any but that which is truly the Deity as I have noted in its due place 4. As for the places in the New Testament they are more copious and not less express The first is that in the Acts where when the Chap. 14. v. 14 15. Priest of Jupiter would have sacrificed to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra by reason of the great miracles he saw done they rent their cloaths and ran in amongst the people crying out and saying Sirs why do you these things We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein And what vanities are those from which they must turn but from the giving Acts 17. 29 30. of Divine honour to mere Creatures The same Apostle also at Athens in his Speech he made to them on Mars-hill reads them a very round lesson against Idolatry Forasmuch then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art and mans device And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Which exhortation certainly Paul made with the greatest earnestness that could be it being said verse the 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his spirit was in a very sharp fit in a paroxysm of zeal when he saw the City of Athens so given to Idolatry Again in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he makes Idolatry the very Chap. 12. v. 2. Character of Gentilisme which Christ came to reclaim the world from Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away to dumb Idols even as ye were led And elsewhere in the same Epistle he exhorts them more copiously and Chap. 10. v. 14 20 c. vehemently Wherefore my dearly-beloved flee from Idolatry The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to the Daemonia and not to God Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of the Daemonia Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we stronger then he And this was only about the meat sacrificed to these Daemons what had it then been to bow to their Idols He speaks also very smartly on this subject in his second Epistle to these Corinthians What fellowship hath righteousness Ch. 6. v. 14 16. with unrighteousness what communion hath light with darkness and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And in his Epistle to the Galatians he plainly reckons up Idolatry amongst the grossest works of the flesh Murther Sorcery and Adultery And therefore accordingly Chap. 5. v. 20. in the Apocalyps Idolaters together with Murtherers and Sorcerers Chap. 21. v. 8. are threatned with the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and are shut with obscene Dogs out of the holy City And therefore assuredly Chap. 22. v. 15. S. John is in very good earnest in his dehortation from Idolatry in the 1 John 5. 20. close of his general Epistle And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true through his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life Little children keep your selves from Idols Amen From these places I think it is abundantly manifest That the divulging of the Gospel aimed at the taking away of Idolatry that sottish depravation of Religion out of the World 5. And we may be still the more assured of it by those words from our Saviour's own mouth The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father John 4. v. 23 24. seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Where Grotius and I think very truly interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublatis ut ritibus ita locorum discrimine And surely the Christian worship being so pure as to abhor from the voluminousness of Judaizing ceremonies and the affixing of the residence of God to a consecrated place as in the Temple of the Jews Imagery and Idolatry must be abhorred infinitely more as infinitely more inconsistent therewith And if God may not be worshipped with an Image much less any thing that is not God either with an Image or without it CHAP. III. 1. What is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Christ. 2. Further Testimonies of Scripture to evince that Christ came to ease men of the Judaical burthen of Ceremonies The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of the Ceremonial Law of Moses 4. Further proofs to the same purpose 1. BUT now That the grossness and carnality of the Judaical Ceremonies and the unprofitable burthen of them was to be done away by the coming of Christ which is the other point to be proved is very apparent out of several places of Scripture For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ that is to say The John 1 17. Law both Moral and Ceremonial was given by Moses but even that Moral Law was but such an one as could not give life as the Apostle Gal. 3. 21. speaks but the gracious assistance of the Spirit of God promised in the Gospel that does give life and strength to walk according to the will of God And then for the Ceremonial Law both it and indeed all things else happening to the Jews were but Types and Shadows but in Christ is the Truth They were not what they made a show to be and therefore in that sense may be said to be false so as he that says that the Image or Picture of a Man or Horse is a Man or Horse indeed pronounces false And therefore our Saviour speaks true when he saith Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you that true bread John 6. 31. from Heaven Whenas yet it is said of the Manna Psalm 78. He gave them bread from Heaven to eat But it being but a shadow of the true Vers. 25. bread from Heaven which is Christ it is said not to be the bread from Heaven As in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Law is said to have a Heb. 10. 1. shadow of good things to come and Paul to the Colossians Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the Coloss. 2. 16 17. new Moon or of the Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the body is Christ's So plain is it what is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Jesus Christ. For he is that Truth which was signified by the shadows of the Law and by him is
what is so Histrionical or Stage-play-like is serious in any thing but in what the other Stage-players are which is in the emungeing the people of their money Wherefore it would not be any wonder to see these better-spirited Christians abhor from these shews as being so perfectly opposite to the ancient plainness and simplicity of the Primitive Teachers who as our Saviour himself spake and did all things bonâ fide and did not distance themselves from their flocks and charges by any garish pomp and multitude of sanctimonious dressings but being even as they were in a manner saving that they were greater Examples of Faith of Humility of Brotherly kindness of Contempt of the world of Patience and of power of Speech and effectual Exhortation and Conviction of mens minds for the corroborating their belief and inflaming their affections with the love of true righteousness and holiness which was an unimitable and indeleble Character of their Christian Priesthood kept and commanded the hearts of the Believers by this Authority of the Spirit discovering it self in the power of Reason and sincere Rhetorick and sealed and tied all close to them by that indissoluble cord of a reverential and respectfull Love which accru'd to them by the purity and unexceptionableness of their conversation they teaching as it was said of our Saviour with Authority and not as the Scribes who taught but did not 9. The reflexion upon which excellent Patterns will strongly tempt the better-spirited people to look upon these Sacerdotal pomps and disguises as a kind of Superstitious and Hypocritical Mummery and to urge them in the earnestness of their zeal to condescend to approach nearer to them and to lay aside their Masks and Vizards and to deal faithfully and apertly and to declare to them the Truth of Christ and the Good will of God as it is revealed in his Word for they profess they are willing to embrace it and to follow it may they but understand it nay they are hungry and thirsty after it but find no food nor comfort in dumb shows which if they will refuse to doe they are those that cannot admire this way but rather abhor it and must leave it and seek such Pastours as will deal with them in plainness and simplicity of heart For assuredly such gross and worse then Judaical Corruptions in a Church would force the most serious Believers to forsake the Community thereof and drain it as much as is possible of the sincerest and best-disposed people of Christendom And this I think is no small nor contemptible Mischief the departure of Lot being a fore-runner of the raining fire and brimstone upon Sodom 10. But I have not yet evolved all the intangling Superstitions that may lie wrapt up into these Religious or consecrated Vestments and Habits For it is not impossible but that they may befool the credulous with the belief of some miraculous virtue abiding in them by the power of Consecration or Benediction of the Priest or Bishop As that for example they have the virtue of recovering men from Diseases of fraying away the Devil and chasing him out of the possessed of procuring remission of sins both to Guilt and Punishment by the putting them on and of saving a soul from Damnation and sending her safe to the blisses of Paradise So wonderfull power lies hid under these religious Habiliments Which conceits notwithstanding are so ridiculously groundless that he deserves to be laught at that would seriously goe about to confute them 11. But some small pretence for the truth of them may haply be fetched from that passage in the Acts concerning the miraculous virtue of the body of S. Paul That from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs Acts 19. and aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them and from the virtue of Christ's garment the touch of whose hemme cured the woman of her Bloudy issue But we are to consider That Christ was the Son of God and Paul a chosen vessel and those first times were choice and peculiar times of the Church that required such miraculous assistances from God for the planting of the Christian Faith that Miracles are for the unbeliever not for those that already believe and that those cloaths came from or hung upon such bodies as were really anointed with the Holy Ghost and that in a full measure not rubbed or smeared in the hands or on the shaven crown with a little ointment that gives only an extrinsecal Sanctity fills no man with the Holy Spirit much less to such height that he can work Miracles Wherefore to make the people believe that the Habits of either Priests or Monks have any such virtue in them is nothing but an abuse of them into a mighty opinion of the Sanctity of those persons the touch of whose very Cloaths is of so great virtue and Sanctity I say the End of this Imposture is nothing else but the extolling and magnifying the Priest and other Religious Orders of the Church unless this esteem carry along with it also some pecuniary advantages 12. But the evil consequence is the cheat of the people into a feebleness of spirit and a neglect I say not of the advice of the Physician but of his counsel who speaks to us to buy of him white rayment that we Rev. 3. may be cloathed and that the shame of our nakedness may not appear or that of S. Paul to put on the whole armour of God to be strong in the Ephes. 6. 11. Lord and in the Power of his might to gird our loyns about with Truth and to put upon us the breast-plate of Righteousness to take unto us the shield of Faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit For this furniture assuredly is infinitely more powerfull against the approach of the Devil or diseases then all the holy Habiliments that the Wardrobe of the Church can produce and will sooner quench all the fiery darts of the wicked then whole pots of Holy-water squirted against him CHAP. XVIII 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water Oyl Salt Wax-candles c. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians with an Anticipation of an Objection 5. The Falshood Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses 7. Of the supposal of the Infant 's being possess'd and of Baptismal Spittle 8. Of Extreme Unction and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man 9. As also upon his Corps laid out 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices 1. THE mention of Holy-water puts me in
some part That it is not an Absolute Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain in that the parties of Christendom differ so much in matters of Belief as they do But if it be to some part where is the nomination of that part in these Promises whereby their Right of Interpreting may appear to the world There is no Particular Church specified there neither Greek nor Roman neither Muscovian nor Armenian nor that of Prester John nor any other Church else Whence it is plain that no Particular Church can have any claim or right to any such privilege 6. Again suppose some Particular Church had a Promise how does it appear that the Promise is Inconditionate to this Particular Church and that it is not upon supposal that they will seriously and sincerely apply their mind to find out the Truth and purifie their Souls from all those worldly and sensual impediments thereto For this spirit of Infallibility cannot lodge in a body that is subject unto sin For Purity of heart and life is the very Light and Crystalline Organ the very Eye of the Soul and to think of a privilege of Infallibility without Holiness is like the imagining of a promise to see without Light or Eyes Wherefore it is such an Hypocritical conceit that a man cannot well tell whether it be more to be lamented or laughed at for a Church to pretend that God has an irresistible design of making them Infallible to every Punctilio of Controversie and yet not of making them Holy and Good But it is a sign they contemn or abhor Goodness as being contrary to their corrupt natures but desire the privilege of Infallibility as being agreeable to their natural pride and the boast thereof an instrument to bring about all their deceitful devices And therefore we might adde to this That it is questionable whether the Promise be to any Church visible but to such as the Apostles were chosen sanctified and faithful Regenerate men for none but these are truly the Church of Christ and if he make his Promise good onely to such as are his true Church it is sufficient 7. Moreover be this Promise Conditionate or Inconditionate we cannot but be sure that this Infallibility is not Universal as to all Objects whatsoever And therefore to meddle with such things as are not necessary to Salvation nor really edifying were to go beyond their Warrant or Commission and thereby to forfeit or at least to have no benefit of the promised Assistence 8. But let us particularly examine the Texts of Scripture themselves The first whereof infers no more then this That the Church of Christ shall never cease to be that Death shall never be able to prevail against her neither to extirpate her in this world or hinder her of a glorious Immortality in the world to come For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death or Abolition or The state of the dead But this may be true of the Church though it were not Infallible So weak is this first Allegation 9. As for the second it were well for the Alledgers if it were onely weak for it is strong against themselves and makes much for our Hypothesis who conceive this Infallibility to be Conditional For reade the whole Context entire and it runs thus If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will ask the Father c. which implies there is a Condition That they must love Christ and keep his Commandments if they expect that Spirit which will abide with them for ever that is as long as they lived for so the word ordinarily signifies in Scripture And it is further added that it is such a Spirit as the World cannot receive Which therefore does strongly imply that it resides not in those who are worldly and carnally-minded Which Conditionality of the Promise is also infinuated in the third place alledged When the Spirit of Truth is come he will Lead you or guide you into all Truth that is he will lead you as a Man not hale you or drag you as a Stone or a brute Beast which is not a free Agent So that we see plainly that this Infallibility is Conditional where-ever it is And though I doubt not but the Condition being performed the Promise will be made good to all men as far as it is necessary to their Salvation yet these places are not the best that may be produced to that purpose the Promise being not General here but directed to certain particular men in such circumstances as it is evident that it is meant to them in particular and does not infer any succession For the men that he speaks to there he decyphers to be such as he was present with and should be put in mind by the Paraclet what he had said to them when present such Joh. 14. 16 17. as were sorrowful upon the occasion of his departure with other like circumscribing circumstances that cannot belong to any succession of men but were proper to the Apostles to whom he then spake 10. As indeed Infallibility it self seems a Promise most proper to them they being to lay the Foundations of the Church and to build the House of God which they having done in terms plain enough as to all things necessary to Salvation the Promise of Infallibility needs reach no further the Church for ever hereafter being safe provided she keep but close to what is plainly delivered by the first Founders of her nothing else need be obtruded upon Believers by way of Infallible imposition 11. And as for that fourth citation where the Church seems to be called The Pillar and Ground of Truth If we admit of Cameron and Capellus 1 Tim. 3. 15. their ingenious conjecture upon the place viz. That The Pillar and Ground of Truth is to be disjoyned from the precedent words by a Colon at least and understand also what follows without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness to be onely a Parenthetical Elogium of the Mystery of the Gospel into which the Apostle was transported upon consideration of those weighty Points thereof which he was a-delivering God manifest in the Flesh c. so that The Pillar and Ground of Truth may be 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Preface to the grand Points of the Christian Truth which that Parenthesis being seposed do immediately follow according as it was usual with the Jews to prefix before such Fundamentalls of knowledge the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fundamentum Columna Sapientia this passage will be wholly disâ—…bled from making any shew of proof for what it was alledged 12. But if you will adjoyn this Title to the Church it was the Ephesian Church where Timothy resided which has vanished long agoe And what other Church then unless every Particular Church can urge this place for Infallibility which experience of contradicting one another does openly confute Besides that the style it self of Ground and Pillar may not
God to have interpreted the Scripture and not for their own ends or carnal satisfaction in any thing And questionless in this case they can shew their Commission and that they act by Authority Let all things be done to edification 1 Cor. 14. 26. But that because every Civil controversy must be determined by a Judge therefore there must be an Infallible determinative Judge of all the nice and unprofitable controversies that emerge amongst Christians about Scripture and Religion is but a weak and lame Illation For Civil controversies cannot be undecided without injury to some party but no man is injured by not having those unprofitable at least unnecessary questions determined for they may hold their several opinions without wronging one another if they will but keep to that known Law of Christ that Royal Law of Charity Nay the deciding such controversies by a pretended Infallible Judge were a vast wrong to one party it galling their consciences and streightning their liberty and making the way to Heaven narrower then Christ has made it For so does this Infallible Judge that imposes his Determinations on men upon pain of eternal Damnation But God of his infinite wisedom and mercy has not given the least Intimation for any such Usurpation And therefore this Infallible Judge being not appointed by God and being unappointable by man the Scripture alone and not these pretended Infallible decisions must be the Rule of our belief 7. The fourth and last pretence is That unless the Sense of Scripture be determined by the Infallibility of the Church every private Spirit must be Judge of the meaning thereof nay and which is worse be Judge of the Church and thereby superiour to the Church then which nothing can be more wild and extravagant This seems a big difficulty at first But I answer That every particular man should judge for himself he has a Commission from the very Word of God nay I may say a Command As where he is bid to try 1 Thess. 5. 21. all things and to hold that which is good as also not to believe every 1 John 〈◊〉 spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God and in another place to be ready to give a reason of his Faith The Beroeans also are commended 1 Pet. 3. Acts 17. for searching the Scripture and trying whether the things that Paul even an inspired and chosen vessel of God had taught them were true or no. But for any one man or any company of men to be appointed by God Authoritatively and absolutely to be Judges for others in matters of Faith and Religion we do not find any where in Scripture or in Reason any such Commission given unto them but we are rather admonished to take heed how we be led hoodwinkt by any lest the blind Matt. 15. 14. leading the blind both fall into the ditch 8. But not Scripture onely but Reason it self does plainly commissionate private Spirits as they call them to judge for themselves For these pretenders to Infallibility doe it onely upon the boast that they are the true successive Church from the Apostles But unless they will be above all measure ridiculous they must convince the Reason of him whom they would make a Proselyte to their Church that their Church is that true and Apostolical one For to say so without proof is a madness to be hooted at by all men But to goe about to prove it is to appeal to the private Reason of him they would convince And if he be a Christian already though not of their Church the common acknowledged Principles are the Holy Scriptures in arguing from which the Disputant appeals to him he would bring over if his Interpretation or Allegation of them be not true But if he be an Infidel or Pagan he is to use Reasons to prove the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures themselves Which is still an appeal to the conscience of him that is to be gained to the Church whether what is offered to him be true or false And that which is offered to him being the whole Christian Faith for that is it which makes a true Church it is plain that his Reason and Conscience is appealed unto whether the whole Summe of the Credenda in Christianity is not true That is to say Though the Church and he that argues in the behalf of the Church have already judged and firmly concluded that the Christian Faith is a true Faith in the whole and in every part and make no appeal from their own judgment in reference to themselves yet in reference to the party they would convince they appeal to him if the grounds of their Belief be not solid and so imply and acknowledge that he is Judge for himself in these affairs call that in him a private spirit or what you please 9. But I do not know but it may be too reproachfully called a private spirit at least in the sincere and simple-hearted who have no private designs but to know the Will of God and to doe it and it is the Will of God all men should doe so and the spirit of man * Prov. 20. is said to be the Lamp of the Lord and that which judges according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common notions of Reason in all men and has not lost the * Psell. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those common characters and ingenuous sentiments of Indispensable Truth and Morality which the Father of lights has of old sealed upon the Soul and which are hardly obliterated quite in any and are necessarily continued and that vigourously in the sincere I say such a Life or Spirit as this judging in a man is very hardly to be called a private spirit it judging according to the Universal sense of humane Nature and so as every one judges when he is unbiassed Nay if this will not serve I say that the Judgement which is thus made is the Judgement of that Universal King and Law-giver the Eternal Son of God it is his sentence in these cases but writ in the tables of our hearts and pronounced by our mouths as by the Praeco of a Court. So far is it from being the Judgement of a mere private spirit But that rather is the Judgement of a private spirit though it should bear the Title of an Infallible Church which is decreed not according to the plain Texts of Scripture so as all unprejudiced men would certainly understand them nor according to those indeleble Characters of Truth which Christ the Eternal Logos has writ in the Rational Souls of all mankind but according to partial Interest and depraved desires The sentence of Thousands nay of Millions of such Judges is more the verdict of a private spirit then the Judgement of the meanest private man that pronounces from such Principles as I have declared 10. Now for that odious imputation of making a mans self Superiour to the
Church by laying claim to a Judgement of discretion I say he lays claim to no more then is of necessity given him as I have already demonstrated For if there be an appeal to the Reason and Conscience of a private man in the endeavouring to convince him he is ipso facto made Judge and if to be Judge in this sense is to be Superiour he is necessarily Superiour But I see no necessity that his being Judge thus for himself makes him Superiour to his Church Indeed if he judged for his Church he were thereby their Superiour but judging for himself onely he usurps no Superiority over the Church but onely is obedient to him that is Superiour to both that is to Jesus Christ following his plain Injunctions and Precepts whether written in the outward Word or legibly engraven upon the Table of his Heart To follow therefore the plain and inevitable dictates of his own Conscience which as the Tribunal of God is not to exalt a mans self above the Church but to submit a mans self to God and exalt him above all 11. Nor does a man herein equallize himself to his Church in that he does not define for others but for himself and professes himself in the mean time ready to obey the visible Church in such things as are not repugnant to the express Precepts of God and Christ and to those immutable Characters of Truth which he has imprinted upon the Souls of all men and which are there to be found unless gross violence and Interest has obscured or obliterated them 12. Nor in the last place does he make himself wiser then his Church which were also an odious imputation But without immodesty it may be thought that a private man may be more sollicitous of his own important Concerns and more faithfull to his own Eternal Interest then many thousand men put together and that therefore though he may not have so much wit and learning as these yet he may conduct his own affairs more safely then if they were put into their hands especially they that pretend to be guides to Heaven for others seeming to be wholy taken up with the things of this World as if they had forgot their intended journey It is not therefore a boast of Wisedom above the Church but a carefull sollicitude touching such things as the wise men of the World do not usually trouble themselves much about that may embolden some private sincere-hearted Christian to dissent from some Dictates of the Church professing himself in other things as weak and childish as they please remembring that Doxologie of our Blessed Saviour I thank thee O Father Matt. 11. Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 13. Finally This Wisedom which they adhere to is plainly and evidently not the Dictate of their own private spirit which to oppose to the Church were indeed to make a mans self wiser then the Church but the plain and perspicuous Testimonies of the Word of God and the common and indubitable Notions of universal humane Nature writ by the Finger of that Eternal Wisedom which created all things on the spirits of all men that be in their wits and therefore is a plain and legible Copy of that Wisedom So that he that adheres thereto does not prefer his own Wisedom before the Wisedom of the Church but submits himself faithfully to the Wisedom of God to which the Church also ought to submit and not to efface as much as in them lies those imprinted Characters of Truth out of the Souls of men thereby to enslave them to themselves and to the corrupt Interest of their Kingdom of darkness and gross Imposture 14. But I have been more copious then was needfull or intended in confuting this dream of Infallibility We might have made shorter work of it and suddenly evinced the folly of that pretence by actual Errours that have been in the Church of God As surely the Church of the Jews was as really the Church of God as the visible Christian Church and has as magnificent promises as it in Isaiah For what is spoke Chap. 54. rebounds upon the Church of the Jews first as Grotius has observed and there it is said That they shall all be taught of God and that with everlasting kindness God will have mercy upon them And yet this Church was in so gross a mistake that the Governours and Grandees thereof knew not their Messiah when he was come into the world but put him to a most shamefull death But even in those times when there was a more palpable Residence of God's miraculous power with them they erred very hainously as in the worshipping the Golden Calf in the wilderness as also in the ten Tribes worshipping those in Bethel nay apostatizing all to the worshipping of Baalim saving seven Thousand which were so few in respect of the rest that Elijah took himself to be left alone And Ahab consulting the Prophets found by wofull experience that four hundred of them prophesied false and onely Micaiah true And * Ch. 5. 30 31. Jeremie complains of his times A wonderfull and horrible thing saith he is committed in the Land The Prophets prophesy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you doe in the end thereof That is also a smart monition of his * Ch. 7. 4. Trust you not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord c. For all which they doe that call themselves The Temple of the Lord is not right as appears in the same Chapter where they are accused of committing Idolatry openly in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which could not be had they not fallen into the hands of blind and erroneous Guides which might cause them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths and yet in the mean time take up that presumptuous boast That the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor the Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet no not then when they were imagining mischief against the true Prophets of the Lord as you may see Jeremie 18. But * Ch. 3. 6. Micaiah says plainly That the Prophets that are onely for easie times and for good chear Night shall be upon them and they shall have no vision and it shall be dark unto them that they cannot divine That such Seers shall be ashamed and Diviners confounded as having no answer from God And * Ch. 56 10 11. Esay complains that the watch-men of the City are blind that they are ignorant shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for jollity or gain Thus clear is it that the Church of the Jews though it was in such a special manner espoused to God was
not secure from but did actually fall into very great Errours 15. And the Christian Church has no greater assurance but if Avarice Pride and Sensuality seize upon the Guides thereof she may also fall into as great errours and blindnesses The Apostle saith Let him that stands take heed lest he fall And it might have been a seasonable 1 Cor. 10. 12. warning to the Church of Christ betimes which was not onely tottering but almost universally lapsed into that over-spreading Heresy of Arrianism to reflect upon herself that while she does stand she stands upon her good behaviour and that she is not so Infallibly wise but that she may be surprised with Errour and over-run therewith unless true and unfeigned Holiness clear her eyes and keep her from being benighted in such mists of darkness And truly if she was above twelve hundred years agoe so obnoxious to Errour it is high time for her to awake and consider if after so many Ages of ease and wealth and honour and affluency of all things she has not grown fat and kicked and cast the Commandments of God behind her back and brought in a mere carnal Law of her own devising more sutable to the will of the flesh and to the carrying on of her own worldly Interest But it is sufficient in this place to have demonstrated She may erre in what she has erred to define is beyond the scope of my present discourse 16. We have fully defeated that Figment of pretended Infallibility whose downfall our opposers have no colour to bewail unless in the behalf of the common people who are illiterate as if they would hereby be made uncapable of any certainty of Belief and consequently of Salvation by reason they have no Infallible grounds to build on this of the Church being taken away But they may remember that we have already acknowledged sufficient certainty in that which the Universal Church agrees in and has agreed in in all Ages and that is the Scripture Such an Universal Tradition as the Scripture has is acknowledged a firm Foundation which the Church may be unfailing conveiers of down to posterity without being infallible Interpreters thereof The unfailingness of which conveiance notwithstanding I must confess may be a more intricate business then what every Vulgar man can make out to himself though infinitely less hard then to prove That the Church that would appropriate him to their Community is Infallible Nay I must confess I do not know how it were possible that a Church should so much as prove it self a Church much less an Infallible Church without the Scripture And therefore the belief of the Scripture seems to be the most immediate of all as * Cael. Secund. Curio against Floribellus he says well Nam qui de fide authoritate Divinarum Scripturarum dubitat quomodo quaeso credet Ecclesiae quae nullam habet sine eadem Scriptura authoritatem 17. And therefore I cannot explode that by any means which is so superciliously derided by some namely That it is the Spirit of God that does assure us of the Truth of Scriptures more then any thing else whatsoever For our Saviour Christ saith None cometh to me but whom my John 6. ch 10. Father draweth My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherefore there is a discerning Spirit in those that appertain to Salvation whether it be the Voice of God and Christ or no. For the true Shepherd goeth before and the sheep follow him because they know John 10. 4 5. his voice but they follow not a stranger but flie from him because they know not his voice as our Saviour discourses most excellently I say therefore the Voice the Call or Whistle if you will of the true Shepherd are the Holy Scriptures which by an immediate sense they are assured to be the Call of the Shepherd and are at this day to them that belong to the election of God as the Voice of Christ and his Apostles when they were upon Earth the power of whose speech assisted by the Spirit did lead men captive into that Faith that worketh Salvation And without all question the same Word of Salvation still which is in those Holy Records seriously and zealously urged by men of a sincere faith and upright belief without any mingling of it with humane devices will have the same effect upon the multitude and as many as are fitted will be wone to an unshaken belief of the Truth of Christianity as it is exhibited to us in the Holy Scriptures For they of themselves have the light and life and very breath of Christ and his Apostles wrapt up in them to the exciting the vulgar sort to a firm and lively Faith though many subtil Sophisters of the Kingdom of darkness might by crafty and perverse Reasoning intangle them and non-plus them in outward discourse And therefore they are kept safe in the belief of the Scripture by the power of that Spirit in them in virtue whereof there is that indissoluble harmonie and concord betwixt their spirits and the Scripture though they cannot defend themselves by humane Literature nor by the acuteness of Reason and depths of Philosophy 18. Which Spirit residing in them and giving them this solid and firm discernment betwixt the Testimonie of God and the Traditions and Doctrines of men I think I may safely and properly call the Spirit of Faith as it is considered nakedly in it self and separate from the Spirit of Knowledge and of Wisedom Which distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen of old has taken notice of in his book against Celsus Lib. 6. upon that Text of S. Paul And truely I think the Gloss is marvellous solid namely That the chiefest and greatest Gift of the Spirit is that Divine Wisedom whereby a man is in a great measure able to comprehend the reasons and more deep Philosophical grounds of the Truth of the Christian Mystery The next is Knowledge suppose of Antiquity History the comparing of Prophecies and helps of the exteriour humane literature the liberal Arts and Languages The third is Faith which is also comprised in the other but is a Gift which is as well general as more necessary whose nature is such as I have described already namely An immediate adherence to the word of Truth comprised in the Scripture through the power of that Spirit that resides in sincere and well-meaning Souls that have a savoury and sensible fear of God and are ready to goe where he calls them For these by an ineffable Sympathy of their hearts with the veracity of the voice of Christ sounding in the Scriptures will be sure to follow their true Shepherd's call though they turn off from the voice of the stranger and Hireling who comes not into the Sheepfold but to rob and kill and steal Whence we further see that this pretended Infallibility of the Church in reference to
and Injustice not inferiour to any thing we have yet named would not this be a sign or watch-word as it were to all the Adherents to this Devilish Religion to use the enemies of it as cruelly as opportunity will permit or the natural bitterness of their own spirits suggest Let us imagine therefore a Tribunal though not so just yet more severe or rather more cruel then that of those Judges of Hell Minos and Rhadamanthus and that it may be more like theirs to be in some subterraneous room that the cries and groans of the tormented may not pierce the ears of the people where all things are transacted in that more impure light and stench of Links and Torches held by Assistants and Officers as grim of aspect as the infernal Furies and that the proceedings of this Court are infinitely more unrighteous then those of Hell these Holy Judges having unlimited power any vile person being admitted for a witness against the suspected and they making no matter whether the accusation be by word of mouth or by tickets cast in before this Sacred Consistory for without any personal appearance or confronting one another the process is to be framed without party without witness and without other Law then the pleasure of these Spiritual Judges or Infernal Spirits 4. Now when the suspected or accused have descended into these shades of Death we will suppose these subterraneous Judges to begin with some terrifying Premonitions and Comminations mingling some Hypocritical Exhortations and Protestations as if they would wash their hands clean as Pilate of old of the innocent bloud they are about to spill But if the party will not accuse himself by the terrour of these threats that they may notwithstanding take away his life in such a torturous way as they think fit for Hereticks yea though he should freely confess that which they will call Heresy yet if he will not betray all of the same opinion that he either knows or suspects he is presently sentenced to undergoe such Agonies and Trials as these men of Cruelty shall please to adjudge him to 5. Wherefore there is ready at hand the grim Executioner in a black disguise so horrid as makes him look more like a Devil then a man who seizing upon the sentenced parties be they men or women married or virgins of mean rank or of noble quality first strips them naked to satisfy the lustfull eyes of these Holy Leachers which to the modest Maids and grave Matrons must be a torment worse then Death it self After this he binds their hands eight or ten times about with Cords these cruel and lustfull Villains on the Bench commanding him to bind one round harder then another and then with a smaller line their thumbs and then to fasten the parties hands and thumbs to a pulley that hangs on a gibbet After this to hang weights of Iron or Lead at their feet at first suppose about five pound and to twitch them up by the rope till their Head touches the pulley In which pitifull posture they are called to and bawled at by these salvage Judges to confess what they would have them And thus they hang in this exquisite torture a good space of time And if the party will confess nothing nor betray his friends the true professours of the Gospel and faithfull Servants of Jesus they let him down indeed but to hoise him up again with a double weight of Iron at his feet the salvage Judges commanding the hangman to let the rope goe up and down with many short checks or stops that the weight of the Iron may rend every joynt of his body one from another Which intolerable pain if it cause the party to shreek and cry out as it must needs these grim Benchers shall drown the noise with roaring and railing at him and calling him Dog and Heretick for so obstinately that is so faithfully refusing to betray himself and his friends Which if he persist in they will let him down again and adde still more weight to his heels and an higher torment to his whole body putting this poor member of Christ to these unsupportable tortures for at least two or three hours together and it may be as they shall think fit some three days after when his joints are most sore bring him to suffer the same extremities of torment again nay repeat it at great distances if life will endure it five or six times over 6. And this I think were a Cruelty little inferiour to any we have hitherto intimated in all our barbarous Suppositions But let us adde another Scene somewhat different The stripping them as before but then the binding of their hands behind them and hanging them at the pulley together with the girding of their thighs so hard as also their legs with strong cords and forcing the strings by plugs of wood thrust betwixt so deep into the flesh that they reach near the very bone In which intolerable Torment they will keep them two or three hours together 7. Or else which is more cruel if it be possible to gird both thighs legs and armes with strong small cords as before so hard that they sink out of sight into the flesh to the bone but withall to lay the party along with his face upwards on a great hollow Trough having a cross bar in the midst with his back resting on that bar to his unspeakable diseasement spreading over his mouth and nostrils a fine Lawn upon which they pouring out water in a small but high-falling stream drive the Lawn into his mouth and down the furthest part of his throat which can put him in no less agonie then they are that are fetching their last gasp And what violence is done to him by that softer Engine I mean the fine Linen when it is twitched out of his mouth the bloud and water that comes with it doth copiously witness one would think it brought up the very Entralls with it out of the body 8. And lastly to make an end That that Element that is most merciless may not seem to be forgotten by these wicked Engineers of Cruelty it were easy to imagine that they may make use of great Chark-coal-pans of Iron full of hot coals forcing the Captives feet as near as they please and basting them with Lard to make the pain of scalding more exquisite Which torture can be little less then the roasting men alive at the fire 9. Certainly if the Religious Orders of a Church in a form of Justice and upon pretence of Piety and Zeal against Hereticks can commit these astonishing outrages and acts of Barbarism against the faithfull Followers of Christ how can their example fail of being a School of universal Cruelty for their Adherents against all such whom they shall look upon as Hereticks and they are taught all are so that are not of their Church And therefore the guilt of all these Tragical cruelties which are done upon the true Members of Christ
though not immediately by the Ecclesiasticks themselves but by military men whose Instructers and Examples they are is most righteously laid upon this bloudy Prophet-murthering Synagogue herself this cruel and imperious Harlot drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus as well she may upon such Principles as I have supposed her to be of and rage even to immense Massacres which may exhaust thousands yea an hundred thousand at a draught CHAP. XVII 1. That this Opposition against the Divine Grace of Charity is a most substantial Limb of Antichristianism and the Character of them without the Holy City 2. That that repeated Catalogue of abhorred Titles in the Apocalyps is plainly a Synopsis of the main Characters of the Antichristian Polity we describe 3. The confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches 7. A Parable to set out the salvage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue 8. The Apodosis of the Parable 9. That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church 1. THat this last Limb therefore of our Description comprised in such things as are notoriously opposite to that Heavenly Vertue of Charity is a very substantial Limb of Antichristianism I think it is impossible for any one to doubt And therefore it is no wonder that the chief Character thereof which is writ in letters of bloud I mean that of Bloudy persecution which I last of all insisted upon is entred into that black list of Names which are excluded out of the Holy City of God Without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Fornicatours and Murtherers and Rev. 22. Idolaters and every one that loves and makes a lie Which I doubt not but is a Synopsis of the chief Oppositions to the Holy City or Body of Christ and therefore what can this other Body be but the very Body of Antichrist 2. And I look upon that brief comprehension of those detestable Titles as the more considerable and more exactly computed because the same summe though not the same words seems to be reckoned up in * Revel â—…1 〈◊〉 and 22. 25. two several places for where the words differ yet reckoning one thing with another we shall find the same extent of sense taken in For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of equal extent with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as I had occasion to note above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such persons being understood in both as are seducible by false Doctrines and feigned Legends contrary to both the Word of God and common sense and have their spirits intimidated and basely enslaved and befooled with superstitious Falsehoods and Lies And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in both are understood such as coin false doctrines for the profit of their Church and invent lying Legends and obtrude supposititious Reliques upon the people to pick a peny out of their purses And lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are both included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intimates Unbelief of Religion is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are Brutes Religion being the property of a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or abominable for masculine Venerie is included also in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but with a particular respect to their Species the Dog being so furiously lustfull as to spend promiscuously upon either Sex And now for the rest of the Titles in each Catalogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one saving the terminations of the words which alters not the sense at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exquisitely the same And therefore the Synopsis is plainly the same in both places 3. Wherefore enslaving Superstition Infidelity or Atheism Foul uncleanness of either kind Lying Legends and Doctrines false even to Impossibility and to the plain contradicting of Scripture the worst of Murthers the bloudy Persecution of the Saints professed Sorcery or Incantation or a pretence of doing more wonderfull things then the greatest Magicians of Aegypt and lastly gross Idolatry and open Image-worship all these I say being as well noted and so signally to be the opposites of the Holy City which is the Church of Christ as so execrable in the sight of God as expressely to be doomed or sentenced to be cast into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone I conceive that my Idea of Antichristianism being made up chiefly out of these parts and explicitely comprising them all besides other particulars of the like nature it cannot be denied but that it is a true and perfect Idea thereof even upon the testimony of Holy Writ 4. But I dare briefly appeal to any mans Reason that has imbibed but the first Rudiments of Christianity and knows but common sense and has read any ordinary Carechism has the least spark of Grace in his heart or any relish of what is holy and divine whether the nature of those things of which I have composed this Idea of Antichristianism be not essentially and intrinsecally Antichristian For to take again a compendious view of what we have more largely exspatiated in and thereby to give judgement more safely on the whole matter what Hypothesis can be framed more Antichristian then this That a pack of men phansy them as numerous as you please should hold together under one domineering Head that would trample upon Princes and tread upon the necks of Emperours and kick their Crowns off with his foot and under pretence of being Successours to Christ and his Apostles though Christ told the boasting Jews who yet were unquestionably the posterity of Abraham that they were of their Father the Devil because they did his works claim notwithstanding an Infallibility of Judgement and Right of ordering all the affairs of the world in reference to Christ's Spiritual Kingdom but yet in the mean time in very truth seek nothing but the encrease of their temporal Honour and Power and to this end undermine and defeat the whole design of the Gospel not acting according to the Laws of Christ but making such Institutes and countenancing such Practices as bring in most wealth for the support of the Magnificence of this Tyrannical High-priest that takes it to be but his
as they maintain with truth as the Papists are of their own party even in their obtruded Falsities and Deceits It may therefore more rightfully be imputed to my fidelity to the true Church of Christ then Uncharitableness to the Church of Rome that I again bring into play with all due advantages this common Assertion of the Protestants touching the Great Antichrist Which appearing to me so solid and unexceptionable a truth I should be conscious to my self of the highest degree of Uncharitableness to the precious memory of the first Reformers those Witnesses whom Divine Providence so miraculously raised from the dead if I did not what in me lies for the maintaining their Credit in so grand a Point wherein they cannot seem to fail but with infinite dishonour to themselves and an irreparable prejudice to the Protestant Cause For as there is no Doctrine wherein the Romanists and we differ more true so there is none any thing near so potent for the bearing off all their assaults against us as this of their Church being that City of Babylon which the People of God are expressly commanded to come out of lest they partake of her sins and of her plagues Which that Apoc. 18. 4. wise Prince King James of ever-glorious memory knew full well and accordingly kept entire those Primitive Sentiments of the Protestant Reformation or rather adorned them and improved them by his Royal Pen as also did those singularly Devout and Learned Prelates Bishop Andrews and Bishop Jewell and several other Pious and Learned Bishops of our Church Nor will I omit how explicit our Church herself is touching this point in her Homily of the Peril of Idolatry as also in that against Rebellion Which illustrious witnesses to so concerning a Truth it were both uncivil and unjust to either suspect or accuse of Uncharitableness And for my own part I cannot but farther adde having such an apprehension of things as I have and so great encouragement from those Heroical Examples in whose footsteps I insist for the main in my Prophetick Interpretations that I should think my self not onely Unfaithfull to the true Church of Christ and to the Interest of his Kingdom which Charity will never betray but Uncharitable also even to the Church of Rome herself if I should not use this liberty of prophesying against her which I have or rather of interpreting Prophecies for her just Reproof and Amendment Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat That saying is true as well of him that conceals the sore of his friend when the disclosing thereof tends to the healing of it as of him that conceals his own sore And her own professed Nurslings either cannot or dare not use these Scripture Reproofs to her they being either blinded with her Lustre or terrifi'd by her Cruelty Whence it must be some good Samaritan Stranger that must work her cure But if it be Uncharitableness to speak some few hard words against her though never so true what Barbarity would it be to expose her to the greatest hardships of Fortune that humane Affairs are obnoxious to as suppose to betray her to the successfull Rage and Ravin of the overflowing Turk would that be such a piece of indearing Kindness and Charity And yet surely those doe so to her that sow pillows under her Elbow that sooth her up and call her my Sister and my Mother and say there are no considerable miscarriages in her whenas she stands guilty of all those sins that are reckoned up Revel 9. 20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multifarious Idolatries bloudy Persecutions Conjuring or Enchanting defiled Coelibate and pious Frauds or wicked Policies with Impenitency added to them all For these sins have the Locusts and Euphratean Horsemen the Turks and Saracens laid wast the Eastern Church and yet it is Uncharitable to admonish the Latine Church thereof which is much more guilty of these high miscarriages yea and that in such a time as the Mahometan Forces have fallen so grievously upon the disspirited Empire and have made all fly before them To give a stop to whose fury for the future I am confident nothing can be more effectual then the Reformation of the Roman Church according to the Word of God and the first Primitive Ages or to speak more compendiously according to the platform of our excellent English Reformers For this would put a new life and spirit into Christendom and make her grow young and strong again and able to repulse the Turkish forces for ever with Victory And truely the whole summe of what may seem either so affrightfull or distastfull in my old Orthodox Protestant way of interpreting the ensuing Prophecies to either the Church of Rome her self or any of her hidden friends or well-willers is but to reduce the whole Western Church to that unexceptionable Purity and Beauty that our Royal and Reverend Reformers through the special assistence of God did reduce this of ours But if this be of such excellent purpose must it not be to very great purpose to make the Church of Rome sensible that she wants this Reformation And is there any thing that can convince her more of that want then that her enormous miscarriages are so plainly depainted as most certainly they are in those Visions we have explained in this Treatise nay are very stingingly and satyrically set out by the Spirit of God on purpose to awake the Christian World out of this deep Sopour or Lethargie For it must be some such rousing Rebuke that can wean or reclaim that Church from so inveterate errours rooted in Custom and founded in a sweet bewitching Interest not to be parted withall upon any easy terms Which power of the Light of the true meaning of these Prophecies that obnoxious Church does plainly acknowledge herself sensible of in her hiding herself as well as she can from the convictive perstringency of them and in getting men to palliate her deformities with all possible art and to shelter off the searching gleams and piercing Lustre of these veracious Visions by their false and adulterate Glosses Which is the greatest Uncharitableness and Disser vice that can possibly be done unto her thus to lull her asleep to be surprised by the irresistible wrath of God and to expose her to the fury of his Jealousy Wherefore had she not better cease to take Sanctuary in such forced and incredible misinterpretations of Scripture and letting go those false shifts reform herself according to that Platform which has so manifest approbation from the Divine Oracles in a sense not onely credible but true 16. For it is demonstratively true by the second Consectary of my Joint-Exposition That the Church was not grown Antichristian till How well the Protestant Reformation is attested to out of the Apocalyps especially that of our English Church And what were the main hinderances to the Authour from the applying so illustrious an Event to the Prediction about 400 years after Christ As also
Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking lies in Hypocrisy having their conscience seared with an hot-iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats c. It should be rendred Through the Hypocrisy of them that speak lies having their conscience seared with an hot-iron c. as any one that understands Syntax must needs acknowledge for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot agree in Grammar nor Devils and Seared consciences in usual phrase or sense There cannot be a better Gloss upon the first part of this Prediction then what Epiphanius has occasionally wrote upon it in his sharp reproof of the Collyridians who gave Divine worship to the Virgin Mary offering up a Cake or Cracknell to her They did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father speaks from whence they were called Collyridians Of which Idolatry he saies certain women in Arabia were the first Inventours who came out of Thrace thither and there practised this nefarious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I the more willingly take notice of because Idolatry is so often styled by that name in the Apocalyps and at last concludes thus fully and roundly upon the whole matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which last words do plainly import that this Apostasy here is understood of giving religious worship to Daemons that is to say to the Souls of men deceased And it is observable that Chrysostom and Theophylact read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Erasmus has noted upon the place if any one like that word better then the other But Epiphanius seems to understand the same thing by both that is the Souls of dead men religiously worshipped which he compares with the Baalim worshipped by the Israelites as the Psalmist complains They joyned themselves to Baal-Peor and ate the offerings of the dead Wherefore in brief according to the mind of Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 106. 2â—… which we render seducing spirits are erroneous and fallacious Doctrines or Prophecies as Grotius also ordinarily interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspired into mens minds by the Devil For so he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Diabolical Inspiration and Doctrine taught by the unclean Spirit to pollute the worship of God This respects those words in the Text Giving heed to seducing spirits whereby he would have the Original of these wicked Doctrines noted 5. But then the Matter or Object of them to be couched in that more definitive expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not Doctrines of Devils as taught and suggested by them for that he had touched before but Doctrines of Damons that is to say concerning Damons or the worshipping of the Dead answerably to the Israelites worshipping the Baalim which the Psalmist intimates to be the Souls of men deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Prophecy is fulfilled in these Collyridians viz. Some shall depart from sound doctrine giving head to fabulous stories and doctrines concerning Daemons For that this Genitive may be a Genitive of the Object as well as of the Agent any one will grant And that Epiphanius understands it in that former sense is plain both from his prefixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which fabulous stories are not conceived to be told by the Daemons but of them and also from what immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For he saith there will be those that will worship the dead c. Which yet the Apostle does not say unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Doctrines concerning Daemons which are the Souls of men deceased as I have elsewhere sufficiently intimated Wherefore it is plain from the Exposition of Epiphanius that this Prediction of S. Paul is very applicable to the Apostasy of the Church of Rome for their giving Divine honour unto the Saints which is apparently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship the dead 6. Which will still be found more exquisitely to fit them of Rome if we consider by what external means this Daemon-worship is promoted For these that are said to depart from the faith that is from the sound doctrine of it as Epiphanius has interpreted it and to Apostatize into the Idolatrous worship of Daemons are said to doe this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Hypocrisy of tellers of lies the Apocalyps calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that make lies that is to say that feign Legends of the Miracles of their Saints or Daemons and in deed doe it so impudently as if they made no conscience of those pious frauds and fables whence it is said that they have their consciences seared with an hot-iron What can be more expressive of the Greek and Roman Legendaries then this and yet there is still a more particular character added Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats Whom can this Character fit so well as the Orders of Monks into whose Societies no man could be admitted but upon strict observation of these laws They prohibited any one that would be of their Fraternity to marry and enjoyn'd them also to abstain from certain meats These things are so solidly and copiously made out in Mr. Mede's Apostasy of the Latter times that I need adde nothing more but a Recommendation of that Treatise to the Reader There is scarce any Prophecie falls more fitly upon any Event then this does upon the Church in those times when she had lapsed into this Daemon-worship by the seduction of a fraudulent and superstitious Clergy 7. Thirdly The summary Description of the whole Mystery of Godliness preceding so immediately before in the very last Verse of the foregoing Chapter me-thinks there is a congruity that this immediate Digression into the mention of a Lapse from the purity of this Mystery should be of no petty concernment the perstringing of a few Pythagorizing Christians or such as might leave Christianity to follow Apollonius of which notwithstanding I do not remember any particular stories but a more solemn and notorious Apostasie of the Church of Christ and the converting of that great Mystery of Godliness immediately before mentioned into a Mystery of Iniquity as it is else-where called For that expression of Some shall depart from the Faith is no barâ—…e at all to this meaning as Mr. Mede has demonstratively made good by many and sufficient Examples where some is said of the greatest part and in a manner of the whole people as you may see in the above-named Treatise 8. Fourthly and lastly The Preface to this Prediction Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times c. seems not onely too big but too determinate another way then to comply with what Grotius would put us off with namely a glance at Apollonius and his
which is the same with the Two-horned Beast who is the Restorer of the wounded Beast that is of the Pagan Empire become Christian into a new kinde of Paganism and is said to work Miracles in the sight of the Beast wherewith he deceived them that dwell on the Earth and made them worship the Image of the Beast and receive the Mark of the Beast c. Chap. 13. Which things are so plainly said of the False-Prophet Chap. 19. 20. that there can be no doubt but the Two-horned Beast and the False-Prophet are the same And the Beast was taken and with him the False-Prophet that wrought Miracles before him with which he deceived them that received the Mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image Wherefore it is plain that the False-Prophet and the Two-horned Beast and consequently the Whore of Babylon are all one as I have above noted and that therefore the Roman Idolatrous Clergy that pretend to be such an infallible Church as if God did unfailingly inspire them in what-ever is concluded upon by their Pope or at least by him together with what they will call a General Council are figured out here by way of reproach to this boast of infallible Inspiration in this Title or Style of Prophet But for that they delude the world by false Doctrines and either Diabolical Miracles or cunning Cheats and Forgeries of Miraculous Effects the same Company of men is more ignominiously and openly branded for this Impiety by the prefixing that deserved Epithet of False 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The False-Prophet What can be more plain then this Or what a more wicked Opposition to the Prophetick Office of Christ then for one to take upon him to be his infallible Vicar-General of Christendome and yet to fill the world with Idolatry and Lies Which this Body of Pseudo-prophets have done in some measure more or less for about these 1200 years as is manifest from the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition 7. Whence we may be sure that the true Prophets who speak according to the tenour of Apostolick Doctrine would have but a sad time of it and the Prophetick Office of Christ as he illuminates these by his Word and Spirit be opposed and resisted nay these Instruments of his contradicted and oppressed with all imaginable injury and violence accordingly as this Mystery of Iniquity should grow up in the Church which seems to have commenced about 400 years after Christ. Which Condition of the Church I conceive is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses whose mournful Prophecy in Sackcloth is Synchronal to the Reign of the False-Prophet as has been above demonstrated But the Description of things is such as comprises the Opposition to the Kingly Office of Christ as well as Prophetical as shall appear in our Explication of the Vision For for any one to take upon him to be the infallible Interpreter of the Law of a King is to give Laws for him and to despoil him of his Throne and Sceptre Or by what-ever other Device his Laws may be suppressed and kept from the People and other Laws put in their room this Kingly Office is plainly made nothing by it But that the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testament is thus dealt withall by this False-Prophet I have in my Idea of Antichristianism sufficiently declared CHAP. XII 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses Ver. III. The reason why they are Two Ver. IV V. Why Two Olive-trees and Candlesticks and what meant by their killing men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths Ver. VI. That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them onely by a Metalepsis 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Aegypt And what the meaning of these Plagues may be Ver. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The War and Death of the Witnesses what they mean Ver. VIII Aegypt and the fore-going Plagues fitly mentioned together Ver. IX The meaning of Three daies and an half and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth Ver. XI What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses Ver. XII That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven but ascend thither when they are called Ver. XIII The Earth-quake City Fall of the City and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men what they mean 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses 1. LET us now enquire what news of these Injuries in this Vision of the Two mournful Witnesses who complain not without a cause as well the Regal as Prophetick Office of Christ being so palpably opposed by that Man of sin We shall give a brief Explication of the Vision proceeding orderly from verse to verse beginning at the third and holding on till the fourteenth where the story of the Witnesses endeth Ver. III. And I will give unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score daies in Sack-cloth That these Daies are so many Years appears from the last Consectary of my Joint-Exposition That these Witnesses are Two is partly from the Types they allude to in the Old Testament and partly from the nature of the things they signifie The Types they allude to are Moses and Aaron Elias and Elisha Zerobabel and Jesua three several Pairs of holy men that are famous for their conduct of the People in such times as bear also analogy to these of the Two Witnesses whose Prophecy is during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles that is while it is polluted with Idolatry as Moses and Aaron were over the Israelites in the Wilderness where they often lapsed into Idolatry to which the Woman in the Wilderness may haply allude Elias and Elisha in their Baalitical Apostasy and Zerobabel and Jesua when they were yet in the Captivity of Babylon There are also three Pair of things that may be fitly signified by these Two Witnesses Either the suppressed Magistracy and Ministry such I mean as answer in opposition to the Ten-borned Beast and False-Prophet and bear a resemblance with Moses and Aaron Zerobabel and Jesua or else the People of the Jews I mean such of them as are so sincere that were it not for the sway of Antichristianism in the world would be converted to Christ together with the Virgin-company of Christians or lastly which answers to these two last Witnesses the Old Testament and the New which may be added by an Henopoeia to the other Ver. IV. These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth It is a plain Israelism alluding to that in Zachary Chap. 4. 11. What are these two Olive-trees upon the right sight of the Candlestick
and upon the left side thereof And then ver 14. These are the two Anointed ones that stood by the Lord of the whole Earth Which Interpreters universally understand of Zerobabel and Jesua Ver. V. And if any one will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed It is an Allusion to the story of Moses and Elias their bringing down fire upon their Opposers But here it is to be understood more Mystically of the Fire of the Spirit or of the Law of God proceeding out of their mouths whereby they convince the world Jer. 23. Is not my word like as fire saith the Lord and like an hammer that breaks a rock in pieces Ver. 19 Like that of the man out of the Sea 2 Esdras 13. whose voice whensoever it went out of his mouth all they burnt that heard it And again in Ver. 4. the same Chapter And lo as he saw the violence of the multitude that Ver. 9 c. came he neither lift up his hand nor held sword nor any instrument of war But onely I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire and out of his lips a flaming breath and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests And they were all mixt together the blast of fire the flaming breath and the great tempest and fell with violence on the great multitude which was prepared to fight and burnt them up every one so that of a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived but onely dust and smell of smoke Which is afterwards interpreted ver 38. And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto Fire By this we may know what is meant by If any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed And it was the word of the Lord to Zerobabel who is alluded to in these Witnesses Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts So plain is it that the weapons Zechar. 4. 6. of the Two Witnesses in the time of their mournful Prophecy are onely Spiritual Which is a thing worthy the noting and seriously considering Ver. VI. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the daies of their Prophecy and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they please In the days of their Prophecy that is to say of their mournfull Prophecy or in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth as is plainly to be understood out of the third verse It is a manifest Allusion to Elias his hindering it from raining in Ahab's time for three years and six months which is exactly the time of the Prophecy of these Witnesses namely 1260 days But the meaning must needs be more mysticall these days signifying years Wherefore by Rain is meant the distilling of that pure refreshing Doctrine of the Gospel unadulterated by the false Glosses of men which Heavenly drops descend not during the mournfull Prophecy of the Witnesses But this shutting up Heaven thus is ascribed to them not that they positively hinder the descent of this celestial dew but by a Metalepsis such as I have already observed in the Rider of the red Horse to whom power is said to be given to take peace from the Earth and that Apocal. 6. 4. there was given unto him a great sword whenas yet there is no more understood by it then that in his time there would be much killing one another So that the Effect is put upon the Sign when such a thing should be as in that vulgar verse Pallida Luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat 2. This is one warrantable sense and yet there is still a better If this shutting up of Heaven be attributed unto these two mournfull Witnesses not by a bare Metalepsis onely but by a Zoopoeia of the second sort such as I have above described wherein though the party to whom the Effects be attributed does not use any activity to produce them yet in some sense he has a causal Influence upon them as the absent Sun may be said to be the cause of Night and of all the Villainies committed under her shelter So the suppression and putting out of place these Witnesses is the cause of the shutting up of Heaven and of the scarcity of the pure Word amongst the people but cannot be attributed to the Witnesses themselves but onely by a Metalepsis or rather a Zoopoeia 3. According to which the turning water into bloud and the smiting the Earth with all plagues as often as they please is attributed to them namely by a Zoopoeia though they have no positive activity therein no more then the Sun in all the Murthers and Adulteries that are committed by his absence in the covert and concealment of the shady Night And therefore whereas it is added as often as they will it is but the height and sublimity of this Scheme and signifies no more then as often as opportunities are offered for such effects upon which the mournfull condition of these Witnesses have a consequentiall Influence though not an active And Will is attributed to them with as much reason and elegancy as the Activity it self and indeed according to necessary Analogie those occasional Consequences answering exactly to the occasional exertions of the Acts of the Will in him that is said properly to act and not by a Zoopoeia The Allusion is to Moses his smiting the Land of Aegypt with those ten Plagues The inflicting of which in a Mystery is ascribed to these two Witnesses while they are in this debased and dejected plight The sense therefore in brief is this That the Roman Empire in which is this Spiritual Aegypt that holds the people of God in bondage whether the Waters thereof be turned into Bloud by intestine warrs and broils or whether it no somely abound with Frogs that is with slimy salacious and venereous persons or be full of lazy and Lousy beggars a sordid and squalid poverty over-running the generality of men by reason of either the Oppression or ill Discipline of them that are in Power or men be infested and disquieted with the importunate Incursions of swarms of Gnats and Flies that is to say with the Numerosity of Superstitious Scrupulosities and vexatious Controversies of Polemical Theologie that sting and bite and disturb the minds and consciences of men to no purpose but for affliction and inquietude or the Beasts which the Platonists call our Bodies be plagued with Murrain that is be charged with foulness and corruption and with the noisom poison of the deadly sins or that the Multitude be unquiet as if enraged with angry Boils and Ulcers or the barbarous Nations from the North invade the Empire like a violent storm of Hail-stones or the Turk and Saracen from
made him capable of suffering death This is all spoken of our Head and Captain and yet it may be not without some reflexion upon his Body the Church To whom also the riding upon white Horses belongs as appears in the fourteenth verse They have also flammeous and fiery eyes because of their Intellectual Graces and it is said that the Spiritual man discerneth all things 1 Cor. 2. They have also a name that no man knows besides themselves which is their New birth or the participation of the Divine Nature Their garments also are died in bloud in that so many have suffered Martyrdom for the testimony of the Gospel against the Idolatry and Tyranny of Antichrist and all have been martyr'd that is slain and mortifi'd as to the life of sin and besprinkled also with the bloud of the Lamb in the pardon of what-ever Transgressions are past And lastly they are to be crowned and reign as Kings upon earth for the Kingdom is given to the Saints of the most High Dan. 7. 6. But to return to the Description of this Heavenly Heros A sharp-edged Sword is said to go out of his mouth Which is analogical to that in the Hebrews The word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged Heb. 4. sword And in that he is said to rule the Nations with a rod of iron it is an allusion to the second Psalm which is a Prophecie of the Messias Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel Which is a Prophetick Symbol of that wonderful contrition of heart that the powerful Word of God makes when sincerely and seasonably evibrated against the enemies of his Kingdom as in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to divide asunder and cut betwixt soul and spirit and hew down into the very joints and marrow Such is the Militia of this Heavenly Host. He shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked Esa. 11. 4. 7. And in that he is said to tread the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God it looks as if it referred to that of Esay 63. Who is this that comes from Edom with his died garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Which answers to that in this present Vision Whose name is Faithful and True and in righteousness doth he judge and make war But it follows in Esay Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat I have troden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me For I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury and their bloud shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the day of my redeemed is come This answers to what is said of the Rider of the white Horse in this Vision that he was clothed in a vesture dipt in bloud Which in both these Prophecies referrs both to the Passion of Christ and his Spiritual Victories over his Enemies The Wine-presses also answer to one another in each Vision And being that the Harvest is as our Saviour says the end of the world the Vintage which is something later then it must be a later part of the end of the world So that this Vision of Edom and Bozrah will very well sute in that respect also to this of the Apocalyps And it is farther considerable that Bozrah signifies Vintage and Edom the carnal persecutive Church real enemies to the true Jerusalem as the Edomites were to Israel And I need not adde that Edom and Ismael are Types of one and the same thing So that the warfare seems plainly to be spiritual as it may be I shall take occasion to clear up more fully in another place 8. Lastly in that it is written upon his thigh KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS it shews the Royal Descent of Christ even according to the flesh as if he had laid claim to this Sovereignty by descent from David the King accordingly as it is said Chap. 22. I am the root and off-spring of David and the bright morning-star The root of David as to his Divinity and the off-spring of David as to his Humanity But the meaning of this part of the Vision is That the Word of God that is to say the Law of Christ inward and outward is at last in conspicuous Triumph though it had been kept under and plainly troden into the dirt for so long a time in the Reign of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore 9. But that the Church of Christ which is his Body has also a share in this part of the Vision is easily discoverable For in that this Title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is written upon his thigh it signifies also the Dominion of his posterity the Church as Ribera and Alcazar have rightly noted and accordingly as it is said else-where in the Apocalyps He has made us Kings and Priests c. And for the treading of the Wine-press of the wrath of God or the subduing of Edom does not Christ doe it by the powerful and convictive zeal of his Saints and faithful Ministers of his Word who seriously and weightily laying the Law and the heavy wrath of God against Sinners to the hearts and consciences of these carnally-complexionated Edomites squeeze out if I may so speak their corrupt bloud that is the principle of that ungodly life in them for in the bloud thereof is the life thereof and so making them dead as to sin after revive them into righteousness unto everlasting Salvation And so for that sharp-edged sword which is here said to come out of the mouth of Christ it is in effect the very same that comes out of the mouths of his Saints who rule the world by convincing them of their wickedness and causing them to return to God This sharp piercing and vehement Reproof out of the mouths of the people of God against the Beast and the False Prophet is here said to be a Sword coming out of the mouth of Christ because their mouths are his mouth by right use and possession and he inspires by his Spirit and they are onely his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that transmit this fiery Law this blast of fire and flaming breath as it is called in Esdras whereby the wicked are consumed They are I say but as a seized Gate or Passage through which or in which this sharp-edged Sword wherewith the Nations are smitten is so powerfully brandished by our victorious Saviour For this Flame and this Sword I take to be clear Truth and sound and searching Reason inspired from the Eternal Word which whetted with an holy sincere and unaffected kind of Enthusiastick Zeal
S. Paul declare it to them they would ever be drawn to be accessary thereto by breaking off this compliance which was so strong a bank against the inundation of Gnosticism and Persecution of the Church And touching the fifth There is somewhat the like exception that was against Grotius his Exposition that seems to make any thing concealed a Mystery which is a false notion of the word For an open and plain Opposition or Renunciation of Christianity intended but concealed which is the supposed case here is no more a Mystery then hidden Murther and Adultery as I said before 6. And as for the sixth and last It seems somewhat harsh and strained to understand that execution that is done by the Spirit of the mouth of the Lord to appertain to Simon Magus at Rome and that destruction wrought by the brightness of his coming to belong to the Gnosticks involved in the destruction at Jerusalem especially if we consider that there was no Coalition of Simon Magus and the Gnosticks into one Body Politick but that they seemed rather to descend from the Nicolaitans as Baronius intimates and so have no reference one to another Besides that the Text says continuedly Whem the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Which is nothing else but the bright flame and fiery Spirit issuing out of his mouth according to that description in Esdras and upon one and the same Object which is this Man of Sin the same with the little Horn in Daniel which is after this manner to be destroyed 7. To all which you may adde That if the History of what is here applied be true and that the coming of the Lord be to be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem and not of the last Judgment it is a wonderfull thing that the first Fathers of the Church who had a nearer prospect into those â—…ansactions of the world could not discern the Completion of the Prophecy in Simon Magus and the Gnosticks but that we that stand at the farthest distance from the events should be the quickest-sighted in discerning their Applicability to the Prophecy But I have already intimated enough to shew the improbability that this should be the main meaning of this Prediction of S. Paul But if I could believe that the condition of Simon and the Gnosticks was in some sense here perstringed as I must confess this pious and judicious Interpreter has bid very fair towards the Credibility of it I should look upon them as a preludious Type to the great Antichrist and should think that passage For the Mystery of Iniquity does already work to be understood of them as it may though the rest of the Prophecy be in many things unapplicable to Simon and belong onely to the great Antichrist indeed of whom this Magician may be onely a Type or Figure and truly not an unsignificant one For as he is a Magician so is that great Antichrist an egregious Sorcerer and the Head of a numerous Society of Sorcerers and Enchanters Again As Simon gave the name and first example of that wicked fin of Simonie so these pretended Successours of Peter both they and their Body Ecclesiastick have notoriously imitated that example of Simon in buying and selling Spiritualities Thirdly Part of Simon 's and the Gnosticks Apostasy was Judaizing while they made a show of Christianity And how much Antichrist with his Adherents do Judaize in Ceremonies and in boasting of Works and dead Formalities is conspicuous to all the world Fourthly Simon and the Gnosticks were notorious for filthiness and uncleanness And so has been the great Antichristian Synagogue Head and Members Fifthly Though Simon and the Gnosticks were thus grosly obnoxious in life and conversation yet they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extraordinary pretenders to and boasters of the certainty of their Knowledge in the Divinest matters and great esteemers thereof And is not this the special Character of the Pope and his Church that they pretend to be even infallibly wise and accurately orthodox in knowledge and opinion but are as foully negligent and as scandalonsly conniving at all debaucheries of life Sixthly Simon and the Gnosticks were opposers and persecuters of the true Church So is the Papal Hierarchy with the Instruments thereof Seventhly The Followers of Simon polluted themselves with Idols And so doe the Adherers to the Headship of Rome Eighthly and lastly Simon exalted himself above every thing that is called God and received Divine Honours in his own Person upon Earth Which is also notorious in the Roman Bishop So that while such things as these were acting in the world and by such as made some show of Christianity S. Paul might well say of that great Mystery of Iniquity That it is already on foot that it is in some sense acting already namely in Simon and his Followers as a Type and Prelude to the strange pranks of the great Antichrist and that there wants nothing but the removing of that great Obstacle at Rome the Western Caesareate and then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself that great Antichrist indeed will shew himself of whom Simon is but the Figure See Ch. 18. Ver. 7. This Exposition is something more plausible then that there of Alcazar who understands the Mystery of Iniquity already working of pure Paganism but whether it may be the chiefest of all I leave to the judicious to consider In the mean time I think I have sufficiently cleared the truth of those main Prophecies in Scripture that concern the enormous Haughtiness and Pride of Antichrist which is so apparently opposite to the first branch of the Divine life Humility and Lowliness of Spirit 8. The next is Purity whose Opposite is Uncleanness The Predictions of the Causes that carry to that Vice I have touched already But as for the Vice it self it being so inseparable a Concomitant of Idolatry which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication I conceive the Spirit of Prophecy for that very reason was the more sparing in particular Prefigurations or Predictions thereof But I do not doubt but that it is concerned in that description of the great City Apocal. 11. And their bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom c. And how unclean a City Sodom was no man can be ignorant of Again those that are excluded out of the Holy City which is so perfectly opposite to this City called Sodom they are called Dogs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abominable by which as I have above noted out of Grotius are understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusers of themselves with Man-kind Whoremongers also are named in the same Catalogue But of these Texts I have spoke sufficiently in my Idea of Antichristianism In that the Church is said to become a * Apocal. 12. Wilderness it may be also an Intimation of the excess of those Actions of the Animal life that proceed from Cruelty
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no
the Fourth Monarchy 10. That the course of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Reign of Antichrist is indigitated by those Numbers of Days in the last of Daniel 1. TO these Middle Synchronalls of the Book-Prophecy we will onely adde the Vision of the Sixth Trumpet the Prediction of S. Paul concerning the Apostasy of the Latter times and that Prophecy in Daniel from whence he seems to have drawn that Prediction and then we shall have done And truly the Vision of the Sixth Trumpet is very signal and notorious That it is meant concerning the Turks invading Christendom according as Mr. Mede has interpreted I have abundantly made good against Grotius in my * Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 5. Mystery of Godliness To which we adde briefly That it is plain that the Invasion of these Euphratean Horsemen is long after the Empire became Christian nay indeed Pagano-Christian forasmuch as it is the Sixth Trumpet the last of those that taken together in order Synchronize with the reign of the Pagano-Christian Power The Beast that was and is not and yet is And for the place as well as the time that it was the Empire to which this Vision belongs appears from that often-repeated Character whereby it uses to be denoted the proportion of a third part For the * Apocal. 9. 15. third part of men are here said to be killed But that the Roman Empire was look'd upon by S. John as the third part of the known World in his Age is evident in that Description of the red Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns in that he is said to have struck down the third part of the Starrs with his tail to the ground Apocal. 12. 4. Moreover the posture of these Horsemen was such as Mr. Mede has also noted in respect of S. John in Patmos his seeing them coming as from Euphrates that they must needs march upon the Territories of the Roman Empire Which also the consideration of our third Rule of interpreting Prophecies does more fully assure us of For what had S. John to doe with any Visions but such as concerned the Church of Christ Wherefore there is no reason to doubt but that Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Sixth Trumpet is very true 2. From whence it will evidently appear that there is a Prevision of that gross Idolatry which would be in both the Greek and Latine Church For after the description of that numerous Army of the Turks under the Type of the Euphratean Horsemen and the great Execution they did the third part of men being killed by the fire smoke and brimstone that issued out of their Horses mouths that roared like Lions against their Enemies to which you may adde the preceding Plague of the Saracens those tormenting Locusts it is said that The rest of the men which were not Apoc. 9. 20 21. killed by these Plagues repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone and of Wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk Neither repented they of their Murthers nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefts Can there be a more express and plain Prophecy of the Idolatry of the Christian Empire then this For the sense plainly is this That though the Turks and Saracens had over-run the Eastern Churches and laid all wast with fire and sword yet the Western Part of the Empire did not lay it to heart nor indeed the Greek Church as they should do but that the Church of Rome did notwithstanding persist in their Idolatrous worship in the worshipping of their Daemonia or Daemons the Souls of men departed our English Translation reads it Devils and none certainly whenas they are not God would receive Divine honour after their deaths unless they were become Devils so great a * See Book 1. Ch. 12. Ver. 3. Sect. 4. Reproach is that pretended honour the Romanists give to the Saints in the worshipping of Idols of Gold and of Silver and of Brass c. which neither can hear nor see nor walk This is added as an Aggravation and more palpable detection of the madness or sottishness of this Sin And is it not the same in the Images of the Saints as in the Images of the Heathen Gods Can the Images of the Saints see more clearly hear more quickly or walk more nimbly then the Idols of the Heathen Wherefore we see such a ground of the reprehension of this sin of Idolatry is alledged as is common to that of the Pagans with this of those that call themselves Christians So that there is no hole for them to escape out at But there are other Crimes also which the Roman Church notwithstanding the severe judgment of God against the Greek Church has not repented of as namely of her Murthers in shedding of innocent bloud or cruelly and hatefully persecuting men under pretence of Heresy of Sorcery in such a sense as I have expounded it in my * Book 1. Chap. 18. Idea of Antichristianism of Fornication in the unnatural Constitution of their unclean Clergie and of Thefts in their frauds and impostures to emunge the simple people of their money But these things belong not to this present Head 3. In the mean time it is exceedingly worth our Observation of what infinite consequence it would be to the safety and prosperity of Christendom if they would reform from this gross sin of Idolatry the worshipping of Daemons and Images of Gold and Silver and other Materials For who knows or rather who knows not but that God who brought that exceeding great scourge of the Turk upon the Christian world for their gross Idolatries may make him flow back again into his own Chanell if we would once return to that ancient pure and Apostolick Christianity For the Cause of this great evil once removed the Evil it self will be removed also Whence it is plain that they are the truest Friends to Christendom even to Rome herself that do not sooth them up in their sins by mitigating and hiding their foul miscarriages but deal apertly and plainly with them for their own safety that neither admit nor invent subterfuges to countenance or palliate their Idolatrous and Superstitious practices but tell them plainly how much they are apostatized from the true worship of God and Christ into Paganism and Idolatry Better are the Rebukes of a faithfull Friend then the hired flatteries of a glozing Mercenary 4. Wherefore persisting in the same liberty of speech I shall adventure to pronounce that that Prediction of S. Paul 1 Tim. 4. respects the Apostasy of the Empire into Idolatrous worship by means of the seducing and seduced Clergie thereof who taught them to give religious worship to mere men departed this life and so turned the deceased Saints of God as much as in them lay into Pagan Daemons The words of the Prediction are these Now the