small reason for it that name being so particularly and pompously set out for a special name of his And though he has ever had a right unto it yet because the getting into possession of this right will be new and fresh in this Philadelphian Intervall after the battel of the Heros on the white Horse it is rightly termed a new Name and very fittingly writ upon these Philadelphians because they are so instrumental in his Atchievements These are the Boanergesses thundering over the great City divided into three parts and also those Horsemen on white Horses as I intimated before Christ therefore through these becomes King of Kings and Lord of Lords or rather he has made them the greatest Kingdome upon earth The mountain of the Lord's house is exalted upon the top of the mountains and all Nations flow unto it as it is to come to passe under the third Thunder Through which third and second Thunder and seventh Vial is drawn the Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Philadelphia as I have hinted above He that hath an ear to hear let him hear c. We need not here urge the intimation of this Political sense of things from the putting of the Epiphonema last the very nature of the expressions calling for it though we had no such guide But we may rather argue that the things themselves being of so manifest Political sense not moral or spiritual that it confirms our Rule touching the position of this Epiphonema But this by the bye We proceed to the Church of Laodicea CHAP. IX The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church of Laodicea 1. AND to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write The Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Laodicea is the fourth and fifth Thunders that is from the loosing of Satan to the appearing of Christ coming to Judgement under the sixth Thunder In this Intervall the Scene of Philadelphia is past and Laodicea takes place which is acknowledged a true Church as to Worship and Doctrine but is represented as a lazy lethargical Church in which that former Philadelphian zeal is extinguished as to the generality of the Church though it 's likely this degeneracy comes on by degrees in this Intervall 2. Thus therefore it is foreseen in the series of Divine Providence that after that glorious estate of the Church which is synchronal to the second and third Thunder during which space and a little before the Scene of Philadelphia adorned the Stage had well purged the Christian World from all foolish opinions and superstitions and of that accursed custome of persecuting one another for them and that the truth of the Gospel had clearly shined in the simplicity thereof and so convictively against all the follies and impostures of the former Ages that the Church had no great hazard of being again cheated with them and that they had seen all Prophecies in a manner fulfilled before their eyes so that there could be no doubt to them but that the Philadelphian Church was the true Church nor be in any capacity of any change in faith or worship after this I say as all things are in some sort or other variable under the Sun so it seems this Philadelphian Church was at last to degenerate into this Laodicean state and that which was before the Reign of the Spirit and the living Righteousnesse of God would now become the Church of Laodicea which signifies a more popular or external Politicall righteousnesse or the righteousness of the people An external profession and performance of that Mode that was used by the Philadelphians in a living way and with the power of the Spirit the same will this Church of Laodicea hold on spiritlesly and lazily with little life or zeal and yet applaud themselves by reason of the abundance of knowledge she has because of the completion of the Prophecies and by reason of the purity of the external Worship she still retains as if all was still well with her and as if she wanted nothing 3. This in brief is the condition of this Church as it is significantly intimated in the very name For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as the righteousnesse of the people And the people are any multitude of mankind gathered into a body politick as is manifest in that notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then again in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the people being a body politick are ruled by such and such laws which if they observe it is not regarded quo animo or out of what Principle they observe them The new nature Regeneration and the Spirit are quite out of this rode And a National or Oecumenical Religion Doctrine or Worship as they are ab extrà are but as a political law and the Righteousnesse therein but a Laodicean Righteousnesse as has been abundantly inculcated already But besides this meaning of the name Laodicea which I doubt not but is particularly intended there may according to the multifarious Allusivenesse of the Propheticall style another notable meaning be also intimated and that very appropriate to this Church For the ratio nominis in Laodicea may be likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in the Intervall of this Church God will in that most notorious and terrible manner come to judge the people Because the Closure of this Church brings in the last Judgement properly so called therefore this last Intervall of the Church is called Laodicea The judging of the people all the Nations of the world at the last Day And there is nothing more frequent in the Scripture then the giving of names from some notable externall Accident that respects the thing or person so named 4. These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witnesse Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians says That all the promises of God in Christ are Yea and Amen that is to say they are so sure and certain that no man need doubt but they will be performed Wherefore this Attribute of Christ is seasonably brought in as respecting both the completion of the Promises already performed in bringing his Church to that admirable glorious condition in the Succession of Philadelphia as also the performance of that material Promise at the end of this Epistle touching eternal Life or a blessed Immortality in Christ's Heavenly Kingdome which these Laodiceans or degenerated Philadelphians like our modern Familists that pretend to the Philadelphian Dispensation may some of them it 's likely be prone to distrust But Christ is here also called the faithfull and true witnesse because he does so impartially witnesse concerning the truth of the condition of the Laodiceans and so faithfully discover to them the danger thereof And the declaration seeming so paradoxicall to them it was the more requisite to inculcate into them his own truth and faithfulnesse that he might gain
Imprimatur Sam. Parker ERRATA In the Pref. to the Exposit. pag. 4. l. 2. Interims read in terms In the Exposit. p. 11. l. 1. r. the Church in Thyatira p. 53. l. 21. r. in Thyatira p. 107. l. 26. r. event In the Antidote p. 11. l. ult for at r. all p. 27. l. 17. r. impossible or p. 91. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Together with A Brief Discourse of IDOLATRY with Application to the Church of ROME By HENRY MORE D. D. PROV 12. 19. The lying tongue is but for a moment but the lip of Truth shall be established for ever London Printed by James Flesher 1669. To the Right Honourable John Lord Robarts Baron of Truro Lord Privy Seal Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and one of his Majestie 's most Honourable Privy COUNCIL My Lord WHat things single are usually thought sufficient to determine ones choice of a Patron to any publick Writing whether it be private Obligation from particular Favours or the Desire of leaving to Posterity a just and honourable Testimony to the Parts and Vertues of some excellent Person or the design of obtaining the Patronage and countenance of such a Person to what we adventure to make publick as is able by his Learning Judgement and publick Repute to protect it from Injury all these do so happily conspire in your Lordship that I should have thought it an Omission unpardonable if I had not taken this opportunity of paying your Lordship this due respect and of doing that right to the Truth I here professe as to put it under the wings of so fit and able a Patron Which still ought to be done with the greater alacrity there being that Providentiall Coincidence of things that I should have a Book ready in the Presse at that very time that our Gracious Sovereign did think good to conferre upon your Lordship that great Honour and Trust of being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Which conjuncture of Circumstances could not but excite me with greater readinesse to make your Lordship this congratulatory Present upon your new Honour Which all good Christians that know the inflexible uprightnesse of your spirit and cordiall adherence to the Apostolick Faith and just Interest of Reformed Christendome cannot but congratulate For this it is indeed My Lord that has begot in me a more special esteem of your Lordship that in this instable and uncertain Age you have with that steadinesse of minde and clearnesse of Judgement stuck to the Truth and Purity of the Protestant Religion as discerning the vast difference betwixt it and Popery which yet too many now-adays either because they are removed too great a distance from all Religion or else because their sight is extremely dim in matters of this nature can not or will not discern But this is spoke with a more particular regard to the second part of this small Volume I present your Lordship withall But the first also has its speciall sutablenesse to the Circumstances your Lordship is placed in For by how much more power any one is intrusted with by any Protestant Prince by so much the more he is concerned to understand how sacred a Province he undertakes and how expresly that Religion and Profession is owned in the Holy Prophecies Christ has delivered to his Church above and against the barbarous and idolatrous Tyrannie of the Church of Rome Which things are set out with that plainnesse evidence and easiness in this Exposition of the Epistles to the Seven Churches that I hope no impartial Reader can fail of being made exceeding sensible of the Sacrednesse of the Protestant Religion and Interest by the perusall thereof Besides that there are some notable Hints in these Oracles for the more happy and secure management of the Affairs of Reformed Christendome I shall onely name that passage to the Sardian Church Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast c. The Verse runs out into a dreadfull Commination of heavy Judgements to the Angel of the Church of Sardis for his loosenesse and slipperinesse in those points of Apostolick Doctrine which the Reformers had recovered into the knowledge of so great a part of the world And amongst the things that they had heard that voice of the Angel Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins c. was not the least articulate Whereby the Church of Rome was openly declared to be that Babylong the Great the Mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth as also the Pope with his Clergie to be that notorious Antichrist This the Sardian Church had received from their Evangelicall Predecessours And it had been their everlasting establishment never to have for got it never to have let it die or smothered it But what mischief the halting betwixt two Opinions is apt to doe and the not taking notice how sacred a thing the Protestant Religion is in the sight of God and how rejectaneous that of the Church of Rome I believe neither your Lordship nor any one else that has his eyes opened either into History or the Affairs of the world can be ignorant of or if he be a good Christian make the observation without regrett and sorrow But the Prospect of what is to come is more pleasing and comfortable which is the state of the Church of Philadelphia into which the Sardian Church that is to say Reformed Christendome or the Protestant Churches are to passe as being the next successive Intervall Which therefore cannot but be a Note of main importance for all Reformed States and Kingdomes to stear their Affairs by namely to bend their course thitherward whither they are pointed to by the Finger of God himself in his Holy Oracles For they sail as it were with winde and tide whose carriage of Affairs approaches the nearest to the purpose of Divine Fate Which is lively pourtray'd all along in this stupendious Book of Prophecies written by S. John The most pleasing and enravishing part whereof is that which is typify'd or prefigured by the Church of Philadelphia the Church of Brotherly love Which is the next Scene Divine Providence has designed to introduce And which all those do most grosly oppose who for difference in matters not revealed in holy Scripture nor necessary to Salvation think they have pretense enough with all unchristian keennesse and bitternesse of spirit to reproach and inveigh one against another to nourish the highest Animosities and to watch all opportunities of persecuting ruining and trampling one another into the Dirt. As this is extremely unchristian in it self so is it also diametrically opposite to that Dispensation that God intends to introduce into his Church as the chiefest Blessing he has in store for her and is as it were knocking at the door to enter if the lovd noise of hot and quarrelsome Brawls about matters of smaller moment as indeed all things are exceeding small
prejudice to thy judgement touching the Interpretation of Antipas and its signifying as much as one against the Pope because that learned and reverend Expositour Dr. Hammond has styled it a wanton and vain phancy in Mr. Brightman who presumed so to interpret it thou art to consider that this Censure of that Passage was not so much built upon any weakness in the Passage it self as that it was found in a farrago of Conceits that were not so well managed as to support and countenance one another And therefore for the general Mr. Brightman's Exposition of these Seven Epistles being not so convictive that judicious Doctour was the more bold to speak so slightly of this passage thereof Which if it had been accompanied with other parts of his Exposition of these Epistles that had had the like unexceptionablenesse it would never have been found fault with by so judicious a Writer as indeed there is no reason it should For no name can be so fit and significant for this purpose as this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie one and the same thing as Eustathius and others from him usually do affirm And it is most certainly true that they are both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hesychius speaks And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have exquisitely the same signification But to have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this supposed Prophecy had been quite against the laws of the Apocalyptick style that is as regardfull of due Concealment as of certainty of Revealment So that so plain a Passage would have stood out very coursly and harshly above the rest of that smooth and delicate Contexture of these Visions and occasioned a too-early intelligence of the meaning of these Prophecies Besides that Antipapas is no proper name of any man and that the very literal Story requires it should be Antipas Wherefore the Indication both for sense and for sound in this word Antipas is as exquisite as considering the nature of the Apocalyptick style it either could or ought to have been So that he that would cavill at this interpretation must of necessity deny the Hypothesis and say there is no Propheticall sense at all of these Seven Epistles 9. Nor needest thou scruple at my applying that Passage of the Martyr Antipas to the Albigenses and Waldenses that were slain in the field as if they were not rightly termed Martyrs For he that can save his Life by renouncing the Truth and yet parts with it though it be in the field is rightly deemed a Martyr Which was the case of these men And that is remarkable for this purpose which Mr. Mede takes notice of That when Simon Earl of Monfort had routed them and made a great slaughter of them and that the Bishop of Tolouse there present took thereupon the opportunity of exhorting them to return to the Roman Church they seeing so plainly that the wrath of God was kindled against them for their Separation from the Church they answered in plain terms that they were the people of God overcome by the Beast Apoc. 13. 7. and knowing this to be their fate yet would not flinch from the Truth and therefore the Army returning upon them they had all their throats cut in the field Whence it is manifest that they were Martyrs properly so called according to our Definition thereof As there were also severall Antipas's in this Intervall that suffered Martyrdome in that way that thou canst not except against that is to say such as were merely passive and made no resistence Some of them are named by Mr. Brightman who if he had done as well on the other five Churches as he has on this of Pergamus and that of Thyatira his Exposition of the Seven Churches had been considerable 10. And lastly to arm thee against the authority of the above-named Venerable person touching the reason of the name of Thyatira as if it were as much as Thygatira a young Daughter for which he perstringes Mr. Brightman condemning the Conceit for a mere groundless Phancy I say it is not evident that he so much reprehends him for the Notation of the word as for the application of it to such a sense as he there expresses which is much different from that sense we have proposed and far more dilute But as for my self I must confesse I could not but conceit that the Notation of the word Thyatira was alluded to after I had read that Passage in Cornelius à Lapide on the Text which for thy fuller satisfaction I shall transcribe Verùm Strabo lib. 13. Plinius lib. 5. cap. 9. alii passim tradunt eam that is the City Thyatira primitùs nuncupatam à Seleuco filio Nicanoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ob laetum nuncium natae sibi filiae unde nomen Thyatirae Thyatira ergò Graecè significat filiam quod aptè competit Jezebeli illici quae hîc arguitur This of Cornelius made me secure of the Authentickness of this Notation he so precisely qùoting Strabo and Pliny for the same And therefore I could not but persuade my self that the Church of Rome was here called Thyatira with some Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Had it not been for this I should have contented my self with the Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely But these Authorities made me search into the State of the Church of Rome in this Intervall and I found many things abundantly answerable to the Title in the sense of this Notation Amongst which if thou chance to think my Reflexion upon the multitude of Monks or Friers in those days to bear the least strength with it consider but what Polydore Virgil writes of that one Order of Franciscans who as some others were the peculiarly-devoted to the blessed Virgin Totum terrarum orbem saith he una haec implevit Familia ut vulgus jam tum stupefactum suspicaretur non tam Pietatem quà m Otium Ignaviam interdum multis cordi esse And to have such swarms of men that had renounced their Virility and led an idle life and went gadding and gossipping up and down telling odd Stories to the people as old Wives and Nurses do to Children having most of them Chins as smooth as Womens and their Faces mob'd in Hoods and long Coats like Petticoats as if they had a greater ambition to appear the Pedissequae or Handmaids of the Virgin Mary whom the Doctours of that Church love to call the Daughter of God then the Men-servants and Souldiers of Jesus Christ who in this Epistle to the Church in Thyatira on purpose one would think to reproach the Roman Church for this Idolatrous Corrivalry or rather Prelation of the Virgin in religious Worship before Christ expresly calls himself the Son of God This I say must assuredly be a consider
Nineteenthly The Curious may be prone to enquire why the Church of Laodicea in those times should account her self so hugely and extraordinarily rich increased in goods and to have no want of any thing And truly why this should be her estate rather then any of the Churches specify'd from the Literal ground we can fetch no reason But admitting the Propheticall sense and that this is the last Intervall of the Church of Christ it will naturally so come to passe For this Laodicea will be left Heir to all the Riches of her Sister Philadelphia to Peace Prosperity Purity in Worship abundance of natural Knowledge universal skill in the Interpretations of the Prophecies and what-ever good thing there is belonging to the Church saving the Life and Spirit which Philadelphia carried along with her into the other world How easily then and naturally or rather necessarily does this Description of the Church of Laodicea fall upon the last Intervall And lastly It is a Question extremely obvious to demand Why that phrase He that hath an ear to hear let him hear which our Saviour so often is found to adde at the end of his Parables to the people should be used here so repeatedly in every Epistle they being no Parables but Epistles sent to each of those Seven Churches in Asia respectively And then why this Epiphonema is sometimes the last close of the Epistle sometimes not To which Probleme there is no tolerable Solution in the Literal sense of these Epistles But supposing a Mysticall or Propheticall sense there was a necessity of affixing this Epiphonema to shew there was a farther sense intended then that of the Letter and also that sometimes this Epiphonema should come last of all as in the four last Epistles that the Promise to the Conquerour to him that overcomes might be more certainly understood to be of a proper Propheticall or Politicall sense not merely Theologicall Moral or Spiritual as has been abundantly declared in the Exposition 9. We might have drawn many more Questions and Solutions from the consideration of the Letter and of this Hypothesis we go upon to shew its solidity and fitnesse but that we hold it needlesse having produced so many already which jointly considered with the perpetuall easinesse and naturalnesse of the whole Exposition of all the Epistles and the exact Correspondency of the Names of the Churches to the Events of the successive Intervalls of the true Catholick Church which they represent one would think they should not fail fully to satisfie any unprejudiced Peruser of our Exposition of these Epistles touching the truth thereof But I am abundantly taught by Experience that both the finding out and receiving of Divine Truths found out by others is a special gift of God And therefore to him alone be the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE END AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IDOLATRY OR A brief Discourse containing sundry Considerations or Conclusions tending to the Discovery of what is or ought to be held to be IDOLATRY amongst Christians With Application to the Doctrine of the Council of TRENT and for the putting a stop to the Romish Infection MATTH 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve To the Reader Reader 1. I Suppose thou wilt expect something should be said of this ensuing Discourse also though it needs not be much The occasion of writing it and the fitnesse of joyning it to the foregoing Exposition of the Seven Churches will discover themselves to thee in the perusing of the Treatise it self I must confess I have treated of this Argument elsewhere namely in my Mysterie of Iniquity But it is a Subject of that great Importance that it deserves an entire Treatise apart by it self and that girt up in the most close and convictive method that may be that those that are sanable or preservable from this dreadfull sin of Idolatry may finde the efficacy of our Antidote and those whose minds it cannot alter may however be found without excuse And there is this considerable here above what I have done already on this Subject that here is such an expresse Application made of the Theorie to the grosse Errours in this point and foul Mispractices of the Church of Rome 2. Those of ours that speak the most favourably of that Church cannot but declare them guilty of Material Idolatry as they call it And questionlesse there must be something among them very like that great Sin if there be any truth or sense in the Visions of that Divine Volume of the Apocalypse For the order of things and demonstration of the Synchronisms do necessarily cast those Visions that represent the concerned as Idolatrous Chap. 13. and 17. upon the Church of Rome as also Ch. 2. v. 14 20 and they can belong to none else in the Propheticall scope of the Visions Time and Place and the Order of things having so unavoidably fixed them upon her Wherefore even according to Divine suffrage they are guilty of Idolatry in one sense or other or come so nigh it that the Spirit of God in a jealousie to exaggerate their Wantonness speaks to them as such to deterre them from those suspected ways and dangerous approches to so horrible a Crime And grant it were but thus yet both in the Vision of the Seven Churches and in that of the Whore of Babylon the people of God are expresly called unto and encouraged and commissioned to forsake the Church of Rome's Communion So that the Protestants have not the least guilt of Schism upon them for leaving her no not upon this more favourable Supposition 3. But alas alas this smooth Hypothesis is but a pleasing Dream arising from the softnesse and sleepinesse of the carnal minde and the love of those things that must passe away as a Dream or Phantasm of the night Let God be true and every man a liar as the Apostle speaks And truly the Spirit of God would scarce speak true if what is spoken of Idolatry so broadly and so expresly in those Visions insomuch that they have been understood of the Heathen Idolatry even for this very reason by learned and able Interpreters should now we are necessitated to understand them of Rome Christian in her apostatized condition not amount to the Charge of any proper and formal Idolatry at all 4. But the desperatenesse of their case is that if they were not represented by these Visions as Idolatrous that is to say if these Visions had never been writ or now they are writ though they were to be understood of some others and not of the Church of Rome yet appealing to the nature of the thing to the true Notion of Idolatry properly and formally so called and to the acknowledged Doctrine of their Church expressed in the Council of Trent and their universal Practices abetted by publick Authority this alone is sufficient to demonstrate them to be Idolaters properly so called Which is the scope of this present
Treatise 5. Which therefore doth confirm and corroborate and place beyond all exception the Orthodox Protestant Interpretations of those Visions that concern the Church of Rome which in this last Age have been made so clear and every way so natural and congruous that this one thing granted of their Idolatry there cannot be the least scruple of the truth and congruity of the rest of the Applications 6. And I cannot but adore the faithfulnesse of Divine Providence that has furnished his Church with these Oracles to be the Guide of the Faithfull in these latter Ages which are as it were the dregs of those times which the Spirit of Prophecy has set no good character upon wherein there is such an Inundation of Wickednesse and Prophanenesse that there is scarce any Faith to be found upon earth But that Church which has deluded the world with so many Fictions could never forge those Prophecies that are so punctually true and so cuttingly set out all her grosse Miscarriages and as expresly foretell her Ruine unlesse she will humble her self and pluck in her horns lay aside her bold boasts of Infallibility and be content to be taught to cast away her Idols and be cured of her Dropsie and unnatural thirst after the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus 7. Nor can I on the other side sufficiently admire the stupidity of some of our own and their grosse ingratitude to Divine Providence that have so slight a regard to a Book of that mighty weight and moment as the Apocalypse is and think it such a subject as that any good Wit must needs mis-place his time if he meddle with it which is more then a Pagan irreverence to so holy and so important Oracles The Romans of old had another esteem for the Verses of the Sibylls Nihil enim ità custodiebant neque sanctum neque sacrum quemadmodum Sibyllina Oracula as Dionysius Halicarnasseus testifies And it was an high honour to be the Keepers much more the right Expounders of them But that which God of his mercy offers to all such is either the idlenesse frivolousness or profaneness of the spirits of men that it is scarce accepted of any 8. The truth is most men are loath to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be messengers of ill news to the greatest that is to say to the corruptest part of Christendome but rather affect the glory and security of being accounted of so humane of so sweet and ingratiating a temper as that they can surmize well of all mens Religions and so think to conciliate to themselves the fame of either civil and good Natures or of highly-raised and released Wits though it be indeed but a spice of the old abhorred Gnosticism that can comply with any Religion and make a fair tolerable sense of all 9. But these are such high strains of pretense to Wit or Knowledge and Gentility as I must confess I could never yet arrive to nor I hope ever shall though I am not in the mean time so stupid in my way as to think I can write thus freely without offence And yet on the contrary I can deem my self no more uncivil then I do him that wrings his friend by the nose to fetch him out of a Swound 10. I am not insensible how harsh this charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome will sound in some ears especially it being seconded with that other of Murther and that the most cruel and barbarous imaginable and finally so severely rewarded with an impossibility of Salvation to any now so long as they continue in Communion with that Church But I believed therefore I spake and have no reason to recall my words or to have concealed the truth that their fishing may become lesse successfull in these parts and that it may be with my Countrey-men according to that in Salomon Surely in vain the net is spred in the sight of any bird And therefore this is to open their eyes that they may see what snares of destruction are laid for them and how those that promise others liberty are themselves the servants of corruption and how they that take upon them to be the onely Absolvers from sin are themselves held fast in the snares of eternall death and do as necessarily illaqueate all others therein whom they proselyte to their Religion so far are they from giving them any effectual Absolution 11. I doubt not but many will be prone to cry out This is a very rude piece of Uncharitablenesse to all Romanists But I say it were a most perfidious kinde of Civility even to them themselves to say nothing of the Injury to our Church and Countrey to declare otherwise But if this be the main Odium that sticks upon so true and usefull a Conclusion that it is so far estranged from the spirit of Charity hear but this brief Parable Reader and then I will leave it to thy self to judge and conclude There was a certain Knight bravely mounted as it might seem and in goodly equippage in bright armour a rich scarf about his shoulders and a large plume of feathers in his Helmet who was bound for the Castle of Health seated on an high Hill not unlike to the Domicilium Salutis in Cebes his Table which therefore he easily kept in his eye But the way he was in being something stony and rough and leading not so directly as he thought to the desired Castle he diverted out of the way and descended into a green Plain but not knowing whether it was all passable to the Castle called to some Loyterers there in the field to enquire of them who came right willingly to the Knight scraping many legs to him and desiring him to tell his demands 12. There was an old Shepherd likewise not far off who by that time this idle people had got to the Knight had come down to him also Friends said he to those men he called Is the way passable and safe through this green Plain to yonder Castle pointing to the Castle of Health with his Warder Very safe may it please your Worship said they and shrugging their shoulders and scraping many legs asked a Largesse of the Knight pretending they had been at common work not far off Whereupon the Knight put his hand into his pocket and gave them liberally But are there no Bogs said he nor Lakes betwixt this and the Castle Some small inconsiderable Sloughs it may be said they but you will meet with the Holy Society of the Wipers every-where who will be ready to wipe you as clean as a Clock before you come at the Castle And being so excellently well mounted as we see you are namely upon that famous Steed renowned over all the world the infallible-footed Aplanedo so good an Horse as that he never stumbles your Worship need fear no disaster at all Besides the Beast God blesse him has a Nose like any Hound and by a
miraculous sagacity without any Reason or humane Literature with an un-erring certainty he can smell out the right way and so secure you from all danger To say nothing how excellent he is at the swimming any water and how he can tread the very air he is so high-metall'd and light-footed Onely be sure to keep fast in the Saddle And then Sir Knight said the Shepherd if the wind blow fair the plumes in your Helmet may help to support you both but if not some Angel from Heaven may take you by the Crest of your Helmet as he did the Prophet Habakuk by the hair of his head when he carried him through the air from Judea into Babylon 13. The Knight looking back for he was not aware of the Shepherd at this time What conâ—eâ—â—ed 〈◊〉 man is this said he that talks this phancifully May it please your Worship he is a Shepherd said they and has a Flock on yonder little Hill hard by but he is one of the most self-conceited old fools that ever your Worship met with in all your days he thinks that all skill and knowledge lies within the compasse of his baldpate and wrinkled fore-head though few or none are of the same opinions with himself Sir Knight said the Shepherd I pretend to no skill nor knowledge but what is certainly within mine own ken but what I know I love to speak freely And I tell you Sir Knight unlesse you be stark staring mad you will never follow these mens counsels nor venture over this Moor to that Castle for you will be swallowed up horse and man into a fathomlesse Lake of ill-sented mire for all the nice nostrills of Aplanedo You was in a more hopefull way before though something rough but it is so streight before you come at the Castle that you could never have got through unlesse you had left Aplanedo behind you He 's an old cholerick Dotard said those other fellows be but sure to keep the Saddle and we dare warrant your Worship our lives for yours that Aplanedo will carry you safe through all dangers Wherefore upon the renewall of the high conceit the Knight had before of his Steed and those confident Animations of his mercenary Counsellers he set on in a direct line toward the Castle over this Moor the Shepherd looking after him to see the event But the Knight had not rid two or three bow-shots from the place but the Shepherd saw them suddenly sink horse and man into the ground so that they were both buried alive in the mire 14. Whereupon fetching a deep sigh after so Tragicall a spectacle he returned with a sad heart and slow pace towards his Sheep on the top of the Hill drailing his Sheephook behinde him as they do their Spears at the Funeral of a Souldier whom his Dog followed with a like soft pace hanging down his head and letting his tail flag as if he had a minde to conform to both the sorrows and postures of his Master But those other false Companions had somewhat before this got to a lone Alehouse not far off to spend the Knight's Largesse merrily with a bonny young Hostesse and in plenty of good Ale and Cakes to celebrate his Funerall 15. Now Reader I dare appeal to thy judgement which of these parties the old free-spoken Shepherd or those mercenary Flatterers had the greater share of Charity and to determine with thy self in what a sad condition those of the Church of Rome are who having the opportunity of being better instructed as the Knight had are yet led away captive by such cunning Deceivers Which is the main State of the Controversie If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no excuse for their sin saith our blessed Saviour in the Gospel The rest of the Riddle Reader I leave to thine own unravelling and bid thee Farewell AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IDOLATRY CHAP. I. What is Idolatry according to Divine Declaration 1. THere are two ways in general of discovering what is or ought to be held to be Idolatry amongst Christians the one Divine Declaration the other clear perspicuous Reason Which though they may haply reach the one no farther then the other that is to say that whatsoever may be concluded to be Idolatry by Divine Declaration the same may also by unprejudiced Reason and vice vers'd yet their joint concurrence of Testimony is a greater assurance to us of the truth and two cords twisted together are stronger then either single Wherefore we will make use of both and begin with Divine Declaration first 2. The first Conclusion therefore shall be That as in civil Governments it is the Right of the Supreme power to define and declare what shall be or be held to be Treason and punishable as such so it is most manifestly the Right of God Almighty who is also infinitely good and wise to define and declare to his people what shall be or be held to be Idolatry which is a kind of Treason against God or crimen laesae majestatis Divinae And what is thus declared Idolatry by God is to be held by us to be such though the Ludicrousnesse and Fugitivenesse of our wanton Reason might otherwise find out many starting-holes and fine pretences to excuse this thing or that action from so foul an Imputation But as in civil affairs the declaring such and such things to be Treason does in a Politicall sense make them so ipso facto so God's declaring such and such things to be Idolatry they do to us ipso facto become Idolatry thereby though to an ordinary apprehension perhaps neither this would have seemed Treason nor that Idolatry without these antecedent Declarations But where the Law-giver is infallible there is all the reason in the world we should submit not onely to his Power but to his Judgement in the Definitions of things and rest sure that that is Idolatry which he has thought fit to declare so to be 3. The second Conclusion That what is declared Idolatry by God to the Jews ought to be acknowledged Idolatry by us Christians The ground of this Conclusion is fixed in the nature of the Christian Religion For Christianity being a far more spiritual Religion then that of Judaism and therefore abhorring from all Superstition there cannot be the least Relaxation to the most rancid of all Superstitions Idolatry it self Wherefore whatsoever was accounted Idolatry amongst the Jews and so defined by a Divine Law must be reckoned much more such under Christianity there being not the least pretence for any Relaxation Besides there was nothing under the Jews or can by any people be rightly deemed Idolatry but it is carefully enough cautioned against and plainly forbid in the first and second Commandments of the Decalogue But the whole Decalogue is Moral and so declared by God in that it is said to be writ by his own finger on the Tables of stone which are Symbols of