Judgements shall not be blinded by beholding the frequent and accustomary practice of authentick wickedness Philop. And what I pray you is meant by the Raiment of Camel's hair and leathern girdle about John the Baptist's loyns Matt. 3.4 And the very body of Elias is so described 2 King 1.8 that he was an hairy man Philoth. That 's very obvious O Philopolis to spell out It signifies how rough and unpolish'd how rude and sylvatick the spirit of Elias will appear to the World because it will so freely and impartially reprehend the World To declare truth in all plainness and simplicity of heart though otherwise with all civility imaginable assure your self Philopolis will appear to the World a great piece of roughness rudeness and uncourtliness So tender and so rotten is the heart of the wicked But there are also in the Story other Characters of the Spirit of Elias that are less symbolicall As an holy boldness and undauntedness of courage to witness to the Truth though to the utmost perill of one's person Which was conspicuous both in the Baptist and in Elias The instructing every one in their Duty as Iohn did the People Luk. 3.10 the Publicans and the Souldiers The raising men out of a false Security from external or carnal respects as he did the Sadducees and Pharisees Matt. 3.8 9. Bring forth fruits meet for Repentance And say not within your selves We have Abraham to our Father or that we are the Successours of Peter and the rest of the Apostles For God is able of these Stones you tread upon to raise up Successours unto Peter This also is a notable Character of the Spirit of Elias 1 King 19.10 a vehement Iealousie in the behalf of the purity of God's Worship against all Polytheism and Idolatry Philop. Yes that was very conspicuous indeed in Elias the Thisbite But what is meant by his bringing down fire from Heaven upon the Captains and their Fifties 2 King 1.10 Philoth. That indeed is again symbolicall Philopolis and signifies that the Elias to come will use onely the power of the Spirit from on high to oppose all weapons of any carnal warfare against him Philop. There is but one passage more Philotheus and I think we shall then have Characters enough of the Eliah to come viz. The Thisbite's Contest with the Priests of Baal where he seems to try the Truth of Religion by this Touchstone The God that answers by fire 1 King 18.24 let him be God Philoth. The Elias to come will make the same appeal to the people Ye worship you know not what John 4.22 as our Saviour said of the Samaritans that did not worship God in spirit and in truth The God that answers by fire let him be God Philop. I but what 's the meaning of that Philotheus Philoth. Does God care for the oblation of a Bullock Philopolis The Beast which we are to offer to be consumed in a Burnt-sacrifice are the Beastly Affections in us The God that answers by fire that is to say by his Spirit to the consumption of these let him be God But he that worships not this living God that by the working of his Spirit cleanses us from our Corruptions let him be deemed as the worshipper of an Idol Philop. This is a good useful sense Philotheus Nor have you I think omitted any Character of the Elias to come unless it be that Severeness and Austerity observable in the Baptist and the sharpness and tartness of his Reprehensions Philoth. That was partly glanced at before in the roughness and hairiness of their Persons and Garbs I mean of both the Thisbite and the Baptist. Which Dispensation though it may seem harsh yet it will stand in a seasonable opposition to the Vanity and Levity to the Prophaneness and Frivolousness of the Age it appears in Cuph. I think both Philopolis and Philotheus are so sadly and severely set on it that they have on purpose declined the mentioning of as notorious an Example of Elias his carriage of himself as any occurrs in his whole Story Philop. I pray you Cuphophron what 's that Cuph. The deriding the Priests of Baal so sarcastically Philoth. That was left for Cuphophron to glean up it fits his humour so well Hyl. And I dare say he catched at it with great greediness Philotheus hoping for his other-day's tart jears and satyrical Derisions of the known miscarriages of the civilized World under pretence of playing Advocate-General for the Paynim that he may deserve if computation of time will permit to be deemed no small limb of that great Elias that is spoken of Cuph. Who I Hylobares I would not for all the world be so much as the little finger of so hairy rough and hispid a body Nay I thank my God I am of a more smooth civil and compleasant temper then so Philop. And let him be so XXII The time of Elias his coming if he will Hylobares In the mean time Philotheus since I am pretty well satisfied touching the Characters I beseech you tell me when the time of the coming of Elias is Philoth. Within the first Thunder Philop. That I knew before Philotheus for you told me it would be before the effusion of the last Vial. But under what Vial will it be Philoth. About the fourth or fifth nor may I define more precisely About that time is the appearance of Elias in the Spirit Philop. Is that then the beginning of that Regnum Spiritûs the Cabbalists speak of Philoth. No Philopolis not properly the Beginning of it but rather a Preparation to it according as it is written Mal. 3.1 Behold I send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me And then the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple Philop. What Temple 's that Philotheus Philoth. Ezekiel's Temple in the new Ierusalem I above told you of That is the Temple meant in this second Completion of the Prophecy And you know there are several Periods of their Completion as in Ezekiel's Vision there was a wheel in a wheel Ezek. 1.16 Philop. But it is said of that new Ierusalem Apoc. 21.22 that there is no Temple there Philoth. There is and there is not There is no material Temple but yet there is a Mysticall one For God Almighty and the Lamb is the Temple thereof God Almighty is the Object of our Worship and the Lamb that is stylo Prophetico the Body of Christ his Church for * 1 Cor. 12.12 Gal. 3.16 Christ sometimes signifies so in Scripture in which he rules and dwells by his Spirit is the Temple according to that of the Apostle For the Temple of God is holy 1 Cor. 3.17 which Temple ye are This is the Temple which the Lord Christ is in a more peculiar manner to come into after the Ministry of Elias the Messenger of the Covenant who is to be as a Refiner's fire and as Fuller's soap
thereabout For in that the Church was then measured by a man Apoc. 11.1 but this new state of things by an Angel that simply with a Reed Apoc. 21.25 17. this with a golden Reed it implies that this new state of things will as much surpass that state though the best the Church has yet been in as Angels do Men and a golden Reed an ordinary combustible one Assuredly there was something in thosedays though much better then then when the Church did grossly apostatize that will not abide the fire but consume into smoak and vanish But all in this new Creation is like the Measure it is measured with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle somewhere speaks such as will abide the fire without wasting Thy word is very pure saith the Psalmist Psalm 119. And again Psal. 12. The words of the Lord are pure words even as the silver that is tried from the earth and purified seven times in the fire It is therefore the precious Word of God or pure Law of God which David esteems above thousands of gold and silver which is this golden Reed to which the new Ierusalem is commensurate Psalm 119.72 Nothing is retain'd as having an authentick stamp upon it in this new Dispensation but what is plainly agreeable to the Word of God 1 Cor. 3.12 All the hay and stubble of humane Traditions and Institutions will be burnt up and the pure and Apostolick Doctrine and Discipline will be the sole Measure of all So that the measuring of the City with a golden Reed and the hundred forty four Cubits and the twelve thousand Furlongs end all in this sense That the Constitution of things then will be purely Apostolicall squared all by that Doctrine by that Spirit which is the eternall Spirit of God the Fountain of all holy Truth and Divine Reason Philop. Indeed Philotheus these Interpretations of yours seem to me very natural But are there no farther Characters of this excellent state of the Church in other Visions or Prophecies Philoth. X Several passages of the Mercavah expounded or the Vision of Cherubims seen by Ezekiel There are Philopolis but it were an endless thing to pursue all And yet I cannot abstain from giving you some Intimations from Ezekiel's Vision of the four Cherubims or Chariot of God with which the Throne of God in Heaven amongst the four Beasts seen by S. Iohn has no small correspondency For this you are to understand Philopolis that the great purpose of that early-begun and long-continued Negotiation of the Son of God with us terrestriall Creatures has been the enlarging the Kingdome of God even to these earthly Regions that the Kingdome of Heaven may be also upon Earth perfectly corresponding to the Heavenly pattern thereof And this is that which we are taught to pray for by our Saviour Thy Kingdome come that is to say Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven namely by his holy Angels And therefore the ultimate end of the Dispensations of Divine Providence is as I noted from the Angel's measuring the new Ierusalem to reduce the Church to an Angelicall state or condition that it may answer that Heavenly Pattern in the Visions of God Philop. I do not yet well understand you Philotheus Philoth. But you will do Philopolis if you do but attend to the orderly process of my discourse I say therefore in the first place that the Vision of the Cherubim or Chariot of God seen by Ezekiel but not first by him Ezek. 1.4 for I doubt not but the same appeared also to Moses and Aaron on the Mount Exod. 24.10 is the Pattern of the Angelicall Polity over which God immediately rules Psalm 68.17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels and the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Now the great design of all is that in the fulness of time the Church upon Earth may be his Chariot as fully and commandingly as the Angelicall Orders in Heaven Philop. Why how fully is that Philotheus Philoth. That methinks the Vision of Ezekiel does lively describe though I will not omit other observables in my brief passage through the Vision and yet think it needless to touch upon all Ezek. 1.4 I looked saies he and behold a Whirlwinde came out of the North a great cloud and a fire enfolding it self and a brightness about it and out of the midst thereof as the colour of Amber out of the midst of the fire This colour of Amber out of the midst of the fire I cannot but parallel to that description of the new Ierusalem Apoc. 21 18. And the City was pure Gold like unto transparent glass Think with your self how near in resemblance Philopolis transparent Gold and Amber are one to another Philop. Very like one another surely But what is the meaning thereof Philotheus Philoth. The fire and the light is the Spirit throughly penetrating and possessing this pure amber-like or transparent Gold as Iron it self looks in a manner transparent when it is ferrum candens which they ordinarily call red-hot Isa. 33.14 Who shall dwell with devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Philop. Pure Gold certainly though as transparent as Amber and such as has lost all its Dross They must be of a pure Angelicall nature indeed For God is a consuming fire to whatever is contrary to his own Holiness Deut. 4.24 Philoth. Wherefore there being nothing to resist in this Cherubick Chariot of God they are perfectly obedient to his Will and he has an absolute empire over them they are wholly guided by his Spirit as is also intimated in the Vision more then once Ezek. 1.12 And they went every one straight forward whither the Spirit was to goe they went And in that it is said they went straight forward and that they returned not when they went this signifies the peremptory and irresistible progress of Divine Providence administred by his Angelicall forces Ver. 18. For in that the wheels of his Cherubick Chariot are said to be full of eyes I conceive this is meant thereby That the Circuits and Periods of times and Ages are carried by a special Providence of God who oversees all things And whereas it is said Ver. 19. And when the living Creatures went the Wheels went by them and when the living Creatures were lift up from the earth the Wheels were lift up this signifies the Adnexion of the Dispensations and Periods of times to the Ministry of the Angelicall Hosts and that they spirit actuate and animate all such Circuits and Periods The matter is by the decree of the Watchers Dan. 4.17 and the demand by the word of the holy ones Euist. I had thought Philotheus that these Wheels with eyes might have been the starry Heavens turned about by the Intelligences Philoth. That 's a phancie as far dissonant from the ancient wisedome of the Iews
particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
I perceive that it cannot proceed from any vain curiosity but from a sincere desire of entring into life and holiness The most effectual means in the general is intimated up and down in the Gospels by our Blessed Saviour As where he compares the Kingdome of Heaven to a Treasure hid in the field Matt. 13.44 45. and to a single Pearl of great price for which one sells all that he has to purchase it and where he tells us that the Kingdome of God suffers violence Matt. 11.12 and that the violent take it by force and again where he declares that he that lays his hand to the plough Luk. 9.62 and looketh back is not fit for the Kingdome of God and in like passages For all these signifie thus much to us That whosoever would acquire so excellent a state of the Soul as this which we call the Kingdome of God he must forthwith quit all things else whatsoever that stand in competition with it That he must with all imaginable earnestness of spirit and with a kind of holy violence reach at it and endeavour the taking of it through all dangers hardships and resistences whatsoever as he that would scale the walls of a City to obtain the Crown and lastly That this pursuit be without any intermissions or lazy relapses into the power of the World or the Flesh again but that it be peremptory constant and continued till we have wone the prize and finde all that fulfilled in us which we desired or expected which is the perfect subduing of all our corruptions and the establishing of the Reign of the true Melchizedek in us the living Righteousness of God and the replenishing of our hearts with purity peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Philop. This is excellently good in the general O Philotheus But have you no farther directions more particularly to recommend to us Philoth. Truth lies in a little room especially that of it that is most usefull O Philopolis And therefore I will trouble you with no farther instructions then what are comprized in these few Principles As first That we have a firm and unshaken Faith in the Power of God and in the assistence of the Spirit of the Lord Iesus for the subduing all Envy Pride Lust all Worldliness and Selfishness and what-ever is contrary to the Kingdome of God in us that we may have a comfortable conquest over these and all like corruptions through him that strengthens us This is the first necessary Principle we ought to be imbued with if we mean seriously to set our selves to the atchieving so great and weighty an enterprise This I say is the first necessary Principle namely A full and firm belief that the Atchievement is possible The second is That we believe it to be our duty to arrive to this blessed state and not to satisfie our selves with any condition on this side of it much less out of any Antinomian Sophistrie or Witchcraft to phansie our selves released from all obligation to any real and living Righteousness in us but to be entirely obedient to the voice of Wisedome and Truth Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect and to remember that it was the end of Christ's coming into the world Matt. 15.13 to pluck up every plant that was not of his Father's planting and to raise such a seed upon earth as have neither spot nor wrinkle Ephes. 5.27 nor any such thing but are holy and without blemish If either of these two Principles be wanting the defect will be notorious in the success For who can with any courage attempt such difficulties as he thinks either impossible to be overmastered or not his duty to grapple with Wherefore being sound in these Philopolis he must adde Meditation Circumspection and Devotion Meditation in private especially Circumspection in his dealing with externall objects whether men or things that he be not carried away unawares against those rules and resolutions he made to himself in private but ever stand upon his guard and if he be assaulted with any temptation to call to Heaven for succour and to trust in the strength of God against the surprize Which I think is the true meaning of praying continually But in a more particular manner to adde to your private Meditation the fervency of Devotion and earnestly to beg of God that he would every day more and more discover to you the ugliness of Sin and the amiableness of Righteousness and that your hatred may be more keenly edged against the one and your love more highly inflamed towards the other that the work of the Heart may go on and not those umbratile skirmishes of the Brain in Phancie and exteriour Reason but that we may effectually feel the difference of the contrary actings of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light and the Kingdome of Darkness charging one another in the field Life against life and Substance against substance till Hell and Death be absorpt into victory and the evil Nature be quite consumed into a glorious flame of Love and Triumph These all are the Mysteries of the Heart O Philopolis not of the Head which in comparison is but an outward Shop of Phancies and fine Pictures but the transactions of substantial life and Reality are in that other part which is the secret Tabernacle of God and hidden Temple for most effectual Prayer For the Heart is the proper Pavilion of either the spirit of the World or the Spirit of God which kindles there the holy desire and thirst after Righteousness Which vehement sincere and cordial desire the true gift and fruit of the Spirit is the very soul and substance of Prayer and a certain Divine Magick that draws all the heavenly Powers into the centre of our Souls imbibing the comfortable dews of Paradise to the ineffable refreshing of the Garden of God Through this sluce is let in all the nourishment to the new Birth and it is the seat of the first living seed thereof Whence the Centre of our Soul in the Heart requires more diligent observation then that more peculiar one in the Head For though this seems more peculiarly ours yet the other joyns us with that which is more to us then we are to our selves whether it be the spirit of the world or of God and makes us feelingly communicate with Life and Substance whenas the other without this would onely lead us into a field of Shadows and Dreams Wherefore O Philopolis he that is a Candidate for the Kingdome of God let him above all things cultivate the Heart for through this onely is the Inlet into the Kingdome of Light Matt. 5.6 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied I stretch forth my hands unto thee Psalm 143.6 my Soul gaspeth unto thee as a thirsty Land where no water is Psalm 84.5 6
and is also the Kingdome of Christ or of the Messiah and is likewise styled the Kingdome of Heaven even in a Politicall sense as where it is compared to a Net Matth. 13. and elsewhere This Kingdome of Christ is the Kingdome of God in a more eminent and illustrious signification not onely for its holiness but also for the vast extent thereof according to the Hebrew Idiom For at long run it is to take in all the Kingdoms of the Earth But there is a more particular occasion of the styling of it the Kingdome of God from that passage in Daniel Dan. 2.44 And in the days of those Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroy'd From hence the Kingdome of Christ is called the Kingdome of Heaven and of God Now this great and notable Kingdome of the Son of man or the Messias was not present in our Saviour's days though it was in a near approch And therefore the Disciples might very well be taught to pray Thy Kingdome come and our Saviour preach that the Kingdome of God was at hand and encourage his little flock his few Followers in that at last the Roman Empire would fall into their hands as it did under Constantine the Great when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire But in that he saith Mar. 1.15 The time is fulfilled and the Kingdome of God is at hand that undoubtedly relates to the Seventy weeks of Daniel Dan. 9. which were upon their expiration about that time that Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdome that is a little before his Suffering ver 25 26. For after seven weeks and threescore and two weeks that is sixty nine weeks the Messias was to be cut off and the people of the Iews cease to be God's people any longer under the Mosaicall Dispensation and the everlasting Righteousness ver 24. or the Eternal Law or Religion of Christ to be brought in and the Iudaicall Sacrifices to cease the Son of God being once made an Oblation upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world This is the Inchoation of the Kingdome of God so much spoken of in the Gospel which though it was at first but as a grain of mustard-seed Matt. 13.31 yet in a little time spred far and wide in the Roman Empire and was at last made Master thereof For I must confess I understand that Parable of the Mustard-tree in a Politicall sense not in a Moral and compare that which our Saviour adds by way of illustration of its greatness so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof with that propheticall expression in Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdome is also resembled to a wide-spreading Tree Dan. 4.12 The Beasts of the field had shadow under it and the Fowls of the Heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof And thus was Christ's promise made good to his little flock to whom he had declared that it was his Father's good pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luk. 12.32 Philop. This is handsome and to me not unsatisfactory O Philotheus so far as it goes But did not the Church of God both in Constantine's time and after pray Thy Kingdome come Philoth. I doubt it not Philopolis and it will never be unseasonable so to pray in the Moral sense either for our selves or others but hitherto it has been also seasonable in the Politicall For though the Church where uncorrupted with Idolatry and other gross Pollutions has been the Kingdome of God ever since it had a being whether in prosperity or persecution yet it has been hitherto but Regnum Lapidis not Regnum Montis and therefore in a Politicall sense they might ever pray that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel That the stone cut out without hands might smite the Image upon the feet Dan. 2.34 35 44. and become a great Mountain and fill the whole Earth and be a Kingdome that shall stand for ever a Kingdome of God's setting up that shall never be destroyed that is to say shall never relapse into Idolatrous practices nor be under their lash and subjection that do No power shall be able to persecute them for the purity of their Religion For it is the Kingdome of God triumphant and permanent that Daniel seems chiefly to point at as if that short stay of the Seventh King mentioned in the Apocalypse were scarce worth noting in these more compendious Visions Apoc. 17.10 Which seeming omission in the Vision of the Statue is more palpably repeated again in the Vision of the Four beasts For though the Kingdome of the Son of man was in the Reign of the Seventh King in a triumphant state yet because it was so short and unpermanent the Prophecy seems to take no express notice of it but to begin the Inauguration of the Son of man into his Kingdome upon the destruction of the little Horn which destruction is not yet compleated When Dan. 7.21 22. because of the great words the Horn spake the Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame namely the Beast with this little Horn with eyes in it which little Horn is more fully and distinctly represented in the Apocalypse under the figure of the Two-horned Beast then Daniel saw in the night-Vision and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdome that all people and Nations and languages should serve him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall not be destroyed which therefore is not so properly the Kingdome of God under the Seventh King but that Dominion of the Saints which emerges upon the Beast that is not and yet is his going into perdition Do you understand me Philopolis Philop. Very well XIV The Easiness of the Prophetick style and I think your Notion mainly solid Nor do I finde it any difficulty to converse with men touching these Propheticall Mysteries since I have pretty well conn'd the Prophetick style the knowledge whereof in my mind is as well more easie as more usefull and pleasant then Heraldry which yet every ordinary capacity is easily master of Philoth. I am exceeding glad to hear you say so O Philopolis and wish all the Gentlemen in Christendome were of your mind They would find such Conviction in the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse that I dare say we should in a short time be all of one opinion in matters of Religion Philop. I wish with all my heart they would set themselves to this so easie and pleasant kind of seriousness Bath Sensuality Levity and Profaneness of spirit makes holy things though of themselves very easie and pleasant both unpleasant hard and tedious to such unmoralized minds
Empire in Constantine's time became the Kingdome of God but were no particular members of the Church at that time in any thing reprehensible Whether the Reformation cease to be the Kingdome of God for the wickedness of some of that denomination let our Adversaries be judges who never spared to style themselves Holy Church for all the abhorred ungodliness of the Heads their Holinesses at Rome and universal pollution of the members and that because they took themselves to be the true Christian Church and to hold the right Faith and to retain the Rites and Religious Practices as to the externall Worship of God though they were indeed an Antichristian Church and all overrun with abominable Doctrines and Idolatrous Practices and Diabolical Cruelties against the true Worshippers of God Of how much more right therefore ought the Reformation to be held the holy people of God and his peculiar Kingdome who profess the Apostolick Faith entire without any Idolatrous superadditions who murther no man for his Conscience and make the infallible Word of God it self the Object of their Profession and the platform of their Religion Cuph. The truth is the disparity is infinitely great if the Roman and Reformed Church stood in competition which of them two should be the Kingdome of God Bath But it being so plain that the Reformed Church is the true Externall Kingdome of God forasmuch as they make pure profession of the Gospel of the Kingdome cleared from all the gross Corruptions of men and teach Christ merely according to the Word of Christ and that also in this regard the Church of Rome by their Antichristian Doctrines is really a contrary Kingdome thereunto that is the Kingdome of Antichrist how abominably nauseous O Cuphophron must Indifferency in Religion be amongst Pretenders to Protestantism whenas the Romanists themselves scarce in the worst of times would have laid down their zeal in the behalf of that Christianity against Turcism though Turcism ought not to be more abominable to them then their Antichristianism ought to be to us XVII The Charge of Antinomianism against th Reformation For what can be more contrary then the Kingdome of Christ and of Antichrist Cuph. This would bear more weight with it Bathynous if there were no gross flaws in the externall Profession of the Protestants and that they were right in their declared Opinions For in my judgement Antinomianism and Calvinism I mean that dark Dogma about Predestination are such horrid Errours that they seem the badges of the Kingdome of Darkness rather then of the Kingdome of God Bath What you mean by Antinomianism O Cuphophron I know not But so far as I know there are but these two meanings thereof either a conceit that we are exempted by the liberty of the Gospel from all moral Duties a thing exploded by all the Protestant Churches as you may understand by the Harmony of their Confessions or else it signifies a disclaim of being justified by the doing our Duties and an entire relying on the Satisfaction or Atonement of Christ which rightly understood has no evil at all in it but is an excellent Antidote against Pride For those that profess such an Antinomianism as this and declare they look to be saved by Faith onely without the Works of the Law will not deny but that they are to live as strictly and holily as if they were to be saved by the integrity of their conversations and yet when they have lived as precisely as they can that they are wholly to relie upon the mercy of God in Christ. How lovely how amiable is such a disposition of a Soul as this who taking no notice of her own innocency or righteousness casts her self wholly on the Goodness and Merits of her Saviour and so like an un-self-reflecting and an un-self-valuing childe enters securely and peaceably into the Kingdome of God and into the choicest mansions of his heavenly Paradise Cuph. Nay if that be the worst of it Bathynous I am easily reconciled to Protestantism for all this Bath This is the worst of it O Cuphophron so far as I can understand And you know the orthodox Protestants universally adde their Doctrine of Sanctification or a good life to that of Justification by Faith onely so that I dare say they dealt bonâ fide but by a secret Providence directed so their style and phrase as was most effectual to oppose or undermine the gainful traffick of that City of Merchandises where the good works they ordinarily cry'd up so were nothing else but the good and rich wares those cunning Merchants purchased at cheap rates from abused souls the increase of whose sins were the advance of the Revenues of the Church and their externall good works as they are called an excuse for their want of inward Sanctification and real Regeneration the main things the Protestants stand upon which can be no more without Good works in the best sense so called then the Sun without Light Cuph. But are there then Bathynous no Antinomians in the ill sense amongst the Protestant Bath No otherwise Cuphophron then there were Gnosticks and Carpocratians in the Apostolick times There are but disallowed by general suffrage Cuph. Let that then suffice XVIII The Charge of Calvinism against the Reformation But this dark Opinion of Predestination how dismall does it look Bathynous black as the smoak of the bottomless pit out of which the Locusts came Bath What do you allude to the Turks and Saracens Cuphophron The Turks indeed are held great Fatalists whence some in reproch call this Point of Calvin Calvino-Turcism Who would have thought Cuphophron so Apocalyptical That you take so great offence at Predestination in that rude and crude sense that some hold it I do not at all wonder for it has ever seemed to me an Opinion perfectly repugnant to the nature of God that he should Predestinate any Souls to endless and unspeakable misery for such sins as it was ever impossible for them to avoid This is a great reproch in my apprehension to the Divine Majesty But that there is an effectual Election or Predestination of some to eternall life I must confess I think it not onely an Opinion inoffensive but true which seems to me probably to be intimated from such passages as these Apoc. 13.8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And again in another place of the Apocalypse And they that are with him are called Apoc. 17.14 and chosen and faithfull And also in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 8.28 29. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and whom he did predestinate them he also called c. These places considered together want not their force
thus For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy Cuph. Methinks Philotheus it is but an harsh and strained sense of Scripture that fetches out bloud The Spirit of God surely breaths out more Meekness and mercifulness Bath There is a Meekness and Sweetness of the natural Complexion which would pretend to that Divine Spirit but falls as short of it as Nature does of God and is a Softness over-usually accompanied with a Falsness and Perfidiousness to all Truth and Vertue and betrays all that ought to be dear to a man his Prince his Friend his Country and all What Rigour or unmercifulness was there in slaying the Spaniards at Sea that would have destroy'd our Land with fire and sword if they could as they intended have made an Invasion What Harshness in executing such persons as would traitorously have murthered the King or Queen Such Mercy as this is like that of the wicked Pro. 12.10 which as Solomon saies is Cruelty it self Cuph. Nay Bathynous as you represent the case I am abundantly convinced Philoth. And so you may well be from the very Text it self For the Angel of the Waters his justification of this Revenge is onely touching the Rivers that is Emissary forces that come to assault others and ruine them Surely defensive Opposition in so just a Cause and the paying them thus in their own Coin has with it all the Equity imaginable And therefore this passage is not at all misbecoming the Spirit of God Philop. I am fully of your mind in that Philotheus and those Reformed Churches that can doe that right to themselves by propulsing their Enemies I think they may thank God for the good condition they are in But we are advanced no higher in the Vials as yet Philotheus are we Philoth. No surely not in that more externall and Politicall sense But I know not whether in some other sense we may And assuredly the Apocalypse has its eye upon Religious accounts as well as Politicall I mean the Propheticall Iconisms sometimes have not onely a Politicall sense but a more Spiritual and it may be sometimes onely such Philop. In the mean time I am not a little pleased Philotheus that I know whereabout we are in this Politicall sense which methinks should be as desirable to be known by all that have any thing to doe with the affairs of the Kingdome of God as it would be to the Pilot of a Ship on the main Ocean to know in what Longitude and Latitude he is You have led me through my Three first Quere's Philotheus with much delight and satisfaction Let me now intreat you to give your self the trouble of instructing me touching the last Cuph. XXXVIII Philopolis his last Quere deferr'd till next day's meeting Truly if I have any aime or presage in me Philopolis if Philotheus fall upon your last Quere thus late he will not onely give himself but also you and the rest of the company the trouble of sitting up all night Philoth. Indeed Philopolis I fear my self that that Theme will so spread it self in the entring into it that it will require at least as long a time as we have spent already Philop. This is a sad distraction and unexpected that I am cast into Philotheus To desire you to goe on would be both uncivil and unsupportable to you and the whole company To leave off would be such a torment to my desire of seeing to the end of this great Theorie and a loss so irreparable that I have not the patience to think of it Cuph. Why then Philopolis is it not a plain case that you must stay in town to morrow Philop. I must so Cuphophron whatever becomes of my Country affairs I will lie at a friend's house by the way on Sunday and on Monday I shall be pretty timely at home Cuph. Very well resolved Philopolis But I will not thank you for this Dine but with me here in this Arbour for now you cannot say you are pre-engaged and for that honour you and this company shall doe me I shall heartily thank you You may begin your Discourse with Philotheus immediately after Dinner and gain an hour or two's time Philop. How ready and skilfull Cuphophron is to entrap men into the acceptance of a Civility If you will give your Parol that you will make us a right frugal and Philosophicall entertainment I will dine with you to morrow because I see you so earnest in it Cuph. XXXIX The Conclusion with the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung to the Theorbo by Bathynous I promise you I will not at all exceed In the mean time this Glass of Canarie to you till our next meeting Philop. Not a drop I thank you Cuphophron A Fit of Musick rather according to your Pythagorick mode to compose our minds to bedward For indeed it is late though I was loth to think so when I would have had Philotheus to proceed in his discourse Sophr. Bathynous play us the other Lesson I pray you Philopolis desires it And but a short one it being so late Here take the Theorbo Bath It seems I must the second time shew my unskilfulness You shall sing Sophron and I will play a thorough Base to it Sophr. What shall I sing I have neither Song nor Voice Bath Yes but you have the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. Sophr. The onely piece of Poetry that I was ever guilty of in all my life My zeal and love for the Reformation was the Muse that with much adoe once inspired those humble Rhymes which I can onely repeat not sing at all Bath If you cannot Sophron I can And the Lute I think is pretty well in tune Philoth. I pray you do Bathynous Bath Great and marvellous are Thy works Lord God of Might Thou Sovereign of Saints Thy ways are just and right Who shall not fear thee Lord And glorifie thy Name Thou onely Holy art Thine Acts no tongue can stain All Nations shall adore Thy Iudgements manifest Thy holy Name implore And in thy Truth shall rest Philop. That is all Nations shall be converted to the pure Truth of the Gospel and rest satisfied at the length in so solid and unexceptionable a Religion Sophr. I meant so Philopolis Philop. A very good meaning and a very sutable Song for this day 's Subject I pray God hasten that time to the comfort of the whole Earth I must abruptly bid you all good night for the present and see if I can dispatch a Letter home by this night's Post. But I shall keep promise with Cuphophron and am not a little joy'd that I shall once more enjoy this excellent society before I leave the Town Cuph. It is our happiness that we have detain'd you one night longer Philoth. Good night dear Philopolis I shall meet you here according to your expectation Philop. In the mean time dear Philotheus good night
waters issuing out of the Sanctuarie in Ezek. 47.1 12. the form of a mighty River and of the Trees bringing forth fruit according to their months the fruit whereof should be for meat and the leaves for medicine Is not this perfectly answering to that River of Water of life Apoc. 22.1 2. clear as crystall proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb and to the Tree of life on either side of the River yielding her fruit every month whose leaves also are said to be for the healing of the Nations Philop. I must confess it is exceeding probable Philoth. Now they being one and the same Vision as to the Object of their Prediction the new Ierusalem and the River and the Trees being mystically to be understood Ezekiel's Vision also is to be mystically understood Philop. As for S t. Iohn's Vision methinks it is a marvellous childish conceit to expound it literally as if there should be a City made of diaphanous Gold the Wall of precious Stones and the Gates of Pearl Philoth. And yet methinks this is more marvellous That the City should be as a Cube Apoc. 21.16 as high as it is broad or long And yet it is so declared and twelve thousand furlongs is the Cubical measure thereof Philop. What then is the meaning of that passage I pray you Philotheus Philoth. I think two things are hinted thereby The one I have noted already That this City cannot be understood literally The other is what was intimated before by the names of the Apostles This solid Cube twelve thousand signifies that this City will be wholly and entirely Apostolicall in Life and Doctrine and Discipline The square Root also of the measure of the Wall 144 Cubits intimating the same Apostolicalness of Dispensation For the saying a hundred forty four Cubits is the measure of the Wall Apoc. 21.17 implies that it is 12 cubits high and 12 cubits broad nor could the intimation reach any farther speaking suitably to the nature of a City wall For what kinde of City must that be the compass of whose Wall is but 144 Cubits Philop. Some say Philotheus that the Root of that Cube you mentioned being extracted and so the Perimeter of this City S. Iohn describes discovered it is found to be the same in a manner with the Perimeter of that City Ezekiel describes Ezek. 48.35 What does that signifie think you Philoth. I know not what else it should signifie but that these two Visions aim at the same thing and that the meaning of that also in Ezekiel is spiritual and that those Prophetick Figures that strike the phancy and the flesh are to be fulfilled in the dispensation of the Spirit which the whole Iudaicall Oeconomy seals to as a Type to the thing typified And from hence is to be interpreted that sixth verse And he that sate on the Throne said It is done All is finished now Now we are come to the Dispensation of the Spirit all is fulfilled I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I began with that Mosaicall Oeconomie which consists most-what in Figures and carnal Formalities which was in a manner revived again in an exteriour Christianity but this oldness of the Letter is to be done away and all shall be ended and accomplished in the dispensation of the Spirit and by the real Renovation of the humane nature into the new Creature the living Image of God according as it is written And he that sate on the Throne said Behold I make all things new These are the days in which the Lord has promised that he will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Jer. 31.31 33 34 namely that he will put his Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts so that they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord For they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest Apoc. 22.4 For as S. Iohn saith they shall see his face and his Name shall be in their foreheads According as our Saviour has foretold Matt. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God All which denotes the Dispensation of the Spirit According as Ezekiel also witnesses of these Times Neither will I hide my face any more from them Ezek. 39.29 for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel saith the Lord. This therefore is the meaning of that passage in the sixth verse Apoc. 21.6 And I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of Life freely viz. I will freely communicate unto him the power of my Spirit According as Isay likewise has foretold Isa. 44.3 For I will pour water on him that is thirsty and flouds upon the dry ground and I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring Whence I should interpret the crystalline River S. Iohn mentions of externall Prosperity also Apoc. 22.1 the Joy and Peace and Security of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To all which you may adde that our Saviour compares the Spirit to living waters John 7.38 Philop. I remember it very well Philoth. And now for that last verse Philopolis I see little difficulty in it Abomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it usully signifies an Idol And the sense I conceive is That all Idolaters and Impostours or Liars in any sense will be excluded the Holy City nothing being admitted there but Truth and Simplicity of Life onely those that are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. Philop. I what 's the meaning of that Philotheus Philoth. Onely the Elect of God Bath It is much that such an innumerable company of Souls should be all of the number of the Elect such as of whom it is said Jer. 1.5 I sanctified thee from the womb and knew thee before thou wast born Philoth. I call all Elect that upon the privilege of their new Birth or the retaining of the Divine Life have their names enrolled as Citizens of the new Ierusalem in the Book of Life of the Lamb. Philop. A sober Interpretation And now Philotheus I warrant you you think you have run through all the Particulars I proposed Philoth. Why have I omitted any of them Philopolis Philop. IX The Angel's measuring the City with a golden Reed what the meaning thereof Onely one but that a main one I think viz. Why the Angel is said to measure the City here with a golden Reed whenas S. Iohn is said to measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein simply with a Reed Philoth. This is well recovered Philopolis For it is in my apprehension a notable testimony of the transcendent condition of the new Ierusalem even above those Times of the Church which were accounted symmetral viz. the first four hundred years or
the Spirit This is surely the Vnity of the Spirit which all good Christians are exhorted to But how shall we attain to it Philotheus Philoth. This I conceive would confer much thereto if all Opinions and Practices in Religion that either hinder or do not promote the Life of God in the world were universally undervalued by the Church of God For in this Life of God is his Spirit And by this means all opportunity and pretense of any one's shewing himself to be religious but wherein true Religion doth consist being quite cut off men that would be thought at all religious must endeavour the imitation of that Life we speak of to approve themselves such Which they will do very lamely without the presence of the Spirit And all occasions of squabbling and contention about the Shadows and Coverings of Opinions and Forms being thus removed and taken out of the way it will be far easier to perform what the Apostle exhorts to Ephes. 4.3 namely To keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For no man then shall be able to bustle with any credit unless it be in the behalf of what tends to the good of the people of God and of all mankinde But of those externall Coverings hear what the Prophet Isay denounceth Wo to the rebellious children Isa. 30.1 saith the Lord that take counsell but not of me and that cover with a Covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin This is the false Covering of Opinions and Formalities heaped together by the Ignorance or Hypocrisie of men whereby they would hide themselves as Adam from the eyes of their Maker But God has foretold that those of Mount Sion the Souldiers of the Lamb Isa. 25.7 shall destroy the face of the Covering cast over all people and the Veil that is spread over all Nations And then they must either be cloathed with the Covering of the Spirit Apoc. 16.15 or be found stark naked to their open shame as they are forewarned in the last Vial. Thus should we approch nearer to that Type of the best state of the Church figured out in the form of the Cherubims or the four Beasts where the Eagle is conceived to have the foot of an Oxe Isa. 55.2 none of them labour for that which is not bread Wherefore the number of Formalities and Opinions being lessened according to their uselesness and consequently being but few and profitable all the Church will easily understand their importance and truth As all the four Beasts are said to be full of eyes in opposition to that blinde Obedience cried up in the Roman Church and so throughly discerning the same Object and therewithall passing the same judgement upon it are also carried with one joint motion and affection For even their wings are full of eyes as denoting they move not out of any blinde Principle but from a Principle of certain Knowledge Which therefore Philopolis I would in opposition to the Church of Rome who cry up Ignorance as the mother of Devotion make the Seventh Document of holy Policy The Seventh Principle viz. To instruct the People throughly and convincingly of all the Fundamental mysteries of Truth and Interest appertaining to the Kingdome of God They that obtrude Falshood for their own advantage upon the People it is their Interest to keep them in Ignorance But they that are the Assertours of the Truth it is their Interest to have it as fully and fundamentally understood as may be and made clear out of Reason or Scripture And I conceive all Truth that is needfull to Life and Godliness may be in such manner cleared to the unprejudiced Whence it will be a very hard tug to seduce any from the Church to Romanism Infidelity or Atheism Philop. XXXI How the mind of man may arrive to a state of Unprejudicateness I am clearly of your minde Philotheus but all the difficulty is to get to that state of Vnprejudicateness Philoth. If the Son make you free then are you free indeed Sophr. That is not spoken Philotheus of freedome from Prejudice but of freedome from Sin so far as humane Nature can be free * John 8.34 35. Whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever Then follows Ver. 36. If the Son therefore make you free then are you free indeed Philoth. And a little before he saith If ye continue in my word Ver. 31 32. then are ye my Disciples indeed that is to say If ye keep my Commandments And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Whereupon the Iews expostulate with our Saviour We be Abraham's seed Ver. 33. say they and were never in bondage to any how saiest thou then Ye shall be made free Whereupon in that passage O Sophron which you cited he charges them with being servants to sin implying that that was the Prejudice and impediment to their attaining to the Truth in that they lived in sin So that freedome from sin I think in our Saviour's own judgement does infer also freedome from Prejudice that hinders the knowledge of the Truth Wherefore O Philopolis in the Eighth and last place for I will not discourse so now as if I despaired of ever having the opportunity of conferring with you again I shall propose this one Document more not onely very serviceable for the Unity of the Church but the most effectual I know and the most necessary for the bringing on those excellent Times your desire is so carried after Philop. I long to hear it Philotheus Philoth. It is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ The Eighth and last Principle which he has promised to all Believers that by this assistence we may get the conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This Doctrine That we are not onely obliged to an higher pitch of Morality then either Paganism or Judaism did pretend to or could boast of but also that through the Spirit of Christ inhabiting in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon upon the Mount and elsewhere in his Discourses in the Gospels It is this Doctrine I say that must renew the world in righteousness and bring on those glorious Times that so many good men believe and desire This Philopolis is a necessary preparation thereto For what Doctrine but this can reach the Hypocrisie of mens hearts who under colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling-sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian Nay they will quit none of them under pretence we must
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are
That is the great bar to the reception of Sacred Truths with such kind of men as Pride Covetousness and Hypocrisie with others Philop. What you say I believe is too true Bathynous the more the pitty But while we cannot change the minds of others let us at least improve our own as well as we can And from what we have proceeded in hitherto I am the more desirous to hear an answer to the last part of my present Quere Tell me therefore I beseech you O Philotheus Where the Kingdome of God now is That was the last Point in my Second Question and methinks I am more puzzled in it then ever Philoth. You are not so puzzled XV Where the Kingdome of God now is Philopolis but I believe you will easily extricate the difficulty your self and find out where God has by first finding out where he has not his Kingdome For I believe you will not say that the Kingdome of God is amongst the mere Pagans by reason of their Ignorance Atheisticalness and Idolatry Philop. No sure I did not so much as dream it was Philoth. Nor amongst the Iews For they were a City of murtherers and killed their Messias and so ceased to be God's people and as many as are not converted to Christianity justifie the act of their forefathers and become successively guilty of their bloudy and murtherous Crime Besides that they are professed Enemies and Rebells to the manifestly-declared Law of God which is the Christian Religion and therefore the Iewish Nation can be no part of the Kingdome of God according to the Definition of it above mentioned Philop. You say true Philotheus Philoth. Nor the Turk for the same reason I mean for his express enmity to Christianity the plainly-declared Law of God besides the tearing Cruelty and Savageness of that Polity For the Kingdome of God must be devoid as well of bloudy Persecution and Barbarity as of Idolatry and Polytheism And what an ill Character the Turks and Saracens have in the Prophetick Visions is plain in that the latter are figured out by Scorpion-like Locusts out of the bottomless pit Apoc. 9.10 11. the title of whose King is Abaddon or Apollyon the other by Horsemen ver 17 19. whose horses heads are compared to Lions and their tails to Serpents to intimate that league they have with the Kingdome of the Serpent or of the Devil for the Devil was a murtherer from the beginning and these Wasters of the world by war and bloudshed Philop. This is more then enough evident Philoth. And for the Popish Church it is well known how besides their multifarious Idolatries and gross Superstitious practices it is all-over besmeared with innocent bloud as she also is figured out in the Apocalypse by that gorgeous Whore with whom the Kings of the earth commit Fornication Chap. 17.2 6. and who is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Philop. It remains then that the Reformed parts of Christendome be the Kingdome of God for none else occurr to my mind that can lay claim to the title Philoth. And there is good reason to conclude so both because the Definition of the Externall Kingdome of God above given agrees to them namely that they worship the One and onely-true God and have purified his Worship from all Idolatrous practices and corruptions and have so far ceased to be that murtherous City that stoned the Prophets that they use no other sword then that of the Spirit against Idolaters themselves whom they never kill but either in the open field in battel or upon the account of Treason against their lawfull Prince and also because God be thanked they are free from any yoke but that of Christ and their own Reformed Princes And therefore being a self-sufficient Power able to maintain themselves against all extraneous and Idolatrous Powers these of them that are in this condition seem to me to be an hopefull Inchoation of that promised Kingdome of the Son of man which Daniel foretells of and to be the first Rudiments of the Fifth Monarchy forasmuch as they arise out of the ruine of the little Horn with the eyes of a Dan. 7.25 man which is said to wear out the Saints of the most High Philop. I understand you very well Philotheus O the admirable perspicuity and convictiveness of Truth O how necessary is the knowledge of this Theory to all the Protestant Dominions that they may know how to be both good Christians and good Subjects at once For no man can oppose undermine or be false to the Protestant Interest as such or to any Reformed Prince but he must ipso facto commit Treason against the Kingdome of God and be a Traitour or Rebell against the Sovereignty of the Lord Iesus O how infinitely satisfied am I with this Truth O how I could dwell upon this so-concerning a speculation O how am I eased in mind and freed from all distraction while my Soul is stedfastly determined to one that I know what to wish for what to pray for what to act for what to suffer for I mean for the interest of the Kingdome of God and the reviving Monarchy of the Lord Iesus Christ. Cuph. XVI That smaller faults in Things or Persons hinder not but that a Church may still be the Kingdome of God This Truth if it be a truth is like a spark fallen into very combustible matter that it has set Philopolis thus all on a flame It 's pitty but what you say should be true Philotheus that Philopolis his sincere and ingenuous zeal may not have hit on an undue subject But for my part I cannot but be something hesitant at least in the point if not quite incredulous For the Manners the Opinions and the manner of the Rise of Reformed Christendome are such as in my judgment ill sute with so glorious a Title Hyl. What it seems then that Mr. Advocate General of the Paynim will now act the part of an Accuser of the brethren This it is to be of such an universalized spirit as to be ready and fit for all turns Cuph. I shall aecuse them Hylobares whom I desire to be found clear and before such Judges as I hope will not be unfavourable Philoth. For my part Cuphophron I cannot say that either all Things or all persons of the Reformation are without fault But the sinfulness of some yea though it were of many does not exclude the whole from being the Externall Kingdome of God And that is the point that we are upon For the Externall Kingdome of God may be presumed much larger then the Internall And our Saviour Christ himself you know compares the Kingdome of God in this externall sense to a Net cast into the Sea Matt. 13.47 which gathers of every kind as well bad as good The people of Israel was the Kingdome of God but was every particular man of them holy and vertuous The Roman
as Falshood is from Truth Euist. Why Philotheus Ionathan Ben Vzziel is expresly of this opinion as you may see in Moses Aegyptius his More Nevochim Part. 3. c. 4. And he brings no small reasons for it For he shews how in the repeated Narration of the Vision a Wheel is called a Globe or Sphear Ezek. 10.13 which makes him alwaies render Ophannim by Galgallim Wherefore to have a Sphear in a Sphear as it will then run what can be more significative of the celestiall Orbs This is very notable Besides that they are said to have eyes which answer to the Stars and their colour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Seventy also translate it which the Latine renders ut visio Maris which is a caeruleous colour correspondent to that of the Heavens Philoth. This I confess Euistor besides the authority of the Rabbi bears in it self a special prettiness with it But it has no force nor solidity at all For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie a globe or sphear yet it signifies a wheel also and therefore is interpretable in that same sense that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is viz. a wheel Besides that one wheel is said to be on the Earth Ezek. 1.15 but no celestiall Orb is on the Earth And all the Wheels for ought I know may be intimated by that one Wheel and by the Earth all the terrestriall Regions of the Universe For all the four Cherubims or Animals are said also to be but one Ezek. 10.15 And what this means in the Cabbalisticall style is easie enough to conjecture And that there may be a wheel in a wheel in such a sense as Ben Vzziel would have a globe in a globe There are lesser and bigger Circuits of Providence in humane affairs the one surrounding the other and the Completions of the lesser Circuits are antecedaneous to those of the greater Which is of notable observation in the Church of God and in the fulfilling of Types and Prophecies And those of the farthest reach and largest Compass are those Wheels that are so dreadfull and stupendious for their vastness Ezek. 1.18 as the Vision describes them And such is that large voluminous Period of Providence which beginning with the first Fiat Lux in Genesis ends not till the last Thunder-clap intimated in the Revelation And whereas the colour of the Wheel is said to be tanquam visio Maris that ratifies our former Exposition that those Wheels are the Circumvolutions of Providence and Periods of Kingdoms and People and Nations which the Prophetick style compares to the Sea And lastly in that they are said to be full of eyes it denotes the assistence of the Angelicall Orders in humane affairs their intermingling themselves and meddling with them they being those numerous eyes of Providence watching over the terrestriall Regions and carrying all things on according to their own purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cuph. These Wheels of Ezekiel have made my minde all this while run upon the Wheel of Fortune that vulgar expression so often in mens mouths now-adays Euist. Not onely now-adays O Cuphophron Clio cap. 207. but as ancient as Herodotus in whom this is the very language of Croesus to King Cyrus in his speech touching his encountring with Tomyris Queen of the Massagetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cuph. This Conceit of the Wheel of Fortune I perceive is far more ancient then I was aware of Philoth. But the Conceit being so early and so common it is an indication how naturally expressive it is of the thing and therefore a farther ratification of the easiness and naturalness of our exposition of that part of the Vision which makes these Wheels the periodicall Circumvolutions of humane Affairs But here is the difference betwixt this Divine Vision and that prophane History that in the one it is the Wheel of Providence or of Divine Fate in the other the Wheel of Fortune if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs imply that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But this onely by the bye The main thing to be urged against Ben Vzziel's exposition of the Wheels is that it implies a false systeme of the World Besides the meaning of Ezekiel's Mercavah is not Physicall but Moral Spiritual or Divino-politicall if I may so speak Philop. I pray you then hold on your Interpretation Philotheus in that sense and give us some more Remarks upon this Vision What say you to the number and form of the Cherubims and the Man enthroned on this Cherubick Chariot Philoth. As for the number of the Cherubims which is four I conceive it intimates the universal Comprehension of the Angelicall Orders or of those at least that are ministring Spirits For the Pythagorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is comprehended in the Tetractys And in that their faces are said to be four it seems to signifie so many sorts of natures or offices in this Angelicall Polity which it may be are more grossly distinguishable in the Polities of men and with an eye whereunto this Angelicall Type perhaps has been exhibited to Prophets and holy men of God I conceive therefore that the four distinct Faces of a Lion Man Oxe and Eagle signifie those four main parts that make up their Polity the Lion the Military part the Man all that part employ'd about the hearing of Causes and peaceable administration of Iustice the Oxe the Labouring part whether in Agriculture or what other usefull employment in things done by the hand and the Eagle the Sacerdotal and Philosophicall part the Speculative and Devotionall This general Quadripartition of Genius's or Employments may not unfitly be conceived some way to belong to both men and Angels But every Beast is said to have all these four Faces because every Beast is a fourth part of the whole Comprehension of the Angelicall Host and these sorts are mingled one with another Moreover in that their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings were full of eyes Ezek. 10.13 it signifies that all their strength and activity is guided by Knowledg and that they see whither they goe and whence and act not out of blinde obedience but out of the light of Life And in that their faces are set all one way Ezek. 1.9 it notes that they are without distraction all of one mind and purpose as being one over-ruled Cherub-chariot of God Ver. 4. And that they drive from the North the Region of darkness and coldness toward the South the signification is obvious As also why the face of the Man is placed toward the South in the Van Ver. 10. the Lion on the East-side the Oxe on the West and the Eagle on the North to bring up the Rere For it seems the Van and the Rere are the two most honourable places according to that of Isay Isa. 52.12 For ye shall not goe out with haste nor go by flight for the Lord will go before you
the truest Grounds of the Certainty of Faith This is the common Protestant Doctrine and a great and undeniable Truth and will amount to the greatest Certainty desirable if the Spirit of Life and of God assist For that will seal all firm and close and shut out all Doubts and Waverings In the mean time even in mere Moral men but yet such as use their Sense and Reason rightly-circumstantiated in their Dijudications touching the truth of Holy Writ and Religion it is plain they are upon the truest Grounds of Faith they can goe or apply themselves to forasmuch as the Holy Writ is the truest and most certain Tradition and no Tradition to be discerned true but upon the Certainty of rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason as appears by the first Conclusion These Advertisements though something numerous are yet brief enough but very effectual I hope if strictly followed to make thee so wise as neither to impose upon thy self nor be imposed upon by others in matters of Religion and so Orthodox as to become neither Enthusiast nor Romanist but a true Catholick and Primitive Apostolick Christian THE END DIVINE HYMNS DIVINE HYMNS An HYMN Upon the Nativity of CHRIST THe Holy Son of God most High The Historicall Narration For love of Adam's lapsed Race Quit the sweet Pleasures of the Sky To bring us to that happy Place His Robes of Light he laid aside Which did his Majesty adorn And the frail state of Mortals tri'de In Humane Flesh and Figure born Down from above this Day-Star slid Himself in living Earth t' entomb And all his Heav'nly Glory hid In a pure lowly Virgin 's Womb. Whole Quires of Angels loudly sing The Mystery of his Sacred Birth And the blest News to Shepherds bring Filling their watchfull Souls with Mirth The Application to the Emprovement of Life The Son of God thus Man became That Men the sons of God might be And by their second Birth regain A likeness to His Deity Lord give us humble and pure mindes And fill us with thy Heav'nly Love That Christ thus in our Hearts enshrin'd We all may be born from above And being thus Regenerate Into a Life and Sense Divine We all Ungodliness may hate And to thy living Word encline That nourish'd by that Heav'nly Food To manly Stature we may grow And stedfastly pursue what 's good That all our high Descent may know Grant we thy Seed may never yield Our Souls to soil with any Blot But still stand Conquerours in the field To shew his Power who us begot That after this our Warfare's done And travails of a toilsome Stage We may in Heav'n with Christ thy Son Enjoy our promis'd Heritage Amen An HYMN Upon the Passion of CHRIST THe faithfull Shepherd from on high The Historicall Narration Came down to seek his strayed Sheep Which in this Earthly Dale did lie Of Grief and Death the Region deep Those Glories and those Ioys above 'T was much to quit for Sinners sake But yet behold far greater Love Such pains and toils to undertake An abject Life which all despise The Lord of Glory underwent And with the Wicked's worldly guize His righteous Soul for grief was rent His Innocence Contempt attends His Wisedome and his Wonders great Envy on these her poison spends And Pharisaick Rage their Threats At last their Malice boil'd so high As Witnesses false to suborn The Lord of Life to cause to die His Body first with Scourges torn With royal Robes in scorn th' him dight And with a wreath of Thorns him crown A Scepter-Reed in farther spight They adde unto his Purple Gown Then scoffingly they bend the knee And spit upon his Sacred Face And after hang him on a Tree Betwixt two Thieves for more Disgrace With Nails they pierc'd his Hands and Feet The Bloud thence trickled to the ground The Pangs of Death his Countenance sweet And lovely Eyes with Night confound Thus laden with our weight of Sin This spotless Lamb himself bemoans And while for us he Life doth win Quits his own Breath with deep-fetch'd Groans Affrighted Nature shrinketh back To see so direfull dismall sight The Earth doth quake the Mountains crack Th' abashed Sun withdraws his Light The Application to the Emprovement of Life Then can we Men so senseless be As not to melt in flowing Tears Who cause were of his Agonie Who suffer'd thus to cease our Fears To reconcile us to our God By this his precious Sacrifice And shield us from his wrathfull Rod Wherewith he Sinners doth chastise O wicked Sin to be abhorr'd That God's own Son thus forc'd to die O Love profound to be ador'd That found so potent Remedie O Love more strong then Pain and Death To be repaid by nought but Love Whereby we vow our Life and Breath Entire to serve our God above For who for shame durst now complain Of dolorous dying unto Sin While he recounts the hideous Pain His Saviour felt our Souls to win Or who can harbour Anger fell Envy revengefull Spight or Hate If he but once consider well Our Saviour lov'd at such a rate Wherefore Lord since thy Son most just His natural Life for us did spill Grant we our sinful Lives and Lusts May sacrifice unto his Will That to our selves we being dead Henceforth to him may wholly live Who us to free from Dangers dread Himself a Sacrifice did give Grant that the sense of so great Love Our Souls to him may firmly tie And forcibly us all may move To live in mutuall Amity That no pretence to Hate or Strife May rise from any Injurie Since thy dear Son the Lord of Life For love of us when Foes did die An HYMN Upon the Resurrection of CHRIST The Historicall Narration WHo 's this we see from Edom come With bloudy robes from Bosrah Town He whom false Jews to death did doom And Heav'n's fierce Anger had cast down His righteous Soul alone was fain Isa. 63.3 The Wine-press of God's Wrath to tread And all his Garments to distain And sprinkled Cloaths to die bloud-red 'Gainst Hell and Death he stoutly fought Who Captive held him for three days But straight he his own Freedome wrought And from the dead himself did raise The brazen Gates of Death he brake Triumphing over Sin and Hell And made th' Infernall Kingdomes quake With all that in those Shades do dwell His murthered Body he resum'd Maugre the Grave's close grasp and strife And all these Regions thence perfum'd With the sweet hopes of lasting Life O mighty Son of God most High The Application to the Emprovement of Life That conqueredst thus Hell Death and Sin Give us a glorious Victory Over our deadly Sins to win Go on and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. Iud. Flesh and bloud in the moral sense Edom still subdue And quite cut off his wicked Race And raise in us thine Image true Which sinfull * The old Adam Rom. 6.6 Edom doth