openeth the womb shall be called Holy unto the Lord Ergo To be the Lord's and to be Holy are Synonyma's Though therefore the Gentiles Court had no sanctity of legal distinction yet had it the sanctity of peculiarity to God-ward and therefore not to be used as a common place The Illation proceeds by way of Conversion My House shall be called the House of Prayer to all Nations or People Ergo The House of Prayer for all Nations is my Father's House And the Emphasis lies in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators were not so well advised of when following Beza too close they render the words thus My House shall be called of all Nations the House of Prayer as if the Dative Case here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not Acquisitive but as it is sometimes with passive verbs in stead of the Ablative of the Agent for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which sense is clean from the scope and purpose of the place whence it is taken as he that compares them will easily see and I shall make fully to appear in the next part of my Discourse which I tendred by the name of an Observation To wit That this fact of our Saviour more particularly concerns us of the Gentiles than we take notice of Namely we are taught thereby what reverent esteem we ought to have of our Gentile Oratories and Churches howsoever not endued with such legal sanctity in every respect as was the Temple of the Iews yet Houses of Prayer as well as theirs This Observation will be made good by a threefold Consideration First of the Story as I have related it secondly from the Text here alledged for warrant thereof and thirdly from the circumstance of Time For the Story I have shewed it was acted in the Gentiles Court and not in that of the Iews because it is not credible that was thus prophaned It cannot therefore be alledged that this was a place of legal sanctity for according to legal sanctity it was held by the Iews as common only it was the place for the Gentiles to worship the God of Israel in and seems to have been proper to the second Temple the Gentiles in the first worshipping without at the Temple-door in the holy Mountain only Secondly The place alledged to avow the Fact speaks expresly of Gentile-worshippers not in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but in the whole body of the context Hear the Prophet speak Esay chap. 56. ver 6 7. and then judge The sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant namely that I alone shall be his God Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer their burnt-offerings and sacrifices accepted upon mine Altar Then follow the words of my Text For my House shall be called that is shall be it is an Hebraism a House of Prayer for all People What is this but a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentile-worshippers And this place alone makes good all that I have said before viz. That this vindication was of the Gentiles Court Otherwise the allegation of this Scripture had been impertinent for the Gentiles of whom the Prophet speaks worshipped in no place but this Hence also appears to what purpose our Evangelist expressed the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely as that which shewed wherein the force of the accommodation to this occasion lay which the rest of the Evangelists omitted as referring to the place of the Prophet whence it was taken those who heard it being not ignorant of whom the Prophet spake Thirdly the circumstance of Time argues the same thing if we consider that this was done but a few days before our Saviour suffered to wit when he came to his last Passeover How unseasonable had it been to vindicate the violation of Legal and typical sanctity which within so few days after he was utterly to abolish by his Cross unless he had meant thereby to leave his Church a lasting lesson what reverence and respect he would have accounted due to such places as this was which he vindicated DISCOURSE XII S. IOHN 4. 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him THEY are the words of our Blessed Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who perceiving him by his discourse to be a Prophet desired to be resolved by him of that great controverted point between the Iews and Samaritans Whether Mount Garizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrificed or Ierusalem were the true place of worship Our Saviour tells her that this Question was not now of much moment For that the hour or time was near at hand when they should neither worship the Father in Mount Garizim nor at Ierusalem But that there was a greater difference between the Iews and them than this of Place namely even about That which was worshipped For ye saith he worship that ye know not but we Iews worship that we know Then follow the words premised But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth It is an abused Text being commonly alledged to prove that God now in the Gospel either requires not or regards not External worship but that of the Spirit only and this to be a characteristical difference between the worship of the Old Testament and the New If at any time we talk of external decency in rites and bodily expressions as sit to be used in the service of God this is the usual Buckler to repel whatsoever may be said in that kind It is true indeed that the worship of the Gospel is much more spiritual than that of the Law But that the worship of the Gospel should be only spiritual and no external worship required therein as the Text according to some meus sense and allegation thereof would imply is repugnant not only to the practice and experience of the Christian Religion in all Ages but also to the express Ordinances of the Gospel it self For what are the Sacraments of the New Testament are they not Rites wherein and wherewith God is served and worshipped The consideration of the holy Eucharist alone will consute this Gloss For is not the commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ's death upon the Cross unto his Father in the Symbols of Bread and Wine an external worship And yet with this Rite hath the Church in all Ages used to make her solemn address of Prayer and Supplication unto the Divine Majesty as the Iews in the Old Testament did by Sacrifice When I say in all Ages I include also that of the Apostles For so much S. Luke testifieth of that first Christian society
Acts 2. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They continued in breaking of Bread and in Prayers As for bodily expressions by gestures and postures as standing kneeling bowing and the like our Blessed Saviour himself lift up his sacred eyes to heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his agony S. Paul as himself saith bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ He and S. Peter and the rest of the Believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles What was Imposition of hands but an external gesture in an act of invocation for conferring a blessing and that perhaps sometimes without any vocal expression joyned therewith Besides I cannot conceive any reason why in this point of Evangelical worship Gesture should be more scrupled at than Voice Is not confessing praising praying and glorifying God by Voice an external and bodily worship as well as that of Gesture why should then the one derogate from the worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth and not the other To conclude There was never any society of men in the world that worshipped the Father in such a manner as this interpretation would imply and therefore cannot this be our Saviour's meaning but some other Let us see if we can find out what it is There may be two senses given of these words both of them agreeable to Reason and the analogy of Scripture let us take our choice The one is That to worship God in Spirit and Truth is to worship him not with Types and shadows of things to come as in the Old Testament but according to the verity of the things exhibited in Christ according to that The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Whence the Mystery of the Gospel is elsewhere by our Saviour in this Evangelist termed Truth as Chap. 17. ver 17. and the Doctrine thereof by S. Paul the word of Truth See Ephes. Chap. 1. ver 13. Rom. 15. 8. The time therefore is now at hand said our Saviour when the true worshippers shall worship the Father no longer with bloudy Sacrifices and the Rites and Ordinances depending thereon but in and according to the verity of that which these Ordinances figured For all these were Types of Christ in whom being now exhibited the true worshippers shall henceforth worship the Father This sense hath good warrant from the state of the Question between the Iews and Samaritans to which our Saviour here makes answer which was not about worship in general but about the kind of worship in special which was confessed by both sides to be tied to one certain place only that is of worship by Sacrifice and the appendages in a word of the Typical worship proper to the first Covenant of which see a description Heb. 9. This Iosephus expresly testifies Lib. 12. Antiq. cap. 1. speaking of the Iews and Samaritans which dwelt together at Alexandria They lived saith he in perpetual discord one with the other whilst each laboured to maintain their Country customs those of Ierusalem affirming their Temple to be the sacred place whither sacrifices were to be sent the Samaritans on the other side contending they ought to be sent to Mount Garizim For otherwise who knows not that both Iews and Samaritans had other places of worship besides either of these namely their Proseucha's and Synagogues wherein they worshipped God not with internal only but external worship though not with Sacrifice which might be offered but in one place only And this also may seem to have been a Type of Christ as well as the rest namely that he was to be that one and only Mediator of the Church in the Temple of whose sacred body we have access unto the Father and in whom he accepts our service and devotions according to that Destroy this Temple and I will rear it up again in three days He spake saith the Text of the Temple of his Body This sense divers of the Ancients hit upon Eusebius Demon. Evang. Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not by Symbols and Types but as our Saviour saith in Spirit and Truth Not that in the New Testament men should worship God without all external services For the New Testament was to have external and visible services as well as the Old but such as should imply the verity of the promises already exhibited not be Types and shadows of them yet to come We know the Holy Ghost is wont to call the figured Face of the Law the Letter and the Verity thereby signified the Spirit As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Spirit and Truth both together they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once found in holy Writ to wit only in this place and so no light can be borrowed by comparing of the like expression any where else to expound them Besides nothing hinders but they may be here taken one for the exposition of the other namely that to worship the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with to worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But howsoever this exposition be fair and plausible yet methinks the reason which our Saviour gives in the words following should argue another meaning God saith he is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship in Spirit and Truth But God was a Spirit from the beginning If therefore for this reason he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth he was so to be worshipped in the Old Testament as well as in the New Let us therefore seek another meaning For the finding whereof let us take notice that the Samaritans at whom our Saviour here aimeth were the off-spring of those Nations which the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria when he had carried away the Ten Tribes captive These as we may read in the second Book of the Kings at their first coming thither worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came wherefore he sent Lions amongst them which slew them Which they apprehending either from the information of some Israelite or otherwise to be because they knew not the worship of the God of the Country they informed the King of Assyria thereof desiring that some of the captiv'd Priests might be sent unto them to teach them the manner and rites of his worship which being accordingly done they thenceforth as the Text tells us worshipped the Lord yet feared their own Gods too and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome speaks mingle things not to be mingled In this medley they continued about three hundred years till toward the end of the Persian Monarchy At what time it chanced that Manasse brother to Iaddo the High Priest of the returned Iews married the daughter of Sanballat then Governour of Samaria for which being expelled from Ierusalem by Nehemiah he fled to Sanballat his Father in Law and after his
example many other of the Iews of the best rank having married strange wives likewise and loth to forgo them betook themselves thither also Sanballat willingly entertains them and makes his son-in-Law Manasse their Priest For whose greater reputation and state when Alexander the Great subdued the Persian Monarchy he obtained leave of him to build a Temple upon Mount Garizim where his son-in-Law exercised the office of High Priest This was exceedingly prejudicious to the Iews and the occasion of a continual Schism whilst those that were discontented or excommunicated at Ierusalem were wont to betake themselves thither Yet by this means the Samaritans having now one of the sons of Aaron to be their Chief Priest and so many other of the Iews both Priests and others mingled amongst them were brought at length to cast off all their false gods and to worship the Lord the God of Israel only Yet so that howsoever they seemed to themselves to be true worshippers and altogether free from Idolatry nevertheless they retained a smack thereof inasmuch as they worshipped the true God under a visible representation to wit of a Dove and circumcised their Children in the name thereof as the Iewish Tradition tells us who therefore always branded their worship with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spiritual Fornication Iust as their predecessors the Ten Tribes worshipped the same God of Israel under the similitude of a Cals This was the condition of the Samaritan Religion in our Saviour's time and if we weigh the matter well we shall find his words here to the woman very pliable to be construed with reference thereunto You ask saith he of the true place of worship whether Mount Garizim or Ierusalem which is not now greatly material forasmuch as the time is at hand when men shall worship the Father at neither But there is a greater difference between you and us than of Place though you take no notice of it namely even about the Object of worship it self For ye worship what ye know not but we Iews worship what we know How is that Thus Ye worship indeed the Father the God of Israel as we do but you worship him under a corporeal representation wherein you shew you know him not But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth In Spirit that is conceiving of him no otherwise than in Spirit and in Truth that is not under any corporeal or visible shape For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not fancying him as a Body but as indeed he is a Spirit For those who worship him under a corporeal similitude do beli◠him according as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 23. of such as changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man Birds or Beasts They changed saith he the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta Creatorem as or with the Creator who is blessed for ever v. 25. Hence Idols in Scripture are termed Lies as Amos 2. 4. Their Lies have caused them to erre after which their Fathers walked The Vulgar hath Seduxerunt eos Idola ipsorum Their Idols have caused them to erre And Esay 28. 15. We have made Lies our refuge And Ier. 16. 19 20. The Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say Surely our Fathers have possessed the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have worshipped a lie vanity wherein there is no profit Shall a man make Gods unto himself and they are no Gods This therefore I take to be the genuine meaning of this place and not that which is commonly supposed against external worship which I think this Demonstration will evince To worship what they know as the Iews are said to do and to worship in Spirit and Truth are taken by our Saviour for one and the same thing else the whole sense will be inconsequent But the Iews worshipped not God without Rites and Ceremonies who yet are supposed to worship him in Spirit and Truth Ergo To worship God without Rites and Ceremonies is not to worship him in Spirit and Truth according to the meaning here intended DISCOURSE XIII S. LUKE 24. 45 46. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day OUR Blessed Saviour after he was risen from the dead told his Disciples not only that his Suffering of death and Rising again the third day was foretold in the Scriptures but also pointed out those Scriptures unto them and opened their understanding that they might understand them that is he expounded or explained them unto them Certain it is therefore that somewhere in the Old Testament these things were foretold should befall Messiah Yea S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. will further assure us that they are I delivered unto you saith he first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures Both of them therefore are somewhere foretold in the Scriptures and it becomes not us to be so ignorant as commonly we are which those Scriptures be which foretell them It is a main point of our Faith and that which the Iews most stumble at because their Doctors had not observed any such thing foretold to Messiah The more they were ignorant thereof the more it concerns us to be confirmed therein I thought good therefore to make this the Argument of my Discourse at this time to inform both you and my self where these things are foretold and if I can to point out those very Scriptures which our Saviour here expounded to his Disciples Which that I may the better do I will make the words fore-going my Text to be as the Pole-star in this my search These are the things saith our Saviour which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Then follow the words I read Then opened he their understanding c. These two events therefore of Messiah's death and rising again the third day were foretold in these Three parts of Scripture In the Law of Moses or Pentateuch in the Nebiim or Prophets and in the Psalms and in these Three we must search for them And first for the First That Messiah should suffer death This was fore-signified in the Law or Pentateuch First in the story of Abraham where he was commanded to offer his son Isaac the son wherein his seed should be called and to whom the promise was entailed That in it should all the Nations
hypothesin praestandam adigerer 6. Concerning the Book written mediately or immediately by the B. of Lincoln It is written very ably and with much variety of Learning and where that Coal lay open to the lash as it did in some things very fouly he pays him soundly and very magisterially Yet I may tell you that in the Discourse concerning the Antiquity of the Name Altar there is parùm aut nihil sinceri aut sani And though his Adversary quoted what he never seems to have read and examined and is accordingly and deservedly met withal yet are there such strange mistakes confusions concealments and wrested interpretations of the Answerer that he lies open to the lash for that part extremely insomuch that I believe that part to have been elaborated by another hand and one that gave more trust to the opinions of some of our Writers than to his own search and judgement But whereas the Coal maintained that Altars had generally and anciently stood up against the East-wall and not in medio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a monstrous and foul error as I had often told some of ours here you shall find him most fully and largely confuted but the place of Socrates as strangely expounded as the Coal's illation therefrom was most illogically and weakly deduced Thus with my wonted affection and prayers I rest Yours Ios. Mede Christ's College March 22. 1636 7. EPISTLE LXX Dr. Twisse's Thirteenth Letter to Mr. Mede wherein after his desire to know his judgment of Mr. Potter's Book touching the Number of the Beast 666 he expostulates with him about certain Ceremonies c. Reverend Sir and my worthy Friend HAD I stay'd longer in Cambridge you had enjoy'd my company longer or to speak more properly I should have desired to enjoy your company longer and it would be very long ere I should be weary of your discourse I long to hear your judgment of Mr. Potter's Discourse touching the Number of the Beast 666. I presume also you know Bishop Usher's opinion of Christ's Kingdom here on earth I would gladly know it and whether he doth retract his former opinion touching the Binding of Satan which in his Book De successione Ecclesiae he conceives to have been in the days of Constantine I have returned your Paper and sent you a Copie of your own concerning The Four Monarchies which you call The A B C of Prophecies I have sent you also Tilenus his Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice with an answer thereunto In Oxford it 's counted unanswerable translated out of French by D. or A. from whom it was spred as I hear in O. and at first fathered upon one of them But it appears by the Dutch copy and Voetius his answer in Dutch that Tilenus was the Author At my coming from Cambridge I found 8 Copies of them sent unto me and 6 of them I have sent amongst you for truly I never found better content in any friends than there with you and with your self amongst the rest O Mr. Mede I could willingly spend my days in hanging upon your ears while you discourse of Antichrist and the accommodation of his Legend to the Pope of Rome and the Whore of Babylon to Rome it self though my studies have lain far more in their Writings than in our own Divines and I was never found to dislike any Opinion of a Papist for the Papistâ—s sake who maintains it as having profited in Divinity more by their Writings than by our own always excepting Interpretation of Scripture How much more to hear you discourse of the glorious Kingdom of Christ here on Earth to begin with the ruin of Antichrist It may be you do not find many Disciples more docile this way than my self But I would intreat you to spare me in the point of Ceremonies in some particulars whereof you told me once in a Letter you were no Practitioner but now I fear by that which I find you are a Promoter of them In Easter-term last I heard your good Friend while he lived complain not a little of a Sermon of yours which you had then lately preached and he delivered it with much grief After Mr. B. wrote unto you of the battel of Armageddon inquiring whether the time thereof were not already extant the next Letter I received from him had this passage I am verily of Mr. M s. Opinion in this that the times wherin we live are the times for the slaughtering of the Witnesses Whereupon I compared your Letters and I found that well it might be by your opinion And if it be so how sorry should I be to observe that you should have an hand in the slaughtering of them as namely by promoting of such courses and countenancing them for not conforming whereunto many are like to be slaughtered that is according to your interpretation turned out of their Places And as for outward complements nothing more pleaseth a natural man in Religious worship and he finds himself apt enough for it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit are most careful for the performance thereof whereupon while their minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that Unum necessarium You bade me stand up at Gloria Patri and it was in such a note too that you had the mastery of me I know not how I profess I little look'd for such Entertainment at your hands My Wifeâ—s father Dr. M. was Bishop Bilson's Chaplain and most respected by him of any Chaplain that ever he had and he a Cathedral-man too but they could never get him to stand up at Gloria Patri I living in a Countrey-Auditory am a mere stranger to such Ceremonies neither do I know any order of our Church urging thereunto neither do I know when it began and upon what grounds it may be it was upon their prevailing against the Arrians and as the Creed is pronounced standing so and in the same respect this also all which is duly to be considered before we come to the practice of it It is true we were private and I was loth to offend you In like sort concerning Bowing towards the Altar for which it was as I heard that you preached I profess unto you I have hitherto received no satisfaction and I long to hear of my Lord of Armagh's judgment of the passages between us And therein I perceive the main thing you reached after was a certain Mystery concerning a Sacrifice which the Papists have miserably transformed but in your sense is now-a-days become a Mystery to all the Christian world And hereupon you touched upon the Iudgments of God at this time in Christendom as if it were for the neglect of that Sacrifice which while I attended in the issue came only to the Sacrilege of these
the nature and grounds of what they practised lest for want thereof they might cherish some unsafe conceit And notwithstanding I preached for Bowing as you say to Altars yet I have not hitherto used it my self in our own Chappel though I see some others do it If I come into other Chappels where it is generally practised I love not to be singular where I have no scruple But you would not have me have any hand in killing the Witnesses God forbid I should I rather endeavour they might not be guilty of their own deaths And I verily believe the way that many of them go is much more unlikely to save their lives than mine I could tell you a great deal here if I had you privately in my chamber which I mean not for any mans sake to commit to paper Siracusae vestrae capientur in pulvere pingitis As for Bowing at the name Iesus 't is commanded by our Church And for my self I hold it not unlawful to adore my Saviour upon any Cue or hint given Yet could I never believe it to be the meaning of that place of the Philippians nor that it can be inferred thence otherwise than by way of a general and indefinite consequence I derive it rather from the Custom of the World in several Religions thus to express some kind of Reverence when that which they acknowledge for their God is named as we find the Turks do at this day Besides I conceive to do this reverence at the name Iesus only is proper to the Latine Church and it may be of later standing For if some Greeks have not deceived me the custom of the Orient is to bow the head not only at the name Iesus but at the name Christ and sometimes though not so frequently at the name God And if that were the fashion of the elder Christianity that out of S. Hierom would found more to the purpose Moris est Ecclesiastici Christo genu-flectere This is all I can say to this point having had fewer Notions thereabout than about any of the rest That the worship of the Inward man is that which God principally requires and looks at I think no Christian man denies But what then Doth not our Saviour's rule hold notwithstanding in such a comparison 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And consider that the Question is not here as most men seem to make it between Inward worship and Outward worship seorsim for in such case it is plain the Outward is nothing worth but whether the Inward worship together with the Outward may not be more acceptable to God than the Inward alone As for that so commonly objected Scripture in this question Of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth as the Characteristical difference of the Evangelical worship from the Legal I believe it hath a far different sense from that it is commonly taken to have and that the Iews in our Saviour's sense worshipped the Father in spirit and truth But my work grows so fast that I must let it pass and be content with that vulgar answer viz. That under the Old Testament God was worshipped in types and figures of things to come but in the New men should worship the Father in spirit and truth that is according to the verity of the things presignified not that they should worship him without all gestures or postures of Body to which purpose it is wont to be alledged But all this while my mind is upon another matter which at length I am gotten unto viz. your strange construction and censure of the pains I took in opening my thoughts so freely unto you concerning these matters of reverential posture and gesture in respect of that interlaced piece wherein I intimated the Eucharist to have in it ratio sacrificii For 1. Because in the close of my Letter I expressed my fear of some Iudgment to befall the Reformed Churches because out of the immoderation of their zeal they had in a manner taken away all Difference between Sacred and Prophane you will needs suspect I aimed to make the present Iudgments of God upon Christendom to be for neglect of that Sacrifice which I had spoken of a thing I never thought of nor thought so plain an expression of my meaning could ever have been so mistaken I pray let me intreat you to read over those papers once again and then tell me with whom the fault is For why Is not to esteem the Eucharist a Sacrament to account it a Sacred thing unless it be accounted a Sacrifice 2. It seems strange to you that a matter of so great importance as I seem to make this Sacrifice to be should have so little evidence in God's Word and Antiquity and depend merely upon certain conjectures As for Scripture if you mean the name of Sacrifice neither is the name Sacrament nor Eucharist according to our Expositions there to be found no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet may not the thing be But when you speak of so little Evidence to be found in Antiquity I cannot but think such an Affirmation far more strange than you can possibly my Opinion For what is there in Christianity for which more Antiquity may be brought than for this I speak not now of the Fathers meaning whether I guessed rightly at it or not but in general of their Notion of a Sacrifice in the Eucharist If there be little Antiquity for this there is no Antiquity for any thing Eusebius Altkircherus a Calvinist printed Neustadii Palatinorum 1584. 1591. De mystico incruento Ecclesiae Sacrificio pag. 6. Fuit haec perpetua semper omnium Ecclesiasticorum Patrum concors unanimis sententia Quòd instituta per Christum passionis mortis suae in Sacra Coena memoria etiam Sacrificii in se contineret commendationem Bishop Morton in Epist. Dedicator prefixed to his Book of the Eucharist Apud veteres Patres ut quod res est liberè fateamur de Sacrificio Corporis Christi in Eucharistia incruento frequens est mentio quae dici vix potest quantopere quorundam alioqui doctorum hominum ingenia exercuerit torserit vexaver◠aut è contrà quà m jactanter Pontificii de ea re se ostentent And that in the Age immediately following the Apostles the Eucharist was generally conceived of under the name and notion of a Sacrifice to omit the Testimonies of Ignatius and Iustin Martyr take only this of Irenaeus Lib. 4. cap. 32. Dominus discipulis suis dans consilium primitias Deo offerre ex suis creaturis eum qui ex creatura Panis est accepit gratias egit dicens Hoc est Corpus meum Calicem similiter qui est ex ea creatura quae est secundùm nos suum Sanguinem confessus est Novi Testamenti novam docuit Oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo c. And chap. 34. Igitur Ecclesiae Oblatio quam
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.
to his Notion and Description thereof upon his study of the Apocalyps Dies Iudicii non breve aliquot horarum spatiolum designat sed pro more Hebraeorum Diem pro tempore usurpantium continuatum multorum annorum intervallum These are the Addenda and Corrigenda as they are set down in that Paper but not a word about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if any thing therein were to be alter'd and yet some and they not over-captious nor prejudiced persons have been apt to demur somewhat upon his explication of those words The intendment of this Preface is not to write Notes upon any of the Author's Works yet for the sake of the Ingenuous it may not be impertinent here to observe these few things 1. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may properly enough be rendred Doctrines of that is concerning Daemons the Genitive case here as elsewhere in Scripture in the like Forms of speech being to be taken Passively as the Author hath made it clear in Chap. 1. of this Treatise 2. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemons are to be taken in Scripture sometimes in a better and indifferent sense according to the sense of the Gentile Philosophers for the Souls of men deceased and need not be taken always in the worst sense for Devils or Evil Spirits he hath endeavour'd in Chap. 6. to make it appear from several places of Scripture and from an observable passage in Epiphanius where he also shews That the worship of these Daemons or Souls of the deceased was in reality the Worship of Devils those Evil Spirits counterfeiting sometimes the Souls of men deceased and none but Devils being willing to admit that Honour which does certainly derogate from the Honour of the only true God 3. That whatsoever the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Doctrines of Daemons be in this place yet what is taught and practis'd by an Idolatrous sort of Christians as to the worshipping of Angels and Saints adoring of Reliques Image-worship c. is a lively and express resemblance of the Doctrine and Practices of the Gentiles concerning their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemons as he hath proved at large 4. That there are only three Chapters in this Treatise viz. Chap. 3 4 5. which treat of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the use of the word and the Gentiles Theology concerning the Nature the Office the Original of Daemons the manner and way of worshipping them but all the rest of this large Treatise is as valid and concluding as if all in those three Chapters had been omitted nor does the strength thereof depend upon that Hypothesis pursued in those Chapters viz. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemons are to be taken here for the Souls of men deceased 5. That the truth of the former Assertion may be confirmed from a view of these severals 1. His Arguments in Chap. 7 8 9. to prove Saint-worship and Image-worship to be Idolatry have no dependence upon his foregoing explication of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but prove what they are brought for be the sense of the word that or any other 2. His Discourse of the Churche's Visibility clouded in the prevailing Apostasie under the Reign of Antichrist is not concerned in his peculiar Notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. And as little concerned therein is all that large and considerable part of this Treatise which discourses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Times of the great Apostasie as likewise that which is grounded upon that famous and express Prophecy in Dan. 11. 36 c. of the Churche's lapsing into Idolatry and the worshipping of Mahuzzims the proper meaning of which word not easie for every one to have discovered as also the fitness of this Title to be applied to the worshiped Angels and Saints with their Images and their Reliques are there explain'd and confirm'd by him both by comparing several Places of Scripture and by pertinent Proofs out of Ancient and Modern Authors 4. All the Second Part of this Treatise is unconcern'd in the foremention'd Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean that Part which relates to verse 2 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and makes it evident by several Proofs collected with great industry and equal judgment out of Ecclesiastical Antiquities That Invocation of Saints and Image-worship were advanced by Hypocritical Lying Lies of Miracles Fabulous Legends c. wherein the Professors of Monkery had the Chiefhand 3. There is one thing more to be added concerning the Authors Writings and it is fit to be advertis'd as being a Right due to his Name and Memory That whereas in the former Editions the Discourses being published at several times and by several persons could not be so fitly ranked and set in order as otherwise they might have been had they been published all at once but the New and Old were mingled together without any intimating which were composed by him in his younger days and which in his elder In this Edition care is taken to dispose them otherwise Know therefore that those Diatribae or Discourses are set first that were composed and deliver'd by him within the last Ten years of his life viz. from the year 1628 to 1638 and the First XXVI Discourses are such XXI of which were published by the Authors Executor but for the Order wherein they were set except those two which treat upon the Lords Prayer and were therefore fitly placed first he seems to have been indifferent otherwise if he had thought it expedient he could have placed them according to the time when they were delivered in publick either in the Colledge-Chappel as most of them were being Common-places and short Diatribae on several Texts of Scripture or before the University at S. Mary's as the larger Discourses were For as it appears by the Authors Papers Discourse the 7th was delivered Anno 1637. Disc. 9. An. 1633. and in the same year Disc. 14 21. Discourse 13 An. 1632. Discourse 19 An. 1635. The Nine following Discourses viz. from Disc 26. to Disc. 35. as also 37. were preached all of them except Discourse 30 of which I am not so certain between the years 1624 and 1628 as I gather from some Memorials in the Manuscripts The Twelve next Discourses were between the years 1615 and 1624. some of which are more Notional than others as Discourse 36. upon Ier. 10. 11. and Disc. 35. upon Urim and Thummim and those upon Genes 3. 13 14 15. But if these and Disc. 47. be not every way so accurate and exact as those Diatribae that stand in the first rank whereof it may be said to use Paterculus his expression In illis Scriptis plus limae est it was sit that the Reader should be advertis'd about the distant times wherein these and the other Discourses were composed by him The Six last
other learned man may not have the liberty of his own sense or in such Problematical points should incur any censure for dissenting from others Thus far that Reverend person now deceased the Author 's ancient Friend in the View of his Life 22. In pursuance of which Argument to which we hold our selves obliged both from the great zeal we have for the honour of the Author's Memory and from an honest ambition to endeavour the removing of any the least dissatisfaction which may lodge perhaps in the breasts of some even ingenuous and well-temper'd persons that so none may be offended in him it may not be unnecessary to superadd as a Mantissa these few particulars First That the Author had not the least fond inclination to this or any other Hypothesis as those have that affect to be talk'd of for some new or uncommon Theory his humble Soul was far from any such design of Vain-glory. Nay when he first applyed himself to the study of the Apocalyps he came as he told a Friend of his with a mind rather possest against it and being desirous to differ as little as might be from the sense of others he tried all ways imaginable to place the Millennium elsewhere and if it were possible to begin the 1000 years at the Reign of Constantine for whom he had a great veneration which was the commonly-received opinion of those that wrote before him or after him as Brightman Grotius and others But after all his striving he was forced as he ingeniously confess'd to yield to the light and evidence of this Hypothesis in a sober and qualified sense He was forced to it by the unresistible Law of Synchronisms according to which the Millennium could not possibly be placed otherwhere than it is by him which he nothing doubted but he had demonstrated in his Clavis Part. 2. Synchron 4. and 5. Concerning which performance we shall only say to the Reader as the Author himself us'd to do and it was a great word with him whenever he brought forth any unordinary and important Notion Expende he would say or else Consider it And here it is not unworthy to be remembred that the late learned Arch-deacon of Surry Dr. Hakewell gives this fair testimony of Mr. Mede that in his Clavis he hath shew'd himself an able man and particularly that this part of his Synchronisms is a very exact piece and such as gives a marvellous great light to the Prophecies of that Book Besides this would farther forbid him to make the Millennium of Satan's being bound and restrain'd from deceiving the world to begin at Constantine namely That the great deceiving of the world by Mahometism a most vile and yet prevailing Imposture began before less than half of the Millennium from Constantine was run out and strangely prosper'd in the world for the space of 600 years within that Millennium and not this only but Antichristian Idolatry and the greatest Cruelty imaginable against the faithful Servants of Christ fell out within the same Millennium wherein the Devil was so far from being chain'd and shut up that he never deceived the world more grossly nor raged more furiously and consequently was never more loose and at liberty to do mischief Secondly Our Author was not fondly desirous to proclaim this or any other peculiar Sentiment of his before others as one that was eagerly sollicitous to get Disciples or make Proselytes to his Persuasion No man did ever dictate less than he or propounded his Iudgment with the Reasons thereof with more modesty and submission none was more averse from the humour of masterly imposing an Opinion upon others none with less impatience and more civility could bear anothers disâ—ent It was his own expression There are few men living who are less troubled to see others differ in opinion from them than I am If any man can patiently suffer me to differ from him it nothing affects me how much or how little they differ from me In short He was not big with a Paradox and in pain to be delivered of it as some are when they have discover'd as they think some rare and unvulgar Notion which temper in them is a certain sign of a Weak mind foolishly over-pleas'd with its own conceptions Nay he was so far from proclaiming this or any other new Opinion that when he was invited by others to speak of it for he chose rather to be led into such discourse than over-forwardly to begin it of himself he would speak but sparingly and in general especially before such who for want of age and experience were less prepared for such Speculations and therefore when such proceeded to enquire more particularly concerning his thoughts herein his way was not to declare himself magisterially but having quoted such or such a Text of Scripture modestly to express himself thus What if it should be so understood Why may it not be thus And when he was urged by Friends to add at the end of his Commentary upon the Apocalyps some Notions of his upon the following Chapters that the whole might be the more complete he only publish'd a short Specimen or Essay about this Hypothesis together with some short Notes upon a passage in Iustin Martyr purporting that it was the General opinion of all Orthodox Christians in the Age immediately following the Apostles and that none were known to deny it then but Hereticks which denyed the Resurrection Let the whole Specimen be carefully perused by any unpassionate and judicious person and it will approve it self to be a great Instance of the Author 's both Modesty and Prudence as to the way of communicating his particular thoughts concerning the Millennial mystery And accordingly the Reverend Dr. Charles Potter sometime Provost of Queen's College in Oxford a person of a very discerning and candid spirit in a Letter to his worthy friend Mr. Mason gave this fair account of Mr. Mede's proceeding in this abstruse Argument That whereas others are confident he does but modestly conjecture viz. in his Specimen de Mille annis and that upon other and better grounds than their dreaming heads ever thought of Whereas others would sally out into curious and minute descriptions of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and venture to speak as particularly of the Quality of that State as Dionysius the Areopagite so called does of the Angelical Hierarchy intruding into those things which they have not seen our Author on the contrary kept himself to Generals industriously abstaining from expressing himself de modo or concerning the particularities of the state of Christ's Kingdom and was far from being definitive in the least as to any circumstantial account thereof This was his pious Prudence He contented himself with that more General account the H. Scripture gives of this Millennium and in his explication of it he kept within the compass of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Form of Ecclesiastical Doctrine set forth by the First Nicene Council
spare of body but afterwards when he was full grown he became more fat and portly yet not to any such excess as did diminish but rather encreas'd the goodliness of his presence to a comely decorum His eye was full quick and sparkling His whole Countenance composed to a sedate seriousness and gravity Majestas Amor were well met here an awful Majesty but withal an inviting sweetness His Behaviour was friendly and affable intermixt with a becoming chearfulness and inoffensive pleasantry His Complexion was a little swarthy as if somewhat over-tinctur'd with Melancholy which yet rather seem'd to serve the design of his studious Mind than to clogg it with those Infirmities which commonly attend the predominancy of that Humour And as for the whole Constitution and Temperament of his Body it could not be observed but his Vitals were strong and yet it was noted of him that there was an asymmetry and disproportion in the subservient Faculties as not all duly performing their particular offices in so exact time and measure as ordinary and yet Nature was so faithful in her compensations that there were no such irregularities in her Oeconomy as made him fall short of that chief desire of all wise men the having Mentem sanam in Corpore sano 47. He was patient of Cold and well able to go through a Winter without much Fire so that his rule was for divers years together to have no Fire made in his Chamber before All-Saints day and then after that but some times now and then and not constantly as the weather did require But that year in which he died he found an alteration being somewhat chill and indisposed a moneth or two before so that he was forced to alter his custome and could not stay for a Fire till November because he found himself indisposed and not perfectly well His expectation was in the interim that Nature by some way or other would have relieved herself which encouraged him to go on in his attending upon those Offices which were performable in his place and the rather because his Aguish indisposition was not constant 48. Upon the 29 day of September being Saturday 1638. the day of the weekly Accounts when according to the laudable custome of that Colledge the Manciple after Dinner was to give up the particulars of all the Expences of the whole Colledge that week to the Master and Fellows then present amongst whom Mr. Mede never fail'd to be one unless detain'd by some extraordinary occasion he appear'd in the Hall at dinner-time as usually But before all was ended he was forced to rise up and to hast to his Chamber being sick and ill at ease Thither when he was come and set down in his chair he presently fainted away and sunk down upon the hearth and the posture that he was found lying in was not without some danger to one of his Leggs from the Fire A Master of Arts of that Colledge a Friend to Mr. Mede and who honoured him very much comes upon a particular occasion to his Chamber so the good Providence of God did order it who seeing him lie in that posture at which he was surpriz'd with no little astonishment put to all his strength to recover him to his seat and that he did indeed but with very much ado Being a little come to himself he complain'd he was ill And ill it proved for him or rather for the surviving that it happened to be so at a time when the best noted Physicians were from home the University being then the more thin by reason of the Plague which had been in Cambridge that Summer An Apothecary being sent for he went to Dr. N. an ancient learned and very judicious Physician but less fit for practice being gouty and bed-red He prescribed a Clyster to be presently administred him But the Apothecary unacquainted with the state of his Body not having that special regard to the tenderness of those parts which had he been acquainted with before he should reasonably have had did so irritate his Haemorrhoid Veins that they swell'd up immediately and so angry they grew that they shut up the passage And now this Good man began to be in extremity of pain for the Clyster working inwardly because no passage downward was to be found tormented him exceedingly But the next day being Sunday and the last of September the adventurous Apothecary whether with the foresaid Doctor 's advice or not it could not clearly be resolved adventured upon a farther experiment and so gave him a strong Purge imagining it's likely that this would force all downward But contrary to that fancy it wrought still but within and so procured more torment and sickness to the distressed Patient All that day he continued very ill and out of order worse and worse still as 't was easie to observe But to those that were Eye-witnesses of his pain and great affliction it was as easie to observe his Christian Patience at this time We may easily conceive the exquisiteness of the pain he endur'd by reason of the Physick tearing him within but some then present have profess'd that they could not but admire his Incomparable Patience under this sore trial and that he lay under the extremity of his distemper with so much Meekness and quiet Submission to the hand of God that they never knew the like Thus had Patience her perfect work in him and as he possess'd his Vessel his Body in sanctification and honour having lived a life of Chastity and Purity so he likewise possess'd his Soul in patience while he possess'd it in this earthen and brittle Vessel of the Body and hereby gave an illustrious proof that he had well learn'd that great Lesson of Self-denial and Resigning up himself to the Will of his Heavenly Father It was in the time of his Health his Meat and Drink to do his Will and now to be enabled meekly to submit to it was his Cordial Thus was he still and silent before God committing himself to him as unto a Faithful Creatour and unto Christ Iesus that Merciful and Faithful High-Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us the Glory and Prerogative of whose Sole Mediation at the Right hand of God he had always faithfully asserted in his Discourses 49. In the Night following his spirits began to fail yet being in perfect memory an hour or two before day-break he desired to have Mr. Iohn Alsop sent for a most worthy Consocius of that Learned Society who being come Mr. Mede told him he hoped he should do well for that now he perceived his Physick to work downward But Mr. Alsop by what he saw was fearful of the work suspecting as it proved true that that purging downward proceeded not in that case from any activity or strength of Nature but rather from debility and weakness thereupon like a wise and good man he advised him however it might please God to deal with
one Christian may not be limited or regulated by the spirit of another especially the spirit of a particular man in the publick worship by the Spirit of the Church whereof he is a member For doth not the Apostle tell us 1 Cor. 14. 29 30. that even that extraordinary Spirit of prophecy usual in his time might be limited by the spirit of another Prophet Let the Prophets saith he speak two or three and let the other judge If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace Is not this a limiting He gives a reason v. 32. For the spirits of the Prophets saith he are subject to the Prophets Besides are not the spirits of the people as well limited and determined by a voluntary Prayer when they joyn therein with their Minister as they are by a set Form True the spirit of the Minister is then free but theirs is not so but tied and led by the spirit of the Minister as much as if he used a set Form But to elude this they tell us that the Question is not of limiting the spirit of the people but of the Minister only For as for the people no more is required of them but to joyn with their Minister and to testifie it by saying Amen but the spirit of the Minister ought to be left free and not to be limited But where is this written that the one may not be limited as well as the other We heard the Apostle say even now The spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets If in prophesying why not in praying And what shew of Reason can be given why the spirit of a particular Minister in the publick worship of the Church may not yea ought not to be limited and regulated by the spirit of the Church Representative as well as the spirit of a whole Congregation by the spirit of a particular Minister For every particular Minister is as much subordinate to the spirit of the Church Representative as the spirit of the Congregation is to his So much for this Objection There remaineth yet a third which may be answered in two or three words No set Form of Prayer say they can serve for all occasions What then yet why may it not be used for all such occasions as it serves for If any sudden and unexpected occasion happen for which the Church cannot provide the spirit of her Ministers is free Who will forbid them to supply in such a case that by a voluntary and arbitrary form which the Church could not provide for in a set Form And this is what I intended to say of this Argument DISCOURSE II. MATTHEW 6. 9. LUKE 11. 2. Sanctificetur Nomen tuum Sanctified or Hallowed be thy Name ALthough I make no question but that which we so often repeat unto Almighty God in our daily prayers is for the general meaning thereof by the most of us in some competent measure understood yet because by a morefull and distinct explication the knowledge of some may be improved and the meditations of others occasioned to a further search I hope I shall not do amiss nor be thought to have chosen a Theme either needless or not so fit for this Auditory If I shall enquire What that is we pray for in this first Petition of the Prayer our Lord hath taught us when we desire that God's Name may be sanctified For perhaps we shall find more contained therein than is commonly taken notice of The words are few and therefore shall need no other Analyse than what their very number presents unto us viz. God's Name and the sanctifying thereof Sanctificetur Nomen tuum I will begin first with the last in order but first in nature Nomen tuum God's Name By which according to the style of Holy Scripture we are to understand in this place First of all God himself or His sacred Deity to wit abstractly expressed according to the style of eminency and dignity that is Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Majesty as we are wont for the King to say His Majesty or the King's Majesty and of other persons of honour and eminency their Highness their Honour his Excellency and the like so of God His Name and sometimes with the self-same meaning His Glory as Ier. 2. 11. Hath any nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods but my people have changed their Glory that is their God for that which is good for nought So Psalm 106. 20. of the Calf made in the wilderness They changed their Glory into the similitude of an Oxe that eateth grass And S. Paul Rom. 1. 23. They changed the Glory that is the Majesty of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man c. Such is the notion but much more frequent of God's Name In a word Nomen Dei in this kind of use is nothing else but Divinum Numen Whence it is that in Scripture to call upon the Name of God to blaspheme the Name of God to love his Name to swear by his Name to build a Temple to his Name for his Name to dwell there and in the New Testament to believe in the Name of the Lord Iesus to call upon the Name of the Lord Iesus these I say and the like expressions have no other meaning than to do these things to the Divine Majesty to the Lord Iesus whose is that Name above every name whereat every knee must bow Accordingly here Sanctisicetur Nomen tuum Hallowed be thy Name is as much as to say Sanctificetur Numen tuum Sanctified be thy Divine Majesty Secondly Under the Name of God here to be sanctified or hallowed understand besides the Majesty of his Godhead that also super quod invocatum est Nomen ejus whereupon his Name is called or that which is called by his Name as we in our Bibles commonly express this phrase of Scripture that is all whatsoever is God's or God is the Lord and owner of by a peculiar right such as are Things sacred whether they be Persons or whether Things by distinction so called or Times or Places which have upon them a relation of peculiarness towards God For such as these are said in Scripture to have the Name of God called upon them or to be called by his Name that is to be His. Thus we read in Scripture of an House which had the Name of God upon it or which was called by his Name that is God's House 1 Kings 8. 43. Ier. 7. 10 c. Of a City upon which the Name of God was called or named to wit the Holy City Ierusalem the City of the great King the Lord of hosts Ier. 25. 29. Dan. 9. 18. Of an Ark upon which the Name of God the Lord was called 1 Chron. 13. 6. 2 Sam. 6. 2. that is the Lord's Ark or the Ark of his Covenant as it is elsewhere named Of a People upon which the Name of the Lord was
of Sabbaoth Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory And because the pattern of God's holy worship is not to be taken from Earth but from Heaven the same Spirit therefore in the Apocalyps expresseth the Worship of God in the New Testament with the same form of hallowing or holying his Name which the heavenly Host useth For so the four Animalia representing the Catholick Church of Christ in the four quarters of the world are said when they give glory honour and thanks to him that sitteth upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever to do it by singing day and night this Trisagium Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come that is the sum of all that they did was but to agnize his Sanctity or Holiness or which is all one to Sanctifie his holy Name When therefore the same four Animalia are afterwards brought in chanting Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing and again Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever all is to be understood as comprehended within this general Doxologie as being but an exemplification thereof and therefore the Elogies or blazons mentioned therein to be taken according to the style of Holiness in an exclusive sense of such prerogatives as are peculiar to God alone And according to this notion of sanctifying God's Name which I contend for would the Lord have his Name sanctified Esa. 8. 12 13. when he saith Fear ye not their Fear that is the Idolaters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gods for so Fear here signifies to wit the thing feared neither dread ye it but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your Fear and let him be your Dread that is your God Again chap. 29. 23. They shall sanctifie my Name saith he even sanctifie the Holy One of Iacob and shall fear the God of Israel The latter words shew the meaning of the former The like we have in the first Epistle of S. Peter chap. 3. vers 14 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Gentilium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Fear ye not their Fear nor be in dread thereof that is Fear not nor dread ye the Gods of the Gentiles which persecute you But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts that is Fear and worship him with your whole hearts For that this passage howsoever we are wont to expound it ought to be construed in the same sense with that of Esay 8. before alledged and the words to be rendred sutably I take it to be apparent for this reason because they are verbatim taken from thence as he that shall compare the Greek words of S. Peter with the Lxx. in that place of Esay will be forced to confess Besides this evident and express use of the word Sanctifie in the notion of religious and holy worship and fear of the Divine Majesty there is yet another expression sometimes used in Holy Scripture which implieth the self-same thing that namely to worship God with that which we call holy and divine worship is all one with to agnize his holiness or to sanctifie his Name Those speeches I mean wherein we are exhorted to worship the Lord because he is Holy As Psal. 99. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his foot-stool for he is Holy Again in the end of the Psalm Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is Holy The same meaning is yet more emphatically expressed by those that sing the Song of victory over the Beast Apoc. 15. 3 4. Great say they and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Nations Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that I believe is the true reading not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou only art Holy therefore all the Nations shall come and worship before thee that is they shall relinquish their Idols and plurality of Gods and worship thee as God only For this was the Doctrine both of Moses in the Old Testament and of Christ Iesus the Lamb of God in the New That one God only that made the heaven and the earth was to be acknowledged and worshipped and with an incommunicable worship In respect whereof as I take it these Victors are there said to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb that is a gratulatory Song of the worship of one God after that his Ordinances were made manifest For otherwise the Ditty is borrowed from the 86. Psalm the 8 9 and 10. verses where we read Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wondrous works Thou art God alone that is Thou only art Holy Compare Ier. 10. ver 6 7. I have one thing more to adde before I finish this part of my Discourse lest I might leave unsatisfied that which may perhaps seem to some to weaken this my explication of the sanctification of God's Name For the word to sanctifie or be sanctified is sometimes used of God in a more general sense than that I have hitherto specified namely as signifying any way to be glorified or to glorifie as when he saith He will be sanctified in the destruction of his enemies or in the deliverance of his people and that before the Heathen and the like that is he would purchase him glory or be glorified thereby I answer It is true that to be sanctified is in these passages to be glorified but yet alwayes to be glorified as God and not otherwise Namely when God by the works of his Power of his Mercy or Iustice extorts from men the confession of his great and holy Godhead he is then said to sanctifie or make himself to be sanctified amongst them that is to be glorified and honoured by their conviction and acknowledgment of his Power and Godhead For although men may be also said to glorifie or purchase honour unto themselves when by their noble acts they make their abilities and worth known unto the world yet for such respect to be said to be sanctified is peculiar unto him alone whose Glory is his Holiness that is unto God THUS we have learned How the Name or Majesty of God is to be sanctified personally or in it self which is the chiefest thing we pray for and ought so to be in our endeavour namely To worship and glorifie him incommunicably according to his most eminent and unparallel'd Holiness and so ô Lord Hallowed be thy Name But there is another Sanctification or
to their devotions by any sign or act whatsoever but whatsoever is made seem to be done by them is done by the self-fame wicked Spirits which heretofore were masked under the names of Daemons and therefore in this regard the one may as well bear the names of Daemons as the other and be as likely to be intended by the use of that word Secondly though the Scripture often useth this word in the worst sense yet follows it not it always should do so Because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self which the Scripture hath appropriated to signifie Satan the Prince of hell-hounds following therein the Seventy who first gave it this notion nowhere else sampled in any Greek Author yet is this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament it self three several times used in the common sense for a Slanderer or False accuser and that in three several Epistles in both to Timothy and that to Titus And why should the like seem improbable for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay most certain it is so as I now come to make manifest And that first Acts 17. 18. where S. Paul our Apostle having at Athens preached Iesus risen from the dead the Philosophers thus encountred him saying This fellow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods namely Daemon-gods For hearing of one Iesus after death to become a Lord and Saviour and to be adored with divine worship they took him presently according to their own principles in that kind to be some new or forein Daemon for so it follows in the Text that they said thus Because he preached unto them Iesus and the Resurrection Upon the same ground Celsus in Origen lib. 8. cont Cels. calls the same Christ our Saviour the Christians Daemon for whereas the Christians said that they without hurt and danger blasphemed and reproached the Gentiles Gods Celsus replies Nonne vides bone vir quòd etiam tuo Daemoni opponens se quispiam non solùm convitiatur sed terrâ marique illum exigit Do you not see good Sir that some opposing your Daemon do not only reproach him but proclaim him unworthy to be at all in the world Where Origen answers Celsus Qui nullos scit malos Daemones nescio quomodo sui oblitus Iesum vocârit Daemonem He that acknowledges no evil Daemons I know not how he came to forget himself calling Iesus a Daemon But S. Paul thus charged by the Philosophers coming to make his Apology in the Areopagus retorts their accusation Ye men of Athens saith he I see you in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too full of Daemons already I shall not need bring any more amongst you For thus the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Etymology signifies a worshipper of Daemon-gods and was anciently used in this sense and so you shall find it often in Clemens Alexandrinus his Protrepticon not to speak of others though afterwards from signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Budaeus speaks it came to be applied to those who were too precise and anxious in their devotions But I saith our Apostle preach no new Daemon unto you but that Sovereign and Celestial God who made the world and all things therein who being Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not as your Daemon-gods do in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing as you conceive of your Daemons seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things This God I preach unto you And this place I take to be so unanswerable for the indifferent and common acception of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I care not now though the rest should fail me but let us see what they are In Revel 9. 13 c. the sixth Trumpet from Euphrates brings an huge army upon the Christian world which destroyeth a third part of men and yet those which remained repented not of those sins verse 2. for which these plagues came upon the earth viz. That they should not worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Idols of gold silver and brass and stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk Is not this a Comment upon the Apostle's Prophecy in my Text The time which it concerns must needs fall in the last times for it is the last Trumpet save one The place must be the Roman Empire or Christian world for that is the Stage of all the Seals and Trumpets And how could it be otherwise seeing S. Iohn at Pathmos saw them coming from the great River Euphrates whatsoever comes from thence must needs fall upon the Territory of the Roman Empire To hold you no longer the best Expounders make it the Ottoman or Turkish invasion which hath swallowed so great a part of Christendom But what people are they who in the Roman Territory do in these latter times worship Idols of gold silver brass and stone and wood Are they Ethnicks there is none such Are they Iews they cannot endure the sight of them Are they Mahumetans nay they abhor it also Then must they needs be Christians and then must Christians too worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both are spoken of the same men But what Christians do or ever did worship Devils formally But Daemon-gods alas they do and long have done Here therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is again taken in the common and Philosophical sense or at least which is all one for Evil Spirits worshipped under the names of Daemons and deceased Souls Besides my Text there is but one place more in all the Epistles of S. Paul where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used namely 1 Cor. 10. 21. where if there be any allusion to the Gentiles conceit of Daemons then all the places of S. Paul's Epistles are bending that way But some there are saith Stephen in his Thesaurus who think the Apostle in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cup of Daemons alludes unto that poculum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used amongst the Gentiles And further to strengthen this conceit of the Apostle's Allusion to the Heathenish notion of Daemons the words of the former verse make much For the things which the Gentiles sacrifice saith he to Daemons and not to God Now this was the very Tenet of the Gentiles That the Sovereign and Celestial Gods were to be worshipped only purâ mente and with hymns and praises and that Sacrifices were only for Daemons Vid. Porphy in Euseb. Praep. Evang. Herm. Trismeg in Asclepio Apuleium de Daemonio Socratis He therefore who had given his faith to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Lord to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Potentate to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the one and only Mediator Iesus Christ must have no communion have no part in the service of those many Mediators Lords or
laying an imputation on the Mellenaries as if they dreamed of Earthly Pleasures in this Kingdom of our Lord for he saith that as Dr. Gerhard thinks of the Cerinthians and Iews not of the ancient Fathers how truly I leave it to your consideration and judgment In the Margin of your Notes on Iustin Martyr I noted a place to the same purpose in Lactantius It is in black lead and may easily be wiped out if it be nothing to your purpose Dr. Potter signified in a former Letter that he had a purpose to write to you perhaps he is not yet ready for that which he meaneth to say but if he send his Letter this way I will take care to send it down by your Carrier In the mean while and ever I commend you and your studies to the Blessing of the Almighty and so for this time I leave you Your ever assured Friend Henry Mason S. Andrew's Undershaft Decemb. 10. 1629. EPISTLE XIX Dr. Potter his Letter to Mr. Mason touching the Millenaries Good Mr. Mason I Have read those two large and learned Discourses of Gerhard against the Millenaries and find him as his woâ—t is to be very diligent both in recounting the Opinions of other men and in the establishing of his own By him I see the conceit is ancient among our later Writers and favoured by many ignorant and fanatical spirits which I confess casts much envy upon the Conjecture But yet methinks First the consent of so many great and worthy Lights of the ancient Primitive Church doth more honour and countenance the opinion than it can be disgraced or obscured by these late blind abettors Secondly The Anabaptists and their fellows are confident where Mr. Mede doth but modestly conjecture and that Thirdly upon other and better grounds than their dreaming doting heads ever thought of Lastly The Devil himself may sometime speak truth and so may his disciples with an ill intention or at hazard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose no Learned man or Christian can deny that the Nation of the Iews shall be once hereafter called by God's mercy to the Faith and that their general Conversion will bring with it a great and glorious alteration in the Church and therefore that Kingdom of our Lord upon earth howsoever in some circumstances it may not answer our hopes which may be ungrounded and deceived yet for substance it seems an indisputable Truth But Prophecies are Mysteries till their accomplishment let us therefore leave them to God and to Posterity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have received Philostrates and Origen c. C. P. EPISTLE XX. Mr. Mede's Second Letter to Dr. Meddus containing four grounds why the First Resurrection Rev. 20. is to be taken literally with some other Observations concerning the difference between the State of the New Ierusalem and the State of the Nations walking in the light thereof as also concerning the time of the Regnum Christi Worthy Sir I Sent the fourth sheet I promised to the Bury-Carrier yesterday with a note therein promising to make some Answer to your Quaere to day to be delivered to the Carrier as he passed through Newmarket but some 4 or 5 miles from the place where I am When I had thus done some hour or two after I received a transcript of another of yours dated August 14 of the conformation of the taking of Wesel But to the Quaere which I must answer but briefly till I have a better and more free occasion to enlarge upon particulars The full resolving thereof depends upon so large an explication of the Oeconomy of God in the restitution of Mankind as cannot be comprised in a Letter And I am somewhat unwilling to discover what I think unless I could do it fully which made me abstain in my Specimina from any explication of that First Resurrection save to name it only But howsoever when at first I perceived that Millennium to be a State of the Church consequent to the times of the Beast I was a verse from the proper acception of that Resurrection taking it for a rising of the Church from a dead estate as being loth to admit too many Paradoxes at once yet afterward more â—etiously considering and weighing all things I found no ground or footing for any sense but the Literal For first I cannot be perswaded to forsake the proper and usual importment of Scripture-language where neither the insinuation of the Text it selfe nor manifest tokens of Allegory nor the necessity and nature of the things spoken of which will bear no other sense do warrant it For to do so were to lose all footing of Divine testimony and in stead of Scripture to believe mine own imaginations Now the 20 th of the Apocalyps of all the Narrations of that Book seems to be the most plain and simple most free of Allegory and of the involution of Prophetical figures only here and there sprinkled with such Metaphors as the use of speech makes equipollent to vulgar expressions or the former Narrations in that Book had made to be as words personal or proper names are in the plainest histories as Old Serpent Beast c. How can a man then in so plain and simple a narration take a passage of so plain and ordinarily-expressed words as those about the First Resurrection are in any other sense than the usual and Literal Secondly Howsoever the word Resurrection by it self might seem ambiguous yet in a sentence composed in this manner viz. Of the dead those which were beheaded for the witness of Iesus c. lived again when the thousand years began but the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were ended it would be a most harsh and violent interpretation to say that Dead and consequently Living again from the dead should not utrobique be taken in the same meaning For such a speech in ordinary construction implies That some of the dead lived again in the beginning of the thousand years in that sense the rest should live again at the end of the thousand years and è contrà In what manner the rest of the dead should live again at the end of the thousand years in that manner those who were beheaded for Iesus lived again in the beginning of the thousand years which living again of those some is called the First Resurrection Thirdly Though the ancient Iews whilest they were yet the Church of God had no distinct knowledge of such an order in the Resurrection as First and Second but only of the Resurrection in gross and general to be in die Iudicii magni yet they looked for such a Resurrection wherein those that rose again should reign some time upon earth as appeareth Wisd. 3. from the first to the eighth verse inclusivè where it is expressely said That the Souls of the Righteous which were departed should in the time of their visitation shine and that they should judge the nations and have dominion over the people
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
35 Schism the evil and danger of it 876 Scripture The Holy Scripture is not to be kept in an unknown tongue 190. whether the silence of Scripture be an argument sufficient to conclude against matter of fact 840. an account of some Idioms or Forms of speech in Scripture 161 and 347 349 380 285 and 352 Sea what it signifies in the Prophetick style 462 The Sealing of the 144000 in Apocal. 7. what it means 584 Seed of the Woman meant of Christ's person and Christ mystical 236 Serpent why the Devil took this shape 223 289. the Curse was pronounced upon both the Serpent and the Devil 229. what kind of Serpent was accursed 230. how God could in Iustice punish the brute Serpent 229 230 his Curse was To go upon his Breast and not only on his Belly 231 232. as also To feed on dust 233 234. Enmity between Man and the Serpent 234. The Serpents Seed meant of the Devil and wicked men 236. The Serpents Head or Headship is Principatus mortis 237 Set Forms See Prayer Seven eyes of the Lord are the seven Archangels 41 43 Seven Heads of the Beast signifie both 7 Hiâ—s and 7 Successions of different sorts of Governours 524 Seven Seals in Apocal. 6. what is meant thereby 441 917 c. Seven Trumpets See Trumpets Seven Vials See Vials Seventy Weeks See Daniels Weeks Seventy years See Years Shechinah or Gods special presence in a place is where the Angels keep their station 343 c. Sheep set at Christs right hand 841 Shiloh the name of Messiah 34 it signifies a Peace-maker 35 Silence in holy offices was a point of Religion 458 Simeon Metaphrastes his fabulous Legends 682 c. his design therein 683 c. Sin compared in Scripture to an Heavy Burthen in respect of the Weight of Punishment and of Loathsomness 151. the reason of Sins Loathsomness 152. Conformity between the Sin and Punishment in 4 particulars 144. the hainousness of a Sin to be estimated from the hearts election 350. Commission of one Sin makes way for another 135. what it is to forsake Sin 207. Rules to know whether our purpose to forsake Sin be real 152 153 Sin-offering what 287 Sincerity of Heart what it is how it may be known and attain'd 217 218 Sitting at Gods right hand what it signifies 638 639. that it is a priviledge appropriate to Christ. ibid. Some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word doth not always in Scripture imply a small number 648 c. Socinian Tenets censured 869 883 Son of man whence Christ is so called 764 788 Spirit sometimes in Scripture signifies Doctrine 626 Spirit and truth See Worship in spirit and truth Spirits Good or Evil how they appear and converse with men 223 224 Spiritual blessings were veiled in Earthly Promises under the Law 249 250 Stealing is either by Force or by Fraud both forbidden in the 8 Commandment 132. See more in Theft Sun Moon and Stars what they are according to the Prophetick style in the Political world 449 450 466 615 Synagogues how they differ'd from Proseucha's 66. their antiquity 839 Synchronisms what 491. their usefulness 431 581 T. TAbernack of meetingâ— so call'd from God's meeting there with men 343. Feast of Tabernacles wherein it was a Figure of Christ 266. how it was neglected to be kept from Iosua's time to Nehemiah's 268. what this Omission may seem to imply 268 Table sometimes in Scripture put for Epulum or the Meat it self 386. Table of the Lord in 1 Cor. 10. why so called 375. the name Table not used in any Ecclesiastical Writer before 200 years after Christ 860. Table and Altar how they differ 389 Holy Table Name and Thing 844 Temple what the Gentiles Notion of a Temple was 335 336. why the primitive Christians for the most part abstain'd from the name Temple 336 337 Temple at Ierusalem it s 3 Courts in our Saviours time 44 45. it was the Third or Gentiles Court that was prophaned by the Iews and vndicated by our Saviour 45 46. This Temple is called in Scripture Gods Throne 438 439 917. In what respects it was a Type of Christ. 48 407 263 Temples of the Heathen why they are said by the ancient Fathers to be nothing else but the Sepulchres of dead men 633 Ten Horns signifie in Dan. and the Apocal. Ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was shivered 661. that they belong to the Seventh or Vppermost Head of the Beast 499 737 Ten Kings See Ten Horns Teraphim what they were and how they answered to Vrim and Thummim 183 Terumah or Heave-offering defined 288 the Terumoth or Heave-offerings were either First-fruits or Tithes or Frâ—e-will-offerings 290 Theft in no case lawful 133. the trial of it in doubtful cases was in the Iewish Polity by the parties Oath Hence Perjury and Theft are forbidden together in Scripture 133 Three Kings whom the Little Horn should depress to advance himself 779 Throne to be taken up to Gods Throne what 494 Thummim See Vrim Thunder See Bath Kol Time Times and half a Time what 497 656 744. Times of the Gentiles 753. Times put for Things done in time 737 Tithes How the question of the due of Tithes is to be stated 120 Tituls why Houses and Churches were so called 5 327 328 Tobit's prophesie of the Iews Captivity and Restauration explain'd 579 Transubstantiation promoted by lying Miracles 688 Trees what they signifie in the Prophetick style 460 Trespass-offering how it differed from the Sin-offering 287 Tribes why the 12 Tribes are in Apocal 7. reckoned in a different order than elsewhere in Scripture 455 c. Tribute See Rent Trumpets Seven Trumpets their meaning 595 Turks why described in Apocal. 9. by the army of Horsemen 473 Twelve why each of the 24 Courses or Quires of Singers in the Temple consisted of Twelve 3 Typical speeches often true in the Type and Antitype 285. when what is attributed to the Type belongs to the thing typified 468 V. VEspers See Even-song Vials Seven Vials their meaning 585 923. the agreement between the 7 Vials and 7 Trumpets 585 Vintage what it means in the Propherick style 521 c. Visions Apocalyptick whether represented in the Seven-sealed Book to be seen or to be read by S. Iohn 787 An Vnrepentant Sinner is an Insidel 153 Vnworthy receiving See Sacraments Vows The 3 Vows common to all Monks viz. Vow of Chastity Poverty and Abstaining from meats the Fourth Vew viz. of Obedience not common to all nor so old 689 Vrim and Thummim what they signifie 183. they were a Divine Oracle ibid. the Matter thereof and the Manner of enquiring thereby 184 185. How Vrim and Thummim did typisie something in Christ. 185 186 W. WAldenses See Albigenses White To walk in white To be clothed with white raiment what meant thereby in the Apocalyps 909 Whore and Whoredom meant according to the Prophetick style of Idolatry 645 646. Whoe of Babylon in Apocal. 17. why this Vision only of all