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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51311	A plain and continued exposition of the several prophecies or divine visions of the prophet Daniel which have or may concern the people of God, whether Jew or Christian : whereunto is annexed a threefold appendage touching three main points, the first relating to Daniel, the other two to the Apocalypse / by Henry More ...	More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1681 (1681)	Wing M2673; ESTC R5104	236,862	422

to the Churches in Europe Asia and Africk For certainly the Church had disspred it self into all these Quarters of the world by that time As if the Spirit of Truth were a respecter of persons For these are not the Letters of Iohn but of the Holy Ghost But our Answer is ready at hand * That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the names of the seven Churches Asia alone was pitched upon But according to the Prophetical sense the true Catholick Church is writ unto under such distinct conditions as she was to vary into unto the end of the world So that there is no Partiality nor Acception of Persons in this Thirdly If a man demand touching the order or precedency of these Seven Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Prophetical sense with the Intervals of the Church Catholick lying in that order that these Churches are ranged This is a satisfactory reason and worthy the Spirit that wrote these Epistles But whether they are ranged in this order * because that a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus and then to Smyrna and so in order till he come to Laodicea whether the holy Spirit of Prophecy regarded that in the dictating of his Letters though Alcazar the Jesuit be for it I cannot but suspend my judgment and that not without a smile But of this Ataxie more particularly anon 3. Fourthly If it be demanded why just Seven Churches in Asia are writ to neither more nor less especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgment of Epiphanius being then not founded but after the writing of these Epistles it is hard to give a satisfactory answer in the Literal sense For to say this Book of the Apocalypse affects the number Seven and that because it runs upon the number Seven altogether in the ensuing part of the Book which is Prophetical it therefore for Conformity sake chuses this number in writing to the Churches though Literally understood seems but a meagre mean and trifling account a design unworthy the Holy Spirit that dictated this Book But the using this number Seven all over is rather an intimation that the Book is Prophetical all over and that these Epistles are also a Prophecy accordingly as we have explained them And taking them so the Answer is plain and obvious viz. The number Seven is here chosen out as Symbolical it being the note of Vniversality whence the Pythagoreans as I elsewhere have noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more than Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervals of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather than any others which in all likelihood may have the same Vertues and Vices that these are commended and taxed for The Reason of this is writ in the very Notation of their Names every Name being significative of the Condition of the Church Catholick in that successive Intervall of time that this or that Church so named standeth for and in such order as they are repeated Sixthly If one require a Reason why Christ is described by holding the seven Stars in his right hand in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus and Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to find any peculiar Reason but in the Prophetical sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signify all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the begnning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodical to represent the First Founder Sustainer and Continuer thereof by this Emblem Lo I am with you to the end of the World And that this again is hinted at in the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is with evident Proportion and Analogy to the Affairs of the Church there represented For the Church of Sardis is as it were the beginning again or the emerging of the true Church or Kingdome of Christ out of the Power and Kingdome of Antichrist 4. Seventhly Why the Church of Ephesus of all other Churches should be commended for their trying false Apostles Why might not other Churches be attacqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Problem is easy in this Mystical sense of the Epistles * that places the Ephesine Interval within the Apostles times but the rest on this side of them Eighthly If any one demand why it is said to the Church of Smyrna more than to any other Church Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and again He that overcometh shall not 〈◊〉 hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to find any peculiar Reason why this might not as well be said to the Church in Pergamus where there was killing for Religion it seems by the mention of the Martyr Antipas I but there was no obtaining the Crown of life there in any peculiar sense but the Crown of life that is the Imperial Crown was given to the sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs under the Ten Persecutions to whom also according to the opinion of the Antient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptik style that loves to hint things by Ellipses in that Promise He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death implying thereby that he shall be made partaker of the first Resurrection Ninthly If any one will again object more particularly against the Ataxie of the Churches that they are ra●…ged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible together Smyrna and Philadelphia against whom there is no complaint at all and then Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea against whom there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols and afterwards Pergamus and Thyatira in which Churches alone there is If any one I say contend that this method had been more exact truly in the Literal sense it will be hard to frame an handsome and satisfactory answer especially if he urge that God is the Authour of Method as well as the God of Order But in this Mystical or Prophetical sense the Answer is solid and exquisite and much what the same that was given to the like difficulty more generally propounded before namely That the Churches of Asia are named in that order the Successive intervals of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervals of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False Prophet viz. the

should continue upon God's People it is plain the time is to be reduced into years And so by the answer may be signified there would be Six years or there-about which may comprehend the first coming of Antiochus into Iudea when the Priesthood was prophaned as also his second his Interdicting the Iudaick Rites the placing the Idol in the Temple and the whole time of the Intermission of the daily sacrifice so Grotius expresly upon the place But from the time of that gross prophanation of the Temple when Antiochus his Soldiers set an Heathenish Altar in the Sanctuary and sacrificed Swine's Flesh on it till Antiochus Eupator granted the Iews the free use of their Religion and Temple Thomas Lydiat reckons about Three years and a half Which may give a glance being Prophetically understood at the Time of the true Antichrist Chap. 7. as to the duration of the entireness of his Kingdom Then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed At least by that time it shall be cleansed 15. And it came to pass when I even I Daniel had seen the Uision and sought for the meaning he praying in his heart that he might understand it Then behold there stood before me as the appearance of a Man An Angel externally visible to him in humane Shape For this is not a Dream or Night-Vision but a Day-Vision as I observed out of Grotius in the beginning 16. And I heard a Man's voice betwéen the banks of Ulai The River Vlaeus that runs by Susa betwixt the Banks of this River he heard the voice of Palmoni or Christ Who since he could walk on the Waters when he was in the Flesh might well appear betwixt the Banks of Vlai in the Air or upon the Water and there speak in a Man's voice before he was incarnate Which called and said Gabriel make this man understand the Uision The giving this command to Gabriel shews that this Palmoni is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any ordinary Angel but this and what was above-said may well assure us that it was the Prince of Angels yea Christ himself if we add what will occur in the Tenth Chapter 17. So he came near where I stood and when he came I was afraid And might have been more astonish'd if Palmoni himself had come so near him when he could not bear the presence of one of his Ministers And fell on my face Through very astonishment my Spirits failed in me But he said unto me Understand O Son of man that is be attentive and diligent to conceive what I say For at the time of the end shall be the Uision Though it be long even about 400 years till this of the little Horn be fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes yet at the end for a certain the Vision will be accomplished To say nothing how its Antitype at another Time of the End even during the Time and Times and half a Time will have its completion too 18. Now as he was speaking with me namely At the hearing of his voice I was as much stounded thereat as before at his sight and so sinking down fell upon my face my Spirits retiring as in those that are in a deep sopor as if they were half dead And therefore our English Translation is not so exact that renders the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in a déep sléep on my face toward the ground Vatablus has it Sopore correptus cecidi in faciem 〈◊〉 in terram and Calvin Sopitus corrui c. And the vulgar Latin Collapsus sum pronus in terram Which therefore signifies a sounding fit that took him at the hearing the voice of the Angel Hence Daniel is concluded to have fallen twice to the ground the first time at the sight the second at the voice of the Angel says Maldonat Which naturally implies that saving in these sounding fits Daniel was perfectly awake and that this Vision was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly so called a Day-Vision not a Night-Vision or Divine Dream But he touched me and set me upright The Hebrew is He made me stand upon my standing that is By his touch he enabled me to stand upon my Feet again so great vertue was there in it And no wonder that the Aethereal and vivifical Body or vehicle of an Angel which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the marvellous energy thereof actuated also by so holy an Inhabitant should raise Daniel faln into a sound unto life again when holy Souls even in their terrestrial Tenements have done such marvellous cures and by the application of their own bodies have raised them to life that have been taken to be dead as Elisha did in the Widow's Child and Paul in Eutychus And here we see the Angel Gabriel Christ appearing in humane shape by way of prelude to his Incarnation to have a preludious mission as of an Apostle to preach to Daniel and to instruct him and to do Miracles also as the Apostles did For this is a priviledge of the Ministers of Christ's Kingdom the Malcuth of the God of Israel which is the Tenth Sephirah with the Cabbalists as Geburah the Fifth the Topick of the Powers belonging to that Kingdom of which doing Miracles is one And Gabriel here the Angel his name signifies the Power of God or the Strength of God 19. And he said Behold I will make thée know what shall be in the last end of the Indignation For this prediction of the wrath of God in the time of Antiochus against his People and the raging tyranny of Antiochus over them is the main drift of this Vision and here the Angel promises to tell what shall come at the end thereof which he does Ver. 25. That he shall be broken without hand For at the time appointed the end shall be All times and affairs are in the hands of God and he can determine as he pleases and at his appointed time the Heat of those Persecutions and Oppressions of the Iews under Antiochus shall have an end they being not to last passing 2300 days as was declared above by Palmoni that Prince of Angels and Men and of Israel especially 20. The Ram which thou sawest having Two Horns are the Kings of Media and Persia that is The whole race of those Kings from Cyrus to Darius Codomannus as is to be understood from Ver. 4. where the Ram is said to push West-ward and North-ward and South-ward which was not performed by any one King but by the succession For that Typical Ram says Gasper Sanctius rusht out of Persis an Oriental Quarter and turning himself to the South assaulted Aegypt Aethiopia and Libya to the North Pontus Scythia and Cappadocia and turning himself to the West he made himself Master of the Babylonians Assyrians I suppose he means Syrians and the Isles of the Mediterranean These things were not performed by one King but by the succession And Grotius particularizes for the main For upon towards the West