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truth_n	according_a	scripture_n	spirit_n	3,143	5	5.2045	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34097	A generall table of Europe, representing the present and future state thereof viz. the present governments, languages, religions, foundations, and revolutions both of governments and religions, the future mutations, revolutions, government, and religion of christendom and of the world &c. / from the prophecies of the three late German prophets, Kotterus, Christina, and Drabricius, &c., all collected out of the originals, for the common use and information of the English.	Comenius, Johann Amos, 1592-1670.	1670 (1670)	Wing C5507A; ESTC R24277	200,382	315

and learned Divines here in England as well as elsewhere and all possible wayes and means to have been used to discover any cheat or imposture which none have been able to do for this thirty years together To clear the Readers way to the things themselves we shall only give a brief account of the last most severe and rigorous examination of Drabricius in brief thus Drabricius seemed to promise from God victories and the Kingdom to Ragotzi and other things to others c. who yet was killed by the Turks in 1660. which most of all made his Prophesies suspected Those of his fraternity therefore seing all things go worse in Hungary and least they should all suffer for the fault of one they take councel together to remove from themselves all suspition of compliance or conspiracy with him The principal therefore among them was Felinus a Pastor of the Exciles at Puchow who wrote a book in latine called the Ignis Fatuus or false fire of Nicholas Drabricius Indeavouring to demonstrate all the Revelations of Drabricious either to be meer figments of his own brain or meer satanical delusions and dedicated to the Belgick Churches in Holand which yet those from whom he required it to be printed thought not advisable yet to do it but rather thought him too rash and hasty This Pastor dying according to Gods threatening by Revelations to Drabricius Veterinus another of the Seniors of the same Church not at all terrified at this event a chief instigator of Felinus undertakes the cause which the aforesaid Pastor lost his life in and by divers writings letters and epistles to divers persons bitterly renews the accusations and mightily urged the Edition of the false fire and assumed a Physician the more to help him therein So that new Dissentions Divisions Schismes Hatreds and Scandals arose and even those who were most perswaded of these Revelations began to hesitate and doubt Therefore taking counsel together they decreed to bring this cause before God in seting a part dayes of prayer and fasting the means to cast out Devils and lastly to give a Solemn Oath the onely ordained means of God to put an end to all striffe The Solemn Form of Prayer used among all both in Holand and else where we shall not insert here At this time one of the Juniors of the fraternity returned into Hungary sent by Comenius and others with these instructions 1. To inform the Brethren where ever in any place congregated of the modren state of the controversie and what we thought needfull to be done and to require a fraternal cooperation to take away scandals 2. That the state of the controversie lay in this Whether Father Nicholas Drabricius did really and in truth undergoe any divine Revelations or whether obstinately and impiously fained them Some Godly hope the first Paul Veterinus affirms the last They were to see therefore on what foundation the one and the other built And that it was decreed to commit the Judgment to God the Avenger And to bring him to an examination such as had never yet been by a most dreadful Oath which is the Divine Institution for the desiding of controversies and an extraordinary one also in such an extraordinary case And the very form thereof out of the Divine Scriptures to be offered to Drabricius which if he submit to and take that it is our duty to leave the Judgment and Vengeance to God And Veterinus if he will not rest in that to take heed least he provoke the just Vengeance of God in seeking to take the Sword of Vengance out of his hands And lastly whether Drabricius would confess and acknowledge or could remember or any wayes find out any thing of his own added or mixed therewith if he submitted to this determination With an Epistle to the Pastors and Elders of both the Churches Puchow and Ledna subscribed by I. Amos Comenius John Bitner Nicholas Gertichius Daniel Veterus Which we shall also omit and think it sufficient to set down the Oath it self only The Execration or Curse of the Oath shall be perform'd thus in these words I Nicholas Dribricius aggrieved with the suspition of some as if I did utter in the name of God words not commaned from God but rashly devised by my self and thereby draw off men from God to him that was no God which according to the Scripture is to be led into error by a spirit of Fornication and to go an whoring from God and is an Abomination worthy of death arrogantly to speak in the name of God what God has not commanded I therefore to testifie the truth in the sight of the God of truth and to free my self from that ungodly crime indeavoured to be cast upon me and my neighbours from all hurtful and pernicious error that they may not sin against the Innocent and by unbelief of the words of God harden themselves in impenitence and be a cause to others also to harden themselves Behold I take upon me all the Curses which against this kind of Iniquity God has either pronounced out of his most Holy Mouth or has demonstrated by Praesentanious examples of his just fury I therefore say boldly with David If I have done this if this Iniquity be found in my hands let the Enemy pursue my Soul and overtake it and tread down my life in the Earth and bring my Glory into the Dust And as such who Prophesie lyes in Gods name whom God sent not neither hath commanded them nor spake unto them yet for their own ends Prophesie a false Vision and Divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart as God hath condemned by his decree that they shall perish by Sword and and by Famine Likewise that the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing but prophesie vanity and divine lyes that they shall not be in the assembly of his people neither shall they be written in the writing of the House of Israel neither shall they enter into the Land of Israel that the people of God may know that he is the Lord God Behold out of the Mouth of God I pronounce the same against my self that if I be such a one it may happen to me in like manner as the Righteousness of God has spoken Amen Yea and if I have offered to bring strange fire out of the forge of my own brain and not taken from the Altar of the manifest Word of the Lord into the Tabernacle of the Church and to offer before the Lord Let the just Zeal of God shew upon me the example of Nadab and Abihu that fire may go forth from the presence of the Lord and devour and burn up me in the midst of my Brethren that I may dye before the Lord and Jehovah be sanctified in those that draw neer unto him and may be glorified in the sight of all his People Amen Moreover if my heart has declined from God and the Word of his

neither also th Angels until they are fulfilled I will finish what I have begun Let who so will be scandalized as he will Let this be for thy comfort that what thou hast wrote thou hast heard of me not from any one of men that are like unto thy self Be confident therefore with me my beloved Friend that it will come to pass that accusers will grow mute when the hour of God comes For the Word of the Lord will be an heavy burden to deriders But for us let us more fear God who has power to kill Body and Soul then mortal men who can do nothing but what God permits them That of yours God forgive us the hasty Edition of the Book I thus change Praise be unto God who has vouchsafed us to free our Consciences in not hiding from the Sons of Men those things which the Mouth of God hath spoken Hereunto Comenius again from the increased taunts of divers and filled with greater bitterness retorted If you Friend are so certain of Gods speaking to you that you are willing to seal it with your death your certainty will serve for your self but not those whom the contrariety of events renders uncertain And we see continual examples of such as have embraced errors for truth have been willing to lay down their lives for them as for the very most truth being perswaded nothing else in the sight of God then that they had believed taught and wrought things most true And yet therefore did not Error cease to be Error You give firm belief to those words spoke to you Thou art that my last Trumpet I but this perpetually remains a question whose voice that may be c. Do you bid us put our hope in God There is no where where I can fix the Anchor of my Hope but in him who knows the simplicity of my heart that I have feigned nothing here nor have added any thing to nor taken from nor changed those things which were brought in the name of God In the thing it self if there be found error the goodness of God will overlook the fault of humane frailty committed by no manner of fraud or design And this should be taken as a sudden confusion in the sight and presence of God instead of a chastisment more cautiously to lead our life But if yet at length it shall appear to have been the work of God even this my fluctuation must necessarily serve for the greater glory of God and the comfort or instruction of the Godly Although I as Moses should suffer for it in this life God only forbid that others or even all our Church should necessarily suffer ignominy and persecution for us Whereas you exhort to praise God that notice of these things are given to the Sons of men I know it is written that also the fury of men must at length praise God and to that end the wisedom of God is illustrated by the foolishness of men Yet the question remains what we are to do in the mean while Some Friends here perswade Silence Others to give glory to God and forsake Drabricius from whom alone almost these scandals do come Answer what you think and that presently I will expect your answer with uncessant sighs and breathings to God And indeed most open heartedly as at the Tribunal of God whither I cite you to appear Deal I say candidly with me but even now at length I adjure you by that tremendous Name the salvation of your Soul by not concealing that some of those things which are so manifestly false have been additaments of your own conjecture This if you shall do the scandals in great part will cease Because we are admonished that humane devisings are fallacious I know no more efficacious remedy and it shall be that God will judge you according to the Integrity of your heart and being propitious to us all bruise Satan under our feet although in our own shame and confusion May only the glory of Gods Truth stand unshaken and none of the Godly be made sad by us or for us much less the whole Church I again and again conjure you by God and your own Soul deal sincerely with me in this matter now at length The Holy good Spirit rule you Farewel To so many obtestations of his Drabricius returned his contestations more sharply upbraiding the pusillanimity of his Faith And wrote down advise and counsel what he should do not in his own words but of the very Oracle it self Revelat. 460. afterwards And at length also a Preface wherein referring all things written by him to God alone required them to be printed and made known to all Nations of the Earth as the last will of God Thereby taking all our fears upon himself wholly The Preface or Appeal to Gods Tribunal goes before the Revelations And therefore seeing so great learned and Godly a man as Comenius after so long deliberation and consultation with others has thought it his duty to publish and dedicate them to all the world let none think amiss that they are thus summarily hinted in English which very great use may be made of however they prove true or false And the more to confirm Comenius herein was that Drabricius was not alone but two other Prophets of God had gone before all testifying the same things for the main substance and scope thereof The first was Cotterus a German the second Christina a Polonian Gentlewoman All whom briefly thus Comenius compares together 1. In respect of their end for which they were raised viz. One and the same To stir up the Godly to attend to the works of God which he has now in hand in purging his Church with the fire of Persecutions and soon after in reforming it gloriously and inlarging it through all the residue of the Nations of the World 2. In respect of time Cotterus Visions began before the beginning of the Pcrsecution in Germany An. 1616. and ended in their heat 1624. Christina's in the middle about the time of Imprisonments Apostasies and begun dispersion of the Church An. 1628 1629. Drabricius's after their dispersion about the time of deliverance drawing on and with it from 1638 to 1664. and some continuations since to 1668. For an Argument that God never forsakes his 3. If you compare them in respect of Age. The first was of full Age or mans estate the second young the third old For a Testimony that t is indifferent with God to use the Wit Tongue Hand whether of Young perfect Age or Old 4. If in respect of Sex The first and the third Men the middlemost a Virgin to confirm that of Joel 2. 28. 5. If in respect of Condition The first was a Tradesman or Artizan to be banished afterwards for the Word of God The second a noble Virgin on both Parents side born in Banishment and to suffer new Banishment The third a Minister of God's Word setled in Banishment and to be recalled out of Banishment

Law to a strange Voice that my mouth should arrogantly speak in the name of God the words of him that is not God and my hands should write my own Imaginations Let the Lord give me for a Curse and Execration in the midst of my People making my tongue to rot in my Mouth and my hand to gangrene and perish in my Body And I Behold even I to these words of God so pronounced by the Command of God say Amen! Amen! Numb 5. v. 21 22. On the contrary if my heart be clear from the wickedness which my Accuser seeks to make me guilty of let the Lord arise for the fury of mine Enemies Let the Lord judge me according to my Righteousness and according to mine integrity let him pronounce for me the just searcher of hearts and the reins And if the words which I have hitherto spoke and writ have not been my words but in truth the words of God which he has testified to be as fire Jer. 23. 29. so God cause them to be as Fire and the People adversary to God as Wood which it may consume Jer. 5. 14. But if I have hitherto kept my self clear from the crime of adulterate words of God let God cause all these Curses to be of no effect or hurt and all my labours undergone by the command of God for the Nations of the Earth to be so much the more fruitful to multiply the seed of God upon the Earth As 't is promised Numb 5. 28. Amen! Amen! Amen! The Answer of the Ministers V. D. with the Elders of the Church of Puchow and Ledna to their Superintendent viz. Comenius FIlial obedience with desire of the divine protection in such times of so sad calamities every where c. Beloved Father in Christ your Letters dated to us joyntly and signed with the subscriptions of the Reverend Fathers I. B. and N. G. and D. V. were delivered to us by the hand of our beloved Brother S. I. safely arriving here the 8 th of July Whereby understanding your pleasures Reverend Fathers we have done what you required of us according to the instruction given Of the process of which whole Action behold we inform you sincerely and with a pure conscience in such sort as the things were transacted 1. First I the Pastor of the People of Puchow presently the same day that I received yours calling together the Elders of my Church and my fellow Labourer unsealed in their presence your letters that concern'd us jointly and perceiving the contents I wrote the next day early to the Brethren of Ledna and informed them that our fellow Brother sent to us was come and had brought singular commands to us all and entreated them to come unto us which they did the same 9 th of July at evening Where I delivered into Drabricious's hands those that concerned him and invited him to lodge with me all night and the rest should understand what the business was to morrow 2. The next day after publick prayers in the Holy Congregation we entered into mine the Pastor's House Where after a general salutation of Drabricius which could not be done conveniently in the Temple I said that we had an hard business before us and therefore need again begin with Invocation of mercy from God to obtain the Grace of the Holy Spirit When Drabricius said Do you pray here I will go aside into my Chamber and perform my prayers also And so went out 3. We therefore first singing that Psalm Come Holy Ghost c. we all prostrated our selves on our knees and powred forth our Groans to the Lord in a prayer appointed for this very purpose 4. After prayer we sate together in Assembly and the Pastor of the place giving thanks that they had appeared at his desire informed them what was to be done Then the Common Epistle to all was read Next the Oath prescribed for Drabricius at the horrour of which almost all of us stood astonished and terrified And Fr. Samuel gave his Instructions to be read 5. After some deliberation had upon these things Drabricius was called and being asked by the Pastor of the place whether he would hear the Letters from the Reverend Superintendents dated to this Assembly and understand the contents He assented adding I was not ignorant for some weeks what was about to be done concerning me For the Lord shew'd it to me If I had known before I would have took you along with me to see I reply'd let that alone in its own place Let us come to the business 6. First therefore was read unto him the common Epistle Then the form of the Oath but before this was read I did admonish and beseech him that he would weigh all things seriously For therein were terrible things and the matter here in agitation concerned the Salvation of his Soul And lastly the instructions given to Sam. Jun. To all which when he thereupon answered nothing He was again asked Whether he was willing to be dealt with according to these prescripts here He answered directly Yes I will 7. Whereupon the third Question was proposed Whether therefore he did account and would have accounted all his Revelations for truly Divine And whether he did yet assert all those things to be spoken to him and written of him by the Command of the Omnipotent God Jehova who is not only Merciful but is Just also without any additions He answered I do assert so Yea and I take it upon my Soul that nothing has been added by me and that nothing has been spoken by me for any lucre sake or in favour or hatred of any person 8. Proceeding further we asked Whether he would confirm it by such an Oath as was prescribed And again we exhorted him not to act precipitantly but to deliberate yea and to take time for deliberation that we would indulge him therein He answered There 's no need of deliberation And rising up and lifting up both his hands to Heaven He thus speak I take upon my soul whatever there is contained in these Revelations written by me has not at all been devised by me nor any thing of mine own added but only those very things which the Lord the Doinator has commanded to be written And I firmly believe the Holy Blessed Trinity will own all these for his as for those which are commanded to be written by the Eternal Wisdom it self 9. Entring forth therefore unto the Table and taking the form of the Oath into his hand he pronounced in order clearly distinctly all things omitting nothing rather here and there superadding some things for more vehement asseveration sakes with so great zeal that all we present seeing and hearing these things stood astonished Some of us also trembled and wept But in the very midst of the Oath he looked forth out of the Window which was open towards Heaven crying out Do you not see friends do you not see But we asked not what he saw which in conference with

Name of the living God tell me She I live you see And goes on to wash again Comenius again For Gods sake what is the matter may we believe our own Eyes She I live And your hand and foot whole and perfect Perfectly said she But what has been done She I was now with my Lord but am commanded to return to injoy his goodness in the Land of the Living Ask no more now to morrow I will note down the whole business So they sat down to supper and she with them very chearful and well But eat nothing Many Friends and Neighbours came in c. Afterwards she sung Psalms c. and next day wrote down all for a close of her Revelations which you have afterwards Of the whole Comenius sayes this is certain that it seemed a true and real death in our eyes and that she could not in a moment be restored to life health and full strength without the special and immediate Power of God intervening All other Divines also after various and different apprehensions of the thing yet were all at length inclined to think it a true Miracle c. And not long after there was a strict and solemn examination of her Visions and all these things in an Assembly of Divines where they could not consent to give their Judgment absolutly But only decreed silence to avoid all offence and scandal to the Church till God and time should discover further c. Also some years after another assembly met when events seemed not answerable to predictions where yet they could not condemn the thing but commit it yet unto God She lived after this fifteen years married twelve had two Sons and three Daughters one Son and one Daughter yet alive The brief Series of the remarkable Vicissitudes of her life added to her Funeral Sermon was this Christina Poniatovia was born of Noble Parents at Lescina in Prussia An. 1610. And with the same Parents suffering Persecution in their Country for the Gospel came into Bohemia An. 1615. Whence being again driven away with them by the storm of Persecutions and going into Moravia she was commited to some Noble Matrons to be bred up in Services and the exercises of virtue and at length the last time removed with others into Banishment She lost her Mother An. 1626. her Father 1628. She began to be admitted to that extraordary and miraculous work of God An. 1627. which ceased in the recalling of her dead in the Eyes of men into life An. 1626. at Lesna in Poland where three years after by the will of God and her Tutors she was married c. She underwent several examinations first of her Father a solid Divine and most violent opposer of Neoterick Revelations who endeavoured both by Letters dehortations obtestations and severe threatnings to stop her till by all her answers and his own Eyes he apprehended the error to be in himself and gave glory to God The next was of Divines Politicians Physitians inquiring most curiously into all things but could find nothing but the Finger of God c. Then by the Pastors and Elders of the Church at the hour of her death as before And the worst of all was of the Devil both at the beginning and afterwards several times undergoing horrible temptations c. Besides all the Divine Tryals and Testimonies c. Very remarkable also was the Devils Mock-Games that he played about this time by raising other false extasies in some Whereof Comenius mentions two First of a Virgin undergoing Extasies in a Village which Christina's Father passed through with a throng of people about her An. 1628. Speaking wonderful things in her Fits foretelling Persecutions of the Church exhorting to repentance and perswading to constancy in the Faith c. Hereby it was thought that God had raised up others in like manner to confirm the same things But after strict inquiry all appeared to be nothing but a few frivolous Dreams of one sick or at least slight Mockings of Satan But more cunningly the Devil plaid his part at Geneva the same year whereby the Learned there were for a time prejudiced against these Revelations when as before both Diodat Vedelius and others by letters approved them But the Devil at last smelt of Hell and the truth of these thereby more appeared The story in short this The Son of a Senator twelve years old was seized with a Disease by and by began to speak unusual things at length asserts that he was that very Spirit which had shewn Lions Men and other wonderful Visions that should certainly come to pass to Christina a Virgin of Poland c. which things at first though they seemed to hang together well enough and further confirmed the Divines so that they wrote letters thereof Yet when by degrees he at length swarved unto frivolous matters and at last things manifestly absurd in the presence of two Divines one of them said I see the finger of Satan c. Which mockages continuing for some dayes made all suspected So that after solemn prayers and fasting of the Senate Pastors and the Church during which the unclean Juglar began strange postures and to be troublesome c. amongst other things saying They will not beleive that I am a good Angel sent of God But I will prove it by a Miracle And snatching some way or other a Knife thrust it into his Breast and drew it out again unhurt and fell upon the ground crying Behold a Miracle At last the unclean spirit seeing he must be gone out wreath divers wayes the youths body belching out of his mouth Blasphemous and obscene words till he was forced to give place to the prayers of the Church and the Power of God But the youth was conscious of nothing c. More cunning yet was that to invalidate Drabricius's Visions of a Souldier in 1659. who falling sick got leave to return home and languishing away seemed to dye and was ready to be buried but when the Neighbors came to his burial they felt his Breast to be something warm and defer'd it till the Morrow and then the next day for eight dayes no other sign of life appearing But he the Night before Burtal rises up declares that he had special Commands to Prince Ragotzi under whom he had served requires admission into his Castle two miles off Is admitted the Chancellor and Master of the Hall and others present relates his Commands from God That the Prince take Arms Couragiously against the Turk that God would raise up the Emperor of Mosco to help him who should come and besiege Constantinople with an huge Army At the same time that the Prince go against Buda the Metropolis of Hungary at Whitsontide to take it Rehearsing these things on his bended knees he arose praysing God that he had granted him to fulfil his Commands These things could not but seem contrary to Drabricius's The Prince it should seem believed him for he acted according to these things

and consider But to such as are of a single heart and have a light kindled by thy Law and Prophets a light burning and shining in truth Rev. 259. Give also that very Kings and Princes with Queens and Priests and all the People may so read these things as Josias the King with his Princes the words of thy threatnings to tremble at thy Judgements and repent Drabr Rev. 325. Thou thy self O Lord work in those to whom the voice of thy Trumpet shall reach that thy Word may be as fire consuming the Abominations of Desolation Rev. 559. And whomsoever these voices of thine shall sound about that together thy Coelestial Light may shine about That there may be none so blind with Zeal nor a Saul so obstinate in his Opinion that may not fall down prostrate and cry Lord What wilt thou have me to do Seeing the Abyss of thine Anger to have opened it's Jaws to swallow up false Christians except they repent Rev. 325. But if even yet they will not permit thy Witnesses to speak but will command them to hold their peace will stop their ears it will be high time that thy self O Lord speak for thine own self Speak therefore speak by the work it self by accomplishment of the Predictions that they may understand that it is Thou who speakest and doest Bring forth thy Witnesses as thou hast promised whom the World may be full of Rev. 569. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do Defer not for thine own sake O my God! In his Appeal before his Epitome such passages as these occur O thou Adorable dwelling in the Heavens give testimony that Nothing is here offered unto men in thy Name which is feigned of men and onely covered over with thy Name That so if this Light of Revelations for so the Book is called be lighted and kindled by thee in thy Church it may be as inextinguishable as the light of the Sun and Stars in the Firmament But if otherwise and a trap be laid for thy Christian People bring to naught the fraud with the Zeal of thine own self O Lord God of Zebaoth That as every Plant which the Heavenly Father has not planted may be rooted up so every light which the Father of Lights has not kindled may be put out Yea as Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire before the Lord which was not commanded but were consumed with fire from the Lord So let the like Example be now shewn O God! That if any have dared and do dare to offer the figments of their own brain in the Name of the Light of thy Revelations they may fall down dead in thy Presence and the Presence of all thy People By thy commands these things are brought to pass Behold we again speak seeing thou commandest and drivest us with terrors The words received not from men but from thee whether they will hear or whether they will forbear Never man spake as Christ and never spake Satan as these even as God speak by his Prophets 1. Thundring against the sins of men 2. Denouncing Punishments and whence except they repent 3. Offering Grace to the Repentant Which three so holy things Satan neither will nor can counterfeit And for men they are above the wit of man especially of these men Kotterus an Artizan and most simple Ideot Christina a young Virgin by her Age uncapable of such things Drabricius an old doting Man as his Enemies traduce him Do they not then speak things more then humane Therefore being neither Humane nor Diabolical they must certainly be Divine But I cease to contend with Arguments whether these things be Divine and not Humane committing it to every mans own Conscience and circumspection and the divine Illumination For as none can convince by Arguments whether it be Day or Ninght except the Sun be risen to cause day and men open their eyes So none can better demonstrate that God speaks then God himself speaking and man attending to God and that the Voice of God be sealed also with Omnipotent Effects That the very things may speak for themselves and their Author By the light only we see the Light and things done by day c. Wilt thou know therefore O Man whether God speaks here three things are to be done 1. To Pray Lord open mine eyes that I may see whether it be thou that speakest or a Spirit of Delusion 2. To hearken to the Voice of him that speaks That is to know and examine all things in order and not be ignorant of the particulars and all circumstances 3. To look about circumspectly whether any such things be now a doing in the World or no c. If for all this any one likes not to read this Book let him do as he likes best Let him turn away his eyes stop his cars harden his heart c. And if he will add furies also let him rear the Book in pieces cut it burn it as Joakim did Jer. 36. Or fall on Gods Witnesses as on Jeremiah or Baruch or Steven c. But whosoever thou art that art wise take heed of Precipices 'T is dangerous to meddle with Prophetick Matters 'T is most safe counsel to abstain from these men Specially the Persons that undergoe and tell such Dreams Raptures Apparitions being otherwise innocent and harmless Rather say as the Pharisees of Paul We have found no evil in this man But if a Spirit have spoken unto him or an Angel let us not fight against God He wages War with God who by force seeks to oppress the Spirit of Prophesie But if by no obtestations we can obtain moderation with men I humbly throw my self prostrate with this whole Cause at thy feet Lord Jesus who art constituted Judge of quick and dead distinguish betwixt and pronounce with thy true Mouth for the Truth against a lie But there are so many frauds and cheats in the World will some say But however the Apostle bids Despise not Prophesie Try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. Try all things hold fast that which is Good We will but add lastly having gone so far already beyond our intent at the first in these Apologetick Discourses and Collections the most weighty passages out of their solemn Prayer and appeal to Christ in that publick form made for the tryal of Drabicius by the forecited dreadful Oath All for the further evidence and confirmation of the whole matter with the candid and ingenuous Reader and to give the greater authority if it may be to such a prophetick History before we pass to the Prophesies themselves We know the impudence of that Enemy who is so bold as to mix himself with thy Sons and to counterfeit an Angel of Light when he is but the Prince of Darkness and to offer himself to be a Leader and Counsellor to men when he is the worst and vilest Betrayer and so to colour over his Prophets and Apostles as to appear thy Prophets and

Apostles Yea and to boast and set off himself for thee Antichrist for Christ But we alas are too slow and heartless to apprehend his so many Impostures unless thou comest in to relieve O Helper He will confound subvert overturn all things But where shall remain thy Elogium O Son of God! that thou appearedst to destroy the works of the Devil Appear therefore O appear unto us also in the present decision and danger we now suffer from Satan sowing among us Tares of scandalous Doctrine and Life and of false prophets or else false zeal against them Ah! suffer us not to be befooled this or that or the other way for thy Holy Names sake Let the Father of Lies execute and perform the work of Seduction and lying wonders in them that perish who have not believed the Truth We thy humble Flock who have chosen to adhere to thy Word Let thy holy Spirit preserve us from the seduction of Errors Or if it please thee to try us yet let it not be as to our souls Whether as to Goods Health or Life it self as to Job Paul and the Sons and Daughters of Job thy Will be done But deliver not our Souls to his power we beseech thee to wit an Understanding and Will to befool puzzle and pervert us That we may neither receive the works of Satan for Gods as Ahab or abominate the Work of God for Satans as the Pharisees who deluded by Satan execrated Christ as Satan by it thereby blaspheming God himself Behold behold he goes on to sow the Tares of so many scandals amongst us also who suffer for thy Name Also false Prophesies as we fear or false Lights to discern whether truly Divine and from thee But thou O Lord with whom is light and who alone seest all things and alone knowest to distinguish Error from Truth Why hold hold'st thou thy peace at these things Why hold'st thou thy peace so long so many years Is now thy Zeal or Fire wanting to thy Clouds to consume those that bring strange fire into thy Presence or to shew who is thy true Prophet or not in the sight of all thy People Is there wanting a Sword to restrain Paschur the Smiter of thy Jeremiah's or a blow to strike Hananias the false Prophet dead This year thou shalt die and he did so Jer. 28. 16 17. Or captivity to lead away Amazias the Informer against thy Amos. O Lord the Dominator If any Crafts-master and Contriver of Cheats have befooled any one amongst us so as to reckon his sad trifling Songs or mournful Ditties for true Revelations Divine and to vent them to others deceiving and being deceived Succour him succour the rest of us that we may be as thy Mouth separating the precious from the vile But now if any one of us willingly and knowingly give up himself as an Instrument to Satan and in thy Name exercises impostures Lord make it manifest and set forth such a Messenger of Satan for an Example to the World Thou sparedst not the Angels that proudly sinned neither spare these who imitating Satanical pride draw away themselves and others into Precipices of destruction On the other side forsake not thy holy Jeremiahs or Michea's that are bruised with a petulant Tongue or Hand or thrust into Prison But all Paschurs their Smiters fill with fear on every side every where that their eyes may see the truth of thy Words And indeed accordingly God begins to speak for himself so that there is no need for man to speak for him more But where and how First in the very Act of Drabricius 's Oath For there was this Dilemma If I have not spoken thy Words O God! smite me in pieoes in the sight of all If thine shew that they are thine by fulfilling their truth But behold he doth not yet sinite him but suffer him to live very old and on the contrary hath smote several of his Adversaries with death according to the threatnings of God by him and particularly one of the Pastors a new one among those Exiles who became a new Adversary to him Therefore he gives testimony that they are not others words Secondly In the Events themselves much fulfilled or daily fulfilling c. Therefore what need of more words c. But to leave all to God who alwayes accomplishes his words first or last in his own time and his own way And thus we have at length brought a long-boding preamble to an end which hath exceeded indeed the bounds due to this place But being in we knew not how to give of nor forbear such material passages for the gaining greater credit to the ensuing Relations and which was almost absolutely necessary to prevent prejudice and offence against things of so strange a nature That so the Courteous Reader might the better take in good part the History what ever heed he give to the Prophesie For we divine full well that most will but look upon them as the Dreams or Ravings of two old doting Seniors now going down with their gray Hairs in sorrow to the grave But be they of God Man or the Devil they are the strangest things that ever yet appeared on the Stage of the World And for that end only we relate them here as observable History and matter of Fact and thereby if they prove true the future State of Europe And have further thought fit to represent the chief and most material Things that Comenius has recorded in behalf of their Truth and Verity or wrote by way of Apology for them Which having done we leave it to Time and Providence to discover and prove them either Verities or Delusions But however whether one or the other most Remarkable And yet one would think multitude of years should teach wisdom and make the experienced past all such dotages Comenius is aged learned sober and godly known of all men hath had above forty years knowledge and tryal of these matters as has been said before And has observed and delivered more convincing Arguments for their Divinity than any has or can against them Has had the Testimony of the most illuminated Divines of Christendom Has found none to convince or condemn them of Imposture upon fair tryal and examination which most reasonable request is all that is desired in the face of all the Christian World and ought not in justice be denyed them Till which let all men be silent before God For 't is better to suspend Judgment than pass it rashly None of these things have been done clandestinely or managed inconsiderately They stand ready for the Bar of Mans Tribunal and in the mean while appeal to God If they must needs be reproached for these things sayes Comenius and that Christian People will sin against God and their own Souls for their parts they will like Jeremy appeal to God and Men. First And above all things to God the Supream Witness Judge and Avenger of this Cause and then to those who

5th of July in the year of Christ 1664. which is of my Age the 76th of my Ministry the 48th of my Exile the 36th of the beginning of Revelations made unto me from the Lord the 26th A PRAYER Written by Command of the Lord and my God in the year 1653. April 18. and in the year 1664. June 30. commanded to be put for a close of my Revelations O Eternal God! Holy Father Incomprehensible in VVisdom Judgment Counsel Grace and Justice Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier Father Son and holy Spirit Thou Holy One of Israel who from the beginning hast founded the Earth and the Heaven of Heavens are the work of thy Hands VVho sittest on the Throne of inestable Glory in the midst of thy innumerable Hosts Cherubims and Seraphims and Men triumphing through Martyrdoms ministring to Thee day and night and singing Holy Holy Holy Jehovah Zebaoth Behold amongst them me also praising thee O God! Acknowledging thee to be the Lord with all the Earth worshipping Thee the Father everlasting For that Thou hast form'd me a frail mass or lump of Clay for a small Vessel of thy grace and hast call'd me forth by my own proper Name out of my Mothers womb and hast written my Name in the Lambs Book of Life And in these last days of the World in a Nation which hath known thy Name and heard the Voice of thy Trumpet going forth from thy Throne hast set me upon the Walls of thy Jerusalem thy beloved Church for a Witness and Watchman and for a Voice of one crying to the Nations That openly in the sight of all Nations I might declare the Day of Vengeance to the Worshippers of Idols and to all false Worships of those to do not rightly acknowledge Thee the Tri-Une God who livest eternally And again The Day of Grace to the Nations of the Earth to acknowledge in the true Light interior and exterior Thee the living God and thy pure and chaste Worship Such as the Angels perform unto thee in Heaven and thou wouldst have perform'd to thee without Idolatrous Errors on Earth out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned in Body Soul and Spirit unanimously and humbly in simplicity of Heart Behold me thy pitiful little VVorm and most inconsiderable Dust Refuse or Off-scouring at the Threshold of thy House thy beloved Church and of that small Portion which thou hast gathered to thy self under the Name of the Brethren of Bohemia Behold me in the days of its cruel Persecution and sad Exile in another Land the Hungarian burdened and hanging down my Head with the very Disease of Old Age I did hear thy voice of thee the living God speaking unto me I know not how but speaking I know what For intelligibly I did perceive thy Voices and clearly apprehended the sence yea and moreover I my self did speak unto thee the Invisible I did ask Questions and make Answers All things with the unconfused and undisturbed Powers and Forces of my Mind And my eyes saw the whole World in thy hand as a little Globe and I heard thee explaining those Mysteries how thy hand contains all things And those other things which would never have come into my mind nor were suggested by any of Mortals I did receive from thee alone my God! with fear day and night and did imprint them in my Memory or also through the● commanding in Tables and Papers But thy face I a man of poluted lips never saw save onely thy hand pierced through with a Nail once extended towards me and put under my left Arm-pit when thou swaredst That thou wouldst neither leave thy Cause nor me thy Servant And thou hast kept faith O faithful One In the sight of mine Enemies Domestick and Forreign And that in sleep I beheld thee my beloved Saviour in thy diffrent Age and Habit with Joy and Tears acknowledging mine indignity and with covered face throwing my self down at thy feet and kissing them and perceiving the Taste of Eternal Life with Sweetnesses unutterable by me For thou madest me to see even the Joys of the Elect in Heaven as also the Torments of the Damned in Hell and what things in the world also in respect both of Church and State should be hereafter till even thy illustrious Return to Judgement Which things I faithfully without any fraud in simplicity of heart with groans to thee whether thou hadst commanded by night or by day did refer and put down into writings Adding nothing of my own and respecting nothing of my own nor any other thing besides thy Glory And bearing many Prejudices Reproaches Cavils Twenty six whole Years and Ten Months and Three Days Till now in this Year 1664. an end being put unto thy work thou my Lord and my God hast commanded to close and shut up all these things with this Prayer Hear therefore O Heavens and perceive with your ears O Earth Behold I conclude dutifully I conclude with weeping Falling down at thy feet Lord Jesus Kissing thy Wounds and Marks and pouring out my Soul before thee I ask humbly I ask confidently First that thou wouldst leave thy Holy Spirit for a Guide Counsellor and Comforter unto me even until Death and through him wouldst pour out a plentiful shower of Benediction upon all thy Speeches which thy mouth hath brought forth in these last days of the World by me thy sorry Servant which I receiving from thy mouth have sealed up by thy Command and by a Man whom thou hast adjoyned to me for an help have made known first indeed to the Hungarian Nation then afterwards to other Nations also Grant O holy God! That all to whom the sound of thy Trumpet shall reach may acknowledge that they have come forth from thee that thou mayest be glorified in all Nations of the Earth All which sanctifie O God! in thy Truth to acknowledge thy word through all Nations and Tongues and thy Self to be the Truth the Way and the Life Cause O God! That Kings Princes Subjects and Doctors or Teachers of the Gospel with their Hearers and Parents with Children may be one in thee and the truth of thy Word and may know thee the One onely God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent by whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made in the Unity of the holy Spirit God undivided in Power Wisdom Goodness Majesty and Glory blessed for ever I ask O God! I ask That all the Islands of the Sea may now wax silent before thee that all the Ends of the Earth may be afraid and fly to thee May assume new strength may be carried with Wings as Eagles and may run and not be weary with us to thee the Fountain of Salvation who speakest Righteousness and art sufficient to save nor art delighted with the death of a Sinner O Shepherd of Men Convey over but even now in the last days all Nations under thy Pastoral Rod that they may be brought into the Bond