this Prediction may be still the same with Mr. Mede's 1. WE come now to the parts of the Divine life the Root and the Branches Upon the former whereof we shall not long insist the Predictions being not so ample nor so frequent But Prophecy is not altogether silent concerning those things which do so grosly oppose or undermine our Belief of Christian Religion As namely concerning those Legendary Stories we have taken notice of are they not plainly foretold in that Prophecy of the Apostasy of the Latter times That Doctrines of Daemons should be brought in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Hypocrisy of those that tell lies who by their Hypocriticall show in their professed Abstinence from meats and marriage as if they were such Saint-like and Angelical men themselves gain by this disguize the opinion of Sanctity with the people and therefore the more easily recommend to them the worshipping of Saints by feigning of lying Legends that contain their Miracles which they are very ready to believe by reason of the reverence they bear to these vizards of Holiness What can be more plain then this 2. Again 2 Thess. 2. there is a more full Prefiguration of the state of the lapsed Church in this point Verse 8. And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming 9. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders 10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 3. The description seems to consist of those two parts that are briefly expressed in the Apocalyps by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that makes and he that loves a Lie This wicked one that is the Pope with his Clergy is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lie-maker whose coming is after the working of Satan the Father of Lies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he should say In all manner of false and counterfeit shows of power signs and miracles For he seems to adde by way of farther explanation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all unjust or injurious deceivableness The same accusation that seems to lie against them in the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they repented them not of their thefts Chap. 9. 21. But now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follows viz. the Description of the lovers of these Lies They are those that perish for want of a sincere love of the Truth that they might be saved For Hypocrisy is ordinarily at the bottom of those that can be gulled by these Impostours They not seeking sincerely the Kingdom of God and his righteousness are made a prey to these deceitfull men As is farther hinted v. 12. where they are said to take pleasure in unrighteousness For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they may believe lies that is all the fabulous Impossibilities of Transsubstantiation Legendary Miracles and affrightfull stories of Purgatory Thus one part of their Church becomes Sotts and Bigots and the other that behold this Scene of things though they profess themselves of their Church become a company of profane Atheists and clancular Deriders of all Religion So miserably does the Christian Faith go to rack by these Impostures Nay it is a question whether those that do more superstitiously cleave to them doe it not rather in a kind of confusion and obstupefaction of mind out of fear and suspicion then any determinate assurance or firm belief of the things they outwardly profess Nor does this Interpretation at all clash with their supposition that admit that there are sometimes things that happen extraordinarily in that Church For it is enough that they do so abound with and glory of their Miracles and that so very few of those numerous stories of them are true at all and that none of them are true Miracles but prestigious Juggles of the Devil that egregious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret calls him 4. To these you may adde Apocal. 13. where the Two-horned Beast which is the same with the Pseudo-Prophet and this Man of Sin is said to doe great miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In conspectu hominum In conspectu Bestiae that is saith Aretas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oculos hominum praestringens and accordingly Bellarmine also interprets those words Which juggle notwithstanding concerns the eyes of the Minde as well as those of the Body For Transsubstantiation does not make the Bread look to the outward eyes otherwise then usuall but to the eyes of Faith and Reason to which their being able to make a consecrated Wafer appear to be the very Body and Person of Christ is such a piece of Prestigiousness as has no parallel The apparent affectedness of accurate humane Policy if not worse in the frame of their Religion is perstringed in the Vision of the little Horn with eyes And their Atheism and Infidelity in the general in those passages of the Revelation Chap. 21. 8. But the fearfull and unbelieving c. and Chap. 22. 15. For without are dogs Which places in what sense they make to the present Theme I have already declared in my Idea of Antichristianism and therefore hold it needless to repeat 5. We come now to the Oppositions to the Branches of the Divine life Humility Purity and Charity And that against the first of them is plainly that unmatchable Loftiness and Haughtiness which we have described in the afore-named Idea and which History does every-where complain of in the Bishop of Rome Which I conceive is very lively set out in that Vision of Ezekiel touching the King of Tyre For that Tyre is a Type of Rome Antichristian I have above I think made very rational The words which I had occasion to recite before were these Son of man say unto the Prince of Tyre Thus saith the Lord God Because thine heart Ezekiel Chap. 28. 2. is lifted up and thou hast said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the Seas Is not this the very language which the Pope accepts of Dominus Deus noster Papa And that the Seat and Tribunal of the Pope is the very Seat and Tribunal of God Again ver 6. Therefore thus saith the Lord Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God behold I will bring strangers upon thee the terrible of the Nations c. To set his heart as the heart of God is to have his will in all things Who has resisted his Will
though they still profess they worship the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent the very same God once incarnate of the Virgin Mary and so living amongst men upon Earth 4. And particularly concerning the Adoring of the Bread in the Eucharist upon a belief that it is the very Body of Christ a Christian could not defend himself from the imputation of Idolatry neither by the general plea before nor by the proper plea to this case namely That he that thus adores it does verily believe it to be the Body of Christ or his corporeal presence I say he cannot clear himself from being guilty of real Idolatry For his Ignorance is not his excuse no more then before For the sense of his Excuse is only this That he gives this Divine worship to the seeming Bread because he verily believes it to be God and therefore a due Object of this worship and that he gives no more worship then he thinks is due to the Object If there be any sense in the Reason and Faculties of a man this is the sense of their Plea which if it be sound and just we doe very unjustly to accuse any Nations or persons in the world of committing Idolatry that were serious in the action For can they devoutly or seriously doing it conceive at the same time they doe their divine worship to an undue Object and that that Object is not capable of as much Religious worship as they doe to it 5. There was infinitely more reason that the Pagans should take the Sun to be that true and Eternal God that made and governs all things as he is professed to be in the fragments of their Liturgies then that any Christian should imagine a piece of consecrated Bread to be so And I question not but that the ancient Heathen did as firmly believe the Sun to be God as any Christian can believe the Eucharistick Bread to be the Body of Christ But yet notwithstanding I think it never came into any Christian mans mind to doubt but that the worshippers of the Sun were Idolaters How then is it possible but that a Bread-worshipping Christian upon the same terms must be an Idolater too there being nothing intrinsecal that can excuse the one but it will excuse the other also And as for the mitigation of the fault of either side from any exteriour circumstances I briefly adde That the glorious lustre of the Sun his comfortable warmth his notable effects and vast influence upon the world was a far stronger inducement and more unavoidable to make the Pagans think him to be God then Hoc est corpus meum or any gloss thereon by the Fathers of the Church could justly be to make any Christian believe that the Eucharistick Bread is the real Body of Jesus Christ. Besides that as Murther and Adultery may have several degrees of aggravation the fact being still the same so let the Circumstances be more or less aggravable as much as men may imagine them yet the act we speak of is certainly Idolatry 6. I must confess time was when I marvellously pleased my self in phansying I had found out so clear an evidence as I then thought to prove that the adoring of the Host as it is called was not Idolatry in them that believed that it was the very Body of Christ. For I thought it as pardonable a mistake as I my self once committed when I was a boy in asking a waggish cosin of mine blessing For in the dusk of the evening he having by chance placed himself in the Chair where my Father used ordinarily to sit I passing by to goe up to bed out of mistake begged according to the custome of children his benediction thinking it was my Father but he rewarding my blind devotion with a ludicrous blessing and loud laughter I presently found my errour I know not how far I have transgressed the Laws of decorum in telling this trivial story of my self but I hope the Reader will pardon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being so serviceable for my present purpose Now the Charitable use I sometime made of this mistake of mine was this That as I had not the least intention of begging a blessing or doing any act of a filial duty to that unfit person that then sate in the Chair but to my Father only and that therefore though a stranger had occupied the place yet that duty was directed intended and indeed done to him alone though he was not there to receive it So I charitably concluded and the imposing so upon my self was a great ease to my mind being exceeding loath to find any more miscarriages in the world in the Christian world especially then needs must that if a man did Divine Adoration to the Host he being fully persuaded it was the Body of Christ that Adoration did no more pass to the Host then my asking blessing did to him I never intended it for but that as this latter was entirely directed to my Father so the former did entirely pass to the person of Christ. This imposement upon my self was a great ease and pleasure to the charitableness of my nature so long as I thought more carelesly upon the matter But after making it my business to enquire more accurately into these things I found that saying of Solomon over-true That he that encreaseth wisdom encreaseth sorrow Nor can I apologize for this mistake on this sort but I must also thereby excuse all the Idolaters in the World that were serious in their Idolatry For undoubtedly they always took themselves to have a due Object of their worship and what is Idolatry but the not having a due Object thereof Wherefore if thinking we have will excuse us from Idolatry no devout and serious Idolater was ever guilty of the sin which is an enormous contradiction Besides there is a great difference betwixt a sudden surprizal inevitable for one single action and a constant repetition of the same mistakes and still greater if we consider what a loud warning there has been given in these latter ages against this so palpable errour of Transsubstantiation men having strained their voices and called to them not only ad ravim usque but till they have spit bloud and spilt their own lives by freely and faithfully testifying against that Idolatrous falshood And therefore where men either take up or persist in this gross errour in the ill effect thereof it must be now unexcusable Idolatry in the judgment of all men that believe the Eucharistick Bread not to be the Body of Christ of which Truth there is as great a certainty as of any one thing in the world 7. Nor lastly would that Evasion serve their turn if they should contend that they cannot be said to adore the Bread because they do not think it there For the case is much-what the same with the former and needs no new answer But I demand Whether is it less Idolatry to adore the Accidents
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
Also Christ's Handkerchief and the Shirt which the blessed Virgin made for him as likewise the Cradle in which he was rocked 15. Furthermore the Virgin Mary's Veil with which she used to cover her head her Comb her Hair her Girdle her Needles sowing-Thread and Work-basket nay the very House in which she dwelt and wrought transported as I said before out of Palestine into Italy by the hands of Angels The Reed with which they smote Jesus the Rope with which they haled him to execution the very Sponge also with which the Jews gave him vinegar mingled with gall to drink and some of the Coin for which Judas betrayed him nay the very Lantern he used in that work of darkness and the Dice wherewith the Souldiers play'd for Christ's seamless Coat Moreover the pure Bloud of Christ and the Milk of Mary his Mother kept in glasses The Pillar also at which Christ was whipped and the Stairs or Steps on which he went up into the Judgment-Hall and some of the Thorns wherewith he was crowned An Image of the Virgin Mary made by S. Luke to which an Angelical Statue of Marble was seen often to bow The paring of the nails of a living dead Crucifix and the lively Picture of Christ made by himself by the pressing onely of a Napkin to his face when he sweat 16. What would the world say to the credibility of three Tuns of Teeth from the Jaws of one Saint to the producing of the very Dagger and Shield with which S. Michael fought with the Devil and a Feather that might then haply fall out of one of the Angel's Wings What to the shewing of the Skull of a Saint's head at one place his Hair in another his Jaw-bone in another his Forehead in a fourth and yet his whole Head in a fifth What to the Fore-skin of Christ shewn also in five several places at once What to some dozens of Nails wherewith Christ was nailed to the Cross and as many pieces of the Cross as would load a Cart to carry them and as many glasses of the Virgin 's Milk as would fill all the vessels in a countrey-dairy How can such gross Impostures as these but wipe the Priests lips clean of all credit and belief and cast the world into desperate Atheism and Infidelity 17. But eighthly and lastly The Incredible of all Incredibles and the greatest Impossibility of all Impossibilities were that pretended Mystery of Transsubstantiation which being urged with the like necessity and assurance of Truth that any thing is urged by this Antichristian Church whose Picture I am a-drawing will doe the most fatal execution upon the Christian Faith that any thing imaginable can doe For supposing this the most Fundamental Article of their Creed or if you will the most precious and the most seriously-urged Fundamental of them all and the very hindge of almost all their publick Devotion and God-service if this break all must fall to the ground For if the Church be found shamelesly false in so important a Point as this it does immediately follow that she will be believed in nothing Wherefore they whose belief was either wholly or mainly supported by the seeming greatness of her Authority this failing by the easy discovery of so gross a Falsehood and yet by her most earnestly and most seriously avowed for Truth the Faith of every such man must also necessarily fail unless by some special grace of God assisting his conference with the persons or writings of some better-instructed Christians which he may haply meet with in this vast Wilderness he wanders in he be stopt from splitting himself a-pieces from this dangerous precipice he stands on and from the plunging himself into the mire of Atheism and Unbelief 18. For undoubtedly if he have no other help but this Pseudo-christian Synagogue though he may be awed by their external lash from professing his Infidelity yet it will be impossible for him to hinder the tacit growth of it in his own Soul but he will naturally disgust and disclaim all hearty commerce with Religion and even loath it as a pack of lies Wherefore it is impossible but this congregation of Impostours and Deceivers which I am setting forth in the truest colours I can should swarm with multitudes of grown and obdurate Atheists For the Imposture we speak of now being so signal and the discovery so easy and obvious how can it chuse but be discovered even by multitudes of people For the account comes onely to this Whether it be more likely that the Church for her own advantage which I perceive she does every-where eagerly and stiffly pursue may knowingly and wittingly impose upon me or at least mistake in her own judgment of the Infallibility whereof I have no proof but her own boast when it is in the mean time her Interest to boast so I say the account comes onely to this Whether it be more likely that she may practise fraud or fall into a mistake out of some blind Superstition or that by the uttering of Five words a Priest should have such a power as to turn a piece of Bread into a Man the Bread according to all my Senses being as much Bread as it was before Which is a double Miracle and greater then ever was yet done in the world considered but thus far and almost as great a Miracle that any one should believe it 19. But there are still greater I cannot say Miracles but downright Impossibilities As first That this Bread is not turned into a Man that was to be but that was already in being Which is the hardest Non-sense that can be offered to the mind of man to think upon And yet in the second place the Bread is so turned into a Man that is to say into the Man Christ that he is entirely in every place where this consecrated Bread seems to be that is in thousands of places at once at very large distances Which is as perfect a Contradiction as any can be proposed That one and the same Body should be entirely distant from it self For how can it be One being thus divided from it self since Unity consists in Indivision and Self-Unity certainly is Self-Indivision Wherefore if there be one Self at Oxford suppose and another at Cambridge at the same time it is impossible it should be one and the same Person their distance or division demonstrating them two distinct ones And thirdly and lastly From this false supposition That one and the same Body may be at the same time in several places it will also follow That one and the same Person or Body may be at the same time wholly within it self and wholly without it self wholly above it self and wholly beneath it self on the right hand of it self and on the left hand of it self That it may be One Body and yet many Bodies at once or rather no Body but a Spirit or to speak more truly Nothing That one and the same Person may meet himself and complement
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
Sensuality Luxury and Affluency and to be drunk therewith to abound with worldly felicity even to an Insensibility of better things and to a besotted security and contentedness with the present enjoyments of this Life This also may be one sense of this intoxicating Cup besides what I have touched upon before Ver. V. And upon her forehead was a Name written Which Interpreters have rightly noted to allude to the custom of some impudent Harlots who had their names written upon their foreheads as appears from that in Seneca Nomen tuum pependit in fronte pretia stupri accepisti manus quae Diis datura erat sacra capturas tulit 2. Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth All which Inscription I conceive is the Name of the Whore For the Scripture often makes long Names even a whole Sentence as I shall have occasion more fully to note anon I say the very word Mystery is part of the Name And the sense of the whole is That the Name of the Whore is Mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots or rather the Mother of Fornications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some Copies which the Vulgar Latin follows and Grotius best approves of and best fits with what follows and of the Abominations of the Earth that they may be both Abstracts And Mystical here signifies the same that Spiritual elsewhere in the Apocalyps Which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt as Chap. 11. v. 8. Cornelius à Lapide has also compared them and it is the Great City there too which is so called Wherefore let any one judge if Mystical or Spiritual Babylon can be understood of Rome Pagan or whether it is likely that the Spirit of God should prefix the term Mystery to an Inscription that hath no more in it then a dry Synecdoche For if Rome Pagan be understood it is no more but putting one Pagan Idolatrous and Persecutive City for another With which certainly so profound and venerable a Preface as Mystery cannot well suit 3. Wherefore it must be understood of a Christian City or Polity Idolatrizing and debauching others with Idolatry And the meaning of the Mystery must be this Even that that Hierarchy which should over-spread the Empire pretend to be the pure and unadulterate Apostolick Church and be generally believed to be so nay to be that City from Heaven the foundations of whose Walls are twelve with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed upon them that City wherein God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his servants where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more pain that is to say no more bloudy Persecutions Pressures nor Tortures of the faithful Servants of Christ as Grotius well interprets it and lastly that City wherein there is no Temple that is to say no Object towards which we bow besides the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb who alone is worshipped with Religious worship I say the Mystery is this That that Occumenical Hierarchy or Body of the Clergie that boast themselves to be this pure and Apostolick City as being of an unerring judgment should indeed be the very City Babylon it self which in stead of being so chast a pattern of Purity of Worship were Sacrificers to the dead and the Adorers or Worshippers of Bel and the Propagators of the worship of the Baalim that is to say of the worship of Daemons or false Gods through the world infecting therewith even the very Jews themselves the peculiar people of God and in stead of being a Protection and Refreshment to the Servants of the true God held them in a long and sad Captivity casting them that would not bow to the Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up into an hot fiery Furnace This is the Mystery and yet a very true one For it is over-manifest of this Pseudo-christian Hierarchy that they have debauched the professed People of God with various kinds of Idolatry and have held them captive a long time under an hard servitude and besides other tortures and persecutions have burned thousands of the faithful servants of Christ with Fire and Fagot Wherefore it is a Mystery indeed that she that so boldly professes her self the City of God and had the luck to be believed so generally to be so should in truth be found to be that bloudy and Idolatrous Babylon 4. And because she boasts her self also to be the Catholick as well as the Apostolick Church she is farther adorned with the Title of Great as well as of Babylon and is at once styled Babylon the Great the vast extent of that City which they that have made the most frugal computation reckon 360 or 380 Stadia in compass Pliny and Herodotus 480 being a fit Symbol of their pretence to Catholickness or Universality And lastly because she will pretend to be the Spouse of the Lamb and be called Our Mother the Church the Spirit of God in reproach to this false Beast has styled her the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth 5. Which style does plainly discover that this City Babylon is not Rome Heathen but a Polity Christian. For Rome Heathen was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius reads it the Mother that is the Author and Dispenser of Idolatry over the face of the Earth for the Nations were Idolatrous of themselves without her and she rather a Learner and Receiver of their Idolatries which she increased as she advanced her Trophees as it may appear by that promissory Charm which Macrobius sets down used by Saturnal lib. 3. cap. 9. the Romans when they had hopes of taking a City calling out thereby the Tutelary Gods of the Place and promising them Temples and Solemnities at Rome Wherefore the Title of Mystery prefixed to the Name of the Whore or rather it being a part of it and which easily answers to that Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of jointly considered with this part of the 2 Thess. 2. 7. Name The Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth does evidently agree with our Demonstration in the foregoing Chapter that proved it necessary to understand by Babylon not Rome Heathen but a State of the Church degenerating into Heathenism and Idolatry Which lying deeper then that every man can discover it at first sight as being coloured and gilded over with fair pretences of magnifying Christ and his Apostles and the rest of the Saints especially the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ is rightly called a Mystery In which this Whore and the Two-horned Paral. 1. Agr. 5. Beast do exactly agree For his having Horns like a Lamb is that outward pretext of Succession from Christ and his Apostles and of having a power from them to rule and discipline the Church according to the mind of Christ to his Honour and for his interest which they pretend in every thing But his speaking like a Dragon bespeaks him
fetches of wit whatsoever her abominable Enormities comprehended under those main Heads of Imposture Idolatry and Bloud-shed being as determinately and legibly set down in these Prophecies as the transaction of things past in any History And therefore the truth can be hid from none but such as either have not the leisure to understand the Prophetick style or are blinded with Prejudice and Interest Which I believe is so powerfull with some that it would make them hesitant and Sceptical even in Mathematical Demonstration But so manifest Eviction in so concerning a Truth as we have here cleared up I dare confidently pronounce will not be rooled off for ever 14. Sure I am that main Subterfuge that some so usually fortify themselves in wall fail them I mean those words in the very beginning of the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From which they would infer that no Events but such as were to come to pass within a short time after the Communication of these Prophecies are to be applied to them But this Scruple I have I think sufficiently answered in my Mystery of Godliness by intimating that the Inference is as unreasonable as if one upon the report that such a Comedie or Tragedie was to be acted within less then this half-quarter of an hour should conclude that all the Acts and Scenes thereof would not reach beyond that time whenas the sense is onely that the Comedie or Tragedie will begin to be acted within that time And therefore Cornelius à Lapide upon these words Quae oportet fierei citò apertly and judiciously glosses thus Hoc est quae citò incipient fieri licèt non citò finientur And Alcazar upon the same words Quasi diceret In hac Revelatione continentur quaedam quae citò oportet fieri alia quae non adeò citò implebuntur And it is Grotius his own note upon them Alia citiùs alia seriús But forasmuch as some of these Series of Visions which reach even unto the end of all things were suddenly to be fulfilled it is said at large touching the Subject of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I suppose one would say of an Army that reached a quarter of a mile in length that this Army is at the very gates of the City whenas onely they that march first in rank are there Again Unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify which will be shortly a-doing not finished it is a perfect contradiction to the nature of some of the things that are foretold as the Reign of the Saints and the Ligation Apocal. 20. of Satan For the Continuance of these Events is predicted to be a thousand years Wherefore unless a thousand years be but a short space of time the Events foretold contradict the very Title of this Prophetick Volume were that the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contended for Whence it is manifest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not touching every Event signify which shall be finish'd but which shall be a-doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly For the signification of this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how sudden how short a time must it denote who will define it For the Prophet Haggai when he saies Yet a little while and I will shake the Heaven Ch. 2. ver 6. and the Earth c. his Prediction pitches on a time about five hundred years distant from the time of the Prophecy Whence there is no necessity of seeking the completion of the Seals and Trumpets in the Destruction of Jerusalem It is therefore to be understood comparatively a little time as Grotius also interprets that of Haggai In which sense I would likewise understand that so-often-repeated saying in the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold I come quickly Which I believe has an especial eye to the Sixth Seal which is described like Apoc. 6 1â—… 13 14 15 16 17. the Day of Judgment but is indeed the Overthrow of the Dragon by Christ and his taking the Roman Empire into his own hands upon the Conversion of Constantine to the Christian Religion which was in a good deal less time then five hundred years and but a very little time indeed in comparison of the great atchievement which was compassed in it Fourthly The first Six Seals the Fight of Michael and the Dragon the Inward Court of the Temple all these Visions their Events I mean are finished within a less while then what Haggai calls little Fifthly The Outward Court of the Temple the Whore of Babylon the Two-horned Beast the Ten-horned Beast the two Witnesses the Virgin-Company the Woman in the Wilderness the Events also of all these Visions are in fieri within less then that time which the Prophet Haggai calls little The Trumpets also had begun to sound within that time But the Affairs of the Seven Churches might be of a far earlier Accomplishment and it may be accomplishable over and over again they being flying Prophecies and not so affixed to time and place as they seem and as the rest of the Visions are Which Grotius also has observed And this I think is sufficient to make good the Title of the Subject of these Prophecies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And no more then this is supposed or rather demonstrated in Mr. Mede's way of interpreting the Apocalyps Sixthly They themselves are fain to interpret some Prophecies of Events that fell out or are to fall out above twice five hundred years from the Prediction As the * Apocal. 20. loosing of Satan the Army of Gog and Magog the Siege of the beloved City the falling of fire from Heaven upon the Besiegers the General Judgment and the like Which are the more contradictious to their own Hypothesis because they make no such order or concatenation of Visions as Mr. Mede does And therefore it will be the harder to make them compliable with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But for the way that I am for where one thing so handsomely or necessarily hooks in another the first Thunder the seven Vials the last Trumpet the seven Thunders the last Seal the seven Trumpets and the first Six of these Trumpets their Synchronalls as the first Six of the Seals theirs the whole Volume of Visions in a manner is so of one piece and one thing follows another so continuedly that when the first Events begin to appear the whole Series may well be said to begin or to be a-doing and if quickly quickly So little Repugnancy has Mr. Mede's way with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly Forasmuch as I have so plainly demonstrated that the Apocalyps was not communicated to S. John before Domitian's time and See Chap. 2. that therefore this Application of the Seals and Trumpets to the Destruction of Jerusalem is not onely harsh as any one may see in examining them but also impossible the Visions being since that Event and that therefore those Affairs cannot be of the number of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉