Treatise 5. Which therefore doth confirm and corroborate and place beyond all exception the Orthodox Protestant Interpretations of those Visions that concern the Church of Rome which in this last Age have been made so clear and every way so natural and congruous that this one thing granted of their Idolatry there cannot be the least scruple of the truth and congruity of the rest of the Applications 6. And I cannot but adore the faithfulnesse of Divine Providence that has furnished his Church with these Oracles to be the Guide of the Faithfull in these latter Ages which are as it were the dregs of those times which the Spirit of Prophecy has set no good character upon wherein there is such an Inundation of Wickednesse and Prophanenesse that there is scarce any Faith to be found upon earth But that Church which has deluded the world with so many Fictions could never forge those Prophecies that are so punctually true and so cuttingly set out all her grosse Miscarriages and as expresly foretell her Ruine unlesse she will humble her self and pluck in her horns lay aside her bold boasts of Infallibility and be content to be taught to cast away her Idols and be cured of her Dropsie and unnatural thirst after the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus 7. Nor can I on the other side sufficiently admire the stupidity of some of our own and their grosse ingratitude to Divine Providence that have so slight a regard to a Book of that mighty weight and moment as the Apocalypse is and think it such a subject as that any good Wit must needs mis-place his time if he meddle with it which is more then a Pagan irreverence to so holy and so important Oracles The Romans of old had another esteem for the Verses of the Sibylls Nihil enim ità custodiebant neque sanctum neque sacrum quemadmodum Sibyllina Oracula as Dionysius Halicarnasseus testifies And it was an high honour to be the Keepers much more the right Expounders of them But that which God of his mercy offers to all such is either the idlenesse frivolousness or profaneness of the spirits of men that it is scarce accepted of any 8. The truth is most men are loath to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be messengers of ill news to the greatest that is to say to the corruptest part of Christendome but rather affect the glory and security of being accounted of so humane of so sweet and ingratiating a temper as that they can surmize well of all mens Religions and so think to conciliate to themselves the fame of either civil and good Natures or of highly-raised and released Wits though it be indeed but a spice of the old abhorred Gnosticism that can comply with any Religion and make a fair tolerable sense of all 9. But these are such high strains of pretense to Wit or Knowledge and Gentility as I must confess I could never yet arrive to nor I hope ever shall though I am not in the mean time so stupid in my way as to think I can write thus freely without offence And yet on the contrary I can deem my self no more uncivil then I do him that wrings his friend by the nose to fetch him out of a Swound 10. I am not insensible how harsh this charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome will sound in some ears especially it being seconded with that other of Murther and that the most cruel and barbarous imaginable and finally so severely rewarded with an impossibility of Salvation to any now so long as they continue in Communion with that Church But I believed therefore I spake and have no reason to recall my words or to have concealed the truth that their fishing may become lesse successfull in these parts and that it may be with my Countrey-men according to that in Salomon Surely in vain the net is spred in the sight of any bird And therefore this is to open their eyes that they may see what snares of destruction are laid for them and how those that promise others liberty are themselves the servants of corruption and how they that take upon them to be the onely Absolvers from sin are themselves held fast in the snares of eternall death and do as necessarily illaqueate all others therein whom they proselyte to their Religion so far are they from giving them any effectual Absolution 11. I doubt not but many will be prone to cry out This is a very rude piece of Uncharitablenesse to all Romanists But I say it were a most perfidious kinde of Civility even to them themselves to say nothing of the Injury to our Church and Countrey to declare otherwise But if this be the main Odium that sticks upon so true and usefull a Conclusion that it is so far estranged from the spirit of Charity hear but this brief Parable Reader and then I will leave it to thy self to judge and conclude There was a certain Knight bravely mounted as it might seem and in goodly equippage in bright armour a rich scarf about his shoulders and a large plume of feathers in his Helmet who was bound for the Castle of Health seated on an high Hill not unlike to the Domicilium Salutis in Cebes his Table which therefore he easily kept in his eye But the way he was in being something stony and rough and leading not so directly as he thought to the desired Castle he diverted out of the way and descended into a green Plain but not knowing whether it was all passable to the Castle called to some Loyterers there in the field to enquire of them who came right willingly to the Knight scraping many legs to him and desiring him to tell his demands 12. There was an old Shepherd likewise not far off who by that time this idle people had got to the Knight had come down to him also Friends said he to those men he called Is the way passable and safe through this green Plain to yonder Castle pointing to the Castle of Health with his Warder Very safe may it please your Worship said they and shrugging their shoulders and scraping many legs asked a Largesse of the Knight pretending they had been at common work not far off Whereupon the Knight put his hand into his pocket and gave them liberally But are there no Bogs said he nor Lakes betwixt this and the Castle Some small inconsiderable Sloughs it may be said they but you will meet with the Holy Society of the Wipers every-where who will be ready to wipe you as clean as a Clock before you come at the Castle And being so excellently well mounted as we see you are namely upon that famous Steed renowned over all the world the infallible-footed Aplanedo so good an Horse as that he never stumbles your Worship need fear no disaster at all Besides the Beast God blesse him has a Nose like any Hound and by a
Imprimatur Sam. Parker ERRATA In the Pref. to the Exposit. pag. 4. l. 2. Interims read in terms In the Exposit. p. 11. l. 1. r. the Church in Thyatira p. 53. l. 21. r. in Thyatira p. 107. l. 26. r. event In the Antidote p. 11. l. ult for at r. all p. 27. l. 17. r. impossible or p. 91. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Together with A Brief Discourse of IDOLATRY with Application to the Church of ROME By HENRY MORE D. D. PROV 12. 19. The lying tongue is but for a moment but the lip of Truth shall be established for ever London Printed by James Flesher 1669. To the Right Honourable John Lord Robarts Baron of Truro Lord Privy Seal Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and one of his Majestie 's most Honourable Privy COUNCIL My Lord WHat things single are usually thought sufficient to determine ones choice of a Patron to any publick Writing whether it be private Obligation from particular Favours or the Desire of leaving to Posterity a just and honourable Testimony to the Parts and Vertues of some excellent Person or the design of obtaining the Patronage and countenance of such a Person to what we adventure to make publick as is able by his Learning Judgement and publick Repute to protect it from Injury all these do so happily conspire in your Lordship that I should have thought it an Omission unpardonable if I had not taken this opportunity of paying your Lordship this due respect and of doing that right to the Truth I here professe as to put it under the wings of so fit and able a Patron Which still ought to be done with the greater alacrity there being that Providentiall Coincidence of things that I should have a Book ready in the Presse at that very time that our Gracious Sovereign did think good to conferre upon your Lordship that great Honour and Trust of being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Which conjuncture of Circumstances could not but excite me with greater readinesse to make your Lordship this congratulatory Present upon your new Honour Which all good Christians that know the inflexible uprightnesse of your spirit and cordiall adherence to the Apostolick Faith and just Interest of Reformed Christendome cannot but congratulate For this it is indeed My Lord that has begot in me a more special esteem of your Lordship that in this instable and uncertain Age you have with that steadinesse of minde and clearnesse of Judgement stuck to the Truth and Purity of the Protestant Religion as discerning the vast difference betwixt it and Popery which yet too many now-adays either because they are removed too great a distance from all Religion or else because their sight is extremely dim in matters of this nature can not or will not discern But this is spoke with a more particular regard to the second part of this small Volume I present your Lordship withall But the first also has its speciall sutablenesse to the Circumstances your Lordship is placed in For by how much more power any one is intrusted with by any Protestant Prince by so much the more he is concerned to understand how sacred a Province he undertakes and how expresly that Religion and Profession is owned in the Holy Prophecies Christ has delivered to his Church above and against the barbarous and idolatrous Tyrannie of the Church of Rome Which things are set out with that plainnesse evidence and easiness in this Exposition of the Epistles to the Seven Churches that I hope no impartial Reader can fail of being made exceeding sensible of the Sacrednesse of the Protestant Religion and Interest by the perusall thereof Besides that there are some notable Hints in these Oracles for the more happy and secure management of the Affairs of Reformed Christendome I shall onely name that passage to the Sardian Church Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast c. The Verse runs out into a dreadfull Commination of heavy Judgements to the Angel of the Church of Sardis for his loosenesse and slipperinesse in those points of Apostolick Doctrine which the Reformers had recovered into the knowledge of so great a part of the world And amongst the things that they had heard that voice of the Angel Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins c. was not the least articulate Whereby the Church of Rome was openly declared to be that Babylong the Great the Mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth as also the Pope with his Clergie to be that notorious Antichrist This the Sardian Church had received from their Evangelicall Predecessours And it had been their everlasting establishment never to have for got it never to have let it die or smothered it But what mischief the halting betwixt two Opinions is apt to doe and the not taking notice how sacred a thing the Protestant Religion is in the sight of God and how rejectaneous that of the Church of Rome I believe neither your Lordship nor any one else that has his eyes opened either into History or the Affairs of the world can be ignorant of or if he be a good Christian make the observation without regrett and sorrow But the Prospect of what is to come is more pleasing and comfortable which is the state of the Church of Philadelphia into which the Sardian Church that is to say Reformed Christendome or the Protestant Churches are to passe as being the next successive Intervall Which therefore cannot but be a Note of main importance for all Reformed States and Kingdomes to stear their Affairs by namely to bend their course thitherward whither they are pointed to by the Finger of God himself in his Holy Oracles For they sail as it were with winde and tide whose carriage of Affairs approaches the nearest to the purpose of Divine Fate Which is lively pourtray'd all along in this stupendious Book of Prophecies written by S. John The most pleasing and enravishing part whereof is that which is typify'd or prefigured by the Church of Philadelphia the Church of Brotherly love Which is the next Scene Divine Providence has designed to introduce And which all those do most grosly oppose who for difference in matters not revealed in holy Scripture nor necessary to Salvation think they have pretense enough with all unchristian keennesse and bitternesse of spirit to reproach and inveigh one against another to nourish the highest Animosities and to watch all opportunities of persecuting ruining and trampling one another into the Dirt. As this is extremely unchristian in it self so is it also diametrically opposite to that Dispensation that God intends to introduce into his Church as the chiefest Blessing he has in store for her and is as it were knocking at the door to enter if the lovd noise of hot and quarrelsome Brawls about matters of smaller moment as indeed all things are exceeding small
purify'd Gold And white rayment that thou mayst be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakednesse do not appear Groan then earnestly in this O thou spiritlesse Laodicea desiring to be cloathed upon with that spiritual house which is from Heaven that being so cloathed thou mayst not be found naked For while thou art in this earthly Tabernacle thou oughtest to account it a burthen and not to set up thy staff in the enjoyments of this life because all things are peacefull and prosperous with thee Not that I would advise thee to shorten thy days here but that being thus cloathed by this spiritual Vestment Mortality might be swallowed up of life And it is the Spirit of life and the Divine Love that worketh in thee this one great thing that thou so greatly wantest and yet art insensible thereof And anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayst see That is Cleanse thy self with such a due measure of Mortification and Purification of the inward man from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit that thou mayst attain to the Divinely-moral Prudence which will enable thee to have a right judgement and discerning in all things This therefore is the Collyrion which I would advise thee to anoint thine eye-sight with even the purgation of thy self from all the Animal Corruptions that thou mayst perfect the inward Righteousnesse in my fear For the outward alone carries none to Heaven The Ointment I prescribe will indeed smart but without it thou wilt still continue blind and never finde the way to everlasting Salvation 9. As many as I love I rebuke I deal plainly truly and faithfully with thee and not out of any ill will is it that I thus rebuke thee But it is ex amore benevolentiae though not ex amore complacentiae For as thou art thou art but a nauseous and irksome spectacle to me And therefore I thus rebuke thee and instruct thee that thou mayst amend And chasten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which signifies to chastise and scourge as well as to instruct Which therefore may seem to be the commination of some external Calamity and Affliction that Christ would bring upon the Laodiceans if they did not repent them of their remissness and in such a way as themselves may haply be the causes of through their Remissnesse and Luke-warmnesse For that former Philadelphian Zeal and Activity ceasing which that Church exercised in the behalf of the Interest of the Kingdome of God their enemies may more then ordinarily encrease upon them especially the Devil being let loose and being very active to deceive the Nations whom they should counter-plot by being as active to convert them to the Truth And this may be the time wherein the Prediction of Gog and Magog is to be fulfilled who are said to be gathered together to battel and to encompasse the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City which in this state is termed the Church of Laodicea but in that Vision the Camp of the Saints because there were not onely many Saints amongst them of the old Philadelphian strain but that they were still in their externall frame an holy people and an holy City not prophaned by the Gentiles that is to say not polluted by Heathenish Superstition and Idolatry and Imposture and Cruelty nor brought under their power and dominion that were Which yet was once the condition of the Holy City for a time and times and half a time or forty two months Apoc 11. 2. 10. And it is still called the beloved City also for the same reason but not the new Jerusalem descended from Heaven because so generally that new and Heavenly nature was lost amongst them But this Church of Laodicea is still beloved of Christ partly for her own sake and partly for her deceased Sister's sake the lovely Philadelphia whom she so much resembles in all her externall features that dearest Spouse of Christ. And therefore the Title of the beloved City agrees very well with this passage in the present Text Whom I love I rebuke yea and scourge too For these streights that the Laodiceans are to be cast into by the Siege of Gog and Magog seems the most probable way to rowze them out of their Lukewarmnesse and lazy Formality But that things may not run the hazard of growing worse and worse nor there be an infinite repetition of the vicissitude of Scenes on the Stage of this Earth Providence will knock off at such a time as that the wicked and prophane Rabble of the world shall not again get the dominion over his true Church but he will put a period to the Contest by a deluge of Fire from Heaven as it is intimated in that Vision But this is more then falls to the share of this present verse Be zealous therefore and repent That is Amend thy dead Formality and Lukewarmnesse by attaining to the Spirit of life through Mortification and Regeneration that so thou mayst recover the old Philadelphian Zeal and Love For this is the onely thing thou wantest 11. Behold I stand at the door and knock Do not pretend Difficulties I am ready not onely to assist thee but do also importune thee I suggest good Motions to thee do thou but pursue them and improve them If any man hear my voioe and open the door that is If any man obey those dictates of Conscience and overtures of Light and Grace that Christ ever and anon offers him and so becomes sincere in all things and not willingly offends him in any thing great or small which will not fail to be done where the desire is sincere and this sincere desire is the Door that lets in Christ for he passes into us through an unfeigned hunger and thirst after Righteousness then says he I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me That is I will communicate my Nature and Spirit unto him and he shall eat my flesh which is meat indeed and drink my bloud which is drink indeed that is to say He shall partake of my body bloud not in Symbols onely which ye doe well to keep up till I come but in a true and living way whereby that shall be accomplished I in my Father and ye in me and I in you If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our aboad with him Wherefore being thus replenished with the God of life and the Father of lights thou canst not fail of being full of the Spirit and of all alacrity and readinesse to every good work Thy Luke-warmnesse and Dulnesse will goe away 12. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne And that thou mayst be the more effectually rowzed up out of this Tepidity and Lethargicalnesse thou shalt not onely enjoy me and my Father on this Earthly
Magistrate by how much more kinde and loving to one another and by how much more seriously affected for the advancing the publick good and the endeavouring the common welfare of all mankind which will introduce the Philadelphian Intervall by so much more near they may reckon the approach of the downfall of Antichrist and the glorious Reign of Christ in his Saints at the happy Millennium But what other Indications there be besides these in the Visions of the Prophets whereby we may compute the nearnesse of those Times I must ingenuously confesse I know not But this was a sudden Excursion We will return again into the way 14. But thirdly In that it is said Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols c. this is a perfect clearing of the Protestant Reformers from that hainous Crime of Schism that the Church of Rome so magisterially lays to their charge it plainly implying that their Separation from the Church of Rome was not onely no Fault but a Vertue and an indispensable point of Obedience to the command of Christ and that it had been Disobedience and Rebellion against Christ not to have separated and therefore was impossible to be any Schism Which is a thing worthy of our notice and consideration As is also this contrary to the opinion of some otherwise learned That to depart from the Church of Rome upon the very account of Idolatry is not Schism before God but onely in the sight of men and those it is to be feared of none of the purest minds but rather such as have a greater sense of the carnal Interest of the Church then of the Glory of God and the purity of his Worship For Christ who is God blessed for ever does here blame the Church in Thyatira that she suffers the Woman Jezebel any longer and does not cast her off as the Eunuchs cast her out of the window in the Type and that for this very cause because she is a Teacher of Idolatry and an Abettour and Countenancer of spiritual Fornication as is manifest in the Text. So that before God or in the sight of God both the Church of Rome stands guilty of Idolatry and also the Protestants leaving her Communion upon that account are acquitted from any the least taint or suspicion of Schism And that the Spirit of God does but witnesse with our spirits in the truth of this matter if thou hast not lost the free use of thy Reason that brief Treatise of Idolatry added to this present Exposition will I hope abundantly satisfie thee which therefore I have adjoined as a sutable Appendage thereunto 15. Fourthly In that Reformed Christendom especially after their Remissnesse in Life and Manners and Contentionsnesse about Trifles is represented under the Type of the Church in Sardis to be in such an imperfect Condition though emerged out of the grossnesse of the Popish Idolatry for there is no farther complaint of either the Doctrine of Balaam or of Jezebel here this should teach us to be humble and not over-fierce and confident in our Opinions and Doctrines but meekly to bear one with another and be ready to be instructed by one another for the clearing up the Truth But in the mean time things being no better then they are sith they are no worse then they were predicted we are hence to learn that it is our Duty never to suffer our mindes to relapse towards the Flesh-pots of AEgypt or think we had as good goe back again to Rome as to be no better then we are For this Sardian state is like the wandring in the Wildernesse betwixt AEgypt and the promised Land which is the Philadelphian state into which there is no entrance till after the seven Vials that is till the last of them be poured out or at least a-pouring As it is said in the fifteenth of the Apocalypse And the Temple was filled with smoak from the glory of God and from his power and no man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Where no man according to the Apocalyptick style signifies that that company of men that were to enter into and make up that state of the Church which is here styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Temple of God would not appear in that eminent condition till after the Vials the last either current or complete Which agrees admirably with that passage in the Epistle to Philadelphia Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God So that these Philadelphians shall not onely enter into the Temple after the smoak of the Vials but never goe out of it again according to the sense we have explained it in Wherefore because we are in a kinde of Wildernesse-condition we ought with Faith and Meeknesse and Patience to abide till God shall bring us into that good Land and not to murmur against him and reproach his Providence who hath thought fit to carry on things with such leisurely steps nor peevishly and falsly to say that we had as good return to Rome again and that it is a question whether the Reformation has done more good or hurt For such thoughts or speeches are false injudicious and ingratefull Reproaches against the sacred Providence of God whose ways these bitter shallow and unsanctify'd spirits understand not because the spirit of the world has blinded their eyes And forasmuch as there is no complaint of Idolatry in the Epistle to this Sardian Church nor the least hint to make any Separation as before all the Churches of Reformed Christendom and all the particular Sects and Members thereof ought to have a tender regard how they divide from one another or break Communion for difference of Ceremony or Opinion but holding all the indispensable Foundation and bearing joint Testimony against the grosse Idolatries and wilde Enormities of the Church of Rome to study Peace and mutuall Compliance that the Body of Reformed Christendome may be more strong and compact to stand against the common Enemie But above all we are with might and main to endeavour to perfect Holinesse in the fear of God and to purge our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit that we may prevent the extremity of that Judgement which is threatned as suddenly and unexpectedly to come upon the Church of Sardis And these I think are main Usefulnesses discoverable in the Interpretation of the Epistle to the Sardian Church 16. And fifthly As for the Exposition of the Church of Philadelphia it is of main Importance for the making of the world good For it is the ordinary excuse for the reigning of Impiety and Immorality in the world that men will be men as long as the world lasts and that things are more likely ever to grow worse and worse then
whose Intervall is from the tenth of Nero or Anno Christi 63. till Anno Christi 324. when Constantine the Great a zealous Professour of Christianity had subdued the most potent enemies of it and himself For then the Church was raised out of the dust or rather out of the mire and bloud that she was troden down into by the Ten cruel Persecutions and began to be the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church in sublimity and exaltation according to the signification of that word But in this Intervall of their Afflictions and Martyrdome she was the Church in Smyrna Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one and signifie Myrrh which whether you respect the Plant it self which grows in sandy dry and uncultivated places and is it self rough and thorny with sharp pricking leaves or else the gumme of the Tree which is biting and bitter to the taste and has its very name from thence in the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia amara as Martinius notes it is very significative of this Intervall of the Church that succeeds wherein those horrible Pagan Persecutions raised against the Christians are comprehended So that Smyrna signifies the bitter Affliction and Persecution of the Church as that Lamp named Wormwood does the sad Calamity of the Western Caesareate 2. To which you may add that Smyrna that is to say Myrrh was a main Ingredient in the embalming of the bodies of the dead which again reflects upon the many Funerals or rather Deaths and Martyrdoms of the Members of the Church which would be caused by the Persecutions of those times Besides that as Myrrh keeps the body from Corruption it may be a Symbol of the eternizing of the memory of the Martyrs to all Posterities Not to take notice of their conserving of their very Bodies themselves which they call Reliques though this Allusion can be no countenance to the abuses in those things And lastly this Allusion to Myrrh is still the more emphaticall in that the body of our Saviour that faithfull Witness as he styles himself after his martyrdome on the Cross is said to be embalmed with Myrrh John 19. 3. These things saith the First and the Last who was dead and is alive The Titles that Christ adorns himself with when he speaks to the Church of Ephesus are He that holds the seven Stars in his right hand and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks namely through all the Successions of them like that Promise Behold I am with you to the end of the World intimating thereby the presence of his Spirit through which he would in all Difficulties sustain the Bishops and Pastours of his Church Which general signification seems well enough proportioned or fitted to the Condition of the Church of Ephesus he expresly requiring of them no more then Zeal and Courage in the general But now he speaks to the Church in Smyrna and there enters a more bloudy Scene and terrible he seems to encourage them with higher and more palpable and particular Animations in the very entrance of his discourse These things saith the First and the Last the same that began the War for this Kingdome we strive for and will be the last in the field to assist my friends and discomfit mine enemies as well as I was the first And be not afraid of dying for the Truth for though I was crucify'd my self yet behold I am now alive And I tell you it for a pledge unto you of the same Happinesse if you lay down your lives as the Times will shortly require it for me and for my Gospel This is very particular and apposite to the Condition of the Church in this Smyrnian Intervall wherein there were to be so many and so bloudy Persecutions 4. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty that is to say I know the great Affliction and misery thou art oppressed withall being destitute of all the Comforts of this present life and in danger of death every moment Which is a right Smyrnian Condition indeed according to the Title of the Church in Smyrna But thou art rich namely with those spiritual Graces of Meeknesse of Patience of Christian Courage and Fortitude and of sincere and invincible Love of the Lord Jesus even to the death it self And I know the Blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan That is I take notice of the reproach that those men cast upon Christianity who call themselves Christians and yet make nothing of dissembling and denying the Faith upon the arising of any Persecutions for my Name 's sake as if a Christian could be such a vile false and abject Hypocrite This is to blaspheme them that are called by my Name The right Christian is the true Jew whose heart is circumcised and therefore he will not lie with his tongue and whose Faith is so strong in me and hopes so firm of a better life that he can if the cause of my Gospel so require willingly part with this for the Love of me and for the Interest of my Kingdome These are the true Members of my Church who are for suffering the other the Synagogue of Satan as I told Peter when he would have disswaded me from undergoing the death of the Cross Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things of God That the Jews signifie the Christian Church there is nothing more frequent in the Apocalyptick style then that And this mention of these false Christians in opposition to these Smyrnian Sufferers does plainly insinuate that sense which I have given 5. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer Do not imitate the base Cowardise of this Synagogue of Satan these Hypocrites and Dissemblers After that sharp reprehension of Flinchers from the Faith he returns to encourage and corroborate the Church in Smyrna Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days The red Dragon that old Serpent in his fight with Michael for the things of that Vision are co-incident with this Smyrnian Intervall of the Church I say the Pagans incensed by the old Serpent will cast several of you into prison that your Faith may be tried and God may receive the glory of your Fortitude and Constancy This you shall have for ten days that is till the time of consummation that Victory and Redemption be wrought for you or that you die Or rather thus You shall have tribulation for ten days There will be ten Seasons of bloudy Persecutions which you must run through those ten Persecutions so famous in Church-History and so frequent in the mouths of all men Which consideration among others does not a little ratifie this our Exposition of the Church of Smyrna and consequently gives strength to the whole Hypothesis of the seven successive Intervalls Be ye faithfull unto death