not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great
discern out of the very causes For whenas not only the Fear of Persecution was taken away but great Honours and outward Advantages added to the Church the very worst and most Atheistical of the Pagans would be most forward to close with the Christian Religion and if any of the Heathen stood out it is not unlikely but they were such as had most conscience though in an erroneous worship So that the Net then drew up more mud and dirt then good fishes The garden of God which had before nothing else but wholesome herbs and flowers was all overrun with weeds Or if you will the true Church which was before as conspicuous as a City on an Hill was now hid and dispersed in the wide wilderness of the Roman Empire which though it bore the name of Christian yet for life and manners was worse then Pagan 2. But yet not to make things less considerable then they were First The true Christian Church was I say but hid not lost as it fares at this very day For she is still hid in the Wilderness and like that Voice in the Wilderness complains and witnesses against the beastly sensual and abominable lives and salvage dealings in that part of the World which is called Christendome For there alwaies were and still are in this great rude mass of Christianity some that are truly regenerate and rightly form'd by the hand of God into the lovely image of Christ who give witness of the loathsome and detestable deviations of those that so impudently and imperiously boast themselves to be the only Christians when in truth they are not Christians at all that is no true members of Christ as having nothing at all of his Spirit as their works do evidently declare 3. And Secondly Though I must confess that the Divine life it self as communicable to the Church is very much under the hatches since Christianity and Political Interest went hand in hand yet after the Church became so rich and pompous they have laid out their riches very much in honour not only to our Saviour in whom the Divine Life dwelt in a transcendent manner but to his blessed Mother to the holy Apostles and Martyrs who were also great Examples of it And being that these generations were such that God could expect no better of them his Providence I think did wisely permit that they might be so deeply engaged in their External homage to Christ and his most faithfull followers that that might be fulfilled in some measure in the Martyrs also which was prophesied concerning Christ Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong because he hath powred out his Soul unto death And therefore the Martyrs sharing so deeply in the sufferings of Christ were permitted also in a measure to partake of that glory and honour that is done to great Princes and Emperours after their decease to have Images and Temples erected to their name This makes me not so much wonder at that passage of Providence which allowed so much virtue to the Bones of the Martyr Babylas once Bishop of Antioch as to stop the mouth of Apollo Daphneus when Iulian would have enticed him to open it by many a fat Sacrifice To say nothing of several other memorable Miracles that were done by the Reliques of Saints and Martyrs in those times 4. Hitherto therefore the Pagan World since they became Christians have been very religiously complemental according to the ancient guize of Paganism devoutly cringing and courting with many sacred Rites and Ceremonies not only Christ but the blessed Virgin and all the holy Martyrs Confessours very freely and forwardly bestowing upon them all external Reverence consecrating Chappels Daies to their honour and memories So that the personal worship of the Divine Life as it is seated in Christ in the blessed Virgin in this or in that Saint or Martyr is as punctually performed as the worship of those excellent dowries of the Animal Life in ancient Paganism which they honoured in Belus Bacchus Ceres Apollo Venus and other Eminent persons amongst the Heathens who were great gratifiers of the natural life of man 5. Methinks Spencer's description of Una's Entertainment by Satyrs in the Desart does lively set out the condition of Christianity since the time that the Church of a Garden became a Wilderness They danc'd and frisk'd and play'd about her abounding with external homages and observances but she could not inculcate any thing of that Divine law of life that she was to impart to them The Representation is so lively and the Verses so musical that it will not be tedious to recite some of the chief of them as Stanza 11. where he makes the Satyrs to lay aside their rudeness and roughness as much as they could to revive the dismaied Virgin after her great distress Their frowning foreheads with rough horns yclad And rustick horrour all aside they lay And gently grenning shew a semblance glad To comfort her and fear to put away Their backward bent knees teach her humbly to obay And then again in the following Stanza They in compassion to her tender youth And wonder to her beauty soverain Are won with pitty and unwonted ruth And all prostrate upon the lowly Plain Do kis her feet and fawn on her with count'nance fain 13. Their hearts she guesseth by their humble guise And yields her to extremity of time So from the ground she fearless doth arise And walketh forth without suspect of crime They all as glad as Birds of joyous Prime Thence lead her forth about her dancing round Shouting and singing all a Shepheards rime And with green branches strowing all the ground Do worship her as Queen with Olive girlond crown'd 14. And all the way their merry pipes they sound That all the woods with double Echo ring And with their horned feet do wear the ground Leaping like wanton kids in pleasant Spring c. But in all this alacritie and activity in their Ceremonies and complemental observances Una could beat nothing of the inward law of life into them but all was spent in an outward Idolatrous flattery as the Poet complains Stanza 19. Glad of such luck the luckless lucky maid Did her content to please their feeble eyes And long time with that salvage people stai'd To gather breath in many miseries During which time her gentle wit she plies To teach them Truth which worship her in vain And made her th' Image of Idolatries But when their bootless zeal she did restrain From her own worship they her Ass would worship fain 6. But though it has been thus so long yet it seems incredible it should be always so and while it is as it is yet the Divine life is in its personal Triumph And now the enemies of Christ even while they are such and such are all unregenerate men let them be called Christians never so loudly do lick the very dust of his
as with the Ocean who changes his name according to the Coasts he beats upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dionysius notes in his Geographicall Poem 6. And if they took into their Religious consideration the worship of the Genii or Spirits whether such as whole appearance was so horrid and terrible that it caused affrightment or such as whose benign aspect was accompanied with a more pleasing wonderment and joy these they look'd upon also as eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which runs through all things giving life and Being to all whom therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom though they make three viz. Iupiter coelestis Iupiter marinus and Iupiter infernalis the latter two whereof they also call Neptune and Pluto yet it is one Eternal Spirit say they which we worship in these Three whose Kingdome and Dominion is over all though the administration thereof differ according to the nature and merit of them that are Governed The same Apology we may make for that Honour we do to the deceased Heroes whose noble persons and refined Spirits the Divine excellencies more illustriously shone through then ordinary For in truth we do not so much worship them as God shining through them as he that bows to the Sun or Moon through a glass-window intends not his obeisance to the glass but to those Celestial Luminaries nor do we bow our body to those Luminaries but to God who to us appears through all things CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the Impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 1. NOW according to the various appearances of This One Divinity that puts forth it self every where our Ancestors instituted various Religious Rites and Ceremonies appointed sundry sorts of Festivals and Sacrifices built Temples set up Altars with several inscriptions and erected Images proper and significative of that or this Divine Power which at set times and places they were to worship To which Religious Customes under which we were born we submitted our selves without being obnoxious as we conceive to any just imputation of Idolatry 2. For we worshipped not those Images which were thus erected no more then any other Nation does the Holy Volumes of their Law or Religion when either they pray out of them have them read or use them in the administring of an Oath For that reverence that is done is not done to the Book but to him whose Word it is said to be to him whom they pray to or swear by and those Images to us are not unlike the Religious Books of others they being very expressive of the circumstances of the exertion of that Divine Power which we at any time adore As you may see in the Images of Iupiter Aeolus Ceres Apollo and the rest 3. For Iupiter who was their God of Thunder as he bore in his left hand a royal Scepter his right hand was charg'd with Thunder according to that of the Poet Cui dextra trisulcis Ignibus armata est Aeolus the God of the Winds he was made standing at the Mouth of a Cave having a linnen garment girt about him and a Smiths bellows under his feet at his right hand stood Iuno covered with a cloud putting a Crown upon his head as having given her Kingdome to him and on his left hand stood a Nymph up to the middle in Water which Iuno gave him to wife Which Image is very significative of the Nature and Causes of the Windes and so intelligible if we do but take notice that Iuno is the Aire that it wants no further explication 4. Ceres was made in the figure of a country-woman sitting upon an Oxe having in her right hand a Plough-share and a basket of Seeds hanging from her arme in her left hand a sickle and a flayle Iuno the Goddess of the Aire and of the Clouds was on one side and Apollo or the Sun on the other intimating how the warmth of the Sun and kindly showrs are to second the labour of the Husbandman or else nothing will prosper 5. The figure of Apollo or the Sun was thus His Image had a Youthful countenance in his right hand he held a Quiver of arrows and a Bow in his left an Harp under his feet was a terrible Monster in the form of a Serpent having three heads viz. of a Wolf of a Lion and of a fawning Dog on the Top of his head was a golden Trivet and about his temples a Crown of Twelve precious stones The meaning whereof though it may seem abstruse at first sight yet if you consider it a while it very fitly sets out the nature of the Sun and of Time whose knowledge depends on him and of Knowledge which depends on Time His Bow and Arrows signify nothing but the darting of his Beams from so far a distance whence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Poets and his youthful countenance nothing but his unfading vigour which Age seems not at all to diminish His Harp signifies the dance of the Planets about him as if he sate and played to them or at least according to the other Hypothesis as if he led the dance himself playing on his Harp and the rest of the Planets followed him The twelve precious stones signifie the twelve signes of the Zodiack with which he is incircled and the three-headed Serpent deciphers Time in the threefold notion of it Past Present and to come The time past as Macrobius notes like a ravenous Wolfe devouring the memory of things the time present being urgent and raging like a Lion through its instant actuosity and the time to come flattering us with hopes like a fawning Dog And lastly the golden Trivet or Tripod denotes the Threefold object of Knowledge which Time affords them that are wise such as Homer makes Calchas the Priest of Apollo to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knew what was what is and what 's to come So that it is apparent how strange soever the use of these Images may seem that it was no other then that of Books they raising our minds and it may be with a greater advantage of devotion and admiration into the sense and consideration of that Divine Power which we were to adore 6. Wherefore that imputation is very unjust that would charge us with Idolatry properly so called as if we did worship the Idols themselves But to use Images in Divine worship there being
that convenience of them which we have alledged we question not but that it is lawfull in it self where there is no Command from God to the contrary And where his Command is most express as it is to the Nation of the Jews yet it is very well known that there was also there a religious use of Images as is plain in the Cherubims that covered the Mercy-seat and the Brasen Serpent which they were to look up to in the wilderness For through that did the Almighty exert his healing power upon those that were stung with fiery Serpents For such Effects as these are not from Nature or Art but from the efficacie of Religion as the very word Telesme does plainly bewray Now it seems to us a thing incredible that God should command any thing absolutely evil in it self and therefore undeniable but that the use of Images in Divine worship is not in it self evil 7. Nor does that which is mainly and most ordinarily alledged against Images in Religious worship viz. That it is impossible to represent God by any outward figure seem of any weight at all to us For neither do we admit that these Images are intended for Figures and Representations of God but only for the Sensible setting out to our sight the Effects and Objects of those Powers and Attributes which we adore in him And if we did admit it yet we have wherewith to defend our selves For it we are not to use Images in Divine worship because they cannot set out the Nature of God as he is in himself we are not at all to think of him when we worship him the Thoughts concerning his very Nature or Person which we frame of him though haply they be not without some truth having yet as little similitude with him whom we worship as the Imagination of a man born blind hath with the glorious Image of the Sun He feels indeed the comfortable Effects of his presence upon his body but his Eyes did never see nor can his Mind conceive how illustrious he is to look upon 8. To this purpose the most witty cautious and subtile sort of the Pagans apologize for themselves nor are we to envy them if they hit upon any thing more weighty and substantial in their Apologie For Christianity is so excellent in it self that we need not phansy any Religions worse then they are the better to set off its eminency Besides the more tolerable sense we can make of the affairs of the ancient Pagans the easier Province we shall have to maintain against prophane and Atheistical men to whom if you would grant That Providence had utterly neglected for so many Ages together all the Nations of the world except that little handfull of the Iews they would whether you would or no from thence infer That there was no Providence over them neither consequently no God it being a thing incredible that there should be any Providence at all in things of the highest concernment unless it dispread it self further then into such an inconsiderable part of the World as some imagine But that the Heathen were not so utterly destitute of means as some would make them S. Paul seems largely enough to declare in his Epistle to the Romans And that their condition was not so horridly desperate he may perhaps seem to intimate from that favourable expression in his Speech to the Athenians where he saith God connived at the times of their Ignorance But I had almost forgot my self my design being not to apologize for the Heathen but to answer what they apologize for themselves which I shall doe very briefly CHAP. V. 1. An Answer to the last Apology of the Pagans as first That it concerns but few of them 2. and that those few were rather of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then pure Pagans 3. That the worship of Images is expresly forbid by God in the Law of Moses 4. That they rather obscure then help our conceptions of the Divine Powers 5. That there is great danger of these Images intercepting the worship directed to God 6. He referrs the curious and unsatisfied to the fuller Discussions in Polemical Divinity 1. FIrst therefore we are to consider that what has been here alledged in defence of the Pagans concerns but very few of them the generality of them being Idolaters in the grossest sense as is manifest out of the complaints of David Psalm 135. as also out of the Epistle of Ieremy and other places 2. Secondly It is questionable whether those few such as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Plotinus Plutarch and the like are to be reputed mere Pagans or whether they came nearer to the nature of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having been imbued with the Knowledge of that one Eternal Spirit which is the Creator and Governor of all things by conversing with the Iews or by conversing with them that had conversed with them And that they had the Knowledge of Him by the communication of some such hidden Tradition or Cabbala seems manifest in that these more holy and more expert men in Divine Mysteries amongst the Heathen taught also the Triunity as well as the Immateriality of the Godhead I mean the First and Chiefest of them such as Pythagoras and Plato which being a reach above humane wit and a thing so usefull to be taken into Christianity is to me a strong Argument that it was none of their own invention but that they had it either from those that were inspired themselves or had received it from those that were inspired 3. Thirdly The making of graven Images and falling down before them is a thing expressly forbidden to the people of God in that Religion where himself thought fit to appear in the framing of it which is an evident sign of the faultiness of the Use of Idols in Divine worship 4. Fourthly The pretended serviceableness of Images for the instructing the people and the setting out to them the nature of that Divine Power which they are to adore seems very questionable For the presence of so strange an object before their eyes striking the outward Sense so strongly may rather hinder the inward operation of their Mind from more pure and genuine conceptions of God then at all further them in the framing of them and as Memory is too often lost by the use of writing so the power of Imagination as to Divine things may be spoiled and enfeebled by these false props of external representations 5. Fifthly and lastly There is a great danger of which the Jealousie of God seems very sensible that these Vice-Royes and Representatives of the Divine Majesty as they would have them to be may prove treacherous to the highest Soveraignty intercepting and keeping to themselves all those Praiers and Praises all those immolations and sacrifices that are offered by the people For the unskilfull Multitude seeing the Priest sacrifice and all the people pour forth their devotions with their eyes fixed on the Idol
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
Peace and Concord no not in Christendome it self neither in the Church nor State nor is Idolatry extirpated nor the Israelites replanted and setled in their own land all which things notwithstanding are foretold to come to pass in the dayes of the Messiah Whence say they it is plain he is not yet come But I briefly answer 1. That the Prophetical Promises of the coming of the Messiah were absolute as I have already noted the Extent of the Effect of his coming conditional men being free Agents and not fatal Actors in all things as the Iews themselves cannot deny 2. That the nature of the Gospel tends altogether to the accomplishing of those Promises of universal Peace and Righteousness and did begin fair in the first times of the Church as much as respects the Church it self 3. That whatever Relapse or Stop there has been things are not so hopeless but in time they may be amended and that they in those days when they are true Converts to Christ may if they will then desire it return to their own Land But after this serious conversion and real renovation of their Spirits into a true Christian state I cannot believe they will continue so childish as to value such things but will find themselves in the Spiritual Canaan already and on their march to that Ierusalem which is above the Mother of us all and that it will not be in the power of any but themselves to turn them out of the way 2. The other Objection or rather Evasion of that wholesome use that may be made of the Truth of the History of Christ is from that sort of Atheists that love to be thought Aristoteleans For there are two chief kinds of Atheisme Epicurean and Aristotelean The former denies all Incorporeal substance whatsoever and all Apparitions Miracles and Prophecies that imply the same Who are sufficiently confuted already by this undeniable declaration we have made The other are not against all Substances Incorporeal nor against Prophecies Apparitions and Miracles though of the highest nature insomuch that they will allow the History of Christ his Resurrection and Appearance after death the Prophecies concerning him and what not But they have forsooth this witty Subterfuge to save themselves from receiving any good therefrom in imagining that there is no such Particular Providence as we would inferre from hence because all this may be done by the Influence of the Celestial Bodies actuated by the Intelligences appertaining to each Sphere and deriving in a natural way from him that sits on the highest of the Orbs such influences as according to certain Periodical courses of Nature will produce new Law-givers induing them with a power of working Miracles assisting them by Apparitions and Visions of Angels making them seem to be where they are not and appear after they cease to be namely after their death when in the mean-time there be neither Angels nor Souls separate but all these things are the transient Effects of the power of the Heavens and Configuration of the Celestial bodies which slacks by degrees and so the Influence of the Starres failing one Religion decaies and another gets up Thus Iudaisme has given place to Christianity and Christianity in a great part of the World to Mahometisme being Establishments resulting from the mutable course of Nature not by the immediate finger of God who keeps his throne in the Eighth sphere and intermeddles not with humane Affairs in any particular way but onely aloof off hands down by the help and mediation of the Celestial Intelligences and power of the Starres some general casts of Providence upon the Generations of the Earth 3. A goodly speculation indeed and well befitting such two witty Fools in Philosophy as Pomponatius and Vaninus the latter of which seems not to give himself up to this fine figment altogether fully and conformably to the ancient doctrine of Aristotle but having a great pique against Incorporeal Beings is desirous to lessen their number as much as he can and seems pleased that he has found out That one only Soul of the Heavens will serve as effectually to do all these things as the Aristotelean Intelligences and therefore ever anon doubts of those and establisheth this as the onely Intellectual or Immaterial Principle and highest Deity but such as acts no otherwise then in a natural way by Periodical Influences of the Heavenly Bodies Where you may observe the craft and subtility of the man what a care he has of his own safety and how he has imprisoned the Divinity in those upper rooms for fear of the worst that he may be as far out of his reach as the Earth is from the Moon So cautious a counseller in these matters is an evil and degenerate Conscience 4. This is the chiefest Arcanum that the Amphitheatrum and famed Dialogues of this stupendious Wit will afford who was so tickled and transported with a conceit of his own parts that in that latter Book he cannot refrain from writing down himself a very Good for wisdome and knowledge Whenas assuredly there was never any mans Pride and Conceitedness exceeded the proportion of his wit and parts so much as his For there is nothing considerable in him but what that odd and crooked Writer Hieronymus Cardanus had though more modestly vented to the world before onely Vaninus added thereto a more express tail of bold Impiety and Prophaneness 5. I have elsewhere intimated how the attributing such noble Events to the Power of the Starres is nothing but a rotten relick of the ancient Pagan Superstition and have in my Book Of the Immortality of the Soul plainly enough demonstrated that there is no such inherent Divinity in the Celestial Bodies as that ancient Superstition has avouched or modern Philosophasters would imagine And I shall here evidently prove against this great Pretender That his removal of the Deity at that distance from the Earth is impossible For there are scarce any now that have the face to profess themselves Philosophers but do as readily acknowledge the Motion of the Earth as they do the reality of the Antipodes or the Circulation of the Bloud I would aske then Vaninus but this one question Whether he will not admit that the Sun is in that Heaven where he imagins his Anima coeliâ— and whether this Heaven be not spred far beyond the Sun and be not also the Residence of this celestial Goddess of his There is none will stick to answer for him that it is doubtlesly so Wherefore I shall forthwith inferre that let his unskilful phansy conceit us at this moment in as low a part of the Universe as he will within the space of six months we shall be as far above or beyond the Sun as we are beneath him now and yet then phansy our selves as much beneath him as before Which plainly implies that our Earth and Moon swim in the liquid Heavens which being every where this Deity of Vaninus must be every