Meditations I will add this more than I meant to have done the rather because I discovered by your last somewhat more of your Opinion in one principal particular than I knew before and also because I find you presume of another piece as solid and well-grounded because in my last I made no Answer to it though I intimated I had sufficient if need were to say against it My end is that you might see I maintain not an Opinion out of mere pertinacy but that I have Reasons sufficient to perswade my self though you never met with a man whatsoever you supposed of me of less confidence to perswade others than when you met with me I have a conceit that some opinions be in a sort Fatal to some men and therefore I can with much patience endure a man to be contrary-minded and have little or no edge to contend with one I think perswaded unless it were in something that merely concerned him in state of salvation But I come to the matter 1. You seem to grant me That the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven c. mentioned in Daniel and that coming of his in the Clouds of heaven in the Gospel Matth. 24. 30. ch 26. 64. Mark 13. 26. ch 14. 62. Luke 21. 27. and in the Apocalyps chap. 1. 7. are one and the same But you apply them all to Christ's coming to the destruction of Ierusalem because our Saviour saith in that Prophecy of his That that generation should not pass till all things then prophesied should be fulfilled I answer first While you endeavour in this manner to establish a ground for the First coming of Christ you bereave the Church of those principal passages of Scripture whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the Second coming Secondly You ground all this upon the ambiguity of the word Generation whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not only aetas but gens natio progenies and so ought to be here taken viz. Gens Iudaeorum non inâ—eribit usque dum omnia haec implentur The nation of the Iews should not perish till all these things were fulfilled For so signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew notion as you may see even in the verse following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By virtue of which Amen verse 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily I say unto you the Iewish Nation even to the wonder and astonishment of all who consider it remains a distinct people in so long and tedious a Captivity and after so many wonderful changes as have befallen the Nations where they live According to that of Ieremy Chap. 31. 35 36. whither this passage seems to have reference Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roar If those ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever S. Chrysostome among the ancients and Flacius Illyricus a man well skill'd in the style of Scripture among the moderns and those who follow them might have admonished others to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this acception rather than by turning it aetas or seculum to put this Prophecy in little ease and the whole harmony of Scripture out of frame by I know not what confused interpretation S. Chrysostome applies it to Gens Christiana or fidelium which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generatio quaerentium Dominum Others have other accommodations but still under this notion I speak of I prefer as I said Gens Iudaeorum for what Reasons nihil nunc attinet dicere No man can deny but this is one of the native notions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and so taken in the Gospels as in the foregoing Chapter Matth. 23. 36. Verily I say unto you all these things shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this nation So Beza renders it twice in the parallel place Luke 11. 50 51. and seven times in this Gospel Again Luke 17. 25. The Son of man must be first rejected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza à gente ista The LXX renders by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 familia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 progenies patria See Gen. 25. 13. ch 43. 7. Num. 10. 30 c. I suppose here is enough â—or the signification of a word So then your Argument thence is nothing 3. Besides to interpret this coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and his kingdom then of his coming to the destruction of Ierusalem is contrary to the context of our Saviour's Prophecy For the coming of Christ to destroy Ierusalem was the beginning and cause of that great and long Tribulation of that people but the coming and appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven is expresly said should be after it Immediately after the days of that Tribulation c. Matth. 24. 29. Mark 13. 24. For this great Tribulation such as never Nation suffered is not to be confined to their calamity at the destruction of Ierusalem but extends to the whole time of their captivity and dispersion from that time unto this present not yet ended wherefore S. Luke who is wont to be an Expositor of our Saviour's words puts in stead of those words of great tribulation these of parallel sense to them There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people Luke 21. 23. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and Ierusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled v. 24. And as the other Evangelists say After that tribulation ended so he After or when these times of the Gentiles are fulfilled then shall be signs in the Sun and Moon and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud c. For the Copulative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is to be taken after the Hebrew manner ordinativè for tum deinde which you know is frequent in Scripture Then shall be signs And I make no question but these Times of the Gentiles with which the Iews Tribulation shall end are either the Times of the Four Monarchies in general that is the Times of that prophesied Dominion of the Gentiles or which is all one in event those last Times of the Fourth Kingdom of A Time Times and half a Time at the fulfilling whereof Daniel prophesies of the same appearing and coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven which S. Luke doth here For if the immediate consequent be the same how can the Times which immediately precede but be the same Times also This is my opinion which I intimated once before but you
4. That I may therefore gather all this Controversie into a short summe I find your Tenet to stand charged with three not tolerable Inconveniences of interpretation The one in the first Vision where you interpret In the days of those Kingdoms to be After the days of them where the matter spoken of will no ways bear it though the Preposition would The second in the second Vision where you will be forced to interpret until the time came the Saints possessed the Kingdom until some 200 years before that time A third is That you are forced for making good your Exposition of the Kingdoms to deprive the Church of those principal passages of Scripture whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the Second coming of Christ. If I found mine charged with any one such I should begin to misdoubt the truth thereof I might add a fourth That besides all these you forsake that Exposition and Application of these Kingdoms which the Church hath universally followed from her infancy And who can easily be perswaded that the Doctors of the Church immediately following the Apostles and while some of the Apostles disciples were yet living should be ignorant of the meaning of so main a Prophecy whereupon depended the demonstration of the verity of Christ's coming and that too whilst those disputes were still hot between the Iews and Christians The Fathers are to be considered here not in respect of greater learning or infallibility of Spirit than ours but as Testes Custodes doctrinae primitus acceptae because it cannot be presumed they could be ignorant of it being so near or would change it being so pious and good Now the inducements which should perswade an Opinion burthened with such inconveniences had need be very powerful But when I examine every thing I find the main and only pillar which you suppose will bear up your building against all assaults whatsoever to be but a weak one namely That nothing was revealed to Daniel which was contained in S. Iohn's sealed Book because none could open that Book but Christ and he opened it not till his Revelation shewed to Iohn That there is a flaw in this illation is apparent because there are two main and principal matters of the argument of that Book which cannot be denied to have been revealed before namely of Antichristâ— persecution and of the Second coming of Christ to judgment the first whereof was revealed to S. Paul though out of another Book the other is plentifully revealed throughout the New Testament before S. Iohn saw his Visions I answered therefore before and answer still That the Subject matter of the Apocalyptical Book is not that which was never in no sort revealed before but never in that order form and particularity of Fates Acts and Circumstances wherein it was revealed then The subject of that Prophetical history is the Roman Empire together with the Church or Kingdom of Christ contained therein the one is equally the subject thereof as well as the other Now it is not denied but the Church or Kingdom of Christ was revealed before both for the Being Quality Fate and Prevailing not to the Apostles only but to Daniel also why not then the Roman Empire In the same sense wherein that which concerned the one was revealed before or remained sealed till now in that sense was that revealed or sealed till now which concerned the other Here you brought a Catalogue of divers particulars concerning the Fourth Monarchy revealed to Daniel but to what purpose I cannot devise unless you could prove there were no other particulars of Succession Fates and Acts which were still to remain sealed until the Lamb should reveal them to S. Iohn For I affirmed not that no particulars of the Roman Kingdom were revealed to Daniel but that not those which were now first revealed to S. Iohn As namely none of the Acts and Fates of this Fourth Kingdom were particularized to Daniel but those of the latter end of it only when the Horn was to rule the rest which concerned the former part of his time were represented to him only in general in imagine confusa the more ample and large decyphering thereof being deferred till Christ himself should come and unfold all unto S. Iohn when also Daniel's most particular part was yet to be revealed much more particularly in the Metropolis quality of Blasphemy degrees and manner of destruction That which I have said of the Roman Empire partly revealed and partly sealed must be accommodated also to the history of the Church or Kingdom of Christ the other part of the subject of this Apocalyptical Book which though it were in some degree revealed before yet never in such order and specification of Fates and Circumstances as now The consideration of the one will easily clear the scruple you make concerning the other And for conclusion you must remember that I yield you all this time your sense of the sealing and unsealing the Apocalyptical Book which you know some interpret to a far other purpose I have a little time and paper enough left I will look over your Papers and answer such particulars more as I think need answering 1. I know not what it is you contend for about the Two States of Christ's Kingdom If you grant the Kingdom of Christ at his Second coming shall be of a different state from that of his First you grant as much as serves my turn and the Kingdom is neither more nor less eternal because some State thereof is not eternal An infant when it comes to be adultus is the same numero still but the stature is not the same but diverse 2. You affirm the duration of the Fourth Kingdom holds proportion with the legs because the three former do with their parts If they do tell me how your Third Kingdom of Alexander and his progeny which lasted but 18 years holds proportion with the belly of the Image I think it will be but a girt belly The Persian Monarchy represented by breast and arms lasted about 200 years that is ten or eleven times as long as your Third Kingdom did If this proportion holds in this Image the breast and arms must be ten or eleven times as long as the belly And if you read belly and thighs the proportion will be a great deal worse For I suppose you make your Fourth Kingdom 280 years long the same proportion therefore which 280 hath to 18 your legs must have to the belly and thighs that is quindecupla 3. Whatsoever time of Messiah's appearing Almighty God pointed out by Daniel's 70 weeks yet I believe not that any Iew before the Event could infallibly design the time without some latitude because they could not know infallibly where to pitch the head of their account until the Event discovered it yet in some latitude they might I think we have as good skill in that computation as the Iews could have and yet you see we yet vary about it
no more difference between a Table and an Altar than between another Cup and a Chalice An Altar is not every Table or a Table for a common Feast but an Holy Table and an Holy Table is an Altar The difference is not as many suppose either in the matter as of wood or stone for an Altar may be of wood as both the golden Altar and that of Burnt-offering were in the Tabernacle namely of Shittim-wood and a Table may be of stone nor in the posture or manner of standing whether in the middle or against a wall for the Altar of Burnt-offering stood in the midst of the Priests court and the Altar of Incense up against the veil But this is the true difference that a Table is a common Name and an Altar is an Holy Table This Holy Altar saith Gregory Nyssene Sermone de Baptismo Christi whereat we stand is by nature a common stone nothing differing from other slates but being consecrated to the service of God and having received the benediction it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Holy Table an Altar inviolable See he makes one to be the Exegesis of the other For in times past when men perhaps were as wise as we are now it was thought fit and decent that things set apart unto God and sacred should be distinguished not only in use but in name also from things common Forwhat is a Temple or Church but an House yet distinguished in name from other Houses What is a Sacrifice but a Feast yet distinguished in name from other Feasts So what is an Altar but a Table yet distinguished in name from other Tables Well let all this be granted may someman say that there is no greater difference between these two names than as you affirm yet ought the Language of the Church to be conformed to the Style of the New Testament But where in the New Testament should those Ancients find any Text whereon to ground the application of this name to the Holy Table I answer There I am prone to believe whence they derived the Oblation of the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist and that Rite of Reconciliation at their entrance thereunto where the Deacon was wont to proclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nè quis contra aliquem or in some other words to like effect and then every one to salute his brother in token of Reconciliation and Peace and that was from that Ordinance of our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount viz. If thou bringest thy GIFT unto the ALTAR and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy GIFT before the ALTAR and go first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy GIFT Which Scripture they took to be an Evangelical constitution wherein our Saviour implied by way of Anticipation that he would leave some Rite to his Church in stead and after the manner of the Sacrifices of the Law which should begin with an Oblation as they did and that to require this proper and peculiar qualification in the Offerer To be at peace and without enmity with his Brother Insomuch as Irenaeus seems to place that Purity of the Evangelical oblation prophesied of by Malachi even in this requisite Vide l. 4. c. 34. Hence also they may seem to have learned to call the Bread and Wine in respect of this Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy GIFTS from the word our Saviour here useth For that they derived from this Text that Rite of Peace and Reconciliation before the Offertory appears expresly out of Constit. Apost l. 2. c. 57. Iren. lib. 4. 34. Edit Fevard Tertull. De Oratione c. 10. Eusebius De vita Constantini lib. 4. c. 41. Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. Myst. 5. Why then may I not believe as well that they might derive from the same Text the Offertory it self and the application of the name Altar to the Holy Table seeing all three in the Text depend one upon another and that there is not in the New Testament any other passage of Scripture whereon so ancient and universal a practice of the Church as was in all these three particulars could expresly be grounded And besides that the Primitive practice of the Catholick Church is a good Rule to interpret Scripture by there may be good Reasons found from the circumstances of the Text and Sermon it self to perswade it to be an Evangelical Constitution 1. Because there was no such thing commanded in the Law to such as came to offer Sacrifice not any such Deuterosis to be found amongst the Traditions of the Elders Now it is altogether improbable our Saviour would then annex a new Rite to the Legal sacrifices when he was so soon after to abolish them by his sacrifice upon the Cross yea if the Harmonists of the Gospel are not deceived within less than two years after for they place this Sermon between his second and third Passeover Ergo he intended it for an Ordinance of the Kingdom of God as the Scripture speaks that is for the Church of his Gospel 2. Because the Sermon whereof this was part is that famous Sermon of our Saviour upon the Mount which he read as a Lecture to his Disciples to instruct them in the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God a little before he sent them out to preach and so in all likelihood contained the Summe of that they were to preach which no doubt was Doctrine Evangelical In all other parts of the Sermon we find it so wherefore then should we not so esteem it even in this also 3. Because it is brought in and that in the first place as an exemplification of that righteousness wherein the Citizens of the Kingdom of Christ were to outgo the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees I say unto you saith our Saviour except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Then follows this Text shewing how far we are to outstrip the Scribes and Pharisees in our obedience to the Precept Thou shalt not kill 4. This passage should be Evangelical forasmuch as it seems together with the rest that follow it to be a part of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Complementum Legis whereof our Saviour spake a little before saying Think not that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to abolish or abrogate the observation of them in my Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to accomplish supply or perfect them For this to be the meaning of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole discourse following it seemeth to evince wherein namely our Saviour puts in practice and makes good de facto in several particulars what he formerly said he came to do SECTION III. BUT there is one thing yet behind by no means to be forgotten in this Argument That what I have hitherto spoken of
that I found they were both inserted by the Author partly into his Discourse on Eccles. 5. 1. intituled The Reverence of God's House and partly into that Epistolary Tract of his touching The Holiness of Churches nor is there any thing in them but what is incorporated into those Tracts except this one Notion in the beginning of that forementioned short discourse upon Genes 28. 16. Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not where the Author hath this Observation They are the words of Iacob when he awoke out of the Vision he saw at Bethel He dream'd he saw a Ladder reaching from Heaven to Earth and the Angels of God ascending and descending thereon Above it stood the Lord himself saying I am the Lord the God of Abraham thy Father and the God of Isaac the Land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it and to thy seed I will multiply thee and in thy seed shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed I mean not to expound the Vision unto you it would be besides my scope but only will tell you thus much that the Author of the Book of Wisdom Chap. 10. 10. calls it a Vision of the Kingdom of God meaning as I suppose the Kingdom of Messiah which is here promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shewed him saith he relating this history of Iacob the Kingdom of God and gave him knowledge of holy things Which passage I think so much the more worthy to be observed because the term of Kingdom of God so frequent in the New Testament is no where to be found save in this place only This Observation I thought good to preserve by inserting it here upon this occasion There are several Texts of Scripture set down in the beginning of a thin Paper-book in Quarto which the Author it's likely intended to discourse upon but whether he perfected his intentions or only laid in some general materials for such a purpose in some other Papers some such thing seems to be intimated appears not to me from any Papers of his that have come to my hands Howsoever it may not be amiss but rather a gratification to some to set down here those Passages of Scripture which he had made choice of as fit objects for his deep-searching Thoughts to be exercis'd upon And they are these Acts 7. 43. Ye took up the Tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of your God Remphan c. Gen. 2. 9. The Tree of life in the middle of the Garden Iam. 5. 14. Is there any sick among you let him call for the Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord And the prayer of Faith shall save the sick c. Gen. 14. 18. And Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the Priest of the most high God Gen. 20. 7. For he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Matth. 12. 39. And there shall be no sign given to it but the sign of the Prophet Ionas 2 Sam. 21. 1. It is for Saul and his bloudy House because he slew the Gibeonites 1 Sam. 8. 7. And the Lord said unto Samuel They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life But if the ministration of Death written and engraven in stones was glorious How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious Matth. 2. 18. A voice was heard in Rama lamentation and weeping Rachel weeping for her children c. 1 Cor. 8. 10. For if any man should see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the Idol's temple c. Ioh. 16. 8. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Cain 2 Ep. Ioh. v. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ios. 22. 19. If the land of your possession be unclean then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord wherein the Lord's tabernacle dwelleth c. Nehem. 8. 6. And all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands c. 1 Cor. 11. 16. But if any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Churches of God These Seventeen Texts of Scripture together with that Title of several Psalms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I found set down in the beginning of that Paper-book the rest is wanting and these it seems he designed for the matter of his Chappel-exercises and if any such Diatribae or Discourses perfected by him upon these Scriptures be in the possession of any worthy persons for the Author was very communicative of his Papers it is both desired and hoped that they would impart them for the common benefit 5. That upon the View of all the Author's Writings it seem'd most accommodate for the Reader 's benefit that they should be digested into Five Books The First Book to contain his Discourses on several Texts of Scripture and of a different importance All of which were delivered in publick either in the Colledge-Chappel or in some greater Auditory except that one only Discourse upon Esay 2. 2 3. which was dictated by the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the satisfaction of a Friend of his who desired his opinion touching that Prophecy and as it was related by the Author's Friend the original Paper is thus subscribed More time and more leisure might have afforded you better but for this you are beholden to your Cousin B. whose pains in writing was more than mine in dictating Vale. Yours I. M. The Second Book to contain such Tracts and Discourses on several Texts of Scripture as were of the like Argument and design viz. about Churches and the worship of God therein There are among the first 21 Discourses in the foregoing Book some Diatribae of the like import but those being published by the direction or with the liking of the Author's Executor I would not break the order in which they are so dispos'd The Third Book to contain his Treatises upon Prophetical Scriptures viz. The Apocalypse S. Peter 's Prophecy concerning The Day of Christ's second Coming S. Paul 's Prophecy touching The Apostasie of the Latter Times Tobie 's Prophecy De duplici Iudaeorum Captivitate Statu Novissimo And Three Treatises upon some obscure Passages in Daniel The Fourth Book to contain his Epistles to several Learned men whose Letters are also published otherwise his Answers to them had been less intelligible There are several large and learned Epistles of his added in this Edition besides some elaborate Letters of others as that of L. De Dieu not heretofore published but there is nothing
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
Bitterness their enormous Affections and the Lusts that war in their members howsoever they may vainly conceit and fansy themselves to be upon easier and cheaper terms Kings and Priests to God fit and worthy to reign with Christ though they never suffer'd with him nor was their old man crucified with him that the body of Sin might be destroyed as the Apostle speaks Rom. 6. And thus we have seen that our Author's Notion of the Millennium was both Pure and Peaceable and consequently right and genuine these being the two first Properties of the Wisdom from above in S. Iames's account As for any other representation of it which is Earthly Sensual Devilish the three Properties of the Wisdom from beneath our Author had nothing to do with it nor with the Patrons thereof his Soul came not into their secret And therefore if any ill-temper'd persons men of wild Principles and Practices should abuse his name to the countenancing of any bad purposes and selfish designs as Antinomians have in like manner abused the names of some ancient Protestant Worthies to the gracing of their unwholsome Opinions if any unlearned and unstable souls wrest S. Iohn's Apocalyps and the Prophetical Scriptures as well as some did in S. Peter's time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul's Epistles and do so still they shall bear their own condemnation they do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own destruction But in the mean while S. Iohn S. Paul the Prophetical Scriptures are holy harmless and without fault nor ought our Author and those Protestant Writers to bear the blame of other mens either misapprehensions or misdoings but let every man bear his own burthen It is no new thing but is and hath been an usual artifice of worthless men to derive some reputation to their Opinions and Practices from the pretended authority of some worthy and excellent Writers and we are the less to wonder at it since they have not spared in the same kind to abuse the divinely-inspired Prophets and Apostles Yet should not this or the like abuse of S. Iohn's Apocalyps and other Prophecies be deem'd a sufficient ground to disswade from the study of the Prophetical Scriptures no more than the abuse of some passages in S. Paul's Epistles to Antinomianism and evacuating of the Law should be of force to take men off from the study of S. Paul's Writings Nay rather should all serious and judicious persons out of an holy indignation against such wrongful perverting of the Holy Oracles of God excite and oblige themselves unto a more studious enquiry and diligent search into the genuine meaning of those Scriptures that thereby they may be the better enabled to detect the falshood of those Glosses which men of corrupt minds have for their own ends put upon them and by discovering the true importance and scope of such Prophecies put to silence those men of Noise and Confidence rather than of Reason and Iudgment And certainly this would be the happy effect of such studious diligences For they should find that S. Paul's Epistles afford no favourable countenance to Antinomian principles nor do in the least disparage the indispensable necessity of internal Righteousness and uniform obedience to the Divine Law It would also appear to them that S. Iohn's Apocalyps contains nothing that may in the least encourage to disobedience and disorder but on the contrary represents Christian Kings and Princes those that are Defenders of the Holy Apostolical Faith under a fair Character as Friends to the Holy and Beloved City the New Ierusalem but Enemies to the Whorish City the mystical Babylon which they shall hate and make desolate They shall do it not the People without their Princes but Kings with the help of their Subjects so hard a work requiring many hands and the concurrence of several aids These Three Considerations and more such might have been added may amount we hope to a full Answer to the second Exception And these severals being laid together may be available through God's blessing to recover some from their inward malady of an Uncharitable Censorious humour and to sweeten others who have some disgust against the Author and particularly upon the score of this Exception Nor was this an unnecessary Digression if any Digression at all it being of so grand importance for the vindicating of the Author in whose Story and Character we are now concerned as also of those Holy and most Ancient Fathers of the Church and withal of their sober and harmless Notion of the Millennium yea and for the vindicating of the Holy Scriptures themselves from all unworthy misconstruction 23. Having thus somewhat largely though not without good cause evinced both the great Exquisiteness and the no less Usefulness of Mr. Mede's Labours in that Master-piece of his his Key and Commentary upon that mysterious Book of the Apocalyps a well-chosen Object for his great Understanding to exercise itself upon we proceed now to observe to the Reader That besides these his Endeavors were happily employ'd in other though neither easie nor ordinary undertakings For his noble Genius leading him on to encounter difficulties he ever seem'd most delighted with those studies wherein he might strain the sinews of his brain And as if he accounted them but Half-scholars that did only ex commentario sapere and knew only so much as taken up from others they held in memory he was not wont to take Expositions of Scripture upon the credit of any Author how great or plausible soever nor to look upon their Resolves as if they were Hercules's Pillars with a Nè plus ultrà upon them And therefore he used as occasion offer'd itself to set upon those difficult places of Scripture which seem'd to be of more use and concernment and much time did he spend that way to give light to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dark places in Holy Writ so that scarce could the question be propounded to him about any obscure and knotty passage therein whereabout he had not bestowed many serious thoughts before-hand He was taken notice of by many for his singular faculty in this kind and sent too by several Learned men for his resolution of such Doubts which was usually so clear that there was no person who loved Truth and was not addicted to jangling but would be satisfied with his Answers if not as certain and unquestionable yet as ingenious and very probable insomuch that Strangers of other Universities who had never seen him gave him this high Elogy That for assoiling of Scripture-difficulties he was to be reckoned amongst the best in the world It is agreeable to this which the learned Mr. Alsop spake of him in his Funeral Commemoration before the University That if he had been encouraged to write in difficiliora loca Scripturae and that God in mercy to the world had been pleased to lengthen out his days assuredly he would have out-gone any Author then extant and
it had been ere this well-nigh extinguished But experience tells us the contrary that this Fancy is not only still living but begins as it were to recover and get strength afresh In which regard my Discourse at this time will not be unseasonable if taking my rise from these words of our Saviour I acquaint you upon what grounds and example this practice of the Christian Church hath been established and how frivolous and weak the Reasons are which some of late do bring against it To begin therefore You see by the Text I have now read that our Blessed Saviour delivered a set Form of Prayer unto his Disciples and in so doing hath commended the use of a set Form of Prayer unto his Church Thus therefore saith he pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. Is not this a set Form of Prayer and did not our Saviour deliver it to be used by his Disciples They tell us No. For Thus say they in this place is not thus to be understood but for in this manner to this effect or sense or after this pattern not in these words and syllables To this I answer It is true that this form of Prayer is a Pattern for us to make other Prayers by but that this only should be the meaning of our Saviour's Thus and not the rehearsal of the words themselves I utterly deny and I prove it out of the eleventh Chapter of S. Luke where the same Prayer is again delivered in these words O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven that is do it in haec verba For what other phrase of Scripture is there to express such a meaning if this be not Besides in this of S. Luke the occasion would be considered It came to pass saith he as Iesus was praying in a certain place that when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as Iohn also taught his Disciples From whence it may not improbably be gathered that this was the custom of the Doctors of Israel to deliver some certain Form of Prayer unto their Disciples to use as it were a badge and Symbolum of their Discipleship at least Iohn Baptist had done so unto his Disciples and thereupon our Saviour's Disciples besought him that he also would give them in like manner some Form of his making that they might also pray with their Master's spirit as Iohn's Disciples did with theirs For that either our Saviour's or Iohn's Disciples knew not how to pray till now were ridiculous to imagine they being both of them Iews who had their certain set hours of prayer which they constantly observed as the third sixth and ninth It was therefore a Form of Prayer of their Master's making which both Iohn is said to have given his Disciples and our Saviour's Disciples besought him to give them For the fuller understanding whereof I must tell you something more and the rather because it is not commonly taken notice of and that is That this delivery of the Lord's Prayer in S. Luke is not the same with that related by S. Matthew but another at another time and upon another occasion That of S. Matthew in that famous Sermon of Christ upon the Mount whereof it is a part that of S. Luke upon a special motion of the Disciples at a time when himself had done praying That of S. Matthew in the second that of S. Luke in the third year after his Baptism Consider the Text of both and you shall find it impossible to bring them into one and the same Whence it follows that the Disciples when it was first uttered understood not that their Master intended it for a Form of Prayer unto them but for a pattern or example only or it may be to instruct them in special in what manner to ask forgiveness of sins For if they had thought he had given them a Form of Prayer then they would never have asked him for one now Wherefore our Saviour this second time utters himself more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven Thus their inadvertency becomes our confirmation For as Ioseph said to Pharaoh The dream is doubled unto Pharaoh because the thing is established by God so may we say here the delivery of this Prayer was doubled unto the Disciples that they and we might thereby know the more certainly that our Saviour intended and commended it for a set Form of Prayer unto his Church Thus much of that set Form of Prayer which our Saviour gave unto his Disciples as a precedent and warrant to his Church to give the like Forms to her Disciples or members a thing which from her infancy she used to do But because her practice is called in question as not warranted by Scripture let us see what was the practice of the Church of the Old Testament than whose example and use we can have no better rule to follow in the New First therefore we find two set Forms of Prayer or Invocation appointed by God himself in the Law of Moses One the Form wherewith the Priests were to bless the people Num. 6. 23 24 25 26. On this wise saith he shall Aaron and his sons bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace Is not this a set Form of Prayer For what is to bless but to pray over or invocate God for another The second is the Form of profession and prayer to be used by him who had paid his Tithes every third year Deut. 26. 13. O Lord God I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the stranger and fatherless and unto the widow according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments nor have I forgotten them 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away thereof for an unclean use c. 15. Look down from thy holy habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey But what need we seek thus for scattered Forms when we have a whole Book of them together The Book of Psalms was the Iewish Liturgy or the chief part of the Vocal service wherewith they worshipped God in the Temple This is evident by the Titles of the Psalms themselves which shew them to have been commended to the several Quires in the same To Asaph To the sons of Korah To Ieduthun and almost forty of them To the Magister Symphoniae the Prefect or Master of the Musick in general The like we are to conceive of those which have no Titles as for example of
called or which were called by his Name Deut. 28. 10. Dan. 9. 19. and elsewhere that is were his peculiar and holy people as is said in like manner and with like meaning of the Church of the New Testament Iames 2. 7. Acts 15. 17. I represent not these places of Scripture at large because I know that every ear that is acquainted with Scripture can bear witness unto them And for the meaning of this expression of God's Name to be called upon a thing or a thing to be called by his Name that it is all one as to say it to be His besides the evidence of the matter whereabout it is used appears by the same phrase used in two other places of the like relation of men to that which is theirs as Gen. 48. 16. where Iacob blessing Ioseph's sons saith The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads and let my name be called upon them that is let them be mine namely as Reuben and Simeon are mine as he saith a little before for they are words of adoption Again in the 4. of Esay 1. where it is said that seven women should take hold of one man and say We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel only let thy Name be called upon us to take away our reproach that is Do thou own us or let us be thine that it may not be a reproach unto us that we have no husband The Ancients were wont to set the Names of the Owners upon their houses and other possessions which they called Tituli Titles Chrysologus Serm. 145. Sicut dominos praediorum liminibus affixi Tituli proloquuntur As the Titles fixed to doors do speak the owners of the possessions S. Augustine in Psal. 21. Quando potens aliquis invenerit Titulos suos nonne jure rem sibi vendicat dicit Non poneret titulos meos nisi res mea esset When any great man shall spy his own Titles does he not justly challenge the goods and say No man would put my Titles to it unless the thing were mine Whether this phrase of Scripture of God's Name to be called or named upon a thing hath reference unto any such custom I cannot affirm but surely the meaning is the same to wit that God is the Lord and Proprietary of them And thus ye have heard what is this Name of God we pray here to be sanctified to wit a twofold Name first his Name and Majesty which we call upon secondly that also which is called by his Name The first we may call his Personal the other his Denominative or Participated Name HAVING learned what Nomen Dei importeth and so cleared the Object of what we pray for let us next enquire what that is which the word Sanctifie or To be sanctified implieth being that which our vote witnesseth ought to be done thereunto And this I intended for the main and principal Argument of my present Discourse being a matter not so well traced as the former and perhaps not altogether freed of obscurity and difficulty to be understood For our more certain and assured discovery whereof we will first examine the abstract thereof Sanctity and find out the true notion of it namely what is the ratio formalis the formal state or nature of that which the Scripture entituleth in the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Holy not regarding what notion the Greeks or Latines had respect to in their Languages but what the Holy Scripture properly intendeth under that name For because to be sanctified can have but these two senses either to be made holy or to be used and done unto according to or as becometh its holiness and that the Majesty of God which is the prime object of this Act is not capable of the first sense viz. to be made holy but of the second only if we therefore once rightly understand what is the condition and property of Sanctity according to the notion of Scripture we shall not be long ignorant what it is either for the Name or Majesty of God or that which is called by his Name to be hallowed or sanctified namely to be done unto according to their Holiness Now R. David Kimchi upon the 56 of Esay ver 2. Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To sanctifie the Sabbath is to separate or distinguish it from other days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because all words of Sanctity import a thing separated or divided from other things by way of preeminence or excellency Thus the Rabbi And that this which he saith is true namely That Sanctity consists in a discretion and distinction from other things by way of exaltation and preeminence may appear by these instances and examples which I shall now produce out of Scripture And first from that Law touching the Holy oyl Exod. 30. 31. where after the composition thereof described This saith the Lord shall be an holy anointing Oyl unto me What is that why it follows v. 32. Vpon mans flesh shall it not be poured neither shall ye make any other like it after the composition thereof It is Holy therefore it shall be Holy unto you That is As this Oyl is holy and discrete from other Oyls so shall it accordingly by you be used with difference and discrimination For the Text goes on v. 33. Whosoever compoundeth any like it or putteth any of it upon a stranger that is upon any besides those it was appropriated to shall be cut off from his people What else means all this but that this Oyl should be a singular or peculiar Oyl set apart and distinguished from all other Oyls both in its composition and use and that to be such was to be Holy or Sacred The like we shall find in the 35. verse of the same Chapter concerning the Holy Persume there described Thou shalt make it saith he to wit the ingredients he afore mentioned a persume a consection after the art of the Apothecary tempered together pure and Holy Verse 37. You shall not make to your selves that is not for your own use according to the composition thereof It shall be unto thee Holy for the Lord. Ver. 38. Whosoever shall make the like unto it to smellthereto shall be cut off from his people But above all others this notion of Sanctity or Holiness is most expresly intimated and taught us in those divine Periphrases or circumloâ—â—tions which the Lord himself more than once makes of an Holy People as Lev. 20. 24. speaking on this manner I am the Lord your God which have separated you from other people Ver. 26. And ye shall be Holy unto me for I the Lord am Holy and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine Mark here that to separate is to make Holy and that to be Holy is to be separated from others of the same rank Again Deut. 26. 18
by the Prophets for so Prophets are here to be understood and not of predictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish or perfect those Rules and Doctrines of Iust and Unjust contained in them by a more ample interpretation and other improvement befitting the state of the Gospel For surely this must be the meaning of this speech of our Saviour if we be more willing as we should to take a sense from Scripture than to bring one to it Doth not the whole context following evince it Indeed the Law that is the Legal Covenant or Covenant of works as Law is oft taken in the New Testament together with all the Rites depending thereon is dissolved by the coming of Christ and a better Covenant with new Rites established in stead thereof but the Law that is the Doctrine and Rule of life given by God contradistinct from those ordinances which were only appendages of that Covenant though these were also in some sense perfected by bringing the truth and substance in stead of the figure and shadow thereof is not disannulled but confirmed and perfected by him in such manner as became the condition of the Covenant of the Gospel For that this confirmation is not to be restrained to the Decalogue only is manifest because our Saviour in the following words insists upon other Precepts besides it If it be said they are reducible thereto this will not serve the turn for so are all the rest of God's Commandments Unless therefore it can be shewn that to honour God by an oblation of his creature is no part of the Law here confirmed by our Saviour let no man be so daringly bold as to exempt himself and others from the obligation thereof unless he means to be one of them of whom our Saviour speaks immediately saying Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so to do mark it he shall be called i. he shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is loose or dis-bind as he doth both that abrogates and that observes it not much more he that affirmeth it unlawful to be observed Nay how dare we dis-bind or loose our selves from the tye of that way of agnizing and honouring God which the Christian Church from her first beginnings durst not do Irenaeus witness of that age which next succeeded the Apostles is plain Lib. 4. c. 34. Offerre oportet Deo saith he primitias creaturae ejus sicut Moses ait Non apparebis vacuus ante conspectum Domini Dei tui Et non genus Oblationum reprobatum est oblationes enim illic sc. in V.T. oblationes autem hîc sacrificia in populo sacrificia in Ecclesia sed species immutata est tantùm quippe cum jam non à servis sed à liberis offeratur Vnus enim idem Dominus proprium autem character servilis oblationis proprium liberorum uti per oblationes ostendatur indicium libertatis It behoveth us saith he to offer unto God a present of his creature as also Moses saith Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God emptie For offerings in the general are not reprobated there were Offerings there viz. in the Old Test. there are also offerings here in the Church but the specification only is changed forasmuch as offerings now are not made by bond but free-men For there is one and the same Lord still but there is a proper character of a bond or servile offering and a proper character of free-mens that so even the offerings may shew forth the tokens of freedom Now where in Scripture he believed this doctrin and practice to be grounded he lets us know in the 27. chap. of the same Book Et quia Dominus naturalia Legis per quae homo justificatur quae etiam ante legisdationem custodiebant qui side justificabantur placebant Deo non dissolvit sed extendit sed implevit ex sermonibus ejus ostenditur That is That our Lord dissolved not but enlarged and perfected the natural precepts of the Law whereby a man is just which also before the Law was given they observed who were justified by faith and pleased God is evident by his words Then he cites some of the passages of that his Sermon upon the Mount Mat. 5. 20. And a little after addes Necesse fuit auferre quidem vincula servitutis quibus jam homo assueverat sine vinculis sequi Deum superextendi verò decreta libertatis augeri subjectionem quae est ad Regem ut non retrorsus quis renitens indignus appareat ei qui se liberavit Et propter hoc Dominus pro eo quod est Non moechaberis nec concupiscere praecepit pro eo quod est Non occîdes neque irasci quidem et pro eo quod est Decimare omnia quae sunt pauperibus dividere That is It was needful that those bonds of servitude which man had before been inured to should be taken off that so he might without Gyves follow God but that the laws and ordinances of freedom should be extended and his subjection to the King encreased lest that drawing backward he might appear unworthy of him that freed him And for this reason our Lord in stead of Thou shalt not commit adultery commands not so much as to lust in stead of Thou shalt not kill not so much as to be angry in stead of To Tithe to distribute all we have to the poor c. All which saith he in the same place are not solventis Legem sed adimplentis extendentis dilatantis not of one that dissolves the Law but fulfils extends and enlarges it alluding still to that in our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount Besides those who are acquainted with Antiquity can tell that the Primitive Christians understood the holy Eucharist to be A commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ's death upon the Cross in an oblation of Bread and Wine 'T is witnessed by the Fathers of those first Ages generally Whereupon the same Irenaeus also affirmeth that our Saviour by the institution of the Eucharist had confirmed Oblations in the New Testament Namely to thanks give or bless a thing in way to a sacred use he took to be an offering of it unto God And was not David's Benediction and thanksgiving at the preparation for the Temple and Offertory Where note well That as he upon that occasion blessed the Lord saying Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory all that is in heaven and earth is thine thine is the Kindgom Both riches and honour come of thee Ergo because all things come of theâ— of thine own have we given thee so do Christ's redeemed in their Evangelical Sâ—â—â— Apoc. 5. ascribe no less unto him saying v. 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and
redeemed us from our Spiritual thraldom by raising Iesus Christ our Lord from the dead begetting us in stead of an earthly Canaan to an inheritance incorruptible in the Heavens In a word the Christian by the day he hallows professes himself a Christian that is as S. Paul speaks To believe on him that raised up Iesus from the dead So that the Iew and Christian both though they fall not upon the same day yet make their designation of their day upon the like ground the Iews the memorial-day of their deliverance from the temporal Egypt and temporal Pharaoh the Christians the memorial-day of their deliverance from the spiritual Egypt and spiritual Pharaoh But might not will you say the Christian as well have observed the Iewish for his seventh day as the day he doth I answer No he might not For in so doing he should seem not to acknowledge his Redemption to be already performed but still expected For the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministery of Moses was intended for a Type and pledge of the Spiritual deliverance which was to come by Christ their Canaan also to which they marched being a Type of that Heavenly inheritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for Since therefore the Shadow is now made void by the coming of the Substance the Relation is changed and God is no longer to be worshipped and believed in as a God fore-shewing and assuring by Types but as a God who hath performed the Substance of what he promised And this is that which S. Paul means Colossians 2. 16 17. when he saith Let no man judge you henceforth in respect of a Feast-day New-moon or Sabbath-dayes Which were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. DISCOURSE XVI 1 COR. 11. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head I HAVE chosen this of the woman rather than that of the man going before it for the Theme of my Discourse First Because I conceive the Fault at the reformation whereof the Apostle here aimeth in the Church of Corinth was the womens only not the mens That which the Apostle speaks of a man praying or prophesying being by way of supposition and for illustration of the unseemliness of that guise which the women used Secondly Because the condition of the Sex in the words read makes something for the better understanding of that which is spoken of both as we shall see presently The Discourse I intend to make upon the Text shall consist of these two parts First of an Enquiry What is here meant by Prophesying a thing attributed to women and therefore undoubtedly some such thing as they were capable of Secondly What was this Fault for matter and manner of the women of the Church of Corinth which the Apostle here reproveth To begin with the First and which I am like to dwell longest upon Some take Prophesying here in the stricter sense to be foretelling of things to come as that which in those Primitive times both men and women did by the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon them according to that of the Prophet Ioel applied by S. Peter to the sending of the Holy Ghost at the first promulgation of the Gospel I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions And that such Prophetesses as these were those four Daughters of Philip the Evangelist whereof we read Acts 21. 9. Others take Prophesying here in a more large notion namely for the gift of interpreting and opening Divine mysteries contained in Holy Scripture for the instruction and edification of the Hearers especially as it was then inspired and suggested in extraordinary manner by the Holy Spirit as Prophecy was given of old according to that of S. Peter Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So because many in the beginning of the Gospel were guided by a like instinct in the interpretation and application of Scripture they were said to Prophesie Thus the Apostle useth it in the fourteenth Chapter of this Epistle where he discourses of spiritual Gifts and before all prefers that of Prophecy because he that Prophesieth saith he speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort But neither of these kinds of Prophecy sutes with the person in my Text which is a woman For it is certain the Apostle speaks here of Prophesying in the Church or Congregation but in the Church a woman might not speak no not so much as ask a question for her better instruction much less teach and instruct others and those men This the Apostle teacheth us in this very Epistle Chapter the fourteenth even there where he discourseth so largely of those kinds of Prophecy Let your women saith he keep silence in the Churches For it is not permitted unto them to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be subject And if they will learn let them ask their husbands at home Again in 1 Tim. 2. 11 12. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence Note here that to speak in a Church-Assembly by way of teaching or instructing others is an act of superiority which therefore a woman might not do because her sex was to be in subjection and so to appear before God in garb and posture which consisted therewith that is she might not speak to instruct men in the Church but to God she might To avoid this difficulty some would have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text to be taken passively namely for to hear or be present at Prophecy which is an acception without example either in Scripture or any where else It is true the Congregation is said to pray when the Priest only speaks but that they should be said to preach who are present only at the hearing of a Sermon is a Trope without example For the reason is not alike In prayer the Priest is the mouth of the Congregation and does what he does in their names and they assent to it by saying Amen But he that preaches or prophesies is not the mouth of the Church to speak ought in their names that so they might be said to speak too but he is the mouth of God speaking to them It is not likely therefore that those who only hear another speaking or prophesying to them should be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prophesy no more as I said than that all they should be said to preach who were at the hearing of a Sermon What shall we do then Is there any other acception of the word Prophesying left us which may sit our turn Yes there is a Fourth acception which if it can be made good will
as well for the maintenance of Deacons as of Priests seeing he omits it not of Widows in the verse going next before this But unless he includes them under the name of Elders he makes no provision for them at all Besides this is not the only place some think where Deacons are comprehended under the name of Elders For the Council of Hierusalem Acts 15. 23. where they inscribe their Synodical Epistle thus The Apostles and Elders and Brethren to the Brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch c. may seem to comprehend the Deacons under the name of Elders or Presbyters otherwise they should omit them which without doubt were part of the Council There is another Exposition which allows also of two sorts of Elders to be here implied but makes them both Priests namely That Presbyters or Priests in the Apostle's time were of two sorts One of Residentiaries and such as were affixed to certain Churches and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praesidere Gregi govern and instruct their Flock Another of such as had no fixed station or charge over any certain place but travelled up and down to preach the Gospel where it was not or to confirm the Churches where it was already preached such namely as are elsewhere known by the names of Evangelists and Doctors or Prophets That these were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that labour'd in the Word and Doctrine spoken of here by the Apostle That both these sorts of Presbyters were to be counted worthy of double Honour as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that ruled well as those that travelled up and down to preach the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but especially these latter because their pains were more than the others This is confirmed from the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Scripture signifies not only corporal labour as may appear in many places but seems to be used by S. Paul even in this very sense we have now given as 1 Cor. 15. 10. where he says comparing himself with the other Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have travelled up and down more than they all as is manifest he did These are the principal Expositions given by the Writers of our Church upon this passage of Scripture which is the foundation and only place whereon they build this new Consistory and are so much in love with it But this being capable as you see of such variety of Exposition how much too weak and insufficient it is to establish any such new Order of Elders never heard of in the Church from the times of the Apostles until this last age any man may judge But give me leave to propound a Fifth Exposition which shall be more liberal to them than any of those yet given For it shall yield them all they so eagerly contend for to be implied in this Text namely That there are not only two sorts of Elders here implied but also that the one of them are Lay-Elders such as have nothing to do with the administration of the Word and Sacraments What would they have more Yet they will be never the nearer for this concession For the Lay-Elders we grant here to be implied may be no Church-Officers but the Civil Magistrates which in Scripture-language we know are called Elders as when we read of the Elders of Israel of the Elders of Iudah of the Elders of the Priests and Elders of the People of Priests and Elders and the like According to such a notion the words may be construed by way of Transit us à thest ad hypothesin as Rhetoricians call it to wit in this manner Cum omnes Seniores sive Reipublicae sive Ecclesiae or Cum omnes Seniores etiam Reipublicae i. Civiles qui bene praesident duplici honore dignandi sunt tum maximè Seniores Ecclesiastici qui laborant in verbo Doctrina As all Elders whether of the Common-wealth or of the Church that rule well are to be accounted worthy of double Honour so especially the Elders of the Church that labour in the Word and Doctrine or thus Let all Elders that govern well of what sort soever be counted worthy of double Honour especially the Elders of the Church which labour in the Word and Doctrine Is not this good senâ—e and doth not the Apostle in the beginning of this very Chapter use the name Elder in the larger and more general sense when he says Rebuke not an Elder but exhort him as a Father and the younger men as Brethren the Elder women as Mothers the younger as Sisters why may he not then do so here And doth not S. Iames in his last Chapter v. 14. call the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders of the Church as it were in distinction from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders of the Commonwealth But it will be objected that this Exposition is too ambitious because it makes the Apostle to prefer the Elders of the Church before the Elders of the Commonwealth that is the Priest before the Civil Magistrate when he says that as all Elders whether of Church or Commonwealth are to be accounted worthy of double Honour so especially those Elders which labour in the Word and Doctrine which are the Presbyters of the Church But here know that the name of Elder is never given in Scripture to the Supreme Magistrate but to the Subordinate only and why the Ministers of the Word and Doctrine should not be accounted as worthy of double Honour as they or more worthy I know not especially if S. Paul here says it Sure I am this Objection is not sufficient to refute my Interpretation Thus I thought good to acquaint you how many ways this place may be expounded without importing any such new Elders neither Priests nor Deacons as they would impose upon us for Church-Officers by the sole authority thereof For though this Disciplinarian controversie of our Church stirred up by the admirers of the Genevian platform were in the heat before our time yet the Sect is not yet dead but ready upon every occasion to surprise such as they find unarmed or not fore-warned AND thus having informed our selves who they are which are here termed Elders come we now to see also What is that Honour which is due unto them which was the Second thing I propounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them be accounted saith the Apostle worthy of or Let them be deign'd double Honour That by Honour here is meant honorarium stipendium or a tribute of maintenance is manifest by the following words which the Apostle brings to inforce it For the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corn and The labourer is worthy of his hire Who sees not what these proofs infer The first of them he alledges also in the same argument 1 Cor. 9. 9. where he adds Doth God take care for Oxen V. 10. Or saith he it
10. 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward OUR Blessed Saviour giving his Apostles their mission to preach the Gospel unfurnished with outward things and forewarning them what harsh and unkind usage they and their successors were like to find amongst men for the better encouragement of such as should entertain and minister unto them he pronounceth That whosoever received them received him and he that received him received him that sent him Whereby it appeareth how honourable an office it was to afford them entertainment and such as the noblest need not be ashamed of But because the hope of reward is the most forcible spur to all undertakings he addeth that too in the words of my Text He that receiveth saith he a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward that is He that receiveth a Prophet not for any respect but quatenus talis because he is a Prophet shall have a Prophet's reward Which words contain in them evidently these two Propositions First That there is some special and eminent degree of Reward due unto a Prophet above other men Secondly That he that shall entertain a Prophet and do any good office unto him under that name that is for his office sake shall be partaker of that Reward Of these Two I intend to treat beginning with the First the more general That there shall be differing degrees of Reward in the life to come is evident by sundry places of Scripture As first from that so often iterated passage wherein God is said to reward every man according to his works Which not to be understood only of the differing quality of our works good and evil which God rewards accordingly the one with everlasting bliss the other with eternal fire as some here except but also of the differing works of just men compared together is manifest by that 1 Cor. 3. 8. where the Apostle comparing his own and Apollos work together saying He had planted and Apollos watered addes that both should receive their reward according to their work that is as their work differed so should their reward do In the second place the same is represented by that Parable Luke 19. of the Ten servants who received of their Lord being to go into a far Countrey ten pounds to trade with till his return At what time he that had increased his pound to ten pounds was made ruler over ten Cities he that had gained but five pounds over five Cities and so the rest according as they had improved the stock given them A third place is that 1 Cor. â—5 41 42. There is one glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one star differeth from another star in glory So also is the Resurrection of the dead Here is the full stop and not the words to be referred to that which follows to wit that the body is sown in corruption but is raised again in incorruption as some would have them For the Apostle speaks here of the difference of things heavenly and glorious One star saith he differs from another star in glory and not of the difference between glorious and inglorious corruptible and incorruptible For this belongs to his other similitude There are celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial but the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another A fourth place is that 2 Cor. 9. 6. where the Apostle speaking of the reward of beneficence avoucheth that he which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Fifthly That speech of our Saviour to the twelve Matt. 19. 27. imports as much Behold we saith Peter have forsaken all and followed thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what shall we have therefore V. 28. Iesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Regeneration or Resurrection when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel S. Luke relates it upon another occasion whereby it appears our Saviour uttered it more than once Ye saith he to the Twelve are they which have continued with me in my temptations therefore I appoint you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22. 28 c. Whatsoever is meant by the Reward intimated in this expression for the quality thereof 't is plain there is some peculiar and more eminent degree of glory here promised the Apostles which shall not be common to others with them First Because it is the reward of their proper and peculiar service unto Christ as the Text shews Secondly Because these twelve Thrones in regard of their number can befit no more but these twelve Thirdly Supposing the twelve Tribes of Israel here mentioned to be likewise in a condition of bliss and happiness it must needs be that those who sit upon twelve Thrones to judge that is to govern them must be in a higher degree of dignitie than those over whom they shall be set Whatsoever therefore the meaning of the Reward be thus much may be gathered from the description thereof That there shall be differing degrees of glory in the Kingdom of Christ to come To conclude it hath been the ancient and constant Tradition of the Church testified by the unanimous consent of all the Fathers and was never questioned by any until that Peter Martyr in this last age first began to doubt thereof and others since more boldly adventured to contradict it Their main Reasons or Objections are these two First That the Reward to come depends not upon the virtue or dignity of our works but only upon the merit and satisfaction of Christ But his merits and satisfaction are uniform and the same to all Ergo the Reward also which is to be given by virtue thereof shall be so This Objection proceeds from that scrupulosity which many of ours have to admit of any relation or connexion between our Works and the Reward to come whence also is that that they should not be done intuitu mercedis with an eye or respect to the Reward Which is an Assertion repugnant to the tenour of the Scripture where the Holy Ghost is wont to ground his Exhortations upon the hope and promise of Reward Now what an unreasonable conceit is it to think that where wages is promised for the encouragement of the labourer the labourer should be bound to work without having any eye or respect to his wages But to the Objection I answer thus That it is true the Merits and satisfaction of Christ are the Foundation of our Reward namely that alone which makes our works capable thereof without which they were not nevertheless it is true also that
other yet can they not outwardly be discerned asunder by the eye for because they are incorporated into one external body the outside or visible dimensions which are seen are one and the same But when the Refiner comes and severs them then will each metall appear in his own out-side and his own proper colours whereby they are easily discerned a sunder one from the other Such must the State of the Church needs be when an Apostasie shall rise out of the bowels thereof and such do we affirm was the State of the Church of Christ in that great prevailing Apostasie from which we are separated viz. The purer metal of the Christian body was not outwardly discernible from the base and counterfeit while one out-side covered them both but when the time of refining came them was our Church not first founded in the true Faith God forbid but a part of the Christian body newly refined from such corruptions as Time had gathered as Gold refined begins not then first to be Gold though it began then first to be refined so our Church began not a hundred years ago to be a Church though then it first began to be a Reformed Church And is this any thing more than that which besel the Iewish Church in her frequent Apostasie Was the seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal a visibly-distinguished Society from the rest of the body of Israel were they such as were outwardly known unto others who were not of their Communion nay were they known one to another yea to Elias himself I think no man will easily affirm it Yet were they a distinct Society joyned in the Communion of the same true Worship and in that respect separate from the rest of that Idolatrous body yet nevertheless as far as there was any thing which was found yet remaining for the external Regiment and Ceremonies it is most certain that they could not but be to the eyes of the world of one external body with the rest as receiving the same Circumcision and living under the same Priests and Ceremonies so far forth as any soundness in either of them remainded Nay do not our Adversaries themselves in their good mood grant us as much as we have said though it be because they cannot will nor chuse as is the Proverb For it is a thing chiefly to be considered and remembred in this Quarrel between them and us about the Visibility of the Church it is I say to be considered That when all granted and pleaded on both parts is well examined the point of difference between them and us is only this They hold the glorious Visibility of the true Church to be in present and the overshadowing of the light and eclipsing of the glory thereof under Antichrist to be yet to come at which time of his being in the world they grant and affirm more of the eclipsing and overshadowing of the true Church than we do for our hearts He that reads their conceits of Antichrist shall easily find this to be true For they hold that then the publick exercise of Christian Religion saying of Mass and all shall utterly cease until Antichrist's days be out this is their Tenet We on the contrary hold this clouding of the Church's visibility to have been already and the greatest glory in probability or at least some part thereof to be yet to come So that we both agree That in the great Apostasie the Churche's visibility and glory should cease but we say that this Apostatical time hath been already they say it is yet to come we say that that time was to last many ages they say that when it comes it shall be but three single years and a half Why then are they not ashamed to choke us with this Argument of the Churche's Visibility and glory as though the Church could never be without it when yet themselves confess that there is a time to come when the case will be such that the same Argument may be alledged against the true Church though it were theirs as is now alledged against ours This is too great partiality Seeing therefore the whole Controversie lies in this Whether the Churches great Apostasie be already past or in being or yet to come It is a great deal the quicker course for them and us to examine the condition and quality of both Religion by the Scriptures and not to distract our selves with every point of differences for every Error is not a part of this Apostasie But let us examine our Religion in that point alone wherein the Scripture it self places and limits the quality of this Apostasie namely that it should be Spiritual Fornication or Idolatry for Babylon is not called the Lier of Babylon the â—yrant of Babylon the Heretick of Babylon the â—urtherer of Babylon but the Whore of Babylon It is very like indeed that as Whores have commonly many other foul qualities so may the Spiritual Whore have also Yet as every ill quality of a Whore is not a part of her Whoredom no more is every Error of the Spiritual Whore how gross soever a part of Spiritual Fornication Let us therefore examine her by the Mark which God sets upon her and by that Abomination for which only in a manner if we observe the Scripture God did use to punish and wrathfully complaâ—n of his old people Israel though no doubt they had many other corruptions besides but had they been faithful in that one God could have winked at many other As we know a Husband if his Wife be faithful and true to him in that point which so nearly toucheth his jealousie he will the easier bear with other shrewish conditions Now if the Church of Rome be not an Idolatress or a Spiritual Whore prostituting her self to other gods to stocks and stones and many ways breaking her Faith to her one Lord and Mediator Christ Iesus by committing fornication with I know not how many other Mediators there never was a Whore in the world And certainly if the Church of Rome may herein be justified the Church of Israel had but hard measure to be condemned who could as truly plead that she never forsook the true God altogether only she would worship him in Calves and such Images as other her neighbour-Nations used to do and that though she was for variety yet she reserved the chief place for her Iehovah and in all other respects could as well as the present Roman Church excuse her practice in that kind And yet we know how she is branded by the Prophets for a Whore and not a simple fornicating Whore but an Adulteress and is threatened to be proceeded with and judged as those that break wedlock and shed bloud are judged to have bloud given her in fury and jealousie And such an Example of God's fury and jealousie hath he made them to all the world as no other people how great soever their Idolatries have ever equall'd or come near their sufferings
be no gatherings when I come Which Institution seems to be derived from the Commandment of God in the Law twice repeated Let no man appear before the Lord empty For the words annexed to that Law Deut. 16. where it is applied to the three great Feasts when all Israel was to assemble to pray before the Lord in his Tabernacle the words I say there annexed sound altogether like unto these of S. Paul concerning the Lord's day Three times a year saith the Text there shall all the males appear before the Lord and they shall not appear before the Lord empty Every one shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee Is not this the same in sense with S. Paul's Let every one lay by himself in store as God hath prospered him The Primitive Church after the Apostles followed the same precedent and our own Reformed Church hath ordained the same in her Service-book were it accordingly practised as was intended For after the Epistle and Gospel she appoints divers choice Sentences of Scripture to be read which exhort us to Alms and other Offerings to the honour of Almighty God and then as supposing it to be done in the Prayer for the whole estate of Christ's Church We humbly beseech him most mercifully to accept our Alms and receive our Prayers which we offer unto his Divine Majesty Shall I now need to exhort you Brethren thus to furnish and strengthen your Prayers which you daily offer unto God to couple them with Almsdeeds to come before God with a present and not empty-handed Whom neither God's Commandment the Practice of his Church the Example of his Saints nor the Acceptance of such Prayers as the hand which dealeth Alms lifteth up to him whom these will not move no words of mine will do it But some may say Would you have us always give Alms when we pray No I say not so but I would not have you appear before the Lord empty that is such as are not wont to give them nor mean to do For you may give them before or second your Prayers with them after you may have set and appointed times for the one as you have for the other Or when the Law of man injoyns you any thing in this kind do it heartily faithfully and with a willing mind without grudging that so God may accept it as a service done to him Or lastly Thou mayest do as the holy men in Scripture were wont vow and promise unto God if thy Prayer be heard to offer something unto him either for relief of the poor the Widow the Orphan aâ—d distressed one or the maintenance of his Service and Worship If God will be with me saith Iacob Gen. 28. 20 c. and keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on c. Then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee See the use of vowing by such as came to pray in God's House Eccles. 5. 4. If thou comest before God in any of these ways thou shalt not come empty-handed But send not thy Prayer single and alone The Prayer with Alms is the Prayer God loveth Hear what himself saith Psal. 50. 14 15. Offer unto God thanksgiving Alms is an Offering of Thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High So call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me NOW I come to the second thing I propounded The power and efficacy which Prayer and Alms have with God Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel are come up for a memorial or are had in remembrance in the sight of God God is said to remember our Prayers when he grants them our Alms and good deeds when he rewards them or in a word when he answers either of them with a blessing as on the contrary he is said to remember iniquity when he sends some judgment for it So God is said to remember Hannah when he heard her prayer for a Son 1 Sam. 1. 19. and Nehemiah speaking of his deeds of mercy and bounty shewed unto his poor brethren returned from captivity says Think upon me or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember me O my God for good according to all that I have done for this people Thus were Cornelius his Prayers and Alms remembred Prayers therefore and Alms be they performed as they should be are powerful and approved means to obtain a blessing at the hands of God To speak first of Prayer What is it that Prayer hath not obtain'd It hath shut and opened Heaven see the story of Elijah It hath made the Sun and Moon to stand still read the Book of Ioshna It is the Key that openeth all God's Treasures of blessings both spiritual and corporal For spiritual blessings Cornelius we see obtained thereby Illumination and Instruction in God's saving Truth And S. Iames saith If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and it shall be given him Ephraim in Ieremy 31. 18. prays for converting grace Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned To whom God presently replies ver 20. Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord. Prayer obtains remission of sins I said saith David Psal. 32. 5 6. I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Prayer also obtaineth corporal blessings When Heaven was shut and it rained not Elijah prayed for rain and it rained Hannah prayed for a Son and she conceived If we be sick saith S. Iames chap. 5. 15. The prayer of faith shall heal the sick Nehemiah prayed that he might find favour in the sight of King Artaxerxes Chap. 1. 11. and found it Chap. 2. 4. But some man will say If Prayer have such power and efficacy how comes it to pass that many even godly men oft pray and yet speed not I answer There are divers causes thereof Either 1. we pray not as we ought or 2. we are not disposed as we ought to be when we pray 1. We pray not as we ought either 1. when we pray not heartily or not constantly For God regards not formal and superficial prayer but prayer that comes from the Heart and loves to be importuned before he grant as our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the woman and the unjust Iudge whom though at first he would not hear yet importunity made him do her justice Or 2.
glorified Seeing therefore we are most fit to glorifie God in the time of our affliction Let this be a Motive unto us both of Comfort in the depth of sorrow and of Patience in the midst of pain always when the hand of God is upon us confessing with David Psal. 119. 71. Bonum est Domine quòd humiliasti me It is good Lord that thou hast humbled me AND thus I come to the Persons to whom this Proclamation is to be made intimated in the word Them Thus shall ye say unto them what Them even your Lords and Masters even your Lordly Masters your Rulers your proud Conquerors Sins therefore against the Person of God are to be reproved without all respect of Persons Such sins are sins of Idolatry or sins of the first and second Commandment For when false Gods are worshipped whether mediately or immediately the Person of God is dishonoured In these sins therefore the Cautions concerning persons who should reprove and persons who are to be reproved which in other sins Wisdom makes considerable have no place at all Be the person reproving or the person to be reproved publick or private greater or lesser it skilleth not for in case of Idolatry the poorest begger on the earth may admonish the greatest Emperor in the world Indeed the quality or condition of persons may be opposed to all other respects whatsoever and so make some time and some place unfit for reproof or admonition nay the quality of the persons of men may be such as doth exclude some persons from reproving them But when the case concerns the Person of God himself then to spare or regard the persons of men is Idolatry it self for this is to honour men more than God himself this is to suffer God to be dishonoured lest the honour of men should be impeached I confess the danger is great in regard of the flesh but we must know what our Saviour saith He that loveth father or mother yea his own life better than me is not worthy of me Thus the glorious Martyr Ignatius reproved Trajan the Emperor whilest he was sacrificing to his Gods even at the very Altar and in the face of his whole Army being at Antioch And for the same sin we see here the poor captive Iew was to reprove his great Babylonian Lord the miserable and contemptible slave the conqueror of the world the miry foot the head of gold For thus shall ye say even to them The Gods which made not the heavens and the earth c. AND so I will leave the Persons both Ye and Them and come to the third and last circumstance I considered in this act of protesting or proclaiming against the Gods of the heathen and that is The manner how it should be done intimated in the word Thus Thus shall ye say unto them that is in plain Chaldee not in Hebrew how holy a tongue soever but in the vulgar tongue of Babylon Thus shall ye say unto them Here we see That God will have his Church to utter his Oracles in the vulgar tongues of the Nations When ye inform the Gentiles of any part of the knowledge of me Thus shall ye say unto them Surely our Prophet's sudden changing of his Dialect here was a Praeludium to that great publishing of God's name to the Gentiles in their vulgar tongues after the Messias should come which Theodoret avoucheth to have been when he saith that the words of the Apostles and Prophets were turned into the languages of the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Sauromatans and all the languages which any Nation used Certainly to keep the Scriptures in an unknown tongue is of all other the most unreasonable madness but to teach Pagans the Articles of their Creed at their first conversion in the Latine tongue as the Spaniards have done with the Indians is a most ridiculous folly It not the Word of God his revealed will unto his whole Church But how is it revealed in an unknown tongue Or is the Word of God a revealed will unto those only who are learned and hidden to others But if the Scriptures were in vulgar Tongues they might be occasions of many heresies by the mistakes of the vulgar if they might read them This is strange Can every Frier in a Pulpit when he preacheth warrant his words from being mistaken or perverted to heresie and are the words and sayings of God himself so obnoxious that they may not be read Nay if God himself may not speak in a vulgar tongue I see far less reason why a Frier should And so should the people know nothing at all concerning God if a good may not therefore be done because some will abuse it to evil NOW I come to the second main part of my Text The Summe of the Proclamation containing in it two things First A description of false Gods The Gods which made not the heavens and the earth Secondly Their doom They shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens To begin with the first The Gods which made not c. He saith not Those who were not Abraham's Gods or Iacob's Gods nor the Gods which brought not Israel out of Egypt or such like but The Gods which made not the heavens and the earth Whence note That men are to be dealt with and perswaded out of the Principles they acknowledge and are addicted to Ethnicks out of the Principles of Reason and Nature or the like Iews out of Moses and the Prophets Christians out of the Gospel In summe All sorts of men from that they are addicted to This is a Maxime of wisdom which God himself hath approved So the Iews acknowledging Prophetical doctrine are dealt with out of the Prophets A Virgin shall bear a Son But the Magi of the East being addicted to Astrology are drawn to Christ by the apparition of a Star and therefore the Star appeared not in Iudaea because the Iews used not to heed such things they had the Oracles of God but it appeared in the East that is was seen by them only who dwelt in the East which made the wise men wonder and joy so much when afterward it went before them going to Bethlehem So S. Paul being to preach a God the Athenians knew not avouched and defended his fact by an Altar of their own inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the unknown God whence they might be convinced that a God whom their fathers knew not might yet be a God to be worshipped The same Apostle teacheth Tilus to convince the Cretians out of their own Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the contrary S. Peter having to deal with the Iews and Proselytes Acts 2. useth no other grounds but the Prophecies of Ioel and David Again S. Paul being to enter with the Ethnicks of Lystra Acts 14. 15. who would needs have sacrificed to him as to a God insinuateth with an Argument from Nature and from
these heavens As the War was long so the Victory was not gotten all at once but by certain degrees as it were beginning with Constantine Anno 300. and ending in Theodosius about as I said the year 390. And though it be hard to pitch the time of this Trophee exactly yet I doubt not but it falleth in some part of the time included in the foresaid limits Thus then have we seen the Truth and Power of God in fulfilling of this Prophecy for so much as is already past and may say with David Psal. 48. 8. As we have heard so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts in the city of our God God will establish it for ever But who would have believed this at the time when the words were spoken when the worshippers of the most high God were at so low an ebbe Hence therefore must we learn to believe the Promises of God be they never so unlikely to humane Reason For he it is that says Esay 46. 11. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass It is he that says Ier. 32. 27. I am the God of all flesh and there is nothing too hard for me Though Abraham be never so old and Sarah's womb be dead yet if the Lord says it he shall be Father of many Though Nations Gideon be the least of the house of Manasses yet if the Lord says it by him shall Israel be delivered from the Midianites Though David follow the sheep yet if God promise he shall be King of Israel Be the famine in Samaria never so extreme that women eat their own children yet if God say it within twenty four hours shall corn be so cheap that a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gates of Samaria Let us take heed therefore we say not with him on whose hand the King leaned If God would make windows in heaven it could not be nor with the Israelites when the spies brought them news of the strength of the Inhabitants of Canaan of chariots of iron and the giant-like sons of Anak let us not say with them we shall not enter For that Lord who set humane reason against the Word and Promise of God never eat of the abundance of Samaria and the Iews which distrusted God never entred the land of Canaan But let us know for a conclusion that God is faithful and true and his Promises yea and amen HITHER TO we have spoken of the accomplishment of this Prophecy for so much as is already past now let us see What that is which we expect as yet to come For though in regard of former times when Ethnicisme was so large and the worshippers of the living God so small a scantling the Extent of the Church be now at this day a goodly and large portion of the world yet if we consider the numbers of nations yet Pagans or not Christians it will seem to scant as yet to be the accomplishment of this and other Prophecies concerning the Largeness of Christ's Kingdom before the end of the world For one hath well observed That Christianity at this day is not above the sixth part of the known world whereas the Mahumetans have a fifth and all the rest are Ethnicks and Pagans So that if we divide the World into thirty parts Christianity is but as five in thirty Mahumetanism as six and Ethnicism as nineteen and so is Christianity the least part of all and plain Heathenism hath far above the one half of the known world and the better part of the other is also Mahumetans And though Christianity hath been embraced in former times where now it is not yet it is now spred in those places where in those times it was not And therefore all laid together we may account Christianity at this day as large I think as ever it was since the Apostles time But that this is not that Vniversal Kingdom of Christ that flourishing and glorious estate of the Church which yet we expect and hope for my Reasons are these First Those frequent places of Scripture which intimate that the Lord should subdue all people all kingdoms all nations and all the ends of the earth unto himself and that all these should one day worship and acknowledge him Psal. 22. 27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him for the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is governour among the nations And Psal. 47. 1. 2 3. Clap your hands all ye people for the Lord is a great King over all the earth He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet And again v. 7 8. God is King of all the earth and reigneth over the Heathen Psal. â—6 1 c. Make a joyful noise unto God all ye lands Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee All the earth shall worship thee and sing of thee they shall sing unto thy Name The whole 67. Psalm which we read every day is as it were a Prophecy and Prayer for this great Kingdom That the may of God may be known upon earth and his saving health among all nations Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee Then shall the earth yield her increase c. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him And Psal. 86. 9 10. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wondrous things Thou art God alone And Esay 2. 18. which is a Prophecy of Christ's kingdom it is said that the Idols the Lord shall utterly abolish or as some read the Idols shall utterly pass away So Esay 54. 5. speaking of the Amplitude of the Church of the Gentiles Thy Redeemer saith the Prophet the holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called Certainly this constant style of Vniversality implies more than this scantling which yet is it being but one of the least parts of the whole earth Secondly The same conclusion may be gathered from 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. compared with Heb. 2. 8. Christ must reign saith S. Paul in the first place quoted till he hath put all his enemies under his feet The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death Hence it follows that Christ shall subdue all his enemies whereof the Prince of this world is the chief before the last rising of the dead For the subduing of death that is the rising of the dead shall not be afore the rest shall be done the vanquishing of death being the last act of Christ's reigning which done he shall yield up the Kingdom unto his Father In the other place Heb. 2. 8. the Apostle speaking of the same thing alledgeth that
the true company of Believers could live under this woful state of the visible body and not be extinguished and by what Signs and Arguments we may fully conclude it was there all that time though I have given some taste of this last already yet you shall hear more of them both anon as my Text will give me occasion In the mean time I must tell you That there needed not all this stir about Visibility if our Adversaries were ingenuous For the difference between them and us is not so much about the point of Visibility as about the point of Time They hold the glorious Visibility of the true Church to have continued from the beginning until this present and the overshadowing of the light and eclipsing of the glory thereof under Antichrist to be a thing yet to come and when it comes they and the Fathers too say as much of the eclipsing of the Church as we do for our hearts For then they say the use of the Sacraments should cease no Eucharist no Mass no publick Assemblies yea all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction should be extinguished Is not here enough Now on the contrary we hold the Clouding of the Churche's Visibility to have been already and a great part of the Glory thereof to be yet to come Both agreeing in this that in that fatal Apostasie the Churche's Visibility and Glory should cease But we say that time hath been already they say it is yet to come we say that that time was to last many Ages they say when it comes it shall be but three single years and a half Why then are they not ashamed to offer to choak us with this Argument of Visibility and Glory when themselves confess there is a time to come when the same Argument would be as well used against their supposed Catholick Church as it is now alledged against ours This is too great partiality Seeing therefore the whole Controversie lies in this Whether the Churche's fatal Apostasie be already past or yet to come it is a great deal the quicker course for them and us not to wrangle about Visibility but to examine the condition and quality of both Religions by the Scripture where we have as S. Peter speaks in the foregoing Chapter a most sure word of prophecy whereunto we shall do well if we take heed as to a light shining in a dark place And this shall suffice to have observed concerning the matter in general A General Defection or Corruption of the Church by false Teachers and damnable Heresies NOW I come to the Circumstance of this general description of the Churche's Apostasie namely The manner how these false Doctors should bring in these damnable Heresies which is not Openly but Privily For so the word here used for bringing in signifies who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies Not so that it should be observed and espied at the first but so by degrees and with such a mask of plausible pretences and good meaning that the Church was overwhelmed before it knew what it ailed Even as some diseases steal so upon a man that he never knew he was sick until he see himself past recovery and then perhaps he will begin to call to mind though too late at what time and by what means this sickness grew upon him This Observation therefore will furnish us with an Answer to another Objection of our Adversaries For if say they the Catholick visible Church altered so much from the Primitive sincerity of Faith and Christian worship as we say it did how comes it then to pass that it was no more observed and opposed by those who then lived For it is strange so great an alteration should find admittance with the general consent of all I answer out of my Text That it came in privily and so was not observed nor opposed till it was too late and that the Apostate Faction was grown too strong for the sound A fire we know if it be espied at the first may be easily smothered and quenched but if the cry rise not till all be on a flame no man then dare come near to help it So was the case here And yet in some Corruptions somewhat sooner espied than the rest as Worshipping of Images Transubstantiation the Pope's Godlike Supremacy the establishing of these was not without great opposition even to the changing of States and Kingdoms But here also the opposers came too late for these Heresies also were at the first brought in so privily that the Faction was not espied till it was grown too strong to be over-mastered by opposition THUS having seen the General part of this description both for the matter false Teachers and damnable Heresies and also for the manner they should be privily brought into the visible Church I come now to the Special part of the Prophecy which tells us in particular What kind of Heresies these should be of what sort which should so generally over-cloud the Church of Christ. And this our Apostle here sets forth by a twofold mark First They should be such as we read to have been amongst the Iewish people under the Old Testament There were saith he false Prophets among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you This is a good ear-mark having so infallible history as is the story of the Bible to know it by For if this of Christendom were of the same stamp with that of Israel it cannot lie long hid from us which that it may not let us confine our discovery to these two heads First Let us learn what Heresies were those which the false Prophets of Israel brought in amongst them as we find it recorded in the Scripture for thither our Apostle sends us In the second place We will examine whether the Heresies of Christendom brought in by the false Doctors of Babylon be not exactly like them To begin with the first I cannot find in the Old Testament any other Heresies there recorded as brought in by false Prophets but only Idolatry and the worshipping of other Gods besides the true and living God I doubt not but the Iews had other Errors but this is that which so great a part of the Bible is taken up in forewarning of in relating of and in declaiming against it This is that we are sure the false Prophets had a hand in of the rest nothing that way is recorded This is that Moses forewarned the people of Israel of Deut. 13. 1. If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and give thee a sign or a wonder 2. And the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them 3. Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet c. Here you hear of the false Prophets and what should be their Doctrine viz. Let us go serve other gods and worship them But if you ask whether
fulfilled amongst us Christians the new people of God There were false Prophets among the people of Israel even so saith my Text were there to be false Teachers among Christians who should bring in damnable Heresies Which that you may the better do Know first that the Israelites did at no time altogether renounce the true and living God not in their worst times but in their conceit and profession they acknowledged him still and were called his people and he their God though they worshipped others besides him So Christians in their Apostasie neither did nor were to make an absolute Apostasie from God the Father and Christ their Redeemer but in outward profession still to acknowledge him and to be called Christians Secondly There are two main Apostasies of Israel recorded in Scripture The First is styled The sin of Ieroboam the son of Nebat as a principal establisher thereof And this was to worship the true God himself under an Image For he set up Calves at Dan and Bethel and consecrated them in this manner Behold Israel the Gods which brought thee out of the land of Egypt For those are Calves indeed which here think he took the Calves themselves to be Gods The truth was Because he would not have the people go to the Temple of Ierusalem where the Ark the pledge of God's presence was therefore he made these Calves in stead thereof supposing as the Gentiles did of their Gods that the true God would have yielded his presence to an Image made in honour of him And therefore they used when they came to make vows or oaths at the Calf to swear Iehovah liveth as Hosea 4. 15. When therefore our Papists worship God the Creator under an Image and Christ their Redeemer in a Cross Crucifix or in a piece of Bread this is the very same Apostasie with that of Ieroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin And as false Prophets taught Israel that so have false Teachers brought into Christendom the very same as you see was prophesied The Second main Apostasie of Israel is called The way of Ahab not because he was the first bringer in but the chief establisher thereof And this was not only to worship the true God idolatrously in an Image as Ieroboam did but to worship other Gods besides him namely Baal-gods or Baalim supposing either by these to have easier access unto the Lord of Hosts the Soveraign God or that these he might resort unto at all times and for all matters as being nearer at hand and not of so high a Dignity whereas the Soveraign God Iehovah the God of Israel either managed not smaller and ordinary matters or might not be troubled with them For such as I told you was the conceit of the Heathen as that the Souls of some great ones after death had the honour to be as Agents betwixt the Soveraign and Superior Gods and men as being of a middle nature between them which in Greek are called Daemons in the Scriptures Baalim When therefore those who are called Christians and have given their faith to Christ Iesus to be their only Mediator and royal Agent between them and his Father when these do worship and invocate Saints or Angels whether with Images or without to be as under-Mediators with God for them or of themselves to bestow some favour upon them those who do this as you know who do are fallen into the Apostasie of Ahab and are worshippers of Baalim For the Idolatry of Saints is altogether the same with that of Baalim HAVING therefore thus seen the verity of S. Peter's Prophecy for the first mark to know of what kind of Heresie should be the Christian Apostasie even like unto that of Israel now let me tell you what use to make of S. Peter's comparison and thus coupling the one by the other First That wheresoever you read in Scripture of the Idolatry of Ieroboam's Calves and of Ahab's Baalim you think of what I have told you and know that whatsoever God speaks against those things there the same he speaks of the Apostate Christians under Rome whose case is in all respects the same If therefore other points be hard and such as you cannot understand yet this of Idolatry is an easie mark for you to know the true Church from the false by and almost every leaf in the Scripture will help you Bless the Lord therefore and never cease to bless him who hath delivered us from those woful abominations and Idolatries wherewith the Church was so long overwhelmed and hath restored unto us the sincerity of his Gospel Secondly Seeing the Holy Ghost hath taught us here to compare the Christian's Apostasie with that of Israel we may hereby learn also what was the state and condition of true Christian Believers under the Apostasie of Antichrist namely the same with the true Israelites under the Apostasie of Israel Where was the true Church in Ahab's time was it not covered so under the Apostate Israelites that Elias himself who was one of it could scarce find it 1 Kings 19. 10. Where was the company of true worshippers in Manasses time the worst time of all or had the Lord no Church at all Yes he had a Church even then even hidden in the body of that Idolatrous Nation yea a strong party though not seen as appeared presently upon Manasses death when Iosiab came to reign who at eight years of age a very child yet was able to reform all again When therefore the Papists shall ask us where our Church was before Luther let us answer She was as the true Israelites were then buried under the Apostate body of Christendom she was even there whence God in his good time called her out viz. she was in the Spiritual Babylon If Rome now be Babylon and your Mother-Church that ancient Spouse of Christ which hath been so long an abominable Strumpet committing Fornication with strange Gods as we are sure she is we cannot chuse but know where ours was in the mean time until it pleased God to call her thence even amongst you she was then and where she is now you know and shall one day feel until you bite your tongues for pain But how could the faithful company of Christ live in the midst of Idolaters and have means of Salvation I answer Even as the true Israelites lived in the midst of the Apostasie of Israel But you may ask further When the face of the Church and the whole visible worship therein was so universally stained with abominable Idolatries how and whereby should a man gather that there were any such sincerer company amongst them who had not defiled their garments I might tell you that Histories though written by our enemies do mention many such discovered at several times But I will give you another sign to know it namely The light of God's word and some other Divine Truths still remaining For it was not so much
after the first of which Sabbaths S. Luke calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it may seem that the Pharisees reproved the Disciples not so much for breaking any Sabbath's rest as for eating the ears afore it was lawful for if it were lawful upon a Sabbath-day to reach meat from a Table why should it not be as lawful to pluck ears of Corn to ear them without breach of the Sabbath But I leave this Secondly At this Feast also I suppose they paid their Firstlings and Tithes of Cattel for God was to have of the best which was as I told you the Breed of the Spring at this time ready And this is the reason that where this Feast is commanded there follow presently some Precepts of the Firstlings of the Cattel because namely it concerned the same time Now at the Feast of Pentecost when Harvest was ended they are commanded to bring two wave-loaves of their new Corn for a second First-fruits of their Harvest At which time also they paid Tithes of Corn so much as was threshed and a Tribute also of a Free-will-offering of their hand as it is called in the 10. of this Chapter And this Feast ending their Harvest is a reason why at the mentioning thereof you shall find precepts of not gathering their Lands clean but that they should leave something for the poor to glean which also was a secondary Offering unto God himself Lastly At the Feast of Tabernacles they offered First-fruits and Tithes of Wine and Oyl which was the Offering of that season and besides the remainders of their Tithes of the floor or of threshed corn which is the reason why this Feast is called Exod. 34. The Feast of gathering in at the years end and in this Chapter afore my Text The Feast of gathering in of the Floor and the Winepress For at this time all their Corn was threshed and the Vintage done and other Fruits were gathered and so an Offering of them given unto God seasonably therefore in the commandment of this Feast you shall find a precept of not gathering their Grapes and Fruits clean in behalf of the Poor also Thus you see the Offering of Cattel was at Easter of Bread and Breadcorn in part at Pentecost of Wine and Oyle and the remainder of Corn at the Feast of Tabernacles whereupon we read 2 Chron. 31. 7. that the people which paid their Tithes there at Hezekiah's command began to lay the foundation of the heaps in the third month that is at Pentecost and finished them in the seventh month namely at the Feast of Tabernacles NOW having shewed what was the Iews practice let us also see our duty in imitation of them which I will only at this time shew briefly and generally Certainly we are bound also not to appear before the Lord with empty hand It is not enough to give at other times but it is a piece of the Worship required at that time For we must know that the actions of Men in holy Assemblies are not like their private actions at other times For all the actions here are not the actions of several men but to be accounted as one action of the whole body which makes S. Paul use the phrase when ye come together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be as it were one and the same every prayer here is not many prayers if many but one prayer of all as one whether we say I in the singular or We in the plural all is one for I here expresses one made of many and We many made into one Whatsoever worship God requires therefore of any one alone the same he requires also of all met together as one for he is God as well of the body of the Church as a body as of any one in the Church as a Christian and therefore requires some of them in both kinds that is Confession Prayer Thanksgiving and an Offering of the hand too of the body of the Church assembled as well as of any one at any other time S. Paul ordained so in the Churches on the Lord's day the day of holy Assembly the day when many came together as one Every first day of the Week let every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him The Primitive Christians practised the same in all their Assemblies alledging these words of my Text for the same as we may see in Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and others Nay they used to offer at the Lord's Table some handful of those Offerings and Tithes to which they would entitle the Lord whence the ancient Liturgies run 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember O Lord those who offer of their fruits and encrease in thy holy Churches We have also in our Liturgy a Service for the Offertory and many places of Scripture at the same read to move our devotion every Sunday and a Prayer to God at the end thereof That he would accept our Alms and Prayers when we seldom bring him any Our Blessed Saviour though he had nothing in this world but the contribution of good People in a Bag yet that he might in this also fulfil the Law of God he used at these solemn times to give unto the Poor which we may gather from the story of his Last Supper for the Text saith when he bade Iudas do quickly what he had to do his Disciples thought he had bid him give something unto the Poor because he carried the Bag which they would not have thought unless he had wont to do so at such times DISCOURSE XLIX GENESIS 10. 5. By these the Isles of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were divided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their lands every one after his tongue after their families 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their nations WHENAS after the great Deluge of waters the sons of Noah began to multiply upon the earth it is said That they came from the East into the land of Shinar the pleasant plain of Shinar where God at the beginning had placed the first Father of mankind our Father Adam But when they saw that their numbers were like to be great and that so small a plot of ground would not contain them all yet that they might continue within the Body of one Society and have as it were a common right in this place of Paradise they agreed to build them a Citie which should have been the Metropolis of an Vniversal Monarchy and an exceeding high Tower that they might be famous and renowned among posterity But this vain purpose of man's imagination seemed evil in the eyes of God and therefore it is said That he came down from heaven to overthrow the counsel of the sons of men And because they were so loth to break Society it pleased God to cut from them the common Bond of one Society and to make them speak with many languages For as Speech is termed the Bond of Society Oratio saith the Philosopher est Societatis
condemned at the last day not for reaving the meat from the hungry but for not seeding their poor brethren not for stripping the naked out of his cloaths but for not cloathing him It will not be enough for thee that thou bringest forth no bad fruit but thou must bring forth good fruit Every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire What if thou steal not from thy brother yet if thou open not thy hand to help and succour him thou art a Robber What if thou dost neither lie nor swear yet if thou makest not thy mouth a glorious organ and thy tongue a trumpet to sound forth and proclaim the love and mercy of God thou art a deep and a round offender What if no man can condemn thee for any evil yet unless God and thine own conscience shall commend thee for some good thou hast done thou art far from any Assurance of Faith or Knowing thou knowest Christ to be thy Redeemer The End of the First Book THE SECOND BOOK OF THE WORKS OF The Pious and Profoundly-Learned Ioseph Mede B. D. SOMETIME Fellow of CHRIST'S Colledge in CAMBRIDGE CONTAINING SEVERAL DISCOURSES AND TREATISES OF CHURCHES AND The Worship of God therein Horat. de Arte Poet. Fuit haec Sapientia quondam Publica privatis secernere sacra profanis Corrected and Enlarged according to the Author 's own Manuscripts THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND BOOK Of Churches 1 COR. 11. 22. Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or despise ye the Church of God pag. 319 The Reverence of God's House ECCLES 5. 1. Look to thy foot or feet when thou comest to the House of God and be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools pag. 340 The Christian Sacrifice MALACHI 1. 11. From the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts CHAP. I. The Text a Prophecy of the Christian Sacrifice according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers in the Second Third and Fourth Centuries The difficulty of explaining the Christian Sacrifice The Reasons of this difficulty The Method and Order propounded for this Discourse pag. 355 CHAP. II. The Christian Sacrifice defined and briefly explained The two parts or double Object of this Sacrifice What meant by Sacrificium Quod what by Sacrificium Quo. pag. 356 CHAP. III. The words of the Text explained and applied to the foregoing Definition of the Christian Sacrifice Incense denotes the rational part of this Sacrifice Mincha the material part thereof What meant by Mincha purum Two Interpretations of the Purity of the Christian Mincha given by the Fathers a third propounded by the Author pag. 357 CHAP. IV. Six Particulars contained in the Definition of the Christian Sacrifice The First viz. That this Christian Service is an Oblation proved out of Antiquity How long the Apostles Age lasted or when it ended Proofs out of the Epistles of Clemens and Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how distinguished in Ignatius The Christian Service is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but improperly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the strict and prime sense of the word pag. 360 CHAP. V. The Second Particular That the Christian Sacrifice is an Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer proved from Iustin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Alexandr c. The Altar or Holy Table anciently the place of the publick Prayers of the Church Prayer Oblation and Sacrifice promiscuously used by the Fathers when they speak of the Christian Sacrifice The Conjunction of Prayer and the Eucharist argued from Acts 2. 42. and from Ignatius ad Ephes. The three parts of which the Christian Synaxis consisted pag. 362 CHAP. VI. The Third Particular That the Christian Sacrifice is an Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer through Iesus Christ Commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine Sacrifices under the Law were Rites to invocate God by That the Eucharist is a Rite to give thanks and invocate God by proved from several Testimonies of the Fathers and the Greek Liturgies A passage out of Mr. Perkins agreeable to this notion What meant by that usual expression of the Ancients speaking of the Eucharist Through Iesus Christ the great High Priest By Nomen Dei in Mal. 1. Iustin M. and Irenaeus understood Christ. Why in the Eucharist Prayers were to be directed to God the Father pag. 365. CHAP. VII The Fourth particular That the Commemoration of Christ in the Creatures of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist is a Sacrifice according to the style of the ancient Church How Sacrifices are distinguished from all other Offerings A Sacrifice defined The Universal Custom of mankind to contract or confirm Covenants and Friendship by eating and drinking together This illustrated from Testimonies of Scripture and humane Authors Sacrifices were Federal Feasts wherein God and men did feast together in token of amity and friendship What was God's Mess or portion in the Sacrifices The different Laws of Burnt-offerings Sin-and-Trespass-offerings and the Peace-offerings Burnt-offerings had Meat and Drink-offerings annexed to them and were regularly accompanied with Peace-offerings That Sacrifices were Feasts of amity between God and men proved by four Arguments The reason of these phrases Secare foedus and Icere foedus That in those Sacrificial Feasts and also in the Eucharist God is to be considered as the Convivator and Man as the Conviva This cleared by several passages in this as also in the following Chapter pag. 369. CHAP. VIII The Fifth Particular That the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Eucharist was made of Bread and Wine which had first been offered to God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature This proved from the Testimonies of Antiquity next to the Apostles times and from ancient Liturgies as also from the Fathers arguing from this Oblation of the Creature in the Eucharist to God that the Father of Christ was the Creator of the world in confutation of some Hereticks in their days and lastly from S. Paul's parallel of the Lord's Supper and the Sacrifices of the Gentiles Two Questions answered 1. Whence may it appear that our Saviour at the Institution of the Eucharist did first offer the Bread and Wine to God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature 2. Is not the celebration of the Eucharist in the Western Churches whether the Reformed or the Roman therefore defective because no such Oblation is there in use pag. 372. CHAP. IX The Sixth Particular That Christ is offered in the Eucharist Commemoratively only and not otherwise This Commemorative Sacrifice or the Commemoration in the Eucharist explained That Christ is offered by way of Commemoration only was the sense of the ancient Church This proved from ancient
first Council of Nice took Sacrificium purum as appears Can. 5. where they expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pure Gift or Oblation to be that which is offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omni simultate depositâ all malice and hypocrisie and the like instances of an unworthy and ignoble spirit being laid aside But according to this Exposition the Purity of the Christian Sacrifice will not be opposite to the pollution of the Iewish in the same kind as it would if more generally taken but in another kind and so the sense stands thus You will not offer me a pure offering but the Gentiles one day shall and that with a purity of another manner of stamp than that my Law requires of you And thus I have told you the two ways according to which the Ancients understood this Purity and I prefer the latter as I think they did 3. But there is a third Interpretation were it back'd by their Authority which I confess it is not which I would prefer before them both and I think you will wonder with me they should be so silent therein namely that this title of Purity is given to the Christian Mincha in respect of Christ whom it signifies and represents who is a Sacrifice without all spot blemish and imperfection This the Antithesis of this Sacrifice to that of the Iews might seem to imply For the Iews are charged with offering polluted Bread upon God's Altar whereby what is meant the words following tell us If you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil and in the end of the Chapter Cursed be the deceiver who hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Now if the Sacrifice of the Gentiles be called Pure in opposition to this is it not so called in respect of that most perfect unblemisht and unvaluable Sacrifice it represents Iesus Christ the Lamb of God I leave it to your consideration CHAP. IV. Six Particulars contained in the Definition of the Christian Sacrifice The First viz. That this Christian Service is an Oblation proved out of Antiquity How long the Apostles Age lasted or when it ended Proofs out of the Epistles of Clemens and Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how distinguished in Ignatius The Christian Service is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but improperly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the strict and prime sense of the word THUS having absolved the Two first things I propounded given you a Definition of the Christian Sacrifice and explained the words of my Text I come now to the Third and longest part of my task To prove each particular contained in my Definition by the Testimonies and Authorities of the ancient Fathers and Writers of the first and purest Ages of the Church The Particulars I am to prove are in number Six 1. That this Christian Service is an Oblation and expressed under that Notion by the utmost Antiquity 2. That it is an Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer 3. An Oblation through Iesus Christ commemorated in the creatures of Bread and Wine 4. That this Commemoration of Christ according to the style of the ancient Church is also a Sacrifice 5. That the Body and Bloud of Christ in this Mystical Service was made of Bread and Wine which had first been offered unto God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature 6. That this Sacrifice was placed in Commemoration only of Christ's sacrifice upon the Cross and not in a real offering of his Body and Bloud anew When I shall have proved all these by sufficient Authority I hope you will give me leave to conclude my Definition for true That the Christian Sacrifice ex mente antiquae Ecclesiae according to the meaning of the ancient Church was An Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer to God the Father through the Sacrifice of Iesus Christ commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agnized Let us begin then with the first That this Christian Service is an Oblation and under that notion expressed by all Antiquity The names whereby the Ancient Church called this Service are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oblation Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eucharist a word if rightly understood of equipollent sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sacrifice of Praise a reasonable and unbloudy Sacrifice Sacrificium Mediatoris Sacrificium Altaris Sacrificium pretii nostri Sacrificium Corporis Sanguinis Christi the Sacrifice of our Mediator the Sacrifice of the Altar the Sacrifice of our Ransome the Sacrifice of the Body and Bloud of Christ. It would be infinite to note all the Places and Authors where and by whom it is thus called The four last are S. Augustine's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be found with Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus whose antiquity is the Age next the Apostles But you will say the Fathers even so early had swerved from the style of the Apostolick Age during which these kind of terms were not used as appears by that we find them not any where in their Epistles and Writings But what if the contrary may be evinced That this language was used even while the Apostles yet lived For grant they are neither found in the Acts of the Apostles nor in S. Paul's and S. Peter's Writings yet this proves not they were not used in the Apostles times no more than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not whose case in this point is the same with the other But know that to confine the Apostles Age within the limits of S. Paul's and S. Peter's lives is a general mistake For the Apostles Age ended not till S. Iohn's death Anno Christi 99. and so lasted as long within a year or thereabouts after S. Paul's and S. Peter's suffering as it was from our Saviour's Ascension to their Deaths that is one and thirty years And this too for the most part was after the Excidium or Destruction of Ierusalem in which time it is likely the Church received no little improvement in Ecclesiastical Rites and Expressions both because it was the time of her greatest increase and because whilest the Iews Polity stood her Polity for its full establishment stood in some sort suspended This appears by S. Iohn's Writings which are the only Scripture written after that time and in which we find two Ecclesiastick terms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word for the Deity of Christ and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's day for the first day of the week neither of both seeming to have been in use in S. Paul's and S. Peter's times and why may we not believe the like happened in others and by name in these now questioned Which that I may not seem only to guess I think I can prove by two witnesses which then lived the one Clemens he whose name S.
place Incense shall be offered to my Name and a pure Sacrifice Now how this Incense and Sacrifice which the Prophet saith the Gentiles should offer to the Name of God may be expounded Offered by the Name of God to wit by Christ Origen lib. 8. contra Cels. will inform us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We worship saith he as we are able with our Prayer and Supplications the one God and his only Son the Word and Image of God Iesus Christ offering to the God of the Vniverse our Prayers by his only-begotten Son TO WHOM WE FIRST OFFER THEM beseeching him that he being the Propitiation i. Propitiator for our sins would vouchsafe as our High-Priest to present our PRAYERS and SACRIFICES and INTER CESSIONS to God most High The summe whereof is this That which we offer to the Father by Christ we offer first to Christ that he as our High-Priest might present it to his Father More passages hath Origen in the same Books of this kind But I will not weary you too much in this rugged way Only I will add that out of this which we have hitherto discoursed and proved may be understood the meaning and reason of that Decree of the third Council of Carthage and Hippo namely Vt nemo in Precibus vel Patrem pro Filio vel Filiumpro Patre nominet Et cum Altari assistitur N. B. semper ad Patrem dirigatur oratio That none in their Prayer should name either the Son for the Father or the Father for the Son And that when they stand at the Altar they ought always to direct their Prayers to the Father The reason Because the Father is properly the Object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom the Son only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom in this Mystical service and therefore to direct here our Prayers and Thanksgivings to the Son were to pervert the order of the Mystery which is as hath been proved An Oblation of Praise and Prayer to God the Father through the Intercession of Iesus Christ represented in the Symbols of Bread and Wine CHAP. VII The Fourth Particular That the Commemoration of Christ in the Creatures of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist is a Sacrifice according to the style of the ancient Church How Sacrifices are distinguished from all other Offerings A Sacrifice defined The universal Custom of mankind to contract or confirm Covenants and Friendship by eating and drinking together This illustrated from Testimonies of Scripture and humane Authors Sacrifices were Federal Feasts wherein God and men did feast together in token of amity and friendship What was God's Messe or portion in the Sacrifices The different Laws of Burnt-offerings Sin and Trespass-offerings and the Peace-offerings Burnt-offerings had Meat and Drink-offerings annexed to them and were regularly accompanied with Peace-offerings That Sacrifices were Feasts of amity between God and men proved by four Arguments The reason of those phrases Secare foedus and Icere foedus That in those Sacrificial Feasts and also in the Eucharist God is to be considered as the Convivator and Man as the Conviva This cleared by several passages in this as also in the following Chapter THE Fourth Particular propounded was this That the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ or Lord's Supper or the Commemoration of Christ in the Creatures of Bread and Wine is also a Sacrifice according to the style of the ancient Church It is one thing to say That the Lord's Supper is a Sacrifice and another to say That Christ is properly sacrificed therein These are not the same For there may be a Sacrifice which is a representation of another Sacrifice and yet a Sacrifice too And such a Sacrifice is this of the New Testament a Sacrifice wherein another Sacrifice that of Christ's death upon the Cross is commemorated Thus the Papists gain nothing by this Notion of Antiquity and our asserting the same For their Tenet is That Christ in this Sacrifice is really and properly sacrificed which we shall shew in due time that the Ancients never meant To begin with this That the Lord's Supper or Mystical Rite of the Body and Bloud of Christ is a Sacrifice As in the Old Testament the name of Sacrifice was otherwhile given to the whole Action in which the Rite was used sometimes to the Rite alone so in the Notion and Language of the ancient Church sometimes the whole Action or Christian Service wherein the Lord's Supper was a part is comprehended under that name sometimes the Rite of the Sacred Supper it self is so termed and truly as ye shall now hear The resolution of this Point depends altogether upon the true Definition of a Sacrifice as it is distinguished from all other Offerings Which though it be so necessary that all disputation without it is vain yet shall we not find that either party interessed in this question hath been so exact therein as were to be wished This appears by the differing Definitions given and confuted by Divines on both sides The reason of which defect is because neither are deduced from the Notion of Scripture but built upon other conceptions Let us see therefore if it may be learned out of Scripture what that is which the Scripture in a strict and special sense calls a Sacrifice Every Sacrifice is an Oblation or Offering but every offering is not a Sacrifice in that strict and proper acception we seek For Tithes First-fruits and all other called Heave-offerings in the Law and whatsoever indeed is consecrated unto God are Oblations or Offerings but none of them Sacrifices nor ever so called in the Old Testament What Offerings are then called Sacrifices I answer Burnt-Offerings Sin-offerings Trespass-offerings and Peace-offerings These and no other are called by that name Out of these therefore must we pick the true and proper ratio and nature of a Sacrifice It is true indeed that these Sacrifices were Offerings of beasts of beeves of sheep of goats of fowls but the ratio or essence of any thing consists not in the matter thereof as the Gowns we wear are still the same kind of apparel though made of differing stuffs These Sacrifices also were slain and offered by Fire and Incense but neither is the modus of any thing the ratio or essential Form thereof That therefore may have the nature and formale of a Sacrifice which consists of another matter and is offered after another and differing manner Those we call Sacraments of the Old Testament Circumcision and the Passeover were by effusion of bloud ours are not and yet we esteem them nevertheless true Sacraments So it may be here To hold you therefore no longer in suspence A Sacrifice I think should be defined thus An Offering whereby the offerer is made partaker of his God's Table in token of Covenant and Friendship with him c. or more explicately thus An Offering unto the Divine Majesty of that which is given for the Food of man that the offerer partaking
place to my self for an house of Sacrifice 2 Chron. 7. 12 plainly implying That to be an house of Sacrifice was to be an house of Prayer Add to these that in 1 Mac. 12. 11. where the Iews in their Epistle to the Lacedaemonians speak on this manner We at all times say they without ceasing both in our Feasts and other convenient days do remember you in the Sacrifices which we offer and in our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in our prayers at our Sacrifices Certainly it may be gathered hence that Prayers were annexed to their Sacrifices and that Sacrifice was a Rite of Prayer The like we shall find in the first of Baruch where we read that those who were carried Captive with Iechonias made a Collection of Money and sent it to Ierusalem saying Behold we have sent you money to buy you Burnt-offerings and Sin-offerings and Incense and prepare ye the Meat-offering and offer upon the Altar of the Lord our God And pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and for the life of Balthasar his son that their dayes on earth may be as the days of heaven just to that of my Text that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons Hence appears the reason why Iosephus when the Scripture mentions no more but that Noah offered a Sacrifice when he came out of the Ark attributes unto him a Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Noah fearing lest God having adjudged men to a general destruction should every year thus drown the earth offered Sacrifices unto God beseeching him that hereafter all things may continue in that good order and primitive state c. I could be as plentiful in Profane Testimonies to this point as I have been in Sacred and could alledge the Testimonies of Homer where we have Examples of Sacrifices with the forms of Prayer of Herodotus and others But what need we the Testimonies of the Gentiles save to know that in this point the Iews and they agreed It is enough to have proved it out of Scripture that this was the use and nature of Sacrifice wherein I have been so much the longer because though the thing be of it self most apparent and evident yet it is very little taken notice of But you will enquire now What profit hath this Discourse or what use is there of this thing being known I answer Yes it will help our conceit very much to understand in what sense and for what respect the ancient Church called the Eucharist or Lord's Supper a Sacrifice and how harmless that notion was namely They took this Sacrament to have been ordained by our Blessed Saviour to succeed those bloudy Sacrifices of the Law and to be a Medium deprecandi Deum a mean of Supplication and address to God in the New Testament as they were in the Old by representing the Body and Bloud of Christ unto his Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his appointment Forasmuch as they saw them both to be Rites of a like kind as consisting of Meats and Drinks both Epulae foederales Federal Feasts those of the Old Covenant this of the New 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Cup is the New Testament both Rites of atonement or for Impetration of Remission of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my Bloud which is shed for many for remission of sins Besides the Eucharist was by the time of its institution as it were substituted in place of the Passeover which was a Sacrifice of that kind called Pacifica All these things considered how obvious was it for them to think that it was in the Institution intended for the same End and Use the other were namely for a Commemoration whereby to have access and find favour with God when we address our selves unto him in the New Testament And that this was no new device of later ages but derived from the first times may appear out of Cyril or his Successour Iohn of Ierusalem Author of the 5. Catech Mystag In the last whereof relating and expounding the meaning of that which was said or done at the celebration of the holy Eucharist according to the use of his time which was the Fourth Seculum current amongst other things he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 6. pag. 366. Yea that it was the use in the days of Constantine thus adhibere Eucharistiam ad preces to use the Eucharist as a Rite of impetration in their prayers appears out of Eusebius in his De vita Constantini lib. 4. c. 45. where speaking of a great Synod of Bishops assembled at Ierusalem by the Emperor's Command to celebrate the dedication of a Church erected over the place of our Saviour's Sepulchre and telling how the Bishops there met employ'd themselves during that Solemnity Some saith he by Panegyrick Orations set forth the Emperor's felicity others were employed in preaching and expounding the Mysteries of Holy Scripture another part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did propitiate God and sought his favour by unbloudy Sacrifices offering unto God humble Prayers for the publick peace for the Church of God for the King the Author of so much good and for his children beloved of God namely as the Iews in their Sacrifices prayed for the life of the King and his Sons according to my Text. But for the more full understanding the notion and practice of this Age take also a passage of S. Austin it is in his 22. Book De Civitate Dei concerning one Hesperius c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 5. pag. 363. But some will suspect perhaps that this Custome began in the days of Constantine No it did not It was in use in the days of Cyprian 60. years before as appears in his 16. Epistle ad Mosen Maximum Nos quidem vestri memores quando in Sacrificiis precem cum pluribus facimus c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 5. pag. 362. Let us ascend a little higher yet unto the days of Tertullian within 200 years after Christ. He in his Book De Oratione makes express mention of Orationes Sacrificiorum Prayers that accompanied the celebration of the Christian Sacrifice such namely as S. Cyprian Bishop of the same City whereof Tertullian was Presbyter to wit of Carthage even now spake of And in his Book ad Scapulam Sacrificamus saith he purâ prece We sacrifice with pure prayer But you will say This is against me rather because he saith purâ prece implying their was nothing else No it is not For by purâ prece he means not nudâ solitariâ prece bare and naked prayer but prayer not defiled with shedding of bloud and smoke of Incense according to the
in general S. Chrysostome affirms in particular of our British Islands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The British Islands which lie out of this sea and are in the Ocean it self have felt the power of the Word for even there also Churches and ALTARS are erected SECTION II. BUT will some say 'T is true indeed that from two hundred years after Christ and forward the name of ALTAR was much frequented but before that time it cannot be shewed to have been used by the testimony of any Authentick Writer and therefore nothing so ancient as that of TABLE So some of ours affirm indeed but they will be tried by no other Authors and Records of those times than such only as themselves hold for genuine as Iustin Martyr Theophilus Antiochenus Irenaeus or it may be another small Tractator or two with whom this name is not found Of whom the works of the two principal Iustin and Irenaeus the most likely to have informed us are near the one half perished But before I make further Answer to this Exception I would know to what end it is made and what advantage the Authors thereof do hope to gain by it For the reason I think why the name ALTAR is so much scrupled at is because it is thought to imply Sacrifice But Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus are well enough known to call the Eucharist both an Oblation and Sacrifice yea the latter to dwell upon that theme What gain is there then that the name ALTAR is not to be found in those works of theirs which remain if that of Oblation and Sacrifice for which the name of ALTAR is disliked be Besides what likelihood that those who conceived of the Eucharist under the notion of a Sacrifice should not call the place thereof as well as their Successors did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly I would know of the Authors and users of this Exception whether in those Writers and Fathers before the two hundred years after Christ which they acknowledged for genuine the name of TABLE be to be found or not given to that whereon the holy Eucharist was celebrated If it be not then this Exception of two hundred years after Christ which yet is but one hundred after the Apostles makes no more against the one than the other if neither be to be found in the works extant of the Fathers which then lived For by this it will appear they had no occasion to mention this sacred BOARD either by one name or other in those works of theirs which are left unto us Now for my part though I have with diligence sought to inform my self herein yet hitherto it hath never been my hap to find the Name of TABLE in any of them more than of ALTAR I have enquired of others and yet they have not shewed it me And therefore till I see it I will believe it cannot be shewn But perhaps you will say What matters it whether the Fathers we speak of have it or not if the Scripture hath For doth not S. Paul say You cannot be partakers of the Table of the Lord and of the Table of Devils 'T is true There is this only place to be alledged to that purpose I know no other And yet this too if the judgment of some of our own Expositors be taken is not sufficient to prove it neither For Table here might signifie not the instrument or seat but the Epulum or meat it self it being the use of all Languages I am sure of those learned ones to express diet by Table yea whether it be set thereon or not And the matter of the Apostle's discourse seems to require this sense for he speaks of Idolothyta or meats sacrificed to Idols And not to be out-vied with Antiquity I could likewise as some do parallel this place for TABLE with another of a much like nature for the name ALTAR namely that Heb. 13. 10. where the Apostle saith We i.e. we Christians have an ALTAR whereof they have no right to eat which serve at the Tabernacle I know what you would be ready to except namely that by the ALTAR here named is meant Christ which I for my own part should willingly admit so it be understood with this caution Christ as he is to be eaten in the Eucharist For the Apostle speaks here of an ALTAR to be eaten of which is not the material instrument or seat but the Sacrifice used thereon Thus if these two places capable of if not requiring the like interpretation be set the one against the other we have not all this while found one jot more for the Antiquity of the name TABLE than of ALTAR But now to answer more directly to the Question Whether the name of ALTAR were used in the Church before two hundred years after Christ or not I answer It was For proof whereof why may I not alledge the Canons called the Apostles Which though the Apostles compiled not yet are more ancient sure at least many of them than two hundred years after Christ being not improbably to be thought to have been the Codex Canonum whereby the Church in those first ages especially of the Orient was ordered and governed And in Questions of use and custom such as this is not genuineness of Titles only but whatsoever Antiquity though masked under a wrong and untrue name may be admitted I think to give evidence according to the age thereof Besides if it be credible that the Apostles or those to whom they committed the Churches Apostolical men might leave unto the Church some Rules of Order and Discipline besides those mentioned in Scripture and whence otherwise should those Catholick and generally-received Traditions of the Church be derived why may not some of these which bear that name be of that number And if any be then none more likely than those which are first in order namely because Collections of this nature are wont in process of time like snow-balls to receive increase by new additions ever and anon put unto them and yet notwithstanding continue still the name and Title of their first Authors though sometimes not the one half of the contents will be owned by them Upon which supposition we have for the resolving of the present question as much advantage as can be considering that the Canon we are to alledge is the second or at the most according as some others divide them but the third in order from the beginning and so howsoever the Collection hath in time been encreased one of the first and most ancient of them Let us therefore hear how it speaks Canon Apost 2. Si quis Episcopus aut Presbyter praeter Domini de sacrificio ordinationem i. praeter Panem Vinum alia quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ALTARE attulerit sive mel sive lac sive vini loco siceram studiosè confectam vel aves vel animalia quaevis praeter ordinationem deponatur Praeter
interpreted pag. 593 CHAP. VIII Mr. Mede's Answer to six Enquiries about some difficult passages in the Apocalyps pag. 594 CHAP. IX Five Reasons demonstrating That the Antichristian Times are more than Three single years and an half pag. 598 CHAP. X. A Discourse of the Beginning and Ending of the 42 Months or 1260 Days Rev. 11. 2 3. wherein Alstedius his Four Epocha's are examined pag. 600 CHAP. XI Of the 1000 years mentioned in Apocal. 20. with some Reflexions upon Eusebius and S. Hierom. pag. 602 CHAP. XII A Censure by way of Correction returned to a Friend concerning a somewhat exorbitant Exposition of his of Apocal 20. pag. 603 V. A Paraphrase and Exposition of the Prophecy of S. Peter 2 Ep. Chap. 3. pag. 609 VI. The Apostasie of the Latter Times PART I. CHAP. I. The dependence of the Text in 1 Timothy Chap. 4. verse 1 2. upon the last verse in chap. 3. Why in the Description of the Mystery of Godliness those words Assumed into Glory are set last A view of the several parts of the Text containing the Method and Order of the ensuing Discourse The Author 's three Reasons for his rendring the Text differently from the common Translation pag. 623 CHAP. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture imports Revolt or Rebellion That Idolatry is such proved from Scripture By Spirits in the Text are meant Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be taken Passively for Doctrines concerning Daemons Several instances of the like form of Speech in Scripture pag. 625 CHAP. III. Daemons according to the Gentiles Theologie were 1. for their Nature and degree a middle sort of Divine Powers between the Sovereign Gods and Men. 2. For their Office they were supposed to be Mediators between the Gods and Men. This proved out of several Authors The Distinction of Sovereign Gods and Daemons proved out of the Old Testament and elegantly alluded to in the New 1 Cor. 8. pag. 626 CHAP. IV. Daemons were for their Original the Souls of men Deified or Canonized after death This proved out of sundry Authors Baal or Bel or Belus the first Deified King Hence Daemons are called Baalim Another kind of Daemons such as never dwelt in Bodies These answer to Angels as the other to Saints pag. 629 CHAP. V. The manner of worshipping Daemons and retaining their presence viz. by consecrated Images and Pillars The worshipping of Images and Columns a piece of Daemon-doctrine as was also the worshipping of Daemons in their Reliques Shrines and Sepulchers pag. 632 CHAP. VI. A Summary of the Doctrines of Daemons How these are revived and resembled in the Apostate Church That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometime used in Scripture according to the Theologie of the Gentiles That it is so used in the Text was the judgment of Epiphanius an observable passage quoted out of him to this purpose pag. 634 CHAP. VII Why those words in the description of the Mystery of Godliness Received into Glory are set last That praying to Saints as Mediators and Agents for us with God is Idolatry To be prayed to in Heaven and to deal as an Agent between us and God is a Prerogative and Royalty appropriate to Christ. How this was figured under the Law by the High-priest's alone having to do in the most Holy place That Christ purchased this Royalty by suffering an unimitable Death That Saint-worship is a denial of Christ's Prerogative How it crept into the Church pag. 637 CHAP. VIII That Idolatry is the main Character of the Churche's Apostasie proved by Three Arguments pag. 643 CHAP. IX That Pagan-Idolatry is not here meant nor can the Saracen or Turk be the Antichrist meant in Scripture An Answer to an Exception viz. That Antichristianism cannot be charged upon those that acknowledge the true God and Christ. That Antichrist is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a Counter-resemblance of the Coming of Christ shewed in several particulars pag. 644 CHAP. X. The Great Apostasie was to be a General one That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some does not in the Text and several other places imply a Few or a Small number Wherein we and the Papists differ about the Churche's Visibility In what respects our Church was Visible and in what Invisible under the Reign of Antichrist pag. 648 CHAP. XI That the Last Times in Scripture signifie either a Continuation of Time or an End of Time That the Last Times simply and in general are the Times of Christianity the Last Times in special and comparatively or the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Times of the Apostasie under Antichrist pag. 652 CHAP. XII A more particular account of the Last Times in general and of the Latter Times of the Last Times That Daniel's Four Kingdoms are the Great Kalendar of Times That the Times of the Fourth or Last Kingdom viz. the Roman are the Last Times meant in Scripture That the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Latter Times of the Fourth Kingdom wherein the Great Apostasie should prevail pag. 654 CHAP. XIII The Duration and Length of the Latter Times viz. 42 months or 1260 days That hereby cannot be meant three single years and an half That the Latter Times take their beginning from the ruine of the Roman Empire That the ancient Fathers by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thessal 2. understand the Roman Empire and by the little Horn Dan. 7. Antichrist or the Man of sin pag. 655 CHAP. IV. Three main Degrees of the Roman Empire's ruine The Empire divided into 10 Kingdoms Who are those Three Kings whom the little Horn or Antichrist is said Dan. 7. to have deprest to advance himself pag. 658 CHAP. XV. That Daniel's 70 Weeks are a lesser Kalendar of Times That these Phrases in the Epistles to the converted Iews viz. The Last Hour or Time The End of all things The Day approaching c. are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service at the expiring of the 70 Weeks That the Apostles were not so mistaken as to believe the End of the World should be in their days proved against Baronius and others p. 663. CHAP. XVI That the Spirit foretold the Great Apostasy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Dan. 11. vers 36 37 38 39. These Verses exactly translated and explained That by Mahoz and Mahuzzim are meant Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. How fitly this Title is appliable to Angels and Sain's pag. 666. CHAP. XVII A Paraphrase and Observations upon Dan. 11. v. 36 37 38 39. That at the beginning of Saint-worship in the Church Saints and their Reliques were called Bulwarks Fortresses Walls Towers Guardians c. according to the prime sense of the word Mahuzzim pag. 670. PART II. CHAP. I. The Author's Reasons for his translating the Text differently from the Common Versions That the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text signifies Through or By. The like it signifies in other places of Scripture pag. 675.
Authors and furtherers thereof they should be such as had their consciences seared who forbad marriage and meats Where before I go any further I must give an account of thus translating these latter words which I make the second part because they are commonly translated otherwise viz. intransitively as referring the words of the two latter verses to the persons mentioned in the first viz. those Some who should Apostatize and give heed to erroneous spirits and Doctrines of Devils as they usually translate it So that the words of the second and third verses should be the expression by particulars of that which was before generally comprized under erroneous spirits and doctrines of Devils which should consist partly in forbidding lawful marriage and partly in commanding abstinence from meats But this interpretation seems very unlikely For first since S. Paul intendeth here to describe that great Apostasie of the visible Christian Church as is evident by the pointing out of the time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the latter times who can believe that he who aimeth at this would instance only in the smaller and almost circumstantial Errours omitting the main and fundamental which the Scripture elsewhere telleth us should be Idolatry or Spiritual fornication Secondly As for Errours about Marriage and Meats they were not proper to the last times but found more or less in the Apostles own times as may be gathered by some passages of their Epistles Why should then our Apostle here speaking of the Apostasie of the latter times instance only in those things which the first times in some measure were never free from Lastly which I take alone to be sufficient The Syntax of the words will not bear it to have them so translated For the persons in the first verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are expressed in casu recto whereas the persons in the verses following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in the genitive now by what Syntax can these be construed intransitively how will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. without breach of Grammar unsampled in our Apostle's Epistles If any say they may be referred then and agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that indeed would be a strange sense and nothing to their purpose to say that Devils lie have seared consciences and forbid marriage and meats But to construe it transitively and to make all these genitive cases to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and take the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Causam or Modum actionis as is most usual in Scripture this as it keepeth the Syntax true so I hope to make it appear hereafter to be the very meaning and the Event most answerable thereunto when you shall hear proved out of story That the Apostasie of the visible Church came in by lying wonders and all deceiveableness of unrighteousness managed by those who either professed or doted upon Monastical hypocrisie the affectation and errours whereof at length surprising the body of the Church is that which S. Paul 2 Thess. 2. 10. calls not the Apostasie it self but Aâ—not-love of the Truth for which God gave them over to strong delusions that they might believe a lye But this is out of its place only I have anticipated thus much lest you should be too long in suspence of the grounds of this novelty in translating And yet this difficulty concerning the Syntax hath stumbled many of our latter Interpreters as amongst others Beza who solves it only by saying That the Apostle more regarded the matter than the construction which for my part I cannot believe CHAP. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture imports Revolt or Rebellion That Idolatry is such proved from several passages in Scriplute By Spirits in the Text are meant Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be taken Passively viz. for Doctrines concerning Daemons Several instances of the like form of speech in Scripture I Return now unto the First part of my Text The Description of that solemn Apostasie where I will consider the five parts or points thereof as I have propounded them though it be not according to the order of the words And first in the more general expression as I called it in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as to say They shall make an Apostasie Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture's use when it looks towards a person signifies a Revolt or Rebellion when towards God a spiritual Revolt from God or Rebellion against Divine Majesty whether Total or by Idolatry and serving other Gods For the Seventy whence the New Testament borrows the use of speech usually translates by this word the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rebel and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebellion both which when they have reference to a spiritual Sovereignty mean nought else but Idolatry and serving of other Gods as may appear Iosuah 22. 19. where the Israelites supposing their brethren the Reubenites and Gadites in building another Altar upon the banks of Iordan had meant to have forsaken the Lord and served other Gods they said unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you have rebelled against the Lord and presently Rebell not against the Lord nor rebell against us where the Seventy hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in vers 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebellion is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words the Lord God of gods he knoweth if it be in rebellion or in transgression against the Lord. Also Numb 14. vers 9. when the people would have renounced the Lord upon the report of the Spies Iosuah and Caleb spake unto them saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebel ye not where the Seventy hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not Apostates from the Lord. So Nehem. 9. 26. in that repentant confession which the Levites make of the Idolatry of their Nation they were disobedient say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rebelled against thee where the Seventy hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Daniel in the like confession Chap. 9. vers 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have rebelled against him So the Idolatry of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. and Chap. 29. is by the same Interpreters called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revolted greatly from the Lord. I will not trouble you with the places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for Treason and Rebellion against earthly Princes which are many It is sufficient to gather from what we have quoted That Apostasie having reference to a Sovereignty and Lordship betokens a withdrawing of service and subjection there-from which if the Sovereignty and Majesty be Divine is done by Idolatry and service of other Gods as well as if the Majesty of the true God were renounced altogether The use of the
hence it is that the Primitive Fathers which write against the Gentiles do so often upbraid them That their Temples were nothing else but the Sepulchres of dead men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clem. in his Protreptie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were indeed called by the specious and plausible name of Temples but were in truth nothing but Sepulchres that is the very Sepulchres of dead men were called Temples He goeth on speaking to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye therefore at length perswaded to forget and relinquish your Daemon-worship and be ashamed to worship the Sepulchres of dead men To the like purpose Arnobius l. 6. advers Gent. Quid quòd multa ex his Templa quae tholis sunt aureis sublimibus elata fastigiis autorum conscriptionibus comprobatur contegere cineres at que ossa functorum esse corporum sepulturas Nonne patet promptum est aut pro Diis immortalibus mortuos vos colere aut inexpiabilem fieri Numinibus contumeliam quorum Delubra Templa mortuorum superlata sunt bustis Where he tells them that many of their Temples famous for their high and golden roofs were nothing but the Sepulchres of the deceased covering dead bones and ashes and that it was very evident that for the immortal Gods they worship'd men that were dead or that they were guilty of doing an horrible dishonour to the Gods whose Temples were built over the burying-places of dead men I might further add to these Oecumenical doctrines of Daemons that monstrous one of the AEgyptians for which their fellow-Gentiles derided them who worshipped living brute Beasts yea Onions and Garlick and Water it self with Divine worship as supposing some Daemon or other to dwell in them Such were their Cow-god Apis and their Bull-god Mnevis and their Water-god Nilus which it shall be enough to have only named to make the former compleat and that from it and the rest of that kind of abominations we may gather this Conclusion once for all That since the Sovereign and Celestial Gods as you heard before might not be approached nor polluted by these earthly and material things but kept always immovably without change of place or presence their heavenly stations therefore the adoring or worshipping of any visible or material thing for any supposed presence or other relation of a divine power therewith is to be accounted amongst the Doctrines of Daemons CHAP. VI. A Recapitulation or Summary of the Doctrines of Daemons How the Severals thereof are revived and resembled in the Apostate Christian Church That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometime in Scripture taken according to the Theology of the Gentiles and not always for an Evil Spirit That it is so to be taken in the Text was the judgment of Epiphanius an observable passage quoted out of him to this purpose AND thus have you seen the Theology of Daemons 1. For their Nature and degree to have been supposed by the Gentiles an inferiour and middle sort of Divine Powers between the Sovereign and Heavenly Gods and mortal men 2. Their Office to be as Mediators and Agents between these Sovereign Gods and men 3. Their Original to be the Deified Souls of worthy men after death and some of an higher degree which had no beginning nor ever were imprisoned in mortal bodies 4. The way to worship them to find and receive benefits from them namely by consecrated Images and Pillars wherein to have and retain their presence at devotions to be given them 5. To adore their Reliques and to Temple them Now therefore judge impartially whether S. Paul's Prophecy be not fulfilled already amongst Christians who foretold that the time should come that they should Apostatize and revive again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines of Daemons whether the deifying and worshipping of Saints and Angles whether the bowing down to Images whether of men or other things visible breaden Idols and Crosses like new Daemon-Pillars whether the adoring or templing of Reliques whether these make not as lively an image of the Gentiles Theologie of Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as possibly could be expressed and whether these two words comprehend not the whole pith and marrow of Christian Apostasie which was to consist in Spiritual fornication or Idolatry as appears by that name and denomination thereof given by S. Iohn in his Revelation The Whore of Babylon Is not she rightly termed the Babylonish whore which hath revived and replanted the Doctrines of Daemons first founded in the ancient Babel And is not this now fulfilled which S. Iohn foretells us Apoc. 11. That the second and outmost Court of the Temple which is the second state of the Christian Church together with the holy City should be trodden down and overtrampled by the Gentiles that is overwhelmed with the Gentiles Idolatry forty two months But perhaps I am yet too forward in my Application some things in our way must first be cleared For howsoever the resemblance indeed be evident yet First the Text seems not to intend or mean it because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the Scripture never taken in the better or indifferent sense howsoever prophane Authors do so use it but always in an evil sense for the Devil or an Evil Spirit Now the signification of words in Scripture is to be esteemed and taken only according to the Scripture's use though other Writers use them otherwise Secondly For the charge of Idolatry though much of that wherein we have instanced may be granted to be justly suspected for such indeed yet nevertheless that whereupon this Application mainly relieth namely The praying to Saints glorified as Mediators and Agents for us with God should not seem to deserve so foul a name For suppose it were a needless yea and a fruitless Ceremony yet what reason can be given why this should be more tainted with Idolatry than is the like honour given to Saints and holy men whilst they live on earth whom then to desire to mediate and pray to God for us was never accounted so much as an unlawful matter When these two Scruples are answered I will return to continue my former Application To the First therefore for the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture I say That because those which the Gentiles took for Daemons and for Deified Souls of their Worthies were indeed no other than Evil Spirits counterfeiting the Souls of men deceased and masking themselves under the names of such supposed Daemons under that colour to seduce mankind therefore the Scripture useth the name Daemons for that they were indeed and not for what they seemed to be For no blessed Soul or good Angel would admit any honour which did derogate from the honour of the only true God who made them neither do the glorified Saints in heaven or the blessed Angels though Apostate Christians now invocate and worship them accept of this honour hear their prayers or condescend
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
away from Israel and v. 3. it is said in general and Israel joyned himself to Baal-Peor Again in the same Chap. v. 9. it is said Neither let us tempt Christ as Some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents and verse 10. Neither murmure as Some of them also murmured this Some was a great Some indeed even all the people save Moses Ioshua and Caleb whereof is said Numb 14. 1. And ALL the Congregation lifted up their voice and wept and v. 2. And ALL the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron and the WHOLE Congregation said unto them Would God that we had died c. wherefore they were as largely punished all of them dying in the wilderness Ioshua and Caleb excepted These places of many will suffice to shew that the word SOME in my Text intends not to extenuate the number of Apostates as implying they should be but Few but only shews they should not be All For where the Apostates are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some there Some also are not Apostates but excepted from the common Defection wherewith the rest were miserably overwhelmed The Observation therefore which this TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME affords us is That the true Church of Christ was never wholly extinguished nor the light of his Gospel ever quite put out no not in the greatest darkness that ever was to overwhelm it By the true Church of Christ I understand That holy Society and Company of Believers which as they accord and are joyned together in one common Faith of all Divine Truths needful to Salvation so are they also free from the fellowship of such enormous abominations and mortal errors as destroy and overturn it This is that Society whereof by the grace of Almighty God we glory to be the members This that Society which in the Primitive times grew and flourished This that Society which when the times foretold of the Churche's Eclipse came and the Great Apostasie had overspread the face thereof was indeed much impaired indangered and obscured but never was totally extinguished but continued even under the Iurisdiction of the Man of sin yea in Babylon it self where he had this Throne For doth not Christ at length say Apocal. 18. 4. Come out of her my people How could they come out thence unless they had been there or how should Antichrist sit in the Temple of God 2 Thess. 2. 4. unless God's Temple were even there where Antichrist sate As a few living embers in a heap of dying ashes As a little Wheat in a field overgrown with weeds As the Lights of the heaven in a firmament overcast with clouds As a little pure Gold in a great mass of dross and mixed metal such was the faithful Company of Christ in the Apostate body of Christendom the Virgin-Church in the midst of Babylon But will our Adversaries say This is not sufficient to make you the true Church of Christ because some of you have always been but you must prove also that you have alwayes visibly been For the true Catholick Church must not only never have been interrupted or extinguished but it must have been a Society visibly known unto the world and not as Embers in the ashes but as a burning and shining Flame But this Objection deserves no answering because our Adversaries howsoever they would dissemble it do but play upon the present advantage which they think their own Church hath in this point above ours Otherwise when they forget the contention they have with us and are in a calmer mood they can be pleased to deliver other doctrine which if they would be so ingenuous as always to remember we needed not such a stir about the point of the Churche's Visibility For the difference between them and us hereabout is not so great as they would make it seem They themselves and the Fathers also teach That when Antichrist cometh the Visibility of the Church shall be eclipsed nay they affirm more than we usually in that case require For then they say the use of the Sacraments shall cease no Eucharist no Mass no publick Assemblies yea all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction shall be extinguished But here lies all the difference they hold the glorious Visibility of the true Church to have continued from the beginning unto this present and the overshadowing of the Light and Eclipse of the glory thereof under Antichrist to be yet to come We on the contrary maintain the clouding of the Churche's Visibility under the Man of sin to have been already and some part of the Visible splendor thereof to be yet to come Both agreeing in this that in the fatal Apostasy the Churche's Visibility and Glory should cease but we say That time hath been already they say It is yet to come we say That time of darkness was to continue many ages they say When it comes it shall last but three single years and a half Seeing therefore the whole Controversie lies in the point of Time Whether the Churche's fatal Apostasie be already past or yet to come it would be much the shorter and quicker course for both them and us to decide this Controversie To examine the condition and quality of both Religions by the Holy Scripture where we have also as S. * Peter speaks a most sure word of Prophecie whereunto we shall do well if we take heed as to a light shining in a dark place Now though this Answer be sufficient enough for the Objection of our Adversaries yet for the better understanding and clearer insight into the matter questioned we will further consider Whether and in what manner or measure our Church may be said to have been Visible during the prevailing Apostasie and in what respect again it was not Visible and in both agreeable to the State of the true Church under the frequent Apostasies of Israel First therefore we must know that by A Visible Christian Society in this Question is meant A Society or Company of Christian Believers joyned together in one external Fellowship and Communion of the same publick Profession and Rule of Faith Vse of Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction For these make the outward form and as it were shape of the Church whereby this Society is discernable from other Societies of men So that a Society by this outside severed and distinguished from other Societies is a Society visible and conspicuous to other Societies of men The question therefore is Whether that holy Society of Believers before mentioned who accorded together in one Common Faith with us of all Divine Truths needful to Salvation and kept themselves free from such enormous abominations and mortal errours which we now disclaim as utterly annihilating that Common Faith Whether such a Society as this has been in all Ages joyned and distinguished by such a common out-side from other Companies either of men in general or Christians in special or in shorter and perhaps plainer terms thus Whether the Society of men of our
whereof the Lord had said In this House and in Ierusalem will I put my name for ever even in this House this holy House were Idols and graven Images erected and in both Courts thereof Altars to Baalim the Sun the Moon and the whole host of heaven the like whereof never had been until that time Besides who is able to name the man for almost fifty years together that remained a Faithful servant and True worshipper of the Living God in the midst of this hideous profanation Nor is it easie to be conceived how it was possible all that time to offer any Legal sacrifice without Idolatry when God's own Temple and House was made a den of Idols nay his Altar the only Altar of Israel destroyed to make room for Altars erected to Idols as may be gathered 2 Chron. 33. 15 16. Where was the true Church of Israel now or had the Lord no Church at all Yes certainly he had a Church and a Company which defiled not their garments a Company I say but not visibly distinguished from the rest of their Nation but hidden as it were in the midst of that Apostate body and yet known together with the rest to be Israelites and people of Iehovah but known to God alone and themselves to be true Israelites and faithful servants to Iehovah their God And that such a Company there was and a strong party too though not seen appeared presently upon the death of Manasses and his wicked son when Iosiah began to reign at eight years of age For they then prevailed even in the Court it self and so brought up the King that even while he was yet young in the eighth year of his reign he began to seek after the God of David his father and in the twelfth year to make a publick and powerful Reformation such as the like was never done before him Could all this have been done so soon and by a King so young in years and to carry all before it like a torrent unless there had been a strong party which now having a King for them began quickly to shew themselves and to sway the State though before they were hardly to be seen When therefore our Adversaries ask us where our Church was before Luther we see by this what we have to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XI The Third Particular or The Time of the Apostasie That the Last Times in Scripture signifie either a Continuation of Time or an End of Time That the Last Times simply and in general are the Times of Christianity the Last Times in special and comparatively or the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Times of the Apostasie under Antichrist That the Times are set out to us to be as Marks to inform us when the Things to fall out in them should come to pass and not the Things intended for signs to know the Times by This Observation illustrated from Dan. 8. OF the two first Particulars of the Four whereby the Great Apostasie of Christian Believers is here decyphered I have spoken sufficiently viz. First for the Quality and kind thereof it should be a new Doctrine of Daemons Secondly that for the Persons revolting they should not be All but Some Now I am to speak of the Third The Times when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter Times For the easier understanding whereof we must know that speeches of Last Times in Scripture mean sometimes a Continuation or Length of time sometimes an End of time A Continuation of time I mean as when we say that Winter is the Last time or season of the year or old age the Latter time of life neither of them being the very End but a space of time next the end which therefore in respect of some whole System of time whereof it is the Last part is truly termed the Last time thereof Man's life is a Systeme of divers ages the Last space whereof is the Last time of life The Year is a Systeme of four seasons and therefore the Last season thereof Winter may be called the Last time of the year But by an End of time I mean the very expiring of time as the Last day of December is the End or last time of the year the moment when a man dies is the Last time that is the End of his life Now in the New Testament when by mention of Last time is meant an End or Terminus temporis I observe it to be exprest in the Singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last day being four times mentioned in the sixth of Iohn and once in the eleventh is in every one of them meant of the Day of the Resurrection at the End of the world I will raise him up saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last day Iohn 6. 39 40 44 54. And Martha of her brother Lazarus I know saith she he shall rise again in the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Last day Iohn 11. 24. So 1 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time is used in the self-same sense being spoken of the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven and to be revealed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last time In all which is meant the End of the world But in 1 Iohn 2. 18. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last hour Little children it is the Last hour where no doubt he meaneth an End of some time but not the End of the world which was then far off but an End of their time to whom he then wrote his Epistle that is an End of the Iewish State and Religion which was then at the very door which Exposition I will make more plain hereafter But when a Continuation or Longer space of time is signified then I find the Plural number to be used as 1 Pet. 1. 20. of the Incarnation of Christ it is said that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was made manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last times which times have continued these 1600 years at the least So Heb. 1. 2. God saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these Last days hath spoken unto us by his Son And 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the Last days perillous times shall come Again Acts 2. 17. In the Last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh In the 2 Pet. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Last days shall come scoffers And so in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter times some shall revolt from the Faith and give heed to Doctrines of Daemons Whatsoever the validity of this observation be for the rest I make no question but it will be granted That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text means some Continued space of time and not Terminus temporis or the very End of time which therefore presupposed I approach
Distantia 490 490 The account by years of Nabonassar ex Canone Ptolemaei Astronomico The last year or year of Nero's death Iune 9. in Ptolomie's Canon answers to An. 815 Nabonass Ergo the year of Ierusalem's Desolation 2 years after is concurrent with An. 817 Nabonass finiendus in Augusto The first of Darius Nothus in Canone Ptolemaei answers An. 325 Nabonass Ergo the third year of Darius is concurrent with An. 327 Nabonass ordiendus à Decembripraecedent Differentia 490  Notwithstanding all this I had rather begin the Account from the sixth year of Darius in the Month Adar when the Temple was quite finished for then it first began to continue and not till then although the Destruction of Ierusalem will then fall out three years and an half sooner namely when the last week is but half run out And what if it do The Angel as I conceive tells us so much in the last verse when he says That in the midst of a Week the Sacrifice and Oblation should cease and the City be made desolate But how will the Prophecy be made good if the Seventieth Week be not compleat I answer it should be observed though it useth not to be that the Angel reckons not by single years but by Weeks If he had said there should be 490 years to the Excidium of Ierusalem then indeed to make good the prediction the City and Sanctuary must have been destroyed the last year But when he says there shall be LXX Weeks allotted for the continuance of the Holy City it is enough if it be made desolate in the seventieth week For if those who reckon by years when the year designed answers the Event will not stand upon the compleatness of months and days nor those who reckon any thing by days upon the compleatness of hours and minutes no more in the Angel's reckoning here by weeks if so the number of the weeks be compleat are the parts of a week to be exacted The Time of the Destruction of Ierusalem as before  An. Olymp. 845. Mens 6. August If the third of Darius began about May or Iune Anno Olymp. 355. then the sixth year of his reign begins in May or Iune Anno 358. But the latter part thereof in February or Adar when the Temple was finished falls in  An. Olymp. 359. Mens 12. Feb. or Adar Distantia Anni 486. Mens 6. That is just  69 Weeks and an half The account by years of Nabonassar The time of the Destruction of Ierusalem as before  Anno 817. Nabonass Mens 6. If the third year of Darius Nothus were for the first and greatest part concurrent with Anno 327. Nabonass as is afore shewed than his sixth year in like manner for the first and greatest part must concur with Anno 330. But the head of the Nabonassarean year being then about the 5 th of December the latter end of this sixth year in Adar or February will fall in  Anno 331. Nabonass Mens 12. Distantia Anni 486 Menses 6. VERSE 25. Also know and understand that from the going forth of the Commandment to cause to Return and to Build Ierusalem unto MESSIAH the PRINCE shall be Sevens of Weeks even threescore and two Weeks the Street shall be built again and the Wall even in a streight of times FROM the going out of the Commandment I take not this Epocha to be that of the whole LXX Weeks but a second Root of another and lesser period of time comprehended in them whose beginning was to be after the LXX were begun and the end before they should be ended The Root of this second Computation is described to be a time when two things should be done A Commandment should go forth both to cause to Return and also to Build not the Temple for that should be done before nor some few houses only but the whole Area or Street and the Walls of Ierusalem which should then be re-edified though in a streight of Times that is it should be such a time when a Commission to cause the people to return and re-inhabite should be seconded with another to build the Wall of Ierusalem and the Plot within the Wall For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here I understand properly that Circuit bounding out the limits of the City whereon the Wall was builded and anciently used to be marked out with a Plough earing a furrow round about By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies a broad place I understand the Area or Plot of ground within whereon the houses were to be builded From such an Epocha and a Commission thus characterized as ye have heard must this second Computation be reckoned Vnto MESSIAH the PRINCE That is unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23. 2. Mark 15. 32. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angel styles him Luke 2. 11. There is no exposition no interpretation of any passage in this Prophecy could seem so harsh but I would be content to admit it rather than yield that by MESSIAH the PRINCE here named should be meant any other than CHRIST our LORD and Redeemer For I am perswaded that the Church of Israel in the Gospel and from them the Apostles took it had no other place of Scripture whence they did or could ascribe the Name of Christ and Messiah unto him they looked for but only from this of Daniel For there is no other Prophecy in all the Old Testament besides this where that Name is directly given him but only by way of Type Shall be Sevens of weeks even LXII weeks The numeral word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have here translated distributively understanding by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomade septenae that is many seven Weeks or as our English handsomely expresseth Sevens of Weeks the sense to be as if the Angel had said As the whole time limited for the continuance of the Holy City from the first beginning to the last ending consisteth of many Sevens of Weeks viz. LXX Weeks so from this after Epocha here mentioned unto MESSIAH should be likewise Sevens of Weeks plures septenniorum hebdomades even Sixty two Weeks of years For as in LXX are ten Sevens of Weeks so in LXII are nine times seven wanting one and that little want makes no matter there being eight whole sevens besides in that number and you shall see in that which follows examples of the like The Hebrews want those numbers which the Grammarians call Distributive or Divisive Terni quaterni quini seni septeni c. which they most-what supply by repetition as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septem septem but not always as may appear 2 Sam. 18. 4. And all the people came out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad centum millia i. centeni milleni by hundreds and by thousands 1 Kings 18. 4. Obadiah hid the Prophets of the LORD 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quinquaginta viros in spelunca id est quinquagenos by fifty in a
Your very loving Friend Tho. Hayn I. POSIT DAniel shews not the Roman Monarchie's persecution of the Church and the Fall of the same Monarchy Argum. 1. If the Romans persecution of the saints and the Fall of the Romans were not revealed till Christ revealed them to Iohn in the Apocalyps then Daniel revealed them not But the Romans persecution of the Saints and their Fall were not revealed till Christ revealed them to Iohn in the Apocalyps Ergò Daniel revealed them not The Major Proposition is evident The Minor is thus proved The Romans persecution of the Saints and their Fall are revealed in the little Book Apoc. 5. c. by opening seven seals and blowing seven Trumpets all concerning seven-headed Rome and none was able to open the Seals of this Book till Christ opened them to Iohn Ergò the Romans persecution and Fall were revealed to none till Christ revealed them to Iohn The former part of the Antecedent is granted by the general consent of Interpreters on the Apocalyps The latter part is clear in the Text Apocal. 5. None was able to open the Book none in heaven or earth or under the earth Now if Daniel had shewed these persecutions Paul who delivered to his hearers all the counsel of God could have opened these also But Apocal. 5. denies that he could or that any man else could Argum. 2. The persecutions of Christ's eternal Kingdom mentioned in Dan. 2. 44. chap. 7. 26 27. and frequently in the New Testament are not prophesied f in Daniel But the persecutions brought by the Romans on the Church are against Christ's eternal Kingdom to be preached over the world after Christ. Ergò the persecutions brought by the Romans on the Church or eternal Kingdom of Christ are not spoken of in Daniel The Minor Proposition is clear The Major is confirmed by all speeches of that eternal Kingdom in Daniel The Stone which became a Mountain is not battered nor the Mountain any way assailed chap. 2. The eternal Kingdom breaks the former Kingdoms but it self is not broken Chap. 2. 44. When the four Beasts chap. 7. are destroyed then comes the Son of man in the clouds and receives the eternal Kingdom which Iohn Baptist Christ himself and the Apostles preached There also is no persecution of this Kingdom mentioned Chap. 7. 13 14. nor Verse 27 c. The Battel against the Saints Verse 21. and the consuming of them Verse 25. concerns the Saints before the setting up of Christ's Kingdom over all the world as the endeavour to alter Times and Laws plainly shews Antiochus Epiphanes was the man that attempted this II. POSIT The fourth Beast Dan. 7. is not able sufficiently to express the Roman Empire and therefore it expresseth it not Argum. That which is but sufficiently expressed by all the four Beasts or the chief parts of all four cannot be sufficiently expressed by one of the four alone namely the fourth But the Roman Empire is but sufficiently expressed by all the four Beasts Dan. 7. or the chief parts of them Ergò the Roman Empire cannot be sufficiently expressed by the fourth Beast alone The Major is evident The Minor is thus confirmed If the Roman Empire Apoc. 13. be resembled by a Beast which is composed of all Daniel's four Beasts Dan. 7. or the chief parts of the four Beasts then it is but sufficiently expressed by them all But the Roman Empire Apoc. 13. is resembled by a Beast which is composed of all Daniel's four Beasts or their chief parts Ergò the Roman Empire c. The Major is proved thus Either the Major is true or else the Composition taken from the three former Beasts and their chief parts is needless But it is not needless for God hath nothing needless in his Word Ergò the Major is true The Minor is proved thus That the Roman Empire is expressed by a Beast composed of all Daniel's four Beasts Dan. 7. or the chief parts of them all is plain thus 3. It is like a Leopard It hath 7 heads 3. Beast The Leopard 1. 1. It hath a Lion's mouth So had the four Beasts in Dan. 1. The Lion 1. 2. A Bear 's pawes  2. The Bear 1. 4. The 10 horns of the 4. Beast  4. The Last Beast 4.    In all 7 heads It blasphemes hath large authority wars against the Saints overcomes and prospers Therefore it is composed and is extracted out of the 4 Beasts Dan. 7. EPISTLE VI. Mr. Med's Answer to Mr. Hayn's First Letter about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation SIR THE last week I could not get any time to answer your Letter and therefore I thought good to make use of your indulgence that I should answer at my best leisure And though I have not now that leisure I expected yet I will not frustrate you any longer What passages of mine you should have seen upon Daniel's times I cannot imagine for I remember not to have done any thing directly upon that Prophecy but only occasionally in some Discourses upon other places of Scripture whether any body hath extracted those parcels from their body I cannot tell but wish they had not lest I may have wrong by being mistaken For your Two Positions about the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel your Grounds do as much mistake as contradict my Tenets And therefore I shall either answer or decline your Arguments by setting down my own opinion in these following Theses 1. The Roman Empire to be the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel was believed by the Church of Israel both before and in our Saviour's time received by the Disciples of the Apostles and the whole Christian Church for the first 400 years without any known contradiction And I confess having so good ground in Scripture it is with me tantùm non Articulus fidei little less than an Article of faith 2. I acknowledge also the subject of the Apocalyptical Visions to be Fata Imperii Romani post primum Christi adventum usque ad secundum supersuturi The Fates of the Roman Empire which after the first coming of Christ was still to continue in being even till the second And this I affirm the Roman Kingdom was revealed unto Daniel but not according to that distinct succession of things and specification of the Fates thereof which was first made known unto S. Iohn but only in general and in imagine confusa not to be explicated but by Christ himself I say the Roman Kingdom was revealed to Daniel in general but the order of the times thereof and the series rerum gerundarum or course of things to be acted therein not until the Revelation unto S. Iohn 3. Nor is it strange or unwonted that a thing may be revealed in general and yet most of the particulars concerning the same to be unknown and sealed The calling of the Gentiles or the Kingdom of Christ among the Gentiles by way of surrogation to the Iews was revealed unto S. Peter and
more quiet meditations Nihil affirmo sed propono I had thought when I began to propound something to your further meditations out of the seventh of Daniel But you see I am grown past a Letter and can scarce any longer make my Characters legible and therefore here with my best respect to your self I end desiring God to enlighten us daily more and more in the knowledge of his Truth and so I remain Yours to be commanded in all the duties of Friendship Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Nov. 11. 1629. EPISTLE XV. Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Meddus touching the Day of Iudgment Worthy Sir I Have now found some little time to make some kind of Answer to your Letter of the last week save one You desire me to point out the particulars wherein I differ from that Lutheran But this I cannot do without making a censure of the whole Discourse which would ask me some labour and besides I have not now the Book by me But by the way the Stationer which told me he had six of them was deceived Indeed he had six Books which he thought to be the same but four of them were Discourses of Law by some error sorted together with them You secondly desire me to point out the places of the Old and New Testament appliable to my Tenet of the Day of Iudgment Where I understand not well whether you mean of the Regnum to be then or of the acception of the word Day for a long space of time even of a thousand years But I suppose you mean the former to which therefore I will say something the rather because I know you will communicate it to Doctor Twisse to whom I had intended some such thing in my Letter I sent by you to him but time would not suffer me to write it then having spent both it and my paper in other discourses before I was aware That which I have to say is this The Description of the Great Day of Iudgment Dan. 7. THE Mother-Text of Scripture whence the Church of the Iews grounded the name and expectation of the Great Day of Iudgment with the circumstances thereto belonging and whereunto almost all the descriptions and expressions thereof in the New Testament have reference is that Vision in the seventh of Daniel of a Session of Iudgment when the Fourth Beast came to be destroyed Where this great Assises is represented after the manner of the great Synedrion or Consistory of Israel wherein the Pater Iudicii had his Assessores sitting upon Seats placed Semicircle-wise before him from his right hand to his left I beheld saith Daniel verse 9. till the Thrones or Seats were pitched down namely for the Senators to sit upon not thrown down as we of late have it and the Ancient of days Pater consistorii did sit c. And subaudi I beheld till the Iudgment was set that is the whole Sanhedrim and the books were opened c. Here we see both the form of Iudgment delineated and the name of Iudgment expressed which is afterwards yet twice more repeated First in the amplification of the tyranny of the wicked Horn verse 21 22. which is said continued till the Ancient of days came and IVDGMENT was given to the Saints of the most High i. Potestas judicandi ipsis facta And the third time in the Angel's interpretation verse 26. But the IVDGMENT shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the end Where observe also that cases of Dominion of Blasphemy and Apostasie and the like belonged to the jurisdiction of the great Sanhedrim From this description it came that the Iews gave it the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of Iudgment and the Day of the Great Iudgment whence in the Epistle of S. Iude verse 6. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Iudgment of the Great Day From the same description they learned that the destruction then to be should be by fire because it is said verse 9. His throne was a fiery flame and his wheels burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth before him and verse 11. The Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame From the same fountain are derived those expressions in the Gospel where this Day is intimated or described The Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels Forasmuch as it is said here Thousand thousands ministred unto him c. and that Daniel saw One like the Son of man coming with the clouds of Heaven and he came to the Ancient of days and they brought him or placed him near him c. Hence S. Paul learned that the Saints should judge the world because it is said that many Thrones were set and verse 22. by way of Exposition that Iudgment was given to the Saints of the most High Hence the same Apostle learned to confute the false fear of the Thessalonians that the day of Christs second coming was then at hand Because that day could not be till the Man of Sin were first come and should have reigned his time appointed Forasmuch as Daniel had foretold it should be so and that his destruction should be at the Son of mans appearing in the clouds whose appearing therefore was not to be till then This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul whom the Lord saith he shall destroy at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his coming Daniel's wicked Horn or Beast acting in the wicked Horn is S. Paul's Man of Sin as the Church from her Infancâ—e interpreted it But to go on While this Iudgment sits and when it had destroyed the Fourth Beast the Son of man which comes in the clouds receives dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve and obey him verse 14. which Kingdom is thrice explained afterwards to be the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High verse 18. These four Beasts saith the Angel are four Kingdoms which shall arise But viz. when they have finished their course the Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom c. Again verse 22. The wicked Horn prevailed until the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Again verse 27. When the fourth Beast reigning in the wicked Horn was destroyed the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven is given to the people of the Saints of the most High c. These Grounds being laid I argue as followeth The Kingdom of the Son of man and of the Saints of the most High in Daniel begins when the Great Iudgment sits The Kingdom in the Apocalyps wherein the Saints reign with Christ a thousand years is the same with the Kingdom of the Son of man and Saints of the most High in Daniel Ergo It also
Altar But why the Lord's Table where the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administred should be called Solium praesentiae more than the Font where Baptism is administred or the Pulpit where God speaks unto us I do not yet find sufficient reason to satisfie me Yet I have heard that one who much furthereth these courses should give us a reason thereof that Hoc est Corpus meum is more with him than Hoc est Verbum meum And to my thinking the Table of the Paschal Lamb might as well be called Solium praesentiae as the Lord's Table with us 7. As for the fashion of all Nations and Religions to use some Reverential gestures when they enter into God's House this openeth a way to a new consideration and inquisition as Whether Bodily Gesture alone be fit to be urged or practised in entring into God's House the outward adoration without the inward the one without the other being no better than Hypocrisy Yet these days are full of Formality Lastly Things lawful in themselves become unlawful by accident as when they are superstitiously practised though not by our selves yet by concurring in the same act we may scandalize by countenancing the Superstition of others Thus have I taken liberty to communicate my thoughts unto you to be censured by you as you think good my self but upon the present observation of times taking into consideration And I willingly profess I fear Superstition hereby will creep on in a conceit as if God were better served by worshipping him towards the Altar than otherwise the contrary whereunto were it publickly professed I should be the less sollicited with such fears Yet am I nothing sorry but very glad that you have entered thus far into this discourse and for the Notions here mentioned whereupon I shall willingly confer with other Divines For your judgment concerning Ezekiel's Vision so freely communicated I heartily thank you That I have your acknowledgment of the obscurity thereof gives me much content yet withal your adventures thereupon which you are pleased to impart they are as sparks of light unto me shining in a dark place Your candour throughout works me to think the better of any opinion which you embrace I profess unto you you make me more and more happy in all your Speculations I shall heartily beg at the Throne of grace for God's blessing upon your Studies and that he will be pleased to enlighten you more and more for the opening of these heavenly Mysteries to the comfort of God's Church in these uncomfortable days Hereupon comes to my remembrance what I had almost forgotten though I purposed to mention it with the first I was not long since resolved to write unto you to inquire whether the K. of S. proceedings in Germany might not be the accomplishment of the Fourth Vial and that in these times we are in a preparation to the Fifth by the slaughtering of the Witnesses according to that Exposition which you give thereof Sr. N. R. told me moreover that your opinion was that it should be very Vniversal The Lord keep you and bless you I shall ever remain Newbury Iune 1. 1635. Your faithful and respectful true friend much obliged Will. Twisse EPISTLE LVIII Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's Eighth Letter further explaining himself concerning Holiness of Churches Altars or Sacred Tables God's Throne or Place of presence therein c. With a Caveat to the Reformed Churches SIR COncerning the accomplishment of the Fourth Vial I shall be then better able to judge when I see what will be the conclusion of these great Commotions now on foot If they settle so as thereby some prop shall be taken away which now upholdeth the Beast or any further way opened to his downfal than yet hath been then I shall think it is accomplished otherwise not For every Vial must be a degree of the Beast's ruine Ergò id quo non labefactatur status Bestiae Phialae complementum non erit Let us expect what this new shock to be given to the H. of A. will come to If they be once heaved out of the Imperial Throne or their succession interrupted I shall believe it is done Their fall whensoever it happens will in all likelihood so shake the Beast as will drive him into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or burning-Fever the raging Symptomes whereof such as stand in his way are like to feel For the other points of the Holiness of Churches of Altars or Sacred Tables of the reverent accommodation in the one at or toward the other the paths unto them by reason of infrequency and unaccustomedness are so full of checks and impediments as makes all collation by pen over-tedious and troublesome For nothing almost can be presupposed by way of Postulatum but will be questioned In a discourse ore tenus I could rid my way a great deal better with much more speed and ease But in so much Pen-work as this Argument would require I am not willing to engage my self and perhaps 't would not be operae-pretium Nevertheless that you might know there is something to be said by way of Answer to your Exceptions and to give you occasion of further meditation in these things I thought not good to wave it altogether till I had let you see a little further into my thoughts and speculations this way before I shut the window Thus therefore I express them not following the order of your Letter but as my mind prompts me 1. Concerning Holiness of Churches THERE is a Threefold Holiness to be found in Scripture or if you will the word Holiness is there used in a Threefold Notion which I would distinguish thus 1. Essential Holiness 2. Holiness of Integrity and 3. Relative Holiness 1. Essential Holiness is that whereof God is called Holy as Sanctus Israelis i.e. Israelis Deus juxta illud 1 Sam. 2. 2. Non est Sanctus sicut Dominus neque enim est alius praeter te non est Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sicut Deus noster For this Holiness is God himself his Essence his Divine Majesty whence all other Holiness is derived not any inherent Attribute differing from him as in created subjects 2. Holiness of Integrity is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sanctimonia and may be described A state of Righteousness or of pureness and cleanness from sin This is that Holiness whereof the Apostle speaks Heb. 12. Without Holiness no man shall see God and whereof we call such as fear God and eschew evil Holy men Of this kind of Holiness nothing is capable but reasonable Creatures Angels and Men. 3. But there is a third kind of Holiness Relative Holiness being nothing but a state of Relation of peculiarity to God-ward either in respect of Presence or Propriety and Dominion 1. Of Presence when God is peculiarly and in a special manner present as when he appeared to Moses in the flaming bush Exod. 3. 5.
before me Shall not the Observation of our Christian Sabbath continue after Christ's coming with his Saints amongst the Nations that are saved from that Deluge of fire though it be Irenaeus his phrase yet I learnt it from you wherewith the Earth and all the works thereof shall be burnt up And if it be urged that by the same reason the Festivities of the New-moons shall have their place in Christâ—s Kingdom as well as Sabbaths and by consequence the Ceremonies of the Iews be restored I answer it followeth not the words may be rendred From month to month as the Geneva doth If we read it From New-moon c. with our last English yet it is not necessary to understand it of any peculiar Festivity denoted thereby least of all Iewish And we Christians in Cathedrals Colleges and great Towns have our Monthly Communions all the year over And seeing I am upon it what think you of Matth. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day We know Dr. Andrews B. of Winchester as well as Mr. Dod apply it to our Christian Sabbath And to my judgment it is a strange fiction to apply it to unconverted Iews that our Saviour should stir them up to pray who scorned the Gospel whereby alone we come acquainted with such an Admonition and certainly scorned Christ's Instructions and how can we think that God would hear the prayers of such and was it fit that our Saviour should lay such a ground for the countenancing of their prayers yea and their Iewish Sabbath too And now truly Sir there is no Book that I desire to study more than your self I have found great freeness and acceptance with you hitherto I hope I shall do so still I heartily desire God's blessing upon your person and studies as upon my self and mine I shall ever rest Newbury April 5. 1636. Yours in my best respects exceedingly obliged Will. Twisse EPISTLE LXVI Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's 7 Quaere's viz. about the antiquity of Synagogues among Iews the and of Even-song in the Christian Church as also about the meaning of some difficult places of Scripture viz. Matth. 24. 20. Matth. 25. 31 c. Isa. 66. 23 c. SIR I Turned over the leaves both of the Bishop's and D. Heylin's Book when they came newly out that I might see their Principles and the way they went further I am not acquainted with them because I took no pleasure neither in their Conclusions nor their Grounds which if they be urged would overthrow a great deal more than they are aware of 1. If there be any such Author the Dr. opposeth for affirming the Sabbath to have been comprehended under one of the 7 Commandments of the Sons of Noah I suppose it is Godwyn in his Moses and â—aron Lib. 1. cap. 3. 2. That of Aben Ezra upon Exod. 20. 10. seems to me to be very evident for that Opinion For though it be as much as I can do to understand a piece of Rabbinism yet methinks this passage if it be translated will sound thus Ecce non dubium est quin dictio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tu comprehend 〈◊〉 unumquemque qui est silius praecepti Ideirco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filius tuus Filia tua sunt parvidi quorum requies est super te tibique incumbit officium custodiendi eos ne quicquamfaciant quod tibi vetitum sit Similiter de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Servo tuo Ancillâ tuâ quoniam in potâ— state tua est tui est officii custodire eum neque sinere eum ut serviat alteri Sin minùs tu transgredieris praeceptum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non facies quòd eo spectat ut quiescat Servus tuus Ancilla tua perinde ut tu ipse sunt exposult Moses Dominus noster viâ quam commemoravi Et secundùm hunc Doctorem vovebii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peregrinus qui est intra portas tuas quod non facturus sit opus in Die Sabbati neque in Die Expiationum Propterea scriptum est secundò Peregrinus Similiter atque de praecepto Nuditatis cùm secundùm hunc Doctorem vovebit quòd custoditurus sit praeceptum Nuditatis eodémque modo de Comestione sanguinis This Dominus Moses he here cites I take to be Rabbi Moses Haddarschan who lived an hundred years before him and was Master to R. Solomon Iarchi Maimonides whom Ainsworth cites for the contrary opinion and Aben Ezra were both of an age and contemporaries 3. For Synagogues I am inclined to believe they were before the Captivity and not first taken up there as the more common opinion is But how to evict it against him that shall obstinately maintain the contrary I confess I know not That in Act. 15. 21. Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day will not reach so far yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I should allege that of Psal 74. 8. They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the land they would say as Iunius doth that this Psalm was composed under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes and indeed that which follows We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither any among us that knoweth how long may seem to argue it cannot be meant of that vastation by Nebuchadnezzar for then there were both Prophets and those that knew how long But if this be granted there will arise another difficulty viz. That either this Psalm is no Canonical Scripture or That some part of the Canonical Scripture was written long after Malachy when there was no Prophet and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had ceased And if this why not the first Book of Maccabees There remains but yours Lev. 23. 3. which to me hath appearance of probability but he that were refractory would pick some hole or other either in the word translated Convocation or in dwellings especially in the first See Vulgat and LXX But did not the Levites shall we think teach the people out of Ierusalem in the places abroad where they dwelt And did not the people use to resort to such as could teach them on Sabbath-days and New-moons What doth that of the Shunamite argue else 2 Kings 4. 23 where her husband saith unto her Wherefore wilt thou go to him the man of God to day It is neither New-moon nor Sabbath If this had they not some place where to resort and assemble Besides were there not then Colleges of Prophets and Prophets Sons in Israel In the same chapter we shall find they had and an hundred men in a place vers 43. and in chap. 6. initio that they had Houses where they lived together Did not the Israelites erect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Houses of false worship too may Could they think of building Places to transgress God's commandment
Dominus docuit offerri in universo mundo purum Sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum acceptum est ei c. The evidence of this was such as forced Hospinian Hist. Sacrament lib. ◠c. 6. to say Iam tum primo illo seculo viventibus adhuc Apostolis magis huic Sacramento quà m Baptismo insidiari ausus sit Daemon homines à prima illa forma sensim adduxit and Sebastianus Francus Statim post Apostolos omnia inversa sunt Coena Domini in Sacrificium transformata est Now Sir if I was loth to pass so harsh a censure as some do upon the First Fathers and Church Christian and could not be perswaded but that which the Catholick Church from her infancy conceived of the Eucharist should have some truth in it and accordingly endeavoured to find out that ratio Sacrificii therein such as might be consonant both to the Principles of the Reformed Religion and unto the Scripture of the New Testament yea perhaps found therein not quoad rem only but quoad nomen also did I merit to be irrided for having found out I know not what Mystery of a Sacrifice now-a-days a Mystery in my sense to all the Christian world When all men are at a seek and one cries I think I have found it shall he be chidden therefore Sir I can remember when you understood me more rightly and interpreted my freedom with much more candour To tell you true therefore I am somewhat suspicious lest the air of Cambridge did you some hurt But let that pass That which I wrote to you concerning this Mystery especially in my Second Reply was for the most part little other than Testimony of matter of Fact If it were false testare de mendacio if true cur caedor Yet one thing more It is no time now to slight the Catholick consent of the Church in her First ages when Socinianism grows so fast upon the rejection thereof nor to abhor so much the notion of a Commemorative Sacrifice in the Eucharist when we shall meet with those who will deny the Death of Christ upon the Cross to have been a Sacrifice for sin Verbum intelligenti There may be here some matter of importance Lastly You may remember how much I desired to be spared from any farther writing or answering upon this argument because I knew it was a nice and displeasing theme and such as I should have no thanks for Now I see I am become a Prophet and that when I looked not for it And thus I have done with this business which hath made me so much work The Censure I gave of the Declaration of the Palsgrave's Churches was not in respect of the matter but the manner of handling as the term of laxe shewed And before I had seen it I heard that Censure given of it by one that wishes the Palsgrave's Churches and their Doctrine as well as I know any Is I erred in my judgment there is an end I use not to be often faulty in rashness that way And this shall teach me to be more wary hereafter If I had had any suspicion of misconstruction I could in this kind have held my tongue with as much ease as any man What my Lord of Armagh's opinion is of the Millennium I know not save only that I have not observed him neither when I gave him my Synchronisms nor in discourse thereabout after he had considered them to discover any opposition or aversation to the Notion I represented thereabout The Like Mr. Wood told me of him after he had read his papers nay that he used this complement to him at their parting I hope we shall meet together in Resurrectione prima But my Lord is a great man and thinks it not fit whatsoever his opinion be to declare himself for a Paradox yet the speeches I observed to fall from him were no wise discouraging He told me once he had a Brother si bene memini who would say He could never believe but the 1000 years were still to come Now for Mr. Potter's Discourse I confess I came to the reading thereof with as much prejudice as might be having been cloyed with so many vain and fancisul Speculations about that mystical Number that I had no stomack to any more of them Which was the reason to tell you true that I shewed no more desire or eagerness to have a sight of your Exscript notwithstanding your commendations and offer of the same For I was loth to be put to give my Censure which I doubted according to former experience must be in sequiorem partem But when I was a little entered thereinto◠and began to perceive the Grounds whereon he meant to build I found my self presently to altar and to anticipate in my mind with much content what he aimed at before I could come to read it and longed not a little to find it well proved and to fall out accordingly That which wone me was the way to reduce Ezekiel's and S. Iohn's so differing measures of the New Ierusalem unto the same and so as both should allude to the Measures of the Ierusalem that was in being As soon as I found this I was not a little glad to see that made fecible which I before took for desperate and as it is ill halting with Criples I began presently to wish O that the Number of the Beast might have the like success for the designing of his See of Rome Concerning which and the compleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both Numbers when I found such Testimonies produced you may guess how I was affected namely That if it be not a Truth which I was very willing to believe it is the most considerable Probability that ever I read in that kind And thus with many thanks for your kind communication thereof unto me even when you had found me not to long for a sight of it I commend you and your learned meditations to the Divine blessing and so I rest Christ's Coll. Aprill 1637. Yours Ioseph Mede Diversum sentire bonos de rebus iisdem Incolumi licuit semper amicitiâ Eusebius De laudibus Constantini p. 492. Edit 1612. Quis praeter Christum Servatorem cunctis totius Orbis terrarum incolis sen terrâ seu mari illisint praescripserit ut singulis septimanis in unum convenientes Diem Dominicum sestum celebrarent I know not whether the Tractators of this argument have observed this passage or not Graeca sic habent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Vanity of man's life When I began this Letter Dr. Whaley your good and religious Friend was in health Before I had finished intermitting some few days I heard he was fallen suddenly sick and soon after that he was recovering Now when I was about to seal my Letter upon the opportunity of a Friend 's going to London I hear he is departed this life and the Bells are yet ringing out for him I expected not to have been the
the Ancients 383. the same with Holy Table 389. the Altar of the true God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an Idol or false God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 391. anciently but one Altar in a Church and in one Diocess 326. whether it may be called Sulium Christi 824. anciently it was the place where the Prayers of the Church were offered to God 844 363 819 America The first Gentile inhabitants and the late Christian plantations there 800 Ananias his Sin was Sacriledge 116. how this Sacriledge is described 117. the aggravations of it 118 119 Angels The conceit of Dionys. Areopag of 9 orders groundless 40. Angels present in the Iewish Temple and our Churches 344 c. their presence an argument for a reverent behaviour there 346. where they keep their station there is Gods Shechinah or special Presence 343 c. Angels are in Scripture put for those over whom they preside 459 471 495 514 527. Good Angels not envious at the advancement of mans nature by Christ 90. nor grieve at the good of others 91 See more in Archangels Antiochus Epiphanes not meant by the Little Horn in Daniel 733 753. the Calamity under him for 2300 evenings and mornings Dan. 8. 14. whence it is to be reckoned 659 Antichrist meant by the Little Horn in Dan. 8. 10. 714. how he is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a counter-resemblance of Christs Coming 647. The Saracen and Turk not the Great Anâ—ichrist 644 c. who primarily meant by the Antichrist and the many Antichrists in S. Iohn's Epist. 664 900 Apocalyps is Daniel explicate as Daniel is Apocalypsis Contracta 787. the subject matter of it 756. it contains the Fares of the Church till Christs second Coming 440 917 918. it is properly the Prophecy of the Church of the Gentiles 575 880. a particular argument for the Divinity of the Apocalyps 853. the authority of it doubted of by whom 602. the admirablâ—â— prophecy in Scripture 582 Apostasie implies a Revolt from God and Christ by Idolatry 625. where it was expresly foretold in the Old Testament 666. it was to be a general one 648. but not such an absolute one as wholly to renounce Christ 645 c. 651. the two man Apostasies of Israel in Ieroboam's and Ahab's days describâ— d 242 The Apostles age when â—ended 360 To appear before the Lord what 260. all the Males of the Iews to appear bâ—fore the Lord thrice a year but the Women were exempted and why 261 Ara and Altare how they differ 392 Archangels their number Seven proved from Scripture and Tradition 40 c. 908. represented by the seven Lamps in the Temple 833 c. their Office twofold 43 Assurance not a Cause or Instrument but a Consequent of Iustification 309 310. Obedience is the way to Assurance 310 Astrology the Authors judgment of it 601 B BAalim what and whence so called 630 Babel's Tower the confusion and number of the Languages there 275 c. Babylon in the Apocalyps is Rome Pseudo-Christian 523 c. not New Rome or Constantinople 922. why called the Great City 484 912. and the Great Whore 523 643. what 's meant by her Golden Cup and the Name in her forehead 525. the twofold ruine of Babylon 489 Baptism called by the Ancients Signaculum Gods Seal or Mark 511. from what Analogy Water was used in Baptism to be a sign of Regeneration or the New birth 63. that by Water in Baptism is figured the H. Spirit not the Bloud of Christ. 62. 63 Bâ—ptisteries were anciently without the Church 330 Bath Kol Gods Oracle and Answer from Heaven accompanied with Thunder 458 c. Beasts in the Prophetick style signifie States and Kingdoms 780. the seven Heads of the Beast have a double signification 524 922. the Beast with Ten Horns what 498 499. the Beast with Two Horns what 505 Blasphemy is put for Idolatry 502 503 To Bless hath a threefold notion in Scripture 83 Blessing sometimes in Scripture signifieth a Gift or Present ibid. Body when a dead Body begins to corrupt 52 Bread signifies sometimes in Scripture all necessaries of life 689 Breaking of Bread put for the Communion of the Eucharist 322 Breast-place of judgment why so called 184 The Bride 's making her self ready for the marriage of the Lamb. 912 Burnt-offering what and why offered daily 287. it had annexed to it a Meat-offering and Drink-offering and was accompanied with Peace-offerings 371 C TO be Called is To be 445 465 Calling of the Gentiles See Gentiles Canaan or Palestine divided into three Provinces 100. its Husbandry and Harvests 297. its Breed of Cattel in the Spring and at Autumn ibid. this Land was promised to be given for an inheritance to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and not to their Seed only 801 c. a figure of Heaven 249 c. the Iews cast out of their own Land by the Romans who yet used not to carry other Nations captive what implied thereby 250 Captivity The three chief Captivities or Dispersions of the Iews 75 76. Three steps or degrees of the Babylonish Captivity 659 Catholick Epistles See General Ep. Cerriâ—i why mad-men were so called 29 30 Changing of Times and Laws what it implies in SS 737 Cherub and Cherubim whence so called 567. their form 917. why the Curtains of the Tabernacle and Walls of the Temple were filled with pictures of Cherubims 345 Chiliasme See Millennium Christ his solemn Preaching began not till Iohn Baptist had done his and why 97. his Death and Resurrection foretold in the Law Prophets and Psalms 50. 51. his Vniversal Kingdom and the Glorious state of his Church is yet to come 196 c. He is to be received whole not only as Priest but as King 308. He is given to us for an Example of life 157. How he is to be imitated 158 The Christian Sacrifice See Sacrifice The true Church of Christ never wholly extinguished 649. in what sense it was either Visible or Invisible under Antichrist 136 137 649 c. Churches or Places for worship in the first Century 323. in the second Century 326 in the third 329. Reasons to prove this 333. Objections answered from p. 334 to 339. at first the sacred meetings were in some Vpper-rooms set apart for Religious uses 321 322. Salute the Church at his House how to be understood 324. That Christians had such Places for Sacred worship was known to the Gentiles 332. To erect and set apart Places for Divine worship is from the instinct of Nature 340 c. A Land without such Places for Religion was counted Vnclean 341. Churches are to be magnificent and decently adorned 406 407 408 Circumcision the Verba solennia used therein 53 54 Clean Heart See Heart Clergy Clerus why so called 15 182. Their obligation to a special demeanour and differing kind of conversation from the Laâ—ety 15 181 182 Clouds Christ's Coming in the Clouds whence the phrase is borrowâ—d 754 764 788 Coenaculum Sion or Church of Sion
what 321 Comet not mentioned in Scripture but implied in other expressions 28 Coming of Christ spoken of indefinitely in the Old Testament without that distinction of First and Second Coming more clearly expressed in the Newâ— 98 611. His First Coming was at the time prefixed in Dan. 105. His Second Coming shall have an Harbinger as well as the First 98 99. Whence S. Paul learn'd to confute the Thessalonians false fear of the day of Christ's Coming to judgment to be near at hand 758 763 Coming of Christ sometimes in Scripture implies the destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish State 701 Commemoration twofold in the Eucharist 373. how this Commemoration is made to God 377 Competency twofold 125. a Competency only to be prayed for 128. it is the best and safest condition 129 Confession of Faith should not be long nor obscure 871. a Fundamental Confession how it may be framed 873. Some Politick considerations against such a Confession examined 875. See more in Fundamentals Constagration of the World whether it implies an utter abolition 614 615 617 Congruity How the Rule of Congruity is observed by God in his dealings with man 81. How it is the Reason and Rule of several Duties God requires at our hands 95 Conscience A good Conscience compared to a Feast in three respects 163. a Scared Conscience what 678. it is the worst estate of the Soul 162 163. how Gods Law alone bindes the Conscience 208 209 Consecrate See Dedicate Constantinople not meant by the mystical Babylon in Apocal. 17. 912 when and how it was taken by the Turke 474 Coâ—rition what the two parts or degrees thereof 108 Conversion the parts or degrees thereof 109 Corban 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 96. more particularly described with the two parts thereof 287. it was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isâ—â—h or Fire-offering 286. the most Holy Offering 286 287 Cornelius a Proselyte and of what sort of Proselytes 165 Covenant twofold of Works and of Grace 251 c. the open and the secret or hidden Covenant under the Law 251. Covenant of Grace the same for substance under the Law and Gospel 250 c. Covenants The Universal Custom of mankind to contract and confirm Covenants by eating and drinking together 370 Covetous men their great folly 131 Council of Constantinople endeavoured to be wronged by foisting in two Canons for Saint-worship 685. falsely said to be against the words Saint and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 686. the First Nicene Councils Testimony touching the Kingdom of Christ 813. a foul Story made use of in the Second Nicene Council in behalf of Image-worship 687. Council of Trent added more Articles to the Creed 874 Courts of the Templeâ— the Inner and Outer Courts what they signifie 587 588. the Times of both not coincident 586 587. the Outmost Court or Court of the Gentiles 20 The Creature how subject to vanity and bondage 230 812. the Creatures were made and are to be used not only for the Service of the Body but of the Soul 195 S. Cyprian a fabulous story touching the manner of his conversion 681. his opinion about Chiliasme 837 D DAEmoniacks were Lunaticks or Mad-men 29 30 Damons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 4. 1. not always taken in Scripture for Evil Spirits 634 635. but sometimes for the Deified Souls of men deceased according to the notion of the Gentiles Theology 629 c. Damons were supposed to be a middle sort of divine Powers Mediators and Agents between the Gods and men 627 c. the same with Dii Animales Penates Lares Manii Dii 631. the way of worshipping them by Images Pillars or Columns 632 633. their worship promoted by lying miracles 680. the Gentiles Theology of Daemons revived and resembled by an Idolatrous sort of Christians 634 Daily Bread what meant thereby 86 Dan why not mentioned among the Twelve Tribes in Apocal. 7. 455 456 Daniels LXX Weeks explained 697 c. the purport of them 697. his Prophecy reaches to Christ's Second Coming 787. whether he understood his own Visions 788 Day signifies sometimes in Scripture a long time 86 772 Days The 1260 Days in Apocal. 11. are to be taken for Years proved by five Reasons 598. when they begin and end 600 the 1290 and 1335 Days in Dan. 12. are so many Years 720 Iunius and Broughton who interpret them of so many Days confuted 117 c. their Epocha 720 602. the purport and scope of those two Numbers 719 834. the Events answerable to the Prophecy 720 c. why the fuller Discovery of Antichrist was not to be till toward the end of the Eleventh Century 723 Dead body See Body Death What meant by the Second Death 913 Dedicate Things dedicated unto God how unalienable 120 121 Deliration two kinds of it 29 Devil why called The Prince of the power of the Air 23. and The accuser of the brethren 496. why he took the Serpent's shape 223 c. he assaults us where we are weakest 226. That the Devil durst not blaspheme God before the Coming of Christ was an ancient Tenet of some Fathers 24 Diluvium ignis in Irenâ—us 611 Discalceation a Rite used at their coming into Sacred Places by the Iews and Mahumetans 348. and by the Abâ—ssine Christians 349 Double honour See Honour Dying unto Sin what 107 E EAdem est ratio Loci Temporis vindicared and explain'd 860 Eagle the Ensign of the Roman Empire 492 The Earth is in the Politick World according to the Prophetick style the Peasantry or Vulgus hominum 616 Earth-quake what it means in the Prophetick style 919 East Churches anciently built towards it 330. of worshipping towards iâ— the practice os Antiquity 397. By the East is sometimes in Scripture meant Arabia 467 Ecclesiastical Persons See Clergy and Ministers Edom in the Rabinical Comments is interpreted Rome with an account of some such passages expunged by the Romanists 902 903 Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word used sometimes in the Old Testament for Civil Magistrates 72. in the New for Church-Officers 70 c. no ground in 1 Tim. 5. 17. for Lay-Elders in the Church 70 c. under this name of Elders are sometimes included ' Deacons 71. the 24 Elders in Apocal. 4. who meant thereby and why they are said to be crowned 439 Elements why called in Gal. 4. weak and beggarly Elements 250 An Elias to be the harbinger of Christ's Second Coming 98 c. The Encamping of Israel in the wilderness described and how it is in Apocal. 4. alluded to 619 Encanstum Ink of a purple colour appropriate to the use of Kings c. 11 End of the world That the Apostles were not so mistaken as to believe it would be in their days proved against Baronius and others 665 Enemy and Avenger in Psal. 8. meant of the Devil 38 Envy the Image of the Devil 90 Ephraim why he and ' Dan not mentioned among the Twelve Tribes in Apocal. 7. 455 456 Epiphanius his
observable Gloss upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 4. 1. 636 Ethnicisme when and by what degrees it fell in the Roman Empire 195 Encharist That Christ is offered there not Hypostatically but Commemoratively only proved from ancient Liturgies and Fathers 376 c. See Christian Sacrifice Even-song its antiquity enquired into 840 F FAith A threefold Faith 214. Saving Faith described 154 155. no True Saving Faith that is without fruits of Obedience 156 Fast why the Iews used to fast upon the 4 5 and 10 moneths 890 Fear is sometimes in Scripture put for God 9 Feasts The three solemn Feasts viz. the Passeover Pentecost and F. of Tabernacles 265. That they were both Commemorative and Figurative 265 266. the Presents and Offerings at these Feasts 268 c. Fire-offering why so called 290 First Sinner â—any kind most severely punished by God 122 Foedus percutere ferire whence the phrase 371 Fonts See Baptisteriâ—s Food convenient in Prov. 30. what meant thereby 124 125 Footstool God's Footstool what 393 Forgiveness of injuries the necessity thereof proved by four arguments 95 c. Form of Prayer See Prayer Fulness of the Gentiles what 139 197 Fundamentals their Ratio and distinguishing Character fit to be enquired into and stated 868 873. the reason why men are shye of doing this 868 869. Lutherans and Calvenists differ not in Fundamentals 866 876. and therefore should tolerate each other 866 875. Two sorts of Fundamental Articles viz. Fundamentals of Salvation and Fundamentals of Ecclesiastical communion 869. a farther explication or Fundamentals of Salvation 870 871. The way of determining Fundamentals should be short easie and evident 871. Fundamenta Theologicarum veritatum not the same with Fundamenta Salutis 872 Furlongs 1600. in Apocal. 14 20. what may seenâ— to be meant thereby 593 G. GAlilee described 130. Galilee of the Gentiles why so called ibid. Galilee the most despised part of Palestine 102. Christâ—s ordinary residence was in Galilee 100. and this was according to Prophecy 101 Gehenna when and how it came to signifie Hell 31 General or Catholick Epistles why so called 663 Gentiles Calling of the Gentiles twofold and at distant times 139 453. c. their first Calling 164. they are God's surrogated Israel and represented in the Apocalyps under the notion of Israelites or Iews 454. Why the Apostles were at first so ignorant that the Gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles 77 Gerizim The Temple at mount Gerizim built by whom and why 48 Glory when it refers to God what it signifies 92. To Glorifie or give glory unto God what 92 Goats set en Christs left hand what meant thereby 841 God How the Understanding and Will ascend to God by the Scale of the Creatures 191 192 Gods House the condition and property of it 340 c. the manner of God's presence therein 343 c. Vindicated twice by Christ from prophanation 44 Gods To serve other Gods is sometimes meant Politically for being servants to such as served them 668 Gog and Magog in the Apocalyps his conjecture touching them 574. not the same with Gog in Ezekiel 605. where Gog was prophesied of before Ezekiel 796. why prophesied of by Micah in chap. 5. under the name of the Assyrian 796 797 Cospel the description of it 110. this description explained 112. the Gospels antiquity 110. the gradual discoveries of it under the Old Testament 111. how it includes Repentance 113 Goths when they received the Christian Faith 842 Gothick Liturgy its antiquity ibid. Grebner's Prophecy censured 878 Greek and Eastern Churches opposition against image-worship and Saint-worship when it began and how long it lasted 683 c. Greek Kingdom not extended in the holy account beyond Antiochus Epiphanes 749 797 Gregentius a Christian Bishop his famous dispute with Herbanuâ— a Iew with the issue thereof 767 H. HAdes the place of separate Souls 605 Hail what it signifies in the Prophetick Style 460 Hallowed See Sanctified Harvest a twofold signification thereof in the Prophets 520 Mr. Haydock's ingenious conjecture about the form of the 7 Sealed Book applauded by Mr. Mede 791 Heart Cleanness or Purity of Heart what 200. an effectual means to this is the apprehension of God's presence 201. Loyalty of Heart to God what 202. Perfect Heart what ibid. Sincerity of Heart what 204. why and how the Heart is to be kept and guarded with all diligence 199 200. From the pure and sincere Heart are the issues of Spiritual life 204. Five issues of Spiritual life 205 Heave-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described and distinguished 288 Heaven is sometimes in Scripture put for God 102 103. where in Scripture God was first styled The God of Heaven and why 90. Heaven in the Political world what it signifies according to the Prophetick Style 615 616 Heavens 3 Heavens mentioned in Scripture 614. the Sublunary Heavens only shall suffer in the great Constagration 615. Hebrew Text of the Old Testament the differences between it and the LXX the various readings c. 785 805 c. 808. Lud. de Dien's judgment of the Keri and Ketif 806 807 Hell why called Coetus Rephaim 32. and the Lake of fire and brimstone 33. and Gehenna 31 Heresies brought into the Church privily 240 Hierom his unequal relating the opinions of his adversaries 602 836 899. why he never mentions Iustin Martyr where he speaks of the Chiliasts 813 High priests going into the most Holy place what it figured 639 Hills See Mountains Holiness twofold 1 Original Absolute and Essential in God 2 Derived or Relative in the things which are his 8. a threefold notion of Holiness 1 Essential Holiness 2 Holiness of Integrity 3 Relative Holiness 823. Things relatively holy under the Gospel 11 399. Objectioâ—s answered 400 401 See more in Sanctity Holy one of Israel why God is so called 8 Holy-days the observing of them nor forbidden by the fourth Commandment 267 Honour sometimes signifies Reward or Maintenance 72. See Double Honour Horn The Little Horn in Dan. 7. is not Antiochus Epiphanes 737. but Antichrist 714. according to the sense of the ancient Fathers 656 657 how the Little Horn rose up behind the Ten Horns 778 Host of Heaven twofold 1 Visible the Stars 2 Invisible the Angels 90. The Lord of Hosts why God is so called ibid. House of God See God's House Humility or Lowliness described 158 Humblest nature and condition fittest for Religion 159 Hysteropotmi who 64 I. IAcob the reason of his name 226 Iaphets Sons 5 Rules to find out their original seats after the dispersion of Babel 275. 5 other Rules 277 Iavan the Father of the Grecians 278 Idolatry and Sacriledge near allied 17. the main Character of the Christian Apostasie 643. the Church of Israel Idolatrous though she renounced not altogether the true God 645 c. 651. Idolatry is a denying of the Lord that bought them 244 Idols in Scripture called Lies 49. and Abominations 514 707 Iehoiakim's years disposed according to
the Events in Scripture 889. Iehoiakim not carried captive into Babylon Pag. 890 Ieremy's Prophesies not digested in order 834 Iews had a Second tender of Christ and upon their refusing it were cast off 164 though some of them believed yet the Body or Nation of the Iews rejected Christ and was therefore rejected 750. the manner and external means of their Conversion to be by Vision and Voice from Heaven 761. This argued from the manner of S. Paul's Conversion 761 891. and from the story of a miraculous conversion of many Iews as a Praeludium to their General Conversion 767. why God gave the Iews peculiar Rites and Observations 181 Ignatius his Epistles 327 Images were at first made for Daemoâ—s to dwell in c. 632 Image-worship brought in and promoted by lying stories 687. the great Opposition in the Greek and Eastern Churches against it for the space of 120 years 683 c. Impotency pretended doth not excuse us from our duty 308 Iohn Baptist a forerunner of Christ in his Nativity Preaching and Suffering 97 Isaac a Type of Christ. 50 51 Islands not taken always in Scripture for Countries encompassed by the Sea 272. Countries divided from the Iews by Sea were called Islands ibid. c. what they signifie in the Apocalyps according to the Prophetick style 450 Iudgment The description of the Great Iudgment when Christ shall sit on his Throne 841. a farther description of the Great Day of Iudgment 762 c. whence Christ and his Apostles received that term 754. the precise time thereof not to be known 895. K. KEri and Kerif See Hebrew Text King or Kingdom sometimes in Scripture put for any State or Polity 667 711 911. Kings of the East in Apocal. 16. 12. who are meant thereby 529 Kingdom of God or Heaven sometimes in Scripture signifies the Kingdom of Messiah 103. why it is so called 104. whence the Iews gave this term to the Kingdom of Messiah 103. a twofold state of Christ's Kingdom 104 the first state thereof called Regnum Lapidis the second Regnum Montis 743. the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of Christs Kingdom 104. it was to be set up in the Times of the Fourth Kingdom 745 754 c. That the Kingdom of Christ and the Saints in Dan. 7. is the same with that of 1000 years in Apocal. 20. 763. a twofold Kingdom one whereby Christ reigns in his Saints the other whereby they reign with him 573 Kingdoms 4 Kingdoms represented by Nebuchaduezzars Image of 4 sundry metals Dan. 2. and by 4 Beasts Dan. 7. the purport of them 743 c. why these 4 are singled out 712 713. That the Fourth is the Roman proved by 3 Arguments from p. 712 to 716. That these 4 Kingdoms are a Prophetical Chronology and the Great Kalendar of Times 654 The Kiss of Peace why so called 96 Kissing of the Pax whatâ— ibid. L. LActantius vindicated from the Antichiliasts 812 836 Lake of Fire and Brimstone why Hell so described 33 Lamps That the 7 Lamps in the Temple signified the 7 Archangels 833 Larvati why Mad-men so called 29 Last hour or time the End of all are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service and not of the End of the World 664 Last times a twofold acception of them in Scripture 652. That the times of the Fourth Beast or Roman Kingdom are the Last times 654 c. their Epocha or beginning 656. their duration and length 655 Latter times of the Last times are the times of the Apostasie under Antichrist 653 655 Law may be considered either 1 as a Rule or 2 as a Covenant of works how Believers are not under the Law 114 In what respects the Law is dissolved or not dissolved by Christ 12 How Gods Law alone binds the conscience 208 209 Lawenus his Stricturâ— in Clavem Apocal. 541. the occasion of his writing them 783. his way of interpreting the Apocalyps 754 782. a full answer to his Stricturâ— 550 Law-giver why Christ so called in Genes 49. and what is meant by that phrase Law-giver from between his feet 35 Lay-Elders See Elders Legends Fabulous Legends their grosseness and the design of them 678 681 c. Levi what the name signifies 178. why Levi was chosen for the Priesthood 179 180. why called Gods Holy one 180 181. his Favoured one 181 Locusts what they signifie in the Prophetick style 467 c. Lords-day why observed by Christians 57. a Testimony for it out of Euseâ—ius 851 Lords-prayer twice delivered by Christ 2. intended not only for a Pattern but a Form of Prayer ibid. Lords-supper See Christian Sacrifice Lying unto the Holy Ghost what is meant thereby 118 M. MAgog See Gog. Mahuzzim in Dan. 11. the word signifies Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. That Saints and their Reliques were so called at the beginning of Saint-worship 673 c. Manna why so called 245. how it differed from the Apothecaries or the Arabian Manna 245 246. how it was Spiritual meat and a Type of Christ. 247 Mark To have the Mark of the Beast in the right hand or in the forehead Apocal. 〈◊〉 what it means 509 511 Marriage the Roman laws for it discountenanced by Constantine 672. Prohibition of Marriage a character of Monastick profession 688 Martyrs their privilege to riâ—e first 604 771 775. their Reign misinterpreted to an Idolatrous sense 759 why Christians anciently kept their assemblies at their Monuments 679. Martyrium Omeritarum 768 Mass Reasons against the lurching Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Priest receives alone 253 254. In the Mass the ancient Offering of Praise is turned into an Offering of Expiation 293. How the Oblation of the ancient Church differed from that in the Mass 295. The Blasphemous Oblation in the Mass justly taken away 376. That the ancient Church never intended any Hypostatical oblation of Christ. 376 c. Meat put in Scripture for all necessaries of life 689. Abstinence from meats a character of Monastick profession 688 Meekness in the Scripture-use is of a larger signification than in Ethicks 161 Melancholia and Mania how they differ 29 Memorial why that which was burned upon the Altar was so called 342 Memorial of Gods Name what 341 Merit the word abused and in what sense tolerable 176 Messiah the Prince in Dan. 9 meant only of Christ. 700 Methodius Bishop of Tyre a passage out of him touching the Millennium 843 Michael in Apocal. 12. who 495 Middle estate or a Competency the best and safest condition 129 Millennium or the 1000 years Reign of Christ not to be understood in any gross carnal sense 603 836 837. to be asserted modestly and warily so as not to clash with any Catholick Tenet of the Christian Faith 603. to be propounded generally not particulatim seu modatim 571. a General description of it 603. no necessity of asserting Christs visible converse upon Earth Ibid. this Opinion of Regnum Christi Sanctorum was universally held by the
whole Orthodox Christian Church in the Age immediately following the Apostles 771. a passage out of Iustin Martyr to this purpose vindicated which had been corrupted as other passages to the like purpose were expunged out of Sulpitius Severus Victorinus Petav. and others of the same judgment 533 534. nor was it anciently denied but by Hereticks and such as denied the Apocalyps 534 602. Other Testimonies for it as out of the Council of Nice 813. and a Carechism set forth in K. Edward the sixth his Reign 813 815. That this Millennium follows upon the expiring of Antichrist's reign 603. this clearly proved by the Synchronisms 429. That the 1000 years of Satans being bound began not at Constantine 427 880. S. Hierome's misrepresentation of the sense of the more ancient Fathers detected 899. Doubtful whether Cerinthus held any part of this Opinion though in a wrong sense 900 Mincha what 357 826. in marg The Purity of the Christian Mincha explained in three particulars 358 359 Minister how the word is sometimes used improperly 27 517. Four Solecisms from the improper use thereof ibid Ministers are not the peoples Ministers but God's 26. and are maintained out of Gods revenue 77 78 120. their maintenance is not of the nature of Alms 73. To make provision for God's Ministers and Worship a work highly pleasing to God 174 Miracles No noise of Miracles done by Reliques of Martyrs in the first 300 years after Christ 679 680. The design of the pretended Miracles in after-ages 681 c. Monks and Friers the chief promoters of Saint-worship 690 691. and of Image-worship 691. The two characters of Monastick professors 688. a third character 689. Monkisn poverty no point of Piety 126 c. Months The 42 Months in Apocal. 11. 2. the same with 1260 Days in vers 3. are to be taken for Months of years and are more than three single years and an half 598. their beginning and ending 600. why the profaning of the holy City by the Gentiles and the continuing of the Beast is number'd by Months Apocal. 11. 2. ch 13. 5. but the Prophesying of the Witnesses and the Woman's abode in the Wilderness by Days ch 11. 3. ch 12. 6. 481 492 Moses the Rites and Ordinances of Moses observed for some time after Christs ascension by the Apostles and believing Iews 841 Mountains and Hills what they signifie in the Prophetick style 135 462 Mountains and Islands 450 N NAme written in their foreheads in Apocal. 14. 1. what meant thereby 511 Name of God Hereby is meant 1 God himself 2. what is his by a peculiar right 4 5. Gods Name to be called upon a thing what is imports 5. Gods Name how it is sanctified or hallowed 9. how it is prophaned or polluted 14 Names of men in Apocal. 11. 13. what 489 490 Nations or Gentiles put in the Apocalyps for the Apostate or false Christians 574 908 Nazarites their Vow and Law abrogated by the Apostles and therefore no ground for Monkish orders 128 Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of an Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron explained 104 105 743 744 New Heavens and New Earth what meant thereby 613 New Ierusalem what meant thereby 772 877 914 Nicene Council See Council Noah The seven Precepts of the sons of Noah 19. these Precepts were briefly included in the Apostles decision at the Council in Ierusalem Acts 15. 165. whether the observation of the Sabbath-day was included in any of these Precepts 20. The division of the Earth by Noah's Sons was not confused but orderly 274 Number of the Beast 666 why he differs from Monsieur Testara's conjecture about it 795. Mr. Potter's Discourse upon it highly approved by him 877 Numbers of Times when Definite and Indefinite 597 656 Numbers Distributive or Divisive wanting in the Hebrew Text and how supplied 700 O OBedience to Gods Commands the best protection against dangers 262. a more necessary and acceptable duty than Sacrifice 351 c. Three qualifications of true Obedience 1 Cordial 2 Resolved 3 Vniversal 310 Offerings were either Eucharistical or Euctical and Vâ—tal 285. a description of these 289. They are due to God naturally and perpetually 286. That they were not Typical and Ceremonial but Moral in their end and nature proved by four arguments 288 289. That they are required of Christians 291. the three degrees or parts thereof 290 Offerings and Sacrifices wherein they differ 369 The two Olive-branches in Zech. 4. explained 833 Oracles The Heathen Oracles began to cease at the birth of Christ. 193 194 Oratories See Proseucha's P. PAlestine See Canaan Passions 4 Rules for the governing of them 227 S. Paul's Conversion a Type of the calling of the Iews 891 Peace on Earth Luke 2. what is meant thereby 93 94 Peace-offerings and other Sacrifices were to be eaten before the third day and why 51 Penitents 5 degrees of them according to the discipline of the ancient Church 331 Pentecost why called the Feast of Weeks 265. and of harvest 269. why the Gospel was first published and in such a miraculous way at Pentecost 76. That those First Converts to the Christian Faith at Pentecost were not Gentiles but Iews 74 75 Perfect Heart See Heart Perjury upon Theft a more dangerous Sin in the Iewish State 133 Persecutions Which were the greatest and longest of the 10 Persecutions 334 S. Peter his Second Epistle why and by whom questioned 612 Pillars and Images why at first erected 632 The Pontifical Stole and Title first refused by the Emperour Gratian. 601 Poverty its dangers and evils 132 133 Prayer why God requires it of us 170. why not always heard 168. how God often hears our Prayers when we think he doth not 169. A set Form of Prayer proved to be lawful 2. Objections against set Forms answered 3 4. To be prayed to in Heaven and to present our Prayers to God is a Right and Privilege proper to Christ 639. and that Christ purchased it by his death 640 Presents The Oriental Custome to bring Presents to their Kings 115 Priesthood why confined to one Tribe only under the Law 178 179 Prophecies so foretel things to come as yet to instruct the present Church 285 Prophesying hath a fourfold sense in Scripture 58. in what sense it is attributed to Women 58 59 A Prophet's Reward is a special and eminent Reward 87 Prophetical Schemes familiar and usual to the Eastern Nations 616 759 Proselytes two sorts of them 1 Proselytes of the Covenant or Righteousness 2. Proselytes of the Gate 19 20. these are called in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Worshippers and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that fear God 20 21. why there were more of this sort of Proselytes 21 22. how these became so ready for the Gospel and Faith of Christ. 22 Proseuchae or Places of Prayer their use among the Iews and how they differed from Synagogues 66 67. where they are mentioned in Scripture 67. their Antiquities 68 69 Prosperity is apt to make men
the Sea there are Islands to be met with which are commodious for habitation fruitful and well watered and accommodated with convenient harbors and ports for those who are distrestat Sea to repair to for their safety so is it in the world which is a very troubled Sea tempestuous and tossed by reason of sin God hath here providâ—d Synagogues or Holy Churches as we call them wherein the Truth is diligently taught and whither they repair who are lovers of the Truth and desire in good earnest to be saved and to escape the judgment and wrath of God * Clâ—m Alex. in Opere Quis fit ille dives qui salvetur apud Euseb. Hist Eccl. lib. 3. â— 17. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also in this Century undoubtedly were extant those Fabricks in the Cemeteries of S. Peter in the Vaticane and of S. Paul in via Ostâ—nsi which could be no other thaâ— some Christian Oratories whereof Gains speaks in â—usib and calls Throphaea Apostolorum lib. 2. cap. 24. Ab Anno 200. ad 300. a All the day long shall the zeal of Faith speak to this point bewailing that a Christian should come from Idols into the CHURCH that he should come into the HOUSE OF GOD from the shop of his enemy that he should lift up to God the Father those hands which were the mothers and makers of Idols and adore God with those very hands which namely in respect of the Idols made by them are adored without the Church viz. in the Heathens Temples in opposition to God and that he should presume to reach forth those hands to receive the Body of our Lord which are imploy'd in making Bodies that is Images for the Demons That according to the Gentiles Theology Images were as Bodies to be informed with Demons as with Souls see the Treatise of the Apostasie of the latter Times chap. 5. in Book III. b The house of our Dove that is of our Dove-like Religion or the Catholick flock of Christ figured by the Dove c In short The Dove is wont to point out Christ. d Plain without such a multiplicity of doors and curtains e In high and open places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. * Luke 1. 78. * Lib. 2. c. 57. al. 61. a Let the House be long and built Eastward * Apol. c. 16. * De Spect. â— 25. ad Vxoâ— l. 2. c. 9. De coâ—on miâ—t cap. 3. De velandiâ— virginiâ—us c. 3 13. b Coming to the Water to be baptized not only there but also somewhat asore in the CHURCH under the hand of the Bishop or Priest we take witneâ—s that we renounce the Devil and his Pomp and Angels and afterwards we are drenched thrice in the Water c The Temples of God shall be as common and ordinary Houses Churches shall be utterly demolished every where the Scriptures shall be despised d The Sacred Edifices of Churches shall become heaps and as a desolate lodge in an Orchard there shall be no more Communion of the precious Body and Bloud of Christ Liturgy shall be extinguished Singing of Psalms shall cease Reading of the Scriptures shall no more be heard * Ex Psal. 79. 2. caelesis similibus â—uâ—ta LXX IIebr in â—cervâ—â— seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolationes Cap. 49. e The Christians being in possession of a certain publick place and challenging it for theirs and on the other side the Taverners alledging that it belong'd of right to them the Emperor's Rescript in favour of the Christians was this That it was better that God should be worshipt there after what way soever than that it should be delivered and given up to the Taverners a 1. Weeping the first degree of Penance was without the Porch of the Oratorie where the mournful sinners stood and beg'd of all the Faithful as they went in to pray for them 2. Hearing the second degree was within the Porch in the place called Narthex the place where these penitent Sinners being now under the Ferula or censure of the Church might stand near to the Catechumens and hear the Scripture read and expounded but were to go out before them 3. Prostration or Lying along on the Church-pavement These Prostrate ones were admitted somewhat further into the Church and went out with the Catechumens 4. Standing or Staying with the people or Congregation These Consistentes did not go out with the Catechumenes but after they and the other Penitents were gone out stay'd and joyn'd in prayer with the Faithful 5. Participation of the Sacraments b How that by becoming all things to all men he had in a short time gained a great number of Converts through the assistance of the Divine Spirit and that hereupon he had a strong desire to set upon the building of a Temple or Place for Sacred assemblies wherein he was the more encouraged by the general forwardness he observed among the Converts to contribute both their moneys and their best assistances to so good a work This is that Temple which is to be seen even at this day This is that Temple the erection whereof this Great person being resolved to undertake without any delay he laid the foundation thereof and therewithal of his Sacerdotal i.e. Episcopal Prefecture in the most conspicuous place of all the City c Whereas all other Houses whether Publick or private were overthrown by that Earthquake this Gregorian Temple alone stood firm without any the least hurt He was made Bishop Anno 249. lived until 260. d The Lord's House e The Church f Thinkest thou O Matron which art rich and wealthy in the Church of Christ that thou dost celebrate or commemorate the Lord's Sacrifice that is that thou dost participate the Lord's Supper worthily as thou oughtest who dost not at all respect but art regardless of the Corban who comest into the Lord's House without a Sacrifice or Offering nay who takest part of the poor mans Sacrifice feedest on what he brought for his Offering and bringest none thy self Script â—n 253. a What then remains but that the Church should yield to the Capitol and that the Priests withdrawing themselves and taking away the Altar of our Lord Images and Idol-Gods together with their Altars should succeed and take possession of the Sacrary or place proper to the sacred and venerable Bench of our Clergy b The Altar of our Lord and the place for the sacred and venerable Bench of the Clergy c Idol-Gods and Images together with the Altars of the Devil d might enter into the House of God e The Emperour C. P. L. Galienus to Dionysius Pinnas Demetrius and the rest of the Bishops Greeting What I have been pleased graciously to do for the Christians I have caused to be published throughout the world viz. That all men should quit the Worshipping-places for the Christians use And therefore you may make use of the Copy of my Letters to the end ye may be secured from any future attempts to disturb you
he blaspemes that God who brings that punishment upon them Eusebius lib. 4. Hist. Cap. 17. cites the same out of both with approbation So doth Oecumenius upon the last Chapter of the first of S. Peter Epiphanius against Heresie 39. gives the same as his own assertion almost in the same words with Iustin and Irenaeus though not naming them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Before the coming of Christ the Devil did not dare to speak a blasphemous word against his Lord for being in expectation of the coming of Christ he imagined he should obtain some mercy I will not enquire how true this Tenet of theirs is but only gather this that they could not think the Devils were cast into Hell before the coming of Christ For then how could they but have known they should be damned if the execution had already been done upon them Saint Augustine as may seem intending to reconcile these places of Peter and Iude with the rest of Scripture is alledged to affirm that the Devils suffering some Hell-like torment in their Aiery Mansion the Air may in that respect in an improper sense be called Hell But that the Devils were locally or Actually in Hell or should be before the Day of Iudgment it is plain he held not and that will appear by these two passages in his Book de Civitate Dei First where he saith Daemones in hoc quidem aere habitant quia de Coeli superioris sublimitate dejecti merito irregressibilis transgressionis in hoc sibi congruo velut carcere praedamnati sunt Lib. 8. Cap. 22. The Devils indeed have their habitation in this Air for they being cast out of the highest heaven through the due desert of their unrecoverable apostasie and transgression are fore-condemned and adjudged to be kept in this Aiery region as in a prison very congruous and fit for such transgressors The other in the same Book chap. 23. where he expounds that of the Devils Matth. 8. Art thou come to torment us before the time that is saith he ante tempus Iudicii quo aeternâ damnatione puniendi sunt cum omnibus etiam hominibus qui eorum societate detinentur before the time of the last Iudgment when they are to be eternally punished together with all those men who are entangled in their society The Divines of latter times the School-men and others to reconcile the supposed Contrariety in Scripture divide the matter holding some Devils to be in the Air as S. Paul and the History of Scripture tell us some to be already in Hell as they thought S. Peter and S. Iude affirm'd which opinion seems to be occasioned by a Quaere of S. Hierom's upon the sixth of the Ephesians though he speaks but obscurely and defines nothing But what ground of Scripture or Reason can be given why all the Devils which sinned should not be in the same Condition especially that Satan the worst and chief of them should not be in the worst estate but enjoy the greatest liberty It follows therefore that these places of S. Peter and S. Iude are to be construed according to the sense I have given of them namely That the evil Spirits which sinned being adjudged to Hellish torments were cast out of Heaven into this lower Region there to be reserved as in a prison for chains of darkness at the Day of Iudgment DISCOURSE V. 1 COR. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God A Man would think at first sight that this Scripture did exceedingly warrant our use of the word Minister in stead of that of Priest and leave no plea for them who had rather speak otherwise Howsoever I intend at this time to shew the contrary and even out of this Text that we have very much swerved herein from the Apostles language and abuse that word to such a sense as they never intended nor is any where found in Scripture I favour neither superstition nor superstitious men yet truth is truth and needful to be known especially when ignorance thereof breedeth errour and uncharitableness My Discourse therefore shall be of the use of the words Priest and Minister wherein shall appear how truly we are all Ministers in our Apostle's sense and yet how abusively and improperly so called in the ordinary and prevailing use of that word I will begin thus All Ecclesiastical persons or Clergy-men may be considered in a Threefold relation First to God secondly to the People thirdly one toward another In respect to God all are Ministers of what degree soever they be because they do what they do by commission from him either more or less immediate for a Minister is he qui operam suam alicui ut superiori aut domino praebet who serves another as his Superior or Master In respect of the People all are Bishops that is Inspectores or Overseers as having charge to look unto them But lastly compared one to another he whom we usually call Bishop is only Overseer of the rest Inspector totius Cleri Deacons are only Ministers to the rest Ministri Presbyterorum Episcoporum and in that respect have their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are properly but two Orders Ecclesiastical Presbyteri Diaconi the one the Masters Priests the other the Ministers Deacons The rest are but diverse degrees of these Two As Bishops are a degree of Presbyters of divine ordinance to be as Heads Chiefs and Presidents of their Brethren So Subâ—deacons Lectors and indeed any other kind of Ecclesiastical Ministers whether in Ecclesia or Foro Ecclesiastico I mean whether they attend divine Duties in the Church or Iurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Courts are all a kind of Deacons being to the Presbyters either single or Episcopal as the Levites were to the Sacerdotes in the Old Testament namely to minister unto or for them Thus when we say Bishops Presbyters and Deacons we name but two Orders yet three Degrees These grounds being forelaid and understood I affirm first That Presbyters are by us unnaturally and improperly called Ministers either of the Church or of such or such a Parish we should call them as my Text doth Ministers of God or Ministers of Christ not Ministers of men First Because they are only God's Ministers who sends them but the People's Magistri to teach instruct and oversee them Were it not absurd to call the Shepherd the Sheeps Minister If he be their Minister they surely are his Masters And so indeed the People by occasion of this misappellation think they are ours and use us accordingly Indeed we are called Ministers but never their Ministers but as you see here God's Ministers Christ's Ministers who imployeth us to dispense his Mysteries unto his Church There are Three words in the New Testament translated Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—the first is most frequent but not one of them is given to the Apostles
in the whole Scripture with relation to the Church or People you shall never find them called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers of the Church which is so frequent with us but Ministers of God 2 Cor. 6. 4. 1 Thess. 3. 2. Ministers of Christ as in my Text and 2 Cor. 11. 23. Col. 1. 7. Ministers of Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 6. or Ministers of that which they minister as Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3. 6. Ministers of the Gospel Ephes. 3. 7. Coloss. 1. 23. But not Ministers of them to whose behoof they minister Yet might this speech Minister of the Church if rightly construed be admitted namely if it be spoken by an Ellipsis for Minister of God for and over the Church so the Apostle Coloss. 1. 7. A faithful Minister of Christ for you that is Christ's Minister not theirs yet not for Christ but for them But those who use this speech commonly mean otherwise Secondly Angels are called ministring spirits but not our Ministers but God's Ministers to us-ward or for our behalf So Ministers of the Gospel not the People's or Congregation's Ministers but God's Ministers for their behoof Thirdly This speech Minister of the Church or of this or that Church is so much the more incommodious because it hath begotten as incommodious and unapt speeches do an erroneous conceit not only among the vulgar but some of better understanding namely That a Minister is not lawfully called unless he be chosen by the People because he is their Minister and so to be deputed by them And indeed if he be their Minister in proper relation they are his Masters and so it is good reason they should appoint him as Masters do those who are to serve them But if in proper relation they are God's Ministers and not theirs though for them then God is to appoint them or such as he hath put in place to do it It is an erroneous conceit that some maintain That the power of Sacred Order and of the Keys is given by God immediately to the Body of the Congregation and that they depute him who is their Minister to execute the power which is originally in them That power is conferred by God immediately to those who are Bishops and Pastors and by and through them belongs to the whole Body and no otherwise Sed tantum potuit incommodi sermonis usus Some perhaps will object against my whole Assertion that of S. Paul 2 Cor. 4. 5. We preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Iesus sake If the Apostles were the Churches Servants why not their Ministers I answer the Apostle says not they were the Corinthians servants but that he had made himself so in his Preaching to them So he says expresly 1 Cor. 9. 19. For though I be free from all men yet I have made my self a servant to all that I might gain the more Yet he confesses the Corinthians began to vilifie him for this condescent 2 Cor. 11. 7. Have I committed an offence in abasing my self that you might be exalted because I have preached unto you the Gospel of God freely This was that wherein he carried himself toward the Corinthians as a Servant but to other Churches he did not so It would be a strange assertion to say the Apostle were the Corinthians Servant in a proper relation we know he says Gal. 1. 10. If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ and Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey I come now to a second Assertion which is That howsoever any Ecclesiastical person may be rightly called a Minister so it be in a proper relation to God-ward yet the word Minister is again most unfitly used by us for a name of distinction of one Ecclesiastical Order from another as when we call those which are Presbyters Ministers by way of distinction from Deacons for so we speak Ministers and Deacons in stead of Priests and Deacons The reason we thus speak is to avoid the name Priest which we conceive to signifie Sacerdos that is one that sacrificeth such as were those in the Law But our Curates of holy things in the Gospel are not to offer Sacrifice and therefore ought not to be called Sacerdotes and consequently not Priests This is the reason But if it be well examined Priest is the English of Presbyter and not of Sacerdos there being in our Tongue no word in use for Sacerdos Priest which we use for both being improperly used for a Sacrificer but naturally expressing a Presbyter the name whereby the Apostles call both themselves and those which succeed them in their charge For who can deny that our word Priest is corrupted of Presbyter Our Ancestors the Saxons first used Preoster whence by a farther contraction came Preste and Priest The high and low Dutch have Priester the French Prestre the Italian Prete but the Spaniard only speaks full Presbytero But to come more near the point our men in using the word Minister for a distinctive name in stead of Priest incur four Solecisms I mean when we use the word Minister not at large but for a distinction from the Order of Deacons saying Ministers and Deacons First We run into that we sought to avoid For we would avoid to call the Presbyters of the Gospel by the name of the Sacrificers of the Law and yet run into it in such sort that we style those of the Gospel by the Legal name and those of the Law by the Evangelical name The Hebrew calls them of the Law Cohanim of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to minister and thence comes the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we call those of the Gospel Cohanim when we style them Ministers On the contrary the Apostles style those of the Gospel Presbyteri but we transfer that name to those of the Law when we call them Priests This is counterchange Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim Secondly It is a confusion or Tautology to say Ministers and Deacons that is Ministers and Ministers for Deacon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Greek a Minister the one is Minister in Latin the other in Greek as if one should say Homo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dilâ—vium and Cataclysmus and think so to distinguish things of several natures or conditions Thirdly We impose upon that Order a name of a direct contrary notion to what the Apostles gave them The Apostles gave them a name of Eldership and Superiority in calling them Presbyteri we of Inferiority and Subordination in calling them Ministri The Iews had no name more honourable than that of Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so they called their Magistrates so we read of Elders of the people and Elders of the Priests and