particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are
to think what is false or else that they never had any opportunity of falsifying in the Points they propound to our Belief Certainty of Sense is also required For if the Sense be not certain there could be no infallible Testimony of matter of Fact and Moses's conversing with God in the Mount may be but a Dream nor could there be any certain Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension if God will delude our Senses Wherefore to take away the Certainty of Sense rightly circumstantiated is to take away all Certainty of Belief in the main Points of our Religion Secondly Sense and Reason are rightly circumstantiated the one when the Organ is sound the Medium fitly qualified and the distance of the Object duely proportionated and the like the other when it is accompanied with Moral Prudence rightly so called such as it is defined in the above-said Enchiridion Lib. 2. c. 2. that is to say That this Reason be lodged either in a perfectly-unprejudiced Mind or at least unprejudiced touching the Point propounded For there are some Truths so clear that Immorality it self provided it do not besot a man or make him quite mad puts no bar to the assenting to them that is puts no bar to their appearing to be true no more then it does to the Eye unhurt to the discerning of Colours which the Wicked and Godly do alike upon this Supposition Wherefore The third Conclusion shall be That there be Natural Truths whether Logicall Physicall or Mathematicall that are so palpably true that they constantly and perpetually appear so as well to the Wicked as the Good if they be Compotes mentis and do not manifest violence to their Faculties The fourth That these Natural Truths whether Common Notions or Scientificall Conclusions that are so palpably true that they perpetually appear so as well to the evil as the good are at least as certain and indubitable as any thing that the Reason and Understanding of a man can give assent to that is to say There is at least as great a Certainty of these Axiomes that they are true as there can be of any And therefore because there is acknowledged a Certainty in some Points that our Understanding and Reason closeth with let us set down for The fifth Conclusion That these Natural Truths that constantly appear such as well to the evil as the good if they be not crack'd-brained nor do violence to their Faculties are in themselves most certainly true The sixth That what is a Contradiction to a certain Truth is not onely uncertain but necessarily false forasmuch as both the parts of a Contradiction cannot be true The seventh That no Revelation which either it self or the Revealing thereof or its manner of Revealing is repugnant to the Divine Attributes can be from God The eighth That no Tradition of any such Revelation can be true forasmuch as the Revelation it self is impossible The ninth That no Revelation is from God that is repugnant to Sense rightly circumstantiated This is manifest from the first Ground That Certainty of Faith presupposeth Certainty of Sense duly circumstantiated For if our Senses may be mistaken when they act in due Circumstances we cannot be assured that they are at any time true Which necessarily destroys the Certainty of all Revelation ab extra and of all Tradition and consequently of our Christian Religion Wherefore God cannot be the Authour of any such Revelation by Conclusion the seventh For it were repugnant to his Wisedom and Goodness The tenth That no Revelation is from God that contradicts plain Natural Truths such as were above described This is abundantly clear from Conclusion the 1 2 3 4 6 7. For if Reason where it is clearest is false we have no assurance it is ever true and therefore no Certainty of Faith which presupposes Reason by Conclusion the first Besides by Conclusion the sixth That which is contradictory to a certain Truth is certainly false But Divine Revelation is true Therefore there can be no Revelation from God that bears with it such a Contradiction Nay we may adde That if there were any Divine Truth that would constantly appear to Reason rightly circumstantiated contradictory to any constant Natural Truth God would not communicate any such Truth to men by Conclusion the seventh For the revealing of such a Truth were repugnant to his Attribute of Wisedome it making thereby true Religion as obnoxious to suspicion and exception as false For there is no greater exception against the Truth of any Religion then that it proposes Articles that are repugnant to Common Notions or indubitable Science Besides that one such pretense of true Revelation would enable a false Priesthood to fill the World with Figments and Lies Wherefore God will never be the Authour of so much mischief to mankind And lastly since the first Revelation must be handed down by Tradition and Tradition being but humane Testimony and infinitely more lubricous and fallible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural Science how will it be possible for any but Sots or Fools to believe Tradition against solid Science or a Common Notion So that the Result must needs be either blinde Superstition gross Irreligion or universal Scepticism The eleventh That no Revelation that enforces countenances or abetts Immorality or Dishonesty can be from God This is manifested from the seventh Conclusion For it is repugnant to God's Attributes his Justice Fidelity Goodness and Purity or Sanctity The Image of God is Righteousness and true Holiness Wherefore no Doctrine that tends to Injustice Unrighteousness and Impurity can be a Revelation from God The twelfth That no Interpretation of any Divine Revelation that is repugnant to Sense or Reason rightly circumstantiated or to plain and indubitable Morality whether it be made by a private or publick hand can be any Inspiration from God There needs no new Confirmation of this Conclusion For the same Arguments that prove that no Divine Revelation can be in this sort repugnant do prove also that no Interpretation of any Revelation in this sort repugnant to Sense Reason or sound Morality can be Divine The thirteenth That no Interpretation of Divine Writ that justifies Sedition Rebellion or Tyranny can be any Inspiration from God This is easily evinced from the foregoing Conclusion For Sedition and Rebellion are gross and ponderous Species of Injustice against the Magistrate as Tyranny is also against the People both such high strains of Immorality that no Interpretation of Scripture that justifies these can be true much less Divinely inspired The fourteenth No Church that propounds as Articles of Belief such things as are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason or sound Morality can rightly be deemed Infallible The reason is plain For it appears out of what has hitherto been said that they are already actually deceived or at least intend to deceive others The fifteenth That the Certainty of Faith cannot be grounded upon the Infallibility of any Church
the truest Grounds of the Certainty of Faith This is the common Protestant Doctrine and a great and undeniable Truth and will amount to the greatest Certainty desirable if the Spirit of Life and of God assist For that will seal all firm and close and shut out all Doubts and Waverings In the mean time even in mere Moral men but yet such as use their Sense and Reason rightly-circumstantiated in their Dijudications touching the truth of Holy Writ and Religion it is plain they are upon the truest Grounds of Faith they can goe or apply themselves to forasmuch as the Holy Writ is the truest and most certain Tradition and no Tradition to be discerned true but upon the Certainty of rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason as appears by the first Conclusion These Advertisements though something numerous are yet brief enough but very effectual I hope if strictly followed to make thee so wise as neither to impose upon thy self nor be imposed upon by others in matters of Religion and so Orthodox as to become neither Enthusiast nor Romanist but a true Catholick and Primitive Apostolick Christian THE END DIVINE HYMNS DIVINE HYMNS An HYMN Upon the Nativity of CHRIST THe Holy Son of God most High The Historicall Narration For love of Adam's lapsed Race Quit the sweet Pleasures of the Sky To bring us to that happy Place His Robes of Light he laid aside Which did his Majesty adorn And the frail state of Mortals tri'de In Humane Flesh and Figure born Down from above this Day-Star slid Himself in living Earth t' entomb And all his Heav'nly Glory hid In a pure lowly Virgin 's Womb. Whole Quires of Angels loudly sing The Mystery of his Sacred Birth And the blest News to Shepherds bring Filling their watchfull Souls with Mirth The Application to the Emprovement of Life The Son of God thus Man became That Men the sons of God might be And by their second Birth regain A likeness to His Deity Lord give us humble and pure mindes And fill us with thy Heav'nly Love That Christ thus in our Hearts enshrin'd We all may be born from above And being thus Regenerate Into a Life and Sense Divine We all Ungodliness may hate And to thy living Word encline That nourish'd by that Heav'nly Food To manly Stature we may grow And stedfastly pursue what 's good That all our high Descent may know Grant we thy Seed may never yield Our Souls to soil with any Blot But still stand Conquerours in the field To shew his Power who us begot That after this our Warfare's done And travails of a toilsome Stage We may in Heav'n with Christ thy Son Enjoy our promis'd Heritage Amen An HYMN Upon the Passion of CHRIST THe faithfull Shepherd from on high The Historicall Narration Came down to seek his strayed Sheep Which in this Earthly Dale did lie Of Grief and Death the Region deep Those Glories and those Ioys above 'T was much to quit for Sinners sake But yet behold far greater Love Such pains and toils to undertake An abject Life which all despise The Lord of Glory underwent And with the Wicked's worldly guize His righteous Soul for grief was rent His Innocence Contempt attends His Wisedome and his Wonders great Envy on these her poison spends And Pharisaick Rage their Threats At last their Malice boil'd so high As Witnesses false to suborn The Lord of Life to cause to die His Body first with Scourges torn With royal Robes in scorn th' him dight And with a wreath of Thorns him crown A Scepter-Reed in farther spight They adde unto his Purple Gown Then scoffingly they bend the knee And spit upon his Sacred Face And after hang him on a Tree Betwixt two Thieves for more Disgrace With Nails they pierc'd his Hands and Feet The Bloud thence trickled to the ground The Pangs of Death his Countenance sweet And lovely Eyes with Night confound Thus laden with our weight of Sin This spotless Lamb himself bemoans And while for us he Life doth win Quits his own Breath with deep-fetch'd Groans Affrighted Nature shrinketh back To see so direfull dismall sight The Earth doth quake the Mountains crack Th' abashed Sun withdraws his Light The Application to the Emprovement of Life Then can we Men so senseless be As not to melt in flowing Tears Who cause were of his Agonie Who suffer'd thus to cease our Fears To reconcile us to our God By this his precious Sacrifice And shield us from his wrathfull Rod Wherewith he Sinners doth chastise O wicked Sin to be abhorr'd That God's own Son thus forc'd to die O Love profound to be ador'd That found so potent Remedie O Love more strong then Pain and Death To be repaid by nought but Love Whereby we vow our Life and Breath Entire to serve our God above For who for shame durst now complain Of dolorous dying unto Sin While he recounts the hideous Pain His Saviour felt our Souls to win Or who can harbour Anger fell Envy revengefull Spight or Hate If he but once consider well Our Saviour lov'd at such a rate Wherefore Lord since thy Son most just His natural Life for us did spill Grant we our sinful Lives and Lusts May sacrifice unto his Will That to our selves we being dead Henceforth to him may wholly live Who us to free from Dangers dread Himself a Sacrifice did give Grant that the sense of so great Love Our Souls to him may firmly tie And forcibly us all may move To live in mutuall Amity That no pretence to Hate or Strife May rise from any Injurie Since thy dear Son the Lord of Life For love of us when Foes did die An HYMN Upon the Resurrection of CHRIST The Historicall Narration WHo 's this we see from Edom come With bloudy robes from Bosrah Town He whom false Jews to death did doom And Heav'n's fierce Anger had cast down His righteous Soul alone was fain Isa. 63.3 The Wine-press of God's Wrath to tread And all his Garments to distain And sprinkled Cloaths to die bloud-red 'Gainst Hell and Death he stoutly fought Who Captive held him for three days But straight he his own Freedome wrought And from the dead himself did raise The brazen Gates of Death he brake Triumphing over Sin and Hell And made th' Infernall Kingdomes quake With all that in those Shades do dwell His murthered Body he resum'd Maugre the Grave's close grasp and strife And all these Regions thence perfum'd With the sweet hopes of lasting Life O mighty Son of God most High The Application to the Emprovement of Life That conqueredst thus Hell Death and Sin Give us a glorious Victory Over our deadly Sins to win Go on and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. Iud. Flesh and bloud in the moral sense Edom still subdue And quite cut off his wicked Race And raise in us thine Image true Which sinfull * The old Adam Rom. 6.6 Edom doth
7. And again Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy ways Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a Well and the rain filleth the pools with water They go from strength to strength till every one of them appear before God in Sion By which is intimated that firm Faith and holy desire brings us at last to the fruition of God and his Kingdome To all which I need not adde for a conclusion the perpetuall and constant performance of what-ever we find our selves able and bound in duty to perform For he that has this Faith and sincere desire can never sin against the Power of God and the Dictates of his own Conscience This Philopolis is a brief but faithfull direction for the obtaining that great prize the Kingdome of God within us Philop. And I am infinitely obliged to you Philotheus for your hearty and serious Instructions in so important a Mysterie I hope they will never slip out of my mind Cuph. I am sure his Indoctrinations touching the Centre of the Soul in the Heart stick so fast in mine that I shall never forget them But I beseech you Philotheus what will become of that Centre of the Soul in the other state when we have left our Hearts behind us Philoth. It is much O Cuphophron that your Philosophy should scruple at this unless you be also at a loss what will become of the other Centre of the Soul because we leave our Brains behind us They retain the same offices still the one to joyn us with the Spirit of the World or else with the Spirit of God the other to be our common Percipient Philop. This is a Curiosity which I for my part took no notice of X The externall Kingdome of God properly so called what it is And I pray you Philotheus be no farther engaged in the point but proceed to the externall Kingdome of God and declare to us what it is Philoth. The External Kingdome of God amongst men is much-what the same in a larger acception of the word that the pure and true Church of God is Which is a body of such people as make profession of the onely true God the Maker and Creatour of all things and the Supervisour of all the affairs of the Vniverse a Punisher of offenders and a Rewarder of all those that seek him This profession of one God joyn'd with the pure worship of him devoid of all Idolatry and gross Superstition as also of all Cruelty and Barbarity and of all foul and unclean Customs but on the contrary it being a declared Law amongst them That they ought to love this one and onely true God with all their heart and all their Soul and their neighbour that is all mankinde as themselves and to deal with others as themselves would be dealt withall they in the mean time living in no opposition or defiance to any sufficiently-revealed Law of God This profession I say does constitute any Family Countrey Nation or Kingdome the Church of God or Kingdome of God In which description O Philopolis if you rest satisfied it will be easie according to the sense thereof to answer the first part of your second Quere namely When the Kingdome of God began Philop. I am not so curious as not to rest satisfied in this description XI When this Kingdome of God began O Philotheus and therefore I desire you to proceed to the second Quere Philoth. It is manifest therefore O Philopolis out of this description that the Kingdome of God began as timely as the first Family of the world and was continued in the succession of the Patriarchs before and after the Floud to Moses and through the Mosaick Polity which some in a more peculiar manner contend to be a Theocracy to the coming of Christ. Philop. But what shall we think in the mean time therefore of the ancient Philosophers which had nothing to doe with either the Patriarchs or Moses and yet believed One onely true God the Authour and Governour of the Universe and were singularly good and vertuous in their conversations were they any part of the Kingdome of God Philoth. That the Philosophers had nothing to doe with Moses and that their wisedome derived not it self from that fountain is more then I dare averr But if they were such as you describe for profession and life and communicated not with the Idolatries and pollutions of the Gentiles I should look upon them as very much a-kin to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dare not debarr them from being certain scattered Appendages to the Kingdome of God Philop. If you think so favourably of them Philotheus for my part I cannot be of so sour and severe a temper as to grudge them that honour In the mean while I am not onely satisfied touching the so timely commencement of the Kingdome of God or the Church but of the succession of it to the coming of Christ which answers to the second part of my second Quere Where it has been to be found since its beginning And truly that God had his Church so timely seems to be intimated by that timely Martyrdome begun in it in the Murther of Abel Matt. 23.35 from whose righteous bloud Christ seems to begin the Martyrology in his commination to that murtherous City the carnal Ierusalem Bath This is notably well observed of Philopolis O Philotheus and puts me in minde of something a dark passage in the Apocalypse which haply may receive light from hence namely Apoc. 13.8 there where it is said That all would worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is à mundo condito Which passage I conceive alludes to the murthering of Abel it being so early an example of the wicked martyring the good And therefore by the Lamb is here understood according to the Prophetick style the whole succession of the holy ones or elect of God spotless in life and invincible in their patience no persecution being able to subdue their minds to evil or to make them violate their Consciences For there is no deceiving or overcoming the Elect whose Names are written in the Book of Life which Book is called the Book of the Lamb or of the Elect of God because their names are enrolled there and this Lamb said to be slain from the foundation of the world because the example of the wicked murthering the innocent and just began so early in Cain's murthering of his brother Abel But to understand by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the Lamb that was to be slain is so bold an abuse of all Grammar and Logick that I must confess till this consideration came into my minde the Text seemed to me to be of a desperate obscurity unless we should have taken the liberty to understand by this slaying of the Lamb in the ordinary sense that is
and is also the Kingdome of Christ or of the Messiah and is likewise styled the Kingdome of Heaven even in a Politicall sense as where it is compared to a Net Matth. 13. and elsewhere This Kingdome of Christ is the Kingdome of God in a more eminent and illustrious signification not onely for its holiness but also for the vast extent thereof according to the Hebrew Idiom For at long run it is to take in all the Kingdoms of the Earth But there is a more particular occasion of the styling of it the Kingdome of God from that passage in Daniel Dan. 2.44 And in the days of those Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroy'd From hence the Kingdome of Christ is called the Kingdome of Heaven and of God Now this great and notable Kingdome of the Son of man or the Messias was not present in our Saviour's days though it was in a near approch And therefore the Disciples might very well be taught to pray Thy Kingdome come and our Saviour preach that the Kingdome of God was at hand and encourage his little flock his few Followers in that at last the Roman Empire would fall into their hands as it did under Constantine the Great when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire But in that he saith Mar. 1.15 The time is fulfilled and the Kingdome of God is at hand that undoubtedly relates to the Seventy weeks of Daniel Dan. 9. which were upon their expiration about that time that Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdome that is a little before his Suffering ver 25 26. For after seven weeks and threescore and two weeks that is sixty nine weeks the Messias was to be cut off and the people of the Iews cease to be God's people any longer under the Mosaicall Dispensation and the everlasting Righteousness ver 24. or the Eternal Law or Religion of Christ to be brought in and the Iudaicall Sacrifices to cease the Son of God being once made an Oblation upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world This is the Inchoation of the Kingdome of God so much spoken of in the Gospel which though it was at first but as a grain of mustard-seed Matt. 13.31 yet in a little time spred far and wide in the Roman Empire and was at last made Master thereof For I must confess I understand that Parable of the Mustard-tree in a Politicall sense not in a Moral and compare that which our Saviour adds by way of illustration of its greatness so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof with that propheticall expression in Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdome is also resembled to a wide-spreading Tree Dan. 4.12 The Beasts of the field had shadow under it and the Fowls of the Heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof And thus was Christ's promise made good to his little flock to whom he had declared that it was his Father's good pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luk. 12.32 Philop. This is handsome and to me not unsatisfactory O Philotheus so far as it goes But did not the Church of God both in Constantine's time and after pray Thy Kingdome come Philoth. I doubt it not Philopolis and it will never be unseasonable so to pray in the Moral sense either for our selves or others but hitherto it has been also seasonable in the Politicall For though the Church where uncorrupted with Idolatry and other gross Pollutions has been the Kingdome of God ever since it had a being whether in prosperity or persecution yet it has been hitherto but Regnum Lapidis not Regnum Montis and therefore in a Politicall sense they might ever pray that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel That the stone cut out without hands might smite the Image upon the feet Dan. 2.34 35 44. and become a great Mountain and fill the whole Earth and be a Kingdome that shall stand for ever a Kingdome of God's setting up that shall never be destroyed that is to say shall never relapse into Idolatrous practices nor be under their lash and subjection that do No power shall be able to persecute them for the purity of their Religion For it is the Kingdome of God triumphant and permanent that Daniel seems chiefly to point at as if that short stay of the Seventh King mentioned in the Apocalypse were scarce worth noting in these more compendious Visions Apoc. 17.10 Which seeming omission in the Vision of the Statue is more palpably repeated again in the Vision of the Four beasts For though the Kingdome of the Son of man was in the Reign of the Seventh King in a triumphant state yet because it was so short and unpermanent the Prophecy seems to take no express notice of it but to begin the Inauguration of the Son of man into his Kingdome upon the destruction of the little Horn which destruction is not yet compleated When Dan. 7.21 22. because of the great words the Horn spake the Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame namely the Beast with this little Horn with eyes in it which little Horn is more fully and distinctly represented in the Apocalypse under the figure of the Two-horned Beast then Daniel saw in the night-Vision and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdome that all people and Nations and languages should serve him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall not be destroyed which therefore is not so properly the Kingdome of God under the Seventh King but that Dominion of the Saints which emerges upon the Beast that is not and yet is his going into perdition Do you understand me Philopolis Philop. Very well XIV The Easiness of the Prophetick style and I think your Notion mainly solid Nor do I finde it any difficulty to converse with men touching these Propheticall Mysteries since I have pretty well conn'd the Prophetick style the knowledge whereof in my mind is as well more easie as more usefull and pleasant then Heraldry which yet every ordinary capacity is easily master of Philoth. I am exceeding glad to hear you say so O Philopolis and wish all the Gentlemen in Christendome were of your mind They would find such Conviction in the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse that I dare say we should in a short time be all of one opinion in matters of Religion Philop. I wish with all my heart they would set themselves to this so easie and pleasant kind of seriousness Bath Sensuality Levity and Profaneness of spirit makes holy things though of themselves very easie and pleasant both unpleasant hard and tedious to such unmoralized minds
Empire in Constantine's time became the Kingdome of God but were no particular members of the Church at that time in any thing reprehensible Whether the Reformation cease to be the Kingdome of God for the wickedness of some of that denomination let our Adversaries be judges who never spared to style themselves Holy Church for all the abhorred ungodliness of the Heads their Holinesses at Rome and universal pollution of the members and that because they took themselves to be the true Christian Church and to hold the right Faith and to retain the Rites and Religious Practices as to the externall Worship of God though they were indeed an Antichristian Church and all overrun with abominable Doctrines and Idolatrous Practices and Diabolical Cruelties against the true Worshippers of God Of how much more right therefore ought the Reformation to be held the holy people of God and his peculiar Kingdome who profess the Apostolick Faith entire without any Idolatrous superadditions who murther no man for his Conscience and make the infallible Word of God it self the Object of their Profession and the platform of their Religion Cuph. The truth is the disparity is infinitely great if the Roman and Reformed Church stood in competition which of them two should be the Kingdome of God Bath But it being so plain that the Reformed Church is the true Externall Kingdome of God forasmuch as they make pure profession of the Gospel of the Kingdome cleared from all the gross Corruptions of men and teach Christ merely according to the Word of Christ and that also in this regard the Church of Rome by their Antichristian Doctrines is really a contrary Kingdome thereunto that is the Kingdome of Antichrist how abominably nauseous O Cuphophron must Indifferency in Religion be amongst Pretenders to Protestantism whenas the Romanists themselves scarce in the worst of times would have laid down their zeal in the behalf of that Christianity against Turcism though Turcism ought not to be more abominable to them then their Antichristianism ought to be to us XVII The Charge of Antinomianism against th Reformation For what can be more contrary then the Kingdome of Christ and of Antichrist Cuph. This would bear more weight with it Bathynous if there were no gross flaws in the externall Profession of the Protestants and that they were right in their declared Opinions For in my judgement Antinomianism and Calvinism I mean that dark Dogma about Predestination are such horrid Errours that they seem the badges of the Kingdome of Darkness rather then of the Kingdome of God Bath What you mean by Antinomianism O Cuphophron I know not But so far as I know there are but these two meanings thereof either a conceit that we are exempted by the liberty of the Gospel from all moral Duties a thing exploded by all the Protestant Churches as you may understand by the Harmony of their Confessions or else it signifies a disclaim of being justified by the doing our Duties and an entire relying on the Satisfaction or Atonement of Christ which rightly understood has no evil at all in it but is an excellent Antidote against Pride For those that profess such an Antinomianism as this and declare they look to be saved by Faith onely without the Works of the Law will not deny but that they are to live as strictly and holily as if they were to be saved by the integrity of their conversations and yet when they have lived as precisely as they can that they are wholly to relie upon the mercy of God in Christ. How lovely how amiable is such a disposition of a Soul as this who taking no notice of her own innocency or righteousness casts her self wholly on the Goodness and Merits of her Saviour and so like an un-self-reflecting and an un-self-valuing childe enters securely and peaceably into the Kingdome of God and into the choicest mansions of his heavenly Paradise Cuph. Nay if that be the worst of it Bathynous I am easily reconciled to Protestantism for all this Bath This is the worst of it O Cuphophron so far as I can understand And you know the orthodox Protestants universally adde their Doctrine of Sanctification or a good life to that of Justification by Faith onely so that I dare say they dealt bonâ fide but by a secret Providence directed so their style and phrase as was most effectual to oppose or undermine the gainful traffick of that City of Merchandises where the good works they ordinarily cry'd up so were nothing else but the good and rich wares those cunning Merchants purchased at cheap rates from abused souls the increase of whose sins were the advance of the Revenues of the Church and their externall good works as they are called an excuse for their want of inward Sanctification and real Regeneration the main things the Protestants stand upon which can be no more without Good works in the best sense so called then the Sun without Light Cuph. But are there then Bathynous no Antinomians in the ill sense amongst the Protestant Bath No otherwise Cuphophron then there were Gnosticks and Carpocratians in the Apostolick times There are but disallowed by general suffrage Cuph. Let that then suffice XVIII The Charge of Calvinism against the Reformation But this dark Opinion of Predestination how dismall does it look Bathynous black as the smoak of the bottomless pit out of which the Locusts came Bath What do you allude to the Turks and Saracens Cuphophron The Turks indeed are held great Fatalists whence some in reproch call this Point of Calvin Calvino-Turcism Who would have thought Cuphophron so Apocalyptical That you take so great offence at Predestination in that rude and crude sense that some hold it I do not at all wonder for it has ever seemed to me an Opinion perfectly repugnant to the nature of God that he should Predestinate any Souls to endless and unspeakable misery for such sins as it was ever impossible for them to avoid This is a great reproch in my apprehension to the Divine Majesty But that there is an effectual Election or Predestination of some to eternall life I must confess I think it not onely an Opinion inoffensive but true which seems to me probably to be intimated from such passages as these Apoc. 13.8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And again in another place of the Apocalypse And they that are with him are called Apoc. 17.14 and chosen and faithfull And also in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 8.28 29. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and whom he did predestinate them he also called c. These places considered together want not their force
standing upon the brink of the Sea of Glass and singing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb of which I have told you the meaning already Philop. I remember it very well XXXVI In what part of the Revolution of Ages we now are with some Cautions for the right understanding of the style of the Apocalypse But if there has been already a Rising of the Witnesses in what part of the Revolution of Ages are we placed O Philotheus Are we not in the Seventh Trumpet Philoth. Yes it cannot be otherwise For upon the rising of the Witnesses it is said that the second Wo is past and the third is the seventh or last Trumpet wherein all the Kingdomes of the world are to become the Kingdomes of the Lord and his Christ but they must be taken in by degrees as Victories are gain'd more and more against the Beast Philop. Why is there such fighting against the Beast under the last Trumpet Philotheus Philoth. Yes For all the Vials are comprehended within the first Thunder of the last Trumpet The first Thunder contains the Seven Vials as the last Seal does the seven Trumpets And I conceive that this seventh Trumpet is called a Wo-Trumpet mainly for these Vials of the wrath of God that fill the first part thereof namely the first Thunder Philop. That is not irrational O Philotheus But I pray you tell us in what part of the seventh Trumpet are we now placed Philoth. In the first Thunder Philopolis Philop. And in what Vial Philoth. In the third Philopolis so far as my judgement reaches in these things Philop. Can you point then Philotheus to the Events orderly corresponding to the three first Vials Philoth. I do not know what you mean by orderly corresponding Philopolis nor am I assured that the Vials signifie such a continued orderly succession of individual Actions or Events the first ceasing with the first Vial the second with the second the like Vial with its Event never being reiterated or continued while some others are a-pouring out and that the seven Vials are not like the seven Heads of the Beast which signifie seven kinds of Governments of which some when intermitted were resumed again so I am not assured but these seven Vials may signifie seven kinds of Plagues rather then seven distinct and precise individual courses of so many kinds ceasing so soon as another begins and never beginning again when once ceased For there is mention of the Event of the first Vial under the fifth Apoc. 16.11 And indeed to prepare you at once for all I do think a man may miss of the more genuine sense of the Apocalypse by over-much leaning to humane Curiosity Which I think the Spirit of God does not at all go about to gratifie but in an high and majestick style conveys onely what is mainly useful for the Church to take notice of And therefore in that high noise and tempest of Prophetick Phrases and Iconisms rattling about our ears and beating upon our phancies we are to lie low and couch close and to listen to a more still soft and intellectual voice conveying a more inward and frugal instruction with it not tickling our natural spirit with the gratification of the precise knowledge of the time of the Events nor bearing us into a belief that the quality of them is so externally big and boisterous as the Prophetick Figures will naturally incline us to imagine if we stand not upon our guard but sweetly charming our attention to her more calm and still whispers she safely instructs us in the most true and useful meaning of the Prophecies as much as is sufficient to encourage us to side with Truth and faithfully to adhere to the Interest of the Kingdome of Christ. Philop. I do not well understand you Philotheus I pray you exemplifie your meaning in the very Point we are upon Philoth. It is the thing I drive at Philopolis I say therefore that that inward and still Instruction which this whole Vision of the Vials aims at seems to me to be no more then this That God will at last destroy and utterly rout all that Antichristian Power that has hitherto Pharaoh-like held the People of God in so great a Bondage For the alluding to the Plagues of Egypt in the description of the Vials intimates no more then so that these Plagues are prepared for that City that is spiritually called Egypt the Antichristian Church wherein Christ in his Members is crucified again and grievously persecuted Now in interpreting the meaning of these seven Plagues wherewith God will afflict and finally destroy this Mystical Egypt we may erre as well in learning too much to a more gross Political sense as to a Physical and it may be Swords and Cannons are no more made use of in this Contest with Egypt then Thunder and Lightening and Hailstones of a talent weight Philop. What then Philotheus would you make the Vision of the seven Vials onely a pompous Prophetical Parable signifying that Christ will slay the Man of sin by the breath of his mouth and by the brightness of his appearing 2 Thes. 2.8 onely this garnished with various Allusions to the Plagues of Egypt Philoth. Nay I can scarce abstain from telling you O Philopolis that the whole Book in a manner of the Apocalyptical Visions in reference to the Church seems such as if the Penman thereof did not industriously aim at any thing more then at a certain though aenigmaticall prefiguration and prediction of the Apostasy thereof into Antichristianism by the misguidance of the Church-men with an Indication of the time no preciselier then was useful and that this Antichristianism will be again chased out of Christendom and pure and Apostolical times return again These things are most certainly punctually and manifestly set out in the Apocalypse So that to me it is a very great wonder that any one that has parts and patience to consider things can doubt of the truth of that which is at least the main if not the sole scope of that Book of Prophecies But that every pompous Prophetical Expression is to have its distinct Event answering to it it may be is no more necessary then that every circumstance of a Parable should have a moral meaning in it Philop. For ought I know XXXVII The Application of the three first Vials to external Events there may be a great truth in what you say Philotheus if rightly understood But I hope this shall be no excuse to you from applying the three first Vials to the externall Events in the world Philoth. Because you will not be otherwise satisfied Philopolis it shall not Philop. What Event therefore I pray you answers to the first Vial which was poured on the Earth from whence there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the Mark of the Beast Apoc. 16.2 and upon them that worshipped his Image Philoth. That Vial was
thus For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy Cuph. Methinks Philotheus it is but an harsh and strained sense of Scripture that fetches out bloud The Spirit of God surely breaths out more Meekness and mercifulness Bath There is a Meekness and Sweetness of the natural Complexion which would pretend to that Divine Spirit but falls as short of it as Nature does of God and is a Softness over-usually accompanied with a Falsness and Perfidiousness to all Truth and Vertue and betrays all that ought to be dear to a man his Prince his Friend his Country and all What Rigour or unmercifulness was there in slaying the Spaniards at Sea that would have destroy'd our Land with fire and sword if they could as they intended have made an Invasion What Harshness in executing such persons as would traitorously have murthered the King or Queen Such Mercy as this is like that of the wicked Pro. 12.10 which as Solomon saies is Cruelty it self Cuph. Nay Bathynous as you represent the case I am abundantly convinced Philoth. And so you may well be from the very Text it self For the Angel of the Waters his justification of this Revenge is onely touching the Rivers that is Emissary forces that come to assault others and ruine them Surely defensive Opposition in so just a Cause and the paying them thus in their own Coin has with it all the Equity imaginable And therefore this passage is not at all misbecoming the Spirit of God Philop. I am fully of your mind in that Philotheus and those Reformed Churches that can doe that right to themselves by propulsing their Enemies I think they may thank God for the good condition they are in But we are advanced no higher in the Vials as yet Philotheus are we Philoth. No surely not in that more externall and Politicall sense But I know not whether in some other sense we may And assuredly the Apocalypse has its eye upon Religious accounts as well as Politicall I mean the Propheticall Iconisms sometimes have not onely a Politicall sense but a more Spiritual and it may be sometimes onely such Philop. In the mean time I am not a little pleased Philotheus that I know whereabout we are in this Politicall sense which methinks should be as desirable to be known by all that have any thing to doe with the affairs of the Kingdome of God as it would be to the Pilot of a Ship on the main Ocean to know in what Longitude and Latitude he is You have led me through my Three first Quere's Philotheus with much delight and satisfaction Let me now intreat you to give your self the trouble of instructing me touching the last Cuph. XXXVIII Philopolis his last Quere deferr'd till next day's meeting Truly if I have any aime or presage in me Philopolis if Philotheus fall upon your last Quere thus late he will not onely give himself but also you and the rest of the company the trouble of sitting up all night Philoth. Indeed Philopolis I fear my self that that Theme will so spread it self in the entring into it that it will require at least as long a time as we have spent already Philop. This is a sad distraction and unexpected that I am cast into Philotheus To desire you to goe on would be both uncivil and unsupportable to you and the whole company To leave off would be such a torment to my desire of seeing to the end of this great Theorie and a loss so irreparable that I have not the patience to think of it Cuph. Why then Philopolis is it not a plain case that you must stay in town to morrow Philop. I must so Cuphophron whatever becomes of my Country affairs I will lie at a friend's house by the way on Sunday and on Monday I shall be pretty timely at home Cuph. Very well resolved Philopolis But I will not thank you for this Dine but with me here in this Arbour for now you cannot say you are pre-engaged and for that honour you and this company shall doe me I shall heartily thank you You may begin your Discourse with Philotheus immediately after Dinner and gain an hour or two's time Philop. How ready and skilfull Cuphophron is to entrap men into the acceptance of a Civility If you will give your Parol that you will make us a right frugal and Philosophicall entertainment I will dine with you to morrow because I see you so earnest in it Cuph. XXXIX The Conclusion with the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung to the Theorbo by Bathynous I promise you I will not at all exceed In the mean time this Glass of Canarie to you till our next meeting Philop. Not a drop I thank you Cuphophron A Fit of Musick rather according to your Pythagorick mode to compose our minds to bedward For indeed it is late though I was loth to think so when I would have had Philotheus to proceed in his discourse Sophr. Bathynous play us the other Lesson I pray you Philopolis desires it And but a short one it being so late Here take the Theorbo Bath It seems I must the second time shew my unskilfulness You shall sing Sophron and I will play a thorough Base to it Sophr. What shall I sing I have neither Song nor Voice Bath Yes but you have the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. Sophr. The onely piece of Poetry that I was ever guilty of in all my life My zeal and love for the Reformation was the Muse that with much adoe once inspired those humble Rhymes which I can onely repeat not sing at all Bath If you cannot Sophron I can And the Lute I think is pretty well in tune Philoth. I pray you do Bathynous Bath Great and marvellous are Thy works Lord God of Might Thou Sovereign of Saints Thy ways are just and right Who shall not fear thee Lord And glorifie thy Name Thou onely Holy art Thine Acts no tongue can stain All Nations shall adore Thy Iudgements manifest Thy holy Name implore And in thy Truth shall rest Philop. That is all Nations shall be converted to the pure Truth of the Gospel and rest satisfied at the length in so solid and unexceptionable a Religion Sophr. I meant so Philopolis Philop. A very good meaning and a very sutable Song for this day 's Subject I pray God hasten that time to the comfort of the whole Earth I must abruptly bid you all good night for the present and see if I can dispatch a Letter home by this night's Post. But I shall keep promise with Cuphophron and am not a little joy'd that I shall once more enjoy this excellent society before I leave the Town Cuph. It is our happiness that we have detain'd you one night longer Philoth. Good night dear Philopolis I shall meet you here according to your expectation Philop. In the mean time dear Philotheus good night
ratified by the New Is this the body of the Sun you mean Philoth. Some such thing I drive at you understand me very well Now I say the pouring out the Vial upon this Sun is the enlightning it with clear and convictive Expositions by Holy men assisted by the Spirit of God or rather the removing the clouds of Obscurity from before it that it may shine in its full strength to discover plainly the unrighteous mysteries of the Kingdome of Antichrist and shew to all the World in what a foul and horrid condition they are how apostatized from God and Christ and how plainly and reprochfully their abominable doings are characterized by the finger of God in the Scripture and how lively their most direfull and diabolicall Image is there described This is the pouring out the Vial upon the Sun whereby power is given him to scorch men with fire and so vex them that they blaspheme the Name of God by reason of these Plagues and rather vilifie and reproch the Scriptures and the Spirit that writ them then repent them of their sins and give glory to God by acknowledging the Truth This I conceive may be one sense of the fourth Vial. Philop. But this is a more Mystical or Spiritual sense Is there not also Philotheus a Politicall one Philoth. Yes there is Philopolis and it is a very obvious one For nothing is more confessed then that in the Prophetick style the Sun signifies the greatest person in the Politicall Universe as he is the most glorious Luminarie in the Natural Now who do you think is the greatest person in the World the Pope rules in Philop. He and the Pope has disputed it a great while and I think it is hard to say whether is at this very day Philoth. Wherefore the next Vial seeming more peculiarly to concern the Pope this is likely to appertain to the Emperour Philop. What therefore do you think the pouring of the fourth Vial upon the Sun to signifie in this Politicall sense Philoth. I hope it signifies the Conversion of some Emperour illuminated with the true knowledge of the Gospel For thus the general Reformation which he will introduce in his Empire through the Light and Zeal he has conceived for the Truth will scorch and burn and vex the Vassals of the two-horned Beast to the very heart This is a sense natural enough I think but whether it or the former be more natural I leave to you to judge Philop. There is abundant Concinnity in them both Nor do I think it is at all necessary that that Subject on which the Vial is said to be poured should always suffer Mischief but that at least Mischief should be thence reflected upon the Beast But is there no other possible sense of the fourth Vial Philotheus Philoth. There may be an * See Synops Prophet lib. 1. cap. 3. sect 3. Henopoeia adjoyn'd to this Iconism of the Sun so that it may signifie as it does Isay 24. at the last verse But then the Signification will be very congenerous to the later of the foregoing senses the meaning being also Politicall Philop. That intimation sufficeth For I understand thereby the taking in of more Kingdoms or Principalities into the Light of the Gospel distinct from those that appeared on the behalf thereof at the rising of the Witnesses I know not but this may be a right meaning as well as any of the other and a farther preparation to the times of that Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apoc. 19.12 on whose Head it is said there were many Crowns I pray you Philotheus proceed and tell us the meaning of the fifth Vial poured on the throne of the Beast Apoc. 16.10 whereby his Kingdome became dark Philoth. The throne of the two-horned Beast is the same with the Throne of the Whore who is said to sit on the seven Hills IV The Interpretation of the fifth and sixth Vials Wherefore this in a Politicall sense seems to boad ill to the City of Rome which is the Seat of the Beast But whether it be the sacking of Rome and banishing the Pope from thence for ever or whether from the Effects of the former Vial Politically understood the Trading and Revenues of that greatest Merchant of the great men of the earth will grow very low and slender and so a great deadness and obscurity and darkness seise even his principal Seat or what other thing it may be analogous to this time must determine I cannot Philop. But is this the onely sense Philotheus of this Vial Philoth. It is that which I suppose is most to your tooth Philopolis But sometimes another occurrs to my minde What if we should conceive the Pope's Chair here perstringed by this Throne of the Beast I mean that Chair of Infallibility that he and his Pseudoprophetick Body boast they sit in and so dictate infallible Oracles to the world for their own Profit and Interest facing down the people whatsoever they finde gainfull to the Church that it is really true be it a Figment never so foolish or incredible never so blasphemous or impossible but it cannot seem so to the people while they take the Church to be infallible Now I say as the present Vial in the Politicall sense may be in some kinde a consequent of the former politically understood so the Efficacy of the former more spiritually understood may introduce in time the Effect of this present Vial in the more Spiritual meaning also and the pouring thereof on the Throne of the Beast may be the abolishing of that false Opinion of the Pope's and his Churche's Infallibility out of the generality of mens mindes which false Light once removed they must needs finde themselves much in the dark their Religion being such as neither Scripture Reason nor any thing else that has any Autority with it can afford any light to or the least colour for wherefore his Kingdome must needs be overwhelmed with more then Egyptian darkness and the Sticklers for the Papacy seeing so general a dissatisfaction in the people and that they through the penetrancy of the Light of the Gospel have lost this great hold on them it will make them gnaw their tongues for very anguish and pain Philop. Nay I know not but this may be one sense too But I pray you Philotheus proceed to the sixth Vial. Philoth. The sixth Vial Philopolis seems to touch upon the Conversion of the Iews Mr. Mede Comment Apocalypt ad cap. 16. as that late excellent Interpreter has with great judgement and credibility made the discovery And the comparing of the Vision of the treading of the Wine-press without the City Apoc. 14.18 and the Battel and Victory of that illustrious Heros riding on the white Horse Apoc. 19.11 with the last Vial does as he also suggests make much for the probability of this Exposition For that there is an Identity or Coincidency of Events signified by the treading
that part especially of his Opposers at this time that were Pagans or Infidels and did not believe the Apostolical Doctrine of Christ. So that taking the whole Conflux of men or entire Aggregate of the two opposite Armies before the Fight and dividing them they naturally fall into this Tripartition The true Christian and Apostolicall Party the Infidel Party distinct from the Beast and false Prophet and the Party Antichristian Philop. What then is meant by the Infidel Party's being slain and whoever else fell with them by the sword that came out of the mouth of the Rider of the white Horse Philoth. Assuredly Philopolis their Conviction and Conversion to the true Christian Faith For the Word of God can slay them no otherwise then so Philop. I but it is added And all the Fowls were filled with their flesh Philoth. Luk. 15.7 10. I tell you Philopolis the Angels of Heaven feast and make merry more upon the Conversion of one sinner then on ninety nine just persons that want no Repentance But I told you before that these phrases are onely Parabolicall and every passage of a Parable is not necessarily drawn into a particular Signification It may signifie onely in the general a very great Slaughter argued in a Parabolicall way from the consequences thereof Philop. I am pretty well persuaded that this may be the main meaning of this Vision of the Rider of the white Horse what-ever else there may be in it beside Philoth. Let us therefore now proceed to what is parallel thereto namely the seventh Vial which has seemed to me as obscure as any thing I have met with in all the Apocalypse But in the general I dare pronounce that the sense is more spiritual then is ordinarily conceived both because it is parallel to the Vision of the Rider of the white Horse and also from that Intimation Apoc. 16.15 Behold I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and men see his shame This is the time that God will pluck off the Covering from off all Nations Isa. 25.7 and the veil of Hypocrisie from off the people as Isay foretelleth and he that keeps not to the right cloathing will be found most deformedly naked This therefore is not like a premonition against the day of a bloudy Battel where the bloud rises up to the Horse saddles for the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs together In so great a slaughter literally understood men are more solicitous of their lives then their cloaths and more afraid of being killed then of being exposed to some outward shame Philop. What may then be the meaning of that passage Philotheus Philoth. A timely forewarning to seek after Truth and Righteousness and to understand the Mysteries of the Gospel so well as when this day comes I mean the effusion of the last Vial we be not discovered to be such silly Sots and Bigotts as out of an ignorant and superstitious Conscience to take part of the Plagues and Distresses the Beast and the false Prophet will then be plunged into but through sound Knowledge and a purified minde timely to be adjoyned to the true Church the Body of Christ. For in that day a man shall be look'd upon as hugely naked and bare of all wit and common honesty that has so little of either as not to relinquish the Idolatrous and Imposturous Church of Rome and entirely betake himself to the Apostolicall party He will be a reproch and laughing-stock to all and will be able by no means to hide his shame he discovering himself to be so wholly destitute of the sense of Truth and Righteousness Philop. Methinks you have very peculiar apprehensions of things Philotheus that come into your minde which makes your converse more delightfull But give me leave now to ask your opinion touching other it may be more difficult passages As that of the Frogs going out of the mouth of the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet which are said to be the spirits of Devils and that they work Miracles Philoth. These are the Emissaries Oratours Negotiatours or Solicitours of the Affairs of the Dragon Beast and false Prophet though they are called the Spirits of Devils according to the usual Genius and style of the Apocalypse putting Angels and Spirits for that company of men that may be conceived to be under their guidance But they have the shape of Frogs to betoken their Earthliness and Uncleanness and that the spirit and wisedome they act from is earthly Jam. 3.15 sensual and devillish contrary to that wisedom which is from above which is said first to be pure then peaceable but these Frogs call forth the Kings of the Earth and the whole World to battel even to fight against God and his Christ. But those ungodly Forces by the overpowering guidance of God Almighty pitch battel in such a place as is unfortunate to them from the very name For Armageddon signifies the Destruction of their Armies Nor can I omit how significant this Iconism of Frogs is to set off that power in them of working false Miracles to deceive the people according to the sense of the ancient Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Synops. Prophet lib. 1. c. 6. sect 17. Amongst which Impostures may be reckoned the falling into Trances Quakings Possessions by irresistible Powers pretended Inspirations and what else soever that carries from the Apostolicall Faith as well as those old Cheats and Juggles or lying Miracles of ancient Paganism or of modern Antichristianism properly so called But here again Philopolis I would have you above all things take notice that there is a Tripartition in this Conflux of people also For here is God Almighty and his Christ on one side with their Apostolicall Legions and then on the other side there is first the Dragon with his Pagan or Infidel Forces all such as believe not the plain and Apostolicall truth of the Gospel such as is comprised for example in the Apostles Creed and lastly there are the Antichristian forces properly so called such as appertain to the Beast and false Prophet So that this Tripartition is exquisitely answerable to that in the Battel of the Rider of the white Horse Philop. Well Philotheus what then Philoth. All these meet in a place which in the Hebrew tongue is called Armageddon Philop. They do so Philotheus But what is the meaning of the pouring of this last Vial into the Air to doe vengeance on the Legions of the ungodly Philoth. In the externall Cortex of the Prophecy it comports onely with the other Vials being poured out upon the Earth the Sun and the Sea as if God would stir up universal Nature in a rage against his enemies as I told you before But in the more inward and mysticall meaning it is onely an Introduction to these following Symbols of Voices and Thunderings and Lightnings c. Philop. What is the Mysticall
onely the abolishing of their Power and the despoiling them of their Honours and Dignities and of their Emoluments thereon depending Philoth. What Wars in this great Earthquake there may be whereby the great City is said to be divided into three parts according to the intimation of the externall letter I know not But that is a thing the Spirit of God least intimates in the Apocalyptick Visions Nor does that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessarily imply a diruption of the City into three parts but may onely signifie that the parts of the City were three That mighty Earthquake at the opening of the sixth Seal denoted onely the downfall of the Pagan Religion Apoc. 6.12 Nor may this at the pouring out of the last Vial though it be said to be an Earthquake greater then ever any before it signifie any thing more then the utter demolishing the Babylonish Power and Superstition that it may rule no-where any longer Nay the bloudy Vision of the Wine-press signifies no more then so though it glance at Babylon by reason of the number of the furlongs which are applicable to Stato della Chiesa as Mr. Mede observes Comment Apocalypt ad cap. 14. The extinguishing the Pope's Power there rather then the slaughtering of his Armies is signified thereby Philop. But that number is as well appliable to the Holy Land as the same Writer observes Philoth. Be it so Philopolis then may the Vision bear two faces the one respecting the Roman Church the other the people of the Iews the first affording a sense Politicall as I have already hinted the other a sense more Mysticall Philop. As what I beseech you Philotheus Philoth. It signifies the power of the Passion of Christ on the converted Iews to the mortifying all sin and wickedness in them and to the making of their Conversion and Repentance have its perfect work to the utter subduing of the mysticall Edom in them and the letting out his bloud plentifully according to that Prophecy in Zacharie Zach. 12.10 11. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness for his first-born In that day shall there be a great mourning as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon Philop. For ought I know Philotheus these Mysticall senses may be also meant for they plainly have their usefulness Euist. And this Application of that passage in Zacharie will gain the more credibility if we could with Capellus and other Criticks allow Armageddon to be the same place that Megiddon there mentioned Philop. Let the Criticks decide that controversie Euistor In the mean time I am hugely solicitous if there be no considerable personal destruction of the Antichristian party what will become of them after the last Vial. Philoth. Their condition will be much-what such as the dispersed Iews was after their denying the Messiah at his first coming So upon this second coming of Christ an obstinate and confirmed Ignorance will fall upon this people of Babylon after their place is taken from them and their Nation dispersed they will live in resolved Errour Superstition and Wickedness they will be so strucken with Blindness that they will not be able to find entrance into the Holy City But that will be fulfilled upon them then as well as on the rest that stand out in the most ample and distinct sense Apoc. 22.15 Without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers and Idolaters and whatsoever loveth and maketh a Lie Cuph. I perceive by this upshot of things that the Apocalypse is not so bloudy and boisterous a Book as I have heard some to represent it to be but that there is a Genius in it more kinde and humane not exhorting to spill bloud in way of Revenge merely though I confess the Antichristian Party has been as savagely bloudy as the Red Dragon himself the old Roman persecutive Paganism but simply by way of Defense as I understood in the third Vial. Methinks it is so harmless a Writing and so full of marvellous pretty phancies like Platonism and unexpected reflexions of one thing upon another that it would invite any one to endeavour to understand the meaning of it for the mere pleasure sake Sophr. I hope then Cuphophron that your self will bend your studies that way in due time Cuph. After I have read over Des Cartes his Principia his Dioptricks Method and Meteors once or twice more much may be Sophron. Sophr. Why that will not take you so long a time Cuph. It may be not But I must also run over all his Volumes of Epistles first and likewise the delicious Dialogues of Plato and be fully Master of his Timaeus but of his Parmenides especially that 's a notable Metaphysicall piece O Sophron and then it 's likely at spare hours I may see what S t. Iohn the beloved Disciple of Iesus saies in his Apocalypse This will take up some time Philop. But I have a more eager appetite after these Mysteries O Cuphophron and therefore must rudely interpose and desire Philotheus to proceed that we may lose no time in our present affair I am very well satisfied Philotheus with your Exposition of the seven Vials and though I think it very hard for any mortal eye by virtue of these Visions to see the futurity of things in their perfect Circumstances without all mistake or defect yet methinks what you say hangs so handsomely together that this instruction may at least convey as much truth as Anatomicall Pictures do to him that has not with his own eyes seen an Anatomy Philoth. I hope so Philopolis Philop. VI The future Glory of the Church after the utter Destruction of Babylon Wherefore since we are got so successfully thus far I pray you Philotheus let us go on to the other part The glorious state of the Kingdome of Christ after the utter Destruction of Babylon For first I would have you to describe this glorious state wherein it consists then declare the Grounds of your belief why you think any such thing will be thirdly What Signs or Forerunners there will be of this glorious appearance fourthly Whether there be any Means that the present Kingdome of Christ may make use of for the accelerating this excellent state of the Church and what they are fifthly and lastly How long this happy state will be and what the condition of the Church to the close of the World Philoth. These are very great Questions Philopolis but I shall endeavour to give you what satisfaction I can But being so many as I did aforehand divine time you know will not permit me to be over-copious otherwise it were easie to draw a very large
future state of the Church out of the Apocalypse Philopolis What you can recall to minde I pray you propound Philop. More comes to my minde then is needfull I will omit therefore those passages which import but the same things you observed out of the old Prophets The Righteousness and Purity of that Holy City there described implied in the exclusion of every thing that defileth and figured out by those precious Stones and pure transparent Gold and in that all tears are said to be wiped from their eyes Apoc. 21.4 it is an intimation of Peace and security from Persecution And all the whole description of it is so full of Glory and Light and Joy that no man can miss of that character But I would ask you Philotheus the meaning of other passages as Why this Holy City is called the new Ierusalem Ver. 2. Why said to come from Heaven Why said to have twelve Gates with the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel thereon Ver. 12. and why the Wall of the City to have twelve Foundations Ver. 14. and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb Why the City is said to be measured with a golden Reed Ver. 15. and why found to be twelve thousand Furlongs Ver. 16 17 and the Wall an hundred forty four Cubits What also is the meaning of that saying Ver. 3. Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and yet that there was seen no Temple there Ver. 22. because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it and again What the genuine sense of that sixth verse And he that sate upon the Throne said It is done I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely And lastly of the last verse And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a Lie but they that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life Philoth. You have congested a number of things together Philopolis but however I shall return answer to them as orderly and as briefly as I can I conceive therefore to begin with the first that the City which Iohn saw is called the new Ierusalem in counterdistinction to that old Ierusalem where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11.8 whether understood literally or typically as also because its Citizens have put on the new man Eph. 4.24 which is framed according to Righteousness and true Holiness because they are the sons of the new Birth or new Creation of God But it is said to come down from Heaven in such a sense as the Doctrine of Iohn is said to be from Heaven Matt. 21.25 and agreeably to that passage in the Apostle that the Ierusalem that is above is free Gal. 4.26 which is the Mother of us all That actual City of God consisting of Saints and Angels in Heaven this new Ierusalem which S t. Iohn describes being so like to them in Purity and Holiness it is therefore said to descend from Heaven as being a Copy or Transcript of that Heavenly Perfection To all which you may adde that what the Prophets have seen in Heavenly Visions touching this City it being thus at last accomplished upon Earth it is therefore said to be a City descended from Heaven And this is that very City Ezekiel saw Ezek. 48.31 of which he says And the Gates of the City shall be after the names of the Tribes of Israel three gates Northward one gate of Reuben one gate of Iudah one gate of Levi and so of the rest three gates of a side in all twelve gates as it is said in S t. Iohn's Vision that the City had twelve Gates and the names of the twelve Tribes of the Children of Israel written thereon This among other things intimates that Ezekiel's City and this of the Apocalypse is all one City And in that the Apostles Names are said to be writ on the twelve Foundations of the Wall that shews jointly considered with the other that Ezekiel's Prophecy must have its completion in the Iews Conversion to Christianity viz. when Iew and Gentile are gathered together under one Head Christ Iesus and become of one Faith and one Church which is this Holy City But the Apostles Names are said to be in the Foundations of the Wall because their Doctrine is the Foundation of the Church into which the Iews are to be graffed and through that Mercy that is communicated to the Christians may also finde mercy at that day This comparing the Church to a Building is very usual in Scripture S t. Peter tells the Believers 1 Pet. 2.5 that they as living stones are built up a spiritual House And S t. Paul to the Ephesians Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreiners Eph. 2.19 c. but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord In whom you are also builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit And in this is that expression fulfilled Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men And the name of Ezekiel's City is also Iehovah shammah Ezek. 48.35 The Lord is there And yet there is no material Tabernacle nor Temple where he might be conceived to rest him and toward which the people should worship But the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple thereof that is to say In this new Ierusalem there will be no visible Fabrick toward which men will affect to worship but with bended knees and pure hearts and hands and eyes lift up to Heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God shall men worship the Father in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.23 Philop. And yet God says to Ezekiel before that accurate description of the Temple and City and all the Iudaicall Ordinances Ezek. 43.10 Thou son of man shew the House to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquities and let them measure the Pattern This seems to be quite contrary to this new Ierusalem described by S t. Iohn Philoth. The summarie sense of that accurate description of the Iudaicall Oeconomie in Ezekiel is onely this interpreted plainly by S t. Iohn That when all the glory and exactness of the Iudaicall Dispensation is set off to the utmost the measuring of the Pattern the matching and fulfilling of it is that state of Christianity which will appear after the effusion of the seven Vials when Iew and Gentile become one Church one holy Temple and City of God Which spiritual meaning betrays it self even in Ezekiel's own description of things For what other sense then a Mysticall one can be made of the holy
some time But Carnality and Externalness especially after the Reign of Constantine quickly over-ran all But however the pattern of Perfection was again recorded in the Vision of S t. Iohn Apoc. 4.2 wherein he saw the Throne of God in Heaven the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts full of eyes For even in this he was shown also things which must be hereafter Ver. 1. For this is the Heavenly Idea of that state of the Church which will be actually on Earth when the new Ierusalem descends from Heaven and the Tabernacle of God is amongst men and that he dwells in them by his Spirit and by his living Presence Which Community of God's people some conceive may be in some sense represented also by the Sea of glass like unto Crystall before the Throne Ver. 6. as well as by the four Beasts Because Sea signifies the Collection of people into one Kingdome and the fixedness and pellucidity of this Sea may denote the steddiness and purity of the hearts and consciences of God's people whom his Spirit penetrateth and possesseth and the Light of his Presence doth comfort and irradiate and expells out of them all mistiness and darkness of sin and errour Their Conflation is as that of Glass by fire by the fire of Zeal and Charity which has rectified and reduced what-ever is foul and opake but their purity solidity and transparency is as that of Crystall Philop. This were congruous enough if Sea were here understood as in the Prophetick style For those Interpreters that so understand it look upon it as a fixt crystalline Sea But surely this Sea here alludes to the Sea in Solomon's Temple 1. King 7.23 Philoth. In all likelihood Philopolis that is likewise alluded to Apoc. 4.5 the seven Lamps being also mentioned But though we understand this Sea of Crystall in such a sense as the Sea of brass is meant in the Temple of Solomon yet it will again respect the Community of God's people it being that Sea wherein they are baptized into one body It will notwithstanding prove that effectuall Laver of Regeneration that Baptism of Christ which is with the Holy Ghost and with Fire 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And our Saviour Christ declares John 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life But this he spake of the Spirit as it is said elsewhere Apoc. 22.4 And the River of water of Life clear as crystall is said likewise to proceed out of the Throne of God as this Sea of glass to stand before it Philop. 2 Chron. 4.6 But the brazen Sea of Solomon O Philotheus to which this Sea of glass answers was for the Priest to wash in Philoth. I deny it not Onely remember Philopolis that outward washings profit little but that it is the Spirit that cleanseth This is the Laver of the New Birth whereby we are baptized into one body and into one Spirit and into one holy Community of Saints the light of the glorious Presence of God shining quite through this pure Sea of Crystall So that this Spirit of Regeneration and Purification being the same that this Laver or Sea of crystalline water and residing in the Saints of God the Saints of God again or the pure Church is this Sea according to the Prophetick style And the Sea of Solomon seems to have born the title on purpose to meet with this happy Allusion at last I am sure Aretas upon the place saith expresly That Sea signifies an immense multitude So that so far as I see this Type may bear a double Allusion one to the use of Solomon's Sea the other to the signification of the name in the Prophetick style Philop. Nay I am of your minde Philotheus And you know all true Christians are a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and no man is wash'd by the Spirit but drinks in the Spirit for the Spirit washes us not without but within Philoth. But mistake me not Philopolis I do not mean that the Sea of glass stands primarily for the Hieroglyphick of God's people for the four Beasts are plainly the Hieroglyphick of that Communialty but it stands for the Laver of the Spirit into which the people of God are baptized Which Laver of the Spirit is set off by the effects thereof in that it makes the people of God as this Sea of glass like unto crystall the light of the Spirit of Life penetrating and possessing their pure and pervious hearts and minds as the beams of the Sun do the clearest and most transparent Crystall Philop. I commend your care and accuracy of judgement O Philotheus for you lose nothing of the usefulness of the Representation and yet decline that harshness as it may here seem of having one and the same thing represented by two several Hieroglyphicks in one and the same Vision Philoth. You understand me aright Philop. But I pray you what is the meaning of those seven Lamps of fire burning before the Throne Apoc. 4.5 which are said to be the seven Spirits of God Philoth. To omit all conjectures touching the seven last Sephiroth I shall onely return this answer for the present That the number Seven need not here signifie Numerically but Symbolically denoting the Purity and Immateriality of those Angels or Spirits that watch over the Church and minister to it when that shall be fulfilled in that glorious degree that is foretold Apoc. 21.3 The Tabernacle of God is with men Here the Lamps are distinguishable from the four Beasts but in Ezekiel's Cherub-Chariot the living Creatures themselves are resembled to Lamps Ezek. 〈…〉 because that Vision represented also the actual Kingdome of Angels But yet the Beasts here are described almost just in the same manner the Cherubims are in Ezekiel's Vision which denotes the Angelicalness of this last and best state of the Church The quadriform Genius of those of the Angelicall Kingdome I need not here repeat the Application is easie I will onely pick out some of the most useful Observables in this present description and then goe on As first Apoc. 4.6 That the Beasts are said all of them to be full of eyes before and behinde Which implies that they look backward and forward into the History of times past and into the Prophecies and Predictions of things to come and compute in counsell all possible futurities the better to manage the present affairs of Christ's Kingdome and be provided against every Emergency For in this consists all useful and practicall wisedome Apoc. 4.8 Secondly They are said to have six wings Undoubtedly for that use the Seraphims are said to make of them in the Prophet Isay Isay 6.2 With twain to cover their
with this Out-world but as part of it To say nothing of the Light world which I must confess I take to be material also Sophr. And so do I Bathynous nor can by any means admit that Heaven and Hell are in the same space forasmuch as the Inhabitants of Heaven are Corporeall For the glorified Saints have Bodies and so have the Angels too according to the Opinion of the best Divines and Philosophers Bath But in the same place or Region Heaven and Hell may be manifested in particular Creatures what is common administring to their property as the Seminal Soul of the World is as busie in forming Toads and poisonous Serpents as in the fairest and most harmless Creatures Euist. What do you think then Bathynous that I. Behmen was not at all inspired that there is so little assurance of any considerable truth he has communicated to the World Bath To declare my conjecture of him freely and impartially XVIII Bathynous his judgement touching J. Behmen with some Cautions how to avoid the being ensnared by Enthusiasts Euistor I will in the first place allow him to be a very serious and well-minded man but of a nature extremely melancholick And in the second place I conjecture that he had been a Reader of H. N. and Paracelsus his Writings Both which being Enthusiasticall Authours fired his Melancholy into the like Enthusiastick elevations of spirit and produced a Philosophy in which we all-over discover the foot-steps of Paracelsianism and Familism Love and Wrath Sulphur and Sal-niter Chymistry and Astrology being scattered through all I do not deny Euistor but that both H. N. and I. Behmen were inspired but I averre withall that their Inspiration was not purely Spiritual Intellectual and Divine but mainly Complexionall Natural and Daemoniall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks which is best understood by that of Plotinus Ennead 2. lib. 2. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This therefore was an Inspiration too far removed from the first pure Fountain to come clear Complexionall Love the noblest Motion impressed upon us by the Spirit of Nature first oppress'd in the Constriction Compunction and Anguish of a down-bearing Melancholy and after burning and flaming out into a joyfull liberty and carrying captive with it those severer Particles that would have smothered it into a glorious Triumph of Light and chearfull Splendour of the Spirits which makes the Soul overflow with all kindness and sweetness this I conceive is all the peculiar Inspiration or Illumination these Theosophists had at the bottom Which yet is not so contemptible but that they justly magnify it above the grim ferocities of the superstitious Factions in the imbittered Churches of the world who have not so good an Inspiration as this but their tongues and hearts are set on fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 This Light of Nature I say is abundantly well appointed both for Right and Skill to chastise and reproch the gross and grievous Immoralities of Hypocriticall Religions and to be subservient to that Truth and Life that is really Divine Euist. But they writ professedly as from the Spirit of God And I. Behmen seems to have had the assistence of a good Angel by that story of an Old man who upon pretence of buying a pair of Shoes of him read him his destiny and gave him holy and pious Instructions Bath Who knows but that it was really a man For he carried the Shoes away with him which he bought nor did he vanish in his sight And suppose he was a good Angel not a Devil does it follow straight that he was infallible The Inhabitants of the other World are good Physiognomists and know very well who are most for their turn in this Cuph. As an Horse-courser knows an Horse by his marks Bath And lastly that Iacob declares what he writes is from God that is but that which is necessary for all Enthusiasts to doe For if they did not think themselves inspired they were not Enthusiasts But there is a very powerfull Magick in this their heightened Confidence for the captivating others to them Hyl. How shall a man doe then Bathynous to keep himself from being ensnared by their Writings and from being hurried away with their Enthusiasms Bath For him that reads them there is onely this one short Remedie and safe To observe the moral and pious Precepts they tumble out with such extraordinary Zeal and fervour and to endeavour to be as really good as they declare themselves and all men ought to be and to make that your first and chief care without any design of engrasping great Mysteries This is the onely way of being assuredly able to judge them and of coming to that state which David blesses God for Psalm 119.99 I have more understanding then my Teachers because I keep thy Commandments Philoth. That is very good advice Hylobares and the most certain way of keeping out of the snares of Enthusiasts and one of the greatest good effects that God intends by the permission of them to inveigle certain Complexions in the ways of Holiness and to exercise the gift of discerning of Spirits in others to whom he has given it for the Safety of his Church and the magnifying the Ministry of the Gospel of his Son Iesus in the true and Apostolick Promoters thereof Sophr. If this way were taken my fears and jealousies O Philotheus were all hush'd nor could I doubt but the pure Apostolick Religion would carry all before it Philoth. And verily as touching those two Sects I must farther confirm to you O Sophron that there is not any such great danger in them no not in that more suspected one for as for the Behmenists I am of Bathynous his minde that they are unjustly suspected For at present by a kinde of oblique stroke God does notable execution upon the dead Formality and Carnality of Christendome by these zealous Evangelists of an internall Saviour and if any of them out of mistake and errour should in a manner antiquate that part of Religion that respects the externall which I hope are not many nor will be yet and mark what I say if they continue sincere I do not doubt but they will be fetched in again at least at the long run as being to be found in that third part of the Cities that are to fall by the sword of him that sitteth on the white Horse at the time of the effusion of the last Vial. Apoc. 19.21 and 16.19 Philop. That is very likely Philotheus nor have I now any doubt but those glorious Times of the Church will come and in such a sense as has been predefined But the next point is concerning the Signs of their coming Philoth. Can you desire a better Sign then the orderly succession of the Vials Philop. But I had in my thoughts the Rumour of Elias his coming first XIX That there is an Elias to come and in what sense as at the first coming of Christ for
do in many things most wickedly calumniate and that those that are not Calumnies as concerning Fact are no such horrid Crimes as theirs that accuse them but more venial Infirmities or less commendable Humours Insomuch that notwithstanding all their Cavills I am not at all shaken in my belief of Reformed Christendom's being the true visible Kingdome of God and his Christ. Which is the first Document Philotheus that you gave us tending to the Interest of Reformed Christendome I pray you now therefore since I am so well satisfied in this proceed with what dispatch you can to the rest without any farther interruption Philoth. The Second Document then The Second Principle Philopolis is this That as Reformed Christendome is the Kingdome of Christ so the Popedome is the Kingdome of Antichrist This as it is a Truth in it self so it is of mighty consequence to be known believed and declared in the Kingdome of Christ to settle them and establish them in the Profession they are in For it is not at all beyond the capacity of the meanest to be fully ascertain'd of this Truth And yet though it be but one and so easie it is worth all the Arguments besides for the fixing a Soul to the Reformed Religion so hugely accommodate it is to strike their Imagination and satisfie their Judgement and settle their Conscience at once For if the Church of Rome be Babylon as most certainly it is then think you with your self Philopolis what mighty force that voice of the Angel will have in the Apocalypse Come out of her Apoc. 18.4 my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues Philop. That is to say It will be as potent to call others from the Communion of the Church of Rome as to establish our own in the true Faith they already profess And indeed methinks when they cast their eye upon the multifarious gross Idolatries and bloudy Cruelties of the Papacy and compare them with the Character of the Whore of Babylon whose very Whoredome signifies her Idolatry upon whose forehead is written Apoc. 17.5 6. Mysterie Babylon the great the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth and who is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and it be plainly made out to them as it may that this cannot be understood of Rome Heathen but of Rome calling itself Christian methinks the Reflexion upon their known practices compared with their description in this Prophecy should so plainly convince them that they could not but presently run from her Communion with sudden horrour and affrightment Philoth. One would think so indeed Philopolis and that there is not a better Engine imaginable then this to beat down the Mysticall Babylon And that therefore it must be out of a great deal of either Unskilfulness or Unfaithfulness to the Interest of Christ's Kingdome that any should persuade us in our Oppositions against Rome to lay aside this weapon whenas indeed as David said to Abimelek concerning the sword of Goliah there is none like unto it 1 Sam. 21.9 And certainly our first Reformers found it so who generally made this Out-cry against the Roman Church And there are of their own Writers that confess how much prejudice has been done them by that Opinion of the Pope's being Antichrist Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif lib. 3. cap. 21. Wherefore the taking away of these Bulwarks against the forces of Babylon looks like the betraying of us again to the Tyranny of the King of that City Bath The thing it self Philotheus I am afraid looks thitherward But I believe withall that severall persons out of a consciencious tenderness over the Interest of the Reformed Churches may be so backward from charging the Church of Rome with being that Mysticall Babylon or the Pope the King of that City that is to say that notorious Antichrist for fear that by conceding that Church to be Antichristian they should therewithall acknowledge that it is not a true Church Whence that fearfull Inconvenience would follow that Succession were destroy'd and that we should thereby be at a loss to prove our selves to be the true Church of Christ. Philoth. XXVI Of the Church of Rome 's being a true Church If that be at the bottom Bathynous their well-meaning is commendable But I believe they fear where no fear is For we have more strings to our bow then one For none of those Titles that the Church of Rome may be perstringed by in the Propheticall parts of Scripture whether the City of Babylon or the Seat of Antichrist that Man of sin or the like do necessarily infer they are not a true Church but an extremely-faulty Church and such as God would have his people forsake their Communion if they will not reform as forfeiting their Salvation by partaking of such sins as have passed among them into a Law A Wife that is an Adulteress is a true Wife till she be divorced though a faithless one and a Ship with an hole at the bottom is a true Ship and an House whose Walls are besmeared with the Plague or Leprosie or infested with murtherous Goblins is a true House but that not to be sailed in nor this to be inhabited before they be reduced to an useful and safe condition The Form of a thing makes it to be true but the Sincerity or Integrity of it makes it to reach its end and become useful Wine is still Wine though some drops of Poison be convey'd into it but it 's such as no man that knows thereof will adventure to drink We will therefore grant that the Church of Rome is a true Church but in such a sense as a Ship that will sink a man to the bottome of the Sea is a true Ship or such an House as I described a true House Nay we will concede that it is the House or Temple of God but such as wherein the Man of sin sits that son of Perdition 2 Thess. 2.3 4. that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped Wherefore I say those reprehensive and reprochful expressions of Scripture against the Church of Rome do not imply her to be no true Church but a very impure and faulty one and grown not onely not useful to them that adhere to her but extremely mischievous She is a Cup of Wine mixt with deadly Poison in it an House infected with the Pestilence or infested with wicked Daemons Wherefore if we succeed in the true pattern of the House or Ship in the sincere nature of the Wine in the due Offices of a Wife and leave out the Adultery the Poison the Plague the Leprosie and the Devil himself is our Succession the less perfect If a Family were once sound and then diseased for some Ages and then some of this Family by skill in Physick or more then ordinary Temperance should grow sound again are these sound branches less
the Succession of this Family then they that are still unwholesome and diseased Philop. I think the sounder the better Family as being of a nearer affinity or consanguinity with the most ancient Progenitours of them all And therefore questionless we are not the less of the Succession of the Apostles for cleansing our selves from After-corruptions and reducing our selves to their ancient Apostolick Purity The Succession indeed is continued in the Church of Rome as a diseased Family is the Continuation of the Family of their Ancestours but the Apostolicall Succession is not onely continued but rectified again and perfected in the Reformation So that I conceive there is no hazard at all to Succession in admitting those due but sharp Invectives in the Apocalypse and other places of Scripture to belong to the Church of Rome they all not amounting to the making her no true Church or no Church but an Idolatrous one a Murtherous one and an Imposturous one As an adulterous murtherous and cheating Wife is a Wife and therefore a true Wife till she be dead or divorced Philoth. XXVII That although the Church of Rome were not a true Church yet it follows not but that the Reformed Churches are You understand me right Philopolis But besides this suppose the Miscarriages of the Church of Rome were at last so high and that for some Ages that she plainly ceased to be in any sense a true Church which yet I must confess I cannot believe no more then that the Church of the Iews ceased to be a true Church when they ston'd the Prophets and shamelesly polluted themselves with Idolatry yet the true Church was continued elsewhere and the truest Church of all the Elect of God every-where There was a Woman in the Wilderness when the Church had become a Wilderness Though I must confess this respects rather the Perpetuity of the Church at large then the continued Succession of Pastours But neither do I hold that necessary that every true visible Church should have a visible Succession of Priests from the Apostles to their time The Ierusalem that is said to come down from Heaven will be a true Church Apoc. 21.2 and will be approved to be so though she could not make this Boast in the flesh that she can number a visible Pastoral Succession upon Earth from S t. Peter at Rome or S t. Iames at Ierusalem And suppose at that call of God's people out of Babylon Apoc. 18.4 Come out of her my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues that all the Priesthood had hung together upon Interest and would not have stirred had a whole Kingdome that had reformed without the leave of the Priesthood been no Church nor the Prince had any power to appoint the most able and eminent of his Subjects in the knowledge and practice of Christianity to preside in Rebus sacris in the Affairs of Religion and begin a Succession from them whom we will suppose to order all things according to the Word of God and the Practice of the Apostles and to profess no other Doctrine then what they taught and is evident out of the Scriptures What shall such a Nation as this be no Church for all this in these Circumstances of things O Philopolis Philop. I promise you it is a very nice Controversie Philotheus I know not well what to say to it of a sudden Bath It is a nice point indeed Philopolis But I 'll propound to you a point that is more clear Whether is not every Sovereign Supreme Head of the Church as well in Ecclesiasticall Affairs as in Civil in his own Dominions Philop. Surely he is Bathynous or else he is not absolute Sovereign For I conceive that to be the Supreme to which is committed both the trust and power of ordering all for the welfare of the Subject which consequently must needs include Religion of which therefore of necessity the Supremacy is Judge Whence every supreme Magistrate is if not formally yet eminently as well Priest as King else he were not King or the King not supreme Magistrate as being bound to be ruled by the judgement of the Priest in matters of Religion which unquestionably all Mundane Affairs ought to stoop to Whence it will follow that all Power that does not include the Priesthood in it at least eminently or virtually must stoop to that Judicature But being the Supremacy of any Nation is to stoop to none but God it is plain that he that is Supreme has at least virtually the Sacerdotal Power in himself Bath I profess unto you Philopolis you are so subtil in Politicks that I conceive it will be very hard for any one to evade the force of your arguing Euistor The anointing of Kings and Emperours at their Coronations as also the Emperour's Crown comprehending in it the Episcopal Mitre methinks Bathynous bears a notable Compliance with this Conclusion of Philopolis Cuph. You may as well argue for a communion of Kingship in the Priesthood because the Priests be anointed in the Church of Rome Bath It 's likely they would catch at that greedily enough Cuphophron But in that Kings are crowned as well as anointed Exod. 40.13 15. but Priests anointed and not crowned with royal Crowns it is an intimation that both the Kingship and Priesthood in some sense is in the King but onely the Priesthood in the Priest But a more notable Correspondence then this of Euistor's occurrs to my phancy that is the Vision of the twenty four Elders with the robes of Priests and the Crowns of Kings upon them Apoc. 4.4 which assuredly intimates that in the best state of the Church every Sovereign will be confessedly both Priest and King over his own people Philoth. You say well Bathynous And it is very remarkable in that Vision that there is no one visible Head of the universal Church such as the Pope pretends to be but every Sovereign is there set out as a Kingly Priest or a Priestly King in his own Dominions Philop. Gentlemen you have finely adorned my dry Reasonings with your Historicall and Propheticall Observations all which jointly considered do easily bear me into a full and settled persuasion that every Christian King has so much of the power of the Priesthood in him and of the Autority of our Heavenly King and Priest Christ Iesus that being enlightned with the true belief of the Gospel and being destitute elsewhere of a Priesthood to officiate in the Church or rather of such as may consecrate men to that Function himself may raise a Succession of them by his own power Exod. 29.5 6. and they ordering all things according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostles that the whole Nation yielding obedience to these Precepts and Institutes does ipso facto become a true visible Church of Christ. What think you Bathynous Bath Nay I am abundantly satisfied For you know Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus And it is
to be led out of a lesser Bondage or Captivity into a greater and so that small distinct Number of the immaculate Lambs of Christ had been a more certain as well as a more delicious Morsell for that devouring Wolf of Rome Bath I understand perfectly whereabout Philotheus would be namely That Divine Providence made choice of such Instruments by an externall Instigation as who left to themselves in many things to cut out their own way would fall into such Opinions and Expressions as would be most effectual for the rending or tearing of huge massie pieces from the Church of Rome that in these great Lumps the Gold might be safe amongst the Dross and that in his mixt Numerosity there might be a more safe Protection of the Godly against the bloudy Persecutions and barbarous Tyrannies of the Papal Power Philoth. XXXIII The true means of unity in the Church again glanced at You understand me aright Bathynous But now I say after the Stone was thus cut off again from the great Mountain and safely disjoyned therefrom it was not still to have ly'n unpolished or Moss-begrown for want of Art or Industry in the Master-builders but all of us ought to have become by this time living stones pure and well-polished and through the Unity of the Spirit to have been joyn'd together into one holy Temple of God Which Unity of Spirit Bathynous can never be without Unity of Life For in the Life is the Spirit as I suggested before Nor can this Unity of Life ever be without a through Purification of the Church from Sin and Corruption nor can this Purification be without Faith in the Power of God and the Assistence of Iesus Christ to refine us from all our Dross For he that believes no possibility of any such thing will neither pray for it nor attempt it nor any way go about it Wherefore this general Indulgence to our Corruptions keeping us from the Unity of Spirit and sameness of Judgement in matters of Religion and making us destitute of that healing Vertue of brotherly Love and Charity we are left like so many wilde Beasts and grizly Monsters to grin and spit fire at one another but can never attain to Peace before we attain to a due measure of Righteousness For Christ in the Church must first be Melchizedek Hebr. 7.2 and introduce his Righteousness amongst us before he can be King of Salem in this sense Isa. 9.6 a Prince of Peace Nor can we have this Spirit of Righteousness communicated to us before we be embued with that Faith in the Power of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin as has been said over and over again Bath Wherefore Philotheus so far as I see this Faith in the Power of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin especially accompanied with Charity may stand in balance against the Romish implicit Faith that they would urge for the suppressing of Schism as if nothing would so well assure the Peace of the Church as for men to have either a perfect upright Conscience or else no Conscience at all But this latter being so hideously detestable we see the greater necessity of exhorting all men with all diligence to make after the former Philoth. Which without this Faith in the Power of Christ for the conquering our Corruptions they will never endeavour after much less successfully attain thereunto Bath So I have said already Philotheus I think or at least intended to say so Philoth. But being full of Faith XXXIV The marvellous Efficacy of Faith in the Power of the Spirit of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin and perfectly persuaded that Christ by his Spirit both can and will assist to the utter vanquishing of all manner of Sin and Corruption in us such I mean as Pride and Covetousness and Uncleanness and all Hypocrisie and Selfishness and the like what is there of all that that disturbs the World and distracts humane affairs that will not flie before so invincible a force If this Faith were once implanted in the hearts of men and they read in the Prophets the lively and lovely descriptions of that excellent state of the Church which is to come what quick approches were they able to make in virtue hereof while they look upon that glorious Pattern and through Faith and holy Imitation be daily changed by the Spirit of the Lord from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.17 18. Philop. The more I consider it Philotheus the more I am satisfied of what infinite importance this Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit of Christ is both for the present welfare of the Church and also for the bringing on that future Happiness predicted by the Prophets what searching Physick it is to cleanse the Soul and what a mighty Cordial to revive her So far as I see this kinde of Faith is the Primum mobile or the first Spring of all Motion that can tend effectually towards the Renovation of the World in Righteousness and the bringing on those glorious Times of the Church which you did so graphically describe out of the Visions of the Prophets Sophr. XXXV An Answer to an Objection touching this Doctrine of Faith And I can scarce forbear to cast in my suffrage too Philopolis were it not for this one Scruple That this so high Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit for the utter Extirpation of Sin might as well scare people out of the Reformed Churches as have hindred them at first from coming in to the Reformation The truth of the Doctrine rightly understood I do not much question but onely the discretion of professing it Philoth. This is a material Consideration of yours O Sophron. But you are to understand that this Doctrine rightly interpreted does not at all clash with any of those due Comforts that accrue to us from that other of Justification by Faith and of free Remission of sin in the bloud of Christ. These things I write 1 Joh. 2â— 2. saith S t. Iohn that ye sin not But if any one sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is a propitiation for our sins All that is aimed at is a chearfull and sincere endeavour of not sinning at all as we pray in our Liturgy every Morning Which constant endeavour if it be used no man ought to be dejected for his Failings till God give more strength but chearfully to rouse himself with a greater indignation and resolution against Sin not at all despairing of forgiveness having so potent an Advocate with him whom he has offended But if any one is content to sin without any endeavour of Resistence or belief of ever being able to overcome and subdue his Corruptions and would forsake the Communion of the Reformed Church for the rubbing up his Conscience with a more wholesome and searching Doctrine and so seek Teachers elsewhere after his own heart's lusts all that I can say is this 2 Thess. 2.11 12. That for
rest of the Army of the great King with such splendour and luster as is ineffable their Mouths also being filled with Songs of Victory and their Ears with the Echo of their own Melodie For the Air was miraculously tuned into Musicall Accents to their Divine Ditties as if some invisible hand had play'd upon the Concave of the Heavens as upon some well-strung Harpsicall or Theorbo So that my Soul was so enravished with the sight and with the Musick that my Heart melted mine Eyes flowed over with tears and my Spirits failed within me for very excess of Joy Philop. Certainly Theomanes was in a very great Rapture when he was thus affected Philoth. And he was thus really affected Philopolis as he told me and I dare believe him for he is a man of the greatest Simplicity imaginable Philop. But I have interrupted you again Philotheus before I was aware I pray you go on Philoth. But part of this pleasure was quickly intercepted by a sudden overcasting of the Heavens as it were with an universal thick Cloud of a rusty hue But I heard the Musick still whereby I might discern the motions of that Triumphal Pomp. But a more dreadfull noise presently put an end to that Rapture also For this Cloud of Night broke into a Chasm near the celestial Army which was instantly filled with a most glorious Light and through that lucid passage I heard a mighty voice like the sound of a Trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Beginner and Continuer and Ender of Ages I am he that lived and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the Keys of Hell and Death Whereupon the Chasm closed again and the Souls of the forsaken were filled with horrour For they presently expected the execution of that dreadful Sentence Matt. 25.41 Go ye accursed into everlasting Fire And indeed after some pause and silence wherein I again heard that Heavenly Melodie but a little farther off that Triumphant Company ascending higher and higher through the bright azure fields of peacefull Bliss the arched roof of this hollow Dungeon seemed all on fire with cross Flashings and Lightenings running all over Which had no sooner ceased but the seventh Thunder uttered its voice which was accompanied with a rowling and tearing noise every way over the whole Sky Whereupon the Clouds set a-raining one continuall sad and direful showr of Fire and Brimstone upon this forlorn Crew till the whole Earth became but as one round Lake or Pond of burning Sulphur Apoc. 20.15 And whosoever had not his name found in the Book of Life his portion was in this Lake of fire burning with Brimstone Apoc. 21.8 which is the second Death This is Theomanes his Vision O Philopolis of the seven Thunders Which contains in it the most distinct order and succession of Affairs in the Church from the beginning of the seventh Trumpet to the end of all things that I ever met with I must confess the Distinctions are but general but if I had had any thing more precise and particular that great sincerity and nobleness of spirit and hearty love and zeal for the Interest of the Kingdome of God which I persuade my self I discern in you would have obliged me to have imparted it to you with a very good will Philop. I give you many thanks Philotheus for your good opinion and bountiful intention But what you have imparted is more then I could merit or hope to obtain from any other hand and such as I must acknowledge my self competently well satisfied with as having some guess what every one of those Thunders mean but should be better confirmed in my apprehensions thereof if you would briefly communicate your thoughts of them Philoth. That I shall doe XXXIX A brief Explication of Theomanes his Vision and very briefly O Philopolis These seven Things therefore are orderly contained in the seven Spaces of the seven Thunders In the first the Effusion of the seven Vials In the second The settling or establishing of the Church into the State of the new Ierusalem come down from Heaven In the third That more full and universal Reign of Christ called the blessed Millennium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in a more proper and eminent sense In the fourth The loosing of Satan or the visible vergency of the World to another Degeneracy or Apostasie from the Kingdome of Christ. In the fifth An Attempt of the apostatized part of the World to get the Dominion again over the Godly and the danger of the Wicked's again captivating the Iust. In the sixth The visible appearance of Christ in the last Judgement wherein he gives Sentence upon both the bad and the good In the seventh and last The Execution of this Sentence the Godly and sincere Believers ascending with the holy Angels towards their Heavenly Inheritance prepared for them while Hypocrites and Unbelievers are tumbling with the Devils in the Lake of Brimstone burning with Fire Philop. I thought there was some such meaning of this Vision and plainly see through the Symbols and Iconisms of it that there is nothing contained in it that is at all dangerous or Heterodox But the manner of his being affected in his receiving these orderly-ranged Truths seems to me something extraordinary Does not Theomanes highly relish such a peculiarity of Dispensation O Philotheus Philoth. XL The important Usefulness of Theomanes his Vision together with the Iustifiableness of his yielding to such an Impression Not at all Philopolis so far as I can discern He onely expresses himself well pleased with the Reasonableness and Usefulness of the Vision For he professes it consonant to both Scripture and Philosophy and has taken notice severall times in my hearing how useful it is both for the digesting all those Visions in the Apocalypse that appertain to the last Trumpet into their right Order according to Synchronism and also to discover the Ignorance of some that have pretended to Inspiration who guessing that the last Trumpet is the Trumpet of the last Judgement in a Politicall sense but not discerning these distinct parts of it I mean the distribution thereof into the seven Thunders have adventured to conclude to the prejudice of the Apostolick Faith that there is no other Judgement but this nor any other Trumpet to raise the Dead and to summon them before the Tribunal of Christ then the Evangelization of a certain Doctrine of their own broaching But assuredly Philopolis that Resurrection which S t. Paul treats of in his first Epistle to the Corinthians is not a Moral nor Politicall Resurrection as cannot but be palpably manifest to any one that impartially peruses his Discourse and therefore the last Trumpet there mentioned cannot bear a mere Moral or Politicall signification As it is manifest that cannot in his first to the Thessalonians For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout 1 Thess. 4.16 17. with the voice of