any but that which is truly the Deity as I have noted in its due place 4. As for the places in the New Testament they are more copious and not less express The first is that in the Acts where when the Chap. 14. v. 14 15. Priest of Jupiter would have sacrificed to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra by reason of the great miracles he saw done they rent their cloaths and ran in amongst the people crying out and saying Sirs why do you these things We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein And what vanities are those from which they must turn but from the giving Acts 17. 29 30. of Divine honour to mere Creatures The same Apostle also at Athens in his Speech he made to them on Mars-hill reads them a very round lesson against Idolatry Forasmuch then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art and mans device And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Which exhortation certainly Paul made with the greatest earnestness that could be it being said verse the 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his spirit was in a very sharp fit in a paroxysm of zeal when he saw the City of Athens so given to Idolatry Again in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he makes Idolatry the very Chap. 12. v. 2. Character of Gentilisme which Christ came to reclaim the world from Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away to dumb Idols even as ye were led And elsewhere in the same Epistle he exhorts them more copiously and Chap. 10. v. 14 20 c. vehemently Wherefore my dearly-beloved flee from Idolatry The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to the Daemonia and not to God Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of the Daemonia Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we stronger then he And this was only about the meat sacrificed to these Daemons what had it then been to bow to their Idols He speaks also very smartly on this subject in his second Epistle to these Corinthians What fellowship hath righteousness Ch. 6. v. 14 16. with unrighteousness what communion hath light with darkness and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And in his Epistle to the Galatians he plainly reckons up Idolatry amongst the grossest works of the flesh Murther Sorcery and Adultery And therefore accordingly Chap. 5. v. 20. in the Apocalyps Idolaters together with Murtherers and Sorcerers Chap. 21. v. 8. are threatned with the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and are shut with obscene Dogs out of the holy City And therefore assuredly Chap. 22. v. 15. S. John is in very good earnest in his dehortation from Idolatry in the 1 John 5. 20. close of his general Epistle And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true through his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life Little children keep your selves from Idols Amen From these places I think it is abundantly manifest That the divulging of the Gospel aimed at the taking away of Idolatry that sottish depravation of Religion out of the World 5. And we may be still the more assured of it by those words from our Saviour's own mouth The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father John 4. v. 23 24. seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Where Grotius and I think very truly interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublatis ut ritibus ita locorum discrimine And surely the Christian worship being so pure as to abhor from the voluminousness of Judaizing ceremonies and the affixing of the residence of God to a consecrated place as in the Temple of the Jews Imagery and Idolatry must be abhorred infinitely more as infinitely more inconsistent therewith And if God may not be worshipped with an Image much less any thing that is not God either with an Image or without it CHAP. III. 1. What is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Christ. 2. Further Testimonies of Scripture to evince that Christ came to ease men of the Judaical burthen of Ceremonies The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of the Ceremonial Law of Moses 4. Further proofs to the same purpose 1. BUT now That the grossness and carnality of the Judaical Ceremonies and the unprofitable burthen of them was to be done away by the coming of Christ which is the other point to be proved is very apparent out of several places of Scripture For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ that is to say The John 1 17. Law both Moral and Ceremonial was given by Moses but even that Moral Law was but such an one as could not give life as the Apostle Gal. 3. 21. speaks but the gracious assistance of the Spirit of God promised in the Gospel that does give life and strength to walk according to the will of God And then for the Ceremonial Law both it and indeed all things else happening to the Jews were but Types and Shadows but in Christ is the Truth They were not what they made a show to be and therefore in that sense may be said to be false so as he that says that the Image or Picture of a Man or Horse is a Man or Horse indeed pronounces false And therefore our Saviour speaks true when he saith Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you that true bread John 6. 31. from Heaven Whenas yet it is said of the Manna Psalm 78. He gave them bread from Heaven to eat But it being but a shadow of the true Vers. 25. bread from Heaven which is Christ it is said not to be the bread from Heaven As in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Law is said to have a Heb. 10. 1. shadow of good things to come and Paul to the Colossians Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the Coloss. 2. 16 17. new Moon or of the Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the body is Christ's So plain is it what is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Jesus Christ. For he is that Truth which was signified by the shadows of the Law and by him is
into it of frighting away the destroying Angel but was merely a present Sign as also a Type of the sprinkling of the Bloud of Christ who as a Lamb without spot was to be sacrificed in future ages for the sins of the world Nor were the Water and Ashes of the Heifer mingled together with any Exorcism or Enchantment that we reade of in Scripture Nor did Elisha charm the Salt before he cast it into the Waters to heal them but he used it as a circumstance onely or sign in the healing of them which Ceremonies Christianity has nothing to doe withall nor is there any reason to bring in any more of the ancient Types or Figures then are already made use of by his choice who was unerrable The ground therefore of such usages is none at all but the pretence to such power as this so strangely and marvellously to enchant things to such mighty uses would make much for the honour of the Priest who cannot but hereby seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very great and adorable person to the credulous people and these Exorcized commodities would be ready mony with as many as had belief in them But the worst is Faith and Temperance would be look'd less after and Pots of Holy-water and enchanted Lambs of Wax would stop those inward living springs of the Spirit of God in the Heart and help to extinguish that sense of Innocency then which there is not a greater Tower of defence to a believing Christian against all the fiery and thundring Artillery of the Prince of the Air. 6. These be the most gross and fundamental Superstitions that look like Magick or Sorcery which yet might be derived and deduced into various uses and practices as in the Visitation of the Sick in Extreme Unction in Funerals or Burials in Christenings Churchings and Marriages where Holy-water Exorcized Oil and Candles might be frequently made use of and some of them truly not without some considerable trouble as in Anointing the Sick their Eyes Ears Noses Mouths and Hands nay their Feet and the Reins of their Back the latter whereof may cause troublesome contests betwixt natural Modesty and Religious zeal in those that have a penitent sense of the transgressions of those parts The conjuring the Devil also out of the Infant that is to be baptized would seem a frightful thing to the Infant himself if he understood in what an ill plight the Priest supposes him while he makes three Exsufflations upon his face and uses an Exorcistical form for the ejecting of the foul Fiend who is imagined very saucily presumptuous to take such timely possession of him to whom he could not but see that Christ Jesus had apparently a better right as being the off-spring of them who were already his the Child being born of Christian Parents But here may come in also beside other Ceremonies the use of the Holy Oil for the anointing him on the fore-head and breast the putting upon him white Vestments and into his hand an holy Candle And which is more holy then any Oil or Candle the Priest's own Spittle is also to sanctifie his Ears and Nostrils by a gentle smearing thereof on those places And lastly that all may be sound and wholesome the holy Salt may also be put into the mouth of the Child that his words when he can speak may be the more savoury Thus may the use of the first consecrated Elements you see go far and make the Christian Sacrament of Baptism exceed in Ceremonie the Judaical nay their Circumcision it self whenas the use of that one Element of Water were sufficient and One dipping as significant of the Unity of the Godhead as Three are of the Trinity Yet such large and prolix Shadows might Christianity cast when the Sun of Righteousness grows towards his setting in the Church 7. And it is much if something might not appear affrightful to the Women in this approching darkness For though it be a gay thing for the Priest to be thought to have so much power over the Stygian Fiend as to Exorcize him out of the Infant yet it may be a sad consideration with some melancholick women laden with Superstition to think they are never brought to bed but they are delivered of a Devil and Child at once and that if their Child should die before Baptism the Devil having got bodily possession of him will certainly carry him thither where the greatest affection of a Mother dares not so much as desire to give him a visit Which indeed would argue the necessity of speedy Baptism to the height but withall depress the afflicted mind of the melancholick Mother with unspeakable anxiety The Delinition also of the Infant 's Ears and Nostrils with the Spittle of the Priest may sometimes strike harshly upon the spirits of the more delicate but it makes much for the opinion of his Sanctity whose spumeous excrement is of so sacred a virtue and will gain also the prayers of all the women in the Town that he may ever be an hail and sound man 8. But it were very unequal if the Load of Superstition should be lay'd wholy upon tender Infancy and our first entrance into this world Surely that severe Goddess will make them feel her weight also in some measure who are in a way of departing out of it And truly that Ceremonie of Extreme Unction that pretends to make the passage more glib to a man not Superstitious would make it more rough and troublesome The ripping up their Breast also by that sharp tool of necessitated Confession and then an over-reaching Satisfaction excited to the advantage of this or that holy Order or the uses of the Church will easily distract the mind of the dying penitent betwixt the care of his own Soul and the provision for his dear Wife and Posterity But frequent aspersions of Holy-water shall be his dilute comfort and he shall have before his eyes so long as he enjoys the light Assistants more cold and dead then those that have lien four days in the grave the Image suppose of Christ on the Cross another of the Virgin Mary and a third of the Saint to whom he had particularly devoted himself where he may if he will salute the Virgin 's Idol in the very words in which the Angel Gabriel once did her But if he would lay aside complements and speak the truth he might take up the complaint of Job touching these liveless companions Miserable Comforters are ye all However in the Interim what the frequent sprinkling of Holy-water can doe and making Crosses on his breast and forehead or the urging upon him the belief of every tittle the Church has defined to be true the Soul now so near her departure being more quick-sighted in those abstruse Mysteries or the promise of Prayers and Oblations when he is in the other State shall not be wanting for the ease of his Soul which in his breathing of it out if he should commend into the
not secure from but did actually fall into very great Errours 15. And the Christian Church has no greater assurance but if Avarice Pride and Sensuality seize upon the Guides thereof she may also fall into as great errours and blindnesses The Apostle saith Let him that stands take heed lest he fall And it might have been a seasonable 1 Cor. 10. 12. warning to the Church of Christ betimes which was not onely tottering but almost universally lapsed into that over-spreading Heresy of Arrianism to reflect upon herself that while she does stand she stands upon her good behaviour and that she is not so Infallibly wise but that she may be surprised with Errour and over-run therewith unless true and unfeigned Holiness clear her eyes and keep her from being benighted in such mists of darkness And truly if she was above twelve hundred years agoe so obnoxious to Errour it is high time for her to awake and consider if after so many Ages of ease and wealth and honour and affluency of all things she has not grown fat and kicked and cast the Commandments of God behind her back and brought in a mere carnal Law of her own devising more sutable to the will of the flesh and to the carrying on of her own worldly Interest But it is sufficient in this place to have demonstrated She may erre in what she has erred to define is beyond the scope of my present discourse 16. We have fully defeated that Figment of pretended Infallibility whose downfall our opposers have no colour to bewail unless in the behalf of the common people who are illiterate as if they would hereby be made uncapable of any certainty of Belief and consequently of Salvation by reason they have no Infallible grounds to build on this of the Church being taken away But they may remember that we have already acknowledged sufficient certainty in that which the Universal Church agrees in and has agreed in in all Ages and that is the Scripture Such an Universal Tradition as the Scripture has is acknowledged a firm Foundation which the Church may be unfailing conveiers of down to posterity without being infallible Interpreters thereof The unfailingness of which conveiance notwithstanding I must confess may be a more intricate business then what every Vulgar man can make out to himself though infinitely less hard then to prove That the Church that would appropriate him to their Community is Infallible Nay I must confess I do not know how it were possible that a Church should so much as prove it self a Church much less an Infallible Church without the Scripture And therefore the belief of the Scripture seems to be the most immediate of all as * Cael. Secund. Curio against Floribellus he says well Nam qui de fide authoritate Divinarum Scripturarum dubitat quomodo quaeso credet Ecclesiae quae nullam habet sine eadem Scriptura authoritatem 17. And therefore I cannot explode that by any means which is so superciliously derided by some namely That it is the Spirit of God that does assure us of the Truth of Scriptures more then any thing else whatsoever For our Saviour Christ saith None cometh to me but whom my John 6. ch 10. Father draweth My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherefore there is a discerning Spirit in those that appertain to Salvation whether it be the Voice of God and Christ or no. For the true Shepherd goeth before and the sheep follow him because they know John 10. 4 5. his voice but they follow not a stranger but flie from him because they know not his voice as our Saviour discourses most excellently I say therefore the Voice the Call or Whistle if you will of the true Shepherd are the Holy Scriptures which by an immediate sense they are assured to be the Call of the Shepherd and are at this day to them that belong to the election of God as the Voice of Christ and his Apostles when they were upon Earth the power of whose speech assisted by the Spirit did lead men captive into that Faith that worketh Salvation And without all question the same Word of Salvation still which is in those Holy Records seriously and zealously urged by men of a sincere faith and upright belief without any mingling of it with humane devices will have the same effect upon the multitude and as many as are fitted will be wone to an unshaken belief of the Truth of Christianity as it is exhibited to us in the Holy Scriptures For they of themselves have the light and life and very breath of Christ and his Apostles wrapt up in them to the exciting the vulgar sort to a firm and lively Faith though many subtil Sophisters of the Kingdom of darkness might by crafty and perverse Reasoning intangle them and non-plus them in outward discourse And therefore they are kept safe in the belief of the Scripture by the power of that Spirit in them in virtue whereof there is that indissoluble harmonie and concord betwixt their spirits and the Scripture though they cannot defend themselves by humane Literature nor by the acuteness of Reason and depths of Philosophy 18. Which Spirit residing in them and giving them this solid and firm discernment betwixt the Testimonie of God and the Traditions and Doctrines of men I think I may safely and properly call the Spirit of Faith as it is considered nakedly in it self and separate from the Spirit of Knowledge and of Wisedom Which distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen of old has taken notice of in his book against Celsus Lib. 6. upon that Text of S. Paul And truely I think the Gloss is marvellous solid namely That the chiefest and greatest Gift of the Spirit is that Divine Wisedom whereby a man is in a great measure able to comprehend the reasons and more deep Philosophical grounds of the Truth of the Christian Mystery The next is Knowledge suppose of Antiquity History the comparing of Prophecies and helps of the exteriour humane literature the liberal Arts and Languages The third is Faith which is also comprised in the other but is a Gift which is as well general as more necessary whose nature is such as I have described already namely An immediate adherence to the word of Truth comprised in the Scripture through the power of that Spirit that resides in sincere and well-meaning Souls that have a savoury and sensible fear of God and are ready to goe where he calls them For these by an ineffable Sympathy of their hearts with the veracity of the voice of Christ sounding in the Scriptures will be sure to follow their true Shepherd's call though they turn off from the voice of the stranger and Hireling who comes not into the Sheepfold but to rob and kill and steal Whence we further see that this pretended Infallibility of the Church in reference to
therefore they erring in the apprehension of the Excellency of that Object to which Divine worship is due as if it were so mean that there could be many such did not direct their worship to him but to a phancy or Idol of their own making to which they profanely attributed the name of Jehovah For the true Jehovah was not so vile a Being as there could be any partakers of Divine honour with himself And so it is with Christ who is the same true God blessed for ever He that gives Divine honour which is due to him alone unto Saints or Angels disclaims his Divinity and makes him but as one of them This would be one Antichristian way of undermining his Godhead by equallizing mere Creatures unto him 7. But there is another way or rather the same way but in an higher degree and consequently more Antichristian and that is the preferring that which is but a mere Creature though a blessed and glorious one before him or above him As for example if either Fraud or blind Devotion should exalt the ever-blessed Virgin not onely to that Divine honour of having Temples and Altars erected to her with Prayers and Invocations of her as in the worship of the rest of the Saints and Angels but that these Honours should be done much more frequently and more magnificently to the Virgin Mary then to Christ himself that is to say that there should be more Temples and Altars and more sumptuous erected to her then to Christ Jesus more Devotions Prayers and Offerings made to her then to him a greater acknowledgement of mercy and goodness from her then from him who poured out his Life in the bitter Agonies of his bloudy Passion for the Salvation of the World and lastly be ascribed unto her a Superiority and Authority over Christ to command him to doe this or that by virtue of that duty he owes unto her Certainly if this be not against the Divinity of Christ nothing can be thus to make him inferiour to a deceased woman even him that is perfect God as well as perfect Man For it is plainly to un-deify him if I may so speak and to declare him to be no God at all Which is as Antichristian an outrage against the Divinity of Christ as can be imagined For who is Antichrist if he be not that denies the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. who is one and equal with the Father And who denies the Godhead of both Father and Son but he that pronounces the Mother of Christ according to the flesh to be greater then them both as certainly she is if she be greater then either 8. The Fifth Title is The Everlasting Father The Seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning I suppose the world under the Messias The efficacy of which Title I conceive the Mystery of Regeneration to reflect upon Christ regenerating us into his own Image by the inward working of his Eternal Spirit All things that the Father hath John 16 15. are mine and it is no wonder he being one with the Father therefore said I that he the Spirit shall take of mine and shew it unto you Wherefore Christ regenerating the World which was to come by the operation of his Eternal Spirit he was rightly and fitly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father of the World to come or if you will The everlasting Father as being so in his own Essence and begetting Children to endless Eternities Of this Mysterie he treated in his converse upon Earth with his secret disciple Nicodemus Unless a man be born from above he cannot enter into John 3. 5 7. the Kingdom of God Marvel not that I said unto thee that we must be born from above The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but thou knowest not from whence it comes nor whether it goes so is every one that is born of the Spirit No unregenerate man is acquainted with the sense of the first rise and motion of the Spirit nor understands whither those actions and speeches tend that proceed therefrom But it is so with these as is said in the Apocalyps of the hundred forty four thousands who by virtue of their new birth sung a new Song which none could learn but the hundred forty four thousands Chap. 14. which were redeemed from the Earth by being born from above as our Saviour spake to Nicodemus These are the true Israelites in whose mouth is found no guile and who by the guidance of that Spirit by which they are regenerate follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes 9. Wherefore Christ being to his true Church so real a Father by a true and living Regeneration and Renovation of their Minds by his Spirit into such holy sentiments as appertain to all those that are indeed the Sons of God to treat them so as if they were mere Images made of wood or stone or rather dead matter to be carved upon and have the inscription of any thing that a pretended Infallible Power shall be pleased to engrave upon them this is an high Antichristian affront against the Paternity of Christ as if he did not beget living Children who have as certainly the sense of discernment in Spiritual things as any Animal birth has in Natural but that the number of his Elect were but a certain Tale of billets brick or stone to be hewen or carved or any way ordered according to the petulancy and imperiousness of a self-willed Power who under a pretence of an infallible and unfailing succession that must be in the Church has stept into the place of Christ. Maxima debetur puero reverentia is most true concerning every child of God For there is that Divine sense in them against which whatsoever is unholy and unsavoury will grate very hard and unpleasantly and what is false will be found by them very disharmonious both to those immutable Principles of Truth in their unprejudiced minds and also to the written Oracles of God which were penned down by the same Spirit by which this genuine off-spring of Christians are regenerated Wherefore as I said to use these as if there were no life no spirit no sense or discernment in them but that they must as passively without any Conviction or Appeal to any thing in themselves bear the Dictates of this usurping Power we describe as a Table-book or Paper-book which is irresistibly writ upon by that hand that pleases is an enormous Injury against Christ as he is the Everlasting Father and holy Regeneratour of his true Church into his own life and likeness But to murther and massacre these Children of his because they do so stoutly and exactly Patrissare so conscienciously and carefully tread in their Father's steps and witness his Truth to the world I leave to any man to judge if there can be imagined any thing more hellishly Antichristian against the Paternity of Christ then that For what can be more hostile and
of the spoil or rather to erect a Spiritual Polity to enslave all and bring the most insupportable Servitude of Body Soul and Estate such as Paganism could scarce ever shew the like certainly this must be very highly Antichristian For indeed what can be more salvagely oppressive in reference to the very Estates of men then to frame such a Religion upon the pretence of their Infallibility as is perfectly repugnant to the plain Word of God and immutable Rules of Reason depraving of things so for their own worldly advantage as I have already abundantly set out to bring in a more ample Revenue to feed the Pride and Luxury of this false Church And then when they have thus grossly perverted the Truth of God to declare that they who will not say Amen to their lies and forgeries have no more right to their own Estates then a Thief or Robber to what he has got by unlawful spoil and therefore accordingly not onely to hinder them from any employments of either profit or credit but disable them from making of Wills and their Heirs from inheriting their Estates and awing them from laying claim to their Patrimonies lest their Father's Heresie be intailed upon them whether they will or no. 7. To which Antichristian Barbarities you may adde also the scornful and cruel Penances they put upon them that do submit themselves to their Church making them go in procession in contemptible disguises or else enjoyning them to march in their shirts bare foot and bare leg and to whip their own bodies in the sight of the people as they go along How unlike nay how utterly contrary is this to that Meekness and Sweetness that is described in the Discipline and Government of the Kingdom of Christ But we need not insist upon these things we having treated sufficiently of them already 8. Now upon the second particular viz. that Humility and Lowliness which is also one fruit of Charity and by which the Person and Rule of our Saviour is described in the ancient Prophecies We have shewn the Antichristian Detestableness of the opposite to this Vertue already in the first Branch of the Divine Life and need adde nothing more thereto 9. The third character of Charity is her delighting in true and faithful dealing amongst men The opposites to which are easily discoverable To say nothing therefore of the manifold Frauds which we have already taken notice of all along in this our Description of Antichristianism this certainly must be very Antichristian and uncharitable namely To misrepresent mens Actions and Opinions in publick Speeches or Writings nay to invent notorious lies and fictions to the disparagement of mens Persons and Doctrines and suborn men to write them and divulge them to the world for truths Which is to doe so as was the custom of those who were under the Dragon that old Serpent and false accuser of the ancient primitive Christians whom they aspersed and calumniated as worshippers of the Sun because they put up their prayers with their faces towards the East as Man-sacrificers and as Eaters and Drinkers of humane flesh and bloud because of their calling the Eucharistick Bread and Wine the Body and Bloud of Christ they understanding it onely in a mystical or symbolical sense For professing with S. Paul There is neither Male nor Female in Christ but that both have equal admission into his eternal Kingdom That they had no regard of Sexes but were vile Sodomites and abusers of themselves with Mankind For meeting together to serve God in private in Grotts and Caves of the Earth for fear of persecution That they were Conspirators against the Roman State and Empire And lastly for their reverently receiving the Elements of Bread and Wine at their holy Communions That they were Worshippers of Ceres and Bacchus 10. In like manner we may imagine that this Pseudo-christian Church may raise such perverse Calumnies against the true members of Christ as namely traducing them for Atheists or at least Arrians because they will not acknowledge the Divinity of a consecrated piece of Bread reporting them as Manichees because they do not hold the power of the Church to be superiour to that of Emperours and Kings to make thereby but one Sovereignty in the Church but affirm the Secular Power independent thereon as if the holding these two distinct Powers were forsooth the holding the two Principles of the Manichees defaming them for Beesoneriders or Witches because they have by reason of hard persecution been driven to inhabit desert and mountainous places or upon their meeting more privately in houses by night to impute to them some such horrid and villainous practices as were reported of the primitive Christians that the Candle being put out they committed Incest and all manner of Uncleanness in the dark nay that they killed their own children in these concealed Assemblies of theirs To accuse them of reviling the Saints merely upon their professing it unlawful to invoke them or of blaspheming the Blessed Virgin because they hold it unfit to worship her To tax them of disobedience to the Magistrate onely because of their persisting in the sincere profession of that Faith that is consonant to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles And lastly to father upon them what abominable actions they please and speaking without a Metaphor to gag the mouths of the thus accused and slandered that they may not answer for themselves to clear themselves in the audience of the people Nay to rack men till their very bowels break out of their belly to force them to acknowledge themselves or their party guilty of such villainous crimes as it is incredible their very persecutors should in good earnest suspect them of merely to get a pretence from such an extorted Confession to verifie their wicked Slanders to the world and to make the harmless and innocent professors of the Truth of the Gospel to be odious and hateful in the eyes of all men Certainly if this be not diametrically opposite to that part of Charity that discovers it self in true and faithful dealing nothing can be excogitated that is so CHAP. XIV 1. The nick-naming of the true Christians by the odious Title of Hereticks with their barbarous injuries thereupon 2. That Heresie and Schism are sins against the truly-Catholick and Apostolick Church 3. What is meant by One Catholick and Apostolick Church 4. What is that hainous sin of Heresie 5. What Schism 6. That while men are sincere members of the Apostolick Body they can be neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks 7. The Hypocritical and Schismatical Niceness of this Antichristian Church in forbearing to joyn in any Religious Duty with any member of the truly-Apostolick Body 8. Their fraudulent purpose in fostering this Schismatical Niceness and Unsociableness 1. BUt we will also take notice of that which will be so usually cast upon the Dissenters from this false Church that it will be scarce accounted any reproach done to them but rather civility
perpetual Confutation of Hugo Grotius in all his Expositions wherein he would undermine and elude the orthodox Protestant sense of the Prophecies we make use of in this Treatise And lastly Though I am very loath to have any difference with so excellent an Interpreter as Mr. Mede yet I must ingenuously confess that I cannot but dissent from him in several things which I deem not a little material 7. As first for example in his Exposition of the Beast that was The Author's dissent from Mr. Mede in his Exposition of the Beast that was and is not and is not For of this Beast he saith it might be said in S. John 's time Et jam olim eam fuisse necdum tamen natam esse With this short account would Mr. Mede turn off that Description of him But I must confess it seems to me impossible that those words should be used with any truth if restrained or tied to the time when the Vision was exhibited as if it spoke of his existing or not existing then and not only of the order of succession of Existence and Non-existence For the Beast that was to be again under the last Head was in actual being in S. John 's time Wherefore how harsh must it be to say of it while it is in being that it was But how plain a contradiction to say it is not while it is or that it is not yet born when it has continued so many ages and does and is to continue uninterruptedly so many after Apply this to any particular person still alive and in health and to live many years will it not grate against common sense to say of him he was and is not while he is alive and in being Besides that necdum tamen natam esse does not at all specifie his succession under the eighth King more then the seventh that being left out in this Interpretation which is the most plainly and most materially signified in the Prophecy namely That the Beast was to cease to be for a time Which Intervall of Non-existence immediately was to precede the succession of the Beast under the last Head 8. The oversight whereof seems to me to put Mr. Mede to the As also of the seventh King plunge also in his Exposition of the eight Kings where he glosses upon Unus est alius nondum venit after this manner Unus Regum seu Dynastarum ordo putà Caesarum adhuc superest sed is quoque sub Caesaribus Christianis ità mutaturus ut quasi alius sed brevis admodum aevi dynastes videretur reverâ tamen non alius Where quasi alius and reverâ tamen non alius I must ingenuously confess seem to me to fall short off or rather to be quite contrary to the scope of the Text this Seventh King being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on purpose to indicate his extreme difference from all that went before him that he did toto genere differre as being purely Christian and that the Eighth and six first have a greater cognation one with another then he with any of them which is according to truth Nor can the shortness of his Reign for was not that of the Decemviri and Dictatours far shorter nor his being still Caesar make him not an express and distinct King from the rest For upon this account the Beast that was and is not will want a proper and distinct Head at least till the Pope perk't up into the Caesareate which will be for some hundreds of years For the Head of the Empire till Hildebrand 's time or at least Pope Constantine and the two succeeding Gregories were the Caesars 9. And lastly Therefore the said oversight put Mr. Mede to the The unaccountableness of there being but seven Heads though eight Kings in Mr. Mede's way puzzle how to make but seven Kings of eight and upon committing this Paralogism There are but seven Heads of the Beast therefore there must be but seven Kings Whereas if he had considered according to the plain Indication of the Prophecy that there was a time when the Beast was for a while to cease to be which was the Intervall when pure Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and that the seven Heads of the Beast were Heads of Blasphemie or Idolatry he might have easily discerned not onely that there might be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast but also that it was necessary it should be so For when the Beast was not in being his Head was gone also But the Empire never yet ceased to be no not in the Intervall of the Beast's not being nor could it be then without a Sovereignty Wherefore there is a necessity that there should be eight Kings though but seven Heads of the Beast For the Beast in his Non-existence could neither want nor have an Head The great serviceableness of the Authour's Interpretation of the Perdition of the Beast and of the burning of the Whore for the peace and security of Christendom 10. This is true as I have fully and it may be over-fully demonstrated in the ensuing Discourse But if it had not been also mainly usefull as well as true I should not have made it my business so carefully and copiously to have evinced it Nor take I any pleasure in having different opinions from others much less in divulging them were it not for a common good as this certainly is it tending so naturally to the peace and safety of all the Secular Powers of the Empire and to the vindicating of this holy Book of Visions it self from that contempt or hatred that some bear to it as seeming a Countenancer or Exciter of Fanatical persons to tumultuate against their lawfull Sovereigns whenas on the contrary as I have elsewhere intimated there is not any Book more faithfull and more friendly to the Prerogative of Secular Princes then this Volume of Prophecies the Prediction of the Perdition of this fourth Beast being rather a mercifull Promise then a Commination Which is this That as it ceased to be for a time so after a certain Period of time it should cease to be for ever Now the temporary ceasing of the Beast to be was onely the Empire 's entertaining and maintaining the pure and Apostolick Christianity as yet uncontaminate with any Pagan-like Idolatries Wherefore the ceasing of it to be for ever is nothing else but the being cleansed for ever from all Idolatry and Antichristianism Which can be no ill news to the Emperour and Secular Kings or Princes of the Empire they being quit of Idolatry which makes the Empire a Beast and of the imposturous Tyranny and Usurpations of the Pope of Rome over them at once But for that Hierarchical Power of the Pope and his Clergie and truly it will analogically touch such a Presbytery as hath not learn'd the lesson of due Subjection to the Secular Sovereignty in things indifferent that Papal Hierarchy I say which as * Praefat.
so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a further Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on the Pope's Crown and of a Woman-Pope Ver. XV. THe Waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues This Interpretation of Waters in reference to the describing of the Extent of the Whore's Jurisdiction does imply that it was very large and if we compare it with what is in the Thirteenth Chapter v. 7. it seems to indicate no less compass then that of the whole Empire For the Beast there is certainly the whole Empire and it is but said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here is not indeed in this present verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for the Angel here delivers a precept of the Art of interpreting of Prophecies and therefore could not so well say that Waters signifie All peoples and multitudes but his heaping up so many words more then in the fore-cited Verse of the other Chapter and that in the plural number seems to drive at as large extent as the other Which the consideration of his calling these Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of this Prophecie which seems to point at the whole Empire as I have intimated above does farther ratifie To which you may adde that both Grotius and Alcazar understand the meaning of the place of the universal extent of the Roman Empire And à Lapide also who glosses upon the Text Aquae quas vidisti saith he significant omnes gentes populos quibus Roma imperabit But that the Two Horns of the Second Beast import the same thing Par. 1. Agr. 7. I have already named and whether this exercising all the power of the first Beast before him may not as well respect extent of place as the kinds of power I leave to further disquisition Enough already has been produced for the making good of the seventh Agreement of our first Parallelism Ver. XVI And the Ten Horns which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire To burn with fire is a Diorismus and signifies onely to consume and destroy and to make to cease to be what it was What execution also the making of her desolate and naked and eating of her flesh does imply I shall defer to declare till the last part of our Discourse In the mean time having so plainly discovered that this Whore is not a City built with Wood and Stone but an Hierarchical Polity degenerated into a kind of Idolatrous Paganism the very same with the Two-horned Beast or Pseudo-prophetick Body I must confess I see no necessity of any such War as should aim at the burning of the ancient City of Rome but that this Prophecy may be fulfilled without any such martial noise or ruines or garments rowled in bloud Which is a thing seriously to be considered for the peace and welfare of Christendom For the hatred of these Ten Horns against the Whore and their persecution of her implies no such raising of Forces or marching in Battalia against Bulwarks and Walls and Houses and taking so long an Expedition as to Rome For this City is larger then to be comprised within the whole confines of Italy For it is a Pseudo-prophetick Polity that has spred through the whole Territories of the Empire a Water-Nymph whose skirts are so large that she has sat floting upon the whole Imperial Ocean for these many Ages and therefore is such as neither the Punishment of burning nor drowning is competible to in that crass and literal sense as vulgarly is understood But of these things in their more proper place Ver. XVII For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast This seems to be but the very same with the thirteenth verse These have one mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and shall give their power and strength to the Beast But that which is the most stupendious Arcanum and not to be thought upon but with the greatest humility and veneration is That God is here entitled to this counsel and joint-purpose of these Kings he is said to put this in their hearts and it is called the fulfilling of his purpose or counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give their Kingdom to the Beast Of which the easie sense is to contribute their Kingdoms to make up this Ten-horned Beast as the children of Israel might be said to contribute to the golden Calf 2. This seems a wonderful passage of Providence which that of S. Paul Act. 17. will hardly come up to where speaking of the gross Idolatries of the Pagans which reigned in the world so many Ages And the times saith he of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every Vers. 30. where to repent But God is said here not to wink at the thing but to put it into the hearts of these Kings c. Wherefore it seems most like to that of hardening Pharaoh's heart that he might not let Israel go or of the Jews crucifying our Saviour Christ whom Peter saith they took and by wicked hands crucifi'd and slew him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being exposed Act. 2. 23. and given up to them as it were by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Wherefore it should seem that such
prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast 4. The meaning of the Name 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian and why And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into Was is not and yet is Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced 7 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying The Beast which thou sawest was and is not c. 9. That the Name Was and is not and shall ascend c. signifies the successive Order in being not the actual being or not being of the Beast with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar 10. A plain Eviction from the Name Was is not and yet is that Was and is and is not do not signifie actual Existence or Non-existence but order of Existence and Similitude 11. That Is not and yet is would neither be good sense nor any elegancy unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness in either Essence or Qualification could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title Was is not and yet is confirms the sense of the former and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast which is farther argued from other considerations 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast of the Empire 's becoming Idolatrous again rather then of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism 16. The sixth Agreement 17. The seventh 18. The eighth Agreement 19. The third Agreement again noted with a Confirmation therefrom of the above-mentioned Ellipsis 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech Whence The Beast that was is not and yet is and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed 286 CHAP. XIV Ver. IX What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governours is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a natural and necessary truth 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts 3. The onely true reason why there are numbred Eight Kings though but Seven Heads of the Beast 4. That the dividing of the Emperours into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings is an unexceptionable Truth 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was look'd upon by the Angel but what respected Religion 6. A demonstrative Inference from One is that there is an Ellipsis in The Beast that thou sawest was and is not c. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the last subdivision is confirmed and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XI That the description of the Beast is his Name and part thereof used for the whole as in the Name of God which farther confirms the above-mentioned Ellipsis 2. The easie and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the meaning of Verse 11. The Beast that was and is not he is the eighth is that his Head is the eighth 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time and why 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism 6. The seventh Agreement Ver. XII The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The twelfth Agreement 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. XIII The thirteenth Agreement together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one minde and of giving their strength and power to the Beast 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperour even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire Ver. XIV The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 2. The fifteenth Agreement 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism Ver. XVI The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire Ver. XVII The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God how stupendious an Arcanum 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts 3. That it is rather Fate then Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto with an Admonition thereupon 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled with a farther Admonition to the Apostatized Church 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism Ver. XVIII Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecie 2 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalyps 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that it is so to be written and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue 6. That the ancient Latines who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks 7. How exquisitely this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this 9. In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism 12. The last Agreement of the second 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on