the Apocalyptick Visions is expounded by the Angel 432 582. why she is said to have a golden cup in her hand and her Name written in her forehead 525 Wilderness Israel's being in the Wilderness and the Churche's abode in the Wilderness compared 906 907 Wing signifies in Dan. 9. an Army the fitness of the word to signifie thus 707. Wing of abominations is an Army of Idolarrous Gentiles ibid. How the Roman Army was the Army of Messiah 708 Witnesses why Two and in sackcloth 480 481. the two Wars of the Beast against them 765. their Slaughter how far it extends 760 761. their Death and Resurrection how to be understood 484 Women Why the Corinthian women are reproved for being unveiled or uncovered in the Church 61. how they are said to prophesie 58 59 Works Good Works 3 qualifications of them 217 c. 3 Reasons for the necessity of them 215 c. God rewards our Works out of his mercy not for any merit in them 175 World Heaven and Earth put according to the Hebrew idiom for World 613. That the World should last 7000 years and the Seventh Thousand be the Beatum Milleunium was an ancient Tradition of the Iews 892. World sometimes in Scripture put for the Roman Empire 705 Worship External worship required in the Gospel 47. Four Reasons for it 349 350. The Iews worshipped versus Locum praesentiae 394. That such Worshipping is not the same with worshipping God by an Image 395 To worship God in spirit and truth what 47. 48. The Worship directed to God is Incommunicable and why 638 639 Y. YEars That the Antichristian Times are more than 3 single Years and an half proved by 5 Reasons 598. The 70 years Captivity of the Iews in Babylon whence to be reckoned 658 Z. ZAchary The 9 10 and 11 Chapters in his Book seem to befit Ieremy's time better 786 833 c. Zebach or The bloudy Sacrifice defined 287 Zipporah deferred not the circumcision of her child out of any aversation of that Rite 52. her words in Exod. 4. 25. vindicated from the common misconstruction 53 c. ERRATA Page 481. line 3. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 790. l. 14. for Page r. Figure pag. 495. l. 10. r. Angelo pag. 496. l. antepenult r. legibus pag. 498. l. 1. r. crudelitate l. 41. r. Caesarum imperium A Catalogue of some Books Reprinted and of other New Books Printed since the Fire and sold by Richard Royston viz. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by H. Hammond D. D. in Fol. Third Edition Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Fol. by Ier. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Gonnor The Practical Catechism together with all other Tracts formerly Printed in 4 o in 8 o and 12 o his Controversies excepted now in the Press in a large Fol. By the late Reverend H. Hammond D. D. The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Iesus in Fol. with Figures suitable to every Story Ingrav'd in Copper By the late Reverend Ier. Taylor D. D. Phraseologia Anglo Latina or Phrases of the English and Latine Tongue By Iohn Willis sometimes School-master at Thistleworth together with a Collection of English Latine Proverbs for the use of Schools by William Walker Master of the Free-School of Grantham in 8 o new The Whole Duty of Man now Translated into the Welch Tongue at the command of the four Lord Bishops of Wales for the benefit of that Nation By Io. Langford A. M. in 8o. The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the necessity end and manner of Receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour in 8 o By the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. Chaplain in Ordidinary to his Sacred Majesty A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist in 8o. Peace and Holiness in three Sermons upon several occasions the First to the Clergy Preached at Stony-Stratford in the County of Buoks being a Visitation-Sermon published in Vindication of the Author The Second preached to a great Presence in London The Third at the Funeral of M rs Anne Norton by Ignatius Fuller Rector of Sherrington in 8 o new A Discourse concerning the true Notion of the Lords Supper to which are added two Sermons by R. Cudworth D. D. Master of Christs-Colledge in Cambridge in 8o. The Works of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Iohn Gregory sometimes Master of Arts of Christ-Church in Oxon. 4o. The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court to which is now added the Signal Diagnostick by Tho. Pierce D. D. and President of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4o. Also a Collection of Sermons upon several occasions together with a Correct Copy of some Notes concerning Gods Decrees in 4o. Enlarged by the same Author Christian Consolations drawn from Five Heads in Religion I. Faith II. Hope III. The Holy Spirit IV. Prayer V. The Sacrament Written by the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Hacket late Lord Bishop of Leichfield and Coventry and Chaplain to King Charles the First and Second in 12 o new A Disswasive from Popery the First and Second Part in 4 o by Ier. Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor The Principles and Practises of certain several Moderate Divines of the Church of England also The Design of Christianity both which are written by Edward Fowler Minister of Gods Word at Northill in Bedfordshire in 8o. A Free Conference touching the Present State of England both at home and abroad in order to the Designs of France in 8 o new to which is added the Buckler of State and Iustice against the design manifestly discover'd of the Universal Monarchy under the vain Pretext of the Queen of France her pretensions in 8o. Iudicium Vniversitatis Oxoniensis à Roberto Sandersono S. Theologiae ibidem Professore Regio postea Episcopo Lincolniensi in 8o. The Profitableness of Piety open'd in an Assize Sermon preach'd at Dorchester by Richard West D. D. in 4 o new A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Honourable the Lady Farmor by Iohn Dobson B. D. Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4 o new THE END * All of them except some few mentioned at the end of this Preface * None of which were number'd among the Errata * Pag. 109. lin 21. ‖ These the Author a little before calls the Two parts of Repentance Aversion from sin the first Conversion to God the second part ‖ See p. 280. lin ult ‖ See p. 276 279 281. * Luk. 6. * Chap. 4. 15. * Chap. 2. ‖ Rev. 10. 9. * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See Epistle 97. p. 881. * p.
Bent of the Times the Rule of his Opinion For being free from any aspiring after Applause Wealth and Honour and from seeking Great things for himself he was consequently secured from Flattery and Temporizing the usual artifice of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that will be rich that are resolved to make it their chief design and business to be great and wealthy in the world their heart is wholly upon it they are dead to the World to come and relish not the things above and are alive only to this present world being as eagerly intent and active about earthly things as if their portion were to be only in this life But such was the excellency of his spirit that he could not but abhor all Servile obsequiousness whatsoever as accounting it a certain argument of a Poorness of spirit either to flatter or to invite and receive Flatteries and withal considering that if those of Power and high degree were men of inward worth and excellent spirits they would shew themselves such in their valuing him not the less but rather more for his not applying himself to those ignoble arts and course policies proper to Parasites and ambitious men who speak not their own words nor seem to think their own thoughts but wholly enslave themselves to the thoughts and words the lusts and humors of those by whom for this pretended doing honour to them they seek to be advantaged Besides he might well think that he should rather undervalue and lessen them if he suppos'd they would regard him the more for those or the like Instances of an officious flattery as if they were not able to discern that Frankness and Openness of Spirit and Conversation Singleness of Heart and a Cordial readiness to serve others in love out of a pure heart is truly Christian Generous and Manly and on the contrary that Flattery and Fawning is Dog-like Base and Mercenary and lasts not long for though Parasites pretend to serve their Masters with great devotion a devotion so great as if they thought themselves rather their Creatures than God's yet in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rather serve their own belly and when their Masters cease to be in a capacity of serving them these men also cease to regard them and value them no more than an useless Tool or to use the Prophet's expression a broken Vessel wherein there is no pleasure Other particulars might be added but these may suffice to shew how Free he was from that which is apt to tempt men to judge amiss For it appears from the nature of the things themselves that Partiality Prejudice Pride and Passion Self-love Love of the World Flattery and Covetous Ambition do importunely sollicite men to make a false judgment corrupt their Affections wrong their Understandings enfeeble their Faculties unhappily dwarf their growth in useful Learning and keep them back from such an excellent improvement in Knowledge especially Divine Knowledge as otherwise they might attain And therefore had not Mr. Mede been free from the power of these Lusts he could never have perform'd so well as he hath done in any of his Tracts or Discourses especially upon the more abstruse and mysterious passages of H. Scripture Those therefore that are not of such a free and enlarged spirit but are fondly addicted either to themselves or Parties and are enslaved to Honour Wealth and particular narrow Interests and are under the power of Pride Passion serving divers Lusts and Pleasures they must needs be less excellent less improved in their studies less succesful in their Intellectual adventures than otherwise they might have been had they been established with a Free spirit Nor had some Authors of great reading and fame for Learning ever fallen into such mistakes but their Writings had been freer from imperfections and a greater respect they had secured to their Memories had they been less Passionate less Envious Proud and Self-conceited more Free and unbiassed more Humble and Modest as also more faithful to that excellent Rule of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is somewhat of that great deal more which might be observed of the Author's Largeness and Freedom of spirit which yet in him was not accompanied with any unbecoming reflexions upon others as if he design'd to lessen the due esteem of what was laudable in their performances much less with any irreverence and opposition to the established Articles of Religion and prejudice to the Peace of the Church or State but on the contrary was an innocent ingenuous peaceable Freedom of enquiring into such Theories only as do not at all clash with the Doctrine established and was ever attended with a sweet Modesty a singular Sedateness and Sobriety of spirit and a due regard to Authority And whosoever would read the Author with most profit and judgment must read him also with a free unpassionate and unprejudiced spirit That Saying Omnis Liber eo spiritu legi debet quo scriptus est is true as well of every useful Book as of the Divinely-inspired Books of Holy Scripture Thus much of the Fourth Help or Instrument of Knowledge I shall mention but one particular more but it is a very weighty and important one of singular use and absolute necessity for the gaining the Best Knowledge wherein I might be as large as in the foregoing but because I would hasten to conclude the Preface I shall dispatch it in fewer lines V. The Fifth and Last Means whereby the Author arrived at such an Eminency of Knowledge was His faithful endeavour after such a Purity of Soul as is requisite to fit it for the fuller and clearer discerning of Divine Mysteries The necessity of such a Purity of Heart and Life in order to this End appears by several express places of Scripture as where it is said The Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psalm 25. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knowledge of the holy ones is Understanding Prov. 9. their way of knowing is Knowledge and Understanding indeed and again The pure in heart shall see God Matth. 5. But none of the wicked shall understand says the Angel to Daniel concerning the Mysteries mentioned in Chap. 12. And agreeable to these and many such passages of H. Scripture is that in the Book of Wisdom chap. 1. Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the Body that is subject unto sin The same Truth is plainly acknowledged by the Best and more Divine Philosophers and accordingly they frequently discourse of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purgative Vertues as necessary to prepare the Soul for the knowledge of the most Excellent and Highest Truths as the Mystical or Contemplative Divines speaking of the way to Divine knowledge place the Via Purgativa before the Via Illuminativa and it is a known Maxime of Plato in his Phaed◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying that
not swerving one jot therefrom as he somewhere professeth in his Epistles Yea so cautious and careful was he not to determine positively where the Scripture was not express that he confessed he durst not so much as imagine that Christ's presence in this Kingdom should be a Visible converse upon Earth He was also well aware that some both of elder and of later times degenerating from the Piety of the most ancient and purest Ages of the Church and swerving from that Primitive sober sense and harmless Notion of the Millennium which the Christian Church generally entertain'd in the days of Iustin Martyr had shamefully disfigur'd and deformed it with several erroneous conceits and idle fancies of their own But herein our Author's name and reputation is not concern'd he had nothing to do with the wood hay and stubble which some foolish builders had built upon the old foundation nor with those unseemly assumenta and disgraceful opinions which some that were miserable bunglers at the Interpretation of Prophecies had fastned upon the ancient Hypothesis He disavow'd with as much zeal as any one the extravagancies of such men and yet he would not in a rash heat wholly reject an ancient Tenet for having some Error annex'd to it for so he might sometime cast away a Truth as he that throws away what he finds because it is dirty it was his own comparison may perchance cast away a Iewel or a piece of Gold or Silver Thirdly and lastly to conclude this argument His Notion of the Millennial State was both Pure and Peaceable and therefore not unworthy of a fair construction Pure and clean it was altogether free from the least suspicion of Luxury and Sensuality It was his express Caution to beware of gross and carnal conceits of an Epicurean happiness misbeseeming the Spiritual purity of Saints If we conceit saith he any Deliciae let them be Spirituales which S. Austin confesseth to be Opinio tolerabilis lib. 20. De Civit. Dei. And therefore he was justly offended with Hierom. who being according to his wont a very unequal relator of the opinion of his Adverâ—aries imputed to the most ancient Fathers of the Church such an Unspiritual notion as this That the Felicity of this State was Beatitudo ventri gutturi Iudaico serviens and in several parts of his Writings he has clearly detected the unfaithfulness and falshood of Hierom in loading those Holy Souls with the charge of Iudaism and Epicurism as foul and undeserved an aspersion as could be imagined And verily such a Sensual State is so contrary to the character of the Kingdom of Christ and the true importance of what is meant by Reigning with Christ that it is no other in reality than the Kingdom of the Devil and a Reigning with him He well remembred that the proper Character of the New Heavens and the New Earth that is of the World renewed is thus described in S. Peter's Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein dwelleth Righteousness A greater increase of Piety and Peace than has yet been in the world is that which makes up the Primary notion of Felicity of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or World to come And what hearty Christian does not most affectionately desire that Righteousness and true Holiness Peace on earth and Good will towards men may spread and obtain more universally in the world These things would as naturally make the world Happy as the abounding of Iniquity with the decays of Charity in any age makes the world Miserable Nor was his Notion lets Peaceable and Pure as may partly appear by what hath been already observed He was a true Son of Peace and lived a life of Obedience to the Laws of the Realm and of Conformity to the Discipline of the Church He feared both the Lord and the King and medled not with them that were given to change And his Writings bare the Impress and Character of his Peaceable Spirit and Life for not one clause not a syllable not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that naturally tends to blow men up into such furious heats as threaten publick Disquietnesses and Embroâ—lments is to be found therein as neither in the Writings of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus Cyprian and others of utmost Antiquity whose Doctrine touching this Point as also their Practices were far from any shew of Unpeaceableness far from provoking to any thing but Love and Good works As our Author himself was a man of a cool Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise is his Notion and representation of the Millennium cool and calm and moderate not ministring to Faction and Sedition to Tumults and subversion of all Degrees and Orders of Superiority in the publick And assuredly the Happiness of the Millennial State shall take place in the world without that Disorder and Confusion which some men have extravagantly imagined men of unhallowed minds and consciences who judging of things according to the lusts of ambition and love of the world reigning in them have deprav'd and stain'd this Primitive Tenet the ancient sober and innocent notion of the Kingdom of Christ as likewise every other Mystery with not a few carnal conceits and intolerable fancies of their own And thus unto them that are defiled is nothign pure Nor shall those Tempora refrigerii ever be brought in by hot fanatick Zelots men set on fire in the Psalmist's phrase and ready also to set on fire the Course of Nature as S. Iames speaks such as are skilful only to destroy and overturn Destruction and Wasting are in their ways they are good at making the World a miserable uncomfortable and unhabitable place but the way of Peace they have not known as for Peace and Charity they have no right sentiments thereof and know not what belongs to them And therefore the Temper and Frame of their spirit being perfectly contrary to the Temper and Quality of those Better times they are thereby render'd uncapable either of furthering and hasting the Felicities of the New Heavens and Earth or of enjoying them when the New Ierusalem shall be come down from God out of Heaven and the Tabernacle of God shall be with men For the primary Character of that Future State being as was before observed Vniversal Righteousness and Good will Piety and Peace it naturally follows That they who are men of embitter d passions and of a destroying Spirit altogether devoid of civility gentleness and moderation kindness and benignity towards men and altogether unacquainted with what is lovely decorous venerable praise-worthy equitable and just can have no part nor lot in this matter so gross and course a constitution of spirit as theirs is speaks them unqualified for the Happiness of this Better State Nor can they ever be made meet for the World to come and the Kingdom of Christ till they have got the victory over their Self-love and Love of the world over their Pride and Envy their Wrath and
probably would have given light to some hard places of Scripture which now may remain dark and unassoiled till the last Day of Iudgment 24. As these various Perfections and useful Accomplishments made his company very desirable to Scholars so the goodness of his Disposition made him equally Communicative and free to impart his Knowledge to those who came to him either out of the same University or from abroad To these he used to impart himself with that willingness that it seem'd questionable whether had the greater desire they to hear or he to communicate his Studies to them Which made a familiar Friend of his once merrily to say to one that having been partaker of his discourse gave him thanks That he might spare his thanks for that they were not so much beholding to him for delivering himself to them as he was to them for hearing him For this great advantage he made himself of the Civility which he shew'd to others that by the communication of his Notions to his Friends they became so fixed in his memory that he was afterward able readily to deliver them in a well-form'd discourse and was wont as often as he had occasion to express himself in publick especially in those Colledge-exercises which they call Common-places to make use of the fore-mentioned Discourses which with a little labour he could put into an apt form Some of which are those excellent Diatribae which with the rest of his Works are published for the common Benefit of the Church Which though but few in comparison of that great store wherewith so rich a magazine was furnished yet even in those few he hath discovered more rare pieces of recondite Learning than are to be found in some vast Volumes of many much-admired Authors 25. Concerning which Diatribae this is fit to be advertis'd That though there are in some of them several things of a strain that transcends the capacities of common Readers yet it would be a great mistake for that reason to suspect this worthy person as guilty of Ostentation or Affectedness For as they were Academical Exercises and not fitted for a vulgar Audience so he himself was of all knowing men the greatest Hater of that vanity He always disapprov'd the unnecessary quotations of Authors and the use of Forein Languages and Terms of Art in popular Sermons and expressing his dislike of such practices too much in use among some not only young Fellows of Colledges and other young Preachers but even those of more age and experience would sometimes say That they savoured of as much Inconsiderateness as if Shooe-makers should bring Shooes to be drawn on with their Lasts in them judging it a scarce pardonable folly for men going about the instruction of the ignorant to propound things in such Terms as themselves understood not till they had spent many years at the School or University and which how significant soever in themselves and to the Learned yet were but as so many Stumbling-blocks to common Auditors or at the best but as Stiles which though some might possibly leap over yet they interrupted the progress of their attention 26. Nay to give this Excellent person his just right he was so far from the vanity of Ostentation that it is hard to say whether he was more eminent for his rare Knowledge or for his singular Humility and Modesty in valuing his own Abilities insomuch as he could not without trouble hear of that great Opinion and Esteem which some deservedly enough had conceived of his great Learning he owning only some diligence freedom from prejudice and studium partium as his best abilities as himself hath excellently express'd it in a Letter of his to his friend Mr. Samuel Hartlib To which may be added That having received some notices of the great value which some Learned men both at home and in a forein University put upon his Apocalyptick Labours he made only this modest return to a Friend who perhaps thought he might highly please him with that news That he saw no great cause for all that why he should think much better of himself adding withal That he had frequently observ'd it to be the hap of many a Book that had little or no worth in it to find applause in the world when in the mean while a well-deserving Book is scarce taken notice of So far was this Good man from all proud self-reflections from glorying in his wisdom and strength of Parts or in any performance of his own Of this rare Temper of Spirit this also may be remembred as another pregnant Instance That when he was earnestly importun'd by some to write in difficiliora loca S. Scripturae for which task he was incomparably furnished he answered with a sigh No and being pressed to give a reason besides many things which he offered as That it required â— more time than he could reckon upon he had to live and 2 more and better Books than he had at present or could command and 3 that such a work must be done in an Age when mens thoughts are not imprison'd or circumscrib'd within the pale of over-ruling parties he added this also 4 That it would require more Learning than he had or was capable of 27. To omit many other Instances of his Humility for his life was full of them we shall add The little desire which he had either to Academical Honours or to great Preferments and worldly Advantages For the former this may not unfitly be here remembred That he was studiously regardless of Academical Degrees as being unwilling to make any great noise and report in the world And but that he was over-power'd to do it by the then Master of the Colledge he had never so far proceeded as to have been Bachelour in Divinity Thus he express'd himself to some in private A Master of Arts he was and a great Master of them too before he was so call'd but more than so to be he affected not An argument that that Grace was eminent in him wherein others most commonly are too short and defective And for the latter how far he was from any ambitious and eager pursuing the advantages and great things of this world appear'd as by his refusing the offer made him by his Unkle and that also by the then Bishop of Ely which we intimated before so likewise by his modest denial of the Provostship of Trinity Colledge near Dublin in Ireland to which he was elected upon the recommendation of another great Prelate the L. Primate of Armagh and by his unwillingness the second time to accept of it when he was in danger to be put into that Preferment The height of his Ambition was only to have had some small Donative sine cura made additional to his Fellowship or to have been placed in some Collegiate Church or Rural Colledge Some such place of quiet retirement from the noise and tumults of the world with a Competency moderated by Agur's wish Neither Poverty
him to set his House in order and to dispose of by Will whatsoever God had given him It was readily accorded to by Mr. Mede and Mr. Alsop was by him constituted the Executor of his Will whereby he gave to the poor of the Town of Cambridge an Hundred pound and to the Colledge whereof he was a Member all the remainder of his Estate after some Legacies to his Kindred amounting to Three hundred pounds a large Legacy out of a Scholar's purse for and towards the New building then intended as also for the adorning of the Chappel nor was he unmindful of the Library for he knew well the excellent use of good Books This he did in way of a Grateful return for the Mercies he had so long enjoy'd in that Colledge the enlarging and encrease of whose prosperity and good estate was his great desire and endeavour and that which he preferr'd above his chief joy 50. And now having finished the care of his Secular affairs he composed his Soul for its address into the Divine presence with holy Thoughts and humble Prayers desiring also to strengthen his Faith and heighten his Love whilst by the participation of the Sacred Eucharist he made a thankful Commemoration of his Saviour's Death by which he hoped for an Entrance into the Happiness of an Eternal Life But in this he was prevented shall we say by the sudden approach of Death or not rather more suddenly and in an higher measure satisfied in his desire by the Love of his Saviour who in stead of giving him a tast of the Bread of Life here on Earth by Faith received him into the present possession and more full participation of the ineffiable Ioyes in Heaven 51. Thus died this Religious and Learned person upon Monday-morning about break of day the first of October 1638. having lived Fifty two years and spent above two thirds of his time in that Colledge to which whilst he lived he was so great and illustrious an Ornament and which now he is dead is his Monument The next day in the Evening being October 2. he was decently carried to his Grave by the Fellows of the House and there in the Inner Chappel of the Colledge about the middle of the Area on the South-side close to the Bachelors or Sophisters Seats he lies interred his Memory being embalm'd with his Vertues of more force to preserve his Name than the Spices which the Hebrews or Egyptians used for the embalming of Bodies and having left his most Learned Writings as his truest Picture and best History 52. The Executor some time after against which time he had gathered in some scattered debts and paid out some Legacies preach'd his Funeral Sermon in a full Congregation of Regents and Non-Regents at S. Marie's before the whole University with high approbation of all that heard it upon that Text in Gen. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him A thousand pities it is that that excellent Sermon miscarried in the late Troubles had it survived to have been printed with these Works it would have been for its own sake very acceptable to the world being a Texture as all his were of an accurately-spun thread And that part of it which particularly commemorated Mr. Mede was so full and expressive to the life as might have made any after-endeavours to represent this Great Author less necessary 53. We will only observe one thing more concerning the Time of his Death That he was taken away from the Evils that were then ready to come upon this Island a Favour which God vouchsafes to many of the righteous Esay 57. 1. So of good Iosiah it is said He should be gather'd to his grave in peace and not see all the evil which God would bring upon Ierusalem So Posidonius in the life of S. Austin relates that he was taken away by death when the Goths and Vandals had begun to besiege Hippo so that he saw not the direful Miseries that were coming upon that place Thus that good God who had favour'd our Author with a life of Tranquillity and Freedom from worldly encumbrances made his Death a preservative against those approaching Evils which then hover'd over this Kingdom and closed his eyes that he saw not those dreadful Calamities which were so grievous and afflictive unto all meek and humble Christians to behold 'T is true he beheld them at a distance and by the presage of his own divining spirit he guessed at what afterwards came to pass For about a year or two before he died he would sometimes mention an Observation of his upon that in Iudg. 3. 30. The Land had rest fourscore years the longest period of time as he noted that the people of Israel ever enjoy'd it and then which scarcely any other Nation ever enjoy'd a longer Such a rest would he say from the beginning of Blessed Queen Elizabeth's Reign we of England have enjoy'd and who knows whether our period be not near at hand And whether it be so or not whosoever shall live but a year or two may know it certainly It happened accordingly and what havock the devouting Sword made amongst us after God had sent it to revenge our abuse of his Mercies is well known and can never be remâ—mbred without horrour That God who maketh wars to cease and by his miraculous Providence in the peaceful reduction of his Sacred MAIESTY hath dissipated those Storms of fire and dried up those Shours of bloud he of his Goodness grant that whilst we all offer up our due Thanks for his so great and undeserved Mercies we may so carefully avoid the Sins which drew down our late Punishments and so zealously make up the defects of our former Omissions that God may be pleas'd not only to perpetuate the Felicity of our present Peace but also to increase it by the accumulation of all necessary Blessings The End of the Author's Life Effare Marmor iners Dic Cujus Cinis Salvis modestissimi Viri Manibus IOSEPHUS heîc MEDUS jacet S. T. B. Collegii Christi apud Cantabrigienses Socius Ipse Musarum Hospitium solenniorum Iusta in Collegio Vniversitas Qui Omnes Linguas calluit Artes excoluit Philosophiae Mathematicae adjungens Quicquid AEgyptii occultârunt aut invenerunt Chaldaei Chronologiam insuper ac Historiam omniúmque Reginam Theologiam Quarum praelucente face Induit se in abditissimos Prophetiarum recessus Speluncâ Apocalypticâ exuit Romanam Belluam Confligendi cum Difficultatibus avidissimus Mysteriorum Interpres felicissimus Ut in IOSEPHO hoc nostro Facilè agnovisset Gens Hieroglyphica Zaphnath Paaneah redivivum Hic Nullis addictus partibus omnibus aequus fuit Veritatis ac Pacis amans Benignus aliis Amicis totus patens Verbis Voto Vitâ sanctus castus humillimus Ast Imminentis tunc Ecclesiae Reipublicae Tempestatis Mens Prophetis contubernalis praesaga Coelestem portum occupavit Anno post
a creature and of so despicable a beginning to such a power as to grapple with the Enemy and overcome him But behold there is yet something more admirable namely that this should not be done by the strength of his Arm but by the breath and power of his Mouth Out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine Enemies c. What Enemies Thine saith the Psalmist and such too as are Vltores Avengers the Enemies of both God and Mankind And who are those but Satan and his Angels those Principalities and Powers of the Air those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Rulers of the Darkness of this world as S. Paul speaks For when Mankind is the one party what can the other be but some Power that is not of Mankind Besides who are the Enemies both of God and Mankind but these and of mankind especially I will put Enmity saith God to the Serpent between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed hence he is called Satan the Adversary or Fiend and the Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold I give you power saith our Saviour to the seventy Disciples Luke 10. 19. to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the Enemy Your Adversary the Devil saith S. Peter And this is he as I conceive who is here called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Enemy and the Avenger man's tormentor which words being found again in the 44. Psalm v. 16. may for ought I know by warrant of this place be taken for the same Enemy and the usual distinction altered and the place read thus By reason of the Enemy and the Avenger all this to wit the Calamity and confusion he spake of before is come upon us that is by the malice of Satan Now that such Enemies as these should be subducd by an Arm yea by a Mouth of flesh is a thing which might justly make the Prophet cry out Lord what is man c. Now that this which I have given is the true meaning of this place may be gathered from S. Paul's inculcating the word Enemy when 1 Cor. 15. 24. c. he demonstrates out of this Psalm that Christ before the end shall abolish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all rule and all authority and power For he must reign saith he till he hath put all Enemies under his feet The last Enemy which shall be destroyed is Death and then he alledges for his proof that Corollary in this Psalm For he hath put all things under his feet But in all this Psalm there is no mention of Enemies or subduing them but only in the Verse I have in hand which unless it be thus expounded S. Paul's allegation from hence will be too narrow to prove what he intendeth HAVING thus cleared the words I chose for my Theme I shall not need spend much time to shew you how directly and literally the purport of them was fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation You have in part heard such Scriptures already as do evince it The sum is this The Devil by sin brought mankind under thraldom and became the Prince of this world himself with his Angels being worshipped and served every where as Gods and the service and honour due to the great God the Creator of heaven and earth cast off and abandoned and all this to receive at last for reward eternal woe and everlasting death To vanquish and exterminate this Enemy and redeem the world from this miserable thraldom the Son of God took upon him not the nature of Angels which might have been the Enemies matches but the nature of weak and despicable Man that grows from a babe and suckling Who saith Esay in that famous Prophecy of Messiah hath believed our report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed namely that works such powerful things by weak means For he shall grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a tender plant or sucker it is the very word here used in my Text for a sucking child and translated by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a root out of a dry ground that is a small and little one This is that whereof S. Paul discourses so divinely in the Epistle to the Hebrews To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak but unto him of whom it is said What is man that thou art mindâ—ul of him c Again We see Iesus who was made little lower than the Angels that is was made man that 's the meaning for the suffering of death crowned with Glory and Honour what can be so plain as this It is the Son of man by whom in part we are and more fully shall be delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve the true God without fear as Zachary sayes in his Benedictus It is the Son of man that delivered us from the power of darkness Col. 1. 13. The Son of man that spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly Col. 2. 15. It was no Angel that did all this but the Son of man even as was prophesied from the beginning when the Devil first got his Dominion that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head Nor is this all For this Son of man enables also other Sons of men his Disciples and Ministers to do the like in his name The seventy Disciples in the Gospel returned with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject to us through thy name Yea not these only but as many as fight under his Banner against these Enemies have promise they shall at length quell and utterly subdue them yea at that great Day shall sit with their Lord and Master to judge and condemn them Do ye not know saith S. Paul that the Saints shall judge the world know ye not that we shall judge Angels Lastly This victory as for the event so for the manner of atchieving it is agreeable to our Prophecy Forasmuch as Christ our General nor fights nor conquers by force of Arms but by the power of his Word and Spirit which is the power of his Mouth according to my Text Out of the mouth of Babes c. Hence in the Apocalyps Christ appears with a sword going out of his mouth In the 2 Thess. 2. 8. it is said He shall consume that wicked one that is Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth Esay prophesies Chap. 11. 4. that the Branch of Iesse should smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips should slay the wicked that is he does all nutu verbo by his word and command as God made the world By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Hoast
and out before the Glory of the Holy One But neither S. Hierome who translated it out of the Chaldee nor the ancient Hebrew Copy set forth by Paulus Fagius and in likelihood translated out of the same Chaldee Original hath any such matter but read as I first quoted And therefore it seâ—ms to be an addition or liberty of the greek Translator who thought their Ministery to consist in presenting the Prayers of the Saints and so translated accordingly This Tradition is farther testified by Ionathan ben Vziel the Chaldeâ— Paraphrast Gen. 11. 7. where the Lord's words spoken in the plural number 〈…〉 go down and let us confound their language are paraphrased in this 〈…〉 spake unto the Seven Angels which stand before him Go to now let us go 〈…〉 Whether rightly or fitly in this place it matters not the Testimony is 〈◊〉 for the Iewish Tradition of Seven Arch-angels that stand before the Throne of God This Tradition Iunius saith is Magical and not a little triumphs therein aâ— an undoubted Argument to evince the Book of Tobit not to be Canonical But whâ—tâ—oever the Book of Tobit be I hope to shew this Tradition to have firm ground and footing in Scripture and not so rashly to be rejected The chief and most clear place is this I have now read which gives us to understand that these Seven Angels were represented by that Candlestick of Seven Lemps which continually burned in the Temple before the Veil over against the Mercy-seat which was the Throne of God For in the beginning of the Chapter the Prophet being shewed this Seven lamped Candlestick in a Vision and two Olive-branches on each side ministring oyl to the Lamps thereof the Angel asketh him ver 5. if he knew what these meant The Prophet answers No my Lord. Then the Angel discoursing a little by way of Preface tells him what they were These Seven saith he that is the Seven Lamps are the seven Eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth that is those Seven Vigils or prime Ministers of his Providence the Seven Arch-angels As for the two Olive-trees on each-side These are saith he the two anointed ones which stand before the Lord of the whole earth v. 14. that is Zorobabel and Iesua the Prince and Priest of that time which should be God's two Instruments on earth whereby his Church signified by the Candlestick should be re-established and his Temple builded and that not by force or strength as he saith in his Preface v. 6. but by the Spirit of God working with them as the Olive-trees here conveyed oyl to the Candlestick not after a natural and usual but a supernatural and secret manner This interpretation of the latter hath the suffrage of the best Expositors both Iews and Christians and so I shall need say no more of it but betake my self to make good the first concerning the words I chose for my Text That those Seven Eyes of God signified by the Seven Lamps are Seven Angels That this is so I prove out of two places of the Apocalyps derived from hence where as well the Seven Lamps before the Throne as the Lamb 's Seven Eyes are said to be the Seven Spirits of God I saw saith S. Iohn Ch. 4. 5. Seven Lamps before the Throne which are the Seven Spirits of God And again Ch. 5. 6. I saw in the midst of the Throne and of the four Beasts as we translate it and of the four and twenty Elders a Lamb as if he had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth Here first we have Zacharie's very words Seven eyes sent forth into all the earth secondly that these Seven eyes are the Seven Spirits of God thirdly that these Seven Spirits were represented by the Seven Lamps burning before the Throne If this be not sufficient to make my interpretation of Zacharie's good I know not what can be For who can now but think that the Iews derived their Tradition of these Seven Angels from this place of Zachary and the Apocalyps from them both And that indeed the Iews supposed some such thing meant by the Seven Lamps in the Temple appears by the report of Iosephus though depraved and fashioned unto the capacity of the Gentiles For he tells us both in his Antiquities Lib. 3. cap. 7. and in his De Bello Iudaico Lib. 6. cap. 6. Gr. 〈◊〉 that the Seven Lamps signified the seven Planets and the most holy place within the veil Antiq. l. 3. cap. 5. the Heaven of God or Heaven of Glory and that therefore the Lamps stood slope-wise as it were to express the obliquity of the Zodiack Now it is true that the Iewish Astrologians favouring of Gentilisme make these Seven Angels the Prefects of the Seven Planets which they seem to have learned in part from the Greek Philosophy which conceit howsoever it be vain and groundless yet may be as a Key to understand the meaning of this of Iosephus And one thing more If the visible things of God may be learned as S. Paul says from the Creation of the world why may not the Invisible and Intelligible World be learned from the Fabrick of the Visible the one it may be being the Pattern of the other But to let this pass and return again to the Apocalyps Where concerning the places alledged there may be two things objected First That the Seven Spirits there mentioned are and may be expounded of the Holy Ghost thus represented in respect of those seven-fold that is manifold Graces he communicates unto the Church I answer that many indeed have so taken it but besides the uncoâ—thness of expressing one Spirit by seven there is a reason in the Text why they cannot be so taken namely because not only the Seven Lamps are said to be those Seven Spirits of God but the Seven eyes and Seven Horns of the Lamb also to be the same Now it will be very hard and harsh to make the Holy Ghost the Horns and Eyes of Christ as he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world that is as he is Man Above Angels indeed the Man Iesus is exalted and that too for the suffering of death that is as the Lamb but not above the Holy Ghost This made not only Drusius but even Beza himself in his Notes upon this place to affirm it could not be meant of the Holy Ghost but of Seven created Spirits A second scruple is How if they be created Spirits Iohn could pray for Grace and Peace from them Grace be unto you saith he and peace from him which is which was and is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ the faithful witness c. Would he pray for Grace and Peace from Angels I answer Why not For first He praies not to them but unto God unto whom such
looked that that glorious Son of David should have been born of the most rich and potent parentage of that line but behold he was of the poorest and most despised Who would not have thought but Ierusalem the Royal City had been the only fit place for his Birth but he was born at Bethlehem one of the least Cities of Iudah And what in some stately and more convenient Palace there No in a stable and laid in a manger So was David his progenitor the youngest and most despised son of Ishai Samuel thought that brave and goodly Eliab the first-born was the man surely whom God would chuse to make him King But God had set his eye upon him whom the Father so little regarded as he could scarce think of him even the little one which kept the sheep Thus God derides the conceits of men Fools therefore that we are why do we value those things so much which God esteems so little We are wont otherwise to make much account of such things as Kings and Great ones have in esteem and to think but basely of those things which they despise why should not the Example of Almighty God bear the like sway in our judgments to prefer what he prefers and slight what he undervalues Let us therefore considering this set our hearts and affections upon heavenly and spiritual things and say of all the pomp and glory of this world Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity THUS have I spoken of the two first Particulars I propounded the Time when and the Place where our Saviour began the publication of his Gospel I come now to the Third The Summe of what he preached and it was this The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel This was the Summe of what he preached and it contains two parts a Doctrine and an Exhortation The Doctrine is That the Time foretold by the Prophets when the Kingdom of God should begin was come The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand The Exhortation is That therefore they should Repent and believe the Gospel or glad tidings which that Kingdom brings I 'le begin with the Doctrine where I have two things to unfold 1. What this Kingdom of God is 2. What was the Time prefixt for the coming thereof which our Saviour saith was fulfilled when he spake unto them For the first The Kingdom of God is that which otherwise is called The Kingdom of Heaven These two are both one and therefore S. Matthew chap. 4. 17. when he relates this preaching of our Saviour saith that he preached and said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand namely the same that Iohn Baptist his Harbinger preacht before him For the Hebrews express God by Heaven as we may see Dan. 4. 26. where it is said to Nebucchadnezzar that his kingdom should be restored unto him when he should acknowledge that the heavens bear rule that is God the most High who dwells in heaven The prodigal child in the Gospel saith Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee Luke 15. 21. So Matt. 21. 25. The Baptism of Iohn was it from Heaven or from men that is from God or from men This is the reason why the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven mean one and the same thing Let us therefore now see what is meant by it This Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of Messiah or Christ foretold in the Prophets the Kingdom of that Seed of the woman which should break the Serpent's head of that seed of Abraham wherein all the Nations of the earth should be blessed For so the Hebrew Doctors before and at our Saviour's coming had termed this Kingdom and taught their people to look for it under that name which they had learned out of the Prophecies of Daniel concerning it who in chap. 2. ver 44. describes it in this manner In the days of those Kings or Kingdoms that is while the days of the four Monarchies there spoken of yet lasted the God of heaven shall found or set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor be lest unto another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever In the 7 ch ver 13 14. he describes it thus I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed From these places the Iews called the Messiah's Kingdom the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven Because in the first place it is said that the God of heaven should set up his Kingdom and in the other places that the Son of man namely Messiah should come in the clouds of Heaven For our Saviour brought not this term of phrase with him but found it at his coming used among the Iews which being fitly given he approved and so taught them the mysterie of his coming in their own language As we may see in so many Parables in the Gospel where our Saviour sets forth the state of his Church and the members of the same continually under the name of The Kingdom of God or The Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is like a field where a sower sowed good seed c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net and such like In all which our Saviour describes the state of his Church in that language the people were used unto as he doth also in other of his Sermons Hence it is that when Iohn Baptist first and our Saviour after him preached The Kingdom of heaven is at hand the Iews wondred not at that term as at a novelty nor ever askt what it meant but understood it of the Kingdom of Messiah which they had been taught to call by that name then and is still found so called among their Rabbies and Doctors until this day though through their unbelief they have no portion therein but look for it still to come The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven then is nothing else but the Church of Christ or the Christian Church which is no Temporal kingdom like the kingdoms of this world which have power over the Body only but a Spiritual kingdom which reigns over the Souls and Spirits of men The Kingdom of God saith our Saviour is within you that is it is a kingdom of the inward man And therefore this kingdom was not to be founded after the manner of the kingdoms of men by great armies and field-battels but was to subdue the nations and conquer the world by
humblest nature and the humblest condition are the fittest for devotion For humble natures experience shews them the most religious whereas those which the world so much commendeth for high and brave spirits of all others do buckle the worst unto devotion God seeth not as man seeth It is not the tallest Eliab but the humblest David who is the man after God's own heart He that humbleth himself as a little child the same is the tallest and goodliest Soul in the kingdom of heaven The Stars in the firmament howsoever they here seem small to us yet are bigger than the Earth So he that is despicable and small here in the eyes of men is there a great one in the eyes of God As the humblest nature so the humblest estate and condition is best fitted for Religion as the poor rather than the rich Therefore Agur desired of God not to give him riches more than food convenient for him lest being full he should deny him and say Who is the Lord Such likewise is the state of adversity and affliction being a state of lowliness and an estate wherein our hearts are taken down and therefore more fit to bring us home to God than that of prosperity whence you know that David saies Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and Psal. 119. 67 71. Before I was afflicted I went astray But now I have kept thy word It is good for me that I have been afflicted For diseases say the Physicians must be cured by contraries It was Pride which caused the disloyalty and rebellion both of Men and Angels against their Creator whence is that of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 10. 12. The beginning of Pride is when one departeth from God and his heart is turned away from his Maker ver 13. Pride is the beginning of sin and he that hath it shall pour out abomination If Pride then be the beginning of our rebellion against God then must Lowliness be the proper disposition of those who fear and worship him And Tanto quisque est vilior Deo quanto est pretiosior sibi The higher any one is in his own esteem the lower he is in God's Now from this near affinity and inseparable dependance between a Religious devotion and an Humble and Lowly mind it is that the Scripture useth them as equipollent terms Prov. 22. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches honour and life Prov. 3. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the Iust. Ver. 34. Surely he scorneth the scorners but he giveth grace or sheweth favour unto the lowly Where scorners and the wicked on the one part and the lowly and the just on the other are interchangeably used for one and the same In like manner speaks the son of Sirach Ecclus. 12. 4 5. Give to the godly man and help not a sinner Which in the next words he altereth thus Do well unto him that is lowly but give not to the ungodly In the same notion of Humility and Lowliness S. Paul tells the Ephesian Elders at Miletus that he had served the Lord with all humility of mind Acts 20. 19. I have dwelt the longer upon this point To shew that Lowliness of mind is the proper disposition for devotion and the mother of a religious fear because the present occasion if you examine it is nothing else but the exercise of what I speak of For the End of Fasting is to beget Lowliness and humbleness of mind that so we might be rightly disposed and affected to approach the Divine Majesty and tender our supplications unto him Especially at such times when his dreadful rod is shaken over us to bid us down and cry for mercy lest we perish Are they not some of the first words we uttered this day O come let us humble our selves and fall down before the Lord with reverence and fear Hence Fasting and Humbling a mans self go in Scripture for equipollent terms My clothing was sackeloth saith David Psal. 35. 13. I humbled my self with fasting So Ahab humbled himself and thereby deferred his judgment 1 King 21. 29. Hezekiah humbled himself both he and the inhabitants of Ierusalem 2 Chro. 32. 26. Manasseh likewise besought the Lord and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Father 2 Chron. 33. 12. If we take a view of the Ceremonies of this Discipline which the Ancients used and we in some part continue they imply nothing else but Lowliness either to express it if we be already so affected or to work and beget it in our hearts if as yet we have it not They are reducible to three heads 1. of Habit 2. of Gesture 3. of Diet. For Habit it was anciently Sackcloth and Ashes By the coursness of Sackcloth they ranked themselves as it were amongst the meanest and lowest condition of men By Ashes and sometimes Earth upon their heads they made themselves lower than the lowest of the creatures of God For the lowest of the Elements is the Earth than which we use to say a man cannot fall lower Qui jacet in terra non habet unde cadat For Gesture they sate or lay upon the ground which in the Primitive Church was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humicubatio a natural ceremony both to express and ingenerate or increase this disposition of Lowliness and abjection of our selves and as frequently practised among the Christian Fathers as it is seldom or never used among us It were a thing most comely and undoubtedly most profitable if either these Ceremonies or some other answerable to them were reviv'd amongst us at such times as these If we were all of us this day attired if not in Sackcloth for perhaps it sutes not with the custom of our Nation yet in the dolefullest habit of mourners if we lay all groveling upon the ground would not such a ruful spectacle would not the very sight of such an uncouth Assembly much affect us The mournful hue of Funeral solemnities we know by experience will often make them to weep who otherwise had no particular cause of sorrow how much more when they have But the Principal ceremony and which we retain is Abstinence from meat and drink from which this whole exercise hath the name of Fasting the End thereof being to bring down our Bodies thereby the better to humble our Souls or to express so much I mean to express our sorrow and dejection if we be already so affected Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis If the Body be full and lusty the Mind will be lofty and refractary and most unfit to approach the Divine Majesty with reverence and fear How uncomposed is that Heart to sue to God for mercy and aversion of his judgments which is fraught with rebellious unclean proud and lustful thoughts like so many dogs barking within it But these are all engendered and cherished by full feeding and
would consider it to adventure the Conscience upon the least violence if it endure but a scratching once or twice it is secretly and before a man is aware hardned to endure a wound O let us be then tender to keep our Conscience tender else we are undone Is it therefore indeed so with thee that thou canst take thy sinful liberty and yet find no scruple check thee Canst thou cast off the yoke of Christ and yet thy heart be at rest within thee or at the worst if it pants a little it will soon have done O rouse it up in time else the time will come when thy Conscience will be so awaked that all the world cannot quiet and still it The longer it hath been smothered the more dreadful and unquenchable will the flame be when it once breaketh out No tongue of mortal man is able to express the terrors which then shall overwhelm thee In the day-time we know Spirits and Hobgoblins usually walk not but in the night-time when darkness covereth the face of the earth So in the brightness and Sun-shine of health and proâ—perity what marvel though this terrible Fiend an evil Conscience doth not much haunt a dull and stupid heart but in the darkness of sickness in the midnight of death when the black times of calamity shall surprise thee then will this grifly and gastly Spirit begin to affright and scare thee then will he roar in the chamber of thy soul and most hideously rattle his chains about thine ears As the blows and bruises received in the flower of our youth though then we feel them not will pain us in the decay of our strength in our declining years So the blows and bruises given the Soul by sin in the days of our jollity and prosperity will most grievously torment us when by sickness fear of death or other calamity our wonted mirth and transitory contentment shall be eclipsed Then as the carkass of him that is slain though it seemed stark and stiff is said to bleed afresh at the presence of the murtherer So when our former and unfelt sins whereby the Soul was wounded and murthered shall present themselves unto our view as at such times they use to do then our stark and benummed Conscience will gush out streams of bloud and be in danger to bleed unto eternal death What would a man then give for this Rest unto his soul even all the gold of Ophir all the riches of the East and West Indies yea he would be content never to have had ease never to have enjoyed any contentment no not lawful in these worldly and transitory things all the days of his life so he might have but one dram of that comfortable quietness of Soul which a good conscience bringeth A good conscience therefore from a life well led is a Iewel unvaluable for which a man should undergo the hardest task and forgo all the contentments of the world if it could not otherwise be gotten Which is the Second thing I here observe For our Saviour we see propounds it as a Reward and Prize such as he thought sufficient to allure any reasonable man even to abandon his liberty and freedom and to enter a bondage and to take a yoke upon his neck a yoke the sweetest that ever was worn and far surpassing the greatest liberty in the world A good conscience saith Solomon Prov. 15. 15. is a continual Feast that is an everlasting Christmas The twelve-days-Feast of our Blessed Saviours Nativity how is it longed for before-hand how welcomed when it comes and yet it lasts but a short time But a good conscience is a Feast that lasts all the year yea all a mans life long and that too without satiety without fulness without the least wearisomness There are three things in a Feast which make it so pleasing and desirable Mirth good Company and good Chear In this Feast all three of them are superlative 1. For Mirth all the merriment and Musick all the wine and good chear in the world will not make a man's heart so light and merry as the wine which is drunk at the Feast of a good conscience This is no superficial matter but rooted in the very Centre of the Soul Whereas your Wine-mirth is but the smothering sometimes if not drowning of a deeper grief like the lustick fit in some Countries of such as are going to execution Give strong drink saith Solomon unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts 2. For Society and Company what Feast in the world can afford the like this doth For it hath not only exceeding good but all suitable and homogeneal where is no admixture of ill Here you shall have no unruly persons blaspheming God or men to make themselves or others pastime no unsavoury communication to stain and pollute by degrees the purity of the Soul and make a reckoning unsupportable when the day shall come wherein we must give accompt of every idle word But a good Conscience hath ever good Company and so good as will admit no ill For the Father is with it that great and mighty God who made us The Son is with it even Christ himself who redeemed us they sup and feast together The Holy Ghost is with it who chears up and sanctifies the hearts of all who come to this Table What Feast in the world can shew so honourable so loving so chearful company as this 3. And for the last thing which makes a Feast desirable good Chear it is a Table richly furnished with all Varieties and Dainties a collection of all the Rarities and Delicacies not which Sea and Land only but which Heaven it self affords Who would not come upon any invitation to partake of such a Feast as this DISCOURSE XXXIII ACTS 10. 4. And he said unto him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God or as it is ver 31. are had in remembrance c. WHEN the Iews had crucified our Blessed Saviour the Lord and Prince of Life though their impiety were most horrible and such as might seem to admit of no expiation or atonement yet would not God for that reject them but after he was risen from the dead his Apostles and Messengers were sent to offer and tender him once more unto them if so be they would yet receive him as their Messiah and Redeemer which was promised to come telling them that what they had formerly done unto him God would namely according to our Saviour's prayer upon the Cross Father forgive them for they know not what they do pass by it as done of Ignorance on their part whilest himself was by the disposition of his Providence fulfilling that which was long before spoken by the mouth of all his Prophets That Christ or Messiah should suffer death All which you may read in the Sermon which S. Peter preached unto them in the Temple Acts 3. 12 c. Thus the Lord
its own nature As it is with the Fire of Nature so must it be with the Fire of Grace it is as possible for the Sun to want light and the Fire to be without heat as the Fire of Grace to be kindled in their hearts who endeavour not to inflame others with the same heavenly fire Do we not see every Citizen every member of any Company or Society how eagerly they desire and how forward they are to further the enlargement of that Commonwealth and Society whereof they are members What one nobly descended but desireth the enlargement of his house and kindred continually What true English-man but desireth the encrease of our King's subjects the amplifying of his dominions and the Revenues of his Crown We would account them monsters who should be otherwise affected nay unworthy to live any longer as members or enjoy the rights of Subjects How canst thou then be a member of God's kingdom and not labour the encrease of God's Subjects or how darest thou usurp the name of a Christian or think thy self a child of Grace who endeavourest not the propagation of that heavenly Hierarchy whereof thou callest thy self a member The woman of Samaria had no sooner found the Messias but she runs and calls the whole City to be partakers of her happiness Iohn 4. 29. Christ bids Peter Luke 22. 32. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren S. Paul in nothing more expressed the Character of a Christian than in this In the presence of Agrippa so servent was his wish that all who heard him that day were even as he was so great was his zeal Rom. 9. 3. that so his loss might have been recompensed with the gaining of the whole Iewish Nation unto Christ he could have been willing to be taken out of the Roll himself I could wish saith he that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh The Devil was no sooner fallen but he presently laboured to bring Man to the same ruine nay the restless compasser still goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking continually whom he may devour His Instruments are like him The sons of Belial how busie are they in debauching others and making them like themselves The Pharisees ran over sea and land and spared no labour to bring numbers to their Sect though but to make them as Christ speaks filii Gehennae sons of Hell The Iesuits how run they up and down into all corners of the world from the Sun rising unto the going down thereof to propagate their Heresies Nay the very Mahumetans run about the world to gain Profelytes for their beastly Prophet Mahomet And shall the children of the Kingdom of Heaven only want this desire this zeal this endeavour Impossible And if any such seem to be who do it not surely they are but bastards and such as God will never own to be his Some report of Mules and other such like creatures of Mongrel and mixt generation that they beget not again Even such Mongrels are those Christians who beget not unto God who labour not the conversion and drawing of others unto Christ. We pray unto God every day Let thy Kingdom come Let that which is our daily prayer be also our daily endeavour even of all that say to God Our Father else he will be no Father of ours Indeed the Kingdom of God shall come in despight of the Devil and all his Regiment but happy are those who further it For those that turn many unto righteousness shall shine as the stars in the firmament for evermore Thus much shall suffice for the first Observation One thing more I have yet to observe from the condition of the persons to whom this word Ye hath relation Ye shall say namely Ye captives Ye whom the Lord your God hath given into the hands of your enemies and made you as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people Ye whose City the glory of the whole earth is consumed with fire whose Priests and Princes are all slain with the sword and the remnant of your people carried into a strange land Ye a people overwhelmed with the flouds of affliction and as far as the eye of flesh can see forsaken of the God whom ye worshipped Ye even ye shall say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth c. Hence observe No men so fit to glorifie God whether by confession of the mouth or devotion of the heart as his servants when they are humbled by affliction The Reasons are plain For 1. It is the Love of the World which quencheth our love toward God So long as the World pleaseth us so long our Love to God is weak and feeble but if once we are weaned from our delight and content in worldly things then if ever we cleave firmly unto God then are our hearts inflamed and our whole spirit fixt in Heaven which before stuck fast in earth Even as the Fire in coldest weather scorcheth most so doth the zeal of God's servants burn most in the midst of affliction The righteous are like the Palm-tree which then riseth highest when the burthen laid thereon weigheth heaviest So it is with them the weight of their affliction makes them rise up to Heaven 2. In affliction only it will appear whether men feared and loved God for his own sake or no or whether for some worldly respect only It is the property of a true Christian not to disclaim God in affliction as hypocrites do but then to confess him most when the world sees least cause why they should at all Until the storms and winds came the house built upon the sand seemed to stand as strong as that upon the rock This trial was it that Satan would have God put Iob unto Doth Iob saith he fear God for nought Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about all he hath c. But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee unto thy face As if he had said While all things prosper in his hand who knows whether he be a man that truly feareth thee but strike and afflict him and then it will soon appear what he is And indeed the Devil saw soon what Iob was unto his little liking when the weight of his afflictions pressed these words out of his mouth Though he kill me I will trust in him For this cause That it might appear the Church was reared upon no earthly foundation the Wisdom of God would have it planted in Martyrdom and watered with the bloud of his Saints For the same cause also was the glorious name of Confessors in the Primitive Church given unto those who had held their Faith in the time of trial and persecution and for this cause would God have his people here to avouch him in the land of their captivity that the more the world wondred the more he might be
Ashteroth the Gods of the Sidonians Rimmon the God of the Aramites Where is now Dagon of the Philistines Milcom of the Ammonites Chemosh of Moab and Tammuz of the Egyptians Even these also whose names we hear so frequent in Scripture are perished with their very names from this earth and from under these heavens And the Nations which once worshipped them worship now the great God Creator of heaven and earth once all of them and yet the most of them truly and savingly in Christ Iesus the Saviour and Redeemer of the world The beginning of this strange and wonderful Change was about the Birth and Incarnation of Christ our Saviour at which time the Gods of the Gentiles grew speechless in their Oracles or if at any time they answered it was to testifie the nearness of that time wherein they were to be cast out and the presence of him who should do the same As it is reported of Augustus who consulting the Oracle of Apollo who should reign after him received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning whereof is this The Hebrew child which rules the blessed Gods bids me leave this house and presently pack to hell From henceforth depart thou with silence from our Altars Whereupon it is said that Augustus reared an Altar in the Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI The Altar of the First-begotten of God Porphyrie though an enemy of Christians reports three farewel Oracles of Apollo The first whereof is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus O wo is me lament ye Tripods for Apollo is gone he is gone he is gone For the burning light of heaven that Iupiter which was is and shall be O mighty Iupiter he compels me Ah wo is me the bright glory of my Oracles is gone from me And to the Priest which last consulted him his demand being Which was the true Religion he answered in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Thou unhappiest of the Priests oh that thou wouldst not have asked me being now at my last of the Divine Father and of the dear begotten of that famous King nor of the Spirit which comprehendeth and surroundeth all things For wo is me He it is that will I nill I will expel me from these Temples and full soon shall this dividing seat become a place of desolation And if at any time he were extremely urged by inchantments and exorcisms to break off this uncouth silence he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo's voice is not to be recovered it is decayed through length of time and locked up with the keys of never-divining silence but do you as ye were wont such sacrifices as it beseemeth Phoebus to have The ceasing of Oracles in ancient times so frequent made the Heathen wonder what the cause should be for being grown very rare as the coming of Christ drew near and at the time of his being upon the earth the chiefest of all the Oracle of Delphos grown speechless as Strabo living at that time witnesseth before the end of that Age all the Oracles of the world in a manner held their peace Plutarch as ye all know at that time writ a Tract of the decay of Oracles wherein he labours to find the cause of their ceasing and after much search and many disputes he concludes the Reason partly to be from the absence of his Demoniacal spirits who by his Philosophy might either die through length of years or flit from place to place either exiled by others more strong or upon some other dislike and partly from the alteration of the soil where Oracles were seated which might not yield such Exhalations as in former times they had done This is the Summe of the Reasons in that Discourse But as we embrace this Testimony of Plutarch for the use and decay of Oracles so we are better enabled to give a true reason thereof than he was or could be namely As Meteors and smaller lights vanish and appear not when the Sun begins to rise So did these false lights of the Heathen vanish when the Sun of righteousness Christ Iesus arose unto the world As Dagon fell down when the Ark of God was brought into his Temple so when the true Ark of God Christ Iesus came into the world all the Dagons of the Nations fell down The time was come when as our Saviour saith Iohn 12. 31. the Prince of this world was to be cast out The night was past and the day was come and therefore such Bats and Birds of darkness as these were not any longer to play such reaks as in times past they had done Now began that War in heaven between Michael and the red Dragon whereof we read in the Revelation Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels that is Christ our Lord and his undaunted souldiers fought with the Devil and all his Ethnick forces led by the Roman Emperors Which War though it lasted long and cost the bloud and lives of many a thousand valiant Martyrs yet in the days of Constantine the Dragon received so great an overthrow that he never could recover it and though in the days of Iulian he made head again and kept the field a while yet was he soon fain to quit it and leave the victory unto Michael's army Which defeature of his was accompanied with an ominous sign of his utter overthrow his Throne or Temple at Delphos with earthquakes thunder and lightening being utterly ruined For as by the rending of the veil of the Temple was signified the abolishment of Legal worship so by the prodigious destruction of the chiefest Temple the Devil had in all the world was as it were sealed the irrecoverable overthrow of Ethnicisme which in the Event immediately following proved true For though he retained some strength under Valens in the East by still enjoying his wonted sacrifices yet in the days of Theodosius he was utterly and finally vanquished when his last champion Eugenius who threatned to be another Iulian and to restore Ethnicisme again with his whole Army was discomfited by the prayer and prowess of Theodosius about the year of our Lord three hundred and ninety For after this time Ethnicisme was never publickly maintained in the Roman Empire nor any open attempt made for restoring it again whereby it seems the red Dragon was cast down to the earth and that now was perfected the Triumph of Michael's victory when the Gods that made not the heaven and the earth were fully perished as concerning their Empire from the earth and from under
the Serpent and what the Heel of the Woman's seed Those who understand The seed of the woman singularly of the person of Christ only make his Head to be the Godhead against which the Serpent could prevail nothing but his heel to be the Manhood which the Serpent so bruised at his Passion that the grave became his bed for three days together This indeed is true and no marvel for the Head is as it were the whole Bodie 's Epitome But we who have expounded The seed of the woman collectively of Christ and his Members must also in this mystical Body find a mystical Head and a mystical Heel and so in like manner for the Serpent and his seed The Head therefore or if you had rather Headship is nothing else but Soveraignty The Serpent's head is the Devil's Soveraignty which is called Principatus mortis the Soveraignty of death namely both objectivè and effectivè that is such a Soveraignty as under which are only such as are liable to Death both temporal and eternal and such a Soveraignty whose power consists not in saving and giving of life but in destroying and bringing unto Death both of body and soul. Under the name also of Death understand as the Scripture doth all other miseries of mankind which are the companions of this double Death I speak of This is that damnable Head of the Serpent the Devillish Soveraignty of Satan Now the Sword whereby this Soveraignty was obtained the Sceptre whereby it is maintained or as S. Paul speaks the Sting of this Serpent's head is Sin This is that which got him this Kingdom at the first and this is still the right whereby he holds the greatest part thereof Imperium iisdem artibus conservaâ—ur quibus acquiritur By the same arts and methods is an Empire conserved by the which it was at first obtained This Soveraignty of the Devil which once overwhelmed â—igh all the world the Woman's seed should break in pieces and destroy which according to this Prophecy we see already performed in a great measure and the grounds laid long ago for the destruction of all that remaineth As saith S. Iohn Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 8. The Son of God was manifested for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Christ himself said that the time was come that the Prince of this world should be cast out and bade his Disciples be of good chear for he had overcome the world If you would see what a wonderful victory he hath long ago gotten of the Serpent when after a terrible battel he overcame and destroyed the Soveraignty of the Serpent in the Roman Empire see it described in the 12. of the Revelation v. 7 8. where Michael that is Christ and his Angels fought against the great Dragon and his Angels till the Dragon with all his Army was discomfited and their place found no more in heaven that is he utterly lost his Soveraignty in that state whence there was a voice in heaven v. 10. Now is come salvation strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. And what he will at the length do with the remainder yet of the Devil's Soveraignty you may find in the 19. and 20. chapters of the Revelation For he must reign as S. Paul saith until he hath put all his enemies under his feet until he hath destroyed all power rule and authority adverse unto him And then last of all destroying Death by giving immortality to our raised bodies shall surrender up his Kingdom unto his Father as it is 1 Cor. 15. 25 c. But Satan saith my Text shall prevail something against him for the Serpent shall bruise his heel What is this Heel Those who understood the seed of the woman singularly as I told you made it Christ's Manhood But now we expound the seed Christ's Mystical Body what shall we make the Heel thereof I could say that by it were only meant a light wound or the Devil 's assaulting the Body of Christ ex insidiis at unawares for that is his fashion since the great overthrow which our Michael gave him to work his feats underhand and to undermine our Lord in his members But this though true is not full enough It may seem therefore the fittest to make hypocritical Christians who profess Christ outwardly but inwardly are not his to make these the heel of his Mystical Body for against such the Devil we know prevaileth somewhat and by them annoyeth the rest of the Body with his venome though he be far enough yet from impeaching our Lord's Headship and Soveraignty But will you give me leave to utter another conceit If the Blessed souls in heaven be the upper part of Christ's mystical Body the Saints on earth the lower part of the same may not the Bodies of the Saints deceased which lye in the earth be accounted for the heel For I cannot believe but they have relation to this mystical Body though their Souls be severed from them and yet must that relation be as of the lowest and most postick members of all If you will admit this then it will appear presently what was this hurt upon the heel when Christ had once mauled the Devil's head for the Text seems to intimate that the Devil should give this wound after his head was broken I will hold you in suspence no longer Read the 13. of the Revelation and see what follows upon Michael's Victory over the Dragon what the Devil did when he was down He forms a new Instrument of the wounded Roman Empire by whose means under a pretence of the Honour given to the precious Reliques of the Saints and Martyrs he conveyed the poyson of Saint-worship and Saint-invocation into the Kingdom of Christ with which wound of the heel the Devil coming on the blind side the true Church had been long annoyed and limpeth still DISCOURSE XLIII 2 PETER 2. 1. But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction MANY are the Prophesies in Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost forewarns us of a great and solemn Defection and Corruption of Faith which should one day overspread the visible Face of the Catholick Church of Christ and eclipse the light of Christian Verity and Belief S. Paul 2 Thes. 2. 3. foretels us that there should be an Apostasie or Falling away of Christians and the Man of sin be revealed before the coming of the day of the Lord. The same Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 1. tells us that though the great Mystery of Godliness spoken of chap. 3. 16. were then preached among the Gentiles and believed on in the world yet the Spirit spake expresly that in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils or Daemons S. Iohn tells
interpreted pag. 593 CHAP. VIII Mr. Mede's Answer to six Enquiries about some difficult passages in the Apocalyps pag. 594 CHAP. IX Five Reasons demonstrating That the Antichristian Times are more than Three single years and an half pag. 598 CHAP. X. A Discourse of the Beginning and Ending of the 42 Months or 1260 Days Rev. 11. 2 3. wherein Alstedius his Four Epocha's are examined pag. 600 CHAP. XI Of the 1000 years mentioned in Apocal. 20. with some Reflexions upon Eusebius and S. Hierom. pag. 602 CHAP. XII A Censure by way of Correction returned to a Friend concerning a somewhat exorbitant Exposition of his of Apocal 20. pag. 603 V. A Paraphrase and Exposition of the Prophecy of S. Peter 2 Ep. Chap. 3. pag. 609 VI. The Apostasie of the Latter Times PART I. CHAP. I. The dependence of the Text in 1 Timothy Chap. 4. verse 1 2. upon the last verse in chap. 3. Why in the Description of the Mystery of Godliness those words Assumed into Glory are set last A view of the several parts of the Text containing the Method and Order of the ensuing Discourse The Author 's three Reasons for his rendring the Text differently from the common Translation pag. 623 CHAP. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture imports Revolt or Rebellion That Idolatry is such proved from Scripture By Spirits in the Text are meant Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be taken Passively for Doctrines concerning Daemons Several instances of the like form of Speech in Scripture pag. 625 CHAP. III. Daemons according to the Gentiles Theologie were 1. for their Nature and degree a middle sort of Divine Powers between the Sovereign Gods and Men. 2. For their Office they were supposed to be Mediators between the Gods and Men. This proved out of several Authors The Distinction of Sovereign Gods and Daemons proved out of the Old Testament and elegantly alluded to in the New 1 Cor. 8. pag. 626 CHAP. IV. Daemons were for their Original the Souls of men Deified or Canonized after death This proved out of sundry Authors Baal or Bel or Belus the first Deified King Hence Daemons are called Baalim Another kind of Daemons such as never dwelt in Bodies These answer to Angels as the other to Saints pag. 629 CHAP. V. The manner of worshipping Daemons and retaining their presence viz. by consecrated Images and Pillars The worshipping of Images and Columns a piece of Daemon-doctrine as was also the worshipping of Daemons in their Reliques Shrines and Sepulchers pag. 632 CHAP. VI. A Summary of the Doctrines of Daemons How these are revived and resembled in the Apostate Church That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometime used in Scripture according to the Theologie of the Gentiles That it is so used in the Text was the judgment of Epiphanius an observable passage quoted out of him to this purpose pag. 634 CHAP. VII Why those words in the description of the Mystery of Godliness Received into Glory are set last That praying to Saints as Mediators and Agents for us with God is Idolatry To be prayed to in Heaven and to deal as an Agent between us and God is a Prerogative and Royalty appropriate to Christ. How this was figured under the Law by the High-priest's alone having to do in the most Holy place That Christ purchased this Royalty by suffering an unimitable Death That Saint-worship is a denial of Christ's Prerogative How it crept into the Church pag. 637 CHAP. VIII That Idolatry is the main Character of the Churche's Apostasie proved by Three Arguments pag. 643 CHAP. IX That Pagan-Idolatry is not here meant nor can the Saracen or Turk be the Antichrist meant in Scripture An Answer to an Exception viz. That Antichristianism cannot be charged upon those that acknowledge the true God and Christ. That Antichrist is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a Counter-resemblance of the Coming of Christ shewed in several particulars pag. 644 CHAP. X. The Great Apostasie was to be a General one That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some does not in the Text and several other places imply a Few or a Small number Wherein we and the Papists differ about the Churche's Visibility In what respects our Church was Visible and in what Invisible under the Reign of Antichrist pag. 648 CHAP. XI That the Last Times in Scripture signifie either a Continuation of Time or an End of Time That the Last Times simply and in general are the Times of Christianity the Last Times in special and comparatively or the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Times of the Apostasie under Antichrist pag. 652 CHAP. XII A more particular account of the Last Times in general and of the Latter Times of the Last Times That Daniel's Four Kingdoms are the Great Kalendar of Times That the Times of the Fourth or Last Kingdom viz. the Roman are the Last Times meant in Scripture That the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Latter Times of the Fourth Kingdom wherein the Great Apostasie should prevail pag. 654 CHAP. XIII The Duration and Length of the Latter Times viz. 42 months or 1260 days That hereby cannot be meant three single years and an half That the Latter Times take their beginning from the ruine of the Roman Empire That the ancient Fathers by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thessal 2. understand the Roman Empire and by the little Horn Dan. 7. Antichrist or the Man of sin pag. 655 CHAP. IV. Three main Degrees of the Roman Empire's ruine The Empire divided into 10 Kingdoms Who are those Three Kings whom the little Horn or Antichrist is said Dan. 7. to have deprest to advance himself pag. 658 CHAP. XV. That Daniel's 70 Weeks are a lesser Kalendar of Times That these Phrases in the Epistles to the converted Iews viz. The Last Hour or Time The End of all things The Day approaching c. are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service at the expiring of the 70 Weeks That the Apostles were not so mistaken as to believe the End of the World should be in their days proved against Baronius and others p. 663. CHAP. XVI That the Spirit foretold the Great Apostasy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Dan. 11. vers 36 37 38 39. These Verses exactly translated and explained That by Mahoz and Mahuzzim are meant Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. How fitly this Title is appliable to Angels and Sain's pag. 666. CHAP. XVII A Paraphrase and Observations upon Dan. 11. v. 36 37 38 39. That at the beginning of Saint-worship in the Church Saints and their Reliques were called Bulwarks Fortresses Walls Towers Guardians c. according to the prime sense of the word Mahuzzim pag. 670. PART II. CHAP. I. The Author's Reasons for his translating the Text differently from the Common Versions That the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text signifies Through or By. The like it signifies in other places of Scripture pag. 675.
but was translated out of Chaldee The passages which this Ramban quoteth thence are chap. 7. v. 5 6 7 and part of the 8. and again v. 17 18 19 20 21. In the last of which quotations because there is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I greedily looked what word in the Chaldee answered here to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which those who have skill know to signifie the Planets 12 Signs or Constellations of Heaven as being the same with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore here are Stars and Planets which I shall not need prove to be the host of the Ethereal heaven yea and perhaps too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are derived of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ire as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now we know the Scriptures make three heavens 1. The Air or Sublunary heaven 2. The Ethereal or Starry heaven 3. The heaven of Glory or Empyreal heaven Every of these heavens have their host or army The host of the heaven of Glory or the third heaven are the Angels and blessed Spirits The host of the Ethereal heaven are the Stars and Planets The host of the Aereal or Sublunary heaven are either visible as the Clouds of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and other Meteors as also the rest of the creatures mansioning therein as the Fowls of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or invisible viz. the wicked Spirits and Devils whose Prince Satan is called the Prince of the power of the Air Eph. 2. 2. and his host 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rulers of the world that is of the Sublunary world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked spirits in heavenly places namely in the lowest or sublunary heavens Eph. 6. 12. And whether S. Paul Gal. 4. 8 9. and Gol. 2. 8 c. includes not some of those under his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot affirm let the Learned further consider it when namely he speaks to and of Gentiles and not Iews HAVING hitherto prepar'd the way let us now come closer home to S. Peter whose words evidently import that some of these Heavens or all of them shall suffer a Conflagration at the Day of Christ. Not all of them for who ever put the Empyreal heaven in that reckoning And for the Ethereal heaven he that considereth both the supereminent nature and immensity thereof and of those innumerable bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary world is but a point or centre and that it no way can be proved that ever those bodies received any curse for mans sin or contagion by the world's deluge or that any enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them he that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the day of Iudgment should burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the subject of this Conflagration These Heavens saith S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. solventur shall be dissolved and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall melt with fervent heat 'T is a Metaphor taken from the refining of metalls quae igne solvuntur ut purificentur which are melted in order to their purifying and refining So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as Coeli igne adhibito constabuntur This to be the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears because S. Peter himself interprets solvi to be liquefieri For having in the tenth verse said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. shall be dissolved he in the twelfth verse repeating it says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. shall melt Now melting is for refining and purifying Nor is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 averse from this notion the LXX using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Psalms more than once The words of the Lord are as refined or tried silver LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 12. and so elsewhere But when the Sublunary heaven shall be thus refined even the Ethereal lights of the Stars of the Sun and Moon c. will appear to those on earth much more glorious than now they do as sending their raies through a purer Medium so that all the world to us-ward shall be as it were renewed As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or passing away verse 10. it is an Hebraism signifying any change or going of a thing from the state wherein it was and answers to the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both transire and mutari as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in Chaldaism doth And Schindler notes that Psal. 102. the Arabick for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutabuntur hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transibunt In the twelfth verse it is expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already shewed is commuted with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They therefore all three of them signifie one and the same thing and I see no reason why we should imagine a greater emphasis in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an utter abolition in the destruction by fire than was before implied in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he spake of the destruction by water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 6. But what shall become of the invisible host which I named as part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Sublunary heaven viz. those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the army of wicked and unclean spirits shall the Fire of the last Iudgment touch these I answer Though the operation of the Fire shall not be upon them to burn them yet shall they also suffer by this fiery judgment being thereby to be exiled and dejected from those high mansions and bestowed in some lower place For so that of Iude seems to imply The Angels saith he which kept not their first estate but left their own or proper habitation he hath reserved to be bound with everlasting chains of darkness at the Iudgment of the great Day Vide Piscat in hunc locum And this seems to me to be the most literal and unforced exposition of this description of S. Peter of the Heaven and Earth's conflagration at the Day of Christ and so to be preferred before any other BUT if a Prophetical strain or Scheme may be here admitted there is another way of explication which yet in the conclusion will come to the same purpose the former did although the way thereto be not the same And certainly our Saviour in the Gospel describing the coming of this Day useth a Prophetical expression The Sun saith he shall be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken For if this be taken literally whither shall the Stars fall from heaven which are either
ignem quem praeparavit illi Deus Angelis ejus priùs inputeum abyssi relegatus cùm◠Revelatio filiorum Dei redemerit conditionem id est creaturam à malo utique vanitati subjectam cùm restitutâ innocentiâ integritate conditionis pecora condixerint bestiis parvuli de serpentibus luserint cùm Pater filio posuerit inimicos sub pedes utique operarios mali Origenes contra Celsum lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpres hîc non bonâ fide egit Idem in Ierem. Hom. 13. Siquis servaverit lavacrum Spiritûs Sancti i.e. ut paulò antè innuerat qui sanctus est neque post fidem magisterium Dei rursum ad scelera conversus est qui mortale peccaetum non commiserit iste in Resurrectionis Primae parte communicat Siquis verò in secunda Resurrectione servatur iste peccator est qui ignis indiget baptismo c. alludit ad illud Mat. 3. 11. Quamobrem cùm talia post mortem nobis residere videamus Scripturas diligenter simul recitantes reponamus eas in cordibus nostris juxta earum vivere praecepta nitamur ut ante excessionis diem si sieri potest peccatorum sordibus sic vocat leviora peccata seu passiones animae ut paulò antè emundati cum sanctis valeamus assumi in Christo Iesu annon respicit 1 Thes. 4. 16 17 cui est gloria imperium in secula seculorum Amen Quamvis non dubito quin Hieronymus qui in Prol. ad Orig. homil in Ezech. fatetur se vertisse 14 Origenis homilias in Ierem. hîc Origenis sententiam nonnihil immutando emolliverit tamen satìs adhuc remanet quo Origenes cum Millenariis sensisse arguatur Methodius Olympi Lyciae deinde Tyri Episcopus in Libro de Resurrectione contra Originem apud Epiphanium Haeres 74. interloquente Procl Et verò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I. M. THE APOSTASY OF THE LATTER TIMES OR THE GENTILES THEOLOGY OF DAEMONS Revived in the LATTER TIMES amongst Christians in Worshipping of Angels Deifying and Invocating of Saints Adoring of Reliques Bowing down to Images and Crosses c. All Which Together with the Original and Progress of this Grand Apostasy Are Represented In several Elaborate DISCOURSES upon 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 c. Howbeit the Spirit speaketh expressely That in the Latter times some shall revolt from the Faith attending to erroneous Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons Through the hypocrisie of Liars having seared consciences Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats By The Pious and Profoundly-Learned IOSEPH MEDE B. D. sometime Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge The Fifth Edition enlarged and corrected in sundry places according to the Authors own Manuscript THE APOSTASY OF THE LATTER TIMES A Treatise on 1 Timothy Chap. 4. Verse 1 2 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which I conceive may be thus Translated Howbeit the Spirit speaketh expresly That in the latter times some shall revolt from the Faith attending to erroneous Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons Through the hypocrisie of Liars having seared consciences Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats c. CHAP. I. The dependance of the Text upon the last verse in the foregoing Chapter Why in the Description of the Mystery of Godliness those words Assumed into Glory are set last A view of the several parts of the Text containing the Method and Order of the insuing Discourse The Author 's 3 Reasons for his rendring the Text differently from the Common Translation THE WORDS I have read are a Prophecie of a Revolt of Christians from the Great Mystery of Christian Worship described in the last verse of the former Chapter which according to the division of the Ancients should be the first of this For that last Verse together with the first six Verses of this and half the seventh verse make the seventh Title or main Section of this Epistle expressed in the Edition of Robert Stephen and so are supposed from the grounds of that division to belong all to one argument The Words therefore of my Text depend upon the last of the former Chapter as the second part of a Discrete proposition That howsoever the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mystery of Christian Religion which is God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels and assumed into Glory though this Mystery was a great one and at that time preached and believed in the world Nevertheless the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaketh expresly That in the latter times there shall be a revolt or departing from this Faith though not in all parts of it yet from a main and fundamental part thereof namely The assumption of this God and Man to the Throne of Glory and incommunicable Majesty in Heaven whereby he hath a Name given him above every Name and whereof no creature in Heaven or in Earth can be capable Which connexion is the reason why the Apostle putteth this Assumption into Glory in the last place of his description which should else in the true order have followed the words justified in the Spirit and been before preached unto the Gentiles and believed on in the world But it is the method of the Scripture sometimes to translate the proper order and to mention that in the last place whereunto it is to joyn and from whence it is to infer the next words that follow after And unless this reason be allowed here there will hardly be found any other reason of this misplacing But more of this shall be both spoken and made better to appear hereafter I come now more near to my Text the words whereof I divide into two parts First A Description of this solemn Apostasie in the first verse Secondly The Manner or Means whereby it was to come to pass in the following verses viz. Through the hypocrisie of Liars who had seared consciences forbade to marry and bade to abstain from meats For the Description of the Apostasie it self we shall find it first Generally and Indefinitely expressed both in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall Apostatize or revolt and in the next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall attend to erroneous Doctrines or Doctrines of errour Then Particularly 1. What these erroneous Doctrines should be for the kind or quality namely new Doctrines of Daemons or a new Idolatry 2. The Persons who should thus apostatize not all but TINE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME 3. The Time when it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the latter times 4. The Proof or warrant of this Prophesie it is that which the Spirit hath else-where long agoe foretold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the written word verbatim totidem verbis or in express words For the second part viz. The Means Consider 1. The Manner or Method used viz. By lying hypocrisie or hypocritical lying 2. The quality and description of the
New Testament is answerable Hebr. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in departing from the living God And which is more near to our purpose S. Paul in his 2 Thess. 2. 3. means no other thing in his Prophecie of the man of sin by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Christian Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnless that Apostasie come first that is Unless there be a breach of Allegiance and Faith given unto Christ by Idolatry under Antichrist The like therefore I conclude to be intended in my Text by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely That in the latter times men should break their Oath of fidelity to Christ that in and through him alone they should approch and worship the Divine Majesty And so hath the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught us something or at least it hath wrought an indefinite suspicion of what should befal Christians in the latter times Howsoever we are yet in suspence whether this departing from Christ and the Mystery of Godliness should be Total in not acknowledging him at all or whether Heretical in serving others besides him For the Iews we know when they forsook the Lord most yet did not forsake him altogether but their Apostasie was in not serving him only and alone but others besides him as Calves the Host of Heaven and Baalim LET us therefore see if the next general words will afford us yet further information viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attending to erroneous spirits or as some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits of errour It would be unprofitable and tedious to tell here of the diverse use of this word Spirit in Scripture Some take in this place for Doctors of spiritual things and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be Doctors of Errors But I had rather take Spirits in this place for Doctrines themselves For so Divines observe it to be used I Iohn 4. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believe not every spirit i.e. every doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but try the spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because many false Prophets are gone out into the world and so onward in that Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit of Antichrist signifies the false doctrine of Antichrist So if this sense be admitted we are something less in suspence than we were and may guess that this Revolt should not be Total but Heretical For we shall not easily find the word Spirit to be otherwise used but either for the Doctrines or Doctors of Christianity or for Heresies under the same It seems therefore to be some revolt from Christ by Idolatry even in those who would seem to worship him But suppose it be so yet still are we in suspence what these Erroneous and Idolatrous Doctrines might be For Idolatry as we may see in the Iewish Apostasies was of diverse kinds as worshipping the Host of Heaven Baalims and the Gentiles other things besides them But we shall not be long in doubt the next words will clear the case and tell us they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines of Daemons not which Daemons or Devils are authors of though that be true as if the Genitive case were active but Doctrines concerning Daemons the Genâ—tive case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being here to be taken passively for the object of these doctrines as in Hebr. 6. 2. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrines of Baptisms and doctrines of laying on of hands of the Resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment that is doctrines about and concerning all these And the same use may elsewhere be found even with the word Doctrine as Acts 13. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine of the Lord that is concerning him So Titus 2. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine of God our Saviour And Gal. 2. 20. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith of the Son of God that is concerning him Semblably in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Doctrines of Daemons or Doctrinae Deastrorum that is The Gentâ—es idolatrous Theology of Daemons should be revived among Christians For I take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all is one not in that worst sense which no Author but the Scripture useth but in the better or more indifferent sense as it was supposed and taken among the Theologists and Philosophers of the Gentiles and as it is also sometimes taken in Scripture as I shall shew in due time CHAP. III. Daemons according to the Theology of the Gentiles were 1. for their Nature and Degree a middle sort of Divine Powers between the Sovereign Gods and mortal Men. 2. For their Office they were supposed to be Mediators and Agents between the Celestial Gods and Men. This proved from Plato Plutarch Apuleius Celsus in Origen and S. Austin The Doctrine of the Mediation of Daemons glanced at and reproved by the Apostle Coloss. 2. 8. The distinction of Sovereign Gods and Daemons proved out of the Old Testament and elegantly alluded to in the New 1. Cor. 8. 5 6. MEAN-while let us first see what the Gentiles and their Theologists understood by Daemons which when you have heard I doubt not but you will confess the Deifying and worshipping of Saints and Angels with other parts of their Idolatry which do this to be as lively an image of the Doctrine of Daemons as could possibly be expressed and such an one as whereby the Apostasie of the latter times is as by a character distinguished from the Heresies false doctrines and corruptions of all other times whatsoever Daemons in the Gentiles Theology were Deastri or an inferiour sort of Deisied Powers as a middle between the Sovereign Gods and mortal men So saies Plato in Symposio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So say all the Platonists and well-nigh all other Sects of Philosophers I am sure the most do for it is a very ancient doctrine insomuch that Plutarch De defectu Oraculorum fetcheth this distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sovereign Gods and Daemons as far as the antiquity of Zoroafter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They seem to me saith he to have solved great and difficult doubts who have placed the Daemons between the Gods and Men and found out what in some sort uniteth and joyneth us with them whether this be the doctrine of the Magi and Zoroafter or the Thracian doctrine derived from Orpheus or the AEgyptian or Phrygian c. The Sovereign or Highest Gods which amongst them were properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those whom they supposed to be in the Heavens yea in the Sun Moon and Stars whence they called them Dii Superi Dii Coelestes whom they affirmed to
time of 49 years I would rather chuse to count the LXII Weeks from the same Epocha with them under Artaxerxes Mnemon than from the end of them and yet leave as probable a conjecture to be made of what was done in them as those who follow Funccius from the other Artaxerxes do use to give I have sometimes considered whether if it be translated Seven Weeks those Seven Weeks might not be applied as rotundus numerus to those Fifty and two days Nehem. 6. 15. where it is said So the Wall was finished in the 25 th day of the Month Elul in fifty two days somewhat more indeed than Seven Weeks yet short of Seven and an half and so not regarded in accompt by Weeks If this could be then the reason of the Angel's division of weeks into 7 and 62 would be because of diverse kinds of Weeks understood the first of days wherein the Wall of Ierusalem should be finished the second of years from thence unto the Messiah If it seem impossible or unlikely that the Wall of the City should be repaired in so short a time and therefore those words according to Iunius to be meant of setting up the doors and bars only I could say first that the Wall was not new builded from the foundations but repaired upon the old ruines Secondly the speedy dispatch thereof was taken for a wonder even by the Iews Enemies who thereupon saith the Text perceived that this work was wrought of our God So that were there no worse scruple than this it were easily answered nor would examples be wanting to parallel with it such as might make it seem at least possible As that strange and speedy building of the Walls of Athens by Themistocles after that Xerxes had demolished them reported by Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. Yea to come more near to the thing in question Iosephus l. 6. c. 13. De Bell. Iud. tells us That Titus dividing the work amongst his Army begirt Ierusalem in three days space with a Wall of thirty nine Furlongs and thirteen Bulwarks to hinder the Iews excursions from within and all relief from without What the materials were I know not but he says it was a thing beyond all belief and might have seemed to be a work of some Months But leaving this digression let us see the Computation and Impletion of our LXII Weeks The Computation and Impletion of the LXII Weeks FROM the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon when Ezra had Commission to cause to Return and carry with him as many of the Iews as would to Ierusalem Ezra c. 7. ver 7 13 And from the twentieth year of the same Artaxerxes when Nehemiah obtained leave to build Ierusalem the City of his Fathers Sepulchres Nehem. 2 From both these Commissions though thirteen years distant the one from the other are by divine disposition unto MESSIAH the PRINCE threescore and two Weeks from the first of Solar from the latter of Lunar years For LXII weeks or 434 Lunar years are less than so many Solar as much as is between the seventh and twentieth of Artaxerxes Which admirable concordance I cannot impute to chance but ascribe to Divine providence so ordering it of purpose that these two Epocha's and Commissions To cause to Return and To build Ierusalem might be as one and the same And as the Lunar year is contained within the Solar and by it ordered and directed so is the Period here from Nehemiah's Commission to Build the City contained and reduced to that from Ezra's Commission to cause the people to return In the last of these Weeks according to prediction was Christ our Lord anointed In the beginning whereof exactly between the first and second Passeover after his Baptism when his Harbinger Iohn had now finished his Message and was cast in Prison a time precisely and purposely noted in the Evangelical Story he first began to preach in Galilee the Gospel of the Kingdom ordained his Apostles and proclaimed himself to be the MESSIAH After Iohn was put in Prison saith Mark 1. 14 15. Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God And saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is fulfilled i. the last week of the sixty two weeks is come and the Kingdom of God is at hand From that time saith Matthew c. 4. 17. Iesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand This was that day whereof Christ himself said at Nazareth that that Scripture was fulfilled The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor c. and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Luke 4. 18 19. This the time and place whence S. Peter reckoned the beginning of Christ's Prophecy in his Sermon to Cornelius That word saith he which was published throughout all Iudaea and began from Galilee after the Baptism which Iohn preached c. Acts 10. 37. In the third year of this Week two years and an half after he began his Prophecy and three years and an half after his Baptism being made our Priest he offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice for sin was dead buried and rose again then ascended up into heaven to be installed and to sit at the right hand of God from thenceforth to reign until he hath put all his Enemies under his feet But you will say This was all performed four years before the 434 years which is sixty two Weeks of years were expired I answer as before The Angel reckons not by single years but by Weeks the last whereof should be Messiah's Week as we have shewed it to have been If the Angel had said There shall be 434 years unto MESSIAH then to make good the prediction MESSIAH must have been anointed the last year But when he says There shall be Sixty two Weeks unto MESSIAH it is sufficient he was anointed the last Week But how this Week will at length be compleat we shall see in the next verse But first let us demonstrate our Computation Ezra's Commission Darius Nothus died saith Diodor lib. 13. in the same year but a little while after the Composition of the Peloponnesian war which was in May Olymp. 93. 4. that is An. Olymp. 372. finiente Ergo  The first of Artaxerxes begins about August and concurs with An. Olymp. 373. The seventh of Artaxerxes with An. Olymp. 379. N. B. If Artaxerxes had began before August the number or date of his reign must have altered either in or between the first and fifth Month but they are both of one year Ezra 7. as also the first and the ninth Nehem. c. 1. c. 2. Christ's Prophecy Christ our Lord was Baptized Anno Olympiadico 805 ineunte about the Feast of Expiation in the seventh Month Tisri six Months after Iohn began to baptize and in that year natural and political which began in the 15 of Tiberius towards ending but was the 16 when he
Times But whether your meaning were not That for God to be robbed of such a Sacrifice was a great Sacrilege I know not And by Mr. B. I heard as from your self the practice of Bishop Andrew's Chappel was that which first cast you upon such a way so as from thence to observe the course and practice of Antiquity But in my poor judgment it is very strange that a matter of such importance as you seem to make it should have so little evidence in God's Word and Antiquity and depend merely upon certain Conjectures That which you style your Conjectura de Gogo Magogo in my poor judgment is more rational by far and yet the matter thereof you know to be very strange but it prevails very much with me That Declaration of the Palsgrave's Churches since I came home I have seen I remembered your Censure of it as a laxe thing Others passe other judgments upon it on my knowledge and those Divines were accounted in those days as grave and learned Divines as most in Christendom Indeed the matter of Bowing at hearing the name of Iesus is nothing pleasing to some in these times But how doth B. A s. reading in Antiquity serve his turn for that Cornelius à Lapide is a Papist and a Iesuit he saith ad nomem Iesu in S. Paul is no more than ad Iesum I know it is the Father's pleasure that as we honour the Father so we should honour the Son and all the world shall never bring me to shew more reverence at the hearing of the name of Iesus then at the hearing of the name Iehovah and when we are as we should be intent upon our religious comportment before God according to the inward adoration in spirit that we should watch when a word comes to perform outward obaisance in my judgment is very strange And I remember how faintly Mr. H. carries himself in this and others in pleading for it most of all urge this that no body is troubled about it but now more than enough must yield or suffer I never had experience of the practice till now and that makes me the bolder to write as I do Yet whatsoever we shall be put unto I am glad that I have such liberty to confer with you thereabouts I am lately grown acquainted with my Lord of Armagh being encouraged to write unto his Grace about the matter of the Sabbath which I willingly apprehended and acquainted him with all my Grounds whereupon I proceeded and he justifies them all I intreated also help in Antiquity about the Notion of a Sabbath given to the Lord's-Day and he profest unto me that he never inclined his mind to observe that in all his reading and added this reason For he never thought to see such times as these to call into question Whether the Moral Law contains Ten or but Nine Commandments And Dr. Reynolds being ask'd what he thought of Beza's judgment concerning the Sabbath made no other answer but this You know the Commandment Thus have I made bold to write freely as to my dear friend I doubt not but whensoever I am put unto it I shall find you the readier to afford me your best satisfaction for certainly I will neglect no means to keep me out of the paw of the Lion as well as I can I commend you to the grace of God and with many thanks for your love and free communication of precious things I take my leave ever resting Newbury March 20. 1636. Yours to love and honour you Will. Twisse EPISTLE LXXI Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's several Expostulations together with his judgment of Mr. Potter's Discourse touching the Number of the Beast 666. Worthy Sir I Have received yours and heartily thank you for the Book you sent me which I find to be no laxe but a nervous close and well-composed Discourse as written by an abler hand than Voetius or any Dutch-man of them all yea I believe the ablest in that argument now living Concerning Mr. Potter's Discourse before I tell you my opinion I find I have some things else to answer and such as press me so hard as I cannot deny them the first place especially one of them which complains much of being mistaken As that I bad you hearing Prayers in our Master's Closet to stand up at Gloria Patri I 'le assure you you were mistaken My words were We stand up or They stand up I know not certainly which intending only to have you take notice of our manners and fashions as I did also the night before when they bowed at the name Iesus in the Creed I confess indeed when I saw you so suddenly to alter your posture I had some suspicion lest you misunderstood me and repented me I had spoken and thought of it sometimes afterward Yet mine was but doubting I would yours had been so too For why would you suppose me to be so uncivil as to speak unto a stranger and my better in degree in such a rude manner or note as you call it Surely in this you were to blame Nay I do not remember that ever I bad any one little or great either to stand up at Gloria Patri or how at the name Iesus or to conform to other the like posture all days of my life however my opinion hath been concerning them The plain truth is I had a desire to have talked with you about these things and to have acquainted you with something I had that way which now I find your mind so averse I shall never do For this end it was that I ever anone put you in mind to observe our postures and now and then at other times in our discourse touch'd upon something of that kind to have given occasion of conference about those matters And the rather I desired it because I had declared my self so far in my Letters unto you formerly as I thought might require more to be added to prevent such scruples as might arise from thence You may remember what hint I gave you in our Gate-house the first night concerning that place in Daniel And he shall think to change Times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand for a time times and half a time I would fain have entred with you upon that Scripture and told you I had some Notion thereabout which some friends of mine had termed Dog and Cummin-seed c. As for my Sermon at S. Marie's if I could have enjoyed you privately sine arbitris which I much but in vain desired in all probability you had been together with some other things better acquainted with some of the Contents thereof And as for preaching for Bowing to Altars if my memory fail me not the word Altar unless in citing a place of Scripture was never mentioned in my whole Discourse Sure I am there was no Bowing spoken of either with respect to it or to the Communion-Table but only of Bowing in general without any
City taken by Totilas and a third part thereof demolished and the rest left for a while memorandum Fortunae ludibrium without an inhabitant and lastly the Ostrogothish Kingdom which a while as a blaze continued the light of the dying Caesars in Italy by Narses utterly extinguished WOE WOE WOE The Fifth Trumpet is the First Woe and brings the Saracen Locusts upon the world proceeding out of the smoaky and darkning Seduction of Mahomâ—t conjured up by the Angel of the bottomless pit who though a warlike people and well armed yet had not power to destroy either the State of Caesars in New Rome or the Papal Principality sprung out of the Empire 's ruine in the Old but only Scorpion-like to torment and vex them as their Tail or hindermost Troups out of Africk did Italy and Western Rome 150 years The Sixth Trumpet is the Second Woe and brings upon the Roman Provinces the barbarous and dreadful â—nâ—ndation of the Turks loosing them from the great River Euphrates where they had been long before prepared and now let go as a plague for the Idolatry of Christians 〈◊〉 only as the Saracen Locusts to plague and torment the Roman State buâ— in part tâ— utterly slay and destroy it as they have done in the Empire of Greece which the Saracens had no power to do The Seventh and Last Trumpet is yet to come the entrance whereof is the Last Woe wherein all the Reliques of the Roman Beast with the last Principality of the City of Rome yet surviving shall together with the rest of the enemies of Christ be utterly abolished in the Great Day of Armagedden that all the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ch. 11. 15. Note that when the Angel comes at the Seventh Trumpet because the Event thereof is the common issue to both Prophecies he therefore suspends it a while till he hath fetch'd up Chap. 11. a transcurrent and through-running Vision of the Second Prophecy unto it and then joyns them together in one and the same close The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The Second Prophecy The Opened Book containing Fata Ecclesiae I. By the Inmost and Measured Court of the Temple I understand the Church in her Primitive Purity whenas yet the Christian Worship was unprophaned and answerable to the Divine Rule revealed from above By the War between Michael and the Dragon about the Woman 's manly Off-spring contemporary with the Measured Court I understand that long and bloudy Combate which Christ our Lord animating with his Spirit his undaunted Souldiers fought with the Devil possessing and reigning in the Ethnick Roman State that is the Times of the Primitive Persecution by the Heathen Emperors a War lasting long and costing the lives of many a valiant Martyr yet at 300 years end when a Christian was installed in the Imperial Throne the old Dragon was dismounted and overthrown and the Souldiers of Christ our Lord prevailed For they overcame him by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and loved not their lives unto the death Note that the Description of this Vision is double in the Text 1. more General The Dragon's endeavour to destroy the Woman's Off-spring from ver 1. to the 7. verse 2. more Particular of his Battel with Michael the Woman's Champion For that these two Descriptions are of the same thing and same time is manifest in that one and the same Event The Woman's escape into the Wilderness is the Consequent to them both II. 1. By the Second or Outward Court trampled by the Gentiles and not to be measured I understand the Apostasie under the Man of Sin when the Visible Church being possessed by Idolaters and Idolatry like that of the Gentiles became so inconformable and unapt for Divine measure that it was to be cast out and accounted as prophane and polluted For the Apostasie of the Church is Ethnicismus Christianus 2. By the Witnesses in sack-cloth I understand the mournful Prophecy of God's true Ministers during all that time who when toward the end of their days of mourning they should be about to put off their sack-cloth and leave their lamentation seeing the Truth they witnessed beginning to take place by publick Reformation the Beast which ascends out of the Abyss shall slay them and rejoyce over them as dead three days and an half that is so many years 3. By the Woman in the Wilderness Ch. 12. I understand the condition of the true Church in respect of her Latency and Invisibility to the eyes of man As the Israelites when they had escaped the rage and gotten out of the reach of the Egyptian Pharaoh yet lived a long time after but in a Wilderness an infrequent and barren place where they could not have lived without being extraordinarily fed with Manna from Heaven Such was the condition of the Apostolical Woman and Church of Christ when she had escaped the rage and fury of the Dragon persecuting in the Seven-headed Empire 4. By the Virgin-Company of the 144000 Sealed ones I understand the opposite State of the unstained Church unto the Kingdom of Apostasie in their sincerity of Service and faithful adherence to their Lord and Master whilst the rest worshipped the Beast and his Image These are those who when the Trumpets were to sound were secured by the Mark of Divine protection lest their Society should have been extinguished in those Calamities which then fell upon the Empire How could this Holy Company else but have perished in such Confusions In that place they were represented by the Tribes of Israel for the present Church of the Gentiles is but Israel surrogatus and so by God accounted until the Fulness of the Gentiles come in 5. By the Seven-headed Ten-horned Beast the Two horned False-Prophet and Babylon the Mother of Harlots I understand the State and Kingdom of Apostasie according to three subordinate parts thereof 1. The Body 2. the Head 3. the Seat For Kingdoms especially of the ancient form consisted of three parts Regnum Rex Metropolis Regni So in the Kingdom of Apostasie for such it was to be are Regnum Apostaticum Rex Apostaticus Metropolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kingdom of Apostasie was to be the Roman Empire upon a deadly wound of the Caesarean Sovereignty shivered into a Plurality of Kingdoms yet all joyntly as one Body anew acknowledging the Motherdom of the Roman City This is that Seven-headed Beast with Ten crowned Horns upon the Seventh Head whereof S. Iohn speaks Chap. 13. whose description there I understand as if he had said I saw a Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns with Diadems which upon the recovery of a deadly wound in one of his Heads arose out of the Sea and succeeded in the Throne Power and
a more divine way namely by the power of the Word and Spirit as we see it hath done My Kingdom saith our Saviour is not of this world that is not from this world or to be set up by worldly means as other kingdoms are For if my Kingdom saith he were of or from this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered unto the Iews but now my Kingdom is not from hence Iohn 18. 36. Armies and Swords are not fit means to conquer the Souls of men and therefore Christ was to perform his conquests by a more divine and invisible way And as he conquered them so he governs and keeps them in their allegiance to him not by Garrisons and Armed Troops but by the power of the same Word and Spirit Lastly as he governs his subjects so he fights against his enemies not as the Kings of the earth do but by a divine and heavenly working by divine and heavenly ministers by the ministery of Angels who are all at his command For the Enemies of his Church and Kingdom are chiefly Spiritual namely those Spiritual powers those rulers of darkness the Devil and all his troops of Fiends which cannot be dealt withal nor resisted after a corporal manner but by Spiritual means and Spiritual ministers And though the Arms of flesh and bloud are also lift up against the Kingdom of Christ yet is it always by the instigation and under the conduct of those invisible Fiends As for the men employed in such service they are but the horses in the Devil's battels the Devil and his Angels are the riders and therefore to be repelled by a power and forces suitable unto them In a word the whole world by sin was become the kingdom of the Devil Christ came to recover it from him and to erect the Kingdom of God in place thereof Such a kingdom therefore as the one was such must the other be else it should not match it as by the tenor of â—â—e first Gospel it was to do which saith The seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head I must add one thing more for the understanding of this Kingdom namely That this Kingdom of Christ which I have hitherto described hath a Two-fold state The one Militant consisting in a perpetual warfare and manifold sufferings which is the present state begun at his First coming when he ascended up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God The Second state is a Triumphant state which shall be at his Second appearing in glory in the clouds of heaven at what time he shall put down all authority power and rule and subdue all his enemies under his feet even death it self as S. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15. 24. and in that great Assizes of the quick and dead shall render everlasting vengeance to his enemies and those who believed not his Gospel and give rewards of glory to his servants who have kept their faith and allegiance to him And that once done and so his Conquest finished he shall surrender up his Kingdom into the hands of his Father that being subject to him who put all things under his feet God may be all in all as S. Paul tells us In both which estates how fitly this Kingdom is called the Kingdom of Heaven or of God appears in three respects 1. Because the King thereof hath his seat and throne in heaven where he sits at the right hand of God 2. Because the beginning thereof is from heaven and not from earth or by earthly means 3. and lastly Because it is governed and administred by the power of heaven and not by earthly power Is not such a Kingdom rightly and truly called The Kingdom of heaven Thus much I thought good to speak for the explication of this speech The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven because this term is so frequent in the Gospel and not always or perhaps not rightly understood Henceforth let him that readeth understand NOW I come to the Second point namely What was the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of this Kingdom which our Saviour saith here was fulfilled The time saith he is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand The Time of this Kingdom was by the Prophet Daniel two ways foretold first generally and at large secondly more precisely and punctually The general time designed was That it should begin under and during the Fourth Kingdom or Roman Monarchy which at length it should utterly ruin and destroy For Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babel had a Vision of an Image of four differing metals The head of Gold the arms and breast of silver the belly and thighs of Brass the legs and feet of Iron but the feet mingled with clay While he beheld this Image and surveyed it from head to foot he saw a Stone hewen out of the mountain without hands which Stone smote the Image not upon the head or breast or belly but upon the Iron and Clayie feet whereby the Image and all his other metals being mingled with the Iron vanished away and became as chaff before the wind Then the Stone which smote the Image upon the feet became a great mountain and filled the whole earth This Vision Daniel expounded of four Gentile Kingdoms which should succeed one another in order with great extent of dominion The first compared to Gold was the Babylonian which then reigned The second resembled to Silver should be the Empire of the Medes and Persians which subdued that of Babylon The third figured by the Brazen belly and thighs was the Greek which subdued the Persian The Iron legs the fourth and last was the Roman which subdued the Greek and so became possessed of the riches and glory of all the former three During this last Kingdom was the Stone hewn out of the mountain and smote the Iron feet This Stone saith Daniel was the Kingdom of the God of heaven which should be set up before the days of these four Gentile kingdoms should expire namely under the last of them In the days of these Kingdoms saith he that is while these times of the Gentiles dominions yet lasted the God of heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor lest unto another people as each of the other were but shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms namely in the last in which the other three were incorporated as it were and it self shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest saith he unto the King that the Stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that is without any earthly means and that it break in pieces the iron and the Brass the Silver and Gold mingled with it Now the Roman Empire during which this Prophecy was to be accomplished was in our Saviour's tâ—me come to the height and highest pitch and so next door to a declination and downfall But this