my dry Reasonings with your Historicall and Propheticall Observations all which jointly considered do easily bear me into a full and settled persuasion that every Christian King has so much of the power of the Priesthood in him and of the Autority of our Heavenly King and Priest Christ Iesus that being enlightned with the true belief of the Gospel and being destitute elsewhere of a Priesthood to officiate in the Church or rather of such as may consecrate men to that Function himself may raise a Succession of them by his own power Exod. 29.5 6. and they ordering all things according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostles that the whole Nation yielding obedience to these Precepts and Institutes does ipso facto become a true visible Church of Christ. What think you Bathynous Bath Nay I am abundantly satisfied For you know Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus And it is
a wonder to me if men acting and living thus Apostolically as you describe can be in the state of Damnation Philop. Wherefore we see plainly that there is no Inconvenience to the Reformed Churches in declaring the Roman Church to be the Kingdome of Antichrist accordingly as our first Reformers generally held but every way an unspeakable Advantage as any one may easily discern that will consider And therefore we being clear in this point I pray you proceed to the next Philotheus Philoth. The next Document as you call it Philopolis is this That seeing we are so well assured that the Papacy is the Kingdome of Antichrist or that City of Babylon wherein the People of God were held captive we should leave no string nor tassel of our ancient Captivity upon us such I mean as whereby they may take hold on us and pull us back again into our former Bondage but look upon our selves as absolutely free from any tie to them more then in endeavouring their Conversion and Salvation Which we knowing so experimentally not to be compassed by needless Symbolizings with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is studiously to imitate them in nothing but for all indifferent things to think rather the worse of them for their using them As no person of honour would willingly goe in the known garb of any leud and infamous persons Whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and contempt and are the more hardened in their own wickedness Wherefore seeing that needless Symbolizing with them does them no good but hurt we should account our selves in all things indifferent perfectly free to please and satisfie in the most universal manner we can those of our own Party not caring what Opinions or Customes or outward Formalities the Romanists and others have or may have had from the first Degeneracy of the Church Which we ought to account the more hideously soiled for the Romanists using of them but supporting our selves upon plain Scripture and solid Reason to use and profess such things as will be most universally agreeable to us all and make most for the safety and welfare of the true Kingdome of Christ. For this undoubtedly O Philopolis is the most firm and solid Interest of any Protestant Church or State whatsoever Philop. I am fully of your minde Philotheus and this freedome is no more I think then the Protestant Churches generally profess and particularly the Church of England in the Book of Articles and in the Homilies Artic. 20 34. In the Homily of Fasting But would you not have them to keep pretty strictly to a Conformity to those Ages of the Church which are called symmetrall and the people in the mean time to yield a peaceable obedience to such Institutes as are not altogether of so antique a character provided they be indifferent during the pleasure of their Superiours Philoth. I am very really and cordially for that peaceable Compliance O Philopolis and must also acknowledge that there is a special Reverence due to those Ages you speak of But you must remember that the holy Oracles have predicted and promised us better Times then those I mean then some of them especially Those were the times of the measure of the Reed these we expect of the golden Reed Things in their own nature immutable are indispensable but things indifferent are mutable And Opinion is ranged amongst those mutable things But Faith is as the Rock of Ages What is commensurable to the golden Reed must not be cast out but what is combustible will perish by the Word and by the Spirit which is Fire Philop. XXVIII Of the Use of the Word and of the Spirit in counterdistinction to dry Reason The first Reformers talked much of the Word and of the Spirit but this present Age are great Challengers into the field of Reason to duell it there And their Adversaries seem to like the way of Combate What is the matter with them Philotheus Philoth. That is not Philopolis because they can think their Cause more rational then ours but because the vulgar are commonly bad judges of such Combates and as ill users of that weapon They cannot so easily defend themselves therewith against the Sophisters of the Kingdome of Darkness nor well tell upon this account when these Sophisters are overcome by others unless they would confess themselves vanquish'd when they really are so which their Policy and Haughtiness will never permit them to doe Insomuch as there is never any end of such Contests And therefore though such Combates may doe well enough among the Learned yet I think it for the Interest of the Kingdome of Christ by no means to let go the use of those weapons our first Reformers found so available in the Recovery of it The Fourth Principle Let no man quit the assurance of the Spirit and of the Word taking refuge in dry Reason for the maintaining the truth of his Religion And this shall be the Fourth Document Philop. The Word both sides are agreed upon But why do you bring the judgement of the Spirit in stead of the exercise of our Reason upon the Scripture Philoth. I do not exclude the exercise of Reason but of dry Reason unassisted by the Spirit Philop. What then do you mean by the Spirit Philotheus For this seems to open a gap to all Wildness and Fanaticism Philoth. As you may understand it Philopolis it may But as I understand it it is the onely way I know to Sobriety For I understand by the Spirit not a blind unaccountable Impression or Impulse a Lift or an Huff of an heated Brain but the Spirit of Life in the new Birth which is a discerning Spirit and makes a man of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Isa. 11.2 3. This is the anointing of our Head and true High-priest the Lord Iesus in the first place in a supereminent manner but flows down to the very meanest and lowest of his Members In the guidance of this Spirit a man shall either immediately feel and smell out by an holy Sagacity what is right and true and what false and perverse or at least he shall use his Reason aright to discover it Philop. XXIX How a man shall know that he has the Spirit Such a Spirit as this indeed Philotheus is no Fanatick spirit but a sure Guide in all things But how shall a man know that he has this Spirit Philoth. John 3.6 By the fruits of it That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit He that is born of God sinneth not 1 John 3.9 because his seed that is the Spirit remaineth in him If we have cast off the deeds of the flesh mortifying them through the Spirit it is a sign the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us Now the works of the flesh are manifest Gal. 5.19 c. such as are
Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatrie Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Strife Sedition Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings To which you may adde Pride Insultation Contempt of our brother Cruelty Fraud Imposture Perfidiousness Worldly-mindedness Extortion Covetousness and the like Gal. 5.22 23. But the fruit of the Spirit saith the Apostle is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law This is that Spiritual man that discerneth every man 1 Cor. 2.15 but is himself discerned by none unless he be spiritual Of this Spirit of life it is said 1 John 5.12 He that has the Son has life but he that has not the Son has not life Rom. 8.9 As also He that has not the Spirit of Christ is none of his But of him that has the Son in this true sense namely by the abode of his Spirit in him John 8.36 it is farther declared That if the Son make you free then are you free indeed It is not therefore into an Huff of Phancy which ignorant giddy men may call the Spirit but it is the Spirit of Life in the new Birth into which we would ultimately resolve our adhesion to the pure Truth of the Gospel in opposition to the false adulterate Religion of the Church of Rome And the Dictates of this Spirit in its opposition to the gross Idolatries Impostures and Barbarities of that carnal Church which true Dictates are the Privilege of that Life that is to Righteousness in the meanest regenerate Christian would I set against the popular conceit of that false Churche's Infallibillity This true ground though popular would I have retain'd to bear against that popular Imposture of pretending that the Church of Rome cannot erre For we being made free by that Spirit of true Sanctification and Holiness all their Frauds and Wickednesses are easily felt by vital Antipathy whereby their Autority falls to the Dust and all their contradictious Figments made for their own worldly Interests are easily judged by the meanest Reason back'd and emboldened by this sincere Spirit of Righteousness and Love and so they are found through the Assistence of this living Principle common to all true Christians to be Murtherers Idolaters and gross Impostours This is palpable to the Spirit of Life in the new Birth which is the Privilege as I said of every true Christian. Nor will all their subtilties of Reason or far-fetched deductions of a tedious or endless intricate Sophistry be able at all to move or entangle such as are thus perfectly freed from Superstition and so firmly establish'd in this Principle of Life and Reality Philop. This is not onely a safe Sanctuary against all the perverse Sophisms and cunningly-devised Intricacies of the Church of Rome whereby they would illaqueate such honest Christians whose Education has not made them nimble enough at the weapon of Reason and Disputation but is also a strong engagement to make us all more closely and seriously Christianize that we may the more palpably feel our selves actuated by this Spirit of Life and thereby the more justly and securely defie all the Sophisters of the Dark Kingdome I mean this will not onely scatter and repell them but establish and edifie our selves to eternall Life Philoth. Your observation Philopolis is very true and good But now as by way of Counterpoize I have set the Spirit of Life in the new Birth against the pretense of the Infallibility of their Church so for my part I think to run counter to them in most things that are notoriously peculiar to them would prove a safe Direction in Policy As for example They are peculiarly infamous for their Doctrine and Practice upon account of Spiritual Jurisdiction of depriving men of their temporal Rights as if Dominion were founded in Grace and upon this pretense of Deposing of Kings and of raising their Subjects in Rebellion against them Wherefore my Fifth Document or Instruction should be to all the members of Christ's Kingdome The Fifth Principle That they do not suffer themselves to be stained with the least blemish or taint of Disloyalty to their lawfull Sovereign upon any account whatsoever but especially upon a Religious one there being no greater Disinterest to the true Religion then to appear to be promoted or maintained by so gross Immorality as Disloyalty nor no greater Advantage then through Faith and Patience to bear all Trialls and hardships as the old primitive Christians did Whose eyes being lift up to Heavenward and their feet directed wholly in that path by a Providence stumbled on the Imperiall Crown the Emperour at last becoming a profess'd Christian. Which was a very accumulate Completion of that Prediction of our Saviour Matt. 6.33 First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you as has been noted before Philop. This is an excellent Principle indeed Philotheus and has annexed to it a comfortable Observation for all those that live under Princes that as yet are not converted to the pure Faith of the Gospell but are still captivated to the Religion of Rome But as for your Politicall Principle of alwaies running counter to that Church in what-ever they seem so notorious I doubt how that will alwaies hold For they do notoriously boast of and affect an universal Unity in Judgement and Practice should we therefore affect or indulge to a Disunity or Difformity in matters of Religion Philoth. Alas Philopolis my meaning was not that we should run counter to them in any good things they boast of but in those bad things they have They are divided into multitudes of Opinions amongst themselves as well as others are And in those things they seem universally united in they are rather forcibly held together by externall awe and fear of being burnt or having their throats cut then out of plain Conviction of Conscience that the Points they universally profess are true This is not Vnion of Life and Spirit but the cramming and crouding disunited dust feathers and straws and tying them up close in one bag This is all the union they have in their universal Profession But why this should be called Christian Vnion thus by a barbarous force and compulsion to make a company of men profess and practise the same things be they never so Idolatrous or wicked I understand not Nor know I what is if this be not an Vnion or Communion Antichristian Wherefore we run opposite enough to them if we set up against their Antichristian Vnion an Vnion which is truely and really Christian. Which shall be the Sixth Instruction viz. That we endeavour above all things after an Vnion of unfeigned Belief and Love The Sixth Principle That it may be said of the Church as of the living Creatures in the Cherubick Chariot of Ezekiel Whither the Spirit was to go Ezek. 1.20 they went Philop. XXX How the Church shall attain to the Unity of
particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
state of the Church out of the Apocalypse 265 IX The Angel's Measuring the City with a golden Reed what the meaning thereof 278 X. Severall passages of the Mercavah expounded or the Vision of the Cherubim seen by Ezekiel 280 XI An Exposition of the Vision of the Throne of God in Heaven the four Beasts and twenty four Elders seen by S t. John 298 XII What Grounds of hope out of Scripture for that glorious state of the Church to come 313 XIII That the glorious Times predicted by the Prophets have not yet appeared on the face of the Earth 321 XIV What grounds in Reason for the coming of those glorious Times 326 XV. That there is no fear that either Familism or Behmenism will supplant the expected glory of the Apostolick Church 332 XVI J. Behmen's marvellous pretence to the knowledge of the Language of Nature 337 XVII Farther Indications that J. Behmen did not write from an infallible spirit 342 XVIII Bathynous his judgement touching J. Behmen with some Cautions how to avoid the being ensnared by Enthusiasts 349 XIX That there is an Elias to come and in what sense 355 XX. The Character of this Elias gathered out of Prophecy 356 XXI His Character taken out of History 362 XXII The time of Elias his coming 367 XXIII Certain Principles tending to the Acceleration of the glorious Times of the Church 370 The First Principle 371 XXIV Of Luther's Conference with the Devil touching the abrogating of the Mass together with his Night-Visions of flying Fire-brands ibid. XXV Of the Obnoxiousness of Luther and other Reformers 377 The Second Principle 384 XXVI Of the Church of Rome's being a true Church 388 XXVII That although the Church of Rome were not a true Church yet it follows not but the Reformed Churches are 392 The Third Principle 398 XXVIII Of the Vse of the Word and of the Spirit in counterdistinction to dry Reason 402 The Fourth Principle 403 XXIX How a man shall know that he has the Spirit 404 The Fifth Principle 409 The Sixth Principle 412 XXX How the Church shall attain to the Vnity of the Spirit ibid. The Seventh Principle 415 XXXI How the mind of man may arrive to a state of Vnprejudicateness 416 The Eighth and last Principle 417 XXXII The Doctrine of Faith in the Power of God's Spirit for the ridding us of Sin why not so much insisted on at the beginning of the Reformation 423 XXXIII The true means of Vnity in the Church again glanced at 426 XXXIV The marvellous Efficacy of Faith in the Power of the Spirit of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin 429 XXXV An answer to an Objection touching this Doctrine of Faith 430 XXXVI Of the Duration of the glorious Times of the Church 434 XXXVII The Character of Theomanes 435 XXXVIII Theomanes his Vision of the seven Thunders 440 XXXIX A brief Explication of Theomanes his Vision 451 XL. The important Vsefulness of Theomanes his Vision together with the Iustifiableness of his yielding to such an Impression 453 XLI Philotheus prevail'd with to play a Divine Rhapsodie to the Theorbo 456 XLII Philopolis his mistake in preferring high Contemplations before the usefull Duties of a Practicall Life 461 XLIII His Complement to Cuphophron and his Friends with Cuphophron's return thereof upon Philopolis 464 FINIS ERRATA sic corrige Page 9. line 5 reade Paradisiacall p. 118. l. 9. for But after r. But upon p. 157. l. 26. r. then this other p. 188. l. 6. r. Description p. 207. l. 21. r. Emissarie Powers p. 276. l. 21. r. Prosperitie also the. p. 309. l. 2. r. off of p. 378. l. 21. r. spirit That p. 380. l. 3. r. Postillion in