gross Parachronism For it is plain this Spouse is to be married to Christ after the destruction of the City by fire as it appears both by the order of these Visions and by chap. 19. v. 2 3. But the burning of Rome by Totilas was after Constantine's time The beginning of the Millennium Grotius affixes to an Edict of Constantine's which Eusebius speaks of and wherein there is mention made of the Ligation of Satan This makes a pretty shew as also his interpreting the reign of the Martyrs with Christ of that honour they had done them at their Monuments But it is to be considered in how short a time that honour was turned into Idolatrous reproach as also how the thousand years according to his account are expired above three hundred years agoe from whence commences the Devil's being let loose Which we cannot term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little time in respect of the Millennium it being no less then a third part and it is no good sense if it be not understood in respect of it But which is still worse while he interprets the Devil's being let loose of the invasion of the Ottoman Family upon Christendome he reminds us of the great victories the Saracens had who were as very Devils as the Turks and yet had vexed the Christian world much before the year 800. So that according to this account the Devil was let loose in the midst of the Millennium and has been loose almost a Millennium already which therefore in respect of the Millennium cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this false Hypothesis hangs the conceit of the Turks besieging Constantinople to be the begirting of the holy City by the numerous armies of Gog and Magog For the Greeks themselves styled Constantinople New Sion as Grotius has noted But it is plain the Exposition is a mere hallucination because the holy and beloved City in the Prophecie is not taken God interposing by fire from Heaven and sweeping all away by that finall judgement But the Turks have taken this Sion and have peaceably possessed it these two hundred years I shall conclude with the new Ierusalem the Lambs Bride adorned for her husband which Grotius interprets of the Catholick Church made now more splendid with outward ornaments by the care and cost of Princes Which in my apprehension is no good sense Marriage rather signifying the bringing in some people to Christ that were not united to him before or at least the appearing of a people that was before hid then the external adorning of them that were already the known and professed people of Christ. Besides that the times that Grotius points at are the most unlike that new Ierusalem which is the Church recovered to her Apostolical Symmetry again and to be measured by the golden reed of the Angel and which runs all upon Twelves to shew that it is purely Apostolick and has no other foundation nor structure then Christ and his Apostles For the whole solid Content thereof Length Breadth and Height is twelve thousand furlongs the breadth of the wall also and the height thereof is measured by Twelve So that there is nothing in this new Ierusalem but what is pure and Apostolical which is not so in the garishly-adorned Church that Grotius looks at Besides that it is said there was no Temple there whenas every Church is a Temple under the Roman Hierarchie 10. I might have examined his Expositions of the Vials also with other passages wherein I could have discovered the like errours and mistakes But what I have instanced in already is sufficient to shew upon what unnatural distorted nay I may say impossible applications they are cast that would attempt the interpreting of the Apocalypse without the guide of Synchronisms taken from the innate Characters of the Visions themselves but by the benefit of that Guide how easie and natural sense is made of every Vision and how perfectly answerable to History and Events as is manifest in the Expositions of Mr. Mede Whom I have not preferred thus before Grotius out of any ill will or disrespect to that Miracle of his Age for Learning and Ingenuity but merely out of love to the Truth as I am verily perswaded Grotius has framed his Interpretations but withall which is a further commendation of him out of a very deep sense of the advantages of Peace and out of a Spirit of Sweetness Candor and Humanity for which I do believe him singular and eminent And verily if I were not conscious to my self that the very same spirit did in some measure act me in this discovery of his mistakes that did him in committing of them I mean the sense of Peace and Common good of the Church I had rather be in his Errors accompanied with Humanity and Kindness of Spirit then be in a Truth that must needs be attended with Salvageness Ferocity and Fury But as the Truth I stand for is above Grotius's mistakes so I hope the good of my design will not appear inferiour to his after you have considered the Benefit of Mr. Mede's interpretations of the Apocalypse as well as the Truth thereof CHAP. XVII 1. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not implie That most of the matters in the Apocalypse appertain to the Destruction of Jerusalem and to Rome Heathen 2. The important Usefulness of this Book for the evincing of a Particular Providence the Existence of Angels and the ratification of the highest points in Christianity 3. How excellent an Engine it is against the extravagancy and fury of Fanatick Enthusiasts 4. How the Mouths of the Iews and Atheists are stopped thereby 5. That it is a Mirrour to behold the nature of the Apostasie of the Roman Church in 6. And also for the Reformed Churches to examine themselves by whether they be quite emerged out of this Apostasie with the Author's scruple that makes him suspect they are not 7. What of Will-worship and Idolatry seems still to cleave to us 8. Further Information offered to us from the Vision of the slain Witnesses 9. The dangerous mistakes and purposes of some heated Meditatours upon the Fifth Monarchy 10. The most Usefull consideration of the approach of the Millennium and how the Time may be retarded if not forfeited by their faithlesness and hypocrisie who are most concerned to hasten on those good daies 1. AND truly the Benefit of the Apocalypse so interpreted as Mr. Mede has expounded it is invaluable For the Visions are so perfectly patly applicable to acknowledged History this way that he goes that he that will not believe the Prophecies fulfilled in those things he produces cannot believe the fulfilling of any Prophecies at all whenas on the other side if the Applications were no more weighty nor clearer and fitter then they are Grotius's way this Book of Prophecies would be utterly Useless it being in the power of no man that is not extremely credulous to be satisfied with
add the Description of the General Resurrection chap. 20. Which things being uttered by a Prophet whose Visions hitherto so punctually answer the known Events of things cannot but be an unexceptionable Demonstration of the Resurrection of Christ and of our own Immortality And indeed of the whole Truth of Christianity and especially of those two highest points thereof the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead For it being so generally acknowledged by the Church of God That the Gospel and the Epistles of S. Iohn and this Book of the Apocalypse have all one Author as indeed the very matter and style of them do further argue the Phrases and matter coming nearest the notions of the ancient Cabbala of the Jews as in particular his using of the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them all concerning Christ it cannot but be a great satisfaction that a person so highly honoured with the gift of Divine Revelation is so express an assertor of that holy Mysterie as he is surely in the beginning of his Gospel Which therefore even they are also to believe with reverence that are not able to fit themselves with any easie conception thereof it being not at all unreasonable that one so highly inspired as S. Iohn should have something communicated to him that passes the understanding of ordinary capacities So that Pride here must be the mother of Unbelief And this is the first and main general Use that may be made of this eminently-Divine Book of the Apocalypse and has reached I must confess further then the order of things requireth at this time But I cannot but prefer the Usefulness of my Discourse before the elegancy and accuracy of my proposed Method 3. But then secondly There is also another excellent Use thereof even against those whom either the pretence to or affectation of such kind of Knowledge has made either to appear or really to be very mad and extravagant For I think it not improbable that some men may be content to appear this way minded upon design and for advantage Which political abuse of the holy Oracles of God is in my apprehension one of the worst and the most execrable kinds of Sacrilege that is But by being well skilled in the meaning of the Visions of this Book we shall be the more able to defeat the evil purposes of such Enthusiasts and Impostours who being wholy ignorant of the affairs of the Kingdom of Christ will yet pretend to be the great Instaurators of his Empire and the beginners of the blessed Millennium and of the Reign of the Spirit Whose fraud and villanie is easily discoverable from the solidly-framed Synchronisms of Mr. Mede I speak chiefly in reference to that great Prophet of the Familists whom I have so often named whose imposture is easily confutable out of the Apocalypse For the Church having continued for some Ages Symmetral that is commensurable to the Reed of the Angel which Ages were before the Apostasie of the Church it is evident that the Faith and Practice of the Church Catholick then is allowable and approvable by the rule of God and therefore not to be reproved by men nor to be reformed any further then into that Primitive state when they held the Creed in the plain literal sense thereof without any shuffling Allegories as also the distinction of Laity and Clergy and met together in places set apart for publick Worship Which is an undeniable testimonie out of this so divinely-inspired Prophet S. Iohn against all those that would lay aside the Person of Christ and deny his Divinity with the Triunity of the Godhead antiquate his Mediatorship make no distinction betwixt Laity and Clergy would pull down Churches with the like wild fanatical professions and intentions Which certainly would have been accounted abominable in those Ages that the Church was Symmetral which lasted till about four hundred years from the Birth of Christ as appears out of that ingenious inference of Mr. Mede from the proportion of the outward Court of the Temple to the inward which according to Villalpandus is as 7 to 2 and therefore 1260 daies of Apostasie implies 360 daies of the Purity of the Church foregoing this Apostasie which added to the years from the Birth of Christ to his Suffering make up 400 years or thereabouts Or else if you reckon from these very times wherein this period of Apostasie should be near its expiration backward and take 1260 from 1660 there will remain 400 years again Till which time the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church is out of the Visions of the Apocalypse assured to us as approvable before God Which I look upon as a fit Engine to beat back the fury of such Reformers as those Enthusiasts are I mentioned and a demonstration that for all their heat and canting they are but Demoniacks and no divinely-inspired men But as in the times that the Messias was personally to come into the world many Impostours instigated by the Devil stood up to deceive the people of the Iews and brought them into much misery and mischief so now the times being at hand that Christ is to appear in the Spirit and the dead Witnesses are to rise up and rule many false Dispensations will crowd in with fury boldness and tumult and pretend to be the true Dispensation Which will not be prevented by slurring the main Scope of the Apocalypse and pretending that all the matters there are meant either of the Destruction of Ierusalem or else of Rome Heathen this is but like the sprinkling a little water upon too violent a fire which will but make it rage the more but by applying our minds more throughly to understand the meaning of these Divine Visions that we may be the more able thereby to steer the zeal of men off from doing so much hurt as they may be instigated to doe that the wheat be not burnt up with the cockle but that what is pure and Apostolical may be preserved And so also in Secular affairs Whereas the very Power of the Civil Magistrate and his security is hazarded by wild and hot-spirited men that would raise a Fifth Monarchie by Bloud and Rapine and tumble down all Government according as either their own Enthusiastick heat shall instigate or opportunity invite or give leave pretending that all Authority all Orders and Degrees in this Fourth Monarchie are unholy and prophane and that they are the Pioners to level all plain and break all Government in pieces that Christ the Fifth Monarch may personally come and begin his Millennial Empire upon Earth it behoves the Christian Rulers whether Ecclesiastical or Civil to be so well acquainted with the meaning of these Prophecies that they may be able to stop the mouths of these loud Fanaticks by those holy Oracles they pervert thus and abuse and to shew them that there is no proof at all of such things as they thus vainly imagine as assuredly there is not as I have
you will see at length it will come to nothing 2. First therefore let us set down the like Accidents to this that have fallen out and been as conspicuous to all the World As that Sensible obscurity and languor of the Sun in Iulius Caesar's time as also in Iustinian's time and lastly that Bloudy dulness in the face of that Luminary for four daies together in the times of Carolus Quintus things as remarkable in themselves as this Eclipse at the Passion of Christ and all it 's likely proceeding from like Causes But the moderating of these Causes so as that the Effect should take place just at the time of our Saviour's suffering this was miraculous and by special Providence Now I demand for that First observation of the Sun that indured a whole year together was a concomitant of Iulius Caesar's death when there were so many Historians in the after-Age till Suetonius his time viz. Livy Strabo Valerius Maximus Velleius Paterculus Philo Mela Plinius Iosephus Plutarchus Tacitus how many of these recorded so great a Prodigie I doe not find any Historian alledged but Pliny who likely had it from Ovid and Virgil who after the manner of Poets pleasing themselves to record strange things and to magnifie great men recite this Accident in Nature in honour to Iulius Caesar. Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam Cum caput obscurâ nitidum ferrugine texit Impiáque aeternam timuerunt secula noctem At Caesar's death he Rome compassioned In rusty hue hiding his shining head And put the guilty world into a fright They were surpriz'd with an eternal Night As Virgil has it in his Georgicks And Ovid in his Metamorphoses to the same purpose Solis quoque tristis imago Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris The Sun 's sad image Caesar's fate to moan With lurid light to anxious Mortals shone Which condition of the Sun Pliny writes lasted for a whole year The like Cedrenus reports to have happened in Iustinian's time But there were nigh twenty considerable Writers from Iustinian's time till Georgius Cedrenus I would therefore remit the Caviller to peruse these Historians and observe in how few of them this Prodigie in Iustinian's daies is recorded The same may be said of what happened under Carolus Quintus And then if he deprehend that so remarkable Accidents be taken no notice of by many Writers that had a capacity of recording them I would have him also to consider that such like Reasons that might cause them to omit the writing of those Prodigies might also fit those that omitted the setting that down that happened at our Saviour's Passion and to rest contented that he finds it recorded by them that are most concerned in it that is Three of his faithfull followers Matthew Mark Luke who bearing a truer respect to Christ's person then those flatterers of Princes Virgil and Ovid to the deceased Iulius recorded this Miraculous Eclipse to his Honour as they did that long obscuration of the Sun to the honour of their adored Caesar. 3. Neither is this all for I may further add That there are greater Reasons why all saving Christ's own Followers should omit the recording that Eclipse at his Passion then that those Writers we speak of should the continual obscurity of the Sun that was to be observed for a whole year together about the Exitus of Iulius Caesar's Reign For the noveltie of that in Caesar's time might make the greater impression upon mens Spirits whenas that obscuritie of the Sun at our Saviour's suffering though I doubt not but that it was so great as that the Stars appeared through the defect of the Sun 's light so as they may doe in a Summers night might well be neglected by the Nations of the World they having noted already that the Light of the Sun is obnoxious to such obfuscations and dulnesses and that for so long a time together So that although this lurid deadness of the Sun at the Passion was far greater then that at Caesar's death yet it being shorter by far as lasting not above three hours it might seem to them less considerable especially they not knowing what was the meaning of it And when they did they had the less encouragement to record it it making for a new Religion contrary to their own So that even that Consideration may seem a sufficient Reason why this notable Accident may be pretermitted by both Jewish and Heathenish Historians 4. But Grotius out of Phlegon a Pagan writer ventures to answer more point-blank namely That the said Author does affirm that in the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad which is the year wherein Christ suffered according to the usual opinion there was the greatest Eclipse that ever was known night surprizing men at the sixth hour of the day which is at noon and being so dark that the Stars were seen at that time of the day He mentions also therewith a mighty Earthquake in Bithynia and how the greatest part of Nicaea was ruined thereby To this purpose is there also recited out of another Pagan writer by Eusebius whom Grotius discovers to be one Thallus Which Testimonies will stand good till the Opposer of the Truth of the Narrations of the Evangelists shall either prove infallibly by Chronology That Christ did not suffer that year or else by Astronomical calculation That there was a natural Eclipse of the Sun in that year he suffered so horrid and dismal as Phlegon describes But Phlegon confining it to no place intimates it was Universal and therefore not Natural Tertullian also speaking to the Pagans concerning this matter appeals to their own Records concerning the Truth thereof And for my own part I make no question but that it is true in the very sense we speak of viz. that it was an Universal Eclipse whatever becomes of the testimonies of Thallus and Phlegon 5. But being the Text does not necessarily implie thus much we may with Calvin restrain it to Iudaea God miraculously intercepting the light of the Sun from those parts only by the interposition of some conspissated body or by raising a black caliginous mist such as he caused in the land of Aegypt For the Scripture will sute well enough with any of these senses so little of any just occasion is there left to the Caviller and Infidel So that the Credibilitie and Reasonableness of the chief Circumstances of our Saviour's Passion is sufficiently cleared 6. To which we have nothing to parallel in Apollonius his life except it be his Arraignment before Domitian Where Domitian quitting him from the charge that was laid against him yet he for ostentation sake to shew what an expert Magician he was vanishes in the midst of the Court to the great amazement of the Emperour and the rest of his Judges But in the mean time he having such a trick of Legerdemain as this to keep himself from peril it makes all his magnanimous Precepts
and unregenerate Nature sometimes Christ speaks of himself under the notion of a Divine Life and Unction communicable to the Sons of men in all Ages and Places Wherefore the sense is this That whereas the Iews Religion and Topical and Temporary Holiness began but as high as from Abraham that of Christs which he exhibited in that fulnesse to the World was truly Universall both for Time as well as Place a Light that enlightneth every man that cometh into the world the Eternal Wisedom of God that in all Ages makes those that receive it friends of God and Prophets as the Wise man speaks And it is no wonder that Divine men according to their higher or more intimate union with the Divinity lose their sense and remembrance of their Particularities and pronounce of themselves rather according to the things they are so livingly united with then according to their own vanishing circumscribed corporeal persons And now it being no Blasphemy as is plain to admit that one may be thus lively actuated by and united to God in whom if any where the minde of God must dwell who can more reasonably remit sins then such an one and so manifest a Prophet as our Saviour declared himself by his signs and miracles done among the people But our Saviour has so excellently answered for himself and so appositely as to the condition of his Opposers that when I have rehearsed it this first accusation will be more then satisfied Is it not written in your Law I said Ye are Gods If he called them Gods unto whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken Say you of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God If I do not the works of my Father believe me not But if I do though ye believe not me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him And surely at the very first sight this is a right sober plea to any unprejudiced Judge that our Saviour was so far from a Blasphemer that for his Life he was a Saint or rather the Pattern and Original of all Saintship for his Miracles the Power of God and for his Nature and relation Filius Dei the Son of God in a very safe Scriptural and Judaical sense to trouble their low apprehensions with no higher nor harder conceptions Which Conceptions are notwithstanding not so hard as true and the Writings of the Apostles and the Evangelists being judge to whom every Christian is bound to appeal I conceive it will easily appear to indifferent men That the Godhead belongs to Christ really and essentially not titularly being as necessarily included in the formalis ratio of his nature as three Angles in the notion of a Triangle And in my own judgement I cannot acquit those men who are so busie against the Divinity of Christ whenas yet they would be called and esteemed Christians from being guilty not only of high indiscretion but of a very grand errour in Christianity But the Jews to whom this great Mystery of the Coalition of God and Man into one person was not then revealed did very perversly to interpret Christs words into such a sense as they might with confidence call Blasphemy whenas they might have interpreted them according to what was more compliable with the tenour of their own Faith In this I say was their malice very remarkable that they would not afford his saying an ordinary benigne interpretation whose works and actions were so miraculous and divine and his life so full of Goodnesse and Innocency 2. But such was the perversenesse of this stupid Nation that even those things that should have wrought an acknowledgement of their Messias made them more obstinate and they must be less his friend because he was a foe to the Devil and deem him a Conspiratour against God when it was his businesse to dislodge Satan whereever he found him Christ in the second accusation must by all means be represented to the world as a Conjurer and a dealer with the Devil Matt. 12.22 Where the people being much amazed at that great Miracle that Jesus did in healing the possessed that was blinde and dumb insomuch that they began to bethink themselves that this man might very well be the Messias the wicked and envious Pharisees most impudently calumniate him saying This man doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils But Christs Reply to this so hainous Calumny is as solid as milde Every kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against it self cannot stand And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how shall then his kingdom stand And if I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your children cast them out Therefore they shall be your judges But if I cast our Devils by the Spirit of God c. And here he clears himself by two excellent Arguments The first supposes the Devils to be so wise and to love themselves so well that they knew how to conserve and would endeavour to conserve their own Commonwealth and Power but if they should enable Christ to cast out their fellow-devils it were a plain beginning of sedition and dissension and a portending of ruine to their State Nor could it be reasonably suspected that Christ was so deep a Complotter with the Rulers of Darknesse and that he was of so much intimacy or interest with them that this was done by way of Collusion betwixt the Devils and him that in something else he might subvert the kingdom of God with greater ease and effect For there can be nothing conceived more contrary to the Devils nature and interest then that Life which Christ both taught and practised besides his recommending of spiritual worship which destroys Paganisme and the worship of Daemons Wherefore it was the more perversly done of the Pharisees to impute this Miracle to the Power of the Devil rather then the Spirit of God whenas also their own Sons and Disciples were conceived by them to cast out devils by no evil Art but merely by the Power of God as divers Writers testifie that both Iews and Egyptians were known to cast out unclean spirits by conjuring them in the name of the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and sometimes in the Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is In the Name of IEHOVA as Theophilus writes 3. The third charge is Prophanenesse and Sabbath-breaking Luk. 6. where Iesus with his disciples going through the corn-fields they pluck the ears of corn rubbing them with their hands and eating them and that on the Sabbath-day But here Christ apologizes for them by the example of David who ate the Shew-bread And at the 11. verse the Scribes and Pharisees are filled with madnesse because he healed a man on the Sabbath-day insomuch that they consult to