the Apocalyptick Visions is expounded by the Angel 432 582. why she is said to have a golden cup in her hand and her Name written in her forehead 525 Wilderness Israel's being in the Wilderness and the Churche's abode in the Wilderness compared 906 907 Wing signifies in Dan. 9. an Army the fitness of the word to signifie thus 707. Wing of abominations is an Army of Idolarrous Gentiles ibid. How the Roman Army was the Army of Messiah 708 Witnesses why Two and in sackcloth 480 481. the two Wars of the Beast against them 765. their Slaughter how far it extends 760 761. their Death and Resurrection how to be understood 484 Women Why the Corinthian women are reproved for being unveiled or uncovered in the Church 61. how they are said to prophesie 58 59 Works Good Works 3 qualifications of them 217 c. 3 Reasons for the necessity of them 215 c. God rewards our Works out of his mercy not for any merit in them 175 World Heaven and Earth put according to the Hebrew idiom for World 613. That the World should last 7000 years and the Seventh Thousand be the Beatum Milleunium was an ancient Tradition of the Iews 892. World sometimes in Scripture put for the Roman Empire 705 Worship External worship required in the Gospel 47. Four Reasons for it 349 350. The Iews worshipped versus Locum praesentiae 394. That such Worshipping is not the same with worshipping God by an Image 395 To worship God in spirit and truth what 47. 48. The Worship directed to God is Incommunicable and why 638 639 Y. YEars That the Antichristian Times are more than 3 single Years and an half proved by 5 Reasons 598. The 70 years Captivity of the Iews in Babylon whence to be reckoned 658 Z. ZAchary The 9 10 and 11 Chapters in his Book seem to befit Ieremy's time better 786 833 c. Zebach or The bloudy Sacrifice defined 287 Zipporah deferred not the circumcision of her child out of any aversation of that Rite 52. her words in Exod. 4. 25. vindicated from the common misconstruction 53 c. ERRATA Page 481. line 3. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 790. l. 14. for Page r. Figure pag. 495. l. 10. r. Angelo pag. 496. l. antepenult r. legibus pag. 498. l. 1. r. crudelitate l. 41. r. Caesarum imperium A Catalogue of some Books Reprinted and of other New Books Printed since the Fire and sold by Richard Royston viz. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by H. Hammond D. D. in Fol. Third Edition Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Fol. by Ier. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Gonnor The Practical Catechism together with all other Tracts formerly Printed in 4 o in 8 o and 12 o his Controversies excepted now in the Press in a large Fol. By the late Reverend H. Hammond D. D. The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Iesus in Fol. with Figures suitable to every Story Ingrav'd in Copper By the late Reverend Ier. Taylor D. D. Phraseologia Anglo Latina or Phrases of the English and Latine Tongue By Iohn Willis sometimes School-master at Thistleworth together with a Collection of English Latine Proverbs for the use of Schools by William Walker Master of the Free-School of Grantham in 8 o new The Whole Duty of Man now Translated into the Welch Tongue at the command of the four Lord Bishops of Wales for the benefit of that Nation By Io. Langford A. M. in 8o. The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the necessity end and manner of Receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour in 8 o By the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. Chaplain in Ordidinary to his Sacred Majesty A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist in 8o. Peace and Holiness in three Sermons upon several occasions the First to the Clergy Preached at Stony-Stratford in the County of Buoks being a Visitation-Sermon published in Vindication of the Author The Second preached to a great Presence in London The Third at the Funeral of M rs Anne Norton by Ignatius Fuller Rector of Sherrington in 8 o new A Discourse concerning the true Notion of the Lords Supper to which are added two Sermons by R. Cudworth D. D. Master of Christs-Colledge in Cambridge in 8o. The Works of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Iohn Gregory sometimes Master of Arts of Christ-Church in Oxon. 4o. The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court to which is now added the Signal Diagnostick by Tho. Pierce D. D. and President of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4o. Also a Collection of Sermons upon several occasions together with a Correct Copy of some Notes concerning Gods Decrees in 4o. Enlarged by the same Author Christian Consolations drawn from Five Heads in Religion I. Faith II. Hope III. The Holy Spirit IV. Prayer V. The Sacrament Written by the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Hacket late Lord Bishop of Leichfield and Coventry and Chaplain to King Charles the First and Second in 12 o new A Disswasive from Popery the First and Second Part in 4 o by Ier. Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor The Principles and Practises of certain several Moderate Divines of the Church of England also The Design of Christianity both which are written by Edward Fowler Minister of Gods Word at Northill in Bedfordshire in 8o. A Free Conference touching the Present State of England both at home and abroad in order to the Designs of France in 8 o new to which is added the Buckler of State and Iustice against the design manifestly discover'd of the Universal Monarchy under the vain Pretext of the Queen of France her pretensions in 8o. Iudicium Vniversitatis Oxoniensis à Roberto Sandersono S. Theologiae ibidem Professore Regio postea Episcopo Lincolniensi in 8o. The Profitableness of Piety open'd in an Assize Sermon preach'd at Dorchester by Richard West D. D. in 4 o new A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Honourable the Lady Farmor by Iohn Dobson B. D. Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4 o new THE END * All of them except some few mentioned at the end of this Preface * None of which were number'd among the Errata * Pag. 109. lin 21. ‖ These the Author a little before calls the Two parts of Repentance Aversion from sin the first Conversion to God the second part ‖ See p. 280. lin ult ‖ See p. 276 279 281. * Luk. 6. * Chap. 4. 15. * Chap. 2. ‖ Rev. 10. 9. * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See Epistle 97. p. 881. * p.
novissimos decem Reges in quos divideretur regnum illorum super quos Filius perditionis veniet Cornua dicit decem nasci Bestiae c. The prophet Daniel eying the end of the Fourth or Last Kingdom that is those Ten Kings into whom their Kingdom should be divided and upon whom the Son of Perdition should come viz. the Little Horn that should domineer and overtop them saith chap. 7. that the Beast had Ten Horns grow out of his Head and that there came up among them another little Horn and that before this Horn Three of the first Horns were pluck'd up by the roots Yea a little after he tells us that S. Iohn in his Ten Kings which should receive their Kingdoms at one hour with the Beast expounds this of Daniel Manifestius adhuc de novissimo tempore de his qui sunt in eo decem Regibus in quos dividetur quod nunc regnat Imperium significavit Ioannes Domini discipulus in Apocalypsi edisserens quae suerint decem cornua quae à Daniele visa sunt c. What was before prophesied concerning the Last Times and the Ten Kings therein amongst whom the Empire that now reigns should be divided Iohn the disciple of our Lord hath more clearly exprest in his Apocalypse where he tells what those Ten Horns were which Daniel saw viz. Ten Kings which had received no Kingdom as yet but were to receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast Chap. 17. 12. Nay S. Ierome in his Comment upon this seventh chapter of Daniel will give us to understand that all the Ecclesiastical Writers delivered this to be the true exposition For having there confuted Porphyrie who to derogate from the divinity of this Prophecy would have it meant of Antiochus Epiphanes and therefore written when the Event was past he concludeth thus Ergo dicamus quod omnes Scriptores Ecclesiastici tradiderunt In consummatione inundi quando regnum destruendum est Romanorum decem futuros reges qui â—rbem Romanum inter se dividant undecimum surrecturum esse Regem parvulum qui tres reges de decem regibus superaturus sit in quo totus Satanas habitaturus sit corporaliter Let us therefore affirm agreeably to the concurrent judgment of all Ecclesiastical Writers That in the consummation of the world when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed there shall arise Ten Kings who shall share the Roman world among themselves and that an Eleventh King the little Horn in Dan. 7. shall arise who shall subdue Three of those Ten Kings in which little Hornish Tyrant Satan shall dwell entirely and bodily Who these three Kings were which this Horn displanted to make himself elbow-room you shall hear more anon But I will not conceal that I have heard of another Exposition which fits our turn for the Beginning of the Apostasie no less than that of the Fathers namely That by Ten Kingdoms may be meant the full Plurality of the Roman Provinces so much whereof as Three is of Ten should have the Imperial power rooted out of them and fall under the Dominion of the Antichristian Horn who should act the Sovereignty of the Latter times or the last Sovereignty of that Kingdom Now it is most true that the Pope's Patriachdom in the West holds just that scantling of the ancient Territory of the Roman Empire which a man may judge by his eyes or compasses in a Map and yet I prefer the other Exposition before it To come to an issue It is apparent by all that hath been said that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times with that wicked Sovereignty which should domineer in them were to take beginning from the wound the fall the ruine the rending in pieces or rooting up of the Imperial Sovereignty of the City of Rome When that City should cease to be the Lap of that Sovereignty which the Caesars once held over the Nations and many new upstart Kings should appear in the place and Territory of that once-one Empire then should the Apostasie be seen and the Latter times with that Wicked one make their entrance Now in what Age this fell out I think no man can be ignorant who hath but a little skill in History CHAP. XIV That we are not to reckon the Latter Times or the Times of the Empire 's ruine and the Apostasie attending from the full height thereof This illustrated from other Computations in Scripture The Three main Degrees of the Roman Empire's Ruine Who are those 3 Kings whom the Little Horn or Antichrist is said in Dan. 7. to have displanted or deprest to advance himself About what time Saint-worship began in the Church That we are not too curiously to enquire from which of the 3 degrees of the Empire 's ruine the Apostatical or Latter Times take their beginning BUT you will say The Imperial Sovereignty of Old Rome fell not all at once but had divers steps and degrees of Ruine so that the doubt will be notwithstanding from which of these steps of the Fall thereof these Latter times must be reckoned I answer From any of them For as the Imperial Sovereignty fell by degrees so the Apostasie under the lattermost Sovereignty grew up also by degrees and for every degree which the ruinous Empire decayed was the rising Son of perdition a degree advanced Secondly All the main and evident degrees of the Empire 's ruine fell in the compass of an Age and the knowledge and observation of that Age only within which the Times of this Fall are comprehended was sufficient both to warn them who then lived that that which should come was then a coming and to inform us who now live that it is already come Now which were these main and evident degrees of the Empire 's falling and at what time I will tell you as soon as I have removed an usual mistake in this business which is to reckon the times of the Empire 's ruine and so likewise of the Apostasie attending it only from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full height thereof But this is too much against Reason and not agreeable to the course we otherwise use in the like For as when we reckon the Age of a man we reckon not from the time since he came to mans estate but from the time of his birth so should we do here for the Times of the Man of sin I say not we should begin to count his Age from his conception for that we use not in other things but from the time he was first editus in lucem when he first began to appear in the world and so likewise the Fall of the Empire and the Apostasie not from the time they were consummate but from the time they first evidently appeared As therefore I hold their opinion the best and most agreeable to truth who begin the 70 years of the Iewish captivity in Babylon not from the consummation thereof under Zedekiah when the City and
wanted the Original Manuscript to examine them by are in Book I. Discourse 40 41 42 43 44 45 47 48 49. In Book IV. Epist. 4 6 10 12 29 34 93 97. THE LIFE Of the Reverend and most Learned Ioseph Mede B. D. 1. IT hath been the practice of the best Historians sometimes in short Characters and sometimes in larger Descriptions to represent the Nature Sayings and Manners of those Persons whose Actions have rendred them Illustrious whether in War or Peace And it is a Custom very commendable for by this means a just Right is perform'd to the Glory of their Memories their Exemplary Vertues are preserv'd in the world by Monuments w ch Time cannot demolish and Ingenuous Readers are highly gratified who are naturally desirous to know as much as they can of those of whom they have heard any thing which is extraordinary 2. The same Reason hath made it a Custom to write the Lives of Authors eminent for their Learning and to annex them to their Works And indeed such Historical Pictures seem no where plac'd more fitly than in the Beginnings of those Books which were design'd by their excellent Authors to promote true Religion and Piety in the world Men being no less prepar'd for a chearful reception of Divine Truth when they see it presented by a Worthy person than they are apt to give an easie credit to good News when they are perswaded of the Integrity of him that brings it We have therefore attempted to give a Faithful though Imperfect Pourtrait of this Excellent Person the Author of the ensuing Discourses that the Reader may know what he was who in so high a degree obliged not only the Age wherein he lived but all succeeding Generations by his excellent Studies and exemplary Life The History whereof is briefly as follows 3. IOSEPH MEDE was born in October 1586. of Parents of honest rank at Berden in Essex and related as the learned Mr. Alsop did particularly remark in his Funeral Sermon to the Family of Sir Iohn Mede of Lofts-Hall in the same County who did much please himself in so worthy a Kinsman to whom also when Fellow of Christ's Colledge he sent his eldest Son to be his Pupil accounting it a singular felicity to have him under the care and conduct of so worthy and accomplish'd a Tutor 4. When he was about Ten years old both he and his Father fell sick at the same time of the Small pox to the Father it proved mortal to the Son very hazardous But Almighty God who designed him for a great Blessing to the world delivered him then out of that and afterwards out of other Dangers of which merciful Preservations he had by him his thankful Memorials the better to excite himself to a due celebration of the Divine Goodness His Mother afterward married one Mr. Gower of Nasing in Essex by whom he was sent to School first to Hodsden and after that to Wethersfield in Essex In which time going to London upon some occasion he bought Bellarmine's Hebrew Grammar His Master having no skill in that Language told him it was not a Book fit for him but he being of the same generous temper with Demonax who as Lucian reports was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would not be discouraged from the perusal of it but setting upon it industriously attain'd no small skill in the Hebrew Tongue before he left the School by these fair Blossoms giving an early assurance to his Friends of those excellent Fruits which he afterward brought forth being planted in a very fertile Soil and one of the most delightful Seats of the Muses in the University 5. His Friends being encouraged by the pregnancy of his Parts his assiduous Industry and Proficiency in Learning the best grounds of Hope sent him in the year 1602 to Christ's Colledge in Cambridge where he was admitted Pupil to Mr. Daniel Rogers Fellow of that Colledge When he had been there three years Mr. Rogers leaving the Colledge Mr. William Addison became his Tutor to whose Pupils after he was Bachelour of Arts he us'd to read as afterward when he was Master of Arts he moderated at Dis's upon the desire of his Tutor one of the then Proctors of the University 6. The Emprovements which he made in a short time by his industrious Wit were so conspicuous that they drew upon him the eyes not only of his own Colledge but of the whole University which could not but be the more observable in him because he wanted that felicity of Utterance which useth to set off slight parts and had so great an Hesitation in his speech as rendred his expression painful to himself and less pleasing to others Which made him decline as much as he might all publick Disputations and other Exercises as not to be perform'd by him without great difficulty his Labour in them as he was wont to tell his familiars being double to that of others in regard he was put to study not for matter only but for words not to express his mind for such words the matter being excogitated do not unwillingly follow and even offer themselves but for words that he could utter yea and to take care to dispose them too in that order that the contexture might suit with his Ability Wherein yet he in time became a rare Example how much a discreet observation of such an Imperfection can work toward the cure of it For by an heedful inspection into the nature of his defect what words he most stuck at either single or in conjuncture and at what times he was more or less free he attain'd so great a mastery over that Infirmity that he was able to deliver a whole Sermon without any considerable Hesitation 7. That also of his own relation is here not unworthy the remembring That not long after his entrance into Philosophical studies he was for some time disquieted with Scepticism that troublesome and restless disease of the Pyrrhonian School of old For lighting upon a Book in a neighbour-Scholars Chamber whether it were Sextus Empericus or some other upon the same Subject is not now remembred he began upon the perusal of it to move strange Questions to himself and even to doubt whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Frame of things as it appears to us were any more than a mere Phantasm or Imagination The Emprovement of this Conceit as he would profess rendred all things so unpleasant to him that his Life became uncomfortable He was then but young and therefore the more capable of being abus'd by those perplex'd Notions by which Pyrrho had industriously studied to represent the Habitation of Truth as inaccessible But by the mercy of God he quickly made his way out of these troublesome Labyrinths and gave an early proof that he was design'd for profound Contemplations by falling so soon upon the consideration of subjects so subtil and curious 8. By that time he had taken the Degree of Master of Arts he
touching the Necessity and Contingency of these Subordinate Causes That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii in the way of direct and natural subordination But that here the Chain is broken off because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii does beget or produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis in man only contingently and without any necessity And thus è contrà That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii This naturally as before But that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii should beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis this is from no necessity because it is in mans power and liberty who is naturally ill-disposed yet through the emprovements of Art and especially by the Grace of God to become good or better as the Divine Goodness shall minister opportunity Which is as much as can be said in so few words and might determine the question to all judicious and knowing men concerning the power of the Stars and those Celestial Influences into and upon this inferior world where their Operations are genuine and natural and properly efficient and where they have their stint and their Nè plus ultrà nothing at all to do unless by a remote disposition which is properly no Cause at all This is enough also to vindicate Man born to Liberty and to command the Stars from that supposed vassalage whereunto the jugling Astrologers of our days would fain subject him and cast the credulous world into a Trance of blindness to believe Lies and Follies and gross Vanities for very Truth 16. But leaving the hot pursuit of Astrological fancies the busie idleness of some even to their old age he applied himself to the more useful study of History and Antiquities particularly to a curious enquiry into those Mysterious Sciences which made the ancient Chaldeans Egyptians and other Nations so famous tracing them as far as he could have any light to guide him in their Oriental Schemes and Figurative expressions as likewise in their Hieroglyphicks not forgetting to enquire also into the Oneirocriticks of the Ancients Which he did the rather because of that affinity which he conceiv'd they might have with the language of the Prophets to the understanding of whom he shew'd a most ardent desire His Humanity-studies and Mathematical labours were but Initial things which he made attendants to the Mysteries of Divinity and though they were Preparatives as he could use them yet were they but at a distance off and more remote to his aim for he had more work to do before he could be Master of his design A well-furnish'd Divine is compounded of more Ingredients than so For Histories of all sorts but those especially which concern the Church of God must be studied and well known and therefore he made his way by the knowledge of all Histories General National Ancient and Modern Sacred and Secular He was a curious and laborious searcher of Antiquities relating to Religion Ethnick Iewish Christian and Mahumetan the fruits of which studious diligence appear visibly in several of those excellent Treatises which have pass'd the Press particularly in his Apostasie of the Latter times The Christian Sacrifice his Discourses upon Daniel his Paraphrase and Notes upon S. Peter's Prophecy and in his great Master-piece those elaborate Commentaries upon the Apocalyps where the Fata Imperii i.e. the Affairs of the Roman State there predicted are to admiration explain'd out of Ethnick Historians and the Fata Ecclesiae illustrated with no less accuracy out of Ecclesiastick Writers His Writings best speak his eminent skill in History yet it may not be amiss to superadde upon this occasion the Testimony of a very judicious person and one of long and inward acquaintance with Mr. Mede and his studies we mean that forementioned ancient Collegue and Consocius of his Mr. W. Chappell who before his going into Ireland was heard thus to express himself That Mr. Mede was as judicious a man in Ecclesiastical Antiquities and as accurately skilled in the first Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latin as any man living 17. Unto Histories he added those necessary attendants which to the knowledge of the more difficult Scriptures must never be wanting viz. an accurate understanding of the Ichnography of the Tabernacle and Temple the Order of the Service of God therein performed as also of the City of Ierusalem together with an exact Topography of the Holy Land besides other Iewish Antiquities Scripture-Chronology and the exact Calculation of Times so far especially as made for the solving or clearing of those difficulties and obscure passages that occur in the Historical part of Scripture which the vulgar Chronologers have perplex'd and the best not fully freed from scruple And how great his abilities were for the Sacred Chronologie may appear to omit other proofs from that clause in a Letter of the then Archbishop of Armagh to him I have entred upon the Determination of the Controversies which concern the Chronology of the Sacred Scripture wherein I shall in many places need your help That great and laborious Work which this equally Learned and Humble Prelate was now entred upon was his Chronologia Sacra wherein he intended to confirm those dispositions of Years and accounts of time he had set down in his Annals of the Old and New Testament lately published by him This Work had exercised his industry for many years and he labour'd in it to the last minute of health he enjoy'd but he lived not to finish it Yet that the fruit of all his travels herein might not die with him so much as he had elaborated was published by the Learned Dr. Barlow Provost of Queen's-Colledge in Oxford whose great care and industry herein did deserve in this place an express celebration For such useful Labours justly entitle a man to the honour of being a Benefactor to the world 18. By the fruit of these Studies particularly by his happy Labours upon the Apocalyps and Prophetical Scriptures what honour our Author purchas'd abroad besides what he gain'd at home among men studious in this way and therefore capable of judging is evident by the many Letters sent him from Learned men in several parts expressing their own and others high esteem of his Writings As the above-mention'd Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher who also acquainted Mr. Mede with the great esteem that another Archbishop in Ireland had for his accurate labours upon the Apocalyps The judicious and moderate Paulus Testardus Pastor of the Reformed Church at Blois in France who was so highly pleas'd with his Clavis Commentationes Apocalypticae as to take the pains amidst his other pressing labours to translate them into French designing the printing of them for the benefit of his Countreymen
though never so carefully and exactly written could possibly scape at such a a rate of judging as this But to speak yet more closely to the present Exception Thoughâ— here was a mistake in applying the Fourth Viol to that Northern King yet that mistake in the particular is no real prejudice to the general and main scope of his Interpretation of that part much less of the other parts of the Vision And considering the abstruseness of the matter it may be held very laudable not toto coelo errare in the explication of some part of a Vision especially when other Learned men are deprehended to do so not only in some one whole Vision but in a manner universally in the whole Apocalyps and that not only in those Visions which relate to things unfulfill'd and future Events about which if a careful Interpreter be at a loss sometimes and chance to misconjecture it is more pardonable but in such Visions and Prophecies as are already fulfill'd wherein to mistake is the less excusable because Prophecies are suppos'd to clear up when accomplish'd according to that of Irenaeus which is sometimes quoted to an ill purpose viz. to damp all modest Enquiries into Prophetical Scriptures Cùm evenit quod propheratum est tunc Prophetiae liquidam habent certam expositionem And here if it were not an over-tedioâ—â— Digression it would be no hard task to bring in a large Catalogue of gross Parachronisms manifest misapplications and mistakes of another nature than this single one they urge against our Author and these not a few nor thinly scatter'd in their Comments but to be met with in every page The reason of which Misfortune in which the Interpreters that go the new way are as much concern'd as any is plainly this Their want of attending to that only safe Rule and Ground-work of Interpretation the Apocalyptical Synchronisms the usefulness and necessity of attending to which is fully made out by Mr. Mede to omit other places in his Corollary at the end of his Clavis Apocalyptica Without this Clue Interpreters will miserably lose themselves in this Sacred Labyrinth without this Card to guide them in this Mystical Sea they must needs like distressed Mariners reel to and fro and often be at their wit's end Lastly Let it be considered that this short passage concerning the Application of the Fourth Vial excepted against is not any part of the Author 's large and more throughly-concocted Commentary upon the Apocalyps for that ends with Chap. XIV And as for the following Chapters what he has briefly observed upon some passages therein as in Chap. XVI which treats of the Vials he calls only Specimina his Essays and First adventures intending if he had health and free leisure to go over them again and then to perfect his thoughts and as fully to enlarge himself upon them as he had done upon the foregoing Chapters This he expresly advertises the Reader of at the end of his Commentary upon Chap. XIV in the mean while commending these Specimina which at the sollicitation of some Friends he permitted to go along with his Commentary to the Reader 's Candour and Benignity persuading himself as the best natures at least apt to suspect any unkindness that what he thus offer'd with his right hand others would not take with their left This is enough to wash away the supposed stain of this Exception and perhaps more than was needful but that some devoid of Charity and therefore but tinkling Cymbals made such a noise about it such as childishly affect excitare fluctus in simpulo and love to make ex musca elephantem ex festuca trabem in the mean while through fond self-love and partiality not minding the more than motes the great beams in their own eyes or in the eyes of those whose persons they have in admiration But to such our Saviour's Counsel is not unseasonable Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye 21. Proceed we now cum bonâ— Deo to the Vindication of our Author from the other Exception which in short is this That he may seem to have afforded too much countenance to the Opinion of the Chiliasts This Exception though not the former is taken notice of by that Reverend person who was familiarly acquainted with Mr. Mede and wrote that short View of his Life published at the end of his Epistles And the Sum of the Answer he there returns to this Exception is this That what Mr. Mede did herein cannot be justly counted any blemish to his name and honour For grant that Opinion were an Error yet saith he it hath very much to plead its toleration and their pardon that hold it Whatever it be it past for a precious Truth even in the purest and most untainted Ages of the Church those next the Apostles for the space of above 300. years and had the suffrages of the most eminent Doctors that lived in those times viz. Iustin Martyr who lived within 30 years of S. Iohn's death Irenaeus who was brought up at the feet of Polycarpus who was S. Iohn's Disciple they both lived and conversed with the Apostles immediate Disciples as also Tertullian the most ancient of the Latin Fathers now extant Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and Lactantius besides several others of whose Writings we have only some small Fragments all these within 300. years after Christ. Nor was it ever discountenanced till the Church recovering breath from her Persecutions began perhaps a little too much to prize her peace and disvaluing her expectations to set up her rest in her enjoyed tranquillity And certainly not to argue its verisimilitude from the consonancy it seems to have with the many glorious Prophecies of Christ's Kingdom in the Old Testament which otherwise find many cold interpretations among Expositors a man can hardly without admitting it make good sense of those places in the 20 and 21 Chapters of the Revelation which tell us of a First and Second Resurrection and of a Ierusalem descending out of Heaven from God Which last I have often heard our Author say seemed to him extremely harsh to expound of the State of Bliss in Heaven and to make descending out of Heaven to signify ascending up thither was more absurd than that of the Canonist who expounded Constituimus by Abrogamus So that he was compelled by that and many other places against his inclination to allow so much of Chiliasm as might make sense of those Prophecies yet alway keeping himself from falling into those dotages which some of that opinion fansied or at least were charged with neither denying any necessary Catholick Verity nor admitting any thing inconsistent with the analogy of Faith and submitting his Opinion to the judgment of the Church And within these limits I never yet learned why he or any
he detects the impertinency of that trivial shift of the Romanists in distinguishing between Idolum and Imago with much more of the like import in that Treatise of his which the Learned Is. Casanbon worthily styles Exactissimae fidei diligentiae Scriptum To conclude It may not be amiss here to add a short story not impertinent to the argument in hand Mr. Mede having lately preached a Sermon at S. Marie's in Cambridge upon Eccles. 5. 1 about the Reverence of Gods House a young Master of Arts took the freedom sometime after to tell him as who might not be free with him a person of such exemplary Humility and Condescensions That from some passages in that Discourse the world concluded that he had changed his Opinion and that he did not now think as formerly that the Pope was the Hoghen Moghen that was his drolling expression No replied Mr. Mede But I do and shall think so as long as I live for all this 42. And here we have a fair occasion to represent another of those worthy Qualities that adorn'd his Character His well-grounded Constancy and Vnchangeableness of Iudgment We say Well-grounded otherwise for a man to persist resolvedly in an Opinion because it has been his Opinion is neither Vertue nor matter of Praise but rather a piece of troublesome Stiffness and Pertinacity usually accompanied with fond Self-conceitedness and a design to secure his fame and some emolument he receives from his easie admirers From which humour none was more free than our Author who would profess That so far as he could judge of himself by experience he was as willing to embrace Truth when he saw evidence for it as any man living as well considering that it is the part of a true Christian as Aristotle observes it to be of a true Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the interest and advancement of Truth to forgoe and quit his own private conceits and speculations how dear soever they were formerly unto him and on the contrary an argument of a low and servile spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be either fondly addicted or enslaved to any Hypothesis and Opinion either of his own or others Our Author was not indeed light of belief nor would be easily take up an Hypothesis But when any new Notion was presented to him by others or offered itself to his thoughtful mind he would first make a stand and pause well upon it strictly examining the Grounds thereof and if upon a serious and due weighing of all that was fit to be taken into consideration he found it to be a solid Truth he was not apt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be shaken from his judgment a right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle both in his Ethicks and Rhetorick styles a Vertuous man or in the Apostles language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stedfast unmovable and established in the present Truth Yea he was ever so impartial and constant a Lover of Truth that nothing but the Holy Scripture and sound Reason could prevail upon him 'T is true To conceal his judgment not to divulge every thing that was Truth to him he was not hard to be perswaded The remembrance of the Apostles Rule Rom. 14. Hast thou faith have it to thy self as also his own Charity Prudence and Peaceableness of spirit did dispose him to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wheâ—e it was convenient But neither Friends nor Interests nor any worldly Allurements whatsoever were of force to corrupt his affections or pervert his judgment much less could they prevail with him unworthily to deny any Truth how unplausible soever it was to some men and therfore disadvantageous to himself For a proof of his constant and unremovable affection to Truth as also of his patient enduring the contradiction of others against himself take this Instance viz. That in the revolution of about twenty years by-past the saying was his own he had by the self-same persons been look'd upon and accordingly reported of as Popish Protestant and Puritane and yet he would protest it as in the presence of God that to his knowledge he had not in the least receded from his very first perswasions So that all the while he was the same without wavering although varied to their appearance because they sailing with the tide and wind varied towards him Thus they in the Vessel under sail being always in motion think the Land moves so it seems to their erring sense which yet is never the less fixed and unmoved for their thinking amiss But our Author as he consider'd that Precept in Siracides chap. 5. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be thou stedfast in thy understanding so he knew likewise that the ready way to attain to this establishment was this according to the counsel in the foregoing verse not to winnow or sail with every wind But we must not indulge our selves the liberty of enlarging upon every thing in our Author which render'd him justly exemplary worthy of praise and imitation Return we therefore from this Digression to what has a near affinity to our former argument In speaking to which and the remaining particulars we must study to be short and take the nearest way to our journeys end left we over-drive the more infirm and therefore the more querulous sort of Readers and wear out their patience otherwise to those that are of sounder and stronger judgments and consequently capable to value and honour and love the Author we doubt not but a larger Narrative than this would seem not tediously long but too short rather as indeed the most enlarged History of his Life his Piety and Learning is in itself and upon a true account a short History too short if we consider the great Worth and manifold Perfections of the Person of whom though we should speak much we shall yet certainly come short if we may here use in an inferior sense what is said of God by the Son of Sirach chap. 43. To proceed then 43. As he abhorr'd Idolatry and Superstition so he likewise abhorr'd Sacriledge and all Profanation of Holy things As for Sacriledge his judgment is well known to those who have read his Works with attention amongst which to omit several passages in his other Discourses there is one Diatriba wholly spent upon the Story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. wherein the nature and proper notion of the Sin there mentioned is clearly explained as also the hainousness and danger of Sacriledge is fully proved from several Examples of special remark in H. Scripture all eminently verifying that of Solomon It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy With the consideration whereof our Author being deeply affected as also of the great disservice done hereby to any Intendment of Pious Charity and the no less dishonour done to Religion when what is devoted to Pious purposes is less secure from the
and with as great Solidity of Reason and Embroidery of Rhetorick pressed as his Theme led him Works of Charity Among other passages he exhorted his Hearers to make this Experiment When they had received good gain by Traffick or Bargain c. to take 6 d or 4 d in the Pound and put it in a Purse by it self for works of Piety This he warranted as it would be very beneficial to their Estate so it would take away all secret Grudgings For now they had lay'd so much aside for such a purpose they would rather wish for an Opportunity of disbursing it c. After Sermon being visited by a neighbour-Divine and one allied to him they presently fell into discourse about that Subject and Mr. Whateley's Iudgment was desired more particularly concerning the Quotapars to be so devoted As for that saith he I am not to prescribe to others but since here are none but very good friends and we are all so private I will tell you what hath been my own practice of late and upon what occasion You know Sir some years since I was often beholden to you for the Lone of 10â— at a time The truth is I could not bring the year about though my Receipts were not despicable and I was not at all conscious to my self of any vain Expences or of Improvidence At length I began to examine my Family what Relief was given to the Poor And although I was assured that was not done niggardly yet I could not be so satisfied but resolved instantly to lay aside every Tenth shilling of all my Receipts for Charitable uses And to let you see how well I have thrived this way in a short time now if you have occasion to use an 100â— or more I have it ready for you Iust Mr. Mede's Method and with a like prosperous Success This I can avouch for I was present both at the Sermon and at the Conference Neither do I conceive I have been wandering far from Mr. Mede all this while these two Persons meeting so near in so many Respects Both of them of the same House in the University both Contemporaries both Eminent though in far distant ways both inviolably kept their Principles of Loyalty to their Prince and Obedience to their Mother the Church both suffered injuriously some when time was made themselves too Poetically merry with Mr. Whately's Name both met in the same practice of Charity for which chiefly the latter was instanced in lastly both of them were peaceably and honourably Interred a little before the late unnatural War I do not ask the Reader 's Pardon for this seeming Impertinency because I rather expect his Thanks for helping him to so rare a Project how he may no less certainly than Piously improve his Estate if he please to make due Trial of it Howsoever I shall make him amends as to Brevity in the ensuing Particularities Whereof the next is 2. Concerning Mr. Mede's Communicativeness AS to be Communicative of Good is a Royalty and Beam of Glory even in the Divine Majesty itself so upon what Person soever this shall be more or less shed and diffused it must needs render him proportionably God-like Now that such a Quality was eminently conspicuous in this divine Person is altogether as unquestionable as Whether there ever was such a Man as Mr. Ioseph Mede I shall not instance in his Writings wherewith he hath blest the world concerning which I speak of those few then extant if the commending of them would not be but as the Gilding of Gold and the Painting of Rubies I could give you the opinion of one among many others who was Master of as great a Treasure of choice Learning and of as curious a Pen and Tongue as few Ages have seen which he hath often expressed to me in these words I never in all my life met with such a Vseful Critick as Mr. Mede with many other Encomiums That I have now to speak to is his Communicativeness in ordinary Discourse And this indeed he made the main of his Divertisement and Recreation I never heard he used any other unless it were in and upon the Fellows Orchard the Beautifying whereof he took great delight in and towards that he would not only lend his handsome and happy Contrivances but also disburse Money before-hand till the Colledge-Audit Here he hath been found very busie at due hours and sometimes knuckle-deep when he would say smiling Why this was Adam's work in his Innocency But then instantly taking for his Theme either a Plant or a Weed or almost any thing next hand he would fall into some very significant discourse All his Discourses to speak it once for all were extremely distant from any thing that looked like either Levity or Vanity or Paedantry These Charitable works of his Tongue for so I call Mr. Mede's Discourses as well as those other of his Hand proved no less Gainful to himself than they were Beneficial to others A double Gain he hath often acknowledged came in to him this way One That his Notions by often Repeating them became more fixed and rivetted in his Memory And therefore he would merrily say to a Familiar whose Studies lay quite another way and in that kind of Learning was confessedly incomparable and unmatchable when he seemed not so attentive to some of his Discourses Chuse saith he whether you will hear me or no I love to repeat what I have been gathering though it be but to the Walls for my own Memorie 's sake The other Gain was That hereby his Notions were better shaped and formed and so more accommodated to use For said he every time I am imparting them to others it is great odds but some fitter and clearer Expression will casually come out of my Mouth than at first came into my Mind So that his Notions always lay by him ready in good Currant Coin whiles others who too much affect the hoarding up have theirs at the best but in the Barre and Ingot and perhaps sometimes but in the Ore Wherefore I am apt to believe it was not a mere Complement of Mr. Mede's when he thanked those for Hearing him who thought they had a great deal more reason to thank him for his so Edifying them because he knew his own Gains hereby were still multiplied When my Acquaintance with him was of that Standing as to take the Degree of one of his Familiars he would treat and entertain me in this manner After some short prelusory talking of News and Occurrences Come now saith he what be your Questions Which as I was never to come unprovided of so was he always much more provided to resolve them to my unspeakable satisfaction Yea more than that such was his Obligingness he would sometimes fetch out of his Study divers of his Colledge and Publick Exercises and sometimes one peculiar Paper-book wherein he was wont to write sundry knotty Questions and difficult Texts of Scripture and under them set down
one who durst First presume upon a notorious Sin thereby to give Warning to all others As upon Cain the first Murtherer upon Corah and his Complices who first moved a Sedition upon the point of Equality in the Priesthood upon Absolom the first unnatural Rebel c. But now for this Sin of Sacrilege as God began to punish it very early even in Paradise itself ut suprà so hath he continually pursued and hounded this Sin as in Achan in the Old Testament in Annanias and Sapphira in the New that no man may pretend the Antiquateness of the Old Testament c. And in latter Ages besides what the learned Pens of Sr. Henry Spelman and others have published he had collected many rare Instances of his own private Observation which upon prudential Considerations I forbear to recite And now after all this Is it not admirable to consider how strangely the seeming present Profit of this Sin doth infatuate men That though they daily experiment these Truths yet they will not be persuaded either from Venturing on the Sin or from Continuing in it What doth this but betray in Men the same Shortness and Shallowness of Understanding that we see in Rooks and Martins and other silly Fowls which will needs be building every year in those very places where they are sure to be disturb'd and endanger'd themselves and to have their Nests demolished and their Young destroyed or if any chance to escape yet they always lie at the mercy of every Passenger 6. Of his becoming Facetiousness THose his so grave knotty and crabbed studies did not at all render him Sour or Morose but in due Time and Place he knew how to be Pleasant and Facetious To give the Reader a Tast of this for Divertisement By this time perhaps he will but need it having tired himself with reading these dull and flat Narratives 1. The Chamber he kept in was known to be a Ground-chamber just under the Colledge-Library Partly for the benefit of that for the Library was his other Study and Closet and partly for the conveniency of having no Students over him to disturb him by walking c. he continued there very many years His Bed-chamber-window opened into the Street and in the Summer-time when the Evenings were clear and serene he would leave his Window open all night for fresh air This was not long un-observed by the Hooker who once began to draw away his Bed-cloaths whiles he lay awake Nay friend saith he I pray thee stay till I am asleep c. with that the Hooker ran away and he slept securely with his window still open Not long after the same or another of his Tribe came again and then he was asleep But when the Fellow was plucking away the Cloaths he soon awakened and then said Oh friend if thou takest away my Bed-cloaths his wearing-cloaths he had secured well enough I shall take cold c. And so he was rid of his Chapman again and never heard more of him though his windows were still continued un-shut With which pretty Confidence of his he overcame that of the Hookers and made himself very merry with the story among his friends 2. In the Vacations he was wont to be invited into the Country by a Kinsman and a Knight At his first coming thither being then a young Master of Arts he in curiosity stood observing the Falconer feeding his Hawk and in way of complaisance began to praise the Hawk As first What a brave sharp Bill she had Bill said the Falconer it is a Beak Sir By and by What notable Claws she had Claws Sir said he they are Pounces Anon he commended her fine Feathers Feathers Sir they are Plumes After that her goodly Tail Tail Sir it is a Train Mr. Mede not a little abash'd that he should be thus mistaken all along in those Terms of Art and believing the Falconer would expose him for his Ignorance to his fellow-servants he studied this innocent piece of Revenge The Falconer he saw used to wait at Table and therefore taking his time three or four days after when he thought the thing was quite forgotten he sets them all at the Table on reading of Riddles And when they were well in he turning to the Falconer asked him Friend What kind of Bird is that which hath neither Bill nor Claw nor Feathers nor Tail The Falconer was utterly posed and stood mute Why then said Mr. Mede I will tell you It is your Hawk That hath no Bill but a Beak no Claws but Pounces no Feathers but Plumes no Tail but a Train There was I even with him would he say triumphingly 3. Such Fellow-commoners who came to the University only to see it and to be seen in it he call'd The Vniversity-Tulips that made a Gaudy shew for a while c. To these might be added many more whereof some perhaps would tast a little too salt to some but all of them would relish well enough to younger Palats But I must remember the Gravity of the Person I am speaking of and whiles I am upon this pleasant Argument shall endeavour to imitate his Practice which was to make his Facetiousness always usher in something that was Serious To the next then 7. Some of his handsome and serious sayings SO I call them rather than Apophthegms though some of them may possibly lay claim to that Title 1. It was often in his Mouth Over-doing always undoes very applicable many ways 2. To that stale triumphing Demand of the Romanists Where was your Church before Luther he answered with another Question Where was the fine Flour when the Wheat went to the Mill 3. Where there is Siding and Studium partium the prevailing Party always makes the other complain Iust as it is at the great Crowding in the Commencement-House when an extraordinary Praevaricator comes up the Crowdsways sometimes on one side then they that are crushed to the walls cry out Oh Oh and being sensible of the pain they set their feet against the walls and with their backs and all their strength cause the Press to turn as much to the other side and then these cry out as fast oh oh as the other did before and so alternis vicibus 4. To that old Complaint now newly dressed up and followed with such noises and Hubbubs Is it not great pity that men should be silenced and laid aside only for their not Subscribing his answer was So it is great pity that some goodly fair Houses in the vâ—idst of a populous City should take fire and therefore must of necessity be pulled down unless you will sâ—ffer the whole Town to be on a flame and consume to ashes 5. That which followeth cannot properly be called a Saying but rather a Discourse resembling a rich Iewell made up of divers costly Gemms After he had been speaking very Iudiciously and very Piously what great reason we all had to pray earnestly for our Governours in the Church That God
New the Christian Clergy or Clerus so called from the beginning of Christian Antiquity either because they are the Lord 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Portion which the Church dedicateth unto him out of her self namely as the Levites were an offering of the Children of Israel which they offered unto him out of their Tribes or because their inheritance and livelihood is the Lord's portion I prefer the first yet either of both will give their Order the title of Holiness as doth also more especially their descent which they derive from the Apostles that is from those for whom their Lord and Master prayed unto his Father saying Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctisie them unto or for thy Truth thy Word is Truth that is Separate them unto the Ministery of thy Truth the word of thy Gospel which is the truth and verification of the promises of God It follows As thou hast sent me into the world so have I also sent them into the world this is the key which unlocks the meaning of that before and after And for them I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified for thy Truth that is And forasmuch as they cannot be consecrated to such an Office without some sacrifice to atone and purifie them therefore for their consecration to this holy function of ministration of the new Covenant I offer my self a Sacrifice unto thee for them in lieu of those legal and typical ones wherewith Aaron and his sons first and then the whole Tribe of Levi were consecrated unto thy service in the old An Ellipsis of the first Substantive in Scripture is frequent So here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth for the Ministery of Truth Now that the Christian Church for of the Iewish I shall need say nothing hath alwayes taken it for granted that those of her Clergy ought according to the separation and sanctity of their Order to be distinguished and differenced from other Christians both passively in their usance from others but especially actively by a restrained conversation and peculiarness in their manner of life is manifest by her ancient Canons and Discipline Yea so deeply hath it been rooted in the minds of men that the Order of Church-men binds them to some differing kind of conversation and form of life from the Laity that even those who are not willing to admit of the like discrimination due in other things have still in their opinions some relick thereof remaining in this though perhaps not altogether to be acquitted of that imputation which Tertullian charged upon some in his time to wit Quum excellimur inflamur adversùs Clerum tunc unum omnes sumus tunc omnes Sacerdotes quia Sacerdotes nos Deo Patri fecit Quum ad peraequationem Disciplinae Sacerdotalis provocamur deponimus insulas impares sumus When we vaunt and are puffed up against the Clergie then we are all one then we are all Priests for he made us Priests to God and his Father But when we are called upon to equal in our lives the example of Priestly Discipline then down go our Miâ—res and we are another sort of men Another sort of things Sacred which I named was Sacred Places to wit Churches and Oratories as the Christian name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth them to be that is the Lord's A third Sacred Times that is dedicated and appointed for the solemn celebration of the worship of God and Divine duties such are with us for those of the Iews concern us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord's dayes with other our Christian Festivals and Holy-dayes Of the manner of the discrimination from common or sanctifying both the one and the other by actions some commanded others interdicted to be done in them the Canons and Constitutions of our Church will both inform and direct us For holy Times and holy Places are Twins Time and Place being as I may so speak pair-circumstances of action and therefore Lev. 19. 30. and again 26. 2. they are joyned together tanquam ejusdem rationis Keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary The fourth sort of Sacred things is of such as are neither Persons Times nor Places but Things in a special sense by way of distinction from them And this sort containeth under it many particulars which may be specified after this manner 1. Sacred Revenues of what kind soever which in regard of the dedication thereof as they must not be prophaned by sacrilegious alienation so ought they to be sanctified by a different use and imployment from other Goods namely such a one as becometh that which is the Lord's and not man's For that Primitive Christian Antiquity so esteemed them appears by their calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they did their Place of Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Holy day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of the Lord as it were Christening the old notion of Sacred by a new name So Can. Apostol XL. Manifestae sint Episcopi res propriae si quidem res habet proprias manifesta sint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. res Dominicae Let it be manifest what things are the Bishop's own if he have any things of his own and let it be manifest what things are the Lord 's Author constitut Apost Lib. 2. c. 28. al. 24. Episcopus ne utatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicis rebus tanquam alienis aut communibus sed moderatè Let not the Bishop use the things that are the Lord's as if they were another's or as if they were common but moderately and soberly See also Balsamon in Can. 15. Concilii Ancyrani and the Canon it self 2. Sacred Vtensils as the Lord's Table Vessels of ministration the Books of God or Holy Scripture and the like Which that the Church even in her better times respected with an holy and discriminative usance may be learned from the story of that calumnious crimination devised by the Arrian Faction against Athanasius as a charge of no small impiety namely that in his Visitation of the Tract of Marcotis Macarius one of his Presbyters by his command or instinct had entered into a Church of the Miletian Schismaticks and there broken the Chalice or Communion-Cup thrown down the Table and burnt some of the Holy Books All which argues that in the general opinion of Christians of that time such acts were esteemed prophane and impious otherwise they could never have hoped as they did to have blasâ—ed the reputation of the holy Bishop by such a slander Touching the Books of God or Holy Scripture which I referred to this Title especially those which are for the publick service of God in the Church I adde this further That under that name I would have comprehended the senses words and phrases appropriated to the expression of Divine and Sacred things which a Religious ear cannot endure to
Good spell that is the good speak or say the good tidings the word of good news Under which name it was revealed by the Angel to the Shepherds who were watching their flock in the fields the night our Saviour was born Behold saith the Angel I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Luk. 2. 10 11. I call it the glad tidings of Salvation to be attained by Christ for so much the name of Saviour implies And saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners Neither is there saith S. Peter Acts 4. 12. Salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved The next words I used shew the way and manner how and whereby Christ purchased this Salvation unto men and the means whereby it is attained through him namely by cancelling of sin by his alonement made he reconciles us to his Father that we through him might turn unto God and perform works of obedience acceptable unto eternal life All which was foretold by Daniel chap. 9. 24. where prophesying of the time of Messiah's coming he said Seventy weeks were determined upon the people and upon the holy city to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness To prove in particular that Christ dyed for sin I shall not need No man that ever read the Gospel but knows it That by the atonement he made for sin by death he hath reconciled us to his Father is as evident by what S. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them That the ministery of the Gospel is the Ministery of reconciliation v. 18. whose Ministers as Embassadors for Christ beseech men in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God v. 20. For by reason of Sin all mankind is at enmity with God and liable to eternal wrath Christ by taking our sins upon him abolished this enmity and set us at peace with God his Father according to that the Quire of Angels sang at his blessed Birth Glory be to God on high and on earth Peace Good-will towards men that is Glory be ascribed to God forasmuch as Peace was come upon earth and Good-will towards men All this is plain But that which the greatest part of men as may be guessed by their practice seem to make question of is that last parcel of my Description That therefore Christ took away sin and reconciled us to his Father that we might through him whose righteousness is imputed to us perform works of piety and obedience which God should accept and crown with eternal life But that this is also a part of the Gospel as well as the former is plain and evident First by that of S. Peter 1 Ep. ch 2. ver 24. where he tells us That Christ his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness Secondly by that of the Apostle Paul to Titus ch 2. 11 c. The grace of God saith he that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men Wherefore Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Is not this plain Thirdly by that of the same Apostle Eph. 2. 10. where the Apostle having told us v. 8 9. that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works that is not according to the Covenant of works wherein the exact performance was required lest any man should boast namely that he was not beholden to God for grace and favour in rewarding him he adds presently lest his meaning might be mistaken That we are God's workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath before ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we should walk in them As if he should say Though of our selves we are no ways able to perform those works of obedience ordained by God aforetime in his Law for us to walk in yet now God hath as it were new created us in Christ that we might perform them in him namely by way of acceptation though they come short of that exactness which the Law requireth And thus to be saved is to be saved by grace and favour and not by the merit of works because the foundation whereby our selves and services are approved in the eyes of God and have promise of reward is the mere favour of God in Iesus Christ and not any thing in us or them Agreeable to these Scriptures is that in the Revelation where glory is ascribed to Iesus Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God his Father that is that he might make us kings and Priests unto God his Father For and is here to be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that Kings to subdue the world the flesh and the Devil Priests to offer Sacrifices of prayer thanksgiving works of mercy and other acceptable services to our heavenly Father Moreover and besides these express Scriptures this Truth may be yet further confirmed by Demonstration and Reason Repentance is a forsaking of sin to serve God in newness of life Now the Gospel includes Repentance as the subject wherein it worketh as the Body which it enliveneth as a Soul Or to use a similitude from weaving Repentance is the warp of the Gospel and the Gospel the woof of Repentance Repentance is as the warp which the Gospel by the shuttle of Faith runs through as the woof whence proceeds the web of Regeneration Therefore is Repentance everywhere joyned with the Gospel Both Iohn Baptist and our Saviour so published it Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Repent and believe the Gospel Our Saviour in his last words or commission to his Disciples tells them Luk. 24. 47. that Repentance and Remission of sins which is the Gospel should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem All which is elsewhere comprised in the sole name of preaching the Gospel which argues that the Gospel of Christ and consequently our Faith in the same supposeth Repentance as the ground to do its work upon So S. Peter in his first Sermon Acts 2. 38. conjoyns them Repent saith he and be baptized in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins as if he had said Repent and that thy Repentance may be available betake
and see how they are expressed and that is in three things 1. To go upon the breast or to have the posture of the Body groveling on the earth whereby as I shall shew presently is implied the abasement of the creature 2. To have for meat the dust of the earth wherein is shewn its unprovision of food for the maintenance of its life being of all Beasts of the field to have the basest and coursest fare 3. To be in continual mortal and irreconcilable enmity with man both his Lord and the Lord of the rest of the creatures from whom it should be in continual danger and fear of its life and once espied be sure to have its brains dash'd out by him And which makes the misery so much the greater to be no way able to be revenged of his enemy other than to come unawares behind him and then also not able to reach above his heel as being most unequally matched he walking â—â—oâ—t with his head and whole body advanced while the miserable Serpent shall lie groveling on the ground ready to be troden apieces under his feet Of these three Particulars let us speak severally and first of the first Vpon thy breast shalt thou go In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn Vpon thy belly which interpretation hath been one great cause of the difficulty to understand the meaning of this Malediction For if the shape of the Serpent were after the fashion it is now it is not possible to imagine how it could ever have gone otherwise than upon the belly for to think that ever it went an-end were a conceit more worthy to be derided than to be believed By which means there appeared no other way to evade this difficulty but to affirm that the Serpent indeed went upon his belly from the beginning but either that it was not so toilsom to him or not for a curse unto him till now which for my part it being so far from the letter of the Text I could never yet believe I had much rather in this follow the Vulgar or Ierome's Translation which reads super pectus tuum gradiêris upon thy breast shalt thou go for upon thy belly I believe the Serpent went from the first Creation but not upon the breast until this present malediction The breast of the Serpent I call the upper part of the Serpent's body from the navel up to the head The belly the other part or the other half downward with which though at the first he walked prone to and upon the earth yet was the other part his breast and head reared up and advanced until for having been abused to the ruin of mankind he was now with his whole body to creep groveling upon the earth And perhaps thus much the Septuagint meant to insinuate by their Translation which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon thy breast and thy belly where it may seem that they rendred two words for one in the Text for illustration and for intimation of this That whereas the Serpent before went only upon his belly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now he should from henceforth walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his breast and belly too As for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used there is no necessity at all to translate it the belly but rather some probability of the contrary in the Etymology of the word For though in the Hebrew the Theme be not used yet in the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— which signifies incurvatus â—uit to bow downward seems to mean the inclination of the head and breast or upper part of the body to the earth as may be gathered from that of Elijah 1 Kings 18. 42. where it is said that Elijah went up to the top of Carmel pronum se abjecit in terram and cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees for here the Targum useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— the Radix of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again Mark 1. 7. in those words of Iohn Baptist There is one cometh after me the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose here for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— stoop down the Syriack hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— of as near a kin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Syriack to the Chaldee The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self is of rare use in the Bible besides in this place and therefore we can receive no great help from the comparing of places It is read again Levit. 11. 42. and that in a singular mark as the Masorites have observed for the Vau cholem in the last syllable is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Vau and exactly the middlemost letter of all the Law of Moses if their Arithmetick failed them not But no particularity of signification can from that place be gathered the speech being of creeping things which go as well upon the breast as the belly and the belly as the breast Since therefore the word here used neither hindreth our opinion nor much furthereth it we will come to such other grounds as may prove our assertion for the Serpent's going with breast advanced afore the Fall of man and not groveling till his Malediction And first let it be considered there is no impossibility of it in regard of the frame of the Serpent which appears both by their advancing themselves when they assault a man which the Painters express in their Pictures and also when they swim through the water which is with their head and some part of their breast raised above water even as a Swan holdeth up her neck as I have heard affirmed by such as have been eye-witnesses and lastly Plinie and Solinus report of the Basilisk that the Basilisk walks so still as I shewed a little before And it may be as when the Giant-like stature of mankind was diminished after the Floud in a manner throughout the world and for many ages yet was there by God's disposition still a race of Giants left even till the time of David for a monument and witness of the truth of a far bigger stature in former times which else could not so easily have been believed or imagined Such were the Zanzummims in Abraham's time the sons of Anak in Moses's and Goliah in the time of David and it may be there are yet some in some part of the world to be sound as I say these seem to have been preserved by God as a memorial unto men that they were not now as at the first So it may be it was the will of God and is amongst so many kinds of Serpents to preserve this one that it should not as the rest go groveling upon the earth but might be as a monument of the truth of the malediction of the rest to all posterity Thus much of the possibility which would be far greater if we should with S.
one and the other were Spiritual or Sacramental namely in being Signs resembling and assuring Christ with the Spiritual Blessings through him 3. In what sense these Sacraments are said to be the same with ours to wit not in the Signs but in the Spiritual thing signified which is the Soul and Essence of a Sacrament We come now to such Observations as these Words and Explications will afford us The first whereof is That if the Seals and Sacraments under the Law were the same with ours then must they also have the same Covenant of Grace with us for the Sacraments are Seals of the Covenant If the Seals then were the same as our Apostle affirmeth how should not the Covenant also be the same and seeing their Sacraments were differing in the Signs from ours how could they be any way the same with ours but only in what they sealed and signified The Fathers therefore were saved by Grace and through Christ as well as we So true is that the Apostle says Acts 4. 12. There is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved For Iesus Christ as it is Heb. 13. 8. is the same yesterday and to day and for ever that is He was a Saviour of old is still and shall be for ever hereafter This is that which S. Peter yet more expresly affirmeth Acts 3. 25. saying Ye are the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Yea not only from Abraham but even from that time when God said The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head was this Covenant made with men and at length diversly shadowed in the Types and Sacrifices of the Law until Christ himself was revealed in the flesh For the better understanding of this we must know what a Covenant is and what are the kinds thereof A Covenant is as it were a Bargain between God and man wherein God promises some Spiritual good to us so we perform some duty unto him if not then to incur everlasting punishment This Covenant is of two sorts the one is called The Covenant of Works the other The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Works is wherein God on his part makes us a promise of Eternal life if we on our part shall perform exact obedience unto his Law otherwise to be everlastingly condemned if we fail The Covenant of Grace or of the Gospel is wherein God on his part promises us sinners Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer if we on our part shall believe on him with a lively and obedient faith otherwise to be condemned The Covenant of Works God made with man at his Creation when he was able to have kept the conditions he required but he through his disobedience broke it and so became liable to death doth Corporal and Spiritual And though the Covenant of Grace then took place as we have said yet was the former Covenant of Works still in force until Christ who was promised should come in the flesh And therefore was this Covenant renewed under Moses with the Israelites when the Law was given in Horeb as Moses sayes Deut. 5. 2. The Lord God made a Covenant with us in Horeb. For all the time under the Law the open and apparent Covenant was the Covenant of Works to make them the more to see their own misery and condemnation and so to long after Christ who was yet to come and at whose coming this obligation should be quite cancelled Yet nevertheless together with this open Covenant there was a secret and hidden Covenant which was the Covenant of Grace that they might not be altogether without the means of Salvation whilst Christ yet tarried This truth is plain Gal. 3. 17 c. where the Apostle affirms That the Covenant of Grace in Christ was four hundred and thirty years afore the Law was given and that therefore the Law could not disannul it or make it of none effect but that the Law so he calls the Covenant of Works was only added to it because of transgressions until the blessed Seed should come v. 19. and that it might be a Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ v. 24. For in the Moral Law of God under whose curse they stood bound they might as in a Glass see their sin their guilt their want of Righteousness and in their Ceremonies and Sacrifices they might again as in Shadows of Heavenly things behold the means of their Reconciliation through his bloud who was to be slain and offered to God for them Now though this Covenant of Grace afore Christ be the same for substance with that under which we are now since his coming yet the circumstances and outward fashion thereof are so varied that the Scripture for this regard makes of this one Covenant two Covenants calling one the Old Covenant for the old manner thereof under the Law and the other a New Covenant for the new manner thereof now the Gospel is revealed Having therefore already seen the agreement and onâ—ness of them for the inward part let us now behold their differences for the outward fashion and so we shall see that as the Fathers ate the same Spiritual meat and drank the same Spiritual drink and yet there was some difference in them so the Fathers were under the same Covenant of Grace with us and yet after a different fashion This difference S. Paul Gal. 4. 1. c. setteth forth thus by a similitude The heir as long as he is a child c. i. e. The difference of the condition of those afore Christ and since is but as the condition of Heirs when they are under age and when they come to full years They are Heirs and Lords of all in both conditions as well in one as the other only the difference is that in the one condition they are in the state of Servants under Tutors and Governors in the other they enjoy the freedom of Sons So the faithful in the Law enjoyed the same Covenant of Grace with us but under the bondage of worldly Elements but we now have the same in a state of freedom as not held under such burthensome Elements and Pedagogies as they were But elsewhere he shews this difference more expresly both on God's part and our part First On our part Heb. 8. and elsewhere thus The Old Covenant which required so many external services is called a carnal Covenant the New wherein no such are required but works of the Spirit only is a Spiritual Covenant whereof God means when he saith v. 10. I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and so he will be their God and they shall be his people For in the Old Covenant he wrote a Law as it were upon their hands and fleshly members in that he required so many fleshly washings and sprinklings and
find out a way to make Gods Yet because saith he our Forefathers erred much through unbelief concerning Deities and had small regard of Religion and Divine worship therefore they devised an art to make Gods he meaneth Images And because they could not make Souls he means to these senseless bodies therefore they called the Souls of Daemons and Angels and put them into their Images and holy Mysteries by which means alone these Images have power of helping and hurting which thus incorporated he saith are called by the AEgyptians Animalia sancta And in another place That kind of Gods saith he which men make is composed of two natures of a Divine which is first and more sacred and of that which is amongst men namely the matter whereof they are made The summe of all this Mystery is That Images were made as Bodies to be informed with Daemons as with Souls For an Image was as a Trap to catch Daemons and a device to tie them to a place and to keep them from flitting The like hath Eusebius out of Porphyrie That the Gods did exceedingly delight in consecrated Images and were circumscribed and enclosed therein as in a sacred place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Image being taken away that is dissolved which detained the Deity upon earth This is that which Psellus calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Approachings or Presencings of Daemons And Iamblichus termeth these consecrated Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Images filled with divine fellowship or with divine society And our forementioned Hermes calleth them Statuos animatas sensu spiritu plenas animated Statues full of sense and spirit Hence came that answer or defence of the Gentiles as Arnobius Lib. 6. advers Gent. makes them speak Neque nos aera neque auri argentique materias neque alias quibus signa confiunt eas esseper se Deos religiosa decernimus numina sed eos in his colimus cósque veneramur quos dedicatio infert sacra fabrilibus efficit habitare simulachris We do not think brass and gold and silver and other materials of Images to be of themselves Gods and holy Powers but in these we worship and reverence the Gods brought into these Images by sacred dedication and keeping their residence there And in another place he makes this Objection for their behalf An numquid dicitis fortè praesentiam vobis quandam sub his numinum exhiberi simulachris quia Deos videri non datum est eos ità coli iis munia officiosa praestari But you say perhaps the Deities present themselves unto you in some sort under these Images and because the Gods cannot be seen they are thus worshipped and have religious service done unto them And thus have we seen the ground of the Idolatrous use of Images and found that the Worship of them also is a Doctrine of Daemons For as at first they were ordained for Daemons so whatsoever Deity is worshipped in this manner though it were the true and Sovereign God is thereby made a Daemon What I say of Images must be understood also of Pillars or Columns whereof we read Levit. 26. 1. Ye shall make no Idols nor graven Images nor rear you up a Pillar to bow down unto it For howsoever Pillars and Images through some confusion at length surprising the Gentiles superstition may afterwards seem to be ascribed to other Deities besides Daemons yet by original institution they were proper unto Daemons no other The Sovereign and Celestial Gods they were worshipped in the Sun Moon and Stars where they were supposed to dwell But Images and Columns were for Daemons and if they seemed to be made for any other Plutarch's Eremite would resolve us that they were but Daemons called by the name of some Sovereign Gods whose Agents they were The truth of this the History of the beginning of Idolatry by Images makes evident For that Images and Pillars were at first devised and erected to the Honour and Memory of dead men this the fourteenth Chapter of the Book of Wisdom will tell us and that by the vain-glory of men they first entred into the world no less will the long-continuing custom of the world using thus to honour not only their dead but since also the living be sufficient to perswade the truth Minutius Felix in his Octavius will put us forth of doubt Majores nostri saith he dum Reges suos colunt religiosè dum defunctos eos desiderant in Imaginibus videre dum gestiunt eorum memorias in Statuis detinere sacra facta sunt quae fuerant assumpta solatia Our Ancestors while they religiously honour their Kings while they desire after their departure to behold them in their Images and delight to preserve their memory in Statues what was at first taken up for their own solace was at length made a matter of Religion When therefore those whom they thus honoured and remembred were canonized for Daemons then were these Memorials also worshipped for some supposed presence or divine respect of such Daemons in or to them The worshipping therefore of Images and Columns is by its original and institution a piece of the Doctrine of Daemons so that whatsoever is thus worshipped yea the glory of the incorruptible God himself is thereby changed into a Daemon THUS much of Images and Idol-Pillars of the reason of their supposed Divinity and of the original and first occasion of worshipping them But yet we have not done there is another piece of Daemon-devotion yet behind namely The worshipping of Daemons in their Reliques Shrines and Sepulchres for this was also a part of the Doctrine and Theology of Daemons Plato whom before we quoted for the Canonizing for Daemons of the Ghosts of such as died valiantly in the field would have their Shrines and Coffins to be worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the coffins of Daemons Hear also what Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of this Daemon-doctrine Sotrm lib. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They that is the Greeks are of opinion that it matters not whether we call those Souls viz. the Daemons whom they invocate Gods or Angels But the more skilful Theologists place the coffins of the deceased in many of their Temples as so many Statues of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. calling their Souls Daemons and withall teaching that they ought to be worshipped by men as being for the holiness of their lives intrusted by Divine Providence to be employ'd about this earth for the service of men For they well knew that some Souls were naturally tied to the Body Out of which words observe That they supposed the like presence and power of Daemons at their Coffins and Sepulchres which before we observed and heard of in their Images as though there always remained some natural tye between the Souls deceased and their Reliques and therefore they there builded Temples unto them where their bodies and ashes were entombed And
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LATTER TIMES in my Text which must be as I said before a Latter part of that general For the true Account therefore of Times in Scripture we must have recourse to that SACRED KALENDAR and GREAT ALMANACK of PROPHECY The Four Kingdoms of Daniel which are A Prophetical Chronology of Times measured by the succession of Four principal Kingdoms from the beginning of the Captivity of Israel until the Mystery of God should be finished A course of Time during which the Church and Nation of the Iews together with those whom by occasion of their unbelief in Christ God should surrogate in their rooms was to remain under the bondage of the Gentiles and oppression of Gentilism But these Times once finished all the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his CHRIST And to this Great Kalendar of Times together with that other but lesser Kalendar of LXX weeks all mention of Times in Scripture seems to have reference Now these Four Kingdoms according to the truth infallibly to be demonstrated◠if need were and agreeable both to the ancient opinion of the Iewish Church whom they most concerned and to the most ancient and universal opinion of Christians derived from the times of the Apostles until now of late time some have questioned it are 1. The Babylonian 2. that of the Medes and Persians 3. the Greek 4. the Roman In which Quaternary of Kingdoms as the Roman being the Last of the Four is the Last Kingdom so are the Times thereof those Last Times we seek for during which times saith Daniel chap. 2. v. 44. The God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor left unto another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever which is figured by a Stone hewen out of the mountain without hands before the times of the Image were yet spent which Stone at length smote the Image upon his Feet of Iron and Clay and so utterly destroyed it that done the Stone that smote the Image upon the feet became a great Mountain and filled the whole earth The meaning of all which is That in the Last times or under the Times of the Last Kingdom the Roman should the Kingdom of CHRIST appear in the World as we see it hath done And this is that which the Apostle saith Hebrews 1. 2. God in these Last days or Last times hath spoken to us by his Son and S. Peter 1 Epist. 1. 20. that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these Last times This is that Fulness of time whereof the Apostle speaks Galat. 4. 4. When the Fulness of time was come God sentsorth his Son made of a woman and Ephes. chap. 1. v. 9 10. Having made known to us the mystery of his will That in the dispensation of the Fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Agreeable unto all which is that Hebrews 9. 26. Christ hath once appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of times or ages to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Where these Last times Fulness of time and Conclusion of ages are nothing else but the Times of the Fourth Kingdom whose Times are the Last period of Daniel's Four the Fulness of the Prophetical Chronology and Conclusion of the Sacred Kalendar During these Times Christ was looked for and accordingly came and reigned whose Kingdom shall at length abolish the brittle remainder of this Romish State according to the other part of the Prophecy when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in and our Lord subdue all his enemies under his feet and at the last even Death it self HAVING thus found What Times are termed the Last times in general let us now see if we can discover which are the Latter Times of these Last times or the Latter times in special which are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter Times in my Text which will not be hard to do For if the Last Times in general are all the Times of the Fourth Kingdom then must our Latter times as a part thereof needs be the Latter times of that Kingdom Let us therefore again to our Prophetical Kalendar and survey Daniel's description of the Fourth or Roman Kingdom as it is Chapter 7. from verse 19. where we shall soon find the Latter times thereof to be that Period of a Time Times and half a Time during which that prodigious Horn with eyes like a man and a mouth speaking great things should make war with the Saints prevail against them and wear them out and think to change times and laws until the Iudgment should sit and his dominion be taken away and in him that long-lived Beast finally be destroyed and his body given to the burning flame verse 11. For this Hornish Sovereignty is the Last Scene of that long Tragedy and the Conclusion of the Fourth Beast and therefore the times thereof are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times whereof the Spirit spake expresly that in them there should be an Apostasie from the Christian Faith CHAP. XIII Two Enquiries concerning the Latter Times I. What durance they are to be of Answ. That the Times of the Antichristian State are to last 42 months or 1260 days That hereby cannot be meant three single years and an half proved by several particulars Enquiry II. When they begin Answ. That they take their beginning from the mortal wound of the Imperial Sovereignty of Rome or the ruine of the Roman Empire This proved from the Apocalypse and 2 Thessal 2. where by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fathers generally understand the Roman Empire The same further proved from Dan. 7. That by the little Horn is meant Antichrist or The man of sin and not Antiochus Epiphanes was the judgment of the most ancient Fathers COncerning these Times thus found we will now further enquire First What durance they may be of Secondly When they take beginning and by what mark their beginning may be known For the First we will make no question but these are the self-same Times whereof S. Iohn speaks telling us That the Church should be in the wilderness a Time Times and half a Time the same with those XLII moneths wherein S. Iohn's restored Beast should domineer and play the self-same reeks which Daniel's Hornish Tyrant doth the same time with those XLII moneths during which the Church is trodden down of the Gentiles lastly the same time with 1260 days during which the Witnesses of Christ prophesie in sackcloth For a Time Times and half a Time or a Year two Years and a half are XLII moneths and XLII moneths make 1260 days If therefore we can find the continuance and beginning of any of these we have found the continuance and beginning of them all For the Duration and Length of them they
Octob. 8. 1629. from Christ's Hospital London THE ground of the expectation of the coming of Christ and his Kingdom was say you the near expiration of Daniel's Seventy weeks The expectation of Simeon Anna and others of the Magi and them of the East was seventy years before the end of Daniel's Seventy weeks according to your opinion For you hold that the Seventy weeks end at Ierusalem's overthrow which was after Christ's Birth seventy years Therefore it could not be any mark for the looking for of Christ. 2. At the end of the Seventy weeks according to your judgment the City and Sanctuary was to be destroyed sacrifice ended and desolation brought on the Iews Therefore the Seventy weeks according to your Tenet is a mark of other matters not of Christ's or the Saints Kingdom but rather of Vespasian's as Iosephus saith which ensued just upon the end of the Seventy weeks But in truth Daniel's Seventy weeks end at Christ's death and seeing Christ was expected to be King of the Iews all that truly kept account of the Seventy weeks might rightly conceive that Christ about thirty years before the expiration of the Seventy weeks should be born and so about thirty years old which are years fit for publick charge should enter upon that Kingdom Of this reason I forbore to write formerly because I saw that we should differ about the beginning and end of Daniel's Seventy weeks which would bring on a new controversie between us That Christ's Kingdom was as you affirm to be revealed in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Fourth Kingdom I see no Text that proves it nor that Christ's Kingdom should be consummated at the end of the Roman Kingdom At the end of the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel it was to begin Chap. 7. And that it was perfected in Christ Iesus is evident for he overcame the Devil Death Hell and all and teaches that all power is given him in heaven and earth that all things bow to him and that he led captivity captive Further I have good ground for to say that the extirpation of the Fourth Kingdom was one sâ—re mark of Christ's coming and his Kingdom for that only is the mark of the same Chap. 2. and 7. where that Kingdom is mentioned You will not admit the Greeks any Rule after Antiochus Epiph. death because the Holy Ghost ends their Kingdom in him I say the Holy Ghost ends the domineering violence and persecution of the Saints in him but there were to be clayie feet after him Stories shew that many Kings of the Greeks ruled after him and in the end Cleopatra a woman as Iosephus saith of chief Nobility in those times even Caesar at first umpired between her and her brother in matters of difference between them She had the revenue of Iericho and Arabia and other parts she killed all her kindred that might stand in her wayâ— and desired Antonie to do the like by them of chief bleâ—d in Syria that she in right of the Greeks might have all She with the rest after Epiphanes were sufficient to express the clayie legs And that Rule is sufficient and all that I stand for Besides the Stone as cut out not as growing to a Mountain is to fall on the toes So that if by the legs the Romans be understood Christ was not to come in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but at their fall Evident it is that Christ's Kingdom took place as frequent mention of it in the New Testament shews at his first coming and so began at the beginning of the Roman persecutions not at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them they were abundant and manifold afterward The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Empire hath nothing to do here You hold still that the Roman Kingdom was revealed to Daniel but not according to the distinct Fates and Times as to Iohn I shewed that the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel was revealed to him most distinctly for the original proceeding strength acts persecution sufferings fall All the 〈◊〉 are revealed to Iohn about the Roman Kingdom Now if they should both speak of the Roman Kingdom but in these points 〈…〉 it be true in Iohn that this Book was opened by none as you limit it according 〈…〉 distinct Fates before by Christ Therefore the limitation propounded by you cannot hold I say not that the Iews after the Apostles times brought in or invented the opinion That the Romans were Daniel's Fourth Kingdom but that they endeavoured to perswade it whoever were the brochers of it Ionathan Ben Uziel or any other surely some of their stamp And the rather they then did and now do perswade to it because some Christians by assenting to them give them advantage therein If Porphyrie an enemy to Christians overcome by the evidence of truth confessed it that is a greater confirmation of the truth The Devil confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God though the Devil be a liar commonly yet now he spake that which was most true Besides in S. Ierome it appears that Porphyrie was not alone in that opinion but that divers others held the same And in the eleventh chapter S. Ierome goes along with Porphyrie in most things but addeth this That Antichrist and his doings were there typed And in points in which S. Ierome crosseth Porphyrie his arguments are sometimes but his own bare assertion sometimes weak If you please to set the best edge on them that may be we will try them And Porphyrie had Suctorius his Author To the writing in a different hand You hold Christ's Kingdom to be double First Regnum Lapidis while the times of the Four Kingdoms lasted I say it cannot be in the time of the three former Kingdoms for it was preached by Christ and the Apostles to be at hand in the time of the Romans Antiochus Epiphanes his time whom you make the last of the Greeks being past well-near or full hundreds of years before Besides I object That if Christ's Kingdom be set up in the Fourth Kingdom 's time it must be set up in the three formers time also For it confounded the gold silver brass iron as well as fell on the clayie legs Again if you make the Sâ—one to continue a Stone from Christ's time till ours and some years after God knows how long to smite the feet of the Image you will make the legs and feet of the Image above 1600 years long three times and more as long as all the body The Second Kingdom of Christ you hold to be Regnum montis that shall fill the whole earth to arise when the Image shall be utterly destroyed 1. I say This division of Christ's Kingdom is no where in Scripture plainly expressed though this Kingdom be most frequently handled If such a thing had been it would in one place or other in the various handling of it have been plainly taught 2. The Stone spreads it self over the whole earth presently
The third day Herbanus required to end the controversie that if Iesus of Nazareth were indeed living and reigning in Heaven and if those who worshipped him had any power with him that he would upon their prayers manifest himself from Heaven and they would then believe in him Thereupon all the multitude of Iews cried out in derision Ostende nobis Christum tuum Vae quia fiemus Christiani c. The conclusion was that Christ Iesus after a dreadful Thunder and Lightning appeared from Heaven with beams of glory walking upon a purple cloud with a Sword in his hand and a Diadem of inestimable beauty upon his head and over the Assembly uttered a voice Appareo vobis in oculis vestris ego crucifixus à Patribus vestris Which having spoken the cloud took him presently out of their sight The Christians shouted Domine miserere the Iews were all stricken blind and received not their sight till they were all baptized This Story whereof I tell you but the brief hath been long unknown to these Western parts and was brought in our time from the Eastern among divers other Greek Manuscripts and published in Greek and Latin by Nicolaus Gulonius in octavo under the name of Gregentii Archiepiscopi Tephrensis Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo The beginning is imperfect In the end is the Story I have related I have seen and used that Book but could not be owner of it But the Latin translation is inserted into the Bibliotheca Patrum of the edition of Colen in the fifth Tome pag. 919. which if you read I could wish you would joyn with it the Story of the Martyrium Omeritarum published by Baronius out of a Vatican Manuscript in his sixth Seculum about the middle It is worthy your reading and supposed to have happened a little before this Conversion of the Iews I speak of which Baronius nevertheless then knew not of as being published after he had written that Tome The Persecution was raised by Dunaan a Iew who had gotten the Kingdom of the Omerites and meant to extinguish the Christian City and Dition of Nargan which was subject as many other small Reguli were to that Kingdom c. If this Story be true it makes much for a probability of such a conjecture for the future If it be counterfeit at least it argues that some many ages ago thought such a mean not unlikely For Poets themselves are wont to feign Verisimilia So howsoever I am not the first that thought of such a matter That which you say of S. Paul's miraculous Conversion that by it he had Apostolical authority immediate and independent as having his Mission from Heaven and not from Men I acknowledge it But that this should be the only end of his so being converted I suppose it is not necessary For it might have pleased God to have converted him by an ordinary mean and yet have given him a Mission for his Apostleship by an immediate and extraordinary way The immediateness of Apostolical Mission depended not upon such a miraculous Conversion though it pleased God at one and the same time by one and the same miraculous manifestation both to convert him to the Faith of Christ and send him to be an Apostle to the Gentiles But it is now time to give over I have been tedious and troublesome I know and perhaps not well busied in spending so many words and paper about a wavering and uncertain Speculation But because in my first Letter I had unawares discovered my fancy I was somewhat solicitous till I had more fully explained my self lest I might seem to believe much upon very little reason or be supposed to be more confident in this conceit than I am But he that seeks for that which is yet to find must be poring as well where it is not as where it is God Almighty the Father of Lights direct us in the search of his Truth and give us grace when we find it to use it to his Glory and our own Salvation To whose protection I commend your self not forgetting my best respect who am Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Decemb. 2. 1629. I shall bid you farewel for this year and write shorter Letters the next that so I may hold out I have made a saltus in my Meditations by these Discourses of the Great Day I am not come to it yet I have much to think of and bring to more perfection which is preceding to it The Witnesses Dragon Beast c. EPISTLE XVIII Mr. Mason's Letter to Mr. Mede touching the Millenaries Good Mr. Mede I Think my self much indebted unto you that you do so freely communicate unto me your learned Writings I wish I had been more conversant in studies of this nature that I might in some sort be able to talk with you in your own language But you have had the happiness to follow these studies with good leisure and much opportunity and I to say nothing of other wants have been hindred both with businesses of my place and weakness of my body that I have scarce had time to think on any thing but what hath been necessary for my present imployment and so it happeneth to me in my studies as to poor men in getting of their living we have nothing but from hand to mouth The consciousness of these wants maketh me to write so seldom and so slightly Else if I had any thing in my thoughts that might be fit for your reading I would be as free in communicating my studies with you as you are in imparting yours unto me especially in this business wherein you have travelled with such success I only now can say that I wish I may see the full finishing of your intended Work and so do others abroad also but yet I had rather stay your leisure till you have concocted all according to your mind than to hasten you forward before the time Dr. Potter hath read your former Papers which you committed to Mr. D. and by occasion thereof hath proceeded to read others of the same Argument which when I understood I desired him to peruse two Writings of Dr. Gerhard of the same Argument both purposely intended against the Millenaries the one is in the second part of his Disputationes Theologicae Disp. 3. de novis Fanaticis the other in the ninth Tome of his Common Places Loc. de Consummatione seculi cap. 7. p. 442 c. Vpon the reading of those Treatises he sent a Letter expressing his mind and judgment concerning them which I received this evening And because I know you desire to hear the opinion of Learned men I have sent down inclosed herein so much of his Letter as concerneth that business Which I did the rather also because I suppose this may give you ocâ—â—sion to answer such grounds as Gerhard hath laid to the contrary Perhaps if you consider him well you may find a tacit Answer to that which you object against S. Hierome for
us was none of the Sublata though somewhere it be as well as the rest And the field of my defence is so much the larger if it be considered that one of the three Res sacrae is capable of Subdivision But enough of this it being no well-becoming Theme to dispute upon I said there was eadem ratio Loci temporis not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but eadem ratio Loci Temporis sacri to wit for the Sanctification i. e. holy and discriminative usance due unto them both and the formal reason in respect whereof it is due For the reason why a thing is to be Sanctified or Sanctè habendum is because it is Sanctum or Sacrum Now whatsoever is appropriate unto God and his Service is such whether the determination thereof be by God's own immediate Ordination or mans Devotion it is all one in this respect so the Appropriation or Dedication thereof be supposed lawful and agreeable to the Divine will For this Sanctification we speak of depends not either upon the difference of the cause or manner whereby the thing is consecrated nor upon the diversity of Natural and Artificial being but upon the Formalis ratio of the Object because it is Holy or Sacred therefore to be sanctified with holy usance For to Sanctifie in Scripture is not only to make holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to do unto a thing as becometh its holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreover I believe the Sanctification of Place to be intended in the Fourth Commandment as well as that of Time and that not only from the Rule observed in the interpretation of the rest of the Commandments by one of the kind named to understand all the rest ejusdem generis but especially the Lord himself hath conjoyned them as pairs Levit. 19. 30. Keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary And why not when they are so near a-kin being both Circumstances of Action why may I not then say Quae Deus conjunxit nemo separet And it may be if it be well looked into the Sanctification of the Lord's-day might be urged with far more advantage upon the ground I intimate than upon that other which is so much controverted But it is partialitie that undoes all It seems by this Objection I have now answered you supposed the Argument of my Book to be The Reverence of holy Places which is only The Antiquity of them You ask me if I believe indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was Ignatius his word I say I do till I hear some sufficient reason why I should not For that of my not being able to give an instance of the like either in his time or within 100 years after seems to me to have no force of concluding at all When I affirmed in my Altare That the name of Table could not be shewed given to that whereon the Eucharist was celebrated in any Ecclesiastical Writer confessed to be genuine before 200 years after Christ I inferred not therefrom that therefore the name Table was never used all that time nor if I had would you have believed me And yet to tell you the truth when I wrote that I had some persuasion or suspicion that that Name could not be shewed in any Writer for 3 hundred years after Christ but durst not affirm so much as I thought because I was not sure of Origen But when a Friend of mine soon after wondred how I durst avouch in publick a thing so incredible as this to him seemed to be I discovered that I had affirmed somewhat less than I believed and desired him to make trial whether he could find it in 300 years or not wherein when he had spent some time he could not He alledged indeed Cyprian de Coena Domini but I told him that was confessed of all sides to be none of his c. And now see the luck of it The week before I received yours a Friend shewed me the New Articles of the New Bishop of Norwich his Diocesan wherein besides some other unwonted things which some body will startle at the Bishop avouches upon the credit of his reading That the name Table in that sense is never to be found in any Ecclesiastical Writer of the first 300 years save only once in an occasional passage of Dionysius Areop agita Now Sir what think you of this Yet you see I can shew the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oftner than once in those first 300 years Yea if you would grant me that the Author of that Hierarchical Treatise whosoever he were lived but within the compass of 200 years after Christ I could give you an instance both of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the time by you limited For this Dionysius in his Mysterium Synaxeos describes the Deacons standing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in his Theory of the same mentions the sending of the Euergumeni at the time of the Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However it be it follows not that because I can shew it but once within that 200 years therefore I should believe it was used never Besides methinks I observe some unreasonableness used in this kind viz. Notwithstanding such paucitie of Monuments remaining unto us of those first Ages upon every unconcluding suspicion to discredit those we have and then when we have done to require proof that such things were in those times which we without proof deny when those who alone could give testimony are disenabled and sometimes for no other reason but because they give such testimony Is this dealing reasonable As for the taking down of S. Gregorie's Church I answer In the Law some things Sacred were unalienable even quoad Individuum as for example such as were consecrated by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Levit. 27. 28 29. Others were unalienable as touching the kind only and therefore if need were the Individuum might be changed so it were for the better and with the Lord's advantage which the Law provides should be by adding a fifth part thereunto See the rest of the Chapter quoted But what is this to the deciding of the lawfulness or truth of what is in question to alledge that which men do Is not all the world full of Contradictions I verily believe that even those who are zealous for the Sanctification of the Lord's-day do in their practice if not in their Theory too overthrow the Principles whereupon it stands I think I have no more to make answer to and I confess I have done this not without some tediousness For you must pardon me if judging as a Stander-by I am not persuaded you are by nature so prone and pliable as you think to the way which you say I take Yes I now find one thing more S. Gregorie's Church you say is going down at least is to be built elsewhere but we never yet heard the like of the Lord's-day◠No but I have namely that
City taken by Totilas and a third part thereof demolished and the rest left for a while memorandum Fortunae ludibrium without an inhabitant and lastly the Ostrogothish Kingdom which a while as a blaze continued the light of the dying Caesars in Italy by Narses utterly extinguished WOE WOE WOE The Fifth Trumpet is the First Woe and brings the Saracen Locusts upon the world proceeding out of the smoaky and darkning Seduction of Mahomâ—t conjured up by the Angel of the bottomless pit who though a warlike people and well armed yet had not power to destroy either the State of Caesars in New Rome or the Papal Principality sprung out of the Empire 's ruine in the Old but only Scorpion-like to torment and vex them as their Tail or hindermost Troups out of Africk did Italy and Western Rome 150 years The Sixth Trumpet is the Second Woe and brings upon the Roman Provinces the barbarous and dreadful â—nâ—ndation of the Turks loosing them from the great River Euphrates where they had been long before prepared and now let go as a plague for the Idolatry of Christians 〈◊〉 only as the Saracen Locusts to plague and torment the Roman State buâ— in part tâ— utterly slay and destroy it as they have done in the Empire of Greece which the Saracens had no power to do The Seventh and Last Trumpet is yet to come the entrance whereof is the Last Woe wherein all the Reliques of the Roman Beast with the last Principality of the City of Rome yet surviving shall together with the rest of the enemies of Christ be utterly abolished in the Great Day of Armagedden that all the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ch. 11. 15. Note that when the Angel comes at the Seventh Trumpet because the Event thereof is the common issue to both Prophecies he therefore suspends it a while till he hath fetch'd up Chap. 11. a transcurrent and through-running Vision of the Second Prophecy unto it and then joyns them together in one and the same close The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The Second Prophecy The Opened Book containing Fata Ecclesiae I. By the Inmost and Measured Court of the Temple I understand the Church in her Primitive Purity whenas yet the Christian Worship was unprophaned and answerable to the Divine Rule revealed from above By the War between Michael and the Dragon about the Woman 's manly Off-spring contemporary with the Measured Court I understand that long and bloudy Combate which Christ our Lord animating with his Spirit his undaunted Souldiers fought with the Devil possessing and reigning in the Ethnick Roman State that is the Times of the Primitive Persecution by the Heathen Emperors a War lasting long and costing the lives of many a valiant Martyr yet at 300 years end when a Christian was installed in the Imperial Throne the old Dragon was dismounted and overthrown and the Souldiers of Christ our Lord prevailed For they overcame him by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and loved not their lives unto the death Note that the Description of this Vision is double in the Text 1. more General The Dragon's endeavour to destroy the Woman's Off-spring from ver 1. to the 7. verse 2. more Particular of his Battel with Michael the Woman's Champion For that these two Descriptions are of the same thing and same time is manifest in that one and the same Event The Woman's escape into the Wilderness is the Consequent to them both II. 1. By the Second or Outward Court trampled by the Gentiles and not to be measured I understand the Apostasie under the Man of Sin when the Visible Church being possessed by Idolaters and Idolatry like that of the Gentiles became so inconformable and unapt for Divine measure that it was to be cast out and accounted as prophane and polluted For the Apostasie of the Church is Ethnicismus Christianus 2. By the Witnesses in sack-cloth I understand the mournful Prophecy of God's true Ministers during all that time who when toward the end of their days of mourning they should be about to put off their sack-cloth and leave their lamentation seeing the Truth they witnessed beginning to take place by publick Reformation the Beast which ascends out of the Abyss shall slay them and rejoyce over them as dead three days and an half that is so many years 3. By the Woman in the Wilderness Ch. 12. I understand the condition of the true Church in respect of her Latency and Invisibility to the eyes of man As the Israelites when they had escaped the rage and gotten out of the reach of the Egyptian Pharaoh yet lived a long time after but in a Wilderness an infrequent and barren place where they could not have lived without being extraordinarily fed with Manna from Heaven Such was the condition of the Apostolical Woman and Church of Christ when she had escaped the rage and fury of the Dragon persecuting in the Seven-headed Empire 4. By the Virgin-Company of the 144000 Sealed ones I understand the opposite State of the unstained Church unto the Kingdom of Apostasie in their sincerity of Service and faithful adherence to their Lord and Master whilst the rest worshipped the Beast and his Image These are those who when the Trumpets were to sound were secured by the Mark of Divine protection lest their Society should have been extinguished in those Calamities which then fell upon the Empire How could this Holy Company else but have perished in such Confusions In that place they were represented by the Tribes of Israel for the present Church of the Gentiles is but Israel surrogatus and so by God accounted until the Fulness of the Gentiles come in 5. By the Seven-headed Ten-horned Beast the Two horned False-Prophet and Babylon the Mother of Harlots I understand the State and Kingdom of Apostasie according to three subordinate parts thereof 1. The Body 2. the Head 3. the Seat For Kingdoms especially of the ancient form consisted of three parts Regnum Rex Metropolis Regni So in the Kingdom of Apostasie for such it was to be are Regnum Apostaticum Rex Apostaticus Metropolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kingdom of Apostasie was to be the Roman Empire upon a deadly wound of the Caesarean Sovereignty shivered into a Plurality of Kingdoms yet all joyntly as one Body anew acknowledging the Motherdom of the Roman City This is that Seven-headed Beast with Ten crowned Horns upon the Seventh Head whereof S. Iohn speaks Chap. 13. whose description there I understand as if he had said I saw a Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns with Diadems which upon the recovery of a deadly wound in one of his Heads arose out of the Sea and succeeded in the Throne Power and
the Sea there are Islands to be met with which are commodious for habitation fruitful and well watered and accommodated with convenient harbors and ports for those who are distrestat Sea to repair to for their safety so is it in the world which is a very troubled Sea tempestuous and tossed by reason of sin God hath here providâ—d Synagogues or Holy Churches as we call them wherein the Truth is diligently taught and whither they repair who are lovers of the Truth and desire in good earnest to be saved and to escape the judgment and wrath of God * Clâ—m Alex. in Opere Quis fit ille dives qui salvetur apud Euseb. Hist Eccl. lib. 3. â— 17. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also in this Century undoubtedly were extant those Fabricks in the Cemeteries of S. Peter in the Vaticane and of S. Paul in via Ostâ—nsi which could be no other thaâ— some Christian Oratories whereof Gains speaks in â—usib and calls Throphaea Apostolorum lib. 2. cap. 24. Ab Anno 200. ad 300. a All the day long shall the zeal of Faith speak to this point bewailing that a Christian should come from Idols into the CHURCH that he should come into the HOUSE OF GOD from the shop of his enemy that he should lift up to God the Father those hands which were the mothers and makers of Idols and adore God with those very hands which namely in respect of the Idols made by them are adored without the Church viz. in the Heathens Temples in opposition to God and that he should presume to reach forth those hands to receive the Body of our Lord which are imploy'd in making Bodies that is Images for the Demons That according to the Gentiles Theology Images were as Bodies to be informed with Demons as with Souls see the Treatise of the Apostasie of the latter Times chap. 5. in Book III. b The house of our Dove that is of our Dove-like Religion or the Catholick flock of Christ figured by the Dove c In short The Dove is wont to point out Christ. d Plain without such a multiplicity of doors and curtains e In high and open places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. * Luke 1. 78. * Lib. 2. c. 57. al. 61. a Let the House be long and built Eastward * Apol. c. 16. * De Spect. â— 25. ad Vxoâ— l. 2. c. 9. De coâ—on miâ—t cap. 3. De velandiâ— virginiâ—us c. 3 13. b Coming to the Water to be baptized not only there but also somewhat asore in the CHURCH under the hand of the Bishop or Priest we take witneâ—s that we renounce the Devil and his Pomp and Angels and afterwards we are drenched thrice in the Water c The Temples of God shall be as common and ordinary Houses Churches shall be utterly demolished every where the Scriptures shall be despised d The Sacred Edifices of Churches shall become heaps and as a desolate lodge in an Orchard there shall be no more Communion of the precious Body and Bloud of Christ Liturgy shall be extinguished Singing of Psalms shall cease Reading of the Scriptures shall no more be heard * Ex Psal. 79. 2. caelesis similibus â—uâ—ta LXX IIebr in â—cervâ—â— seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolationes Cap. 49. e The Christians being in possession of a certain publick place and challenging it for theirs and on the other side the Taverners alledging that it belong'd of right to them the Emperor's Rescript in favour of the Christians was this That it was better that God should be worshipt there after what way soever than that it should be delivered and given up to the Taverners a 1. Weeping the first degree of Penance was without the Porch of the Oratorie where the mournful sinners stood and beg'd of all the Faithful as they went in to pray for them 2. Hearing the second degree was within the Porch in the place called Narthex the place where these penitent Sinners being now under the Ferula or censure of the Church might stand near to the Catechumens and hear the Scripture read and expounded but were to go out before them 3. Prostration or Lying along on the Church-pavement These Prostrate ones were admitted somewhat further into the Church and went out with the Catechumens 4. Standing or Staying with the people or Congregation These Consistentes did not go out with the Catechumenes but after they and the other Penitents were gone out stay'd and joyn'd in prayer with the Faithful 5. Participation of the Sacraments b How that by becoming all things to all men he had in a short time gained a great number of Converts through the assistance of the Divine Spirit and that hereupon he had a strong desire to set upon the building of a Temple or Place for Sacred assemblies wherein he was the more encouraged by the general forwardness he observed among the Converts to contribute both their moneys and their best assistances to so good a work This is that Temple which is to be seen even at this day This is that Temple the erection whereof this Great person being resolved to undertake without any delay he laid the foundation thereof and therewithal of his Sacerdotal i.e. Episcopal Prefecture in the most conspicuous place of all the City c Whereas all other Houses whether Publick or private were overthrown by that Earthquake this Gregorian Temple alone stood firm without any the least hurt He was made Bishop Anno 249. lived until 260. d The Lord's House e The Church f Thinkest thou O Matron which art rich and wealthy in the Church of Christ that thou dost celebrate or commemorate the Lord's Sacrifice that is that thou dost participate the Lord's Supper worthily as thou oughtest who dost not at all respect but art regardless of the Corban who comest into the Lord's House without a Sacrifice or Offering nay who takest part of the poor mans Sacrifice feedest on what he brought for his Offering and bringest none thy self Script â—n 253. a What then remains but that the Church should yield to the Capitol and that the Priests withdrawing themselves and taking away the Altar of our Lord Images and Idol-Gods together with their Altars should succeed and take possession of the Sacrary or place proper to the sacred and venerable Bench of our Clergy b The Altar of our Lord and the place for the sacred and venerable Bench of the Clergy c Idol-Gods and Images together with the Altars of the Devil d might enter into the House of God e The Emperour C. P. L. Galienus to Dionysius Pinnas Demetrius and the rest of the Bishops Greeting What I have been pleased graciously to do for the Christians I have caused to be published throughout the world viz. That all men should quit the Worshipping-places for the Christians use And therefore you may make use of the Copy of my Letters to the end ye may be secured from any future attempts to disturb you