Vineyard under pretence that men giving up their will and understanding to the supreme Power Government might be the more secure And all that wondred after the Beast gave up their Vineyards into the hand of the secular Power and professed no otherwise then according to the faith of the Empire and so had their Vineyards sown with divers seeds nay indeed with what was repugnant to the Apostolick Plantation Their minds were filled with gross lies foul-Idolatries of all sorts and murderous enmities against the true Children of God 12. But as for the Vineyard of Naboth that is the Vineyard of the true Prophets or Prophetesses as the word Naboth seems to intimate they were not given up that is those that were not Christians for fashion-sake and believed new invented lies and Apostolick truth alike but with a true and living faith acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ these would rather lose their lives then quit their Vineyards that yielded them that noble Wine that perpetual feast of a good Conscience and of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Whence it was that this Whore and Sorceresse Jezebel contrived their death or persecution and oppression as the two Prophets are said to both mourn in sackcloath and also to be slain The Vineyard therefore of Naboth is that sense and knowledge and conscience and life of the Spirit in the new birth whereby a man discerning plainly livingly betwixt the wayes of Christ and of Antichrist does as necessarily loath the one as adhere to the other 13. For the true and firm belief in Christ is from the new birth as S. John also witnesses Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And therefore this Spirit of life must needs have an Antipathy against what is contrary to it self And is also the Spirit of Prophecy in the most concerning sense As John likewise intimates in his general Epistle where upon his mentioning many false Prophets gone out into the World he presently adds In this ye know the Spirit of God Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh is of God Which agrees exactly with that in the Apocalypse where the Angel says to John I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus that is to say of such as whose hearts do witnesse to them firmly and lively that Jesus is the Christ and accordingly professe it which none can do unlesse he be born of God and so have the Spirit of God Which is implyed in the following words For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy that is to say the being able in such sort to witnesse that Jesus is the Christ is from the spirit and life of God in us which inspireth all holy truth From whence the Angel argues a kind of Parity betwixt John and himself and indeed all such as have the testimony of Jesus according to the sense declared and therefore would not be worshipped by them 14. But this is something a Digression saving that it may illustrate that passage in the Apocalypse where the two Witnesses are also called the two Prophets not so much from predicting things to come as from witnessing to the Truth from the spirit of life in the new birth and being so firm in this faith as to suffer for it even to the death and may also facilitate the belief of this Mystical sense of the story of Naboths Vineyard or this Vineyard of Prophecy it not implying any miraculous predictions but the being inspired with a right Sentiment of things from the Spirit of Life and having the confidence to speak the truth as it is in Jesus This is all that need to be understood thereby 15. To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols This Woman of Thyatira whether the wife of the Bishop of Thyatira or some other Person of quality for Interpreters of the letter vary in that according to the Literal sense is described from her acts as onely guilty of pretending her self to be a Prophetesse and that thereby she seduced the servants of Christ to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols which is a chief point of that which was called Gnosticisme And the truth of the supposed History here we do in no wise deny But we also adde that it is hugely improbable that the spirit of Prophecy would take notice so particularly of any one Woman in so majestick a Writing which Alcazar also very seriously and vehemently urges if there were not some greater matter aimed at Wherefore I say the Spirit of God taking the advantage of the significancy of the miscarriages of this Woman in Thyatira which would set out part of the enormities of the Church of Rome here perstringed added there to the name of Jezebel that the Prophetick Prefiguration might be the more complete the Church of Rome in this Intervall being lively adumbrated by this Allusion to Jezebel joyned to what is reported of this woman in Thyatira viz. That she pretends to be a Prophetess as the Church of Rome to be infallible that she drew the servants of Christ to Idolatry and uncleannesse as the Church of Rome does by engaging them in the Masse and other superficial modes of serving God that leave the minde sensual and besides necessarily intangle them in Idolatrous practices Thus much from the practice of this Woman 16. Now in that she has this name given her of Jezebel assuredly the spirit of God points us to her story to make up this Parallel betwixt this woman Rome viz. as she is also a murderer of the Prophets and servants of God and a contriver of false Accusations against them as if by the keeping of the Inheritance of their Fathers a pure conscience according to the ancient and Apostolick faith and innate notions of Truth that God has implanted in the minds of all men they were blasphemers of God and the King and obnoxious to both the Civil and Spiritual Magistrate And lastly which is to be taken special notice of the Church of Rome in this Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Christ is called Jezebel because for all her paintings and fine meretricious pranking her self up she was to be thrown out at the window and her flesh to be devoured by dogs which the just wrath of God and the zeal of Jehu the noble Reformers stirred up by the Spirit of God brought to passe at the end of this Intervall of the Church as it is threatned also in the following parts of this Epistle 17. And I gave her space to repent her of her fornication and she repented not She had a fair time to consider of her grosse Apostasies from the purity of my worship since the witnesse of the Waldenses and Albigenses against her and yet she remains still obdurate and impenitent and continues her old
stage but if thou strivest so as to get the victory in the way I have instructed thee I will translate thee to that Heavenly Kingdome most naturally and properly so called where thou shalt sit down and drink of the fruit of the Vine in the Kingdome of my Father As I after I had overcome ascended up to Heaven into those glorious mansions and there sate down at the right hand of God so him that overcometh the Temptations and Incumbrances the Pleasures and Enticements of this lower world will I cause to sit down with me in the Heavenly places at the last Day Which Monition is the more seasonable by how much more near the approach of that great Day is For I shall come visibly to Judgement in the very next Thunder to the Siege of Gog and Magog when I will transform your vile bodies into the similitude of my glorious body that ye may be fit companions for me in Heaven for ever Behold I shew you a mystery Ye shall not all sleep yet ye shall all be changed that mortality may be swallowed up of life This is a great and stupendious Promise but thou art to consider that it is spoken by him that is the Amen the true and faithfull witnesse and the beginning of the Creation of God and therefore both will and can carry on all his design to the very end Amen 13. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches From the Epiphonema coming here last as in all these four last Epistles one may haply raise this Objection as if this sense of the Promise immediately preceding it were not Politicall or Propheticall enough but merely Theologicall the Promise being to be performed in the other world and therefore not the proper object of Prophecy which concerns the affairs of the stage of this Earth And that this therefore is against our professed Rule But I answer that though the Promise of obtaining Heaven after this life upon the death of the body be merely a Theogicall Promise and of a thing more spiritual and invisible and not to be seen upon the face of this Earth yet this promise of obtaining Heaven at the Resurrection and general Day of Judgement it being the day of that great and visible Assizes wherein the Souls of the Saints shall appear in glorify'd bodies may well be ranged in the same order with the rest of the Promises immediately preceding the Epiphonemata of each Epistle and to be accomplished visibly in this life For the sense of the Promise in brief is this That as Christ after his Sufferings his Death and Passion ascended visibly into Heaven for Heaven is said to be the throne of God in the Scripture and so Heaven became also Christ's throne so those of Laodicea who upon the Mortification of their Lusts should attain to the state of life in the New birth should ascend visibly into Christ's throne that is into Heaven in the open view of them that should be left here on the Earth and in the inferiour Regions of the Air sentenced to that everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This is a plain and obvious sense of this Promise and such as the placing of the Epiphonema requires and is in my judgement no mean Ratification of the true and Literal sense of that Article of our Faith touching the visible Resurrection and Glorification of our bodies and their ascension into the Heavenly Regions against such as would whiffle away all these Truths by resolving them into a mere moral Allegorie Thus consonant every way are the Interpretations of these Epistles both to themselves and to the Apostolick Truth CHAP. X. A Recapitulation of the main Evidences of the truth of this Mysticall or Propheticall Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia by way of Solution of Difficulties touching the said Epistles and their Circumstances otherwise hardly or not at all to be solved 1. AS in natural Hypotheses those are accounted truest that solve the Phaenomena of Nature the most naturally and easily and especially if such as are no otherwise solvible then upon the proposed Hypothesis so that meaning of Scripture I mean especially of any considerable portion thereof ought to be esteemed truest that can solve the most Difficulties that may be raised concerning the same or the Contexts precedent or subsequent thereto and if all still the more certain and if unsolvible otherwise there is still the more assurance of undeniable Demonstration Now how near this Mysticall or Propheticall Exposition of these Epistles approches to the clearnesse of this case I will leave to the Reader to judge after he has considered the Solutions of the Questions easily raised out of the Epistles themselves or the precedent Chapter and not easily answered nor at all satisfactorily at least most of them but upon the Hypothesis we have gone 2. As first If a man enquire why the Spirit of Prophecy after he has so expresly given notice that this Book of the Apocalypse is to shew unto his servants things that are to come and called it plainly a Book of Prophecies should start so unexpectedly from the Title and intended subject as to write no lesse then seven Epistles to certain Churches that have nothing considerable of Prophecy in them before he deliver any Prophecies properly so called but onely Promises and Comminations and that he should doe this with as great Pomp and as high a Preamble as he does when he begins so famous Prophecies as those of the seven Seals and the opened Book But according to our Hypothesis the Answer is easie viz. That though these seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia have a Literal sense yet they are also a Parable or Prophecy and of as high concern for both matter and extent of time they reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as the Prophecy of the Seals and opened Book and that they are ushered in with this great Pomp on purpose to give us notice thereof Secondly A man would be prone to enquire why the Spirit dictates Letters unto the Churches in Asia and not rather to the Churches in Europe Asia and Africk For certainly the Church had disspred it self into all these Quarters of the world by that time As if the Spirit of Truth were a respecter of persons For these are not the Letters of John but of the Holy Ghost But our Answer is ready at hand That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the names of the Seven Churches Asia alone was pitched upon But according to the Propheticall sense the true Catholick Church is writ unto under such distinct Conditions as she was to vary into unto the end of the world So that there is no Partiality nor Acception of Persons in this Thirdly If a man demand touching the order or precedency of these Seven
do thou humble her the more by shewing her her ugly hue in the glasse of the Holy Scriptures If she boast that she is that holy Jerusalem a City at Unity within it self whenas the rest of the World are so full of Sects and Factions tell her that she is that carnal Jerusalem wherein Christ in his true Members hath been so barbarously persecuted and murthered and that the Stones of her buildings are no living stones but held together by a mere iron violence and the Cement of her walls tempered with the large effusion of innocent bloud forasmuch as she is that two-horned Beast that gave life to the Image of the Beast and caused him to decree that as many as would not obey his Idolatrous Edicts should be slain This is the power of your Unity which is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning But the Division of us Protestants is both a sign of our sincere search after the Truth and a more strong Testimony against you of Rome in that we being so divided amongst our selves yet we so unanimously give sentence against you your Miscarriages and Crimes being so exceeding grosse that no free eye but must needs discern them 21. If she vaunts of her Antiquity give her enough of it and tell her she derives her pedigree from that great Dragon the old Serpent that is called the Devil and Satan that Murtherer of mankinde Ye are of your father the Devil saith our Saviour and the works of your father will ye doe We grant that the Visage and Lineage of your Church reaches even beyond the times of the Apostles the two-horned Beast reviving the Image of the Pagan Beast the great red Dragon by bringing up again his old bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries It suffices us that our Church began with the Apostles If she glories in her Universality and in her large Territories tell her she is that GREAT City which spiritually is called Sodom and AEgypt where our Lord was crucified And that she is Babylon the GREAT the mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth If she boast of the power of the Keys and of Sacerdotal Absolution tell her that he that is holy he that is true he that has the Key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth that is to say our Lord Jesus Christ will never part with these Keys to his inveterate Enemy that notorious Man of Sin or Antichrist If she spread before thee her goodly wares of mercenary Masses of Pardons and Indulgences of the mutuatitious Good works of their pretended Holy men and women or the Wealth and externall Glories of their Church and varieties of rich Preferments and Dignities say unto her that she is that City of Trade of whom it is written that no man buieth her merchandise any more and again Alas alas that great City that was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls For in one hour so great riches are come to nought For her Merchants were the great men of the Earth and by her Sorceries were all Nations deceived And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth 22. If she would amaze thee with the stories of the wonderfull Miracles done by her tell her that she is that two-horned Beast that doth great wonders and that deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to doe in the sight of the ten-horn'd Beast or that false Prophet working Miracles and deceiving them that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image who together with the Beast is to be taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone or lastly that Man of Sin and Son of perdition whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders If she would inveagle thee with her pretenses of Infallibility tell her that she is that Woman Jezebel that calleth her self a Prophetesse or the Prophet Balaam that insnared the Israelites in Idolatry and that very false Prophet that together with the Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of burning brimstone 23. And lastly if she would gull thee with that specious and much-affected Title of Holy Church tell her that the Spirit of Truth in the Divine Oracles let her commend her self as much as she pleases gives no such Character of her but quite contrary declaring the See of Rome to be the Seat of Satan and their Church his Synagogue the Pope and his Clergy to be Balaam the son of Bozor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse and who was the Murtherer of Christ's faithfull Martyr Antipas to be that Woman Jezebel who calls her self a Prophetesse but was indeed a Sorceresse and a murtherer of the true Prophets of the Lord to be also that false Prophet that is to be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be that great City that spiritually is called Sodom and AEgypt where our Lord was crucified to be the Beast that has the horns of a Lamb but the voice of the Dragon decreeing Idolatries and cruel Persecutions against God's people to be that Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth the Woman on the seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and lastly to be that Man of Sin that notorious Antichrist that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved For which cause God sends them strong delusion that they believe a lie That they all might be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousnesse As well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well all they that love the Romish Lies and Impostures as all they that invent them are here plainly declared in the state of Damnation With this Nosegay of Rue and Wormwood antidote thy self against the Idolatrous infection of that strange Woman 's breath whose lips yet drop as an hony-comb and her mouth is more smooth then oyl And be assured that that cannot be the true Holy Church wherein Salvation is to be expected which the Spirit of God has marked with such unholy and hellish Characters let her boast of her own Holiness as much as she will 24. And if she return this Answer to thee That this is not to argue but to rail in phrases of Scripture do thou make this short Reply That whiles she accuses thee of railing against sinfull
Imprimatur Sam. Parker ERRATA In the Pref. to the Exposit. pag. 4. l. 2. Interims read in terms In the Exposit. p. 11. l. 1. r. the Church in Thyatira p. 53. l. 21. r. in Thyatira p. 107. l. 26. r. event In the Antidote p. 11. l. ult for at r. all p. 27. l. 17. r. impossible or p. 91. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Together with A Brief Discourse of IDOLATRY with Application to the Church of ROME By HENRY MORE D. D. PROV 12. 19. The lying tongue is but for a moment but the lip of Truth shall be established for ever London Printed by James Flesher 1669. To the Right Honourable John Lord Robarts Baron of Truro Lord Privy Seal Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and one of his Majestie 's most Honourable Privy COUNCIL My Lord WHat things single are usually thought sufficient to determine ones choice of a Patron to any publick Writing whether it be private Obligation from particular Favours or the Desire of leaving to Posterity a just and honourable Testimony to the Parts and Vertues of some excellent Person or the design of obtaining the Patronage and countenance of such a Person to what we adventure to make publick as is able by his Learning Judgement and publick Repute to protect it from Injury all these do so happily conspire in your Lordship that I should have thought it an Omission unpardonable if I had not taken this opportunity of paying your Lordship this due respect and of doing that right to the Truth I here professe as to put it under the wings of so fit and able a Patron Which still ought to be done with the greater alacrity there being that Providentiall Coincidence of things that I should have a Book ready in the Presse at that very time that our Gracious Sovereign did think good to conferre upon your Lordship that great Honour and Trust of being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Which conjuncture of Circumstances could not but excite me with greater readinesse to make your Lordship this congratulatory Present upon your new Honour Which all good Christians that know the inflexible uprightnesse of your spirit and cordiall adherence to the Apostolick Faith and just Interest of Reformed Christendome cannot but congratulate For this it is indeed My Lord that has begot in me a more special esteem of your Lordship that in this instable and uncertain Age you have with that steadinesse of minde and clearnesse of Judgement stuck to the Truth and Purity of the Protestant Religion as discerning the vast difference betwixt it and Popery which yet too many now-adays either because they are removed too great a distance from all Religion or else because their sight is extremely dim in matters of this nature can not or will not discern But this is spoke with a more particular regard to the second part of this small Volume I present your Lordship withall But the first also has its speciall sutablenesse to the Circumstances your Lordship is placed in For by how much more power any one is intrusted with by any Protestant Prince by so much the more he is concerned to understand how sacred a Province he undertakes and how expresly that Religion and Profession is owned in the Holy Prophecies Christ has delivered to his Church above and against the barbarous and idolatrous Tyrannie of the Church of Rome Which things are set out with that plainnesse evidence and easiness in this Exposition of the Epistles to the Seven Churches that I hope no impartial Reader can fail of being made exceeding sensible of the Sacrednesse of the Protestant Religion and Interest by the perusall thereof Besides that there are some notable Hints in these Oracles for the more happy and secure management of the Affairs of Reformed Christendome I shall onely name that passage to the Sardian Church Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast c. The Verse runs out into a dreadfull Commination of heavy Judgements to the Angel of the Church of Sardis for his loosenesse and slipperinesse in those points of Apostolick Doctrine which the Reformers had recovered into the knowledge of so great a part of the world And amongst the things that they had heard that voice of the Angel Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins c. was not the least articulate Whereby the Church of Rome was openly declared to be that Babylong the Great the Mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth as also the Pope with his Clergie to be that notorious Antichrist This the Sardian Church had received from their Evangelicall Predecessours And it had been their everlasting establishment never to have for got it never to have let it die or smothered it But what mischief the halting betwixt two Opinions is apt to doe and the not taking notice how sacred a thing the Protestant Religion is in the sight of God and how rejectaneous that of the Church of Rome I believe neither your Lordship nor any one else that has his eyes opened either into History or the Affairs of the world can be ignorant of or if he be a good Christian make the observation without regrett and sorrow But the Prospect of what is to come is more pleasing and comfortable which is the state of the Church of Philadelphia into which the Sardian Church that is to say Reformed Christendome or the Protestant Churches are to passe as being the next successive Intervall Which therefore cannot but be a Note of main importance for all Reformed States and Kingdomes to stear their Affairs by namely to bend their course thitherward whither they are pointed to by the Finger of God himself in his Holy Oracles For they sail as it were with winde and tide whose carriage of Affairs approaches the nearest to the purpose of Divine Fate Which is lively pourtray'd all along in this stupendious Book of Prophecies written by S. John The most pleasing and enravishing part whereof is that which is typify'd or prefigured by the Church of Philadelphia the Church of Brotherly love Which is the next Scene Divine Providence has designed to introduce And which all those do most grosly oppose who for difference in matters not revealed in holy Scripture nor necessary to Salvation think they have pretense enough with all unchristian keennesse and bitternesse of spirit to reproach and inveigh one against another to nourish the highest Animosities and to watch all opportunities of persecuting ruining and trampling one another into the Dirt. As this is extremely unchristian in it self so is it also diametrically opposite to that Dispensation that God intends to introduce into his Church as the chiefest Blessing he has in store for her and is as it were knocking at the door to enter if the lovd noise of hot and quarrelsome Brawls about matters of smaller moment as indeed all things are exceeding small
Magistrate by how much more kinde and loving to one another and by how much more seriously affected for the advancing the publick good and the endeavouring the common welfare of all mankind which will introduce the Philadelphian Intervall by so much more near they may reckon the approach of the downfall of Antichrist and the glorious Reign of Christ in his Saints at the happy Millennium But what other Indications there be besides these in the Visions of the Prophets whereby we may compute the nearnesse of those Times I must ingenuously confesse I know not But this was a sudden Excursion We will return again into the way 14. But thirdly In that it is said Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols c. this is a perfect clearing of the Protestant Reformers from that hainous Crime of Schism that the Church of Rome so magisterially lays to their charge it plainly implying that their Separation from the Church of Rome was not onely no Fault but a Vertue and an indispensable point of Obedience to the command of Christ and that it had been Disobedience and Rebellion against Christ not to have separated and therefore was impossible to be any Schism Which is a thing worthy of our notice and consideration As is also this contrary to the opinion of some otherwise learned That to depart from the Church of Rome upon the very account of Idolatry is not Schism before God but onely in the sight of men and those it is to be feared of none of the purest minds but rather such as have a greater sense of the carnal Interest of the Church then of the Glory of God and the purity of his Worship For Christ who is God blessed for ever does here blame the Church in Thyatira that she suffers the Woman Jezebel any longer and does not cast her off as the Eunuchs cast her out of the window in the Type and that for this very cause because she is a Teacher of Idolatry and an Abettour and Countenancer of spiritual Fornication as is manifest in the Text. So that before God or in the sight of God both the Church of Rome stands guilty of Idolatry and also the Protestants leaving her Communion upon that account are acquitted from any the least taint or suspicion of Schism And that the Spirit of God does but witnesse with our spirits in the truth of this matter if thou hast not lost the free use of thy Reason that brief Treatise of Idolatry added to this present Exposition will I hope abundantly satisfie thee which therefore I have adjoined as a sutable Appendage thereunto 15. Fourthly In that Reformed Christendom especially after their Remissnesse in Life and Manners and Contentionsnesse about Trifles is represented under the Type of the Church in Sardis to be in such an imperfect Condition though emerged out of the grossnesse of the Popish Idolatry for there is no farther complaint of either the Doctrine of Balaam or of Jezebel here this should teach us to be humble and not over-fierce and confident in our Opinions and Doctrines but meekly to bear one with another and be ready to be instructed by one another for the clearing up the Truth But in the mean time things being no better then they are sith they are no worse then they were predicted we are hence to learn that it is our Duty never to suffer our mindes to relapse towards the Flesh-pots of AEgypt or think we had as good goe back again to Rome as to be no better then we are For this Sardian state is like the wandring in the Wildernesse betwixt AEgypt and the promised Land which is the Philadelphian state into which there is no entrance till after the seven Vials that is till the last of them be poured out or at least a-pouring As it is said in the fifteenth of the Apocalypse And the Temple was filled with smoak from the glory of God and from his power and no man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Where no man according to the Apocalyptick style signifies that that company of men that were to enter into and make up that state of the Church which is here styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Temple of God would not appear in that eminent condition till after the Vials the last either current or complete Which agrees admirably with that passage in the Epistle to Philadelphia Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God So that these Philadelphians shall not onely enter into the Temple after the smoak of the Vials but never goe out of it again according to the sense we have explained it in Wherefore because we are in a kinde of Wildernesse-condition we ought with Faith and Meeknesse and Patience to abide till God shall bring us into that good Land and not to murmur against him and reproach his Providence who hath thought fit to carry on things with such leisurely steps nor peevishly and falsly to say that we had as good return to Rome again and that it is a question whether the Reformation has done more good or hurt For such thoughts or speeches are false injudicious and ingratefull Reproaches against the sacred Providence of God whose ways these bitter shallow and unsanctify'd spirits understand not because the spirit of the world has blinded their eyes And forasmuch as there is no complaint of Idolatry in the Epistle to this Sardian Church nor the least hint to make any Separation as before all the Churches of Reformed Christendom and all the particular Sects and Members thereof ought to have a tender regard how they divide from one another or break Communion for difference of Ceremony or Opinion but holding all the indispensable Foundation and bearing joint Testimony against the grosse Idolatries and wilde Enormities of the Church of Rome to study Peace and mutuall Compliance that the Body of Reformed Christendome may be more strong and compact to stand against the common Enemie But above all we are with might and main to endeavour to perfect Holinesse in the fear of God and to purge our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit that we may prevent the extremity of that Judgement which is threatned as suddenly and unexpectedly to come upon the Church of Sardis And these I think are main Usefulnesses discoverable in the Interpretation of the Epistle to the Sardian Church 16. And fifthly As for the Exposition of the Church of Philadelphia it is of main Importance for the making of the world good For it is the ordinary excuse for the reigning of Impiety and Immorality in the world that men will be men as long as the world lasts and that things are more likely ever to grow worse and worse then
Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia 1. WE shall first premise That as those two following Prophecies of the Seven Seals and of the opened Book reach from the beginning to the end of the Church so this of the Seven Churches reaches also from the beginning of the Church to the end of all Which seems congruous both from the nature of the Vision it self and from the following Examples of the Prophecies of the Seven Seals and the opened Book We shall premise in the second place That as it is conspicuous that four of the names of these seven Churches are directly significant of some State and Condition they are in viz. Smyrna Pergamus Philadelphia and Laodicea so it is exceeding credible that the other three names may allude to some thing that may set out their Nature and Condition also viz. Ephesus Thyatira and Sardis as we shall take more express notice in the process of our Exposition Lastly which might as well if not better have been noted at first This more mysticall sense which we are now a-rendring of the Seven Churches doth not at all clash with the Literal sense of the same nor exclude that usefull Applicability of them for the Reproof or Praise of any Churches particular in any time or Age of the Christian world that are for the like things obnoxious or commendable But the distinct Providence of God and his watchfulness and foresight of the Affairs of his Church may haply be more illustrated and display'd by this mystical way of Exposition then by that Literal or Moral 2. We will therefore distinguish the whole Duration of the Church of Christ especially so far forth as it is within the limits of the Roman Empire which also the other Prophecies in the Apocalyps seem chiefly to regard into Seven Intervalls and will suppose the first Intervall to end where the second begins viz. in the tenth year of Nero or Anno Christi 63. 3. Which Period therefore of the Ephesine Church ending so early even about thirty years before St. John's writing the Apocalypse agrees excellently well with that passage Ch. 1. v. 18 19. where after Christ's declaring himself the first and the last as before in the same Chapter he is called He that was and is and is to come and his mentioning his own Death and Resurrection and how that he will be alive to the end of the world to carry on the Affairs of his Church he presently inferrs Write therefore what things thou hast seen what things are and what things shall be hereafter which he expresly and immediately calls the Mystery of the seven Stars and the seven golden Candlesticks ver 20. which is worth the noting What things thou hast seen already in the times of thy life past namely the state of the Ephesine Church what things are now present viz. the Smyrnian state of the Church in which thou art and tastest of the bitterness of it in this thy Exile here in Patmos for the Ten Persecutions were then already begun and John was in the Second of them and what things shall be hereafter namely to the end of the world in the residue of the period of the Smyrnian Church and in the periods of the Remainder of the Seven Churches succeeding And questionless the Vision of the Rider of the white Horse respects what was then past namely Christ's first Warfare upon his conquest of Death and his being mounted into his glorify'd Body who after from on high sent down Succours to his Apostles and Disciples and assisted and and managed that illustrious Battel in the beginning of the Apostolick Times so successfully and gloriously that infinite numbers of men were brought under the obedience of the Gospel even within the space of the Ephesine Period 4. So that there can be no scruple of the Church of Ephesus representing a State of the Church past but onely that it seems improper to direct an Epistle to a Church then out of being But this can be no argument with them that hold the Seven Churches to be seven successive Conditions of the Church to the worlds end For make the Exitus of the Ephesine Church reach beyond S. John's time suppose to Anno Christi 100 or thereabout the rest of the Epistles will be writ to Churches not yet in being and some many hundreds nay thousands of years ere they shall be which yet they must not count absurd 5. The briefest account therefore of this matter is this That the Spirit of God seems to drive on two main designs in the Vision of these Seven Churches at once The one most effectually to animate and encourage the Church to doe well to stick to Truth and Holiness through all the Trials and Calamities of this present life as also to deterre them from all kind of Sin and wickedness of what nature soever whether Apostasie from the Faith Idolatry Sensuality or what-ever Remissness in Manners For which design this Epistolar way is exceeding accommodate it bearing the form of personally speaking to people and so the more forcibly makes them take notice in a manner whether they will or no of what is said unto them The other design and that so laid as not to foregoe the former advantage is to instruct the Church in the Providence of God and his Foresight to shew how all things lie bare before his eyes in such order and succession as they are in time to come to pass In the Literal sense of these Epistles to the Seven Churches that former design is plainly pursued and attained understanding them directed to these Seven Churches in Asia then in being and in a very great measure in the Moral sense These Epistles I say being so applicable to any part of the Catholick Church in any Age thereof placed in the same or like circumstances of Condition with these Asiatick Churches this Epistolar way will have a considerable efficacy and influence upon them for either Animation or Reproof 6. But now the great Question is Why the Prophetical design discoverable in the mystical Interpretation should have been couched in this Epistolar way especially the Epistle to Ephesus being writ after the Ephesine Period was expired To which I answer that this Propheticall design was not intended for the Ephesine Church in this mysticall sense but for future Ages and therefore it is taken in onely to make up the entireness of the whole Succession of the Church in its several distinct states from the beginning to the end of all But this Epistolar way is still retained in this mysticall sense for the same usefulnesse it had in the Literal to the Seven Churches in Asia then really in being For so soon as any of these Letters by this mysticall sense is understood to be directed to any successive part of the Church as now for example as will appear anon the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is directed to the Protestant Church or Reformed Christendome this Succession of the Church
Churches as well as the Vision of the Seven Seals and of the opened Book reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of all things Which consideration is so repeated to us that certainly it must not stand for nought but is to give infallible aim at a higher meaning of the Seven Churches then we are at first aware of For the summary of the Vision before he descends to the particular Churches begins and ends with this v. 11. and 18. I am the First and the Last and have the keyes of Hell and of Death Which undoubtedly respects the execution of the final Sentence under the seventh Thunder 5. But there is first this not able to be observed in the Tenth verse I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a Trumpet This pompous entrance with the sound of the Trumpet into this Vision of the Seven Churches and the glorious appearance of the Son of man walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks with seven Stars in his right hand comes up so near to that splendid Preamble to the Vision of the Seven Seals that any sagacious man cannot but suspect that both the Visions be of like extent and importance and not of such private concern as merely to respect those Seven Churches in Asia For at the beginning of both these Visions there is the glorious appearance of Christ in the midst of the Church in the first standing or walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks in the latter sitting in the midst of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders and both these Preambles to the future Visions ushered in with the sound of the Trumpet Wherefore the Pomp being equal the concern of each Vision in all likelihood is equal Nor can it be pretended that the Pomp before the Vision of the seven Churches was designed as a fair Frontispice to the whole Book of Prophecies because at least as splendid a Frontispice is again erected before the Vision of the Seven Seals Wherefore that former was entirely intended for the Visions of the Seven Churches and therefore portends some mighty concerning Mysterie therein and such as the present Affairs of those seven particular Churches in Asia could not reach nor exhaust But we proceed 6. Saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven Churches which be in Asia Here again immediately before his sending to the seven Churches of Asia he displays those Titles of himself that least of all suit with the small continuance of those particular Churches But the holy Catholick Church endures from the beginning to the end of all Upon which therefore I cannot doubt but the Spirit of Prophecy had his eye at this time and in the Mystery understood by the seven Churches in Asia the holy Catholick Church divided into seven successive Intervalls according to the opinion of Petrus Galatinus For indeed in all reason if there was not some grand Mysterie underneath why should onely seven Churches in Asia be writ to when there were others many others either there or at least in other parts of the Empire in all likelihood as notorious for either the Faults the Vertues or the Sufferings that are noted in these 7. You 'll say haply that Asia minor was the special Diocese as it were of S. John But they that answer thus forget that John was merely passive in these Visions and wrote no otherwise then he was moved by the Holy Ghost which is no respecter of persons Besides that there were certainly other Churches in Asia besides these seven Why therefore just Seven and why these But that seven signifies Universality is obvious in the Prophetick style Therefore to the seven Churches in Asia is as much as to all the Churches in Asia But it 's much that all the Churches in Asia minor should be thus carefully saluted by the Holy Ghost and the rest of the Churches in the Christian world be taken no notice of As if it were according to the Proverb that kissing goes by favour whenas yet it is expresly said in the Scripture that God is no respecter of persons as I intimated before 8. But you will farther urge that we cannot possibly make it any more then all the Churches in Asia unlesse Asia were turned into an Appellative Which consideration will put a bar to all attempts for any Mysticall Interpretation so that we must necessarily rest in the Literal But Hugo Grotius who interpreteth all the Churches also Mystically from the reason of their Names yet takes no notice of any Allusive signification in the word Asia So that in this learned man's judgement that sequel is not so firm But besides though I do not love to play with words more then needs must I think it not hard to finde out an Allusive signification apposite enough in the name of Asia to the Mysticall sense intended For both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former signifying Fundamentum the latter Actio or Effectio as to their paronomasticall sound are as near Asia as the nicest criticall ear can require in these cases And for the sense of them both it is extremely accommodate to the present purpose For then will this Superscription To the Seven Churches in Asia either signifie To all the Churches in the foundation that is that keep to the Apostolick Foundation in matter of Doctrine and Profession or else To all the Churches in Action that is to say these Epistles are writ to them with an intended censure of their Actions And it is said expresly by the Logician touching the Topick of Effects and Actions Hujus loci sunt Laudes Vituperationes upon which all these Epistles altogether run And I know thy works begins every Epistle Besides that they are directed to none but such as profess the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and nothing repugnant thereunto as will appear in our Interpretation of them Nor is it strange that S. John though writing in Greek should himself being a Jew make an Allusion to Hebrew words nor is it without example For the Son of Sirach does plainly in that passage in the Greek Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allude to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. These verbal Allusions are so frequent in the Prophetick Style that there is no need farther to take notice thereof nor any doubt I think but the Spirit of God would not in this Book of Prophecies where all things are so comprehensive and majestick salute onely seven particular Churches of all the Churches of the World and that with such pompous Circumstances nor when he had begun so magnificently a Book of Prophecies and so expresly intitled it so that he would immediately afterwards as if he
Servius saith Grotius upon Apoc. 1. 11. whence he would have the Church in Pergamus to re-mind us of high and heavenly things But this is a Moral not a Propheticall sense But with him howsoever I acknowledge that the signification of Sublimity is alluded to in the general but here most elegantly and seasonably in reference to the precedent state of the Church in Smyrna which was a state of Humiliation and bitter Affliction But at the very beginning of this present Intervall she so conspicuously emerging out of this low sad affictive state into the state of glory peace and prosperity what can be more significant then to salute her with the Title of the Church in Pergamus accordingly as she is here saluted which is a kind of Congratulation to her fresh emergency out of her late Miseries And this sense will hold good for a time in this Intervall namely till tho days of her Apostasy but then the Apostolick Church will be the Church in Pergamus still but in another kind of meaning 4. According therefore to the richnesse of the Prophetick style Pergamus has also another sense such as the City Babylon and the City Tyrus which are put for the City of Rome But then not in such a sense as to mean the Walls or Stones of the Roman City but the Roman Church and her Power and Jurisdiction And in such a sense is Pergamus also here put for Rome So that this Epistle written to the Church of Christ in Pergamus the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church is directed to this Church dwelling under the Roman Church or within the Roman Churche's Jurisdiction understanding old Rome especially as all such Apocalyptick Visions perstringe her most Now that Rome in this sense is perstringed by this Pergamus is very evident First in the easie Allusion of Pergamus to Rome from the signification of the words For as Pergamus signifies Sublimity so as Martinius notes Rome is from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exaltari Besides that her Situation is high and Buildings lofty according to that of the Poet Collibus è septem totum circumspicit orbem And the highest of all is the Bishop of Rome himself who exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped Is not this therefore a fit Bishop of Pergamus that perks thus above all Kings and Emperours and Princes of the earth And our Intervall of the Church of Pergamus reaches the highest times of her Exaltation it taking in both Gregory the seventh who first excommunicated the Emperour and took upon him the power of making Emperours himself and Alexander the third who trode upon the neck of the Emperour Frederick as also Caelestine the third that crowned Henry the sixth and his Empress with his feet and in scorn kick'd the Emperour's Crown off with his foot when he had crowned him Certainly the Popes of Rome were then the Bishops of Pergamus with a witnesse Nor after this Intervall could they ever hold their Crests so high Boniface the eighth indeed was a Blusterer and excommunicated Philip the Fair of France but he called him fool for his pains and handled him in such sort that surprized at Anagnia he was disgracefully mounted on a poor Jade and so carried prisoner to Rome where Pride and Regret broke his heart and so he there dy'd ingloriously But secondly It is said of this Pergamus that it was the most given to Idolatry of all the Cities of Asia so Andreas Cesariensis reports of it which is the notorious Character of Rome above all Cities and therefore elsewhere in the Apocalypse she is called the Whore of Babylon for her insatiable spiritual Fornications Thirdly These Pergamenians were very fierce and diligent Accusers of the Apostolick Christians to bring them to Martyrdome as Dr. Hammond upon the place notes out of ancient History For which also Rome is taxed elsewhere in the Apocalypse who is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Fourthly It is recorded of the Prefect of this City Pergamus that he would persuade the Christians to forsake the Apostolick Faith and return to Heathenism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the elder Religion was the more precious and to be preferred As Antiquity is the great Pretense of the Papal Church That Prefect said of Christianity that it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it began but the other day And so you may be sure the Church of Rome said of the Religion of the Waldenses and Albigenses See Dr. Hammond upon the place And lastly That it should be the Martyr Antipas that was slain in Pergamus can any name more directly and assuredly point at the Church of Rome or the Papal Church then this For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Father and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Papa â—â— but a Reduplication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eustathius has noted and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as against And therefore who can be so blind as not to discern how fit a Type this Antipas is of them that within this Intervall of the Church should suffer for being against that holy Father the Pope as he is called Nothing can sound more congruously or harmoniously whatever any man by way of cavill can say against it The main Interpretation therefore of this present Epistle to the Church in Pergamus will respect the pure Apostolick Church abiding within the Jurisdiction of the Roman as this sense plainly implies the Woman in the wildernesse as the Holy Ghost elsewhere expresses it These things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges Christ is set out thus in this Epistle to the Church in Pergamns because this Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God understood and rellished by the Divine Spirit in us was the main Weapon whereby the Church in Pergamus defended her self from the Pergamenian Corruptions and so kept her self pure from the false Glosses and unsound Traditions of either Superstitious men or crafty Deceivers 5. I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth That is to say I know thou doest well for the main and to thy greater commendation I consider where thou dwellest even where the first-born of Lucifer has his throne he that exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So Christ compares Satan to Lucifer or the King of Babylon of whom the Prophet says How art thou fallen Lucifer thou son of the Morning Luke 10. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven And yet neither the awe nor glory of that Church could cause thee to forsake my Name and in stead of being a true Christian to become a Member of Antichrist and so relinquish the pure Apostolick Faith no not
many Waters that insinuates that this Description respects also his Body Mysticall which are a multitude 7. I know thy works and charity and service and faith The true Church then in Thyatira being in Oppression and Affliction stood close to one another and encouraged and comforted one another and supported one another as well as they could and endeavoured after an Exemplarity of Godlinesse and due proficiency in the Power of Religion as being Candidates for that Deliverance which they by Faith saw was not far off And thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first That is I see the works of thy Patience in suffering Imprisonment Tortures and Death and particularly in giving up your selves as an Oblation of Incense to the Fire and faggot in such numbers for the testimony of my Truth Which being toward the latter end of this Intervall it is fitly said and the last to be more then the first This is according to what is found in History 8. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess c. viz. the Papal Hierarchy that pretends to be infallible and under colour of this brings in Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication and detains men in the Communion of their idolatrous Mass which the Spirit of God here parallels to the eating of things sacrificed unto Idols The Prophetesse Jezebel here therefore answers to the false Prophet after mentioned in the Revelations and this exprobration to the Church in Thyatira of permitting Jezebel thus to practice her deceits to that voice of the Angel Come out of her my people lest ye be partakers of her sins and of her plagues It is a kind of solicitation of the Princes and people in Christendome such as discerned the Frauds and Idolatries of the Roman Church to make a Defection from her and suffer her Trumperies no longer For the time of that Defection now drew near and things were ripe for it and it was in the power of them that disliked the condition of Affairs to amend it and therefore he saith Because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel For it is no fault in us to suffer those things which it is not in our power to help or redresse 9. This Jezebel is very expressive of the Roman Hierarchy if we recurr to the story of the book of the Kings not onely for her painting of her self which is notorious in the Roman Church and especially in this Intervall and such as the Homilies of our Church in England take especial notice of comparing all those rich and gorgeous Adornings of the Church of Rome to the painting of the wrinkled face of an Harlot but also for her Whoredomes and Witchcraft as it is noted 1 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy Mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many Which is exactly parallel to the Description of the Whore of Babylon who is said to be the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the earth described also by that Cup of Sorcery in her hand whereby she intoxicates the Kings of the Earth and makes them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication And whereas she is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Jezebel also in her History is famous for murthering the Prophets of God 10. And those grosse Wickednesses committed by Ahab who did very abominably in following Idols and in persecuting the Servants of the true God who is said to have sold himself to work Wickednesse are imputed to this subtil murtherous Whore and Witch as the Text plainly declares But there was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up That is to say the Roman Hierarchy according as both the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and of the two-horned Beast do plainly signifie was the Authour Contriver and Instigatour unto all those murtherous and idolatrous practices that the Secular Magistrate has been guilty of during their Force and Tyranny over the true Servants of Christ. The Beast with two Horns exercised all this Power before the Beast with ten Horns or rather made use of the Secular Power to effect all their devillish Designs against the Children of God as Jezebel wrote Letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal The Church got the stamp of the Imperial Authority upon all the wicked Dogmata of their Religion and Idolatrous practices which they contrived for their own carnal advantages and then if any Naboth would not part with the Inheritance of his Fathers the possession of an holy righteous and rational Conscience nor profess nor act against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those native Truths and Notions which God of his infinite mercy and faithfulnesse has implanted in the minds of all men that have not done violence to that innate Light the Candle of the Lord searching all the parts of the belly he was through the murtherous contrivances of this Strumpet Jezebel falsely accused as a Blasphemer of God and the King as an enemy to both the Catholick Faith and secular Magistrate and so was sentenced to death And death came by these wicked Accusations in this Intervall as in the former Intervall wherein Antipas was slain by openly fighting in the Field Thus apposite is the Allusion to the History of Jezebel for the setting out the state of this Intervall of the Church under the Tyranny of the Church of Rome 11. Nor is it all harsh thus to interpret a Vineyard to so spiritual a sense as to make it something within us whenas both Philo and other ancient Interpreters have interpreted Paradise to that sense or the Garden of Eden And others also cannot but acknowledge that that Law of Moses Deut. 22. 9. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers seeds has also a Moral or Mysticall meaning and is a Precept of Simplicity or Sincerity of heart Wherefore the Vineyard of Naboth may very well signifie the Humane Will and Understanding that is sown onely or planted with such Notions or notices of things as are from God whether they be those innate Idea's of the Soul or what is communicated farther by the Spirit of God in the Holy Writings of inspired men or are more immediately inspired into us by the abode of that Spirit in us All these Plants are of our Heavenly Father 's own planting and no other seed is to be sown among them repugnant thereunto And this Vineyard is the Inheritance of all true Christians descending upon them from the Apostles times to this very day But the Roman Empire being perverted by the doctrines of the whore or two-horned Beast or by the eorruptions also of their own nature had a mind to invade this ancient right as Ahab had to get into his possession Naboth's
trade of whoring still Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds Unlesse she repent I will certainly cast her into a bed of sicknesse and languishment for that bed of Adultery wherein she has entertained the Kings of the earth Her strength and glory shall be much diminished and her Paramours shall bewail the Calamity I shall bring upon her For there shall be of the Kings that shall hate the Whore shall make her desolate in their dominions and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire As it fell out in the late defection of whole Nations from her And I will kill her children with death That is either slay them with the sword of the Spirit and so make them dead as to her by their conversion to the truth or else kill them with a natural death such I mean as come against my true Church whether whole Armies or seditious Emissaries as has often happened since the Reformation And all the Churches shall know that I am he that searches the reins and hearts and will give unto every one of you according to his works That is it will be notoriously taken notice of in all Christendome how just my judgements are and that I deal not with Jezebel according to her fair pretenses and Titles who calls her self Holy Church and pretends all her cruelties and imposturous and Idolatrous Trumperies to be for my glory whenas they have run into all this degeneracy for their worldly Interest But mine eyes which are a flaming fire searching into the hearts and reins clearly see their abominable Hypocrisie and my feet like fine brasse that never goe out of the way of purity and justice will be sure to overtake them and doe due vengeance upon them I will reward every one according to his works 18. But unto you I say and unto the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine To you Pastours of my true Church in Thyatira and the rest which are your charge that hold not the Idolatrous doctrine or faith of the Thyatirian that is of the Roman Church And which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak that is which have not approved the deep mysteries as they speak of reason of State or of the Roman Religion such as murdering innocent men for the Interest of Holy Church Infallibility Transubstantiation and the like but I who search the heart and reins do apertly declare to be the depths of Satan they tending to nothing but to Luciferian Pride barbarous Persecutions and Murders and grosse imposture and Idolatry I will put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already hold fast untill I come I have already shew'd you my approbation of your wayes ver 19. and in that ye do not communicate with the Idolatrous Jezebel keep to where you are and stand out to the last let no Persecutions dismay you till I come in judgement against this Jezebel the same with the little Horn in Daniel which in the expiring of the time and times and half a time will certainly be judged 19. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations That company of men those people that keep my works to the end to the last semi-time of the Seven they shall have power over the Pagan Christians they shall get them under and be no more domineered over by them And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron that is with sufficient power and strictnesse to keep them in subjection As the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers The stone shall smite the Image on the feet and break them to pieces That shall be at the long-run Even as I received of my father I in you and you in me you in me by vertue of the Power of my Spirit shall thus reign and I in you according as it is written I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces as a Potters vessel But this is something further off 20. And I will give him the morning star In the mean time and which is next to succeed I will give them the morning star that is a considerable dawning towards that greater Day of the illustrious reign of Christ upon earth in his Saints by his Spirit The Phosphorus to the glorious Sun-rise of the happy Millennium properly so called This intervall will be the same with that of the Vials which are accompanied with such a smoake As here the Promise which is to be performed in the next Succession of the Church and there continued is not expressed with that vigour as elsewhere where Christ in reference to his Kingdome is said to be the bright morning star here onely the morning star without the ornament of that Epithet The Kingdome of Christ therefore under the first Thunder may be said to be the morning star but under the second the bright morning star And it is observable that whereas in that other place he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may also have the signification of more early then was expected which exquisitely answers to the evert it falling out toward the fore-part of the last semi-time But these things are onely by the by He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches There is nothing new remarkable in this Epiphonema but the placing of it here after the whole Epistle which is a sign that all the Epistle is a Parable and is not onely meant of the Church in Thyatira in the Literal sense but that the condition and affairs of some other Church the truely Catholick and Apostolick Church in the Intervall defined are here prefigured and described Prophetically And that therefore the Promises are to be performed on this stage of the Earth as of their own nature they appear to be such that have a Political sense Which therefore therewithall assures us that such a tenour of Interpretation belongs to the three following Epistles because the Epiphonema is the close of every one of them And therefore we shall steer the course of our Interpretation accordingly CHAP. VII The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Sardis 1. AND unto the Angel in the Church of Sardis write That Sardis was a City in Asia is manifest Ch. 1. And considered no otherwise then so does not at all illustrate the condition of this fifth Succession of the state of the Church But acknowledging here again a Paronomastical Allusion to Sarda the precious Stone as Grotius does or taking notice with Pliny that that Stone is so called for its first being found about
received from me my self or my Apostles stand fast to the infallible Word which will impartially instruct and excite you to all the due measures of Godlinesse And believe not the rotten and corrupt Glosses ofdeceitful men that would sew Pillows under mens Arm-holes and frame Opinions and Precepts to favour the Lusts of the flesh To dote upon men is a piece of Carnality but to dote on them for their carnal Opinions and fleshfavouring Documents is Sardian or Carnaline of a double Dye Repent therefore for the Kingdome of God is at hand and he that has the seven Spirits of God stands ready to assist and succour with his Divine Graces all that sincerely endeavour after Righteousnesse So that the fault lies at your own doors If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I come upon thee If thou wilt not return to true Sobriety and Sincerity of Manners I shall bring some signal mischief upon thee before thou beest aware I shall suddenly come in Judgment against thee when thou least dreamest thereof God of his infinite mercy avert the ill Omen and change our hearts that we may amend our lives and he may be reconciled to us 6. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments Notwithstanding the Dispensation of the Sardian Church be so generally carnal in the very hew of that Carnaline-stone that looks so like mere flesh and bloud yet there are some few that have not defiled their garments with that colour but are as it were the Primitiae of the Dispensation of the Spirit whose inward Man is renewed day by day into the Image of my self and are made partakers of the Divine Nature and are the Children of Light And they shall walk with me in white These shall not onely enjoy glorious Converses with me and I communicate my spiritual Graces abundantly to them but they shall be very successfull and prosperous in their Affairs For to be cloathed in white signifies so in the Onirocriticks accordingly as you may see in Achmetes For they are worthy For I doe to every one according to his work 7. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment He that overcometh all the Lusts of this terrestrial Body to him will I communicate the Celestial or Divine This is a more Theologicall sense But the Political is most proper the Epiphonema concluding the whole Epistle Wherefore to be clothed in white Raiment it being here the promise to him that overcomes signifies and that rather then in the fore-going Verse Successe and Prosperity in external affairs and exemption from Grief and Affliction as the Onirocriticks do expresly interpret it See Achmetes And I will not blot his name out of the book of Life The more proper and Politicall sense may be that when the Church by overcoming has emerged into the Philadelphian condition it shall never change at least as to the externall frame but keep up to the end and God will avowedly acknowledge it to be his even to the last even then when it is passed into the Laodicean state and the state of Persecution shall never overwhelm it any more So the Book of life may signifie here as the Crown of life before in the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna But I will confess his name before my Father and before his Angels That is to say I will acknowledge his nature to have become in a manner Divine and Angelical and therefore to be a meet Associate for their companies in my Heavenly Kingdome for ever This may be a Moral or Theologicall sense But the Politicall is chiefly aimed at as is intimated by the placing of the Epiphonema last of all The confessing therefore of the Names of these few in Sardis that are right as they should be and as many as make up to the measure of their Sanctity which therefore are the seed of the Philadelphian Church Christ his confessing of their Names before his Father and before his holy Angels is the mentioning of their Names as of a People more peculiarly his and extraordinarily dear unto him that by thus owning them in such an endearing manner before God and his holy Angels they may be in a more special manner recommended to the favour and Protection of God and to the faithfull and watchfull Ministry of his holy Angels which will be the efficient causes of their being cloathed in white and of their Name never being blotted out of the Book of Life that is to say of the Permanency of their outward Prosperity and security from Misery and Oppression that thus Innocency and outward Felicity may goe hand in hand in the blessed Millennium which is in a manner the same with the Philadelphian Intervall of the Church These few Names in Sardis will amount to this at last For Salvation is to spring out of Sardis not out of Babylon Nor is it any wonder that the Ministry of the holy Angels will be so extraordinarily exercised about a Church which will then have become so Angelicall as is more fully noted in the Divine Dialogues 8. These are the rousing Motives which Christ useth to excite the carnal Church of Sardis to more hearty endeavours after the Dispensation of the Spirit that they may bring on the beginning of those most happy Times the conduct of which Affair is represented by that illustrious Heros on his white Horse Chap. 19. where his Armies follow him on white Horses clothed in fine Linnen white and clean Which appertains to the last end of the Intervall of this Church of Sardis a great part of whom by this time it 's likely may have turned their Carnaline-colour into pure white and be ready to march with him there to that spiritual Warfare as some are said here to walk with him in white and that with marvellous success and prosperity as their white Cloathing does intimate He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Reformed Christendome especially she is so much concerned therein For she as I said at first is this Sardian Church the beginning of whose Intervall being adorned with more true Holinesse and sincerity of Zeal the better deserved the Title of the Rising of the Witnesses And though they be here much reproved for their Faults yet they are acknowledged to be one of the Seven Churches in Asia Chap. 1. 11. that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Fundamento and are the true and Apostolical Church still and justly witnesse against the Idolatries and grosse Antichristian practices of the Church of Rome such I mean as with them have become a Law and thereby are properly Antichristian This I thought fit to adde to stop the preposterous pronenesse of some toward the Roman Church from the Consideration that all things are not so perfect in the Reformed Churches as might be desired For though they be
Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Propheticall sense with the Intervalls of the Church Catholick lying in that order that these Churches are ranged This is a satisfactory reason and worthy the Spirit that wrote these Epistles But whether they are ranged in this order because that a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus and then to Smyrna and so in order till he come to Laodicea whether the holy Spirit of Prophecy regarded that in the dictating of his Letters though Alcazar the Jesuite be for it I cannot but suspend my judgement and that not without a smile But of this Ataxie more particularly anon 3. Fourthly If it be demanded why just Seven Churches in Asia are writ to neither more nor lesse especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgement of Epiphanius being then not founded but after the writing of these Epistles it is hard to give a satisfactory answer in the Literal sense For to say this Book of the Apocalypse affects the number Seven and that because it runs upon the number Seven altogether in the insuing part of the book which is Propheticall it therefore for Conformity sake chuses this number in writing to the Churches though literally understood seems but a meagre mean and trifling account a design unworthy the Holy Spirit that dictated this Book But the using this number Seven all over is rather an intimation that the Book is Propheticall all over and that these Epistles are also a Prophecy accordingly as we have explained them And taking them so the Answer is plain and obvious viz. The number Seven is here chosen out as Symbolicall it being the note of Universality whence the Pythagoreans as I above noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more then Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervalls of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather then any others which in all likelihood may have the same Vertues and Vices that these are commended and taxed for The reason of this is writ in the very Notation of their Names every Name being significative of the Condition of the Church Catholick in that successive Intervall of time that this or that Church so named standeth for and in such order as they are repeated Sixthly If one require a Reason why Christ is described by holding the seven Stars in his right hand in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus and of Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to finde any peculiar Reason but in the Propheticall sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signifie all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the beginning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodicall to represent the first Founder Sustainer and Continuer thereof by this Emblem Lo I am with you to the end of the world And that this again is hinted at in the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is with evident Proportion and Analogy to the Affairs of the Church there represented For the Church of Sardis is as it were the beginning again or the emerging of the true Church or Kingdome of Christ out of the Power and Kingdome of Antichrist 4. Seventhly Why the Church of Ephesus of all other Churches should be commended for their trying false Apostles Why might not other Churches be attaqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Probleme is easie in this Mysticall sense of the Epistles that places the Ephesine Intervall within the Apostles times but the rest on this side of them Eighthly If any one demand why it is said to the Church of Smyrna more then to any other Church Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and again He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to finde any peculiar Reason why this might not as well be said to the Church in Pergamus where there was killing for Religion it seems by the mention of the Martyr Antipas I but there was no obtaining the Crown of life there in any peculiar sense but the Crown of life that is the Imperial Crown was given to the Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs under the Ten Persecutions to whom also according to the opinion of the ancient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptick style that loves to hint things by Ellipses in that Promise He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death implying thereby that he shall be made partaker of the first Resurrection Ninthly If any one will again object more particularly against the Ataxie of the Churches that they are ranged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible Churches together Smyrna and Philadelphia against whom there is no complaint at all and then Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea against whom there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols and afterwards Pergamus and Thyatira in which Churches alone there is If any one I say contend that this method had been more exact truly in the Literal sense it will be hard to frame an handsome and satisfactory answer especially if he urge that God is the Authour of Method as well as the God of Order But in this Mysticall or Propheticall sense the Answer is solid and exquisite and much-what the same that was given to the like Difficulty more generally propounded before namely That the Churches of Asia are named in that order the successive Intervalls of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervalls of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False prophet viz. the Intervalls of the Church of Pergamus and of Thyatira must come after Ephesus and Smyrna because till the expiration of those two Intervalls Idolatry had not again re-entred the Apostatizing Church And the three following Intervalls of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea are the Intervalls of the true Church elapsed out of the hands of domineering Idolatry and therefore we hear no more in them of things sacrificed unto Idols nor of any Jezabel And Philadelphia which is the most holy and the most glorious Intervall of the Church that is to appear on the face of the earth is not to be named according to her Dignity but according to her Succession in time toward the latter end of the world as she is here ranged But of this more then enough because we had
Treatise 5. Which therefore doth confirm and corroborate and place beyond all exception the Orthodox Protestant Interpretations of those Visions that concern the Church of Rome which in this last Age have been made so clear and every way so natural and congruous that this one thing granted of their Idolatry there cannot be the least scruple of the truth and congruity of the rest of the Applications 6. And I cannot but adore the faithfulnesse of Divine Providence that has furnished his Church with these Oracles to be the Guide of the Faithfull in these latter Ages which are as it were the dregs of those times which the Spirit of Prophecy has set no good character upon wherein there is such an Inundation of Wickednesse and Prophanenesse that there is scarce any Faith to be found upon earth But that Church which has deluded the world with so many Fictions could never forge those Prophecies that are so punctually true and so cuttingly set out all her grosse Miscarriages and as expresly foretell her Ruine unlesse she will humble her self and pluck in her horns lay aside her bold boasts of Infallibility and be content to be taught to cast away her Idols and be cured of her Dropsie and unnatural thirst after the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus 7. Nor can I on the other side sufficiently admire the stupidity of some of our own and their grosse ingratitude to Divine Providence that have so slight a regard to a Book of that mighty weight and moment as the Apocalypse is and think it such a subject as that any good Wit must needs mis-place his time if he meddle with it which is more then a Pagan irreverence to so holy and so important Oracles The Romans of old had another esteem for the Verses of the Sibylls Nihil enim ità custodiebant neque sanctum neque sacrum quemadmodum Sibyllina Oracula as Dionysius Halicarnasseus testifies And it was an high honour to be the Keepers much more the right Expounders of them But that which God of his mercy offers to all such is either the idlenesse frivolousness or profaneness of the spirits of men that it is scarce accepted of any 8. The truth is most men are loath to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be messengers of ill news to the greatest that is to say to the corruptest part of Christendome but rather affect the glory and security of being accounted of so humane of so sweet and ingratiating a temper as that they can surmize well of all mens Religions and so think to conciliate to themselves the fame of either civil and good Natures or of highly-raised and released Wits though it be indeed but a spice of the old abhorred Gnosticism that can comply with any Religion and make a fair tolerable sense of all 9. But these are such high strains of pretense to Wit or Knowledge and Gentility as I must confess I could never yet arrive to nor I hope ever shall though I am not in the mean time so stupid in my way as to think I can write thus freely without offence And yet on the contrary I can deem my self no more uncivil then I do him that wrings his friend by the nose to fetch him out of a Swound 10. I am not insensible how harsh this charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome will sound in some ears especially it being seconded with that other of Murther and that the most cruel and barbarous imaginable and finally so severely rewarded with an impossibility of Salvation to any now so long as they continue in Communion with that Church But I believed therefore I spake and have no reason to recall my words or to have concealed the truth that their fishing may become lesse successfull in these parts and that it may be with my Countrey-men according to that in Salomon Surely in vain the net is spred in the sight of any bird And therefore this is to open their eyes that they may see what snares of destruction are laid for them and how those that promise others liberty are themselves the servants of corruption and how they that take upon them to be the onely Absolvers from sin are themselves held fast in the snares of eternall death and do as necessarily illaqueate all others therein whom they proselyte to their Religion so far are they from giving them any effectual Absolution 11. I doubt not but many will be prone to cry out This is a very rude piece of Uncharitablenesse to all Romanists But I say it were a most perfidious kinde of Civility even to them themselves to say nothing of the Injury to our Church and Countrey to declare otherwise But if this be the main Odium that sticks upon so true and usefull a Conclusion that it is so far estranged from the spirit of Charity hear but this brief Parable Reader and then I will leave it to thy self to judge and conclude There was a certain Knight bravely mounted as it might seem and in goodly equippage in bright armour a rich scarf about his shoulders and a large plume of feathers in his Helmet who was bound for the Castle of Health seated on an high Hill not unlike to the Domicilium Salutis in Cebes his Table which therefore he easily kept in his eye But the way he was in being something stony and rough and leading not so directly as he thought to the desired Castle he diverted out of the way and descended into a green Plain but not knowing whether it was all passable to the Castle called to some Loyterers there in the field to enquire of them who came right willingly to the Knight scraping many legs to him and desiring him to tell his demands 12. There was an old Shepherd likewise not far off who by that time this idle people had got to the Knight had come down to him also Friends said he to those men he called Is the way passable and safe through this green Plain to yonder Castle pointing to the Castle of Health with his Warder Very safe may it please your Worship said they and shrugging their shoulders and scraping many legs asked a Largesse of the Knight pretending they had been at common work not far off Whereupon the Knight put his hand into his pocket and gave them liberally But are there no Bogs said he nor Lakes betwixt this and the Castle Some small inconsiderable Sloughs it may be said they but you will meet with the Holy Society of the Wipers every-where who will be ready to wipe you as clean as a Clock before you come at the Castle And being so excellently well mounted as we see you are namely upon that famous Steed renowned over all the world the infallible-footed Aplanedo so good an Horse as that he never stumbles your Worship need fear no disaster at all Besides the Beast God blesse him has a Nose like any Hound and by a
a mere Creature and that a very sorry one too and therefore must be gross Idolatry by the twenty-first and twenty-second Conclusions of the second Chapter 3. But now that their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is false after we have proposed it in the very words of the Council we shall evince by undeniable Demonstration Per consecrationem Panis Vini conversionem fieri totius substantiae Panis in substantiam Corporis Christi totius substantiae Vini in substantiam Sanguinis ejus quae conversio convenienter propriè à Sancta Catholica Ecclesia Transubstantiatio est appellata And a little before cap. 3. Si quis negaverit in venerabili Sacramento Eucharistiae sub unaquaque specie sub singulis cujusque speciei partibus separatione factâ totum Christum contineri Anathema sit In which passages it is plainly affirmed that not onely the Bread is turned into the whole Body of Christ and the Wine into his Bloud but that each of them are turned into the whole Body of Christ and every part of each as often as division or separation is made is also turned into his whole Body Which is such a contradictious Figment that there is nothing so repugnant to the Faculties of the humane Soul 4. For thus the Body of Christ will be in God knows how many thousand places at once and how many thousand miles distant one from another Whenas Amphitruo rightly expostulates with his Servant Sosia and rates him for a Mad-man or Impostour that he would go about to make him believe that he was at home though but a little way off while yet he was with him at that distance from home Quo id malúm pacto potest fieri nunc utî tu hîc sis domi And a little before in the same Colloquie with his Servant Nemo unquam homo vidit saith he nec potest fieri tempore uno homo idem duobus locis ut simul sit Wherein Amphitruo speaks but according to the common sense and apprehension of all men even of the meanest Idiots 5. But now let us examine it according to the Principles of the learned and of all their Arts and Sciences Physicks Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Logick It is a Principle in Physicks That that internall space that a Body occupies at one time is equal to the Body that occupies it Now let us suppose one and the same body occupy two such internall places or spaces at once This Body is therefore equal to those two spaces which are double to one single space wherefore the body is double to that body in one single space and therefore one and the same body double to it self Which is an enormous Contradiction Again in Metaphysicks The Body of Christ is acknowledged one and that as much as any one body else in the world Now the Metaphysicall Notion of one is to be indivisum à se both quo ad partes and quo ad totum as well as divisum à quolibet alio But the Body of Christ being both in Heaven and without any continuance of that body here upon Earth also the whole body is divided from the whole body and therefore is entirely both unum and multa which is a perfect Contradiction 6. Thirdly in Mathematicks The Council saying that in the separation of the parts of the Species that which bears the outward show of Bread or Wine that from this Division there is a parting of the whole divided into so many entire Bodies of Christ the Body of Christ being always at the same time equal to it self it follows that a part of the Division is equal to the whole against that common Notion in Euclide That the Whole is bigger then the Part. And lastly in Logick it is a Maxime That the Parts agree indeed with the Whole but disagree one with another But in the abovesaid Division of the Host or Sacrament the Parts do so well agree that they are entirely the very same individuall thing And whereas any Division whether Logicall or Physicall is the Division of some one into many this is but the Division of one into one and itself like him that for brevity sake divided his Text into one Part. To all which you may adde that unlesse we will admit of two Sosia's and two Amphitruo's in that sense that the mirth is made with it in Plautus his Comedy neither the Bread nor the Wine can be transubstantiated into the intire Body of Christ. For this implies that the same thing is and is not at the same time For that individual thing that can be and is to be made of any thing is not Now the individual Body of Christ is to be made of the Wafer consecrated for it is turned into his individual Body But his individual Body was before this Consecration Wherefore it was and it was not at the same time Which is against that fundamental Principle in Logick and Metaphysicks That both parts of a Contradiction cannot be true or That the same thing cannot both be and not be at once Thus fully and intirely contradictious and repugnant to all Sense and Reason to all indubitable Principles of all Art and Science is this Figment of Transubstantiation and therefore most certainly false Reade the ten first Conclusions of the brief Discourse of the true Grounds of Faith added to the Divine Dialogues 7. And from Scripture it has not the least support All is Hoc est corpus meum when Christ held the Bread in his hand and after put part into his own mouth as well as distributed it to his Disciples in doing whereof he swallow'd his whole Body down his throat at once according to the Doctrine of this Council or at least might have done so if he would And so all the Body of Christ Flesh Bones Mouth Teeth Hair Head Heels Thighs Arms Shoulders Belly Back and all went through his Mouth into his Stomach and thus all were in his Stomach though all his Body intirely his Stomach excepted was still without it Which let any one judge whether it be more likely then that this saying of Christ This is my Body is to be understood figuratively the using the Verb substantive in this sense being not unusual in Scripture as in I am the Vine The seven lean Kine are the seven years of Famine and the like and more particularly since our Saviour speaking elsewhere of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud says plainly that the words he spake they were spirit and they were truth that is to say a spiritual or aenigmaticall truth not carnally and literally to be understood And for the trusting of the judgement of the Roman Church herein that makes it self so sacrosanct infallible the Pride Worldliness Policy multifarious Impostures of that Church so often and so shamelesly repeated and practised must needs make their Authority seem nothing in a Point that is so much for their own Interest especially set against the
and obnoxious men she must take heed that she be not found guilty of blaspheming the holy Spirit of God I confesse these Propheticall Passages apply'd to such persons as to whom they do not belong were an high and rude strain of Railing indeed and quite out of the road of Christianity and common Humanity But to call them Railings when they are apply'd to that very Party to whom they are really meant by that Spirit that dictated them is indeed to pretend to a sense of Civility towards men but in the mean time to become a down-right Blasphemer against the Holy Ghost that dictated these Oracles And that they are not mis-apply'd any impartial man of but an ordinary patience and comprehension of wit may have all assurance desirable from that demonstration of the truth compriz'd in the eight last Chapters of the first Book of Synopsis Prophetica to say nothing of the present Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia 25. Wherefore O serious Soul whoever thou art be not complemented out of the Truth and an earnest pursuance of thine own Salvation from a vain sense of the Applauses or Reproaches of men or from any consideration what they may think of thee for attesting or standing to such Verities as are so unwelcome to many ears but of such huge importance to all to hear For no lesse a Game is at stake in our choice of what Church we adhere to that of Rome or the Reformed then the Possession of Heaven and eternall Life Wherefore stand stoutly upon thy guard and whensoever thou art accosted by the fair words and sugar'd speeches of that cunning Woman who will make semblance of great solicitude for thy future Happinesse most passionately inviting thee to return into the bosome of Holy Church be sure to remember what an Holy Church she is according to Divine description and that if thou assentest to her smooth Persuasions and crafty Importunities thou dost ipso facto pardon the vehemence of expression adventure thy self into the jaws of Hell and cast thy self into the arms of the Devil God of his mercy give us all Grace to consider what has been spoken that we may evermore escape these Snares of Death Amen THE END * Apoc. 1. 20. John 13 35. Apoc. 2. 14 20. Chap. 5. 25. 1 Cor. 5. 7. See Dr. Cudworth's Discourse of the Lord's Supper De rerum Invent. lib. 17. cap. 4. Apâ—c 2. 18. Gregâ—r â—ranc â—xic â—anct tâ—t 07. 2 Kings 9. 37. Apoc. 2. 19. Apoc. 11. 11 12. Apoc. 2. 26. * Synops. Prophet Book 2. C. 22. sect 12. Apoc. 2. 20. Apoc. 3. 12. Apoc. 3. 3. Isa. 7. 12. Apoc. 2. 4. 1 John 4. 16. * Apoc. 6. â—â— * See Divine Dialogues Dialogue 5. sect 38. Apoc. 1. 1. Verse 3. Verse 4. Verse 7. Verse 8. Verse 10. Verse 11. Pet. Ram. lib. 1. c. 9. Eccles. 6. 22. Verse 16. Verse 20. Chap. 1. v. 20. Apoc. 2. 1. Matth. 28. 19 20. Apoc. 6. Verse 2 3. Verse 4. Verse 5. Verse 6. Verse 7. Luke 23. 42 43. Apoc. ch 2. v. 8. Verse 9. Matt. 16. 23. Verse 10. Verse 11. Apoc. ch 2. v. 12. Dan. 12. 12. Verse 13. Verse 14. Verse 15. Verse 16. Verse 17. Apoc. 2. 18. * See if there was not a Marie's Psalter before Antidote against Idolat chap. 6. sect 8. * This was the Institute of Pope John 22. and within the fore-part of the Intervall of Thyatira See Polydore Virgil. de Rerum invent lib. 6. c. 12. Downham de Antichrist lib. 6. cap. 5. Verse 19. Verse 20. Apoc. 19. 20. Apoc. 18. 4. Apoc. 17. 1 Kings 18. 4. 1 King 21. 25. Apoc. 13. 1 Kings 21. 8. Prov. 20. 27. 1 Kings 21. 10. Apoc. 13. Apoc. 11. 1 John 5. 1. 1 John 4. 12. Apoc. 19. 10. Apoc. 11. 3 10. 1 Kings 18. 4. 1 Kings 21. 10. Verse 21. Verse 22. Verse 23. Verse 24. Verse 25. Verse 26. Verse 27. Psalm 2. Verse 28. Apoc. 22. 10. Verse 29. Apoc. 3. 1. John 6. 55. John 6. 63. Verse 2. Verse 3. Verse 4. Verse 5. Verse 6. Apoc 3. ver 7. Cant. 2. 4. Cant. 6. 10. Verse 8. Apoc. 16. and 19. Apoc. 16. Apoc. 16. 18 19. Verse 9. Joh. 8. 44. Apoc. 19. 20. Verse 10. 1 Pet. 3. v. 13. Verse 11. Verse 12. Verse 13. Apoc. 3. 14. Isa. 9. 6. Verse 15. Verse 16. Gen. 6. 6. Verse 17. Verse 18. 9. Verse 20. John 14. 20. ver 23. Verse 21. Matt. 26. 29. 1 Cor. 15 51 54. Verse 22. Apoc. 1. 1 3. Apoc. 2. 10 11. Apoc. 20. 6. Apoc. 2. 12. Apoc. 2. 18. * Part 1. Book 1. Ch. 5. to the 17. Chap. * Apoc. 2. 20. * Apoc. 18. 4. Rom. 3. 4. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Prov. 1. 17. 2 Pet. 2. 19. John 15. 22. Exod. 31. 18. Mark 10. 18 19. Joh. 1. 14. Concil Trident. Sess. 3. cap. 5. Caâ— 6. Concil Trident. Sess. 3. cap. 4. cap. 3. can 3. * See Paul Fag upon Deut. 8. 10. John 15. 5. Gen. 41. 27. Joh. 6. 63. Francise Coster Enchirid. Controvers cap. 12. Concil Trident. Sess. 9. Apoc. 1. 18. John 7. 37 38. Matth. 11. 28. Apoc. 2. 18. Apoc. 1. 13. Concil Trid. Sess. 9. * Part 1. Book 1. chap. 14. Exod. 32. 4 5. Mat. 5. 15. * See Ch. 1. Conclus 10. Chap. 6. 9. Apoc. 21. 8. 1 John 5. 18. Prov. 7. 16 17. Isa. 23. 16. Prov. 1. 14. * Synops. Prophet lib. 2. c. 5. 2 Thess. 2. 9. Apoc. 13. 13. Apoc. 2. 20. Apoc. 16. 13. John 3. 3. Psal. 122. 3. Apoc. 13. Apoc. 12. 9. John 8. 44 Apoc. 11. Apoc. 3. Aâ—â—c 18. Apoc. 13. 13 14. Apoc. 19. 20. 2 Thess. 2. 9. Apoc. â— 20. Apoc. 2. 14. Apoc. 19. 20. * Apoc. 2. 13. a Apoc. 3. 9. b Apoc. 2. 13 14. c Apoc. 2. 20. d Apoc. 19. 20. e Apoc. 11. 8. f Apoc. 13. 11. g Apoc. 17. h 2 Thess. 2. Prov. 5. 3. Matth. 23. 15.