signifie certain performance but the duty what they ought to perform As when the Apostles are called the Light of the world and the Matth. 5. 13 14. Salt of the earth which onely signifies what they ought to be not what they were necessitated to be For those that ought to be thus may notwithstanding hide their Talent or grow unsavoury through their own fault as it fared in Judas and in all his succession of false Apostles which call themselves the Servants but are the betrayers of the Lord Jesus 13. But lastly Suppose that the Church then in general were here understood it does not follow That because that Primaeval and Apostolical Church should by a peremptory design of Providence have engraven upon it or exhibit to the world as Articles of belief nothing but what was true that the Church in succession should always doe the like For there was a prime care taken that the first establishment of the Church should be in truth and solidity but that being done which was sufficient for the after-carrying on the affairs of the Church in a right way by free Agents the success should afterwards lie upon their industry and fidelity at least so far as that by no miraculous and supernatural force they should be assisted or driven on to keep things pure and intemerate And that was sufficient for the Church I think which is thought sufficient for every particular man namely That the Christian Doctrines and Precepts being faithfully laid down in the Evangelists and other Writings of the Apostles they might that usual Grace of God which is not irresistible assisting them frame their lives and beliefs accordingly in those things that are plain And all are so that are necessary to Salvation Which Rule if it had been kept to no Error had crept into the Church to this very day 14. Which last Answer will contribute something towards an Answer to the last place alledged for it seems onely to contain a description of a special provision of God for the rightly settling his Truth in the first Ages of the Church To which purpose he appointed not onely Pastours and Teachers which Functions continue still but Apostles having a particular mission from Christ himself who breathed into them the Spirit of Truth as also Prophets and Evangelists men in a special manner inspired and assisted to erect the Fabrick of the Church according to the will and purpose of Christ who then in an extraordinary manner did supervise all by a miraculous assistence of his Spirit And therefore what-ever was wrote for the publick use of the Church while any of those unto whom our Saviour Christ said that the Spirit should abide with them for ever which should lead them into all Truth were alive or was approved by them is really of certain and infallible authority but what-ever after-Inventions or Super-additions there were in the Church they are to be measured by this unerring Rule These unerring Pastors therefore and Teachers Apostles Prophets Evangelists were not a promise to all Successions but an extraordinary gift as the Text it self imports which Christ at that time namely at his solemn Coronation or Triumph ascending above all Heavens that he Eph. 4. 10. might fill all things cast down as a Royal Largess upon his Church for the speedy completement of her for her growing up into the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of Christ and that she might not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine but adhere to that onely that was delivered by those Heavenly-inspired and miraculously-assisted Ministers of the Gospel The acknowledgement whereof I conceive had been the onely sure means to keep the Church in Unity for ever whenas the pretending to an Infallibility in the succeeding Church where indeed it was not and the taking upon them thereupon to impose things with equal authority to the Apostles themselves would naturally prove the fountain of all Error Schism and Confusion CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolick Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge 3. That the Scripture not pointing to any Infallible Judge nor any faithful Keeper of Traditions does ipso facto declare her self the onely sufficient Guide 4. That there is not onely no want of an Infallible Judge but better there should be none 5. That the want of Infallibility does not take away the Authority of the Church it being the duty of every person in things really disputable to compromise with her 6. That though a Visible Judge be necessary in Civil causes yet it is nothing so in Points of Religion 7. That every private man has not onely a liberty but a command to judge for himself in matters of Faith 8. The said Right or Privilege demonstrated also by Reason 9. That the Reason or Judgment of every private man is not a private Spirit in that reproachful sense that some speak it 10. That the claim to a right of judging for ones self in points of Faith does not make a man superiour to his Church 11. Nor yet equal 12. Nor implies that he thinks himself wiser then his Church but rather more careful of his own eternal Concerns 13. That it is not his private Wisdom he sticks to but the Wisdom of God known to all that are not wilfully blind 14. That the Church is not Infallible proved from the Example of the Jewish Church 15. That there is the same reason of the Christian. 16. That the want of an Infallible Interpreter is no such loss to the common people 17. That their assurance of the truth of the Scriptures by the Spirit is a Tenet not so superciliously to be exploded as some make shew of 18. That this Spirit is properly the Spirit of Faith distinguishable from that of Knowledge and Wisdom 19. The notorious Fraud and excessive Mischief of this pretence of Infallibility 1. BUT being worsted thus in Scripture they will pretend Demonstrations in Reason upon the presumption they are the true visible Church successively descended from Christ and his Apostles that Infallibility is for ever intailed upon them As first That unless the Church were successively Infallible we could have no certain and Infallible belief of the Holy Scriptures which are avouched to be such by the Church But I briefly answer That supposing this successive Church were a trusty undoubted Conveyer of the Copies of the Holy Scriptures uncorrupted yet it doth not follow that they must be Infallible Interpreters of these Scriptures no more then the faithful conveyance of Plato's and Aristotle's Writings to all posterity implies that the Conveyers thereof are Infallible Interpreters of them For they might preserve the Writings of either by a diligent comparing of Copies upon every transcription besides that there might be a special watchfulness of Providence over these Holy Writings for the conservation of
the Cunning and Industry of Secular Princes and if all those Doctrines and Duties which were most urged and most frequently came into practice were of such a nature as did plainly tend to the either Honour Power or Profit of the Priesthood This I say would strike very far towards the making the World Infidels or believers of nothing but this That the Summe of our Religion is but a witty Invention of so many fictitious Stories Doctrines Precepts and Ceremonies which would serve to hamper the Consciences of men and make the World more Governable but so shaped out by the Priests as made most for their worldly advantage And such we have already described the Tenents and Doctrines of this Church to be continuedly displaying the Frauds and Self-endedness of all their Errours and Mispractices and need not here again repeat them 4. Thirdly This also would oppose the Christian Faith To make the nature of it such that it must be always doubtfull Of which I must confess I know not what may be the fetch unless it be to keep mens Minds as some deceitfull Physicians and Surgeons do their Bodies in such an unsound and valetudinarious condition that they may have the more frequent recourse to them and depend the more upon them or because they mixe some things in Religion necessarily to be believed which it is impossible they should be firmly believed by any but fools And thus the true and solid points of Christianity such as have sufficient evidence to convince any maâ—… of Reason must be reputed obscure and uncertain for being found in the company of such gross Falsities or Uncertainties which yet pretend to an equal right of entire reception with the clearest Truths And further It is no wonder that such a Church as places whatever certainty there is of Faith upon her own Infallibility as if that were the ground of it should derive both an opinion and profession of the Uncertainty of Belief upon her Nurselings they having no better ground then what we have so plainly demonstrated already to be hollow and ruinous But it is their onely Shift and Refuge to make their Infallibility the ground of Belief the matters they propose to be believed having no recommendation either from Scripture or their own nature to be embraced And therefore things being thus uncertain at the bottom upon their Principles they must instead of a firm and solid Faith be content with an obscure and uncertain one Which is indeed the destroying of Christian Faith and the substituting of a more vertiginous fluctuation of mind in lieu thereof 5. Fourthly That Principle also tends to the ruining of Faith which supposes That without right Succession of Bishops and Priests there is no true Church and therefore no true Faith and that this Succession may be interrupted by the misordination or misconsecration of a Priest or Bishop the persons thus ordained or consecrated being Atheists or Jews or ordained by them that are so or do out of malice not intend what they ought in the Sacrament of Orders as some call it Which were a conceit able to turn all men Scepticks concerning their state in Religion but is a Position absolutely against inward sense and Reason As if a man could not feel in his own conscience whether he believed or not the Truths of Holy Scripture without he were first assured that he was a member of that Church that had an uninterrupted lawfull Succession of the Priesthood from the Apostles times till his own Whenas there is nothing more immediate to a man then inward sense which it is not in the power of any Sophistry ever to confute 6. Wherefore though this Position may be spightfully levelled against the Certainty of Faith yet the execution it can doe upon the considerate is very inconsiderable and small much like that peevish Supposition of the necessity of Unity of Opinion as if those Churches that did differ in any thing had the certainty of nothing An excellent Hypothesis indeed were it but true and such as would effectually recommend the usefulness of an Infallible Judge of Controversies if he could be had for love or mony by whom they might closely compact the parts of the Church Catholick together as with cramps of Iron But there is no such force in the Theorem which will of it self fall asunder into dust if we consider it can stand upon no other terms then what will supplant the truth of all Reason and Religion in the world the whole world being divided in their judgments and conclusions concerning both Whence it is plain that the Attempt though weak tends to the bringing in universal Scepticism in all things In which deluge the Christian Faith would be also drowned and perish with all other Truths there being no Ark left to take Sanctuary in and to be safe from the working and absorptive waves of this reciprocating Euripus 7. But sixthly and I shall now instance in what is not onely ill-meant but must needs have a successfull efficacy for making the World Atheists or Infidels and that is The glutting of them with lying Miracles and gulling of them with delusions and cousening devices call them pious Frauds or by what other fine names you please For the Falsehood being once discovered in such a Church as requires to be believed more upon their own Authority and Infallibility then upon the credibility of the matters which they propound I say if they once be taken tardy in Forgeries and guilefull Fictions in any points especially such as tend to their own profit how can this fail of shaking or rather ruining the whole Frame of belief to the very Foundations How ruinous then must the Christian Faith be where such Lies and Figments are frequent and almost as frequently discovered by those that are more nasute Certainly Atheism and Infidelity must break in upon such a Church as the Sea upon the cutting of the Banks 8. That I may the better be understood I will give you some brief Instances of these impudent Figments As for example If they should have the face to tell the people that such a Saint when his Head was struck off walked four or five mile with it in his hand onely resting himself every mile's end to take breath at his open weasen-pipe That another Saint being hospitably entertained at the expence of the lives of a Cow and a Calf restored them again to life and that they were both of them found the next day in their Master's Meadows That by another Saint the Devil was seen behind the Altar busily writing down mens sins in a parchment which being something too scant he stretched with his teeth and his hold slipping knocked his head against the wall That a certain She-Saint being swallowed by a Dragon she making a Crosse in the Dragon's belly burst him in pieces and so was delivered That a Bishop having cut off his own hand upon its being polluted by the kiss of some over-affectionate female it
them from any material blemishes as being so exceeding necessary for the continuance of those Truths that were published by such men as accordingly as I have already intimated were Divinely and Infallibly inspired And that there were such Writings sufficient for the conveyance of the knowledge of Christ written by them that were infallible Witnesses of the Truth and that we may be assured that those which commonly bear the Title of them are they I have without any recourse to the Infallibility of the Church so plainly demonstrated in my Explanation of the Book 7. chap. 10 11. Mystery of Godliness that I think it needless to say any thing further of it in this place 2. In the second place they will pretend That the Church must be Infallible or else there will want an Infallible Judge of Controversies nay there will not be so much as any Authority in the Church to order the affairs thereof But the Answer is easie and brief That there is no want of any such Infallible Judge and therefore not of the Churche's Infallibility for the Scripture is a Sufficient Rule of Faith to all that have understanding whether Learned or unlearned in things necessary to Salvation and That the belief and practice of these will carry a man to Heaven The Spirit of God therefore is the onely Infallible Judge here and has declared as plainly as any successive Judges can in those things that are necessary to Life and Salvation what is to be believed and to be done Which if we believe and practise in particular and do also in general and implicitly believe and stand in a readiness to obey the rest of the Scripture when the sense thereof appears to us we are in a safe condition and need not doubt but it will go well with us in the other State For it is manifest that what is necessary is plain in the Word of God to all men otherwise Salvation were not sufficiently revealed to the world and what we above recited out of St. Paul were not true nor the Providence of God sufficiently watchful in the laying the first Foundations of his Church 3. For if the Scripture were not a Sufficient Infallible evidence of all necessary Truths God would have afterwards raised other persons of Apostolical purity in conversation and with the like power of working Miracles to have made a Supplement to the former which yet was never done or else those other necessary Truths taught indeed by the first Apostles but not written by them had been committed to Tradition which had been a very lubricous and perillous way and unlikely to be taken by Divine Providence But if any such way had been taken certainly the Scripture it self in which all men are agreed would have pointed it out to us as also if there had been any Interpreter instituted that there might be infallibly communicated to us what remains necessary to our eternal safety But the Scripture being silent herein it openly declares it self to be Sufficient to all such as with sincerity and care apply themselves to the understanding of it as certainly every man considering that his eternal Salvation lies upon it will be enforced to doe in his own behalf whenas if others interpret for him they may doe it more remissly or more fraudulently 4. Besides that it is a very unskilfull and inept desire that there should be any such Infallible Judge that has concluded all Controversies to our hands already For that would prevent or forestall that privacy and peculiarity of converse which God has with those Souls that are more dear to him who does in a special manner assure them of such Conclusions as are not to be reached at by every hand But when the Infallible Determination of the Church has passed all mens assurances will be alike and God will have as it were given the staff out of his own hands Wherefore there being no external Infallible Judge for the Interpreting obscure places in Scripture God's right of his dispensing his special favours is preserved and men of a more devout and Intellectual spirit are divinely employed and earnestly engaged to extraordinary piety and holiness that they may win the favour of that inward Infallible Interpreter even of that Holy Spirit which the World cannot receive and by the light of his assistence be inabled to reach the true sense of those Writings which himself dictated to the Apostles and other Holy men of God 5. And lastly That the want of Infallibility will take away the Authority of the Church is a very weak Inference For her Authority is entire in the urging those Truths and Duties in Scripture that are plain to all men even to such as do not in the least dream that they are Infallible And those that are thus plain are such as are the most useful for our safe conduct to Heaven And for those Doctrines that be more obscure if they be withall useful and edifying as also Rites and Ceremonies the Church has Authority though she be not Infallible to declare them and appoint them Let all things be done decently and in order But how she is to behave her self to Dissenters having spoke of that more copiously elsewhere 2 Cor. 14. 40. I shall not here so much as touch upon it I will onely adde That in things that are really disputable I conceive it is the duty of every one whatever his private judgment and inclinations otherwise would be to compromise with the Authority of the Church and for Peace and Order sake to be concluded by their Determinations 6. Now what has been already suggested will serve to null or enervate a third Sophism For it seems a plausible Objection against the Scripture alone being sufficient to guide us and rule us without a publick Infallible Interpreter That this were as if one should contend that the Law alone in Civil matters were sufficient without a publick Judge For besides what we above insinuated That a plain Law and such we averre the Scripture to be in matters necessary to Salvation may want no Judge where the Conscience finds it self upon pain of Damnation obliged to understand it aright we further suggest That the urging or pressing of the Law of Christ by a publick Minister Interpreter or Declarer of the sentence of his Law so far as it is plainly his to all unprejudiced Understandings as well unlearned as learned is not denied by those that contend that the Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith And for my own part as I said before in places that are not thus plain if such Interpretations be made as are not repugnant to other plain Texts of Scripture but tend to the promotion of the Ends of the Gospel which I have elsewhere specified I hope no man shall offend God but doe his dutie to the Church in compromising with them in their sentiments of things in such circumstances as these For they are supposed conscienciously and in the Fear of
so long as the Moon endureth And a little after in the same Psalm He shall spare the poor and needy and shall save the souls of the needy He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence and precious shall their bloud be in his sight And in * Chap. 4â—… Esay it is said of him A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench till he hath brought judgment into victory And again in the * Psal. 45. Psalms In thy majesty ride on prosperously because of truth meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things namely to break in pieces the Oppressour and to put the Fraudulent to open shame Also in * Chap. 9. Zacharie Rejoice greatly O daughter of Sion shout O daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy King cometh unto thee â—…e is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass. And again in * Chap. 40. Esay He shall feed his Flock like a Shepherd he shall gather the Lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young And in another place more copiously describing the Kingdom of Christ * Chap. 11. With righteousness saith he shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child shall lead them and the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like an Ox. And a sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea To all which you may adde That Christ with his Church in the Revelation is all along represented under the Hieroglyphick of a Lamb that harmless and peaceable creature and in Daniel under the Type of a Man whenas the rest of the Kingdoms are typifi'd by wild Beasts Which intimates that the Kingdom of Christ is not a Kingdom of Belluine Ferocity but of Reason Humanity and tender Loving-kindness 3. According therefore to this Description of the Kingdom of Christ it is plainly a Kingdom of Peace and Love the Empire of that Divine vertue of Charity and discovers it self in the defending righting and easing of the poor in the lowliness and meekness of the Governours and in the truth and faithfulness of them in managing their affairs without any guile or deceit in the unity and friendly conversableness of people in the cessation of war and hostility and in the protection of the â—…aints of God from persecution and slaughter All these Happinesses are included in the Reign of Christ according to the above-cited predictions and are all of them the Effects of Charity as S. Paul has described that Grace from the excellent fruits thereof For Charity is kind full of acts of Humanity seeketh not her own much less what belongs to others either out of envy or covetousness 1 Cor. 13. Charity is not puffed up with pride and high-mindedness has no pleasure in unrighteousness or deceitfulness but rejoyceth in truth and faithfulness Charity does not easily think evil of men or unseemly behave her self out of the bad opinion she conceives of them in matters of Morality or Religion Charity is so far from exciting others to war that she is hardly provoked to anger but is patient and long-suffering so far from persecuting and murthering the good that she will not be over-severe to those that are no better then they should be For Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things so far is she from persecuting imprisoning from racking and killing of innocent and good men that are endued with the true fear of God upon worldly Jealousies and Suspicions that is to say for fear the spreading of the Truth of the Gospel should bear down their usurped Empire of Idolatrous Tyranny and Superstition 4. Having therefore so clear a view of the nature and properties of Charity and of the condition of the Reign of Christ in his Church whose Dominion is founded in the Law of Love it will not be hard to draw the picture of an Antichristian Polity so far forth as it is opposite to this last Branch of the Divine Life which is that transcendent Grace of Charity Let us suppose therefore a company of men that pretend to succeed Christ and his Apostles who if they be his legitimate Successours they should succeed him also in the Graces of his Spirit to be quite contrary in the administration of the affairs of the Church to that Description of the Kingdom of Christ out of the Prophets and Psalms would not this of a truth prove a most palpable and remarkable Limb of Antichristianism 5. As suppose first for example Whereas our Saviour Christ is described as one that does redeem the souls of the poor and needy from oppression and wrong if the Frame of this Polity that his pretended Successours set up in the World were a yoke upon the most simple-meaning people greater then that of Judaism and a servitude and bondage more intolerable then that of Aegypt as I have above described it as both burthening and afflicting their Consciences and also wearying their Bodies and Book I. ch 19 20 21 22. emptying their Purses by mulcts for such offences as are neither against the Law of God nor any duty we any way owe to our Neighbour but onely against such Superstitious Institutes as were made by the Ignorance of some and the cunning Craft of others who multiply unnecessary Laws that they may enjoy the sweet of the Penalties and suck away the bloud and sustenance of the poor labouring-man as often as they catch him in these nets were not this point-blank contrary to that part of the Description of Christ's Kingdom that consists in the protecting and easing of the poor and oppressed 6. It were a very unchristian thing and a shreud sign that those were not the true and genuine Successours of Christ that did not prevail so much upon the Civil Government that vassalage and slavery and squallid and deplorable poverty should be chased away for the glory of the Gospel and the honour of the Kingdom of Christ which is supposed to be where-ever the Gospel is received But for these pretended hypocritical Successors to be Instruments and Assistants to the enslaving of the World for the partaking
and foul Lust and bloudy Wrath and Zeal for those Idols of Fornication as it fares in enraged Gallants in the behalf of their Mistresses must rule and over-run all The crasseness I say of these Superstitions leaves the mind unmortified and unilluminated but raises a zeal for them both ignorant bloudy and barbarous Which methinks is a sad condition for any Soul to be found in 4. But that this bestial Rage accompanies the love of Idols to omit several Examples in Scripture is a Truth largely writ and testified by the bloud of those innumerable companies of the primitive Martyrs who with so much reproach and so many kinds of tortures were put to death for despising or opposing the ancient Pagan Idolatry as is confessed by all And Idolatry whether Pagan or Christian will naturally dispose them that are really devoted to it to the like cruel fury and madness And though the cruelty of Bear or Wolf seems more the mischief of them that suffer by them then the evil of those beasts themselves yet for that Circe that metamorphoses men into these salvage shapes few or none do doubt but that she injures their humane bodies What a mischievous Circe then is Idolatry that transforms the Mind into such beastly salvageness 5. And as for Uncleanness that it is so close an attendant upon the worship of Idols is also a Truth very often intimated in holy Scriptures as in the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle expresly affirms that Ch. 1. 26 27. because the Heathen changed the truth of God into a lye and worshipped and served the Creature more then the Creatour or rather besides the Creatour for this cause God gave them up to vile affections the women changing the natural use into that which is against nature and the men likewise leaving the natural use of the women and burning in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompence of their errour that was meet Also in the first Book of the Kings upon the mentioning of the building of Ch. 14. 24. high places and Images presently is subjoined That there were also Sodomites in the Land c. The places are so many and so obvious where even unnatural uncleannesses are link'd together with Idolatry that it would be needless as well as tedious to recite them And therefore it is a very suspicable thing that where Idolatry seizeth most on the Church of Christ all manner of uncleanness will there be most rife also 6. But methinks I am too favourable in my charge against Idolatry while I seem to restrain the Mischief of it only to Uncleanness and Cruelty For the Authour of the Book of Wisdom does not stint the effects thereof to these but enlarges them also to Dissimulation Theft Unfaithfulness Tumults Perjury and what not * Ch. 14. 16 27. For the worshipping of Idols saith he not to be named is the beginning cause and end of all evil And S. Paul in the above-named Epistle makes it the fountain of all manner of vices and wickednesses which he doth not rashly but very rationally conclude For even as they did not like to retain God in their Rom. 1. 28 29. knowledge so God saith he gave them over to a reprobate mind to doe those things that are not meet Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers back-biters haters of God despightfull proud boasters men of evil machinations disobedient to parents devoid of judgement covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful So great a deluge of wickedness breaks in upon men by their being addicted to Idolatry For Apostatizing from God by this hainous sin God also forsakes them as the Apostle intimates And besides The sottishness of Idolatrous worship that calls out the Affections to such gross and unfitting objects does naturally lay the sense of better things asleep and extinguish the true life of Religion which is the renewing the Mind into the Image or similitude of God and Christ which consists in an holy and peaceable love and in a pure chast and unpolluted spirit unspotted of the vain desires of this present world Whence the introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ must needs be the overflowing it with all manner of vice and wickedness But that consideration belongs rather to the next point The Mischief that redounds to the Church from Idolatry to which I shall immediately pass after I have but briefly intimated one Mischief more which falls upon the Idolater himself and of which I think he will be most sensible and it is only this That he shall have his portion in the Lake that burneth with Rev. 21 〈◊〉 fire and brimstone which is the second Death that is to say that eternal Death and destruction that will assuredly attend all such enemies of God 7. The Mischief that accrues to the Church from Idolatry I have partly hinted already namely that it is the most likely way to debauch her with all other manner of vices and does ipso facto transform her who should approve herself the pure Spouse of Christ into the abhorred condition of an Harlot To which you may adde those great agonies and aggrievances of spirit that the true members of Christ are cast into by beholding such abominable practices besides their personal unsafety and danger of barbarous persecutions and those hard trialls and disquieting solicitudes that naturally will attempt them as they are men consisting of mortal flesh and liable to all the evils it exposes them to and finally the actual injuries reproaches imprisonments and multifarious Deaths that would fall upon the sincerest part of the body of Christ for opposing or refusing to partake with others in their Idolatrous Abominations 8. And yet this is not all There is still a very grand Mischief behind and exceeding considerable done to the Church by this fearfull sin of Idolatry and that is The hinderance of her spreading and propagating herself in the world It is part of our Christian Faith as we make profession of it in the Nicene Creed That there is One Catholick and Apostolick Church Which implies that the Church has a right to be Catholick to be universally spred over the face of the Earth and that the true and proper Character of this Catholick Church is to be Apostolical That whatsoever Nation or People or part of any Nation or People profess that Doctrine and Discipline which was delivered by Christ and his Apostles become immediately thereby part of the Catholick Church and those that profess and enjoyn Doctrines and practices that are Anti-Apostolical run the hazzard of losing the true title of Catholick and of making themselves indeed no part of the Church of Christ. And certainly Idolatry is as Anti-Apostolical as contrary to the Apostolick Doctrine as any thing can be Wherefore the introduction thereof into the Church of
some part That it is not an Absolute Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain in that the parties of Christendom differ so much in matters of Belief as they do But if it be to some part where is the nomination of that part in these Promises whereby their Right of Interpreting may appear to the world There is no Particular Church specified there neither Greek nor Roman neither Muscovian nor Armenian nor that of Prester John nor any other Church else Whence it is plain that no Particular Church can have any claim or right to any such privilege 6. Again suppose some Particular Church had a Promise how does it appear that the Promise is Inconditionate to this Particular Church and that it is not upon supposal that they will seriously and sincerely apply their mind to find out the Truth and purifie their Souls from all those worldly and sensual impediments thereto For this spirit of Infallibility cannot lodge in a body that is subject unto sin For Purity of heart and life is the very Light and Crystalline Organ the very Eye of the Soul and to think of a privilege of Infallibility without Holiness is like the imagining of a promise to see without Light or Eyes Wherefore it is such an Hypocritical conceit that a man cannot well tell whether it be more to be lamented or laughed at for a Church to pretend that God has an irresistible design of making them Infallible to every Punctilio of Controversie and yet not of making them Holy and Good But it is a sign they contemn or abhor Goodness as being contrary to their corrupt natures but desire the privilege of Infallibility as being agreeable to their natural pride and the boast thereof an instrument to bring about all their deceitful devices And therefore we might adde to this That it is questionable whether the Promise be to any Church visible but to such as the Apostles were chosen sanctified and faithful Regenerate men for none but these are truly the Church of Christ and if he make his Promise good onely to such as are his true Church it is sufficient 7. Moreover be this Promise Conditionate or Inconditionate we cannot but be sure that this Infallibility is not Universal as to all Objects whatsoever And therefore to meddle with such things as are not necessary to Salvation nor really edifying were to go beyond their Warrant or Commission and thereby to forfeit or at least to have no benefit of the promised Assistence 8. But let us particularly examine the Texts of Scripture themselves The first whereof infers no more then this That the Church of Christ shall never cease to be that Death shall never be able to prevail against her neither to extirpate her in this world or hinder her of a glorious Immortality in the world to come For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death or Abolition or The state of the dead But this may be true of the Church though it were not Infallible So weak is this first Allegation 9. As for the second it were well for the Alledgers if it were onely weak for it is strong against themselves and makes much for our Hypothesis who conceive this Infallibility to be Conditional For reade the whole Context entire and it runs thus If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will ask the Father c. which implies there is a Condition That they must love Christ and keep his Commandments if they expect that Spirit which will abide with them for ever that is as long as they lived for so the word ordinarily signifies in Scripture And it is further added that it is such a Spirit as the World cannot receive Which therefore does strongly imply that it resides not in those who are worldly and carnally-minded Which Conditionality of the Promise is also infinuated in the third place alledged When the Spirit of Truth is come he will Lead you or guide you into all Truth that is he will lead you as a Man not hale you or drag you as a Stone or a brute Beast which is not a free Agent So that we see plainly that this Infallibility is Conditional where-ever it is And though I doubt not but the Condition being performed the Promise will be made good to all men as far as it is necessary to their Salvation yet these places are not the best that may be produced to that purpose the Promise being not General here but directed to certain particular men in such circumstances as it is evident that it is meant to them in particular and does not infer any succession For the men that he speaks to there he decyphers to be such as he was present with and should be put in mind by the Paraclet what he had said to them when present such Joh. 14. 16 17. as were sorrowful upon the occasion of his departure with other like circumscribing circumstances that cannot belong to any succession of men but were proper to the Apostles to whom he then spake 10. As indeed Infallibility it self seems a Promise most proper to them they being to lay the Foundations of the Church and to build the House of God which they having done in terms plain enough as to all things necessary to Salvation the Promise of Infallibility needs reach no further the Church for ever hereafter being safe provided she keep but close to what is plainly delivered by the first Founders of her nothing else need be obtruded upon Believers by way of Infallible imposition 11. And as for that fourth citation where the Church seems to be called The Pillar and Ground of Truth If we admit of Cameron and Capellus 1 Tim. 3. 15. their ingenious conjecture upon the place viz. That The Pillar and Ground of Truth is to be disjoyned from the precedent words by a Colon at least and understand also what follows without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness to be onely a Parenthetical Elogium of the Mystery of the Gospel into which the Apostle was transported upon consideration of those weighty Points thereof which he was a-delivering God manifest in the Flesh c. so that The Pillar and Ground of Truth may be 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Preface to the grand Points of the Christian Truth which that Parenthesis being seposed do immediately follow according as it was usual with the Jews to prefix before such Fundamentalls of knowledge the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fundamentum Columna Sapientia this passage will be wholly disâ—…bled from making any shew of proof for what it was alledged 12. But if you will adjoyn this Title to the Church it was the Ephesian Church where Timothy resided which has vanished long agoe And what other Church then unless every Particular Church can urge this place for Infallibility which experience of contradicting one another does openly confute Besides that the style it self of Ground and Pillar may not
perpetual Confutation of Hugo Grotius in all his Expositions wherein he would undermine and elude the orthodox Protestant sense of the Prophecies we make use of in this Treatise And lastly Though I am very loath to have any difference with so excellent an Interpreter as Mr. Mede yet I must ingenuously confess that I cannot but dissent from him in several things which I deem not a little material 7. As first for example in his Exposition of the Beast that was The Author's dissent from Mr. Mede in his Exposition of the Beast that was and is not and is not For of this Beast he saith it might be said in S. John 's time Et jam olim eam fuisse necdum tamen natam esse With this short account would Mr. Mede turn off that Description of him But I must confess it seems to me impossible that those words should be used with any truth if restrained or tied to the time when the Vision was exhibited as if it spoke of his existing or not existing then and not only of the order of succession of Existence and Non-existence For the Beast that was to be again under the last Head was in actual being in S. John 's time Wherefore how harsh must it be to say of it while it is in being that it was But how plain a contradiction to say it is not while it is or that it is not yet born when it has continued so many ages and does and is to continue uninterruptedly so many after Apply this to any particular person still alive and in health and to live many years will it not grate against common sense to say of him he was and is not while he is alive and in being Besides that necdum tamen natam esse does not at all specifie his succession under the eighth King more then the seventh that being left out in this Interpretation which is the most plainly and most materially signified in the Prophecy namely That the Beast was to cease to be for a time Which Intervall of Non-existence immediately was to precede the succession of the Beast under the last Head 8. The oversight whereof seems to me to put Mr. Mede to the As also of the seventh King plunge also in his Exposition of the eight Kings where he glosses upon Unus est alius nondum venit after this manner Unus Regum seu Dynastarum ordo putà Caesarum adhuc superest sed is quoque sub Caesaribus Christianis ità mutaturus ut quasi alius sed brevis admodum aevi dynastes videretur reverâ tamen non alius Where quasi alius and reverâ tamen non alius I must ingenuously confess seem to me to fall short off or rather to be quite contrary to the scope of the Text this Seventh King being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on purpose to indicate his extreme difference from all that went before him that he did toto genere differre as being purely Christian and that the Eighth and six first have a greater cognation one with another then he with any of them which is according to truth Nor can the shortness of his Reign for was not that of the Decemviri and Dictatours far shorter nor his being still Caesar make him not an express and distinct King from the rest For upon this account the Beast that was and is not will want a proper and distinct Head at least till the Pope perk't up into the Caesareate which will be for some hundreds of years For the Head of the Empire till Hildebrand 's time or at least Pope Constantine and the two succeeding Gregories were the Caesars 9. And lastly Therefore the said oversight put Mr. Mede to the The unaccountableness of there being but seven Heads though eight Kings in Mr. Mede's way puzzle how to make but seven Kings of eight and upon committing this Paralogism There are but seven Heads of the Beast therefore there must be but seven Kings Whereas if he had considered according to the plain Indication of the Prophecy that there was a time when the Beast was for a while to cease to be which was the Intervall when pure Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and that the seven Heads of the Beast were Heads of Blasphemie or Idolatry he might have easily discerned not onely that there might be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast but also that it was necessary it should be so For when the Beast was not in being his Head was gone also But the Empire never yet ceased to be no not in the Intervall of the Beast's not being nor could it be then without a Sovereignty Wherefore there is a necessity that there should be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast For the Beast in his Non-existence could neither want nor have an Head The great serviceableness of the Authour's Interpretation of the Perdition of the Beast and of the burning of the Whore for the peace and security of Christendom 10. This is true as I have fully and it may be over-fully demonstrated in the ensuing Discourse But if it had not been also mainly usefull as well as true I should not have made it my business so carefully and copiously to have evinced it Nor take I any pleasure in having different opinions from others much less in divulging them were it not for a common good as this certainly is it tending so naturally to the peace and safety of all the Secular Powers of the Empire and to the vindicating of this holy Book of Visions it self from that contempt or hatred that some bear to it as seeming a Countenancer or Exciter of Fanatical persons to tumultuate against their lawfull Sovereigns whenas on the contrary as I have elsewhere intimated there is not any Book more faithfull and more friendly to the Prerogative of Secular Princes then this Volume of Prophecies the Prediction of the Perdition of this fourth Beast being rather a mercifull Promise then a Commination Which is this That as it ceased to be for a time so after a certain Period of time it should cease to be for ever Now the temporary ceasing of the Beast to be was onely the Empire 's entertaining and maintaining the pure and Apostolick Christianity as yet uncontaminate with any Pagan-like Idolatries Wherefore the ceasing of it to be for ever is nothing else but the being cleansed for ever from all Idolatry and Antichristianism Which can be no ill news to the Emperour and Secular Kings or Princes of the Empire they being quit of Idolatry which makes the Empire a Beast and of the imposturous Tyranny and Usurpations of the Pope of Rome over them at once But for that Hierarchical Power of the Pope and his Clergie and truly it will analogically touch such a Presbytery as hath not learn'd the lesson of due Subjection to the Secular Sovereignty in things indifferent that Papal Hierarchy I say which as * Praefat.
same case as Apoc. 1. and Exod. 3. But to object that there they breed no such obscurity or sense as in this place is to acknowledge what I contend for that the Ellipsis is here used on set pupose for concealment but the concealment again more recommendable and not at all invincible because this Ellipsis is not without Examples in Scripture and made it may be not without some allusion to those very Texts where the Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ero Exod. 3. 14. qui ero and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Zegerus and Cornelius à Lapide compare with this name of the Beast to shew the great discrepancy And the latter of them concludes that the Reign of the wicked is fitly expressed by Erat non est but the Name of God who alone has immortality and whose Kingdom is a Kingdom of all Ages by Qui est qui er at qui venturus est and much more he has to that purpose in comparing this Name of God with the Name of the Beast for so he also calls this description of him Sicut Dei Nomen est Jehova h. e. Qui est ità Bestiae Nomen est Qui non est Secundò Dei Nomen est Qui â—…uit est Bestiae Qui fuit non est Tertiò Dei Nomen est Fuit erit Bestiae Non erit ampliús So Cornelius The last of which answers exactly to our sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we have been over-copious and industrious in clearing a point which we had already so fully demonstrated by proving That this Beast whose Chap 11. Sect. 13 14 c. Name or Title or Description call it what you will is Was and is not c. is the Roman Empire after it had taken the profession of Christianity upon it and had degenerated therein into a kind of an After-Paganism 14. And that I have interpreted the Beast in his Re-existence of the Empire turning Idolatrous rather then being moulded into any new Political Government as many doe my reason is because this is more consonant to my third Rule of interpreting Prophecies and likewise because the Empire in a Political sense cannot be said to have ever yet ceased to be there was never yet a season since its being when a man might say It is not and lastly the Whore or Two-horned Beast will not be Synchronal with the Beast that was and is not and yet is unless this Beast's Commencement begin upon those terms I have declared namely That the Rising again of the Beast was the Empire's Relapse into a kind of Paganism Idolatry 15. But we shall now pursue the detection of Agreements Was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit That is to say It was in that decursion of time before the Dragon was fought by Michael and slain but ceased to be upon that slaughter And therefore it is said in the Thirteenth Chapter that the Dragon gave him his power that is he succeeded as Heir to the powers of the Dragon and the Dragon's forces for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signâ—…fies as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were left to his conduct and management Or because the Dragon signifies the Devil as well as the Pagan Empire The Devil delivered to this Beast his forces his power and throne so as he had done to the Pagan Empire that is the assistence of evil Spirits Idols or Images and all the Pomp and Train of his Kingdom of Darkness but yet changing himself and all these into a show of true light and hiding his villainy under a pretext of adorning and improving the Christian worship See Mr. Mede upon the place Which setting up again of the Beast that had the deadly wound and Paral. 2. Agr. 3. getting into life by means of the Dragon's assistence and proper weapons of his warfare such as Idols and Images and false Miracles answers very fitly to his re-ascending here out of the bottomless pit For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify as well as the Sea or Abolition or Evanescency And hence is manifested the truth of the third Agreement of our second Parallelism 16. But if we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify the Sea as it usually Paral. 2. Agr. 6. does and in reference to the Empire it self I doubt not but does also here this answers to the Seven-headed Beast's rising out of the Sea chap. 13. v. 1. and is the sixth Agreement of our second Parallelism 17. And go into perdition According as it is said chap. 13. v. 10. Paral. 2. Agr. 7. He that leadeth into Captivity must go into Captivity He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Which is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism 18. And they that dwell on the Earth shall wonder whose names were Paral. 2. Agr. 8. not written in the book of life According to what we reade chap. 13. v. 3. And all the world wondered after the Beast and v. 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of Life of the Lamb c. Which is the eighth Agreement of our second Parallelism 19. When they behold the Beast that was and is not He is said here or rather in the beginning of this verse not to be answerably to his being said to be slain chap. 13. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death so the English Translation But the Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is caesa ad mortem Nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render as it were imply that his head was not slain and struck with so deadly a wound that it died For besides that this wound is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deadly wound more then once it is evident that the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not always weaken or lessen the sense as appears ch 5. v. 6. where we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Lamb notwithstanding was really and down-right slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore referrs to the Imaginativeness of the Representation not to the Imperfectness of the Death or Slaughter represented Wherefore this Head was really slain and killed and therefore implies the Body was dead also and that the Beast ceased to be according as it is here said that he is not Which I Paral. 2. Agr. 3. have already noted to be the third Agreement of our second Parallelism Which Agreement considered jointly with the perpetual Agreements of that Parallelism is also an invincible Confirmation of the truth of our Exposition of The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. namely That he speaks adequately of the Beast under the last Succession re-existing in this Seventeeth Chapter as he does of the healed Beast in the Thirteenth and that there can be no objection against the over-close concealment of the
sense in this notable Ellipsis because though the commissure be as invisible as that in curious Steel-work yet the apparent Agreements of this second Parallelism betwixt the Seven-headed Beast in this and the Thirteenth Chapter would not fail to unscrue the meaning with the considerate and intelligent 20. Is not and yet is Of which I have shewn already that there can Paral. 2. Agr. 5. be no good sense unless we understand not a perfect Identity but rather a Resemblance or Similitude Which Resemblance by way of elegancy gives the title of Identity as if that which is very like were exactly the same So he that came in the Spirit of Elias was called Elias and one egregiously Epicurean or Platonical might be called Epicurus redivivus or Plato redivivus as if the one were really Epicurus the other Plato And it is a vulgar expression That such an one will never die while such a Son of his namely one that is exactly like him is alive conceding herein that the Father may be dead and alive at once dead in his own person but alive in that lively image of himself his surviving Son Quanquam nullum monumentum clarius Servius Sulpitius relinquere potuit quà m effigiem morum suorum constantiae pietatis ingenii filium Of such a son as this is that saying of Siracides Though his father die Ecclesiastic 30. 4. yet he is as though he were not dead for he has left one behind him that is like him So then as Servius Sulpitius may be said to be dead and alive at once dead in his own person but alive in his son who is so perfect an Effigies of him so it may be said of the Beast that he is not and yet is Because he is not really that ancient Pagan Empire which was the Beast killed by the introduction of pure Christianity but yet he is in that he is revived in the Empire 's becoming again so Paganly Idolatrous and so lively representing the state thereof in the Dragon's time Res enim dicitur existere saith à Lapide cùm ejus Exemplar Imago Typus aut Figura existit And how lively an Image or Resemblance this degenerate Empire is of that under the Dragon I might here particularly display but I will rather defer it to the following Chapters In the mean time this may suffice in general to prove the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why * Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of * Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of * Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of * Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. IX AND here is the mind that hath wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In such a sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 13. 18. Here is wisedom that is Here is a special Arcanum Here is recondite Wisedom or a Cabbalistical Parable According as is intimated Ecclesiastic 6. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wisedom is according to her name and is not manifest to the vulgar Where Siracides in all likelihood alludes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cover over a thing and so conceal it as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were derived from thence And assuredly the Wisedom of the Ancients was such had an outward crust or rind as well as an inward pulp And Diogenes should have rather wrote thus of Parmenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the ancient Sophia which Siracides would have sound like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had a double sense one according to external appearance the other according to an inward truth Wherefore as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Here is such a kind of recondite wisedom as I have described so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Here is a meaning that implies a special example of the ancient Sophia which used to hide great and concerning Truths under outward Hieroglyphicks and Types 2. The seven Heads are seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth That Old Rome is here indigitated by these seven Hills Interpreters generally consent that City being so famously taken notice of for them both by Historians and Poets As by Dionysius Halicarnasseus Pliny Plutarch also by Varro Tertullian and others By Poets as Virgil Horace Ovid Claudian and the Sibylls Which things being so well known and obvious in Commentators I think it needless to produce any examples But there are that please themselves in finding Records of Constantinople's being also noted for her seven Hills which Bishop Mountague does Part 2. Ch. 5. in his Appello
Caesarem where he saith this City is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nicetas Urbs Septicollis by Paulus Diaconus and that it is so acknowledged by Janus Dousa and by Mr. Richard Knolls in his Turkish History To which I will adde what I finde in Theatrum Urbium That Scholarius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Enarratio Vaticinii de Turcici Reg ni interitu styles the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dilichius also in his description of the City not onely mentions the seven Hills but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them And lastly Ludovicus Gotofredus Muri ejus saith he speaking of this City sunt incredibilis altitudinis complectentes ambitu suo septem Colles So that though there be not so ancient and early mention of the Seven Hills of Byzantium or Constantinople as of those of Rome and that it may be probably conceived that upon the Emperour's pleasure of having the City called New Rome they would also finde seven Hills in it in emulation of the old Imperial City whether there were just Seven or no I mean though there might be more then seven or if fewer take occasion to phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one yet I cannot well distrust but that there is a tolerable ground for this Title and being that it has obtained in the Writers of her History I will not gainsay but that she may also goe for Urbs Septicollis Which will be no inconvenience to our Interpretation but a further confirmation of our Exposition of the Two Horns of the Beast which I conceive to be the two Imperial Patriarchates the Roman and Constantinopolitan which shews the extent of that Pseudo-prophetick Beast that it reached over the whole Empire as well Oriental as Occidental And here we finde the Seat of the Whore as broad these Seven Hills not confining her as is usually conceived to Old Rome but permitting her to reside also at New Rome or Constantinople there being Seven Hills Paral. 1. Agr. 〈◊〉 there as well as at the other Seat but not so famous as those other as the fame of her whoredomes is not so great from the one as from the other According to which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be rendred Septem capita septeni sunt montes The seven Heads signifie the two Septenaries of Mountains the one at Rome the other at Constantinople From whence the eighth Agreement of our first Parallelism is cleared Ver. X. And they are seven Kings that is They signifie seven sorts of Supreme Governours which are called Kings here by a Diorismus or an Hebraism who understand by King and Kingdom any Body Politick with the supreme Power thereof be it in one or in many And these Seven Sorts are not seven Individuals of different sorts but the whole Succession of each sort by an usual Henopoeia And that seven different Sorts of Governours may be called Seven Heads as well as seven Individual Persons I think is demonstrable by Reason because there is a greater difference betwixt Kind and kind then betwixt Individuals of the same kind Whence I wonder that Grotius should call seven forms of Government taken concretely as every one does take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whenas if there be such a sevenfold difference in the supreme Powers in the succession of an Empire the Empire once considered as a Beast it will be ipso facto Seven-headed whether we will or no. So farre is it from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is a natural and inevitable truth 2. Now the Division of the succession of the Supreme Powers of the Empire is made naturally thus This Power was either in many or in one In many as in the Consuls the Tribuni Militum the Decemviri In one as in the Kings Dictatours and Emperours Which Emperours I will again divide into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian So that the whole line of succession of these Supreme Powers is divided first into two equal parts and then each of those two subdivided into three and then one part of the second subdivision into three again So that the whole line does naturally fall into eight parts agreeably to the History of things and declaration of the Prophecy For there are plainly numbered Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast For under the Christian Emperours the Empire was no Beast and therefore there could be no Head thereof 3. Nor know I any tolerable solution of this Riddle of Eight Kings and yet but Seven Heads but this For the shortness of the stay of the Christian Succession cannot put them out of the number of the Heads since the stay of the Decemviri was above fourty times shorter Wherefore it is not this but because the Empire during their succession was not a Beast nor they either fit or actual Heads of one but were onely Heads or Kings of the undegenerated and not-yet-again-Paganizing Empire Which therefore was the time of the Death of the Beast when he was not and therefore was to have no Head nor could have any 4. Nor is there the least ground of any Cavil against our last Subdivision which is of Emperours into Pagan purely Christian and Pagano-Christian as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last Distribution Whenas on the contrary there is such a strong Opposition betwixt the two first members thereof that one outs the other the seventh King being the wounder and killer of the sixth Head And forasmuch as when a Religion is made the Religion of a Kingdom or Empire it is in a sort the Law of that Empire it may be rationally conceived that there is even a Political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour And lastly be that how it will it is plain to all men that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperour and of more concernment to the Church of God then any Political Distinction of Government And that which most concerns his Church we may be assured God takes most notice of and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the succession of Supreme Governours by this difference as by any 5. Nay I think I may safely adde that it is likely that when once the Angel had come to the division of the Heads or rather Kings into Christian and Pagano-Christian he did wholly neglect the confideration of the Political differences of forms of Government in the Empire that notion being now impertinent to his design and contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of Religion onely But till this he numbered according to the distinction of Political form they all of them till now agreeing in pure Paganism So that the sense of The Beast that was and is not his Head is the eighth King seems to be this That supreme Power be the Political frame or Title of it what it will which is
truth of the Consectary appears thus The Seventh King which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which I have proved to be the Emperours purely Christian it is said of him that he must * Apoc. 17. 10. continue a short space which unless the Prophecy speaks altogether undeterminately and defines nothing thereby must in reason be thought to be about a third part of that space which this Expression intimates to be long For Short and Long are not absolute terms but relative or comparative and are two Extremes which imply a Middle Wherefore we cannot better settle the determinate Idea of them then by supposing a Line divided into three equal parts and to look upon the whole Line as the Subject of Longness two thirds of the Line as the Subject of Mediocrity and one third of Shortness From whence we may gather universally what proportion to speak accurately and Mathematically Short and Long must bear the one to the other That in strictness of Notion that which is just the third part of the other is short in comparison of it but in common use of speech though it be something more or less it will break no squares There must either be some such way as this to settle this Notion or else Short and Long will signify nothing but be words spoke at random unless it be in such cases as there is a known measure of Mediocrity as when we say a tall man or a low man where it is taken for granted that a middle stature is so many foot and no more Having seriously considered the necessity of some determinate Notion of these two terms and how naturally they fall into this proportion I could not but consent to so plain a Conviction though I might justly seem prejudiced against it by what I have wrote elsewhere concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I had not then so accurately Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 9. weighed the matter 4. Admitting therefore that to be the genuine sense of these terms of Short and Long which I have propounded and comparing the continuance of the Seventh King with the continuance of the Sixth that is to say of the Pagan Caesars which from Julius to Constantine is about 360 years it is plain that the continuance of the Seventh King that is of the Christian Caesars must be 120 years or thereabout which added to Ann. Christi 312 when Constantine was converted to Christianity make 432 years Which I would not pronounce to be so defined as to understand a Mathematical accuracy in the proportion of Short and Long but with some latitude such as befits the use of common speech in such Expressions though it be necessary to have recourse to this Mathematical Idea that we may judge whether the use of these terms be tolerable or extravagant But what I leave more laxe here will be more particularly bounded in the Proportion of the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple which will gird in this time a little within 400 years but so as this present way of Compute will be very flexible and obedient to it For supposing the Short term viz. 120 subdivided into three degrees or parts any thing above two thirds thereof may rationally be deemed Short in the first degree of Comparison And we are to remember that the Duration of the Beast restored is computed by Months of years which as I have above noted intimates a latitude no less then any thing within thirty in the computation of these Epocha's the pinching of things to a year's coincidence being of no usefulness in these long Periods nor in the nature of the things that are predicted and therefore not affected nor intended by that Spirit that dictated these Prophecies Which I doubt not but is a very solid and true Observation Wherefore it is plain enough that the Churche's lapse into Antichristianism was not till about four hundred years after Christ the reign of the Seventh King not expiring till then Consect III. That the Reign of Antichrist is comprised within the compass of 1260 years or thereabout 5. For thus long is the Empire to continue Idolatrous as is evident out of our Joint-Exposition and the first Consectary thereof But it is in a manner impossible for the Empire to continue Idolatrous any longer then the Idolatrous Clergy thereof rides it and guides it which is the Whore or the Two-horned Beast and these Types the Types or Symbols of Antichrist Which we shall farther prove to synchronize with the Ten-horned Beast that is with the Pagano-Christian Empire in the following Chapter Consect IV. That Antichrist is long since entred into the World and has reigned about twelve hundred years already The truth of this Consectary is evident from the second wherein is shewn that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the succession of the purely Christian Caesars was not above 120 years or thereabout Which added to the year of Constantine's Conversion 312 make up 432. From about that time Antichrist began his reign and therefore has reigned at least twelve hundred years already Consect V. That according to Prophetical Compute the Ruine of Antichrist is near and that nothing can retard it but the Sinfulness Hypocrisy and Factiousness of the Reformed Churches and that therefore that voice of Him that cried in the Wilderness Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand is again very seasonable in this our Age. This Consectary is exceeding plain from the three Consectaries immediately going before nor is it needfull to adde any thing to the farther clearing it Onely see if you will my Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Chap. 17. Sect. 10. Consect VI. That the Roman Empire divided into Ten Kingdoms is the Seat of Antichrist This is directly contained in our Joint-Exposition the Beast with ten Horns being there proved to be the Roman Empire thus divided And the Whore which is Antichrist is said to sit upon this Beast and the Two-horned Beast to be the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire under those two Imperial Patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople as also the Whore and the Two-horned Beast are proved to be all one Which fully make good this sixth Consectary Consect VII That the Ruine of the Fourth Monarchy and the Introducing of the Fifth which is the Kingdome of the Saints of the most High as Daniel calls it does not imply warrs and spoil and the invading of the rights of any Prince or People according to the tenour of the Prophetick style but merely the renewing of the Empire into an Evangelical Purity in Doctrine and Worship and in Christian Life 6. This plainly appears out of our Joint-Exposition where it is manifest that the Beast which is the Roman Monarchy is said to be slain and not to be in rerum natura merely because the Pagan Idolatry was expelled out of it or ceased to be the Religion of the Empire and that the Beast was revived from the dead and brought into Being again merely
were made rich by reason of her costliness so the English Translation and accommodately enough to the literal sense But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well signifie out of that treasure of honours dignities preferments and offices wherewith she was able to enrich these Merchants 20. Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her That is to say Rejoyce ye heavenly-minded over these Merchants of the Earth and ye that are Teachers of the pure and Apostolick doctrine and declare the naked truth of things unto the world be ye glad that the Lord has avenged the bloud of your Predecessours upon her the bloud of the Waldenses and Albigenses and of those that suffered in Queen Mary's time with the rest of the holy Martyrs of Jesus Ver. 21. And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mil-stone and cast it into the Sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all The sense is That at last there will be an utter ruine and dissipation of this Idolatrous City or Polity namely at the pouring out of the seventh Vial. But in the mean time I cannot omit to note how unlikely a thing it is that this great Triumph and rejoycing and that so perfect and final destruction figured out by the plunging of a Mil-stone by a mighty Angel to the bottom of the Sea should signify nothing else but Totilas his sacking of Rome which presently recovered again and the spirits of the Apostles and Prophets their looking down through the windows of Heaven and making merry at that Spectacle which could not but be very sad and Tragical to many a good Christian. 22. And the voice of Harpers and Musicians and of Pipers and Trumpeters shall be heard no â—…re at all in thee and no Crafts-man of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee and the sound of a Mil-stone shall be heard no more at all in thee 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee and the voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride shall be heard no more at all in thee For thy Merchants were the great men of the Earth for by thy Sorceries were all Nations deceived 24. And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth The twenty second and part of the twenty third verse comprise the sad silence and desolation of this City the rest the reason of her destruction And the voice of Harpers and Musicians c. All this first part may be either nothing else but a Prophetick Hylasmus setting out one single thing the destruction silence and vast solitude of this Idolatrous Hierarchy by the privation or absence of such gross and palpable Objects as occur in a City inhabited as the noise of Musicians the hammering and knocking of Artificers the grinding of Mills the light of Candles in the night and the singing and dancing at Weddings and the like Or else there may be a more particularly contrived Allegory in reference to this Mystical City here meant As if we should understand rather the Musick at their Idolatrous worship by these here specified which were onely a Diorismus by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do technas consuere sophisticas politicas in Theology and Church-Administration for the Interest of their Hierarchy these Artifices Imperii in Imperio and those also that work curious work in the Scholastick Divinity by the sound of the Mil-stones their fraudulent Profit for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you may see in Achmetes by the light of a Candle Honour and Prosperity as you may reade in the same Author and lastly by the Bridegroom and the Bride not the spiritual Marriages betwixt Christ and a Nun or the Virgin Mary and a Monk in the Monasteries but the propagation of this Pseudo-Catholick Religion that it shall be no longer propagated for the end of Marriage is Propagation For thy Merchants were the great men c. Now follows the reason of this great Desolation which is threefold The first The Riot and Lordliness of these Mystical Merchants they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Great men of the world and greatly worldly ambitious covetous and sensual which is the very essence of an Earthly minde Which how much it has been amongst the Popes Cardinals Abbots and other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primates or Maximates if you will of the Roman Church History and the mouths of all men are full of it The second is The debauching the world with Idolatry accompanied and countenanced with the pretence of a power plainly Magical of changing the Elements in such a sort as all the Magicians of Pharaoh could never do nor had the face to attempt the like it being so beyond all credibility besides other Magical feats of an inseriour Rank and Necromantick Stories of the Apparitions of dead Saints Whence Idolatry is indigitated here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also that Cup in the hand of the Whore is look'd upon as a Philtrum and likewise their being said to be deceived by these Sorceries implies their being seduced to Idolatry to which they tend as appears plainly from what is written of the Miracles of the Two-horned Beast ch 13. 13 14. The third and last Reason is The bloudy Cruelty of this Roman Hierarchy In her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints c. namely of such as out of conscience to the Law of God and Christ could not submit to their Idolatrous Profession and Practice but witness against them And not their bloud onely is laid to her charge but the common bloudshed in Christendom by wars and tumults which they for the better rooting themselves in Countries and Kingdomes ingage the world in and abet and assist when begun by the Secular Powers whenas if they were the true Successours of the Apostles as they boast themselves to be they would make it their business that Christians should not spill one anothers bloud nor conscientious men lose their liberties or lives for being the faithful Professours of the pure Apostolick doctrine nor suffer the Turk to over-run Christendome rather then they will forsake their Idols and Daemon-worship or Apoc. 9. 20 21. repent of their Prophet-murthering Fornications Sorceries and thievish Impostures CHAP. XVI 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition and from Alcazar's Interpretation and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet 4. A third Vision in Esay concerning Tyre typifying Rome Pagan Christian and then Esay 23. Pagano-Christian Ver. 18. That Tyre that is Rome will be reformed from her Pagano-Christianism and become purely
prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed 286 CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a farther Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on