the Succession of this Family then they that are still unwholesome and diseased Philop. I think the sounder the better Family as being of a nearer affinity or consanguinity with the most ancient Progenitours of them all And therefore questionless we are not the less of the Succession of the Apostles for cleansing our selves from After-corruptions and reducing our selves to their ancient Apostolick Purity The Succession indeed is continued in the Church of Rome as a diseased Family is the Continuation of the Family of their Ancestours but the Apostolicall Succession is not onely continued but rectified again and perfected in the Reformation So that I conceive there is no hazard at all to Succession in admitting those due but sharp Invectives in the Apocalypse and other places of Scripture to belong to the Church of Rome they all not amounting to the making her no true Church or no Church but an Idolatrous one a Murtherous one and an Imposturous one As an adulterous murtherous and cheating Wife is a Wife and therefore a true Wife till she be dead or divorced Philoth. XXVII That although the Church of Rome were not a true Church yet it follows not but that the Reformed Churches are You understand me right Philopolis But besides this suppose the Miscarriages of the Church of Rome were at last so high and that for some Ages that she plainly ceased to be in any sense a true Church which yet I must confess I cannot believe no more then that the Church of the Iews ceased to be a true Church when they ston'd the Prophets and shamelesly polluted themselves with Idolatry yet the true Church was continued elsewhere and the truest Church of all the Elect of God every-where There was a Woman in the Wilderness when the Church had become a Wilderness Though I must confess this respects rather the Perpetuity of the Church at large then the continued Succession of Pastours But neither do I hold that necessary that every true visible Church should have a visible Succession of Priests from the Apostles to their time The Ierusalem that is said to come down from Heaven will be a true Church Apoc. 21.2 and will be approved to be so though she could not make this Boast in the flesh that she can number a visible Pastoral Succession upon Earth from S t. Peter at Rome or S t. Iames at Ierusalem And suppose at that call of God's people out of Babylon Apoc. 18.4 Come out of her my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues that all the Priesthood had hung together upon Interest and would not have stirred had a whole Kingdome that had reformed without the leave of the Priesthood been no Church nor the Prince had any power to appoint the most able and eminent of his Subjects in the knowledge and practice of Christianity to preside in Rebus sacris in the Affairs of Religion and begin a Succession from them whom we will suppose to order all things according to the Word of God and the Practice of the Apostles and to profess no other Doctrine then what they taught and is evident out of the Scriptures What shall such a Nation as this be no Church for all this in these Circumstances of things O Philopolis Philop. I promise you it is a very nice Controversie Philotheus I know not well what to say to it of a sudden Bath It is a nice point indeed Philopolis But I 'll propound to you a point that is more clear Whether is not every Sovereign Supreme Head of the Church as well in Ecclesiasticall Affairs as in Civil in his own Dominions Philop. Surely he is Bathynous or else he is not absolute Sovereign For I conceive that to be the Supreme to which is committed both the trust and power of ordering all for the welfare of the Subject which consequently must needs include Religion of which therefore of necessity the Supremacy is Judge Whence every supreme Magistrate is if not formally yet eminently as well Priest as King else he were not King or the King not supreme Magistrate as being bound to be ruled by the judgement of the Priest in matters of Religion which unquestionably all Mundane Affairs ought to stoop to Whence it will follow that all Power that does not include the Priesthood in it at least eminently or virtually must stoop to that Judicature But being the Supremacy of any Nation is to stoop to none but God it is plain that he that is Supreme has at least virtually the Sacerdotal Power in himself Bath I profess unto you Philopolis you are so subtil in Politicks that I conceive it will be very hard for any one to evade the force of your arguing Euistor The anointing of Kings and Emperours at their Coronations as also the Emperour's Crown comprehending in it the Episcopal Mitre methinks Bathynous bears a notable Compliance with this Conclusion of Philopolis Cuph. You may as well argue for a communion of Kingship in the Priesthood because the Priests be anointed in the Church of Rome Bath It 's likely they would catch at that greedily enough Cuphophron But in that Kings are crowned as well as anointed Exod. 40.13 15. but Priests anointed and not crowned with royal Crowns it is an intimation that both the Kingship and Priesthood in some sense is in the King but onely the Priesthood in the Priest But a more notable Correspondence then this of Euistor's occurrs to my phancy that is the Vision of the twenty four Elders with the robes of Priests and the Crowns of Kings upon them Apoc. 4.4 which assuredly intimates that in the best state of the Church every Sovereign will be confessedly both Priest and King over his own people Philoth. You say well Bathynous And it is very remarkable in that Vision that there is no one visible Head of the universal Church such as the Pope pretends to be but every Sovereign is there set out as a Kingly Priest or a Priestly King in his own Dominions Philop. Gentlemen you have finely adorned my dry Reasonings with your Historicall and Propheticall Observations all which jointly considered do easily bear me into a full and settled persuasion that every Christian King has so much of the power of the Priesthood in him and of the Autority of our Heavenly King and Priest Christ Iesus that being enlightned with the true belief of the Gospel and being destitute elsewhere of a Priesthood to officiate in the Church or rather of such as may consecrate men to that Function himself may raise a Succession of them by his own power Exod. 29.5 6. and they ordering all things according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostles that the whole Nation yielding obedience to these Precepts and Institutes does ipso facto become a true visible Church of Christ. What think you Bathynous Bath Nay I am abundantly satisfied For you know Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus And it is
Temple left for them to worship towards but the Holy Body of Iesus the Son of Mary which he carried into Heaven with him at his Ascension Philoth. These are very manifest Traces of Divine Providence Philopolis but nothing methinks so exact for the designation of the time of Christ's coming as the Seventy Weeks of Daniel we above mentioned For beginning the Epoche of the Weeks from the seventh year of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 the Passion of Christ or of the Messiah who is there said to be cut off will fall within the last Week And is not this a notable precise Prediction to be made five or six hundred years before the Event Hyl. This is indeed a notable demonstration of Providence if there be an easie Congruity of the Text to the Event Philop. Take that upon my credit Hylobares the Application is marvellous easie and natural and such as can have no corrival as I understand from * See Doctor More 's Mystery of Godliness Book 7. chap. 4. a late Explication of that Prophecy Philoth. But there is yet a more early Prediction O Philopolis of the Sufferings of Christ in Isay who prophesied above an hundred years sooner which Prophecy contains severall other Characteristicks also of his Person Philop. You mean Isay 53. That is indeed a very illustrious Prophecy and such as I am abundantly satisfied in As also of the exact Providence of God and of his vigilancy over his Church in thus foretelling the determinate time and proper characters of the Person of Christ the Saviour of the World But my mind is carried on to the Success of his coming Philoth. He that is represented riding on the white Horse at the opening of the first Seal in the Apocalypse Apoc. 6.2 with his Bow in his hand did at last hit the mark which was aimed at and he then took possession of that Crown that was given him when at the sixth Seal the Roman Empire under Constantine became Christian. But as the Spirit of Prophecy had foretold that through many tribulations and afflictions we should enter into the Kingdome of Heaven so through many horrid and bloudy Persecutions and difficult Oppositions did Christianity possess it self of the Empire And therefore this time of Conflict is fitly prefigured by that bloudy Battel betwixt Michael and the seven-headed Dragon and that most direfull Persecution of all begun in Diocletian's time and continued through the Reigns of some other Emperours by the Altar Apoc. 6.9 10. at the fifth Seal under which were seen the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimonie which they held who cried saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth But after this greatest extremity was that high Victory of the Church in Constantine that mighty Earthquake Ver. 12. at the opening of the sixth Seal which dissettled and broke a-pieces the Pagan Power and cast the Empire into the lap of the Church Wherefore that was fulfilled in a more eminent manner which was spoken by the Prophet Daniel Dan. 2.44 And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which Kingdome is called the Kingdome of God and the Kingdome of Heaven as I told you before out of these Prophecies which begun indeed with Christ and his Apostles and therefore is more commonly called the Kingdome of Christ but was most notoriously so when by their fortitude and sufferings they had subdued the Roman Empire to Christ's Sceptre and so continued while the Church was Symmetrall as it was all the time of the six Seals But within the confines of the fourth and fifth Century this externall Kingdome of Christ began to degenerate into the Kingdome of Antichrist and the Beast that had received the deadly wound was again a-healing Apoc. 13.3 and all the Idolatries and Superstitions of the Pagans were at last revived in a spurious kind of Christianity and the new-fangled Idolatrous Ceremonies of the Church became the living Image of old Heathenism Ver. 14 and finally the Beast that was not during the Reign of the purely-Christian Caesars became the Beast that was Apoc. 17.8 and is not and yet is For the Empire became Pagan again by becoming Idolatrous and yet not that old Pagan Empire because it was paganized with a pseudo-Christian kind of Idolatry and yet by resemblance it is that old Pagan Empire Idolatry and Murther and other gross Enormities being so lively strokes in the feature of them both This is the Success Philopolis Philop. XXV The Apostasie of the Church how consistent with the durableness of God's Kingdome in Daniel This I believe is too true Philotheus but how consistent is that Apostasie of the Church with what follows in Daniel For he saies In the days of those Kings suppose in the fourth of them viz. the Roman shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroy'd but it shall break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever How is this standing consistent with that Apostasie Philoth. This is a material Objection Philopolis but the Answer is not far to seek For though we should not grant that in a more Externall and Politicall sense even degenerate Christendome may be called the Kingdome of Christ and that these Representations of her Apostasie do not so much mean that she is no Spouse of Christ at all as that she is a whorish one and that her Enormities are onely set off at that height the more effectually to reclaim her or make people forsake her Communion This alone may satisfie this difficulty that all along this abhorred Apostasie of the Church set out by those figures of the Whore of Babylon the two-horned Beast and the false Prophet the healed Beast with ten Horns and the Proculcation of the outward Court by the Gentiles for 42 months as also by the little Horn with eyes spoken of by Daniel Dan. 7. who was to domineer for a time and times and half a time we are to consider that there is a Continuance of the true Apostolicall subjects of Christ's Kingdome all this time synchronall to this Apostasie and prefigured by the Virgin-Company in the Apocalypse by the two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 1260 days and by the Woman in the wilderness continuing there for a time and times and half a time So that the Kingdome begun by Christ and his Apostles though plagued and persecuted and cruelly opposed by both Rome Pagan and Rome Antichristian was never yet subdued but remains still for all those glorious purposes God intends it to this very day This is that precious stone cut out without hands which must become that Mountain that will fill the whole Earth Dan. 2.35 and not that carnal lump of Idolaters and bloudy Murtherers These are the Hundred forty four thousand mustered on Mount
prospect I shall pray Thy Kingdome come with a more peculiar Emphasis for this day's Instruction Philotheus then ever I have done hitherto in all my life But that I may doe it with the greater Plerophorie I pray you proceed to the next Point and declare the Grounds of this your so glorious hope Philoth. Why XII What Grounds of hopes out of Scripture for that glorious state of the Church to come are you at a loss Philopolis for the Grounds of this hope when you have heard so many Prophecies assuring you of it Philop. But who knows Philotheus but that they may be conditional and may take effect onely according to the uncertainty of our will Philoth. That implies as if these things depended on our merit But the great Affairs of the World and such as are the chief Objects of Divine Prediction do not hang on such weak hindges There is a Fate assuredly O Philopolis there is a Divine Fate and irresistible Counsell of God Almighty that maugre all that can be done by men or Devils must take effect in its season Jer. 2.24 The wilde Asse in the wilderness snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure who can turn her away They that seek her will not weary themselves after her in her month they shall finde her And David foretells Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Psalm 110.3 Ezek. 37.3 Son of man can these bones live saith God to Ezekiel in the Valley of dead mens bones But he answered with reverence O Lord thou knowest insinuating that it was in his power whether he would make them live or no. But you know when once God had commissioned the Prophet to prophesie on the dead bones Ver. 4 5. and to say unto them O ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live the effect did most certainly follow For there was a noise and a shaking Ver. 7 8. and the bones came together bone to his bone and they were straightway covered with sinews flesh and skin And so when he had said Ver. 9 10. Come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Armie Was there ever any case more hard and desperate then this Philop. I doubt not but God can if he will bring up such a glorious state of things as are prophesied of but that our demerits may put a stop to it Philoth. Such vast Oecumenicall favours as these Philopolis are not dispensed according to our Merits but according to the free Counsell of God Hear what the same Prophet saith to the house of Israel Ezek. 36.22 23. Thus saith the Lord I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for my holy Name 's sake that I may not be blasphemed amongst the Nations I will sanctifie my great Name which is profaned among the Heathen and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord saith the Lord God when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stonie heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgements and doe them What think you of this Language Philopolis And there are many such Expressions in the Prophets Philop. I must ingenuously confess that I think that such National or Oecumenicall Mutations of things for the best do not depend on our Merits or Free-will For so far as I see here God gives both to will and to doe according to his own Counsell and the Predictions of his holy Prophets that his Providence may not be suspected nor his Name reproched amongst Unbelievers Sophr. The description of the New Covenant in Ieremie is also according to this tenour Jer. 31.33 34. After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people What out of any Merits of theirs No but merely out of his own good pleasure For I will forgive their iniquities saith he and I will remember their sins no more Bath The Souls of men at last for the eternal High-priest's sake return into their Sabbatism of spiritual Rest. Philoth. Besides this Philopolis see what a causeless thing this is thus to mistrust Divine Providence who has so steddily and peremptorily carried things on hitherto according to the Predictions of the Prophets touching the Affairs of his Church as you have heard all along from the beginning to this very day Not to take notice of those things before our Saviour's Ascension and his sending down the Holy Ghost according to promise Apoc. 6.12 consider how punctually the six Seals are accomplished and in the sixth the Victory of Michael over the Dragon when under Constantine the Roman Empire became Christian. An Event out of the reach or ken of any mortal eye to foresee onely our Saviour the onely-begotten of God foretold it his followers in that saying Fear not Luk. 12.32 little flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdome Consider also the distinct Accomplishment of the six Trumpets during the succession of which according to Divine foresight and prediction there was the Virgin-company or the Woman in the wilderness and the mournfull prophetick Witnesses as well as the two and ten-horned Beasts and the Whore of Babylon or the false Prophet And how in the last half-Half-time Apoc. 11.11 12. or Half-day within the blast of the sixth Trumpet there was a great Earthquake and the slain Witnesses rose and to the admiration of the beholders in despight of all the Persecutions of that Man of Sin ascended gloriously into Heaven by the late Reformation in severall Kingdoms and Principalities Are not these very great things O Philopolis Philop. They are so indeed Philotheus Philoth. And such as are plainly set down in that admirable Book of Divine Fate For it is expresly written For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will Apoc. 17.17 and to agree and give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled that is to say till the times be accomplished foretold by the Prophet Daniel Dan. 7.25 till the seventh Semi-time be expiring Then there will be amongst the ten Horns those that will hate the Whore Apoc. 17.16 and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire that is shall abolish the Papal power and