A MODEST ENQUIRY INTO THE Mystery of Iniquity, THE FIRST PART, CONTAINING A Careful and Impartial Delineation of the True IDEA of ANTICHRISTIANISM IN THE Real and Genuine Members thereof, such as are indeed opposite to the indispensable Purposes of the Gospel of Christ, and to the Interest of his Kingdom. By H. MORE, D. D. Sext. Empiric. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. LONDON, Printed by J. Flesher for W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridge. M DC LXIV. To the READER. READER, 1. HAD it been but only to apologise for breaking His necessity of Prefacing before this present Treatise. that silence which I might seem to have imposed upon myself by publicly intimating the probability of it, it had upon that account been requisite to Preface something to excuse the unexpected publishing of this new Treatise. But I have fallen upon such a Subject, as whose very Title sounds so harshly and disharmoniously to some ears, that this alone were of sufficient force to extort from me the trouble of a Prefatory Apology▪ The Idea of Antichristianism; Both those words are so heavy laden with preconceived offence and prejudice, that the Book may also be prejudged and precondemned before perused for the very Title's sake, unless I prepare the way, by due and timely information, for better acceptance. 2. Know then, Reader, that this Idea, which I present thee with, This Idea of Antichristiinism, what the nature thereof is, and how unliable to any uncivil construction. is not a vain, Airy, Platonical, or Chimerical Figment, as some fancy every Idea to be; nor my treating of Antichristianism, a Rude, uncivil, uncharitable, phraseological Form of railing against such Things or Persons as are not only Innocent, but Sacred: But contrariwise, the nature of Antichristianism is so justly circumscribed by this Idea, and so fitly limited thereby, that it is in truth a bridle to the tongues and lips of such as, not knowing what is truly Antichristian and what not, in every pettish mood call any thing so in Religion that does not suit with their own humour and fancy. Besides, this Treatise being written in the way of an Idea, that is to say, being an Abstract Description or Delineation of the nature of Antichristianism, without any application thereof to any person or persons whatsoever; what Rudeness, Incivility or Uncharitableness can this design carry along with it, unless it can be thought rude or uncivil to define Vices in abstracto, and describe them in their Parts and Objects, and in whatever Circumstances make to the clear and perfect knowledge of them? provided it be done faithfully and skilfully. And truly, that I have not falsified anything in this my Description of Antichristianism, I dare with confidence appeal to the judgement of any able and unprejudiced peruser thereof. But what I have set down for Antichristian, is such of its own nature, whether it be called so or no. Which accuracy if all would imitate, nothing would tend more to the peace of Christendom, and the steady and firm promotion of Protestantism in every Nation. 3. Well, be it so, will some reply, that there is nothing falsely nor unfaithfully managed in this Province you have undertaken, yet is That the abuse of the term does not take away the right use of it. not the undertaking itself, though just and useful, yet something ignoble, inglorious and ungentile, thus to tincture your style and soil your pen with the names of Antichrist and Antichristianism, of which the breath of the rude and ignorant vulgar usually smells as strong as of Onions and Garlic, and have so fouled these words by their unmannerly mouthing them without all aim, that they have made them now unfit to pass the lips of any civil person? In answer to which, I must ingenuously confess that the Title of my Discourse for this very reason may justly seem less plausible. But it is the true and proper Name of the matter which I handle, to which only if these ruder people had been taught to appropriate the Term, it could never have contracted any such nauseous prejudice as it seems to have done. And I hope I am at least excusable, if not thankworthy, in that I have taken pains to teach them the due and proper use thereof. 4. But if there be any farther meaning in the Objection, as That the opposing of Antichristianism in our sense is not at all ungentile, but rather Heroical, if it were ignoble or ungentile, and below a man of a generous spirit, to concern himself in the detecting or opposing Antichristianism itself; I must take leave to profess that I think the Objectour understands not what Antichristianism is, or at least not what I understand by it, or have described it by in this Idea. For that Antichristianism which I oppose, and expose here to the view of the world, is nothing else but real Impiety, gross Fraud and Cozenage, and most barbarous and unparallelled Cruelty against the harmless Members of Christ; and all this (which infinitely aggravates the crimes) under the show and pretence of Piety and Religion, nay of the most Sacred of all Religions, Christianity itself. If these things therefore be not only uncivil and ungentile, but ferine, brutish, or rather Diabolical, can it be ungentile or uncivil hearty and professedly to oppose them? 5. Or to plead more distinctly and more particularly to two capacities Made evident to the judgements not only of Believers, of men; to them first that have a conscience and belief of Christian Religion as it is delivered in the holy Scripture; I demand of them how ignoble or inglorious a thing they deem it to oppose that which is plainly and palpably opposite to the Word of God and to the Commandments of Christ Jesus; to endeavour to demolish that which does supplant and frustrate the very End of the Gospel of Christ, and is so diametrically repugnant to the Interest of his Kingdom. Certainly whosoever can judge such a Design as this dishonourable, must be of the spirit of that company whom our Saviour of old most righteously reproved in these words, How can ye John 5. 44. believe, that receive honour one of another, and seek not that honour that cometh of God only? As it is said also in another place, For they loved the praise of men more than John 12. 43. the praise of God. 6. And now for them that think it so noble and glorious a thing But even of Infidels or Atheists themselves. to be indifferent to all Religions, or indeed to believe none, who are not so much as touched with the sense of the common Christianity, such as all who call themselves Christians agree in; yet if they have not put off the sentiments of common Humanity, (than which nothing can be more barbarous and ungentile) I demand of them, what offence can it be against the Laws of the highest Generosity, to profess a man's disgust and enmity against such a constitution of things as runs point-blank not only against the Law of Christ and the plain Dictates of the Scripture, but against the most indispensable and indelible Rules of Nature and of Reason, and against the common and universally-acknowledged Rights of Mankind? Be it that thou thyself scarce believest that there is a God, much less any thing to come after this Life; and therefore hast a Conscience free to any Religion, be it never so wicked or foolish, and canst laugh at the imperious Impostures of the Priest, when thou hast done. But canst thou be assured that thy Children will be such, that the Wife of thy bosom will continue such, if she be so for the present? Canst thou promise for thy most intimate Friend, which is as dear to thee as thyself? nay, canst thou promise for thyself, that God may not so powerfully strike thy Conscience some time or other, as to convert thee to the true knowledge of himself and of his Son Jesus? Now I tell thee compendiously and at once, That the Contexture of this Antichristianism which I oppose is a mere Train or Net laid or spread for the Life of thyself, thy Friend, thy Wife and Children. None can be in knowledge and judgement the professedly-faithful Servants of God and of his Christ, but they are ipso facto made obnoxious to the bloody salvageness of this Antichristian Monster. But suppose thine own Conscience not yet awakened, canst thou be so devoid of natural Affection, or (whilst thou talkest so loud of Generosity) degenerate so much below the very brute Creatures, as not to be affected, may deeply and unsupportably afflicted, at the haling of thy Wife out of thy Bosom, and the pulling of thy Friends and of thy Children out of thy Arms, and committing them to noisome Prisons, and after a sad and tedious durance in these foul Cells to have them brought out in the fight of the People to the most opprobrious and torturous Death that ever is inflicted on any Malefactors; that is to say, not only to have thy most intimate Friend, thy dear Parents, or thy Children, but thy Wife herself, as if she were a Witch, or a Poisoner of her Husband, to be burnt at the Stake, yea though with child, the birth breaking forth by the merciless Midwifery of the parching Flames: and all this Cruelty exercised upon them because they will not sin against God and their own Conscience? Which holy sensibility of spirit and awful Reverence of the Deity, though thou, according to the grossness of thy Philosophy, mayest conceive a weakness in them, yet (it being such a blemish as even in thine own judgement bears no badge of dishonour upon it, nay is exceeding honourable in the prosperous, and as tenderly and feelingly pitied in the afflicted and calamitous) it cannot one jot abate the endearedness of thy affection to thy suffering Friends in this case; the Loveliness of their Personages, the discreet Obligingness of their Carriages, and their constant Faithfulness and Serviceableness in all Duties and Affairs having impressed so deep a character of Love and Esteem in thee as cannot easily be obliterated. Can therefore the opposing of so barbarous a constitution of things as this, and so grievous and insufferable to thine own sense, and in thine own judgement, be upon any pretence accounted ignoble or inglorious, and not rather highly Generous and Heroical, unless all the Acts of Hercules, and his celebrious victories over those destroying Monsters of his Age, must be reputed but the petty Exploits of some pitiful Pedant or Histrionical Whiffler? Nay, on the contrary, we may safely pronounce, That he that has not an hearty loathing and abhorrency from so ugly and odious a Frame of things as I have described in this Idea, is not only in a state of Unregeneratedness, and utterly devoid of the Life of God, and consequently uncapable of eternal Salvation, but even sunk below the nature of a Man, and become not only uncivil, but either stupid and sottish, or else of a temper plainly savage and inhuman. 7. But though Antichristianism described in your Idea (will some farther urge) be thus Impious and Tragical a business, That this Idea of Antichristianism is not a mere Idea, but a true Transcript out of History yet in the mean time we are to remember that it is but an Idea; and therefore to have our affections thus raised up against mere shadows, is as foolish and furious as the Caunii their beating the empty Air with their clubs, crying out * Herodot. lib. 1. cap. 172. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when there was no Object before their eyes to pursue. But I need not give any new notice that our Enquiry into this Mystery is professedly modest in more respects than one. And yet I cannot dissemble but that this Antichristian frame of things is so far emerged above the condition of a mere Idea, that it is in the main strokes thereof plainly prophesied of in the Holy Writ; which I think I have made good, with evidence no less than Mathematical, in a Discourse touching that matter. And Divine prediction you know is a very safe pledge of future existence. Nay, the Series of time is so prefigured, and the continuance so determinately measured out, that I may safely add that it has been more than an Idea for some Ages; and, keeping myself still within the bounds of modesty, may farther aver, that it is so far from being a mere Idea, that it is a lively Image, or faithful Transcript out of History, of what has been too often, too much, and too long in Christendom: And therefore to have declared who is most concerned therein, had been needlessly to have imitated the bungling practice of the ancient ignorant Painters, who not being able to draw their Pictures lively enough, were fain to write under one, This is a Bear, and under another, This is an Horse, or a Lion, or whatever other Animal it was intended for. 8. And upon the same account I must confess I thought it That he could excogitate nothing that made more for the Interest of the Church of England then the draught of this Idea. needless expressly here to pronounce who is not concerned therein. But to prevent all misapprehensions, and to stop the mouths of Ignorance and Malice aforehand, I have at the end of the above mentioned Discourse not only declared, but proved, That the Church of England is not concerned in this Delineation, nay have fully vindicated her from all suspicion of Antichristianism. Which I wish I could with as good conscience do for that Imperious Lady of Rome, whom I cannot deny but to be most concerned in this Description. But for our own Church, I do profess that I could not excogitate any thing which I could think in my own judgement made more for her Interest then the framing of this Idea. For considering how she is laid at by the Romanists on one hand, and the Sectaries on the other, corroding, undermining, and wearing her away on both sides; the Romanists pretending her Schismatical, the Sectaries Antichristian: what could be more serviceable or seasonable then to draw such a true and genuine Idea of Antichristianism, as that that Church which, compared with it, will appear to bear so near a resemblance thereto, may be for the future ashamed to call us Schismatics for not Communicating with her; and ourselves being so fully assoiled from all blemish of what ever is really and truly Antichristian, may shame the Sectaries for their Schismaticalness in refusing to Communicate with a Church that is so apparently pure and Apostolical? 9 The weightiness of which design I hope may excuse the And that his zeal for her Safety may well excuse this unexpectedness of his appearing again in public. unexpectedness of my appearing again in public. For if Croesus his Son, (as has been ingeniously applied in the like case) at the seeing of a Soldier make at his Father with a drawn sword, forced himself of a sudden out of his natural dumbness into this articulate vociferation against the Murderer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. surely all men will think fit (forasmuch A. Gel. Noct. Attic. lib. 5. cap. 9 as my dumbness or silence is not natural, but a kind of Pythagorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arbitrariously imposed upon myself) that I should make no scruple to break it upon so indispensable an occasion as the succouring my Mother the Church in so great a jeopardy, not being reached at by one hand only, but thrust at on either side, or rather, as the Psalmist complains, being compassed about with her enemies as with a swarm of Bees. Psalm 118. But that she may timely quench or extinguish them like the fire of thorns (as is said in the same place) by the overflowing of the pure waters of the Sanctuary, or, which is all one, destroy them, not by the weapons of any Carnal warfare, but in the might of the Lord and by the Power of his Spirit, aught to be the earnest desire and ardent prayer, not of myself only, but of every dutiful Son of so excellent a Mother. 10. This is a brief, but true, account of the Scope and purpose of my writing this Treatise; and therefore I am very confident that The summary Conclusion. there is no man that is an hearty lover of the Church of England, or a due resenter of the common Rights and just Security of Mankind, but will be a candid accepter and approver of my pains. H. M. A MODEST ENQUIRY INTO THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY. BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. That the Mystery of Iniquity or Antichristianism implies the secret undermining of the Ends of Christianity by such a Power as pretends to be Christian. 2. The inconvenience of describing Antichrist from Circumstantial characters, and leaving out the Essential parts of the Description. 3. The two general Principles of which Antichristianism does consist. 4. The right Artifice of drawing the true Idea of Antichristianism, with a distribution of the Draught into the two most general strokes thereof. 1. THat the Iniquity of that Mystery we are about to speak of is not open Profaneness or plainly confessed Wickedness, is evident from the very Title; in that it is said to be Mysterious, covering itself under some shadow or show of Equity or Godliness▪ Which kind of Mystery, though it may in some way or measure work in, or undermine any Religion at large that was instituted for the real Worship of God and for a Fence against Atheism and Profaneness; yet it cannot be doubted but that by that Mystery of Iniquity, that Christians so often have in their mouths, is meant such a Mystery as is directed to the defeating the Purpose, and enervating the Power and Efficacy, and to the hiddenly-undermining the very Foundations of that Religion which is called Christian. For which reason they also call this Mystery of Iniquity Antichristianism, and style the chief Author and underpropper thereof (be it one single person or body of men) by the name of Antichrist: whether you understand thereby one that opposes Christ, or one that puts himself in the place of Christ, pretending to act for, but indeed acting against the true Interest of his Kingdom. 2. The noise of these words and phrases hath filled Christendom with their Echo for some Ages together. But I do not remember that the hottest pursuers after this strange Beast, no not they that had thought they had found him and taken him, have left so perfect and essential a Description of his nature prescinded from external circumstanc●…, that a man may have a due and full apprehension wherein this Mystery of Antichristianity does really consist; and therefore have left the world liable to think those things essential to this Mystery which are not, and those not to appertain to it that do: As if in the description of a Bear they should be careful not to omit his collar and ring at his nose, and yet leave out some integral parts of the body. But such imperfect and indistinct representations as these tend to nothing but the raising men's passions against things that are in themselves innocent, and the conniving at those that are truly vicious and hurtful. As if, for example, a man should declare in gross the Turk Antichrist, or the Pope; not expressing what it was that did really constitute them such: The effect thereof would only be this, namely, without any further examination to congratulate ourselves that we are neither Turks nor Papists, (though we may really have no small measure of the Mystery of Iniquity in us for all that) and to take offence at the sight of a Turban, a Crosier or a Mitre (or other things that have as little, or less hurt, if it be possible, than these) because they are found amongst the Turks or Papists. And yet methinks the most furious Reformers should not have so little wit in their wrath, as to think the Reformation incomplete, till with Mattocks and Spades they have dug down the seven Hills at Rome, and fling the earth with shovels towards the four winds of Heaven; for all that seems the most obvious circumstantial Characteristic of the Whore of Babylon (be that Whore who she will) that is to be found in the Scripture. 3. We see it therefore very requisite, that we may not quarrel with shadows, to seek out and propose such a Delineation of Antichristianism, as may let go innocuous circumstances, and take in what is truly and essentially Antichristian; nor make any thing a part of the Mystery of Iniquity that has not any iniquity in it; as we cannot well any confessed Wickedness, but as it is the effect of some pretended Holiness. In these two things therefore in general does this Mystery of Iniquity or Antichristianism consist. First, In the instituting of such Laws, or autoritatively teaching such Doctrines, and promoting or commanding such Practices, as naturally defeat and frustrate the true scope and purpose of the Gospel of Christ And then Secondly, In the doing this with such artifice and so fair pretences, that they bear the world in hand in the mean time that they are doing the work of God, and promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus. This, I say, in general is the very Nature and Essence of Antichristianism: And where this poison is imbibed into public Authority; that either one Person, or Body politic, or jointly both of them together, if they be the first beginners or continuers of this Mystery of Iniquity, in a due latitude thereof, are assuredly that Antichrist there is such a noise of in the Christian world. And for others that have it not in such a measure, yet so far forth as they are Teachers, Abetters, or Obtruders of such Practices or Principles upon pretence of Religion, as naturally frustrate the End of the coming of Christ, they are so far also Antichristian. 4. Wherefore he that has duly considered, and satisfied himself, what is the great Scope of the Gospel of Christ, and finds but out (which he cannot easily miss) what things are contrary thereto; if he but colour them over with plausible pretences of promoting the Interest of Christ, he has ipso facto drawn the true Image or Idea of Antichrist, whereby he may surely know him wherever he is. Now that great Scope and those main concernments that the Gospel of Christ aims at are plainly these; namely, The extirpation of Idolatry out of the world, as also A releasement of God's people from the improfitable burden of Judaical Ceremonies, (which we may call the Privative End of the Gospel:) and The exaltation of the Divine life; whose Root is Faith in God and of a world to come; and the Branches, Humility, Charity, and Purity; as I have more at large discoursed in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness. And in this is comprised the Positive End of Christ's coming into this world. CHAP. II. 1. The rooting out of Idolatry by the Messiah prophesied of by Jeremy, That all the Gods that made not Heaven and Earth, should perish. 2. An explication of that Prophecy, and an assertion of our Saviour's right of being worshipped for ever as the Eternal Logos who made Heaven and Earth. 3. Proofs out of the Psalms, that the Messiah was to root out Idolatry. 4. Several places in the New Testament witnessing against Idolatry and Image-worship. 5. That the Spirituality of Christian Religion indigitated by our Saviour does abundantly evidence the unlawfulness of Image-worship or of what Idolatry else soever. 1. THat God intended the rooting out of Idolatry by sending Christ into the World; appears as well by those Prophecies of the Old Testament, that foretell that all Idolatry shall be rooted out (for by whom should it be done but by the Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed:) as by several passages in the New. Of the first sort is that in Jeremy chap. 10. where the Prophet puts this prophecy in the mouths of the Jews that were carried captive into Babylon: Thus shall ye say unto them, (saith he) The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth, they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens. But the preceding context is so lively and magnificent, and so close to our purpose, that it ought not to have been omitted. At the seventh verse therefore, Who would not fear thee, O King of Nations? for to thee doth it appertain: Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations, and in all their Kingdoms, there is none like unto thee. But they are altogether brutish and foolish; the stock is a Doctrine of vanities. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and Gold from Uphas, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the Founder; Blue and purple is their clothing, they are all the work of cunning men. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God and an everlasting King: At his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. And then follows this Prophetic denunciation against every undue object of Divine worship; Thus shall ye say unto them, The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth, they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens. 2. Things are exceeding clear in this Prophecy, saving in that comparison of the King of Nations with the wise men of the Nations, betwixt whom there is that infinite disparity, that the collation seems hugely improper if the pure Deity be here conceived to be compared with any wise men whatsoever. Grotius therefore ingeniously hinteth, that it is meant of some of the wise men of the Nations that had been translated into the number of their Gods, as Taautes for example: which a little helps out one term of the comparison, these wise men being supposed to have been advanced to Divine honours after their death, and to have been reckoned amongst the Gods. But I must confess even that in the 86 Psalms, Among the Gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, there is none that can do as thou dost, has often puzzled me, that the Prophet should vouchsafe to compare the Gods of the Nations, which were but Deified Mortals, or at best but particular Angels, or Daemons in that higher sense, with the pure, infinite, and omnipotent Deity: which has made me often suspect that such passages as these are to be understood of the Messiah, who was also to be incarnated and to become the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and thereupon, after his sufferings, to be declared King of Nations and the Worship of the whole Earth; according as it follows in that Psalm, All Nations whom thou hast made shall come Rev. 25. 3, 4. and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy Name. And you know he was the Logos or Word which was in the beginning, without which nothing was made that was made. As the Author to the Hebrews also witnesseth, Thou, Lord, in the beginning layedst the Foundations of Psalm 102. 25. the Earth, and the Heavens are the work of thy hands. Which is spoke of the Messiah, his time being there so plainly deciphered, as appears in the 22 verse, When the people are gathered together, and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. Whence that is also plain, that Christ shall be ever the same, and that his years shall have no end; and that this Prophetic denunciation, The Gods that made not Heaven and Earth, shall perish from Vers. 27. the Earth and from under these Heavens, cannot reach him. But the worship of any thing else that is not the pure Deity, is to be cast away according to the meaning of that Prophecy. 3. That also in the 97 Psalms plainly shows that Idolatry is to go down at the coming of Christ. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images, that boast themselves of Idols; worship him all ye Gods: which the Author to the Hebrews does expressly interpret of Christ, whereby he proves his Divinity, and doth therewith disapprove of giving any Religious worship to any but that which is truly the Deity; as I have noted in its due place. 4. As for the places in the New Testament, they are more copious, and not less express. The first is that in the Acts, where when the Chap. 14. v. 14, 15. Priest of Jupiter would have sacrificed to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, by reason of the great miracles he saw done; they rend their clothes and ran in amongst the people, crying out and saying, Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities, unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein. And what vanities are those from which they must turn, but from the giving Acts 17. 29, 30. of Divine honour to mere Creatures? The same Apostle also at Athens, in his Speech he made to them on Mars-hill, reads them a very round lesson against Idolatry. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent. Which exhortation certainly Paul made with the greatest earnestness that could be, it being said verse the 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that his spirit was in a very sharp fit, in a paroxysm of zeal, when he saw the City of Athens so given to Idolatry. Again in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, he makes Idolatry the very Chap. 12. v. 2. Character of Gentilism, which Christ came to reclaim the world from. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away to dumb Idols, even as ye were led. And elsewhere in the same Epistle he exhorts them more copiously and Chap. 10. v. 14, 20, etc. vehemently: Wherefore my dearly-beloved flee from Idolatry. The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to the Daemonia, and not to God. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of the Daemonia. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? And this was only about the meat sacrificed to these Daemons; what had it then been to bow to their Idols? He speaks also very smartly on this subject in his second Epistle to these Corinthians. What fellowship hath righteousness Ch. 6. v. 14, 16. with unrighteousness? what communion hath light with darkness? and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols? And in his Epistle to the Galatians, he plainly reckons up Idolatry amongst the grossest works of the flesh, Murder, Sorcery, and Adultery. And therefore accordingly Chap. 5. v. 20. in the Apocalypse Idolaters together with Murderers and Sorcerers Chap. 21. v. 8. are threatened with the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, and are shut with obscene Dogs out of the holy City. And therefore assuredly Chap. 22. v. 15. S. John is in very good earnest in his dehortation from Idolatry in the 1 John 5. 20. close of his general Epistle. And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, through his Son Jesus Christ: This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from Idols. Amen. From these places, I think it is abundantly manifest That the divulging of the Gospel aimed at the taking away of Idolatry (that sottish depravation of Religion) out of the World. 5. And we may be still the more assured of it by those words from our Saviour's own mouth; The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father John 4. v. 23, 24. seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. Where Grotius, and I think very truly, interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sublatis ut ritibus, ita locorum discrimine. And surely the Christian worship being so pure as to abhor from the voluminousness of Judaizing ceremonies, and the affixing of the residence of God to a consecrated place, as in the Temple of the Jews; Imagery and Idolatry must be abhorred infinitely more, as infinitely more inconsistent therewith. And if God may not be worshipped with an Image, much less any thing that is not God either with an Image or without it. CHAP. III. 1. What is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Christ 2. Further Testimonies of Scripture to evince that Christ came to ease men of the Judaical burden of Ceremonies. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of the Ceremonial Law of Moses. 4. Further proofs to the same purpose. 1. BUT now That the grossness and carnality of the Judaical Ceremonies and the unprofitable burden of them was to be done away by the coming of Christ, (which is the other point to be proved) is very apparent out of several places of Scripture. For the Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ: that is to say, The John 1 17. Law, both Moral and Ceremonial, was given by Moses: but even that Moral Law was but such an one as could not give life, as the Apostle Gal. 3. 21. speaks; but the gracious assistance of the Spirit of God promised in the Gospel, that does give life and strength to walk according to the will of God. And then for the Ceremonial Law; both it, and indeed all things else happening to the Jews, were but Types and Shadows; but in Christ is the Truth. They were not what they made a show to be, and therefore in that sense may be said to be false: so as he that says that the Image or Picture of a Man or Horse is a Man or Horse indeed, pronounces false. And therefore our Saviour speaks true when he saith, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven, but my Father giveth you that true bread John 6. 31. from Heaven. Whenas yet it is said of the Manna, Psalm 78. He gave them bread from Heaven to eat. But it being but a shadow of the true Vers. 25. bread from Heaven, which is Christ, it is said not to be the bread from Heaven. As in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Law is said to have a Heb. 10. 1. shadow of good things to come: and Paul to the Colossians, Let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the Coloss. 2. 16, 17. new Moon, or of the Sabbath; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is Christ's. So plain is it what is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Jesus Christ For he is that Truth which was signified by the shadows of the Law; and by him is that Grace which was not afforded by the Law, namely the Quickening Spirit of God, the peculiar promise of the Gospel. Wherefore the Truth itself, the body of the Sun of Righteousness, being now risen with healing in his wings, it is time for obscure Shadows and dark Types to fly away. 2. And hence it is that S. Paul so stoutly exhorts the Galatians not to be held in bondage any longer within these shady coverts. Nevertheless Gal. 4. 30. what saith the Scripture? Cast out out the Bondwoman and her son: For the son of the Bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the Freewoman. So then, Brethren, we are not children of the Bondwoman, but of the Free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage: that is to say, neither with Circumcision nor any other useless and burdensome ceremony. And again upon the same subject he speaks very triumphantly in the abovementioned Epistle to the Colossians, in the same Chapter, from the 8 verse to the verse before recited. In which paragraph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hand-writing of Ordinances seems most naturally to be understood of Ceremonial ordinances, that these were nailed to his Cross, and nulled by his death: but for that Law which is purely Moral and Eternal, and the observation whereof is the perfection of Humane nature, he came not to destroy it, but to rescue it, and perfect it by clearer glosses. Which interpretation agrees the best both with the matter in hand (which are Ceremonial ordinances, which the Apostle speaks of, Traditions of men, and Rudiments of the World;) and also with the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verse 20. If you be then dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; why as living in the world are ye subjected to ordinances, to the decrees and ceremonial impositions of men? As it follows immediately, Taste not, touch not, handle not; which he calls the Commandments and doctrines of men: and not unlike those he mentions in his first Epistle to Timothy, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats; which in one sense of the Text he seems to term the seducing Chap. 4. v. 3. doctrines of Devils, as suggested by them; over whom Christ is said to triumph here under the name of Principalities and Powers, by virtue of his Cross; and so treading them down, is supposed to trample upon their ordinances, those Doctrines of Devils, which they enviously and insultingly entangled poor mankind withal. And little better than such would the Judaical Ceremonies themselves be accounted, when having been once abrogated by God through Christ, they are again reinforced by new imposers. For that zeal that is inspired into men for the driving on superstitious ordinances and practices, contrary to the command of Christ and the honour of the Gospel, may be rationally conceived to come from Satan, the active enemy of the Church of Christ. 3. Like to this of the Colossians, is that of the Ephesians. For he Chap. 2. 14. is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh (that is, by his flesh crucified on the Cross, as before) the law of commandments contained in ordinances; which answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the hand-writing of ordinances in the former. And by both these places it is evident That the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of all the Ceremonies of Moses Law, according as the Prophet Daniel had Dan. 9 predicted; and That the everlasting Righteousness should take place, a Religion that would instruct us to worship God in spirit and in truth; and therefore should stand for ever, there being none more perfect to succeed. 4. And according to this tenor of the Gospel S. Peter, as well as S. Paul, is very earnest upon the point in that debate at Jerusalem, whether Act. 15. 10. the converted Gentiles should be circumcised; where he concludes his speech in this manner: Now therefore, saith he, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear? namely, ob ingentem illum numerum praeceptorum ritualium, as Grotius has noted and superadded. And S. Paul is so zealous for the casting out the Bondwoman and her child, that he tells the Galatians roundly, Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. So industriously did the Apostles of Gal. 5. 2. Christ fling off from the Church that wearisome burden of the Rites and Ordinances of the Mosaical Law. And thus we are sufficiently assured of the Privative End of the Gospel, namely, That it was to eradicate Idolatry from amongst the Nations, and to null the Law of Moses in all the Ritual or Ceremonial ordinances thereof, as a troublesome and useless incumberment upon Christianity and the Churches of God. CHAP. IU. 1. The Positive End of the Gospel summarily proposed. 2. The several grounds of honour due to Christ, and particularly of his Paternal Title. 3. Both God the Father and Christ the Authors of our Regeneration; and how the First Hypostasis being called Father does not exclude the Second from that Title in respect of his Church. 4. The other Titles of Christ plain of themselves. 5. The Divine life with its Root and Branches, the Second part of the Positive scope of the Gospel. 6. That such a Mystery as upon Religious pretences does really supplant all the grand Ends of the Gospel, whether Privative or Positive, is Mathematically manifest to be that notorious Mystery of Iniquity. 7. The method of pursuing the particulars of this Mystery more largely. 8. The Falseness, Fraud and Mischief of every member of Antichristianism to be enquired into. 9 The author's serious desire that the Truth of the Description may be perused without Prejudice, and acknowledged without Tergiversation by them that are convinced. 1. THE Positive Scope of the Gospel, as I said, and have elsewhere proved, is The exaltation of the Divine life: which is either by giving all due honour and obedience to Christ in whom this life did so eminently reside; or by promoting the increase thereof, both intensively and extensively in his members, that it may rise to a due height where it is, and get footing amongst those where it is not; that the whole Mass of Mankind, if it were possible, might be leavened, not with the leaven of Hypocrisy, but with the sincere doctrine and enlivening spirit of the Gospel of Christ. 2. That Honour and Homage we own to the Person of Christ is to be considered chief in these five respects: As he is our King, As he is our Priest, As he is our Prophet, As he is God Blessed for ever, and As he is in a particular manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as * Ch. 9 Esay describes him, that is to say, the Father of his Church. As it is written concerning the Logos or Eternal Word, That, As many as received him, power is given unto them to become the sons of God: which are born, not of blood, John 1. 12. nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God: According as our Saviour speaks to Nicodemus, That which is born of the flesh, is John 3. 6. flesh; but that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. It is therefore the Spirit of Christ whereby we are begotten into a new creature. If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 3. But this Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of God the Father, and therefore our new creation, or Regeneration, is also attributed to him. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works. And Ephes. 2 10. S. Peter in his first Epistle, Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Ch. 1. v. 3. Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again, or regenerated us, etc. But after in the same chapter he again brings the Eternal Word as a sharer in Vers. 23. this action of Paternity; Being born not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, per sermonem viventem Dei & in aeternum permanentem: though it may be also rendered, per sermonem Dei viventis & in aeternum permanentis; and thus may refer either to God the Father, or to the Eternal Logos: As I conceive that may also in S. John, He that is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed (that is, the Spirit of Truth, which is from the Father 1 Ep. 3. 9 and the Son) remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Wherefore as Christ is said to be Head of all Principalities and Powers, though God the Father be also rightly so styled; and Christ is likewise said to be the Head of the Church, though no man can deny but that God is so also; for he that is an Husband to his Church, is also ipso facto the Head of her: So Christ in like manner may rightly be termed the Father of his Church, although that be the ordinary appellation of the First Hypostasis of the holy Trinity. And therefore there being such a real respect of Paternity betwixt Christ and his Church laid in this so remarkable ground of Regeneration by his Spirit into a new Creature, I thought it both allowable and useful to take notice thereof, and add this fifth Title to the rest, there being most heinous sins committable against Christ in this respect also. 4. That Christ is our King, Priest, Prophet, and our God, are Truths so generally acknowledged, and so exceeding plain, that I need produce no proof either of the things themselves, or of the fitness of the Phrase. 5. The other general branch of the Positive Scope of the Gospel is, The spreading and propagating, the exciting and nourishing the Divine Life in the members of Christ, to the best of their capacities. In which Divine Life is comprised Faith in God, and a Belief of a Reward of righteousness in the other World, as also those three excellent Evangelical Graces, Humility, Charity, and Purity. That these make up the grand Scope of the Gospel, I think any one will be sufficiently satisfied by what I have written in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness. 6. Now from hence it will follow with evidence and certitude plainly Mathematical, That such a Mystery as in effect is a real counterplot and undermining as well of the Privative as Positive Scope of the Gospel of Christ, in the abovenamed particulars; that is to say, That Mystery that, in stead of ridding the world of Idols, pollutes the Church with multifarious Idolatry; instead of easing of the Church of the burden of Judaical ceremonies, fills it with a number of superfluous Rites, either Judaical, Pagan, or pretendedly Christian; That Mystery that makes Christ a King without power and laws, a Prophet without prediction or instruction, that sets up corrivals with him in Heaven and on Earth, for both his High-Priesthood and Divinity, and eludes or prevents the inchoation or growth of the New birth by mischievous devices and practices; That Mystery that naturally tends to the superinducing upon the world Atheism and Infidelity, by magisterially obtruding upon men's belief the acknowledgement of such things as are not only useless to be believed, but impossible to be; and lastly, That Mystery that is the Mother of Pride, the Nurse of Uncleanness, the School of barbarous Injustice and bloody Cruelty: This Mystery, I say, that is so horrid, and Diabolical, and so Antipodal to both the Person and Spirit of Christ, and to all the Christian Graces, (provided there be but found a colour for these gross enormities, as if they tended to the honour of Christ and the good of his Church) must needs be that famed Mystery of Iniquity, and the very body of Antichristianism, with the distinct Limbs and Articulations thereof. 7. Whose Image I having exhibited to your sight in this contracted Draught, I shall now endeavour more fully and amply to set it before your eyes; pursuing the parts I have enumerated in a more particular manner, and in such a method as will carry along with it a reflection upon the universal nature of the Mystery of Iniquity, as it is opposite in a general respect to the Mystery of Godliness: that is to say, As those more comprehensive members of the Mystery of Godliness were A venerable Obscurity, A communicable Intelligibleness, Demonstrable Truth, and desirable Usefulness; so I shall trace along as I go in every one of the abovementioned Particulars of the Mystery of Iniquity these three general Depravations or Malignities; as namely, in opposition to the Truth in the Mystery of Godliness, gross and palpable Falseness; in stead of Usefulness, intolerable Mischievousness; and in stead of that venerable Obscurity joined with Intelligibleness, the unwholesome and abhorred fogs of a worse than Egyptian darkness, wherein harbours nothing but deceitful Sophistry and selfseeking Fraud. 8. In brief therefore the Falseness, the Fraud, and the Mischief, shall be the points of inquisition upon every particular member of this Mystery of Antichristianism: whose Idea when we have fully set out, and demonstrated to be such, we shall then proceed further to inquire Where it is actually to be found; and by virtue of the said Idea to clear our own Church, that is guiltless, from the unjust suspicions and aspersions of malicious or inconsiderate spirits, that either misrepresent or misapprehend things, and so pass unrightfull censures upon what is at least allowable, if not praiseworthy. 9 He that is the Searcher of hearts and the Enlightner of our eyes, so purge all our Hearts from partiality and Hypocrisy, and so clear our Understandings, that what shall be penned down with truth and sincerity, may be perused without prejudice, may be discerned with facility, and be acknowledged by them that are inwardly convinced without any slights or tergiversations; to the glory of God's name, the peace of his Church, and the advancement of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus, Amen. CHAP. V. 1. Instances of several specious pieces of Idolatry introducible into Christian Religion. 2. The overmuch straightening, or widening the Notion of Idolatry, taxed. 3. The usefulness of giving a true Notion thereof. 4, 5. That it is not restrained to the worshipping of Idols properly so called. 6. That any thing worshipped that is not God, becomes ipso facto an Idol; and of the Seventy's rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 7. That they likewise render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they do also Baalim, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; which further argues that more general sense of Idol. 8. That an Idol and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Non-Deus, is all one in the estimate of God. 1. LET us begin then with the delineation of the first member of this hideous Mystery, opposite to the first branch of the Scope of the Gospel of Christ, which was The ridding of the world of the impure worship of Idolatry. I say therefore, if in stead of those manifold Idolatrous worships in Paganism there were introduced (upon pretence of the greater honour to God and Christ, and the better instruction of the people) the Religious worship of the Cross, as also the Image of God the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost; the devotional invocation of the blessed Virgin, or any other Saints, or Angels; the worshipping of their Pictures, or Images; and the doing Divine honours (accordingly as it was practised toward the Roman Emperors) to a mere man upon account of his being the Vicar General of Christ and Ecumenical Head of his Church upon Earth; and lastly, the adoration of the consecrated Bread in the Eucharist upon the imagination that it is transsubstantiated into the very body of Christ: I say, where these things are brought into the Church as true Doctrine and laudable Practice, they will not fail to make up one Limb of Antichristianism, and that a principal one too. For the Doctrine is not true nor the Practice allowable, but gross and palpable Idolatry, (one of the most abhorred sins the Scripture takes notice of;) as you shall easily understand after I have with all possible caution searched out the true Notion and definitive nature thereof. 2. This term Idolatry, though nothing is more frequent in the mouths and writings of men, yet there is nothing of so unsettled and fugitive a signification. For some, to excuse or palliate their grosly-disallowable Rites and Practices in Christian Religion, have restrained the sense of the word to such narrow limits, that according to their nice distinctions and restrictions the foulest Paganism will scarce be found guilty of Idolatry. Others, whether out of a fright and abhorrency of so detestable a crime, or out of an over-factious disgust and detestation of the contrary party, have so stretched the signification of the word beyond the natural meaning thereof, that not only harmless, but even laudable circumstances of Divine worship appointed by Authority will not fail to be stigmatised by them with that odious and reproachful name: whose zeal and passionate unskilfulness in amoving this grand error out of the Church has had an answerable ill success, in that they have not so much wrought a cure, as changed the disease, and bartered away one great evil for several others of something a lower form; such as Scandal, rash and unjust Censure, and Superstition; which are very evil and undesirable distempers in the Church of Christ, and the necessary Authors and Fomenters of unnecessary Schisms. And indeed if I had said only, that they had changed Idolatry into Superstition, it had been enough, and all, it including the rest. For Superstition being properly a Fear of displeasing God in such things as neither do oblige him nor offend him, arising out of an opinion of the good or evil of those things that are indifferent; Those that either out of ignorance, or some worse principle, engender in the minds of men a superstitious aversation from such harmless and allowable actions, must needs make them obnoxious to Scandal, and tempt them to rash and unjust Censures. 3. Wherefore as well to excuse the innocent, as to discover the guilty, I shall endeavour exactly to set out the bounds of this great sin of Idolatry; that thereby we may know when it is committed, and when not; when it may be called by that so hateful name, and when again it is Injustice and Uncharitableness so to term this or that action of Religious worship. 4. That the name or guilt of Idolatry is not to be restrained to the worship of an Idol only, is plain out of ordinary consent of Speech, when we discourse of Idolatrous Nations that worship the Sun, Moon and Stars; not considering whether they make any Images to them or no. For these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these conspicuous and sensible Deities, as Origen. contr. Cels. lib. 〈◊〉. they are termed by the Greeks, may easily be conceived to have alured the rude people to adore them, before they had either art or leisure to build Temples and erect Statues to them. From whence that Caveat is given by God to his own people in Deuteronomie; Take ye therefore Ch. 4 v. 15, 19 good heed unto yourselves (for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire) lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven Image, etc. And lest you lift up your eyes to Heaven; and when you see the Sun, and the Moon, and the Stars, even all the host of Heaven, should be driven to worship them and serve them. So strongly enticing have they been to mankind to bestow Religious worship on them. These were the first Objects that gained the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as being in perpetual Motion, as Philo has observed; which appellation was afterwards derived upon all other Deities whatsoever. And Maimonides also lays the first foundation of Idolatry in these. 5. But Nations sufficiently civilised, as namely the Persians, made Herodot. lib. 1. c. 131. shift to be Idolaters without carved Images or Idols. For they sacrificed on the tops of Mountains to the visible Heaven under the name of Jupiter, as also to the Sun, Moon and Earth, to the Fire, Water and Winds; all sensible Objects, but worshipped without any sensible figure or representation. And yet I think no man learned, or Idiot, will stick to style this Nation Idolatrous: As neither the ancient Romans, who worshipped their many Gods without the use of any Idol or Image, for near two hundred years together; as both Varro and Plutarch affirm. 6. Wherefore Idolatry is not only there where an Idol is worshipped, but where any thing is worshipped which is not God, whether that thing be visible or no. In which sense * In Orat. Panegyr. in Natal. Christi. Gregory Nazianzene defines Idolatry to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And * De Idololatris cap. 15. Tertullian pronounces that whatsoever is exalted ultra humani honoris modum, with more than civil worship, does ipso facto become an Idol. When they are not truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they become by being worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non-Dii (as some would have the notation of the word) not Gods, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Idols, as it is often rendered by the Seventy, and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And in the first of the * Ch. 16. 26. Chronicles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, shows plainly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be referred also to those things that are not carved Images. For the Nations worshipped the Sun and Moon, and the Souls of men departed, which are not Imagery, but Natural things. And therefore sometimes they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter whereof must refer to those invisible Daemons themselves, who being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture-account, their worship must also be Idolatry, and will without any scruple be acknowledged so by any one that either the sense of things or the force of words has left any impress upon. 7. This might also make the Seventy careless of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when spoke of the Heathen Gods, but sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Deities themselves to whom Idols were consecrated being but Idols in this sense. And whereas they understood by Baalim those false Deities distinct from their Images (as appears from the second of the * Chap. 28. vers. 2. Chronicles, where they translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ahaz made Statues, or Images, for Baalim;) yet for the same reason they several times translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Baalim themselves, whether the Sun, or the Souls of men deceased, being but Idols in this sense we speak of. For which reason, lastly, I conceive they also translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above a dozen times, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once; whenas a learned Doctor of our Church conceives the word according to its original meaning (it signifying any cause of anxiety, grief, or frightful passion) to note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves chief, whose hard usages, and affrightful appearances to dismayed mankind, brought in that kind of pusillanimity which the Greeks call properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the superstitious fear and disquieting dread of Daemons; which is so far from being supposed to proceed from the Images themselves, that Grotius has noted it as the complaint of Varro against those that had corrupted that purer kind of worship instituted by Numa, by their bringing in of Images, Eos utique civitatibus suis & metum dempsisse, & errorem addidisse. But every thing Grot. in Decalog. that has Religious worship done to it that is not God, becoming thereby an Idol, the Seventy may very well be excused for their proneness of rendering these words by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which had been more properly and expressly in such and such circumstances rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. As their proneness in so doing is also again an argument, as I have already intimated, of the warrantableness of their both notion and expression, who call the worshipping of any thing that is not God, Idolatry. 8. To which God himself also witnesses that it is such, by declaring himself so affected at worshipping that which is not God; as he does at the bowing towards Images, which he forbids, giving this reason, For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, Exod. 20. The original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Deuteronomie, the 32. he says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have moved me to jealousy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in non Deo, by that which is not God. Whereby we seem to be admonished wherein the nature of Idolatry does immediately consist; and that the worshipping of an Image is not Idolatry as it is an Image, but as that Image is not God; no Image being God, but that true and living Image of the Father, Jesus Christ. That therefore is the true and general notion of Idolatry, To worship any thing that is not God; whereby we forsake God himself, and devotionally prostitute ourselves to every evanid representation or far-cast shadow of him, such as are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, shadows of shadows in infinite myriads of degenerations from him; and so provoke his jealousy by these multiplied Baalim, whenas He alone is to be our Lord and Husband. But this is a Truth so plain and acknowledged, that I need not have spent so much time in the verbal allusions to add any countenance thereto. CHAP. VI 1. That the Israelites worshipped Jehovah in the Golden Calf, proved out of Exodus. 2. That Elohim, though joined with a verb of the plural number, is understood of the true God; with further testimony out of the 106 Psalms, that God was worshipped in that Calf, and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies. 3. That the Golden Calf was no figure of the Egyptian Apis, but a Cherub. 4. Aaron's case of making the Golden Calf compendiously opened, as also the ground of Tacitus his ridiculous error discovered. 5. That the Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel were two Cherubin set up for the worship of the God of Israel, proved from Jeroboam's Politics. 6. Also from Jehu, and Elias his zeal, and the instruction of the Assyrian Colonies by an Israelitish Priest. 7. That Micah's Ephod and Teraphim were also meant to the true God. 8. And yet both he and the Israelites in the Wilderness Idolaters, in their use of the Teraphim and Cherub in Divine worship. 9 That Jeroboam was also an Idolater in setting up the Calves in Dan and Bethel, proved out of Scripture. 10. Other Testimonies to the same purpose; and of the Idolatry committed in the Brazen Serpent. 1. THat which seems more seasonable to inquire into is this, Whether as there is Idolatry without the worshipping of Images; so there may not be the worshipping of Images without Idolatry, the Images being worshipped in reference to the true God. That to worship the true God by an Image, is Idolatry, I conceive is very plain from the children of Israel's worshipping him by the Golden Calf which Aaron made. For first, that they worshipped God by this Calf, is evident from what is written Exod. 32. 4. where it is proclaimed, These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt: And verse 8. God there telling Moses what was done, They have (saith he) made them a molten Calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. But it is manifest that this Calf did not bring them out of the Land of Egypt, but they brought it, I mean the materials of it: and that therefore they understood it only as a visible Image and Representation of the presence of him that did bring them out thence, namely of Jehovah the true God. 2. Nor is there any scruple to be made from the pronouncing thereof in the plural number, as if that One true God could not be meant there: For Elohim is not only as fitly said of one single Deity as of one single Image, but is really, and that frequently, said of this One God Jehovah. And Nehemiah reciting this passage, shows plainly that the sense is to be ch. 9 v. 18. understood of one; he reading, not, These are thy Gods, but, This is thy God, that brought thee up out of Egypt. Nor does the verb being in the plural number make any infringement to this Truth. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joined with a verb of the plural number is notwithstanding understood of this One true God, as appears from * See Gen. ch. 20 v. 13 ch. 35. v. 7. sundry places of Scripture: And to make all sure, Aaron, after he had made the Calf, is said to build an Altar before it, and to make proclamation, saying, To morrow is a Feast to the Lord, that is, to Jehovah the known God of the Israelites. And the Psalmist taxing this transgression of theirs, They made, saith he, Psal. 106. 19, 20. a Calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten Image. Thus they changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox that eateth grass. Which Glory whether you refer to God himself, or to the conspicuous Symbols of his residence, which later Ages did more expressly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Glory (and indeed I think may be fetched higher than those times, the Ark of the Covenant being so called in the first of Samuel, and it may be Psalm 85. 1 Sam. 4. 22. Psal. 85. 9 and 63. 2. Jer. 2. 11. and according to Munster in the 63. and in Jeremy 2. if the ancient reading was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Grotius would have it; and lastly in this very Psalm, if the ancient Hebrews read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not their glory, but his glory, as Grotius also suggests) I say, whether it be referred to God himself, or to his Symbolical presence in the Ark of the Covenant, it is manifest that the worship was intended to God, when they adored this graven Image. 3. Which as it is most certain from these Texts of Scripture, so it will seem less strange, if we do but consider that the Golden Calf which Aaron made was in all likelihood nothing else but the figure of a Cherub, such as was after made by Moses himself, and placed in the Ark. For Cherub signifies properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Calf or Ox, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blow, and is one of those four Animals which are in the Chariot of God, in the vision of both Ezekiel and S. John. And it is remarkable in Ezekiel, that when he had reckoned those four several forms, of a Man, Lion, Ox and Eagle in Ezek. 1. 10. Ezek. 10. 14. the first Chapter, he repeating the same in the tenth, in stead of Ox puts the name of Cherub: And every one had four faces; the first face was the face of a Cherub, and the second face was the face of a Man, and the third the face of a Lion, and the fourth the face of an Eagle. The first therefore must needs answer to the Ox specified in the former. But in the first Chapter he observes generally of them all, that their feet were as the feet Vers. 7. 〈◊〉 of Calves: which is no obscure intimation that Aaron's act was not so extravagant as it seems at first sight, he erecting such a Symbol of the Divine presence as was to be afterward reposited in the Ark, namely, the figure of a Cherub, or Golden Calf: But to conceit that so holy a man as Aaron proposed to them the worship of the Egyptian Apis, and made them an Idol of an Idol, to celebrate a Festival to Jehovah by it; is a thing so impious, incoherent and exorbitant, that it seems utterly incredible. 4. Wherefore in brief the case seems to stand thus. God having by Moses promised to his people his visible presence to conduct them into the Land of Canaan; which Symbolical presence was to be in the Ark, and especially in the Cherubin, on which he was seen to sit by Aaron when he was admitted into the sight of God in the Mount: He being therefore privy to the design of this manner of representing the presence of God by Cherubims or Golden Calves, and Moses having stayed so long in the Mount, that both Aaron and the people took it for granted that he was dead; they requiring of him that he should make good that promise of the sensible presence of God, to make Gods to conduct them to Canaan, or at least back again to Egypt, that they might not be lost and perish in a barren wilderness; he thought fit in this exigency of affairs to erect that Symbol of the Divine presence which was intended by Moses, and so made this Cherub in the form of a Calf, both out of skill and integrity. But it was the vainness and wickedness of the people to turn it into an Idol by worshipping it, and so to Aegyptianize in the adoration of the God of Israel. Which he endeavoured as wisely as he could to prevent, in choosing this form rather than that of an Eagle, Lion, or Man; as being the least alluring to Religious worship: which was the reason of Moses his choice also, who is thought to have made both the Cherubims in this shape. And that idle mistake of Tacitus and others, of the Jews worshipping the head of an Ass, may probably be grounded upon the seeming vility of these figures; as being little superior to those slow creatures: And therefore the more unlikely, say I, of ever being intended for Objects of worship, as certainly they were not, but only for Symbolical Representations of the Chariot of God and of his visible appearance to the Prophets. Which Visions themselves I do not doubt but were a figure or symbol of some very noble and substantial Truths, which would be too long here to dive into. To this purpose Moncaeus argues in his Treatise of the subject, where he pursues the matter more copiously: which, if a man duly consider, he cannot imagine but the worship given to the Golden Calf was not intended for the Egyptian Apis or any other foreign Deity, but for Jehovah himself the Lord of Israel. 5. And there is the same reason assuredly of the Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel which Jeroboam set up, which will both give light to and receive light from this of Aaron, and jointly prove that they were both such Cherubims as were in the Ark of the Covenant, and that the Sacrifices and Solemnities of the people were intended to Jehovah: As it appears from the first of Kings Chap. 12. where it is plain that it was a fetch of V 26, 27, 28. policy in Jeroboam to set up those Cherubims or Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel, for to keep the ten Tribes from revolting to Rehoboam King of Juda, by their going up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. Whereupon the King took counsel, and made two Calves of Gold, and said unto the people, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: V 28. Behold thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. Which had been false and ridiculous to avouch of any strange God; and it had been the most unpolitick action that could be, and contrary to his design, to offer them any strange God to worship. For could he hope so in a moment to take off their devotion from the God of Israel, whom they had so long served, even from their childhood; and so stop their going to Jerusalem at their set times of Solemnities? Surely not: But his meaning was, that they might serve the same God here at home, and save themselves the labour of such tedious journeys; and to this purpose he had set up two Golden Cherubs, the acknowledged Symbols of his presence, the one in Dan, the other in Bethel, before which they might meet, and sacrifice, and perform their anniversary Solemnities to the God of Israel as well as if they went to Jerusalem. 6. And hence it is that when the worship of Baal and that of these Golden Calves came into competition, these latter worshippers are called the Servants of the Lord. And Jehu professes his zeal against Baal's 2 Kings 10. 23. Priests to be in the behalf of Jehovah, though he never ceased to worship the Golden Calves. Elias also abets the Tribes of Israel against such of them as were turned worshippers of Baal, as allowing them to be worshippers of the true God, though the Israelitish mode of worshipping him at that time was in those Golden Calves. If the Lord be God, follow him; if Baal be God, follow him. And when the Assyrian Colonies were worried with Lions in Samaria, it is imputed to their ignorance of the worship of the God of the place, 2 Kings 17. 26, 27. who was known to be Jehovah; and it was an Israelitish Priest that was sent back to teach them, who dwelled in Bethel, and taught them certainly after the manner of Israel to worship him in those Golden Cherubims, as they did from Jeroboam's time to that very day. So little doubt is there but that Jehovah was worshipped in those Calves of Gold. 7. A like Instance to which I conceive is discoverable in more early times. As in that of Micah's Ephod and Teraphim, and his consecrated Son, and devout Mother that had dedicated such a sum of silver to the Judg. 17. Lord, of which an Image was made by the founder: His eager entertaining a Levite also, in stead of his Son whom he had consecrated to the Lord, and his blessing himself for his good hap in lighting on this Levite, saying, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest. All this shows plainly that these Teraphim were consulted V 13. as the Oracle of the God of Israel, I mean as the Oracle of Jehovah: And the mention of the Ephod would easily induce one to believe that the Teraphim were, as S. Jerom conceits of them, in the form of the Cherubims. And this therefore was the worshipping of Jehovah by a bare Image, and is a second undeniable Instance of this kind of unlawful worship. 8. For that this Religion of Micah was unlawful, is intimated in that Epiphonema immediately subjoined to the mention of his house of Gods, and Ephod, and Teraphim. In those days there was no King in Israel, Judg. 17. 6, but every one did that which was right in his own eyes. But to make short work. Either these Teraphim and Images were like the Cherubims which Moses made, or they were other profane Idols: If the second, the Idolatry is so conspicuous we need pursue the proof thereof no further: If the first, we shall yet prove that to be downright Idolatry, and thereby evince the second to be much more. That the worshipping the Golden Calf in Horeb was Idolatry, though the worship was intended to Jehovah, is plain, both from that height of wrath and displeasure that God conceived against them for worshipping and sacrificing to the molten Image; Let me alone, saith God, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and also Exod 32. 10. from Moses his being so transported into passion at the sight of the thing, that out of the heat of his Anger he cast the two Tables of Testimony, written with the finger of God, out of his hands, and broke them beneath V 19 the Mount. To which you may add the severe punishment, the slaying of the Transgressor's, which Moses commanded, and the form of his confession of their sins to God: Oh this people have sinned a great sin, and V 31. have made them Gods of Gold. Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus, Non facit ille Deos; qui colit, ille facit. And this was the Sin of the people, even that great Sin of Idolatry, who by worshipping the Golden Calf that Aaron made, though they intended the honour to Jehovah, made an Idol thereof: As S. Stephen also gives sentence, They made a Calf, saith he, in those days, and offered sacrifice Acts 7. 41. to the Idol. 9 And Divine Writ gives the same censure of the Golden Calves of Jeroboam, in whose days, and till Ahab was seduced by his wife Jezebel, 1 Kings 16. 31. the worship neither of Baal nor any strange God was admitted in Israel. Yet Jeroboam, though he worshipped Jehovah in those Golden Calves, is said to have ordained Priests for the high places and * 2 Chron. 11. 15. for Devils. The original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faunis or Satyris, for the hairy Daemons of the woods or mountains. The Monticolae Sylvani I suppose are alluded to, and that in reproach to his Idolatrous worship of the true God on the high places; though the Seventy translate it only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which yet tends to the same sense; for they also translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (vanities) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in several places. Again in the second Book of Ch. 13. v. 8. the Chronicles, there Abijah King of Juda speaking to Israel, upbraids to them their confidence in their multitude, and in their Golden Calves which Jeroboam made them for Gods; twitting them thereby assuredly for their Idolatry; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the forecited place, Dii to Daemons or Daemonia. 10. I shall only instance in one place more, in the first Book of the Ch. 14. v. 9 Kings, where Ahijah the Prophet instructed by God sends this smart message to Jeroboam: Thou hast done evil above all that were before thee: For thou hast gone and made thee other Gods, even molten Images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back. Which is the very same censure that the Psalmist gives of the worshipping of the Calf in Horeb; They forgot God their Saviour, that had done great things Pslm 106. 21. for them in Egypt. And yet Jeroboam's and the Israelites fault was only the worshipping of God in those Calves, even that God that brought them out of Egypt; as appears from the very Title of their pretensions in both places, These are thy Gods that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt. But the natural meaning of the words of Ahijah is this, That they doing Divine worship to any thing besides God, make thereby a God to themselves, distinct from him whose worship is uncapable of any Corrivalry or Copartnership. But this worshipping of the Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel being so like (if not worse) to the worship of the Golden Calf in Horeb, it had been enough to have proved the former absolute Idolatry, it necessarily following thereupon that this must be so too. We might add to these a fourth Instance, which is The burning of incense 2 Kings 18. 4. to the brazen Serpent; which certainly was not in honour to any strange God, it being a monument of those miraculous cures done by Jehovah the God of Moses. But it is so clear already, that nothing can be clearer, That to worship an Image, though the honour be intended to the true God, is notwithstanding flat Idolatry. CHAP. VII. 1. The worshipping that which is not God by an Image, a third mode of Idolatry. 2. Of the worshipping of an Image as such. 3. How the vulgar sort of the Heathen came to take the very Idols themselves for Gods. 4. What arguments used for the begetting an opinion of the residence of the Daemons near their Statues. 5. What indications of their presence there, and how awful the Images themselves became from thence. 6. The conceit of the Daemon and dedicated Image's coalition into one person. 7. And that the worshipping of this Complicate was a fourth Mode of Idolatry. 1. THus we have demonstrated two Modes or Manners of Idolatry; namely, The worshipping of that which is not God without an Image, and The worshipping of the true God with one. From whence the evincement of a third Mode will follow, viz. That the worshipping of that which is not God by an Image, is Idolatry; nay, I may say, a double-charged Idolatry. For if to give Divine worship to each apart be Idolatry; to worship both these unlawful Objects at once is double Idolatry. And if the relation of the external Object of worship to the true God makes not that Object lawful, no not when it pretends not to be the Shape or Image of the true God, (as certainly the Golden Calf did not pretend it, nor any one think it) then surely a false God cannot make an Image an Object of lawful worship, no not though it were like it. 2. Nor can any Image of itself without reference to some other thing be a due Object of worship. For as the true God is rightly by the Psalmist styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the God of Gods; so certainly an Idol may well be esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the merest Nothing of all Nothings, the vainest of all Vanities, that can be proposed to be worshipped religiously. From which consideration arises another sort of Idolatry, which is The worshipping of an Image absolutely, without reference to any thing else, (which would be Idolatry in the strictest sense, according to the notation of the word) if it were practicable. For it seems very hard to worship an Image, we knowing it to be so, merely in reference to itself; the very nature of an Image referring to something else. 3. But men may possibly worship that which is but an Image, without reference to any other thing; the Garishness or Dreadfulness thereof strongly working upon the minds of the more simple to conceit some strange Divinity in it, which is not. Which according to some passages in Scripture seems to be the condition of the Vulgar sort of the Heathen. As in Psalm 135. 15. and again in the 115. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dolores or Terricula Gentium, The Fear and Awe of the Gentiles (that is, their Gods) are but Images of silver and gold, etc. which Images though they were the next way to bring all Religion into contempt amongst the more crafty and nasute, yet the Golden splendour and magnificency of them did, it seems, so perstringe the eyes of the simple sort, that they took them to be very Gods; as appears plainly out of these places of the Psalms, and very copiously out of the Epistle of Jeremy. Which censure both of Jeremy and of the Psalmist is notwithstanding so to be understood, as not to engage us to think that the Heathen had no other Objects of their worship but the very Idols themselves. For (as I have above intimated) in all likelihood these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these awful Objects of their superstitious worship, were first the Daemons themselves; whether the Ghosts of the departed, or other Devils; who sometimes, though not so very frequently, have miraculously shown their presence in these Images or Statues; the fame whereof being continued, conciliated that superstitious reverence to these Idols from the Vulgar, as if they had been living and powerful Deities. 4. Origen speaks of the religation of these Daemons near their Statues, Origen. contra Cels. lib. 7. whether by Magical incantation, or that, like so many smell-Feasts, they hankered near the Altars, to enjoy the nidorous fumes of the Sacrifices, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, liquor somely partaking of the diffused reek of the things Sacrificed. It is likely the imposing Priests would pretend either of these to the people (though not in that odious scheme) as persuasions of the presence of the Daemons themselves in these consecrated Places and Images. And truly the unctuous vapours from the burning of the Sacrifices seems a more suitable entertainment for them then the gross blood: Which yet Doct. perplex. part. 3. c. 40. Maimonides says the Zabii conceived to be their repast, and therefore eaten it themselves to communicate with them. 5. But as appears by Origen, in his third book against Celsus, there were yet more evident demonstrations of the presence of these Daemons in their Temples and Statues, by rendering of Oracles, by healing of diseases, and tormenting the superstitious if they transgressed in any punctilio of Religious service to them. These he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whom he intimates to be smart monitors to them that transgress, Origen. contra Cels. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to terrify the rude multitude. But whether these terrors were also by some frauds of the Priests, or merely from the peevishness of the Daemons, I will not here dispute. But questionless it struck a great dread into the simple people of the Images themselves, as if there were a Power and Divinity in them. 6. But yet I am not come to what I was aiming at, which is, A conceit of so near an union of the Daemon and the Statue, as if they were one sacred Animal or Person. For such certainly the Tyrians thought the Statue of Apollo, who, by binding it with golden chains, conceived they tied Apollo himself so fast to them, that he could not go away. As the Athenians also seem to have presumed concerning the Image of Victory, who, by clipping her wings off, thought to keep the Goddess herself from flying from them. Which opinion certain prodigious passages in these kind of Images might very well foment. As that in the Image of the God Adranus, who, when the Adranites were engaged in a war, was seen to sweat copiously, as also to shake the top of his Spear; as Plutarch relates in the life of Timoleon. And * Lib. 1. c. 8. Valerius Maximus also writes how the Statues of Juno Moneta and of Fortuna spoke; the one signifying her willingness to go to Rome, the other approving the manner of her consecration; Ritè me matronae vidistis, ritéque dedicâstis. The Teraphim also of the Gentiles (which were made under a certain figure or constellation of the Heavens) were erected to receive answers from as Oracles, and in all likelihood are the Statuae animatae futurorum consciae, which Trismegist speaks of in Asclepius, and of which kind of speaking Statues are sundry stories; but I have run out too far already. 7. The case that emerges from the consideration of the occasions of the people's thinking these dedicated Statues or Images (whether it be from the fame of Truth, or mere conceit) to be real Deities, is this, Whether they can be said to be Idolatrous in giving Divine worship to them, not as to the Images of any thing else, but (according to their belief) as to true and living Gods. In which point I conceive there is very little difficulty. For if the worship of that which is not God, under the notion of a saving and living Deity, be not Idolatry, there will be none found Idolaters, but those that think they wipe their mouth cleanest of this Fornication, by pretending they worship not the Image for itself, but in reference to the Deity whose Image it is; but in the mean time give Religious worship to what is no Deity, but a dead Being. But we have above proved, That the worshipping the Sun and Moon or any Daemon, though without an Image, is Idolatry, (and I think there is no Christian that did ever stick to confess it;) wherefore the worshipping of an Image, or the Complicate of an Image and a Daemon actuating it, for a Deity, which is not the True and Only Godhead Almighty and Infinite, but a Finite Being and such as there may be many others besides, is without all peradventure downright Idolatry, which we may observe to be a Fourth Mode thereof. CHAP. VIII. 1. That the Heathen held One Supreme God the Maker of all things. 2. Proclus his conceit of so uniting the Supreme Deity with a Magical Statue, as that the Complicate becomes one visible and Supreme Godhead. 3. Whether the worshipping of this Magical Complicate by him that is persuaded it is the visible Deity, were Idolatry. 4. Wherein the sinfulness of Idolatry does consist, and that the worship of this Magical Statue was a Fifth Mode thereof. 5. The reduction of other cases to these Five-Modes of Idolatry. 6. That the worshipping any thing but God, is Idolatry; and of Numa's casting away Image-worship, and of the affinity of his Religion with Pythagorism. 7. The first pollution of that Philosophy, and that the Object of Divine worship is as well One as Invisible. 1. BUT there is yet another case behind, with which we will conclude. That the better sort of the Heathen were not so ignorant of the Deity, but that they acknowledged the Unity of his Essence, his Omnipotency also, and his Omnisciency, were an easy thing to prove, if it were not admitted at the first offer. Falluntur in nomine, sed de una potestate consentiunt qui Jovem principem volunt, saith Minutius Felix. And I think he spoke sparingly in their praise in that he said they were mistaken in the name. For Jovis is so near to Jovah, that to deduce it from Juvo rather then from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like fetching the notation of Fur from furvus, rather than from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which Gellius reprehends Noct. Attic. lib. 1. c. 18. Varro. That the inhabitants of Thebais worshipped the maker of the world, the Statue wherein they worshipped him witnesses for them, it being the Image of a man with an egg coming out of his mouth: As if the meaning Pier. Hieroglyph. lib. 59 was so exactly Mosaical, or Christian, as to intimate not only the Creator of the world, but that he created it by his word. And * Dion. Chrysost. Orat. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Dion Chrysostomus and * ●…lax. Tyr. dissert. 38. Maximus Tyrius, both Heathens, do plainly profess that in their Images of Gold and Silver and Ivory they worshipped the most High God, the Maker and Conserver of all things. But I will not enter into any copious proof of this, the bare supposition serving my turn. 2. Let us therefore suppose that some Heathen Philosopher, who knew the true God of the Universe, but was not yet cleansed from the practice of Image-worship, should either himself believe, or at least for some ends best known to himself should fully persuade another, that there is some such mysterious Art as Proclus seems to glance at, in his short Treatise De Sacrificio & Magia: where, upon this ground, That there is such a close concatenation of Terrestrial with Celestial, and of Celestial with Supercelestial Essences, as also such a particular respect or Harmony of several of the one with several of the other, he would insinuate to us, That there is a secret method of framing a Magical Statue out of certain choice materials; which Divine symbols rightly mingled, and adapted into a consecrated Image by some mysterious Priest or Magus, will become unum tale quale Divinum existit secundùm essentiam, and therefore by power of cognation and similitude will not fail to fetch down Jupiter Olympius himself from his highest or inmost supercelestial throne, and make him vitally actuate this Divine Statue in such sort that the Statue and Divinity itself shall become one visible Jupiter. 3. The Question now emerging from hence is, Whether if a simple soul, being struck by the confidence and canting of this imposturous Magician into a full belief that this Statue is become the visible, but the true and eternal God of Heaven and Earth, should therefore worship that Divine Complicate as is pretended, (though it be really a mere figment) for the true God, this act of worship be blameless and irreprehensible, or whether it constitute a Fifth Mode of Idolatry. For it may be said in his excuse, it was well meant, and that he intended his worship for the true God; which was not in the foregoing case. But, as I said before, if Ignorance will excuse from Idolatry, Philosophers will be the only men that will be found capable of that crime. And in the former case, though they had not so true a notion of God as is compatible but to One, yet they thought they had lighted on a due Object of Religious worship, if that might plead their excuse. And he that, in this last case, had the right notion of the true God, yet misses the mark in application, and adores a mere Idol. And though it be in reference to the true God, I mean, really meant to him; yet to serve him in an Idol, is Idolatry; but to take an Idol to be him, far worse. 4. In brief, the sinfulness of any Idolatry, towards God, consists chief, if not solely, in either a kind of Injustice to him, or Reproach of him, or both. Now I demand of any man whether it be not a greater Reproach to the true God to take a mere Idol to be him, then to apply that worship which we use to him (and which always falls infinitely short of him) unto that which is but an Idol: or whether it be not a lesser piece of Injustice to take that mite of honour (for all that we can do is no more) which is due to God, and give it to an Idol, then to take God from himself, as it were, by taking that to be him which is so infinitely debased below him. As it would be a greater piece of Injustice to steal a Prince out of his cradle, and leave a Changeling in the room, then to take away his mantle to wrap a Changeling in; and a far less Reproach to fit a Sceptre and Tiara to the hand and head of Cyrus his Ape, and then do the Persian reverence to him, then to take this Ape to be King Cyrus himself. For the other may be interpreted only a ridiculous excess of respect and homage unskilfully intended to the King himself in thus royally adorning and reverentially courting his Ape: But this latter the grossest and most sottish Reproach imaginable; namely, for want of a duely-prefigured Idea of a Royal Prince, not to distinguish so Heroical a personage as King Cyrus from an ordinary Ape or Monkey. And yet that Mysterious Statue above mentioned, into which the prestigious Magus or Pagan Priest would pretend to have vitally incorporated the true God of the Universe, any one will acknowledge to be more vile than these vilest of Animals. So plain is it that this Fifth case will constitute a Fifth Mode of Idolatry, and that a very rank one too. 5. And these Five Instances of Idolatry shall serve our turn to have recourse to, as plain patterns of that so heinous a crime, there scarce being any case which is not reducible to these either directly, or analogically. For the Religious worship of Rivers, Plants, or Animals, such as the Egyptians worshipped, as they are natural things, are to be referred to the first Classis; as Representatives of a more hidden Numen, to the second. Pictures also to the second; and consecrated Pillars and Stones, suppose they have no Image on them, are to be referred to Statues, if Divine worship be done unto them: As that Stone which had only the Pier. Hierogl, lib. 49. footstep of Hercules on it, which the Thracians worshipped; and another foursquare one which Maximus Tyrius says was worshipped by the Arabians. To which you may add the Lapis Manalis of the Romans, and their Terminus lapideus in the Capitol. 6. And in brief, to hold you in no longer suspense, upon the view of all particulars, the common Notion or Idea of Idolatry does undoubtedly consist in this, namely, In the giving Religious or Divine worship to any thing that is not truly God; as certainly no Visible thing is, that either Nature or Art can exhibit. And therefore it is said in Deuteronomie, Chap. 4. v. 12. You heard a voice, but saw no similitude. According to which is that Dogma of Pythagoras which Plutarch notes in the life of Numa, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which made Numa cast away all Images in Divine worship, but he erected a Temple that bore the similitude of the World, that great and august Temple of God, placing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Vestal fire, in the midst thereof. Wherein he did also Pythagorize, though he lived some ages before Pythagoras flourished. Which is a witness of an happy combination of the profoundest skill in Nature and the purest Religion, in that Philosophy which was afterwards called Pythagorical, of any that ever could be found, out of the acknowledged Church of God, and may well amuse us from whence they had it, if not from thence. 7. But then the purity of this Philosophy abated, when ever they admitted the worship of Angels. For the due Object of our worship is One, as well as Invisible: Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One, and Deut. 6. 4. there is no God besides him: of which the immediate consequence is, that he alone is to be worshipped; according as our Saviour Christ has also ratified it, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou Luk. 4. 8. serve. And the Author to the Hebrews arguing the Divinity of Christ, produces that in the Psalms, Let all the Angels of God worship him. Chap. 1. 6. Which, if Religious worship were not due to that alone which is God, would not infer Christ's Divinity. And lastly, even the very second Council of Nice, who were over-favourable to Images, did yet condemn the Arrians of Idolatry in holding Christ but a Creature, and not very God. And Nestorius was stigmatised with the odious style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Man-worshipper, in that he held Christ a mere Man. For both the Arrians and Nestorians held that Christ was to be worshipped, though he was but a Creature; which that Synod concluded absolute Idolatry, whether the worship be with an Image or without it. As also the Synod of Laodicea makes the praying to Angel's Idolatry. And Epiphanius concerning the Persians, he says they abhor Images, and yet they worship Idols; meaning the Sun, Moon, and Fire. Gregory Nazianzen likewise (as I have above noted) places Idolatry simply in transferring that worship which is due to the Creator, upon the Creature; according to which notion Aquinas also and Bellarmine define it. And, lastly, S. Jerome roundly affirms Idololatram factum esse, si quis tres Deos credit. See Dr. Rainolds, De Romanae Ecclesiae Idololatria. So plain is it that Idolatry is not confined to the worshipping of an Image, Lib. 2. cap. 9 but to the admitting of more Objects of Divine worship then that one true God. For the worshipping any more is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Jews call it, and is most frequently and most significantly termed in Scripture Fornication, which looks more at the Plurality of the Objects of worship then the Kind's of them. For this Spiritual Fornication is committed where we worship any thing besides him that is the Creator and Conserver of all things. CHAP. IX. 1. The necessity of knowing what Religious worship is, for the discovering of Idolatry. 2. The faultiness of the distribution of Worship into Latria, Dulia, and Cultus civilis. 3. That Christ only, who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, has such a middle Excellency as may admit Religious worship. 4. That the excess of Excellency in God above that in Saints and Angels is so infinitely more than the excess of excellency in Saints and Angels above that in Men, that it is extremely forced and irrational to allot worship of one denomination to the first and second, and not rather to the second and last, which, they being fellow-citizens, might rightly be called Civil. 5. That no kind of Religious worship is due to Saints and Angels, proved by the Angel's refusing to be worshipped by S. John. 6. And also from the near affinity of our natures with theirs. 7. To whom Origen pronounces Good men equal, nor allows the glorious Stars, though they were intellectual, to be worshipped. 8. That the Religious worship of Saints and Angels is no duty of ours, as being reducible to the Precepts of neither Table. 9 That Religious worship is but One, and due to God only, proved from our Saviour's answer to the Devil. 10. As also from the Author to the Hebrews, arguing the Divinity of Christ from Religious worship due to him, with several other testimonies. 11. An Answer to an Objection. 1. THus we have found out the adequate latitude of the Object of Idolatry; that it is whatsoever is not truly God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Apostle speaks to the Galatians. But unless we have also the Knowledge Chap. 4 v. 8. of what is Religious or Divine worship, and when or by what we give this worship to that which is not truly God, we shall be still at a loss how to discern when ourselves or any one else commits Idolatry, and when not. 2. There are some who for the better palliating their unjustifiable practices have framed a smooth story; namely, That there are as many kinds of Honour or Worship as there are of Excellency; and that therefore there being three kinds of Excellency, Divine, Humane, and a middle betwixt Humane and Divine, as that Supernatural grace and glory of the Saints and Angels, there are also three kinds of Worship, Latria, Dulia, and Cultus civilis. But the distribution had had less fraud and better Logic in it, if it had been bipartite; for than would have appeared more plainly what kind of Worship they mean by Dulia. For they will not have it Civil worship, in that it is a distinct member therefrom. It remains therefore that it must be Religious worship, though they were afraid to speak out what they harbour in their breast. For indeed Religion, which in its prime and proper sense is nothing else but Cultus Numinis, belongs the jure only to the true God; and if it be transferred to any thing else, it is Idolatry or Superstition. But if they would have dealt above-board, and like honest men and exact Logicians, they should have distributed Honour or Worship, first into Religious and Civil, and then, according to the sense that they intended, subdivided Religious worship into Latria and Dulia. But this being craftily aimed at and supposed, though not so plainly expressed, and indeed being the chief thing intended, That Religious worship is due to Saints and Angels as well as to God himself, I shall direct my answer only against this mistake. 3. First therefore I say, That that ground of allotting Religious worship to Saints and Angels is very weak, namely, because they have a middle excellency betwixt God and man. For it is plain they have not in a due and strict sense; that being a Privilege belonging to Christ alone, who is the acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God-man, and therefore may justly be worshipped with Religious worship. Wherefore there being nothing that has truly a middle excellency betwixt God and Man, (as a Zoophyton may be rightly said to have a middle excellency betwixt an Animal and a Plant) saving the Man Christ Jesus; there is no Creature capable of Religious worship besides him: nor is he indeed capable thereof but in virtue of that Mysterious union with the true Godhead, and thereby becoming as well God as Man. 4. And then again, there is another fraud, and indeed the more principal and original one, in the distribution of these Excellencies immediately into three, whenas it had been more faithfully and Logically done to have distributed Excellency, first into Created and Increated; and then Created Excellency into that of Saints and Angels, and that of Men. But hereby the boldness and grossness of their assigning Religious worship to that which is but a Creature would have appeared at first sight; the Creator standing in contradiction to it, who is infinitely more Excellent than any glorified creature whatsoever; or rather, whose degree of Excellency above the most glorious Creature that is, is infinitely greater than the degree of Excellency of Saints and Angels above Men. Whence appears what a rash and forced thing it is to hold together two Excellencies betwixt which there is that infinite distance, in one common capacity of receiving Religious worship; I mean the Divine Excellency, and that of Angels and Saints: whenas the Humane Excellency and that of Saints and Angels are infinitely nearer one another, and therefore infinitely more fit to receive worship of one common denomination to both. Which may very well be termed Civil, the glorified Saints and Angels and Good men being but fellow-servants and fellow-citizens of that new Jerusalem which reaches from Heaven to Earth; according as it is written, But you are come to the Mount Zion, and to the City of the Heb. 12. living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, and the Spirits of just men made perfect. Which shows plainly that Saints and Angels and Good men upon Earth are all of one communialty, Citizens of the same City, the new Jerusalem; and fellow-citizens you know do not give Religious worship one to another, but only Civil. 5. Nor yet fellow-servants; as the Angel argues to John in the Apocalypse; And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, Chap. 19 See thou do it not; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: Worship God. Now if the Angel here refused Civil worship, how groundless a thing were it, nay how disallowable, to have offered him Religious worship? And if he refused Religious worship though present, how unlawful is this worship, suppose but Dulia, to a Saint or Angel being absent? And if that worship tendered was Latria, and not Dulia, why did not the Angel rather say, I am thy Fellow-creature, than thy Fellow-servant? And lastly, if Dulia be a warrantable worship, and rightly given to Angels, why was not that Angel so charitable as to interpret John's worshipping him, to be that kind that was lawful and warrantable? or why was he so uncharitable to the Church, or injurious to his fellow- Angels, as to vex the one with Scrupulosities about this duty of worshipping Angels and Saints, by his so nice declining the Homage, and to deprive the other of their due, by his so eminent example, that in all likelihood would be so prevalent with the Church, that it would hazard the belief of the whole duty of Angel-worship? But I believe the distinction of Dulia and Latria is so subtle, that the eye of an Angel could never spy out any such chink or least crack in Religious worship, whereby it might be broke asunder, or so divided that any the smallest part thereof may fall to the share of that which is not truly God; as Saints and Angels assuredly are not. So plainly doth it appear both from the sense of Scripture, and that infinite disproportion betwixt the distances that are found betwixt God and the Creature, and betwixt the Creatures themselves, that only Civil, not Religious worship is compatible to them. 6. But thirdly, There is not only this infinitely-vast distance betwixt God and a Creature, the best Saint or Angel that is; but there is (which I have already given an hint of) a very close cognation and near affinity of nature betwixt Saints and Angels and Good men. For as for the glorified Saints and Good men upon Earth, besides that they are of the same species in their natural respects, so their Graces are alike, though not in the like measure; they both being Regenerate by one and the same Spirit, and therefore are both in a supernatural condition. How then can that Honour due to the one and the other toto genere differre, that one must be Religious worship, the other Civil? And there is so little difference betwixt a glorified Saint and an Angel, that a Good man will be found to bear the same proportion of excellency to both; and therefore it is plain that Religious worship is due to neither. 7. Origen, though he can admit the Sun and Stars (out of his want of better skill in Philosophy) to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be rational Contra Cels. lib. 5. and virtuous creatures, nay so holy and so good as to put up their prayers uncessantly to God through his only-begotten Son; yet he does strenuously dehort from adoring them or praying to them: which creatures notwithstanding were vastly more glorious than any glorified Saint, if they were such as Origen surmises, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only in regard of their sensible light admired by the Vulgar, but for the true and intellectual. How far think you then would this holy Father have been from allowing Religious worship to either Angel or Saint? Nay he speaks a bold word in another place; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, But neither are the good and blessed Genii or Angels, as we call them, saith he, above men once accomplished in Reason and Virtue. How could he then ever have dreamed of giving Religious worship to Saints, in whom there is something a nearer likeness or cognation with us? 8. Fourthly, If there be any such Religious worship as Dulia, to the duties of which of the Two Tables does it belong? to the First or to the Second Table? The Second concerns our duty to our Neighbour. But if Saints or Angels be our Neighbours, how comes Religious worship due to them? If they be not, how come the Deuce of the Second table to be challenged by them? If Dulia therefore have any place at all in the Tables, it must, according to our adversary's supposal, be referred to the First. But to which of the Commandments therein? Does God his forbidding to have any Gods besides himself infer Divine worship due to Angels or Saints? or his being a Jealous God, that his pleasure is to be worshipped in an Idol? For such is every thing that is not God, and yet is Religiously worshipped. Wherefore he that will assert that Dulia is a duty owing to Saints and Angels, must forge a Third Table for it, and have the impudence to add it to the Decalogue, and blame Moses for a very great omission. For there were as worthy Angels, and as capable of Religious worship, in his time as ever there were since. 9 Fifthly and lastly, Those two places which I produced to prove That God alone is to be worshipped, will also prove That Religious worship is but One: as that in S. Luke, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. The force of which Answer Chap. 4. made to the Devil by Christ, when he would have tempted him to fall down and worship him, surely consists in this, That no Religious worship is to be given to any but to God alone. For that the Devil did not require that which is called Latria, is evident in that he did discover himself not to be the Highest Numen, in acknowledging that the disposing of the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them was but committed to him from another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and therefore he had them not from himself, and consequently did not pretend to be the most High God from whom are all things. Wherefore the Devil could not be so unreasonable as to expect, nor so foolish as to demand, that our Saviour should do any Worship unto him as to the most High God, whenas he had already confessed himself not to be so: but that which he drove at was to get him to do Religious worship to him, such as is done to the many Gods of the Nations on this side of the notion of the most High. But the sense of our Saviour's answer is, That there is not any Religious worship at all belonging to any saving to God alone: and being out of patience (if I may so speak) at the motion to so impious an Act, he calls him Devil, for that so enormous a suggestion; none but Devils either requiring or admitting the doing of any Religious worship to them. He does not abstain from worshipping him because he was a Devil, but concludes him a Devil, because he not being the true God, would yet be Religiously worshipped. Nor did he answer, Thou shalt only worship God and the good Angels; but, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. Wherefore there is but one only Religious worship, namely that which is due to God. 10. The like also is manifestly inferred from that to the Hebrews, where the Author of that Epistle proving the Divinity of Christ, citys that of the Psalms, Let all the Angels of God worship him: which questionless is understood of Religious worship, or else it would be nothing to the purpose; and yet if there be two kinds of Religious worship, Latria and Dulia, it will be still as little. So plain is it that there is but one kind of Religious worship, which is appropriate to God alone. Nor could the Arrians by the Council of Nice be justly deemed Idolaters, nor Nestorius an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if there be more kinds of Religious worship then one. For neither Nestorius nor the Arrians could mean by that worship they gave Christ, the worship of Latria; for that had been expressly to acknowledge him to be what they so obstinately denied him to be, namely, the true God. Wherefore the Synod and S. Cyril, and as many else as judged the Arrians Idolaters and Nestorius an Anthropolatra, do plainly give witness that Religious worship is but One. 11. Nor can that affectionate respect we show either to the Bible when we kiss it, upon the taking of an Oath, or that which we do to the holy Prophets of God, or his Priests and faithful Ministers, when we reverence them as such, disturb our account, or pretend to an example of another kind of Religious worship. For I absolutely deny that it is any Religious either respect or affection at all to the Bible, or to a man of God; but that out of that Religious respect and affection we bear to God himself, another emerges toward those things that relate to him, but quite of another kind; to persons, Civil; but to inanimate things, if they be compared with persons that are holy, it were scarce any boldness to adventure to say it is a species of respect less than civil: But differences are where we have no names to call them by. And it seems to me as absurd to infer, Because I have a respect for the Bible or any holy man of God, from a Religious regard I bear to God himself, that this to the Bible or the holy man is also a Religious reverence or respect; as to infer, because a woman out of that conjugal affection and respect she bears to her husband, has also from thence (which otherwise she would not have) a respect and affection for his spaniel, that that affection or respect she bore to the spaniel, should either be, or be called, a conjugal affection: which is harsh and ridiculous at first sight. CHAP. X. 1. A right distribution of Worship into its kinds. 2. The Definition of Religious worship. 3. That the exhibiting of honour to any undue Object, though forcedly or feignedly, by Signs appropriate to the acknowledgement of the Divine Excellencies, is palpable Idolatry. 4. And that therefore there are no stints, or specific degrees of Religious worship; no Dulia, nor Hyperdulia, but all Latria. 5. That Religious worship is not applied to a thing by directing it towards it as a Circumstance, but as an Object; and therefore the misapplication thereof as to an Object is requisite to Idolatry. 6. But not that this application should be made as to God himself. 7. That the Heathens themselves never committed such a piece of Idolatry, as to give Religious worship to that which they knew not to be the Supreme God, as to the Supreme. 8. That Religious worship being but One, makes every application thereof to what is not God, Idolatry. 9 That the inculcation of the Divinity of Christ proves every Creature uncapable of Religious worship. 1. WHerefore we being so well satisfied concerning the Oneness of Religious worship, we shall be able to make a more true and logical distribution of Honour or Worship then what was above produced; dividing it immediately, first into Religious and Civil; and then Civil into Political, Oeconomical, and Moral; and Political again into Secular and Ecclesiastical, or else into Temporal and Spiritual, either terms being well enough known. By Moral worship I understand such honour or respect as passes from private men one to another, or at least as to private, upon account of Moral worth; such as Liberality, Wisdom, Fidelity, and the like: the rest the very words will interpret. Nor is it pertinent to my scope to meddle with any but the first, namely, Religious worship; for the understanding the nature whereof I have taken all these pains hitherto. 2. Which I conceive is rightly defined thus: A Devotional acknowledgement of the incommunicable Name or Excellency of God, by the performance of some outward Rite or Ceremony appropriated to that end or purpose, namely, of externally signifying our inward acknowledgement of the Divine Name or Excellency. This is a true and the most general definition that can be made of Religious worship. For that Religion that is placed in worshipping Saints, Angels, Daemons, Images, and the like, is truly Irreligion, Idolatry, or Superstition: but is no more to be called Religious worship, than Vice Virtue, Injustice Justice, or Cowardice Fortitude, whatever abuses of the word may have crept in by the unskilful and inconsiderate. 3. Now since the giving of Religious worship to that which is not God, is Idolatry, and that Religious worship in this true and proper sense is nothing else but a Devotional acknowledgement of the Divine Eminency, by certain appropriate signs significative of this our agnition; it is demonstratively evident, that where there is such a devotional acknowledgement by these signs made to that which is not God, it is ipso facto Idolatry. Nay though these appropriate signs were used without Devotion by the party toward the supposed Object, (which is worthy our observation, and true; because a plenary pravity or defect is not requisite for a vicious action) and were intended only by other men to be directed thither, or only were interpretable by custom to be so directed, it were Idolatry notwithstanding: Or else the sin of Idolatry could not be forced upon any man, nor needed any either Jew or Christian to have scrupled the flinging incense on the Altar to any Pagan-Deity, no not to have sacrificed whole Hecatombs to them, if their purses would have born it: And whoever died martyrs upon this account, it were to be imputed rather to their madness or folly then to any true and solid piety. Wherefore as it would be Blasphemy, though it were extorted by fear, and that a man's heart gave not assent thereto, to say, That Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, but an Impostor: so the using of the Appropriate signs of the acknowledgement of the Divine Excellency to that which is not God, though the assent go not along, is notwithstanding the acknowledging of that to be God which is not, (as that Blasphemy was the denying of him to be that was) and therefore cannot choose but be flat Idolatry. 4. And if Idolatry be committed without the party's devotion toward the undue Object, then let a man fancy this external Religious worship accompanied with as small degrees of Devotion or inward intention as he pleases, it will not fail to be Idolatry still. Which Consectary is of singular use for the convincing men of the folly of such subterfuges as are sought in these new-coined terms, of Dulia and Hyperdulia and Latria, whereby they would signify certain differences or degrees of Religious worship, indeed distinct kinds thereof; whenas it can be but One, according to that true Definition we have given of it. For every act or effect of our Religious affection to God, expressed toward things or persons, is not straightway Religious worship, as may plainly appear from the definition thereof, and from what we have already intimated in the foregoing Chapter. But to return to the matter in hand. 5. By this general notion therefore of Religious worship, we have got now a considerable step nearer the discovery when Idolatry is committed; namely, when we perform some Rite or Ceremony, that is to say, some external Religious action, appropriate to the signifying our acknowledgement of the Divine Eminency, before, or rather unto, that which is not truly God. Where by before, or unto, I understand an intended direction (by ourselves, or by others, or at least by interpretation of custom) of this Religious action, as to an Object we would honour thereby. For that is the only thing whereby the action becomes Idolatry. For there will be always a necessity of performing our Religious Rites before or towards something or other by way of circumstance of Place, which yet may be without the least guilt or suspicion of that crime. Wherefore it is the intended and accustomary application of the appropriate signs of the acknowledgement of the Divine Excellencies unto an Object where the Divine Excellencies are not, that is to say, to any thing that is not truly God, which is this heinous sin of Idolatry. Thus much, I say, must be; and thus much alone, without the superaddition of any thing else, does fully complete the nature of that sin. 6. For those that fancy themselves so marvellously sly and subtle in foisting in this requisite more, viz. That the application of these signs appropriated to the signifying of that honour we own to God must, in Idolatry, be made to the Creature, as to God himself, that is to say, with an intent of conciliating to the adored Creature the esteem of being very God; do assuredly commit a gross piece of folly in daring to make such an assertion. For as a woman that renders or gives up to one that is not her husband what is appropriate to her husband, to wit the use of her body, let her fancy what mental restrictions or directions of her intention she will in the act, is questionless a downright Adulteress: So whosoever applies the Appropriate acknowledgements of the Divine Excellency, which is Religious worship, to that which is not God, let him mince it as well as he can with mental limitations and restrictions, if he once pass this Religious worship upon this undue Object, he is thereby without all controversy a gross Idolater. And as her saying she did not do it as to her husband, will not excuse her from Adultery; so the other's saying he did not do it as to God, will not excuse him from Idolatry, which is Spiritual Fornication. 7. Besides, if Idolatry be not committed but when the Creature is religiously worshipped for the most high God, or as if it were the most high God, intending the worship as to such; it will be hard to find an example of Idolatry in all Heathenism. For amongst the many Gods they worshipped, there was but One worshipped as the most High, whom the Latins styled Jupiter, the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who was accounted the Father of the Gods, and which gave occasion to Aristotle to use this expression concerning the distribution of duties and respects, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That Ethic. Ni●… lib. 9 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 all respects or duties are not to be paid to the Father, as all Sacrifices are not made to Jupiter. But those that were not made to him (which surely were the most) were no Idolatrous worship according to this Hypothesis, nor those that were made to his Statue by them that took it not for Jupiter, nor those that were sacrificed to Jupiter himself as to the Father and Original of all things; for this is a sound notion of the true God. Wherefore by this compute very few, or none in comparison, amongst the Heathens will be found Idolaters. Which is so incredible a Paradox, that that which infers it must needs be concluded a falsehood. 8. To this you may add, That, in that we have already proved That Religious worship is but One, the application of it to any Object upon any terms, saving to the only true God, is ipso facto Idolatry. 9 And lastly, if the appropriate signs of Religious worship might be used in the veneration of a creature, to what end is the Divinity of Christ so expressly set down in the Holy Writ, and so zealously contended for in all ages of the Church? For the Divine worship we give him, according to the fond assertion above mentioned, might be done unto him though he were a mere man. So exceeding manifest is it, That the application of the appropriate signs of Divine or Religious worship (for they are all one) with the intention of thereby honouring that which is not God, though they do not thereby intent to worship it as the most High God, or as the true God, is an Act of Idolatry. CHAP. XI. 1. Sacrifices, Drink-offerings and Burning of Incense appropriate Signs of Religious worship, according to Grotius, as also whatever else consent of Nations has made so. 2. Also Vows, Oaths, Ask supernatural Gifts, Invocating Saints or Angels while they are invisible. 3. Or to ask of them, though visible, any natural boon at an Altar, or in a Temple consecrate to them. 4. Images erected, and dedicated in Temples, or on Altars, a Mode of Divine worship; with a prevention of an Objection. 5. Songs also and Incurvations may be so framed and circumstantiated as to become such Signs. 6. That every Idolatry is Blasphemy; as also to give the Name of God to any creature, both. 7. A general Distribution of the appropriate Signs of Religious worship. 8. A prevention of a subterfuge, from the pretence of a larger signification of Religious worship than we have given, all our future convictions depending only upon the truth of our Definition of Religious worship in that sense we have declared. 1. WHerefore we want nothing now for the clear discovering when Idolatry is committed, but a distinct and determinate knowledge of the appropriate Signs of Divine worship. Which truly I think are not hard to be known. Grotius, a person not overforward to fancy that Idolatry which is not, has expressly named three, Sacrificium, Libamen, Suffitus, which he calls Venerationis Signa, quae consensus Gentium Divini cultûs esse propria voluit, and so has not only afforded us Examples, but a Rule how to find out proper Signs of Divine worship; namely, that at least those are such that consent of Nations has made so. And I think it seasonable here (because some do so rashly appropriate Sacrifice to that which they call Latria, as if this sign of Religious worship were adequately proper to God, others communicable to other Objects) to take notice, that if they mean by Sacrifice the Mactation of living Creatures, that manner of worship not being in use amongst Christians, it must needs enhance the nature of other Signs of Religious worship, and make them the more apparently incommunicable to any created Object, which yet were really so, though this case were not. But this only by the buy. 2. Vows also and Oaths Grotius acknowledges to be part of this kind of Worship, as also The praying for the Holy Spirit, for Remission of sins, and for Eternal life. These then, according to him, are not to be asked of an Angel, though he were visibly present. To which I will make bold to add the Religious invocation of any Angel or Spirit absent or invisible. For as, because God is the only giver of Eternal life, of Remission of sins and of the Holy Spirit, he that asks so high things of any Creature, acknowledges the incommunicable Excellencies of God in that Creature so also he that invokes any invisible Angel, Saint or Spirit, does in like manner acknowledge an Omnisciency and Omnipresency in this Saint or Angel, which are the incommunicable Excellencies of God. 3. Nay I add further, That the ask of such things as are in the power of a creature to give, as suppose a fit medicine for such or such a malady, or assistance in danger upon the way in a journey; if the one be asked, suppose, of Aesculapius in a Temple and at an Altar consecrated to his Ghost, and the other of Hercules at one dedicated to his; these petitions of such feasible good offices, yea and, if you will, begged of these Ghosts or Daemons present there and visible, (and there is the same reason in Saints and Angels) would not fail notwithstanding to be Idolatry; the Consent of Nations having made the erecting and dedicating Temples and Altars for Prayers, Vows and Sacrifices a Sign of Divine worship, and it was, you know, the formal worship of the most High God, the God of Israel, while the Temple stood, whose residence was conceived more peculiarly upon the Cherubims, which were concealed from the eye of the People, that they might not commit Idolatry with them. 4. But the Gentiles very depravedly used this circumstance of Religious worship, and made their addresses towards the open Images, or Statues of Divine residence, consecrated to that purpose, where the God was to receive their Offerings and Prayers. So that though all Nations at all times did not use this representation of the Divine residence by Images, yet where it was in use (which was exceeding general) it is manifest that it was part of the Divinest worship, and such as they used towards the Highest Numen. And seeing that this manner of Divine presence or visible Residence by Images was not only used in the worship of the inferior Daemons, but of such as were styled Dii coelestes, (whom assuredly they could not think exiled from Heaven to assist at these earthly Statues) it is a sign that the Image itself was reckoned for the visible presence of the Deity they did adore, and consequently that this representation of the presence of the Deity, whether the Deity be personally there present or no, is that which by Consent of Nations has passed into an ordinary mode of Divine worship. Nor can the erection of Temples, Altars, or other Symbols of Religious worship, to them that are not Gods, make these cease to be such Signs or Symbols. For then, since they all have been after that manner abused, there would be no signs of Divine worship left at all. But rather on the contrary we are to conclude, that whatever things were consecrated to the worship or honour of the God of Israel, that to consecrate the like to that which is not God is an invading his right, and a manifest act of Idolatry. 5. Hymns also, and Incurvations, as they may be framed, will be avoidable Signs of Divine worship: as namely, if this Incurvation be made to any particular invisible power, while he is invisible; for it is an acknowledgement of one of the incommunicable Excellencies of God, viz. his Ubiquity. For we may bow any any where to the invisible God, because he is every where: but to bow to any particular Angel or Spirit, while he is invisible, is incongruous, because he is not every where. Therefore he that does this worship to him as congruous, does therewith, interpretative, acknowledge by that act an Ubiquity in him; and thereby becomes an Idolater. Incurvation also towards an Image erected to any Creature (especially in a Temple, or on an Altar, yea though removed from both) were a sign of Religious worship or service by infallible definition, Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them: that is to say, Thou shalt not do the service of Incurvation, nor any other Religious service to them. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Service is Cultus religiosus, of which Incurvation in such circumstances is assuredly one kind; I mean, exhibited either to an invisible power, or to its visible representation in an Image. Concerning the latter whereof, Consent of Nations has also made it an appropriate Sign of Religious worship, especially in a Temple, as I noted before. And now for Hymns, I say, the framing of a Song to the praise of any created Being, suppose Sun, Moon, or Daemon, if there be such Epithets therein as signify the incommunicable Excellencies of God; as if one should begin, O Sol Omnipotens, or, O Luna Omniscia; this would certainly not fail to be the giving of Divine worship to the Sun and Moon▪ upon which account Martial seems to me not a flatterer only of Domitian, but an Idolater, in that Hendecasyllabon, Edictum Domini Deique nostri. Wherein he writes after Domitian's own copy, who taught his Ministers of State this Epistolar form, Deus & Dominus noster sic fieri jubet. Which if it might be more tolerable in Pagan Kingdoms, where Dii usually amounted to no more than Angeli amongst us; yet in Christian Nations, where God is an incommunicable name, as the Author of the Book of Wisdom intimates, the calling of any man God cannot but be Idolatry, or Blasphemy. 6. But not the less Idolatry for being Blasphemy, sigh every Idolatry is so. For Idolatry, by giving the appropriate Signs of the acknowledgement of the Divine Excellency to a vile Creature, (and every Creature is so in respect of God) does equalise that Creature unto God, and consequently makes God as vile as that Creature. Which is a manifest reviling and Blaspheming of him, worse than the calling of a Prince by the name of the basest vermin. I say therefore, in such Countries as the name of God usually signifies the true God, and not Angels, to apply that appellation to any man, is both Idolatry and Blasphemy: as it would be to use any Gesture to him that were appropriate to Divine adoration; which made the Greeks that they would not do reverence to the King of Persia in the Persian mode, because that was the very posture which in Greece they used in worshipping their Gods. 7. These are the chief, if not all, the Signs of Divine worship that easily occur to my mind. And if I have let any escape my recital in particular, they will easily be recalled, if not kept safe in the general Notion I have given of the Appropriate Signs of Religious worship, namely, That all they are such that either Consent of Nations, or the Use of particular Countries, or the natural Signification of the thing itself, or else Divine definition has made so. Of the first sort of which are Meat-offerings, Drink-offerings, Burning of Incense, Erecting Altars, Dedicating Images, and the like. Of the second sort is such or such a posture of Religious veneration proper to such a Country, as in that example of the Greeks, which was obligatory to them of that Country. And of the third, The praying for the Holy Spirit, for Remission of Sins, Eternal life, or for what else is out of the power of the Creature to give; also The making of Vows and Oaths, they implying an absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them in whose name they are made, and not only a knowledge of the fact, but a power of punishing out of the road of Humane laws; of which power and knowledge we have no assurance in any particular Spirit, but in God only. To which you may add The invoking of any particular invisible powers, while they are invisible, though in such things as they are naturally able to help us in. Hymns also, or any Compellations whatsoever made to a Creature, if the words signify the incommunicable Excellencies of God. All these of their own nature, and whatsoever are like these, are the Appropriate Signs of Religious worship, though the Consent of Nations did not give their suffrage; and are not due to any thing, nor lawful to be given to any thing, but to the true God. Whence the misapplication of them to any other Object will certainly be the sin of Idolatry. Lastly, an example of the last sort is Bowing to Images, it being declared in the Decalogue a kind of service of them, according as I noted before. 8. And now, that no man may fancy to have found any creephole to evade the power and plainness of our Reason, by pretending that Religious worship is of a larger extent than what I have defined, I shall here timely advertise him, not only that I matter not what careless abuses there may be put upon a word, or what forced pullings and drawings to make proper terms to stretch for the covering and palliating unproper actions or unsound opinions; but also (and of which I would have him take special notice) that the strength of our Demonstrations will not depend upon the singleness of the signification of Religious worship, (which yet I have sufficiently proved to be but One) but upon the truth of that Definition we have given thereof, in that sense that is there professedly intended. For no man can deny but the Religious worship due to God alone (though he were so extravagant as to conceit some kind of Religious worship due to some Creatures) is truly and exactly defined in the abovesaid Definition. And I promise here aforehand, that my convictions of Idolatry shall be fetched, not from the supposition that Religious worship may have no other sense then according to which I have defined it in this Definition, but only from the truth of the Definition of that Religious worship which is due to God alone; to the end that there may not be the least room left for any imaginable cavil or evasion, or for any shadow or dream thereof. CHAP. XII. 1. A brief enumeration of the parts of that full instruction we have to discern what is Idolatry. 2. That the Adoration of the Cross is Idolatry. 3. As also the Worshipping any Person of the holy Trinity by an Image or Picture. 4. That Religious worship given to Saints or Angels, though without the use of any Image or Picture, is Idolatry. 5. That the mere Invocation of any particular invisible power is also Idolatrous. 6. Certain Evasions touching the praying to Saints answered. 7. Another subterfuge answered. 8. Worshipping Saints by Images a double Idolatry. 9 That it is Idolatry to worship an Image, taking it for the Saint himself. 10. As also the Adoration of any man alive upon Earth. 11. That the worshipping of the Eucharistick Bread, taken for the real Body of Christ, is Idolatry. 12. That all the above said acts are Idolatrous, let men pretend what they will to cover the guilt. 13. And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter does not imply a lawfulness in any kind of Idolatry. 1. WE are now I think sufficiently instructed, partly by the acknowledged examples of Idolatry committed by Heathens or Jews, and partly by the knowledge of the adequate Object of Idolatry, as also of the right Definition of Religious worship and of the appropriate Signs thereof, and of the formal or essential application of those Signs, to discern and define infallibly what would be Idolatry, wherever it was practised amongst Christians themselves, and what not. 2. As for example, To adore the Cross, or to give any Religious worship thereto, though there were no Image upon it, would be Idolatry, according to the First Instance thereof, and of such as are referrable thereto, which show that Idolatry may be committed without an Image. And that it is here committed, is plain, in that we suppose the appropriate Signs of Divine worship used in the adoration thereof. Which done to any creature, is ipso facto Idolatry. 3. Secondly, To do Religious worship to the Picture or Image of any Person of the holy Trinity, or of all three, or particularly to the Image of Christ, though this Religious worship is intended to pass through the representation to God himself, Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, is notwithstanding Idolatry according to the second Instance, where worshipping the true God by an Image is proved to be such. 4. Thirdly, The worshipping Angels, or Saints, yea the blessed Virgin herself, with Religious worship, though without an Image, is Idolatry: And such may be a Religious Invocation of them, the ask of them such things as are proper only for God to give, as Remission of sins, Assistance of grace, and Eternal life; or using any Epithets in Hymns or Songs to them, that signify the incommunicable Excellencies of God; or lastly, making Vows, and Swearing in their names. This plainly appears from the first Instance of Idolatry, and from those kinds of appropriate signs of Divine worship that of their own nature are discoverable to be such. 5. And truly such is the Invocation of the help of this or that Saint, though it were not in those more conspicuous circumstances of putting up our Petitions in a Temple, or before the Image of the Saint we pray to. For the simple Invocation of a particular invisible power is of itself Idolatry, without those other circumstances; because it consequentially attributes that to that power which is only proper to the true God, I mean Omnipresence or Ubiquity. For no man can be assured that an invisible power is in such a particular place, but by Supposition that he is in all places at once; which is the proper Prerogative of God. Wherefore simple Invocation of any particular invisible power is no such slight business as some make it, but absolute Idolatry, nay I think the most fundamental part of all the Idolatry committed by the Heathen, (if rationally and philosophically examined) and the mother of the rest. Or at least whatever great exception there is, or convincingly rational, against those usual Signs of Religious worship being given to these particular invisible powers, it is found here, and is allegeable against Invocation. For the main is, That it implies an Omnipresence of that invisible power they worship. And therefore the Consecrating of a Temple and Altar and a Symbolical residence or visible representation, and Offering of Sacrifices, and the like, cannot be compatible to any but the Allpresent God, whom they are always sure to find at home, if I may so speak, when they make their approaches to his House. But for other particular invisible powers, who knows whether they be at home or no; or whether pursuing, or in a journey, or asleep somewhere, as Elias sarcastically argues concerning Baal; nay I will add, whether they be not carried away captive, and confined to some other place? None can have any certainty of them where they are, or whether ever there where their visible and symbolical residence is erected, unless they be Omnipresent, and of necessity are there, because everywhere: If not, we have no faith nor assurance of their Presence or Audience. But Prayer and Invocation supposes faith and assurance of being heard, at least in that ordinary sense; of which there being no assurance without the invisible Power invoked be Omnipresent, it is plain that he that invokes an invisible Power interpretatively implies its Omnipresence, and consequently, if it be a particular Power and finite, commits Idolatry thereby. 6. Nor can the demonstrativeness of this Reason be eluded or evaded by those usual subterfuges of the Saints seeing and knowing all things by particular revelation from God, or by the exalted peculiarity of their condition in that separate glorified state they are in. For those that talk at this rate rant it, and speak unintelligible riddles, without all ground or probability of Reason or warrant of Scripture; they being mere afterfigments and precarious suppositions to excuse the madness and extravagancy of their Idolatrous actions. For as for the latter surmise, it is plainly a dream, to think the blessed Virgin, suppose, merely by virtue of her glorified and separate condition from this terrestrial body, can hear from Heaven at such a vast distance the devout whispers or suspirations of her affectionate Supplicants, or see through the earth their humble prostrations. For she is called upon by the inhabitants of this Globe in all postures or distances of Habitation, even by those that are Antipodes one to another: where if she assist the one, she must be at least the Earth's Diameter distant from the other, through which distance neither her sight nor hearing can ever penetrate. And for the former Hypothesis, how childish and ridiculous is it! they pretending that they supplicate the Saints to speak to God in their behalf, whenas the Saints cannot speak to God till he tell them their errand first, who has received the message from the Supplicant already, but must impart it to the Saints to say it over to him again; which shows the incongruity of making any addresses to them, and (considering how perfectly appeasable and propitious, and how freely accessible God is through the only name and mediation of Jesus Christ) is such an useless patch and bungle in Divinity, that it cannot seem credible to any man of common sense: and therefore there is no such special revelation to the Saints of our compellation of them in our Prayers, and consequently the Invocation of them (which is proper to God, by reason of his Omniscious Ubiquity) being thus misplaced upon these particular invisible powers, must be interpretatively an act of Idolatry, there being done such an act of worship to them as implies in the Object such an Excellency as is found only in God. 7. Nor will their profession of those diminishing apprehensions concerning Saints in other respects (as, That they are not the true God, but only glorified Creatures, and That they are Intercessors inferior to Christ, and the like) excuse them from Idolatry: For the acknowledgement of any one Divine Excellency and Peculiarity of the Godhead in that which is a mere Creature, is undoubtedly Idolatry; as the betraying any one Castle to the enemy is Treason against a Prince. And the Pagans were esteemed as Idolaters in worshipping Mercury and the whole order of the Medioxumous or internuntial Deities or Daemons, for all their acknowledging them inferior to the Supreme God. So that I cannot see but that the mere Invocation of Saints or Angels is a palpable, nay a fundamental, piece of Idolatry, and in reference to which all the pomp and furniture of Idolatry was superstructed; I mean the building of their Temples, erecting Altars and Images, Incensing, and Sacrificing, and the rest. For all end in, or are circumstances of Invocation, upon faith and assurance to be heard, which cannot be rationally placed in any invisible power, unless it be Omnipresent; which this Invocation does naturally and necessarily imply, else there will be no sense of the action, but it will be very incongruous and ridiculous. For other suppositions are arbitrarious, uncertain, nay incredible surmises touching an invisible power, and upon which there can be no faith not assurance of being heard. 8. Fourthly, And as this worship of Invocation to either Saint or Angel, without the use of an Image, is thus plainly Idolatry; so the invoking them, or any other way of worshipping them with an Image; must be a double piece of Idolatry, and is referrable to the third Mode thereof. 9 Fifthly, The worshipping of the Image, suppose of the blessed Virgin or of any other Saint, upon a mistake that it is the very Virgin herself or this or that Saint, is also Idolatry, and to be referred to the fourth Instance thereof. 10. Sixthly, To worship any man yet living with Religious worship, whether in gesture, compellation, appellation, or any thing else that is an appropriate Sign of the incommunicable Excellencies of God, is also Idolatry, and is to be referred to the first Instance. 11. Seventhly and lastly, To worship the Consecrated Bread in the Eucharist, though upon full persuasion that it is transsubstantiated into the Body of Christ, and so Hypostatically united with the Divinity, is, notwithstanding this opinion conceited of it, a real act of Idolatry, and is evidently referrable to the last Instance. 12. All these acts or what other soever of the same nature that can be found, though amongst Christians, and upon the pretence of worshipping God and Christ, are assuredly acts of Idolatry, according to the undeniable Notion and Definition thereof, which is, The worshipping that which is not God by the appropriate Signs of Religious worship, such as either use or the nature of the thing itself has made the proper Modes of our acknowledgement of the Divine Excellencies. 13. And now that I have proved such acts as these Idolatrous, I need not bestow any new pains to prove them unlawful; because all Idolatry is so, according to the vote and sense of Scripture and of all men. For to go about to infer that some kind of Idolatry is lawful, because * 1 Ep. 4. 3. Peter mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is as weak and foolish, as if from the mentioning of Impious blasphemies against God, one should infer that the party that spoke so supposed that some blasphemies against God were not Impious. Wherefore it is plain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added not by way of distinction, but of aggravation or description; as when we say Alba nix, or Corvus niger, which are not intended in common speech as notes of distinction of Crows or of the Snow into white and black, but as Epithets denoting their nature. The practice therefore of such actions as we have enumerated, if they be introduced into the Christian Church, will prove one Branch of Antichristianism, and a chief one too, and their doctrines that aver the warrantableness of them must be false and irrational. CHAP. XIII. 1. That the professing one only true God does not necessarily quit a People from the guilt or capacity of being Idolaters. 2. That to exhibit such Modes of worship as are proper to the true God to a Creature, though we take it for a Creature, is Idolatry. 3. That the Jews were Idolaters, though they professed the only true God. 4. That the belief of the Eucharistick Bread being the real Body of Christ does not excuse the adorer thereof from Idolatry. 5. The case of the Heathen that worshipped the Sun, and this of the Bread-worshippers, compared. 6. A solution of a Sophism the Author once put upon himself in excuse of this Bread-worship. 7. That their not thinking the Bread to be in the Eucharist does not excuse the worshippers of the Host from Idolatry. 1. HAving thus evidenced the Falseness of the Mystery of Iniquity in this first point; according to my professed method, I shall proceed to the Fraud, which (as I have already intimated) includes the fallacious pretences and excuses, together with the Self-endedness of the drivers on of this impious Mystery. And truly the pretences and shelters under which they would shroud themselves are very slender and scant, but their Self-ends may be gross and palpable. As methinks that would be a very poor plea for the Christians, namely, that they, forsooth, cannot possibly be Idolaters, because they apertly and declaredly profess that there is only one true God, of a nature infinitely excellent above any Creature, and that therefore if they were Idolaters they should contradict themselves: Wherefore no professors of Christianity, though they did Religious worship to Saints, to Angels, to Images, to Crosses, to a piece of consecrated Bread, could be Idolaters, especially if they shamelessly stand out with it, and outface the world they are not so. But the insufficiency of this excuse is too-too apparent, if we consider how easy and ordinary a thing it is for men to contradict the profession of their own faith. For how many are there, even of those that do truly believe there is a life to come, that do not live as if there were any such thing, and so contradict their belief by their actions? How many are there that professing a particular Providence of God and faith therein, yet in time of straits do not depend thereon, but divert to some unlawful practice, or do some wicked action to relieve themselves in distress, or secure themselves from danger? How many that will zealously declaim against Cruelty and Injustice, as things aborted of God and man, and yet are themselves notoriously Unjust and Cruel in the judgement of all the disinteressed, though they themselves will make a more favourable construction of their own actions, and will stand it out as stoutly for their justification, as these professors of Christianity that they are no Idolaters? It may so far therefore, that, as the Apostle speaks to Titus, men Tit. 1. 16. may profess to know God, but in their works deny him. They may say there is one only true God, yet do that Homage which is due to him alone unto this or that Creature, without saying or intending that this Creature should be taken for the true God, or that they do that Religious worship to it as to the true God. Which is such a piece of Idolatry as never was amongst the Heathens themselves, nor can explicitly fall into the mind of a man, no more then to believe contradictions while he thinks them so, or conscientiously to go against the dictates of his own conscience while he thinks those dictates to be true. So plain is it, that no people can conscientiously and devotionally give that worship which they think due to God alone, unto that which they think is not the true God. 2. But out of inadvertency, ill education, or accustomary Superstition, it is not impossible but that, not knowing or not taking notice that such or such Ceremonies or Modes of worship are properly due to the only true God, they may use them in honour to that which is but a Creature, or the Image of a Creature, be it Saint or Angel; nor can the remembering they are God's Creatures in this case secure a man from Idolatry. For the mistake in the nature of the worship they perform to them does lapse them into Idolatry, notwithstanding they conceive of the Object as of a Creature. And Ignorance can be no excuse, where there is opportunity of being better informed. Nay Incest and Adultery must be accounted and called by us Adultery and Incest, though practised in such countries as allow thereof, and we must say they are a more unclean people than ourselves. 3. To which you may add, That the Church of the Jews were sometimes Idolaters, and so declared by the Prophets of God, though they had not cast away the knowledge nor acknowledgement of their Jehovah, the only true God. Why may not therefore Christians be Idolaters, though they still profess they worship the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, the very same God once incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and so living amongst men upon Earth? 4. And particularly concerning the Adoring of the Bread in the Eucharist upon a belief that it is the very Body of Christ, a Christian could not defend himself from the imputation of Idolatry, neither by the general plea before, nor by the proper plea to this case, namely, That he that thus adores it, does verily believe it to be the Body of Christ or his corporeal presence; I say, he cannot clear himself from being guilty of real Idolatry. For his Ignorance is not his excuse, no more than before. For the sense of his Excuse is only this; That he gives this Divine worship to the seeming Bread, because he verily believes it to be God, and therefore a due Object of this worship; and that he gives no more worship than he thinks is due to the Object. If there be any sense in the Reason and Faculties of a man, this is the sense of their Plea: which if it be sound and just, we do very unjustly to accuse any Nations or persons in the world of committing Idolatry, that were serious in the action. For can they devoutly or seriously doing it, conceive at the same time they do their divine worship to an undue Object, and that that Object is not capable of as much Religious worship as they do to it? 5. There was infinitely more reason that the Pagans should take the Sun to be that true and Eternal God that made and governs all things, as he is professed to be in the fragments of their Liturgies, then that any Christian should imagine a piece of consecrated Bread to be so. And I question not but that the ancient Heathen did as firmly believe the Sun to be God, as any Christian can believe the Eucharistick Bread to be the Body of Christ: But yet notwithstanding I think it never came into any Christian man's mind to doubt but that the worshippers of the Sun were Idolaters. How then is it possible but that a Bread-worshipping Christian upon the same terms must be an Idolater too, there being nothing intrinsecal that can excuse the one but it will excuse the other also? And as for the mitigation of the fault of either side from any exterior circumstances, I briefly add, That the glorious lustre of the Sun, his comfortable warmth, his notable effects, and vast influence upon the world, was a far stronger inducement and more unavoidable to make the Pagans think him to be God, then Hoc est corpus meum, or any gloss thereon by the Fathers of the Church, could justly be, to make any Christian believe that the Eucharistick Bread is the real Body of Jesus Christ. Besides that as Murder and Adultery may have several degrees of aggravation, the fact being still the same; so let the Circumstances be more or less aggravable, as much as men may imagine them, yet the act we speak of is certainly Idolatry. 6. I must confess time was when I marvellously pleased myself in phansying I had found out so clear an evidence, as I then thought, to prove that the adoring of the Host, as it is called, was not Idolatry in them that believed that it was the very Body of Christ. For I thought it as pardonable a mistake as I myself once committed, when I was a boy, in ask a waggish cousin of mine blessing. For in the dusk of the evening, he having by chance placed himself in the Chair where my Father used ordinarily to sit, I passing by to go up to bed, out of mistake begged, according to the custom of children, his benediction, thinking it was my Father; but he rewarding my blind devotion with a ludicrous blessing and loud laughter, I presently found my error. (I know not how far I have transgressed the Laws of decorum in telling this trivial story of myself; but I hope the Reader will pardon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it being so serviceable for my present purpose.) Now the Charitable use I sometime made of this mistake of mine was this; That as I had not the least intention of begging a blessing or doing any act of a filial duty to that unfit person that then sat in the Chair, but to my Father only; and that therefore though a stranger had occupied the place, yet that duty was directed, intended, and indeed done to him alone, though he was not there to receive it: So I charitably concluded (and the imposing so upon myself was a great ease to my mind, being exceeding loath to find any more miscarriages in the world, in the Christian world especially, then needs must) that if a man did Divine Adoration to the Host, he being fully persuaded it was the Body of Christ, that Adoration did no more pass to the Host then my ask blessing did to him I never intended it for; but that as this latter was entirely directed to my Father, so the former did entirely pass to the person of Christ. This imposement upon myself was a great ease and pleasure to the charitableness of my nature, so long as I thought more carelessly upon the matter. But after making it my business to inquire more accurately into these things, I found that saying of Solomon over-true, That he that increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow. Nor can I apologise for this mistake on this sort, but I must also thereby excuse all the Idolaters in the World that were serious in their Idolatry. For undoubtedly they always took themselves to have a due Object of their worship; and what is Idolatry but the not having a due Object thereof? Wherefore if thinking we have will excuse us from Idolatry, no devout and serious Idolater was ever guilty of the sin; which is an enormous contradiction. Besides, there is a great difference betwixt a sudden surprisal inevitable for one single action, and a constant repetition of the same mistakes; and still greater, if we consider what a loud warning there has been given in these latter ages against this so palpable error of Transubstantiation; men having strained their voices, and called to them not only ad ravim usque, but till they have spit blood, and spilt their own lives by freely and faithfully testifying against that Idolatrous falsehood. And therefore where men either take up or persist in this gross error & in the ill effect thereof, it must be now unexcusable Idolatry in the judgement of all men that believe the Eucharistick Bread not to be the Body of Christ; of which Truth there is as great a certainty as of any one thing in the world. 7. Nor, lastly, would that Evasion serve their turn, if they should contend that they cannot be said to adore the Bread, because they do not think it there. For the case is much-what the same with the former, and needs no new answer. But I demand, Whether is it less Idolatry to adore the Accidents of the Bread, which they acknowledge to be there, or the Bread itself? And if the Body of Christ be not there under these Accidents, their act of Adoration falls upon the visible Accidents of Bread: which if they be of less nobleness than the Bread itself, their Idolatry is the greater. Besides, the Heathen who adored the Sun, did not think that Being which is really the Sun to be there, (for the Sun is nothing else but an Inanimate and unintelligent mass of flammeous matter) but thought it the glorious Godhead itself, which they worshipped as an Intellectual Power that created and governed all things, as I have already intimated; and yet no man will say that this excused them from Idolatry in worshipping the Sun. Where then is their Excuse that pretend they are guiltless of that Artolatria they are fallen into, because, forsooth, they think the Bread is not there, that is to say, that that which they worship there is not Bread? For the Pagans did not take the Sun, in our sense and notion of him, which is the true sense, to be there; though the external species of the Sun seems alike to both us and them, as the external species of the Bread seems alike to both the Artolatra and his accuser. CHAP. XIV. 1. The fondness of distinguishing betwixt an Idol and an Image, when they are both made Objects of Religious worship. 2. That nothing but what is essentially and infinitely Excellent is a due Object thereof. 3. That the absence of the Saints from their Images does not excuse the Idolatry. 4. The unlikeliness that there is any true Image of Christ, if it were lawful to worship it. 5. But that it is unlawful to worship it, though there were. 6. That the whole Decalogue is moral. 7. That the use of Images for Memory and Devotion was also the Plea of the Heathen. 8. That External Objects in Divine worship hinder the perfection thereof. 9, 10. Other material allegations against the pretended use of Images in Churches. 11. That there are many other ways of exciting Devotion in the people, infinitely surpassing this of Images. 1. THat also would be but a lame excuse for the worshipping of the Images of Saints, namely, That they are not Idols, but the Images of the holy Saints of God and Christ; but that an Idol is the Image of some Heathen Deity, such as Bacchus, Venus, Apollo and the rest, which were supposed to reside in the Idols themselves, whenas the Saints are with Christ in Heaven. As if any Image whatsoever to which Religious worship is given, were not an Idol. For there is no difference betwixt such an Image and an Idol, but that the one is a Greek word, the other Latin; they both signifying the likeness of something or other. And the making of such is but an harmless piece of art: but whenever such likenesses or similitudes of things or persons receive Divine honour or Religious worship, they do ipso facto become Idols in the worst sense. Nor is there any sufficient reason why the Image of Bacchus or Ceres, being worshipped Religiously, should become an Idol, and the Image of Peter or Paul should not; or that the Invocation of the one should be Idolatry, and of the other not. For the worshipping of the true God by an Idol is Idolatry; wherefore the worshipping that which is not God by an Idol is double Idolatry. And this is the case as well in worshipping the Image of Paul or Peter, as of Bacchus or Apollo. 2. For even Bacchus and Apollo and Ceres and the rest were Benefactors to mankind in the gratifications of the Animal life, as I have elsewhere Mystery of Godliness, Book 3. noted at large. But they were not infinite Benefactors. Mars, its likely, was a valiant Warrior when he lived on earth, but he is not Jehovah Zebaoth, God Omnipotent; and Apollo was a Wise and skilful man, but not Omniscient. Wherefore they having not these Divine Excellencies in them infinitely and essentially, they are uncapable of Divine honour. Now there is the same reason for our Benefactors in Spiritual and Divine matters, as in those that are Animal and Natural: For the ground of the unlawfulness of our doing Religious worship to Mars or Apollo, is not that they were Benefactors only in those things that concern the Animal life, but that they were not the Infinite and Essential Authors and Originals of those perfections: And therefore S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. John, yea the blessed Virgin herself, though they were excellent patterns, and powerful persuaders to the love of God and all the duties and accomplishments of the Divine life, and were singularly well accomplished therein themselves; yet they being not infinitely and essentially good and holy, they are as utterly uncapable of Religious worship (which in this case would become Idolatry) as any of the other. And they that would commit this Spiritual fornication with them because they are so holy and so good, would be as ridiculously impious, in my apprehension, as those Sectaries are that are reported to make nothing of carnal Adultery or Fornication with an holy Brother or Sister, but with the profane and ungodly they will refrain themselves from that liberty. 3. Nor can the supposition, That the Souls of the Saints are not in the Images of the Saints, as the Pagan Daemons were supposed to be in their Idols, have the least show of a solid excuse: For the presence of the Saints would make the act of worship seem more excusable, they being thereby more capable of such devout addresses and compellations. But these subterfuges are so slight that they are not worth the insisting upon. 4. The Apology for worshipping the Image of Christ may be more plausible, in that he was truly God, and yet of a visible shape and figure. This indeed would be no frivolous plea for the lawfulness of making his Picture or Effigies, but will not reach the warranting us to worship it. Besides, who knows what was the right feature of our Saviour? And then how ridiculous and foolish is that affection and pleasure in contemplating the Picture which we take for his, when in all likelihood it is neither like him, nor any one else? For it is not probable that the sad and aggrieved Spirit of our Saviour and his serious followers had so little to do, as to concern themselves in having his Picture drawn, who was a * Esay 5●… man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But being that the Divinity was Hypostatically united with Christ's Humanity only, and that his visible Person was of a certain shape and figure peculiar and individual, and that it is pretended from this Union only that the right of worshipping his Image does arise; if the Image be not the Image of Christ, (as it happens often, they say, that the Virgin's Image is not hers, but of the fairest, though not always the chastest, of the City) but the Image of some body else, or an Image made at random, and it may be of no body that ever was, the ground of this warrant for the worship of this Image will fail, so that none can be assured but that he committeth Idolatry. 5. And besides, though it were the true Image of the Humane feature of Christ, and this the pretended ground of the lawfulness of the worshipping it; we forget in the mean time that Christ himself is not a due Object of Divine worship but as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not a mere Man, but God also. But what Painter or Statuary can describe or carve out his Divinity? or what union is there betwixt that and his Statue or Picture? And lastly, what licence have we to break the commandment of God, who expressly forbids us the worshipping of the Image or Similitude of any thing; nay the very making of an Image or Similitude for Religious worship? For the very Title of the First Table, which is concerning the Honour of God and his worship, shows plainly that this is the sense thereof. 6. And for my part, I do not question but that the whole Decalogue is Moral, and that we are as precisely tied from Image-worship as from Adultery itself. For why should Moses mix duties of such different natures in one short Decalogue? especially he copiously delivering his positive Laws, whether Ceremonial or Political, in other places. For the forbidding simply the making an Image is no precept at all, but only the prohibition of making an Idol thereof; and therefore those words, Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them, are added exegetically for the avoiding all mistake, and plainly intimate that Idolatry is there forbidden, and not simply the making of Images or Pictures; or Images are forbid to be made in relation to Idolatrous worship, as I intimated before from the nature of the Title of the First Table, which concerns Religion or our duty to God. Moreover, why were these Ten Commandments more especially said to be writ by God's own finger on those Tables of stone, but that it was typically to indigitate to us, that it was that Law which is also writ in our hearts by the finger of God, durably and permanently; and that if every man's mind were wiped and cleansed from that dirt and filth that lies on it, those Eternal Characters of indispensable Morality and Reason would conspicuously and legibly appear there, and close with the Decalogue as a most just and righteous Law? We know that our Saviour has in a very special manner honoured the Decalogue, by his pointing to it as the way to Matth. 19 17. eternal life. And the general consent of the learned of old hath made it an abridgement of the Moral Law: Nor can any one that duly considers the nature of it but acknowledge it an everlasting Law of God to his Church, even in the literal sense thereof. But in the behalf of Christianity (which requires a more Spiritual worship then ordinary) so to Spiritualise the Decalogue as to leave men free to Image-worship, seems to me a spiritualizing it into gross Carnality, and to be both as impious and ridiculous, as the spiritualizing the Commandment against Adultery into an holy licentiousness of lying with their neighbour's wife without sin or shame; which they say is accounted an high pitch of Christian liberty and perfection with some Sectaries. 7. The last excuse that occurs to my mind in the behalf of the Religious use of Images in Churches is, That these are helps for Memory and Devotion, the mind of the vulgar being so gross and flagging, and so estranged from all sense and conceit of the Deity and Religion, that it must be fetched up by these palpable and visible engines, on which they can lay hold, and so bear up their Devotion and affection toward divine things by the helpful artifice of these exterior props. But this plea is in common with the Heathens and lapsed Christians: And that Apology must needs look fallaciously, that will serve as well a confessedly-bad cause as a pretended good one. Maximus Tyrius of old defended the use of Statues in Religious worship after this sort, alleging that they were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissert. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, only signs of the honour we do to the Deity, and a manuductive method to the re-minding us thereof. But for those (saith he) whose memory is more firm, and the sight of their Mind more directly penetrative into the Divine presence, these have not the need of such helps: But he pretends they are very few. Much to this purpose you may read in this Sophist, who having taken notice of the several ways of Idolatries, as we must call them, in several countries, and how all the while there may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God in their Heart, though their affection be stirred up to him by some external representation, as that of Lovers is to their absent friends by their Pictures or any token else that relates to them; he at last fairly and plausibly concludes his Dissertation with this caution or admonition; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That is to say, If an exquisitely-wrought Statue put the Greeks in mind of God, some holy Animal the Egyptians, a River others, and Fire others; I am not offended at the diversity; only let them understand, only let them love, only let them remember, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, only let God be in their mind. 8. But truly in my apprehension, to fix a man's sight upon either River, Cow, or Statue, so as to take notice he does so, (and if he does not take notice of it, to what purpose does he look on it?) is the next way to exclude God out of his mind: For who can think of two things at once? Wherefore those Religious Symbols which will least of all take up our animadversion, or fix it to themselves, but leave it free to God, are the fittest for the more perfect worshipping of him; and (what is yet closer to our purpose) the having no Object in our worship but what is truly God, will be the safest way to lodge our Mind with him, and to think more truly, comprehensively and devoutly of him, than we can possibly while we pretend to see him or conceive him in any Statue or Picture whatsoever. For the apprehension of his infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Power, his infinite Mercy, Justice and Truth, and the effects of these, the vastness of his Providence, the sense also of his Ubiquity or Omnipresence, and that in him we live, and move, and have our Being, is a more lively representation of the Deity than the exquisitest art or costliest materials can afford. But if any seek an external Image of God that falls under the Senses; behold the best and fairest is this All that we see: which yet is but a small matter so far as our sight can discern. What a pitiful representation than must any particular thing be, whether Natural or Artificial, for the setting out the Divine Majesty, and how unfit to pretend to become an Object, in any sense, of Religious worship? How far short must it fall of the inward representation in the Virtuous Mind, whenas that in the Mind does so hugely exceed the largest and fairest prospect the Eye can take of this visible Universe? Wherefore whatever is interposed betwixt God and us by way of Object in our worshipping him, is not an help, but an hindrance, to the perfection of that Worship. 9 And if we may compare small things with great, (as the Analogy does in some sort hold) the Character of the Virtuous life of any Saint is a better and more useful Image of the Saint, and will conciliate a greater love and honour of him, than the seeing of his Picture or Statue. For no figure, posture, nor colours, can decipher or set out Sincerity. For every artificial Feature, look it never so well and devoutly, is but the livelier picture of Hypocrisy, because it is not what it would seem to be. Not to repeat my former allegation, that it is not credible that any of the afflicted primitive Christians spent their time so Idly, as to sit to have their Pictures drawn, much less the blessed Virgin or holy Apostles of Christ. Which mistake makes Religious worship done to their Images ridiculous, as well as Idolatrous. For it is a sign that none of these Images are true, in that they all pretend to be so; as if all the Saints of God had been great admirers of their own earthly shadows, when there is no likelihood that any of them were. So entirely and universally contemptible and reprovable is Image-worship in Christianity. But to return. 10. So far therefore (as touching the Deity) is this Imagery in Churches from erecting a man's mind to the remembrance of God, and a due and worthy sense and knowledge of him, that it sinks it lower, and fixes it upon mean and trivial objects; nay indeed, out of inadvertence and an heavy proneness to sensible matters, depresses it, plunges and immerges it into gross Idolatries: and (as touching the Saints) instead of warming it into an affectionate admiration of their virtues, makes it fall into such sins as were most zealously avoided and abominated by them. 11. To all which you may lastly add, That this plea is still more weakened in the case of Christians, there being sufficient Props and Engines, nay Screws and Pulleys, if you will, to raise men's Love and Devotion in that palpable and sensible Commemoration of the Death of Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the world. God is Love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him. What better sense, apprehension, or representation of God can there therefore be, then that of an infinite Love? And what better means to raise us to any proportionable pitch of the sense of this Love, than the celebration of the Passion of Christ, who poured out his own most precious blood for the redemption of the world? Besides, the coming to an appointed place of public worship at solemn times, the approaching and continuing there with reverence, the putting up plain and easily-intelligible prayers to God, the hearing of the Scriptures with easy and plain Expositions of them; certainly such duties and performances as these will bear men up more firmly by far into a sense of the Deity, than the viewing any Imagery whatsoever. And if you add the singing of Hymns or Psalms, whether with the Organ or without, provided it be done well and tunably, it will excite the Devotion of the people much more powerfully, and with a more determinate sense and greater edification, than the Dumb shows of Pictures and Images, which can speak nothing, when abused to Idolatry, but the folly and unfaithfulness of their Setters up. Also domestic reading to people, or teaching them to read, will make the presence needless of these silent Masters. What want is there therefore of either Images or Idolatry for either improving our Knowledge or exciting our Devotion, or for the preventing our relapse into an utter oblivion of God and the sense of Divine things? CHAP. XV. 1. That the general End of this impious and useless Idolatry and Image-worship is the Profit of the Priest. 2. Several artifices of making these Images gainful to them. 3. The gainfulness of Transubstantiation the cause of the admitting it to the making up the full Stature of Antichristianism. 4. What a wonderful and powerful intercessor the Priest seems upon this pretention. 5. Various ways of the improving this gainful persuasion. 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle. 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction, and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity. 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak, yet their Self-ends therein are palpable. 1. WHerefore their Pretences for Idolatry and Image-worship being but mere Sophistry, let us consider what Self-endedness may keep up such unworthy practices. And truly the plot cannot lie so deep but every one may easily see it that is not wilfully blind. For there may be driven the same trade that was in jeremy's time by the Idolatrous Priests of the ancient Babylon, such as he notes in his Epistle, * Vers. 2●…. As for the things that are sacrificed unto Idols, their Priests sell and misspend: in like manner their wives lay up part thereof in salt. And not far after, * Vers. 33 The Priests also take of their garments, and clothe their wives and children. In brief therefore, The End of Image-worship may be the enriching of the Priest, and all the abovesaid pretences and excuses forged and framed merely to keep up that gain. For unless there were some such Mystery of Profit underneath, it were a wonder that the Christian Priesthood should retain any such custom, that is so palpably contradictory to the Word of God, and so expressly and particularly against the Second Commandment, and so great an offence to sober and conscientious Christians, and lastly so huge a rock of scandal to both Jew and Turk. 2. It is therefore not hard to imagine how they having erected the Statue of this or that Saint, of the Virgin Mary, S. James, S. Peter, or the like, handsomely adorning them, and setting them out in a competent liveliness of personal shape; that they may teach the people (who are too prone to these Spiritual fornications, especially being animated and emboldened by the counsel or example of their lenocinant Leaders) not only to open their mouths to them in prayer, but their hands also in various offerings; having imbued their rude minds with a superstitious fear of the Saints displeasure, if they approach empty-fisted; and, it may be, by some artifices make the Images to seem to frown or smile upon them, according to the scantness or largeness of their gifts; or at least provoke the offerers emulations by hanging up in view what has been given to the Image, with the names of the devouter and more liberal Clients. The giving out also that this or that Saint has a special power for doing such or such miracles, for healing such or such diseases, for aiding in such or such straits or exigencies, were endowed with such or such a measure of Pardons or Indulgences; how strongly would these surmises attract the devotions of the simple, even to the making Vows to them in Danger, and the going on Pilgrimages to their Temples or Chappells? where being brought into the visible presence, as it were, of the Saint himself, represented by his well-adorned Statue or Image, (either out of a conceit of some help done to them already, or in expectation of some future succour) they cannot for shame but offer at least proportionably to their ability, not doubting but the more liberal Clients of so good and powerful a Patron shall not fail one way or other to receive at least a full pennyworth for a penny. But they do not consider in the mean time, that the imitation of any peculiar Virtue in any of those Saints would oblige them more (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if they have any knowledge of humane affairs) to do all the good they can, then if a man should lay down all the wealth he has at the feet of one of their Statues; and that an hearty prayer directed to God through Christ would gain more favour from them, then if it had been directed to themselves. As any good Christian would sooner relieve a poor man whom by chance he found earnestly breathing out his wants to God in secret, then if he had begged relief of himself. 3. We see plainly therefore what a Gainful trade may be driven in the maintaining of the Invocation of Saints and of Image-worship. And if some such like prop did not uphold that Mysterious conceit of Transubstantiation and the Idolatry thereon depending, assuredly so huge an Extravagancy, and so repugnant to Scripture, and contrary to all Sense and Reason, would not have the possibility of being any part of that Idea of Antichristianism which I am a-describing: For it could never get into the Church of Christ upon its own score, but as it served some other end or design; at least it could not be retained there, when once seriously sifted, unless it were found very advantageous to the maintainers thereof. 4. What Self-ends therefore, will you say, can be served by the pretence of the power of doing so stupendious a miracle, as the changing the Bread in the Eucharist into the very Body or Corporeal presence of Christ? Why certainly very great ones, and mightily advantageous to the Priest. For he that is supposed to have the power by pronouncing four or five words to make Christ Jesus, who is God blessed for ever, personally and corporeally present, cannot be well imagined to be straightened so in the effect of his intention, but that, Christ's personal presence being thus procured, he will bring to pass those very designs the Priest intended in procuring it. As very few doubt but that he that can raise a Spirit to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an hard straight, can procure of the Spirit to assist to that end for which he was raised. Wherefore supposing the Priest has power to bring this real 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 down into Corporeal presence by such a divine charm, as they would make it; who can suspect but that Christ being bodily there, he will assist, favour and effect any allowable end for which the Priest by virtue of the words of Consecration brought him thither? I say, Christ being thus really and Corporeally there, (Body, Soul, and Divinity) and being thus visibly and personally offered up by the hands of the Priest, in the opinion of the people, for the procurement of this or that favour of God; they cannot at all doubt but that he, having such a pledge in his hand, will not fail of obtaining any thing, that is not plainly sinful, at the hands of God. For if he has thus palpably given him his own Son, how can he withhold any thing from him? Certainly, they that believe the Priest in the first, cannot easily misbelieve him in the second. 5. Wherefore the Priest might safely pretend that by virtue of this offering up Christ really and personally in the Mass, and of his direction of the intent of his own action therein, this Sacrifice will be available for both the living and the dead, for the sick and for the sound, for both man and beast; that he can thereby deliver Souls out of Purgatory, free men from the plague, heal cattle, drive away fevers, or prevent the toothache, recover lost goods, cure the soreness of the eyes, give victory against a man's enemies, procure a good husband or wife, and what not? Wherefore the Sacrificer being conceived to be invested with so mighty a power; if he will but be so free and accessible, as to be persuaded upon occasions to make use of it either for love or money, may he not certainly have his choice? Whence it is plain, that if the Priesthood would enrich themselves upon this account, it is entirely in their power; and that they would receive money for such holy performances and so pious uses, is not unimaginable. And therefore it is no hard stroke in this Picture I draw of Antichristianism, to suppose that the opinion of Transubstantiation may be stoutly and tenaciously held up, for the upholding and increasing the Wealth of an Antichristian Priesthood. For if the opinion be false, as most certainly it is, it is the mother of Idolatry; and therefore the Founders or Abettors thereof may be justly termed Antichristian, especially it being supposed that it is maintained for the love of filthy lucre. 6. But it may not be Wealth only that is the End and Design of this monstrous doctrine, but the exaltation of their persons into a greater esteem and honour than can well be humane. For to transform a piece of Bread into the real Person of Christ, is little less than to create our Creator. And if the blessed Virgin, for being the Mother of God, does in their judgement deserve what they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a kind of worship little inferior to Divine honour, such as we give to God himself; what respect must they think themselves worthy of that fancy themselves the Creators of that very God of which the Virgin Mary is said to be the Mother? Certainly it would puzzle men to conceive a way of expression of sufficient honour and respect for such a wonder-working Priesthood, who in this one miracle, which yet is ordinarily and easily done by them, (though our Saviour was fain to groan for it when he raised Lazarus from the dead) who, I say, in this one miracle, of changing the dead element of Bread into the living Body and Person of Christ, do outdo all the Miracles that Christ ever wrought, by this creating of him who was the worker of all those Miracles, and that even then when he does not cease to be; and (which is another great miracle) without making the Bread seem to any of our Senses any thing altered from what it was before. What honour or privilege may not they claim to themselves, that assure the people that they are the ordinary workers of so stupendious, so incomprehensible, and so impossible a Prodigy? 7. Verily they that have derived upon them so boundless and miraculous a power, which exceeds, nay is repugnant and contrary to, the strongest Laws of Physics, Logic and Metaphysics, can it seem any more than a modest claim in them to challenge an exemption from all Politic Laws also, unless of their own making? For how holy, how sacred a person must he seem to the world, who so easily and so frequently can work so astonishing a miracle? And therefore how uncomely a thing would it be that the Secular powers should pretend any Dominion over one that is endued with so divine a power? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For it is as if they would take upon them to give laws to God himself, (as Aristotle speaks of his Polit. lib 3. Heroically virtuous:) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For it is fit that such an one should be as a God amongst men, that is to say, such an one that is so eminently and superlatively virtuous as he there describes. What then must he be accounted that is thought to have a power (which is a more sensible Object of the people's admiration) either equal or superior to God himself, who, as ordinarily wise men conclude, cannot do any thing that implies a contradiction to be done? Wherefore if the degenerated Christian Priesthood could persuade the people that they had the power of doing so huge and incomprehensible a miracle, that tends so infinitely to the advancement of their esteem; it could be no wonder that they were zealous maintainers of the Imposture, it conciliating to them, with such as believe it, so mighty credit and respect, and saving them the labour of that harder way of winning it, to wit, by unblemished Sanctity and Exemplarity of life, and by a true and sound knowledge in the Mysteries of the Religion they profess. 8. Wherefore though the Pretences and Excuses for the Invocation of Saints, the worshipping of Images, and the adoring of the Host be slight and trivial; yet we see the Self-ends of these Idolatrous practices may be very substantial and palpable: but both put together make up that Antichristian Fraud (and assuredly it is an eminent one) that is discoverable in this first and chief Limb of Antichristianism, which is the Introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ. CHAP. XVI. 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God. 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels, is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them. 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry. 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloody Wolves and Bears: 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities. 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness, and eternal death to the Idolater. 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home; 9 And the spreading thereof hindered abroad: 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby. 1. WE will now briefly consider the Mischief of this horrid enormity, which reaches either to God, (as much as any mischief can reach him) to the Saints, to the Idolaters themselves, to the Church, or to the rest of the World. The sin of Idolatry is the most properly injurious to God of any sin, it so peculiarly touching the right of his Honour or Worship: which Honour he will not give to any other, nor suffer to be taken from him. And indeed it is highly reasonable it should be reserved entire to himself, no other Tribute being compatible to him but this. For God, who is that Infinite Fullness of Perfection, can want nothing; but we having all received of his fullness, and possessing nothing but therefrom, it is according to the sense of that Eternal Law of Reason and ingenuous Gratitude, as well as according to the express injunction of the sacred precepts of Scripture, that there should be proper Homages of Divine honour peculiarly due to so Infinite a Benefactor, which to alienate or profane by applying to any creature, aught to be reputed the most accursed and execrable Sacrilege that can be committed. This robbing therefore of God of his honour, of which he every where professes himself so jealous, and so wrathful a revenger, is the highest affront or injury that can be committed against that glorious Majesty of Heaven. Which point is so confessedly true, that it is needless any further to pursue it. 2. The next seems more Paradoxical, That by the excess of honouring and worshipping of the Saints we should injure them and abuse them, or by giving them overmuch respect become guilty of disrespecting them. And yet it is in very truth so, if examined to the bottom. For the zealous and careful yielding of that honour which is done to them implies our belief or opinion of their acceptance: but for them to accept of that honour or worship that is due to God, (as all Religious and Divine worship is) is to be Rebels and Traitors to the Divine Majesty, usurping, or at least accepting of his Rights and Prerogatives, and, in stead of being Saints and faithful Subjects of Christ and his Heavenly Kingdom, to be transformed into Titans and Giants or Children of Lucifer, that would ascend the throne of God, and divide his Empire amongst themselves. Wherefore whosoever pretend that the Saints accept of such Homages or services to them, do in effect proclaim to all the world that they are proud and vainglorious, nay that they are Traitors and Rebels against God; and thus instead of honouring them, do really injure them, reproach them and blaspheme them. 3. The Mischief that is done to the Idolaters themselves is very great and obvious to observe; Image-worship and Saint-worship debasing the Mind, and making it superstitious and pusillanimous, begetting in it a crass or gross conceit of things, making the spirits course and carnal and leaning towards Corporeal matters; so that the exteriority and palpability of the exercise of their affections in this sort toward Divine things inclines them with a greater proneness and readiness to be transposed upon other visible objects, and to fall quickly from caressing and embracing cold Statues and Images and such like sensible and palpable entertainments of their Devotions, to the courting of warm flesh, and to the polluting themselves with such sins of uncleanness as the ancient Pagan Idolaters were signally guilty of. For indeed all such Ludicrous and Superficial Religion must needs leave the body of sin entire and untouched, and the inward Mind dead and starved; so that the full reins will be given to every impetuosity of the Flesh, and foul Lust and bloody Wrath and Zeal for those Idols of Fornication (as it fares in enraged Gallants in the behalf of their Mistresses) must rule and overrun all. The crasseness, I say, of these Superstitions leaves the mind unmortified and unilluminated, but raises a zeal for them both ignorant, bloody and barbarous. Which, methinks, is a sad condition for any Soul to be found in. 4. But that this bestial Rage accompanies the love of Idols, (to omit several Examples in Scripture) is a Truth largely writ and testified by the blood of those innumerable companies of the primitive Martyrs, who with so much reproach and so many kinds of tortures were put to death for despising or opposing the ancient Pagan Idolatry, as is confessed by all. And Idolatry, whether Pagan or Christian, will naturally dispose them that are really devoted to it to the like cruel fury and madness. And though the cruelty of Bear or Wolf seems more the mischief of them that suffer by them, than the evil of those beasts themselves; yet for that Circe that metamorphoses men into these savage shapes, few or none do doubt but that she injures their humane bodies. What a mischievous Circe then is Idolatry, that transforms the Mind into such beastly salvageness? 5. And as for Uncleanness; that it is so close an attendant upon the worship of Idols, is also a Truth very often intimated in holy Scriptures: as in the Epistle to the Romans, where the Apostle expressly affirms, that Ch. 1. 26, 27. because the Heathen changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator (or rather besides the Creator;) for this cause God gave them up to vile affections; the women changing the natural use into that which is against nature, and the men likewise leaving the natural use of the women, and burning in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error that was meet. Also in the first Book of the Kings, upon the mentioning of the building of Ch. 14. 24. high places and Images, presently is subjoined, That there were also Sodomites in the Land, etc. The places are so many and so obvious where even unnatural uncleannesses are linked together with Idolatry, that it would be needless, as well as tedious, to recite them. And therefore it is a very suspicable thing, that where Idolatry seizeth most on the Church of Christ, all manner of uncleanness will there be most rife also. 6. But, methinks, I am too favourable in my charge against Idolatry, while I seem to restrain the Mischief of it only to Uncleanness and Cruelty. For the Author of the Book of Wisdom does not stint the effects thereof to these, but enlarges them also to Dissimulation, Theft, Unfaithfulness, Tumults, Perjury, and what not? * Ch. 14. 16, 27. For the worshipping of Idols, saith he, not to be named, is the beginning, cause, and end of all evil. And S. Paul in the abovenamed Epistle makes it the fountain of all manner of vices and wickednesses: which he doth not rashly, but very rationally conclude. For even as they did not like to retain God in their Rom. 1. 28 29. knowledge; so God, saith he, gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not meet; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, men of evil machinations, disobedient to parents, devoid of judgement, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. So great a deluge of wickedness breaks in upon men by their being addicted to Idolatry. For Apostatising from God by this heinous sin, God also forsakes them, as the Apostle intimates. And besides, The sottishness of Idolatrous worship, that calls out the Affections to such gross and unfitting objects, does naturally lay the sense of better things asleep, and extinguish the true life of Religion, which is the renewing the Mind into the Image or similitude of God and Christ; which consists in an holy and peaceable love, and in a pure, chaste and unpolluted spirit, unspotted of the vain desires of this present world. Whence the introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ must needs be the overflowing it with all manner of vice and wickedness. But that consideration belongs rather to the next point, The Mischief that redounds to the Church from Idolatry; to which I shall immediately pass, after I have but briefly intimated one Mischief more which falls upon the Idolater himself, and of which I think he will be most sensible, and it is only this; That he shall have his portion in the Lake that burneth with Rev. 21 〈◊〉. fire and brimstone, which is the second Death, that is to say, that eternal Death and destruction that will assuredly attend all such enemies of God. 7. The Mischief that accrues to the Church from Idolatry I have partly hinted already, namely, that it is the most likely way to debauch her with all other manner of vices, and does ipso facto transform her, who should approve herself the pure Spouse of Christ, into the abhorred condition of an Harlot. To which you may add those great agonies and aggrievances of spirit that the true members of Christ are cast into by beholding such abominable practices; besides their personal unsafety, and danger of barbarous persecutions, and those hard trials and disquieting solicitudes that naturally will attempt them, as they are men consisting of mortal flesh and liable to all the evils it exposes them to; and finally the actual injuries, reproaches, imprisonments and multifarious Deaths that would fall upon the sincerest part of the body of Christ, for opposing, or refusing to partake with others in their Idolatrous Abominations. 8. And yet this is not all: There is still a very grand Mischief behind, and exceeding considerable, done to the Church by this fearful sin of Idolatry; and that is, The hindrance of her spreading and propagating herself in the world. It is part of our Christian Faith, as we make profession of it in the Nicene Creed, That there is One Catholic and Apostolic Church. Which implies that the Church has a right to be Catholic, to be universally spread over the face of the Earth; and that the true and proper Character of this Catholic Church is to be Apostolical; That whatsoever Nation or People, or part of any Nation or People, profess that Doctrine and Discipline which was delivered by Christ and his Apostles, become immediately thereby part of the Catholic Church; and those that profess and enjoin Doctrines and practices that are Anti-Apostolical, run the hazard of losing the true title of Catholic, and of making themselves indeed no part of the Church of Christ. And certainly Idolatry is as Anti-Apostolical, as contrary to the Apostolic Doctrine, as any thing can be. Wherefore the introduction thereof into the Church of Christ is the rescinding so many Souls from the body of the Church as are persuaded to entertain it. Whence it is manifest that Idolatry is as it were a Gangrene in the body of Christ, and eats so much away from it as it seizes upon. 9 But this is not the sole Mischief of this kind done to the Church by Idolatry, viz. The straightening the extent thereof by the divulsion of those that were her true members; but as considerable as this is The prevention or hindrance from making them members that otherwise might be persuaded thereto. For it is very visible that letting in of Idolatry into the Church of Christ, will for ever, while it there continues, exclude both Jew and Turk out of it, who are deservedly so great abhorrers of Idolatry. To say nothing of the Idolatrous Heathens themselves, to whom it would be ridiculous to preach, as the Apostles did, to turn from dumb Idols to serve the living God, whenas they might easily see aforehand, that it would be but the turning from their wont Idols to the serving of new ones. It is a fearful thing therefore to profess the Church Catholic, and yet by introduction of Idolatry to straighten it at home, and hinder the propagation of it abroad by such horrible Scandals. 10. Which is not only a Mischief to the Church herself, in curbing her growth and eclipsing her glory; but a sad disaster to the whole World, (which is the the last evil issuing therefrom:) it being to them the most certain pledge of everlasting happiness, to become members of the Catholic Church of Christ; of which there is little hope in either Jew, Turk, or Heathen, that are conscientious, while this stumbling-block is in their way, and that they cannot profess Christianity without the allowance and practice of Idolatry. Which in my apprehension ought to be reputed a very sad calamity upon Earth. Thus we have seen a competent Description of the First main Limb of Antichristianism, namely, Idolatry, brought into the Church of Christ, under pretence of honour to him and the Saints; with a discovery of the Falseness and Unwarrantableness of that Doctrine and Practice, and the gross Fraud and grand Mischiefs that accompany it. CHAP. XVII. 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burden. 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience. 3. Though this general estimate of the burden of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice, yet he will add a more particular Draught of this Limb of Antichristianism. 4. Of Anointings, and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments. 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings. 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People. 7. A more full description of their Public Service. 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine, then in any Histrionical Pomp: 9 Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious, that it may hazard their departure. 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in religious Vestments. 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion. 12. The ill consequence thereof. 1. THE next Limb of Antichristianism is, The burdening and entangling men's minds with Scrupulosities in either unnecessary or hurtful Observances and Opinions, laying an equal or greater yoke on Believers, by reason of the Multitude of these Rites and Superstitious conceits, than Judaisme itself did upon the people of the Jews, and thereby frustrating that End of Christ's coming, which was, To put a period to such burden some and unprofitable Ordinances, and to conciliate to himself a Church that should worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. Which Burthensomness, as I have already intimated, may arise merely from the multitude of these Ceremonies, though the things may seem slight considered singly and in themselves; as Feathers, that are singly light, may by their number grow heavier than a mass of Lead: And what a man may sometime do out of Idleness or wantonness, to wit, stoop to take up a straw, or to divide clay or dirt into Squares or Oblongs; yet to be kept close to this task, how little different is it from that vile Egyptian bondage of being condemned to the perpetual making of bricks or gathering of stubble? 2. Besides that every toy to which there is once a Religious obligation girds hard with those that are serious and conscientious. And such followers Christ expects, and therefore neither he nor his Apostles would burden them with any thing but what was necessary. But we are exhorted rather to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ has Gal. 5. 1. made us free, and not to suffer ourselves to be brought under the bondage of any servile and unprofitable burdens of Superstition. And our Saviour Christ rebuking the Pharisees tells them plainly, that they worshipped God in vain, while they taught for Doctrines the commandments Mark 7. of men: Forasmuch as laying aside the Commandments of God, they held the Traditions of men, as the washing of pots, and cups, and brazen vessels, and the like. Wherefore if our Saviour Christ was so tender in the behalf of his Disciples, that he would not have them superstitiously ensnared, no not in so commendable and easy an observance as the washing of the hands ever before they did eat; certainly it is utterly against his mind to have his followers entangled and enthralled in an innumerable multitude of less useful Ceremonies: Which, be their natures what they will, yet if by their numerosity they equalise the burden of the Judaical Rites, this general estimate is sufficient to discover it to be no inconsiderable Limb of Antichristianism, in what Church soever such an enormity shall appear. 3. Which I speak not, as if I found it beyond my skill to portray this Limb of Antichristianism more articulately, with stronger sinews and more full and solid muscles. Such a draught therefore of Ritual Ordinances and Dogmatical Observances I will now draw, as I dare appeal to any indifferent judge, whether it will not prove an eminent part of that Mystery that opposes and defeats the purposed Ends of the coming of Christ into the world; which assuredly were to free his followers from Sin and Superstitious slavery. 4. And truly observing how tender and careful our Saviour is in keeping off the least taint of Superstition from his Disciples about washings and eatings of meat, and how expressly he affirms to them in that excellent parable, That nothing that enters into a man defiles the man; it will be Mark 7. easy thence to infer, that much less any thing that hangs upon him, or is about him, can Sanctify or make him holy. Whence in the first place, though I do not lay the greatest stress on it, If we should suppose the Christian Priests to heap to themselves several sorts of Consecrated Garments for greater Ornament and Sanctimony, insomuch that every Priest's Vestments would vie in number with the Vestments of Aaron the Highpriest, and imitate also his in Analogy, his Breastplate, his Ephod, his Robe, his broidered Coat, his Mitre and Girdle; and the Bishops, not content with these, should add for the further adorning themselves (as if they had a mind to outdo the Ceremonial Habiliments of Aaron himself) six more holy Ornaments, nay I will suppose nine more; besides the consecrating of these Priests with holy oil on their shaved Crowns and in their hands; which become thereby so sanctified, that the more devout would eagerly and zealously kiss the hand of the Priest straight after his Ordination, hoping thereby to partake more fully of his devotedness and sanctity: What were this, I say, but to Judaize under Christianity, and to illaqueate the minds of men with such Superstitions as our Saviour Christ came to set them free from? Which intimation is sufficient to show the Falseness and groundlesness of such an Oeconomy in the Church. 5. But as for the pretence for such kind of Aaronical Ornaments, I can imagine none, unless it be the imitation of the Levitical Laws, which is a very bad one; those Laws being to be abolished by Christ. Besides that the Robes of Aaron were of a more * Appendix to the Defence of the Philosophic Cabbala, Ch. 5. Sect. 2, 3, 4. profound and important signification then to be imitated upon any slight or superficial design: as well they as other Mosaical figures being prescribed according to a certain Pattern exhibited by God in the Mount; which being the shadows of things to come, do naturally vanish in this Meridian and Vertical Sunshine of the Gospel. And therefore to bring in so many New shadows, is to reenvelop the Church with darkness, and divert us from the rightly understanding of the meaning of the Old; which assuredly were all Types of that more full knowledge of Jesus Christ and of that inward and Spiritual Sanctity we have in him. But that advantage which this erroneous Priesthood might seek to itself herein is this; That by these Histrionical disguises and peculiar adorn they may become more honourable in the eyes of the People, who are much struck with outward shows, I mean the simpler sort of them; and that their Persons may be accounted very holy, whose Ordination is with such pompous Ceremony, and whose sacred Unction makes it in some sort to vie with the Coronation of Princes. Can they be more through-paced in the imitation of that great high-Priest of the Jews, and adorn themselves with what in analogy should answer to his * See the Preface General to the Collection of my Philosophical Writings, Sect. 3. Urim and Thummim, that is, Illumination of mind and Sincerity of heart; that indeed would be an happy emulation, and would absolve them from an overrigorous pursuance of the rest. 6. But so it is according to our Hypothesis, that instead of so great a good there follow these Inconveniences: That this Sacerdotal Pomp and Gayness to those Priests that understand the nature of Christianity is both a Scandal and a Burden; to those that do not relish Christianity in the right sense of it, it is to them an occasion of insufferable pride and conceitedness, and of great security and neglect of those true and indispensable endowments of the Christian Priesthood, of that Anointing 1 John 2. 27: which will teach them all things, even that of the Holy Spirit of God, which is not lodged in consecrated Garments, but in those purer habits of the Mind, in the Inward man wholly and throughly dedicated to God, by perfect and real abrenunciation of himself, and of the flesh, the world and the Devil, by entirely giving up one's self to the sincere Love of God and of his Neighbour, to Purity and Sobriety of life, and to unfeigned Humility and Self-denial. Which real Accomplishments should be the Foundation of respect to the Christian Priesthood, not those exterior Ornaments that may be the covers of a Beast or Devil. And lastly, for the People themselves; As some are liable to be miserably deceived by those external Pomp's, so others to be much offended; I mean those who are more seriously set upon the real duties of Christianity, and find their wholesome appetite mocked, not fed, with those outward shows in the public Service of God. 7. Which we shall better understand, if we make a more plenary representation of their Public worship, and add to the Consecrated Garments of the Priest the dedicating of an unknown Tongue to their Public Prayers and Offices, to the great disedification of the People. What spectacle could one behold more Antichristian? To see a man in those Sacerdotal disguises, all of them consecrated and dedicated to the purpose, himself having had both Head and Hands anointed with holy oil, standing in an anointed Church, and at anointed Altar, with his anointed Chalice and other anointed Utensils; whose Churchyard is holy by the consecration and benediction of sprinkled Holy-water, for the frighting the Devils from haunting that consecrate ground, and molesting the sleep of the bodies of the Dead; nay, whose very Bells of his Steeple are Christened and Chrismatized for the chase away the foul fiends out of the Air at the departure of a Soul, by their tolling or ringing: To see him in his holy postures now at the one end of the Altar, now at another; now turning his face toward the people, now his backside; one while holding up his hands, another while holding them down, another while across at his breast; now making with his hand a single Cross, now two or three Crosses together; now sitting, then standing, and another while stooping and kissing the holy Altar; now speaking aloud, then muttering to himself in a lower tone, but always in a tongue that is not at all understood by the People: To see, I say, such a Sight as this, and to compare it with that of our Saviour, The hour cometh when the true worshippers John 4. shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him; It would necessarily extort from the Spectator this just Censure, That these are either false-worshippers, or our Saviour's prediction not true, or else the completion thereof past in the simplicity of the Primitive times; or rather that if he would find these true Christian worshippers, he must seek them somewhere else: for here is neither Spirit, nor Truth, nor intelligible language, but all more dark and blind and dumb then in the very Midnight-shadows of the Mosaical Dispensation. 8. And therefore (as I was going to conclude) as the more sottish people will be liable to be even brutishly amazed and amused by this unintelligible and unedifying pomp and spectacle, and be made the more obnoxious to all the Frauds and Tyrannies of this Unchristian, though overmuch Anointed, Priesthood; so the more nasute will be tempted to look upon it but as a kind of circumforaneous Masking or Mumming, nor easily be persuaded that what is so Histrionical or Stage-play-like is serious in any thing but in what the other Stage-players are, which is in the emungeing the people of their money. Wherefore it would not be any wonder to see these better-spirited Christians abhor from these shows, as being so perfectly opposite to the ancient plainness and simplicity of the Primitive Teachers, who, as our Saviour himself, spoke and did all things bonâ fide, and did not distance themselves from their flocks and charges by any garish pomp and multitude of sanctimonious dress, but being even as they were, in a manner, saving that they were greater Examples of Faith, of Humility, of Brotherly kindness, of Contempt of the world, of Patience, and of power of Speech, and effectual Exhortation, and Conviction of men's minds for the corroborating their belief, and inflaming their affections with the love of true righteousness and holiness, (which was an unimitable and indelible Character of their Christian Priesthood) kept and commanded the hearts of the Believers by this Authority of the Spirit discovering itself in the power of Reason and sincere Rhetoric, and sealed and tied all close to them by that indissoluble cord of a reverential and respectful Love, which accrued to them by the purity and unexceptionableness of their conversation; they teaching (as it was said of our Saviour) with Authority, and not as the Scribes, who taught, but did not. 9 The reflection upon which excellent Patterns will strongly tempt the better-spirited people to look upon these Sacerdotal pomps and disguises as a kind of Superstitious and Hypocritical Mummery, and to urge them in the earnestness of their zeal to condescend to approach nearer to them, and to lay aside their Masks and Vizards, and to deal faithfully and apertly, and to declare to them the Truth of Christ, and the Good will of God as it is revealed in his Word; for they profess they are willing to embrace it and to follow it, may they but understand it; nay they are hungry and thirsty after it, but find no food nor comfort in dumb shows: which if they will refuse to do, they are those that cannot admire this way, but rather abhor it, and must leave it, and seek such Pastors as will deal with them in plainness and simplicity of heart. For assuredly such gross and worse than Judaical Corruptions in a Church would force the most serious Believers to forsake the Community thereof, and drain it, as much as is possible, of the sincerest and best-disposed people of Christendom. And this I think is no small nor contemptible Mischief; the departure of Lot being a forerunner of the raining fire and brimstone upon Sodom. 10. But I have not yet evolved all the intangling Superstitions that may lie wrapped up into these Religious or consecrated Vestments and Habits. For it is not impossible but that they may befool the credulous with the belief of some miraculous virtue abiding in them by the power of Consecration or Benediction of the Priest or Bishop. As that, for example, they have the virtue of recovering men from Diseases; of fraying away the Devil and chase him out of the possessed; of procuring remission of sins, both to Gild and Punishment, by the putting them on; and of saving a soul from Damnation, and sending her safe to the blisses of Paradise. So wonderful power lies hid under these religious Habiliments. Which conceits notwithstanding are so ridiculously groundless, that he deserves to be laughed at that would seriously go about to confute them. 11. But some small pretence for the truth of them may haply be fetched from that passage in the Acts, concerning the miraculous virtue of the body of S. Paul, That from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs Acts 19 and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them; and from the virtue of Christ's garment, the touch of whose hem cured the woman of her Bloody issue. But we are to consider That Christ was the Son of God, and Paul a chosen vessel, and those first times were choice and peculiar times of the Church, that required such miraculous assistances from God for the planting of the Christian Faith: that Miracles are for the unbeliever, not for those that already believe; and that those clothes came from or hung upon such bodies as were really anointed with the Holy Ghost, and that in a full measure; not rubbed or smeared in the hands or on the shaved crown with a little ointment, that gives only an extrinsical Sanctity, fills no man with the Holy Spirit, much less to such height that he can work Miracles. Wherefore to make the people believe that the Habits of either Priests or Monks have any such virtue in them, is nothing but an abuse of them into a mighty opinion of the Sanctity of those persons, the touch of whose very clothes is of so great virtue and Sanctity. I say, the End of this Imposture is nothing else but the extolling and magnifying the Priest and other Religious Orders of the Church, unless this esteem carry along with it also some pecuniary advantages. 12. But the evil consequence is the cheat of the people into a feebleness of spirit, and a neglect (I say not, of the advice of the Physician, but) of his counsel who speaks to us to buy of him white raiment, that we Rev. 3. may be clothed and that the shame of our nakedness may not appear: or that of S. Paul, to put on the whole armour of God; to be strong in the Ephes. 6. 11. Lord, and in the Power of his might; to gird our loins about with Truth, and to put upon us the breastplate of Righteousness, to take unto us the shield of Faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. For this furniture assuredly is infinitely more powerful against the approach of the Devil or diseases, than all the holy Habiliments that the Wardrobe of the Church can produce; and will sooner quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, then whole pots of Holywater squirted against him. CHAP. XVIII. 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water, Oil, Salt, Wax-candles, etc. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof. 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax. 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments. 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians; with an Anticipation of an Objection. 5. The Falsehood, Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms. 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses. 7. Of the supposal of the Infant's being possessed, and of Baptismal Spittle. 8. Of Extreme Unction, and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man: 9 As also upon his Corpse laid out. 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices. 1. THE mention of Holywater puts me in mind of another Classis of Superstitions, which might be invented contrary to the Faithfulness and Simplicity of the School of Christ, to the illaqueating of men's consciences, and misplacing their dependences upon Creatures more than the Creator, and to the extinguishing of that comfortable inward sense of his invisible, but omnipotent, Omnipresence, by interposing these vain and visible Objects, which have neither force nor allowance for those uses they pretend to; I mean, the Exorcizing or Enchanting (if you will) of certain Natural Elements, without any warrant of holy Scripture, to endue them with a Supernatural power. As if, for example, the Priest should pretend by the Exorcizing of the Creature of Salt by the living, true and Holy God, to make it become an Holy and Exorcized Salt, for the health of both Body and Soul to as many of the believers as receive it; and for the chase away of every evil Phantasm and unclean Spirit, by the aspersion thereof: and so by the Exorcizing of the Creature of Water in the name of the Holy Trinity, to endue it with a virtue of chase away the Devil and Diseases and every disquieting thing out of an house by the sprinkling thereof, and should recommend the use thereof for the besprinkling their chambers ever and anon therewith, as also their sick folks, their fields and vineyards, for health and increase. The Exorcizing of Wax-candles into a virtue of putting to flight the Prince of darkness with all his Retinue, and of making them run away with fear and trembling from whatever place they are lighted in. The Exorcizing of the Creature of Oil by God the Father Omnipotent, the Creator of all things, that whosoever uses it, the Troops of the Devil may be put to flight, and that he may never be bit by the old Serpent. Also the Exorcizing of Herbs or the Boughs of Trees; the Exorcizing of Bells and the Priestly Vestments: Is it not apparent that all these, and as many more else as can be intented of this nature, are mere Juggles and Impostures? 2. But the Imposture would be more grateful and complete, if we had some fine thing consecrated, that were more portable, and yet of a more universal influence, as also more durable and permanent then most of the former. And therefore the shape of some holy Plant or Animal thus exorcized would be of sovereign use and content, the Rose of Sharon, or the Lily of the valleys, the Dove or Lamb, whose names are sacred to every Christian ear. Wherefore a Golden Rose, impregnated with joy and gladness from the Benediction of the holy Highpriest of this Church, and full of the fragrancy of remission of sins, increase of faith, (though the effect be never found) Divine protection and all prosperity, were a Posy to wipe the Nose of a Prince withal. And so the gentle Lamb made of some more flexible matter, and elegantly limbed, suppose out of Wax, but exorcized into powers and virtues little inferior to that Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, as being made able by a certain sacred Exorcism or Benediction to preserve them that bear it about with them from all the assaults of the Flesh, the World and the Devil, from Pestilence, Famine and sudden Death, from all perils by Land and by Sea, from Lightning, from Tempests and from Abortion, were a Present for an Emperor or Empress. Several such Instances as these might be excogitated, all which I must pronounce to be against the faithful plainness and true power of the Gospel of Christ, and to entrench upon the Reverence of the Name of God, and to be a trespass of the Third Commandment, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Against which Precept I make account those Forms of Conjuration do evidently offend that are found in Books of Magic, as in Cornelius Agrippa and Petrus de Abano, where those Divine appellations, Jah, El, Adonai, Elohim, Elohe Zebaoth, Elion, Sadai, and the like, are made the Elements of their vain and reprobate Art. Which is a manifest argument that the Priest's Exorcisation in the Names of God and his holy Attributes does not excuse him from the guilt of Enchantment, since the Magicians themselves use the Names of the true God therein. And as for the more general Notion of Enchantment, Agrippa defines it to be nothing but The conveyance of a certain mirificent power into the thing enchanted by virtue of the words and breath of the Enchanter. Nor will the phrases or passages of Scripture excuse the Priest from this impiety, since this is both prescribed and practised by these Magicians. Their Pentacles which they hang about their necks when they conjure (which they forsooth for greater grace call the Pentacles of Solomon) are adorned and fortified with such transcriptions out of holy Scripture. Whence it is plain, if any one would take notice of all the special Characters of such an Apostate Church as I am a-describing, he could not omit amongst other Titles to brand them with the name of Enchanters or Sorcerers. 4. Which they might deserve upon other scores, which we have already intimated; as in that they teach people certain Prayers in an unknown Tongue, which they direct them to say for such and such purposes. For what are these but Charms? And the making of Jesus of Nazareth, (who was above sixteen hundred years ago crucified at Jerusalem) upon the uttering a few words, personally to appear flesh and blood and bones, all mantled over with the thin clothing of certain Panaceous Species or loosely-hanging Accidents, is a piece of Magic above the Witch of Endor's and all the Historical records of Necromancy in the world. All which pretensions being so Epidemical or general in this Church we do characterise, who can miss of notifying them by the style of a Society of Magicians or Enchanters? For in that they are mere Pretences, and have no real effect, will not excuse the desert of so goodly a Title, the profession and endeavour giving the Practisers sufficient right thereto. As he that has been casting his Angle a good part of the day into the River, and brings home no Fish, may yet be rightly saluted Mr. Fisherman or Mr. Angler at his return, though not without some kind of Scommatism at the bottom: And he that professes Physic, and has it may be as yet cured none, (but such as would have recovered as well without him) though killed many, is notwithstanding by all men termed a Physician. And generally what men affectedly pretend to, though they cannot perform it, may justly by way of Scommatical reproach be entered into the particulars of their character, for the making up the whole tale of their shame and reproof. 5. What grounds they might make show of for such Incantations as these, I must confess I cannot so easily find. For the Blood of the Paschal Lamb wherewith the Israelites sprinkled the lintel and two side-posts of their doors was not charmed first to convey a virtue into it of frighting away the destroying Angel, but was merely a present Sign, as also a Type of the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ, who as a Lamb without spot was to be sacrificed in future ages for the sins of the world. Nor were the Water and Ashes of the Heifer mingled together with any Exorcism or Enchantment that we read of in Scripture. Nor did Elisha charm the Salt before he cast it into the Waters to heal them, but he used it as a circumstance only or sign in the healing of them: which Ceremonies Christianity has nothing to do withal, nor is there any reason to bring in any more of the ancient Types or Figures than are already made use of by his choice who was unerrable. The ground therefore of such usages is none at all: but the pretence to such power as this, so strangely and marvellously to enchant things to such mighty uses, would make much for the honour of the Priest, who cannot but hereby seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a very great and adorable person to the credulous people, and these Exorcized commodities would be ready money with as many as had belief in them. But the worst is, Faith and Temperance would be looked less after, and Pots of Holywater and enchanted Lambs of Wax would stop those inward living springs of the Spirit of God in the Heart, and help to extinguish that sense of Innocency, than which there is not a greater Tower of defence to a believing Christian against all the fiery and thundering Artillery of the Prince of the Air. 6. These be the most gross and fundamental Superstitions, that look like Magic or Sorcery, which yet might be derived and deduced into various uses and practices, as in the Visitation of the Sick, in Extreme Unction, in Funerals or Burials, in Christen, Church and Marriages, where Holywater, Exorcized Oil and Candles might be frequently made use of, and some of them truly not without some considerable trouble; as in Anointing the Sick, their Eyes, Ears, Noses, Mouths and Hands, nay their Feet and the Reins of their Back: the latter whereof may cause troublesome contests betwixt natural Modesty and Religious zeal in those that have a penitent sense of the transgressions of those parts. The conjuring the Devil also out of the Infant that is to be baptised would seem a frightful thing to the Infant himself, if he understood in what an ill plight the Priest supposes him, while he makes three Exsufflations upon his face, and uses an Exorcistical form for the ejecting of the foul Fiend, who is imagined very saucily presumptuous to take such timely possession of him, to whom he could not but see that Christ Jesus had apparently a better right, as being the offspring of them who were already his, the Child being born of Christian Parents. But here may come in also (beside other Ceremonies) the use of the Holy Oil for the anointing him on the forehead and breast, the putting upon him white Vestments, and into his hand an holy Candle. And, which is more holy than any Oil or Candle, the Priest's own Spittle is also to sanctify his Ears and Nostrils by a gentle smearing thereof on those places. And lastly, that all may be sound and wholesome, the holy Salt may also be put into the mouth of the Child, that his words, when he can speak, may be the more savoury. Thus may the use of the first consecrated Elements, you see, go far, and make the Christian Sacrament of Baptism exceed in Ceremony the Judaical, nay their Circumcision itself: whenas the use of that one Element of Water were sufficient, and One dipping as significant of the Unity of the Godhead as Three are of the Trinity. Yet such large and prolix Shadows might Christianity cast, when the Sun of Righteousness grows towards his setting in the Church. 7. And it is much if something might not appear affrightful to the Women in this approaching darkness. For though it be a gay thing for the Priest to be thought to have so much power over the Stygian Fiend, as to Exorcise him out of the Infant; yet it may be a sad consideration with some melancholic women laden with Superstition, to think they are never brought to bed, but they are delivered of a Devil and Child at once; and that if their Child should die before Baptism, the Devil having got bodily possession of him, will certainly carry him thither where the greatest affection of a Mother dares not so much as desire to give him a visit. Which indeed would argue the necessity of speedy Baptism to the height, but withal depress the afflicted mind of the melancholic Mother with unspeakable anxiety. The Delinition also of the Infant's Ears and Nostrils with the Spittle of the Priest may sometimes strike harshly upon the spirits of the more delicate; but it makes much for the opinion of his Sanctity, whose spumeous excrement is of so sacred a virtue, and will gain also the prayers of all the women in the Town, that he may ever be an hail and sound man. 8. But it were very unequal if the Load of Superstition should be laid wholly upon tender Infancy and our first entrance into this world. Surely that severe Goddess will make them feel her weight also in some measure who are in a way of departing out of it. And truly that Ceremony of Extreme Unction, that pretends to make the passage more glib, to a man not Superstitious would make it more rough and troublesome. The ripping up their Breast also by that sharp tool of necessitated Confession, and then an overreaching Satisfaction excited to the advantage of this or that holy Order, or the uses of the Church, will easily distract the mind of the dying penitent betwixt the care of his own Soul and the provision for his dear Wife and Posterity. But frequent aspersions of Holywater shall be his dilute comfort; and he shall have before his eyes, so long as he enjoys the light, Assistants more cold and dead then those that have lain four days in the grave; the Image, suppose, of Christ on the Cross, another of the Virgin Mary, and a third of the Saint to whom he had particularly devoted himself; where he may, if he will, salute the Virgin's Idol in the very words in which the Angel Gabriel once did her. But if he would lay aside compliments and speak the truth, he might take up the complaint of Job touching these liveless companions, Miserable Comforters are ye all. However in the Interim, what the frequent sprinkling of Holywater can do, and making Crosses on his breast and forehead, or the urging upon him the belief of every tittle the Church has defined to be true, (the Soul now so near her departure being more quicksighted in those abstruse Mysteries) or the promise of Prayers and Oblations when he is in the other State, shall not be wanting for the ease of his Soul: which in his breathing of it out, if he should commend into the hands of our Lady, instead of our Lord Jesus, who is God everywhere ready to save, that precept from the Priest would be flatly against the express Commandment of God, and it would prove a sad Catastrophe of his life to the dying man, to spend his last breath in so foul a sin as Idolatry. 9 But however, as if all had been rightly performed, the Body may be laid out in a decent manner, and a Crucifix put in the hand of the deceased, resting upon his breast, or at least his hands be laid across in stead of a Crucifix, and Holywater be duly sprinkled upon him; which whatever virtue it may have to chase the Devil from the Corpse, yet it will scarce wash his Soul clean from that last sin he committed, nor guard the house from being haunted with Birds of several colours and feathers, that ever smell out a comfortable refection from the fall of every such Carcase. So great a pother and clatter may Superstition make as well at the Exit as Entrance of men into this mortal life. 10. In the midst of such Formalities as these, I must confess the Priest cannot but seem a man of marvellous might and power to the ignorant bystanders, such as have been nuzzled up in the belief of these Superstitions, he administering such present and conspicuous Remedies for the comfort of the sick, as the Fiend-fraying Holywater, the Images of the Blessed Virgin and Tutelar Saint, holy Wax-candles, and the like, guarding the very Corpse, by the power of the Cross and the sprinkling of that Exorcized Element, from all the incursions of the Enemy and every evil Phantasm. But the dying person what benefit he can take by the having his mind distracted and called out to these dead shows, I must confess I understand not, nor can conceive but that they are an hindrance to that more pure and collected passage of the Soul into bliss; and are to the spectators of these Solemnities the occasion of neglecting those better and more inward Annulets against the terror of Death and fear of the Devil. Such I mean as the Renovation of their Minds into the Living Image of Christ, and the triumphing over the power of Sin through the taking up his Cross in the mortifying all our evil concupiscences in our life-time, and the arriving thereby to the comfortable joys and refreshments of the Spirit, and to a permanent and habitual sense of the Mercy of God through a lively Faith in Christ Jesus, (wherein we cannot miss of the assurance of the remission of our sins;) which are the most saving and most holy Waters that we can solace ourselves with or ease the grief and agony of our minds withal, the most precious Oil or Balsam that can be poured upon an afflicted conscience. The breathing after which excellent condition is naturally stopped and stifled by a vain belief in these external shows, and by the relying on these multifarious Enchantments of a Superstitious and imposturous Priesthood, who would bear men in hand that they can carry a Soul through safe to Heaven by exorcized Elements and Magical Artillery levied against the external assaults of the Devil; not considering in the mean time that the radication and growth of sin and disobedience makes the Soul herself in a manner become a Devil, and will necessitate her to undergo the fate of that accursed crew. CHAP. XIX. 1. The burden of Spiritual Cognation, and excessive Numerosity of holidays. 2. Perpetual abstinence from Flesh in some Religious Orders. The Fraud and Mischief thereof. 3. The burden of vowed Coelibate. 4. The more dangerous purposes thereof. 5. The ordinary services done by the monastics to this Antichristian power we describe. 6. That its establishment is much corroborated by the Interest of Monasteries; 7. And enriched by being Heir to all professors of Coelibate. 8. The great Mischiefs of Coelibate. 9 Of Flagellation. 10. The ineffectualness thereof, Hypocrisy of the Penitent, savage Pride of his Church, and the Mischiefs resulting therefrom. 11. Of Pilgrimages and Jubilees. 12. An enumeration of several other Antichristian Austerities. 1. BUT we have leapt thus from one extreme of man's life to the other, whenas there are several things yet to be considered which may make the middle space thereof tedious and entangled, may be unnecessary hindrances to him in his affairs of the World, may be sore afflictions and vexations to his Body, or disturb his Mind with grievous and sad perplexities. I will hint only some few Instances of each. As, for example, if persons by being Witnesses at a Christening should contract thereby such a Cognation as, though it be Spiritual, yet, according to the Canons of this Church we describe, should hinder Marriage betwixt all the Kindred of the child that is Christened and their own; what straightness must these conceits cause in the marrying of a son or daughter, whole Neighbourhoods necessarily contracting such Spiritual Affinities by doing Christian offices one for another? The plot whereof could be nothing else but to drain men's purses of money for the procuring of dispensations from unnecessary Laws and restrictions. The Number also of holidays may be so many, and the observation of them so superstitiously and so strictly commanded, that it may be an unspeakable burden to the generality of the people, who live by their labour, and must starve when they cannot work. But the design is the same as before. For multitude and frequency of Transgressors brings in Mulcts and Fees to the Ecclesiastic Officers; though the smallest penalties must be very cruel that are wrung from poor Labourers that have but from hand to mouth. 2. Again, suppose a considerable number of men were tied up to the Abstinence from flesh all the days of their lives, by a religious or rather Superstitious Rule they are under, in such sort that death were more eligible unto them then to taste of Flesh, by reason of that hold their Vow had taken upon their consciences: What an Iron yoke would this be upon so many Christian Souls? How moped and frantic must such Monastic severities of diet, of lodging and watching make several of them that are entangled in the slavish fetters of this Babylonish Captivity? For which there is no pretence, but that they are so good-natured that they are resolved to merit not only for themselves but for others, and that many such Rivulets concurring together may fill up that Treasure of Merits which the Church must have the keeping of, to sell at a good rate to those Virgins that want oil to their Lamps. This is the public Fraud: but the private is a certain Hypocrisy in these men, whereby they often shake off the indispensable yoke of Christ and the Rule of his Word, by over-valuing of, or craftily hiding themselves under, the self-chosen Sanctity of these Antichristian Rules. And a further Mischief is, that the conceit of meriting thus for themselves and others puffs them up with pride and insolence, and makes them thereby more abominable than they who are under no such peculiar Rules or Orders of Religion. 3. But there is another Abstinence, which urged with like severity and strictness would be equally burdensome to the generality of men, if not more, and is an Institute that seems expressly contrary to the mind of the * 1 Tim. 4. Apostle, who makes it a Character of a Church Apostatising from the purity of Christianity, as he does the other also, namely, that of Abstinence from meats; but this is The forbidding to marry. Which prohibition is not only against the express Law of God, but of Nature also, who, unless in some few, (who may have a peculiar gift of Chastity) is a severe exacter of this Tribute to the common upholding of Mankind. And therefore with them Marriage cannot be well omitted, without very high penalties inflicted by that Nemesis that is interwoven in the very Law of Nature thus transgressed, which I will leave to Physicians more accurately to discourse. Wherefore, I say, to make prohibitions against Marriage, suppose to all Priests and Deacons, and to an infinite number of Religious Orders of men besides, restrained to the Rules of a Monastic life, and to make such Vows as these equally if not more sacred than the very bonds of Wedlock, would be upon Christendom as Antichristian a yoke as almost any Servitude whatsoever can be devised; and would put men and women, that were seriously set to observe it, but surprised in the undertaking it, (by either superstitious menaces, or fraudulent gloze and promises) into such Agonies of Mind and afflictions and distempers of Body, that the burden would be unsupportable. 4. But yet this design would be sure to be driven on in a Church rancidly Antichristian, it being of so great advantage for the Ecclesiastical Powers. For there being nothing there devised with faithfulness, but for the Interest of the Church; let them that are ineptly serious under these Monastic or Coelibate-Vows be pricked as much as they will, as long as there will be held no breach of this Obligation but by taking of a Wife, swarms of men will come under the profession, who becoming in such a peculiar Religious way the members, or rather vowed Subjects, of the Antichristian Highpriest, are thereby really the Military strength of his Hierarchical Empire, and being either hardly or lewdly brought up, may at a dead lift serve his designs in a more carnal or secular warfare. But in the interim, such of this Note as are made more mad by Solitude and Superstition may of their own accord, or by virtue of their Vow of Obedience to their Superiors, being called thereto, approve themselves forward and zealous Assasins for the stabbing or porsoning of Kings, or dispatching any one that appears considerable against the Interest of this Church of Apostasies. Such a dangerous brood of Serpents and Vipers may crawl out into the world from the solitary dust and shades of these Monastic caverns, who may embitter the people, and poison the hearts of subjects against their Sovereigns, and, like the African Jaculi, strike through the breasts of Princes in a sudden surprisal, and spill their Sacred blood upon the ground. 5. But this use is more remote, and lies next to the bottom. That is more overly and exposed to sight, That the profession of so hard a task as totally to abstain from the greatest pleasures of the Flesh, upon a design of a more certain merit of the joys of Heaven, and withal to be so clad as makes a show of being mortified to all the delights of this world, upon a firm expectation of those future contents in that to come, cannot but work much upon the simple and credulous, as if these were the most serious and earnest solicitors of Religion that one can hope to meet withal, and that that Church must undoubtedly be true of whom they profess themselves the devoted Members: and therefore being very numerous, and at leisure singly to assault every one, they would prove the most apt Instruments to captivate or detain the world under this Antichristian power we describe, that any one can imagine. 6. The multiplied Convents therefore of such Angelical Fraternities, how can they but be so many Fishponds digged out for the draining of the Wealth of the respective Nations and Provinces wherein they are made? where every one will be forward to help them in common that pretend to possess nothing in particular, nor to use any thing but for mere necessity or for Pious uses, they being so wholly castrated and mortified to the world. But professing a life so Seraphical, and gaining to themselves even a glory with men beyond what other Achievements of the world will easily procure, their Convents may prove honourable Harbours of retirement even to the Nobler sort of Persons who are otherwise misfortunate in their affairs, or whose birth exceeds the proportion of their riches. Which Accommodations so largely extended is such a binding Interest with all sorts of people, that it is no small establishment, according to humane prudence, to the safety of this Antichristian Polity we speak of. 7. To all which you may briefly add, (for I would not be over-large) that so general a Profession of Coelibate in this degenerate Church tends much to the enriching thereof, it naturally falling to her share to be heir, these devoted Members of her necessarily dying without any Issue they may own. To say nothing of what moneys may come into the Holy Pontifical Purse, when it is a thing of moment to dispense with any one's Vow of Coelibate. These may be the Self-ends that may be aimed at by this Antichristian prohibition of Marriage, against the Law of God and the directions of the Holy Apostles of Christ Jesus. 8. But the Mischiefs which I shall briefly intimate are manifold. For them that are surprised in their Vows, and seriously resolved, but naturally unfit, to keep them, there attends them a tedious servitude under indiscreet or at least severe Governors, and an irksome and sickly solitude. But as for others, the issue is foul and noisome in them, even to the turning of this false Church into a true Sodom and a cage of unclean birds. For this Hypocritical profession of an Angelical Chastity with them will but be the mother of Adultery, Sodomy and Fornication, and of the bloody and remorseless murdering of poor Infants as soon as they come out of the womb, or moretimely if they can rightly hit on it. To which you may also add the weakening and unpeopling of Christendom, and making it less able to oppose their foreign enemies: This false Ecclesiastical Polity, which I am now a-delineating, being more solicitous how without control to domineer and tyrannize over the Layparty, then to secure the common Christianity from the Inroads and Invasions of Unbelievers. But, as our Saviour said of old, The Thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy; and therefore it is no wonder if he have no care nor forecast for the safety and preservation of the Sheep. 9 But there is yet an harder burden that Superstition may invent, and be either added to some of the Monastic Orders, or imposed as Penance, or voluntarily inflicted on a man's self out of a blind intoxicating zeal, the practice being applauded by this not Mother, but Stepdame Church, and it is in a word Flagellation or Whipping a man's self cruelly and bloodily for a Religious satisfaction, or else for Merits. A custom so harsh and savage, that it is more befitting the Altar of Diana Taurica then the Temple of Christ, and has no precedent unless in those Religions which were of the Devil's own setting up, whose sport was his Tyrannising over poor despised Mankind. Such a Pastor as this is not only a clipper but a flayer of his Sheep, and tightly opposite to his Spirit who promised his followers that his yoke should be easy, and his burden light. 10. But such hardships as these, as they make a show in the flesh, so they tend nothing to the right chastising and subduing of the corruptions of the spirit, and are but like the whipping the Cart and letting the Horses go free. That chastisement that reaches to amendment of life, and the bringing the Inward man under the obedience of Christ, is a resolute denial of acting any of the suggestions of the flesh. This will wound the sinning principle more home, and will really heal the Soul in the conclusion. But the other cannot well be countenanced but upon an Hypocritical affectation of a pompous kind of Severity, wherein this false Church may ostentate her own power over the minds and bodies of men, and take a secret joy in the relish of this wonderful Empire she has got over the World, even to a vile kind of bondage and vassalage. But in the mean time such American cruelties as these may well hazard the life or health of the abused Penitents, and will not fail to bring a very loathsome reproach upon the School of Christ, making it look like savage Paganism and the Synagogue of the Devil. 11. That also were a kind of Paganical injury put upon deceived Souls, and a great wearisomeness and drudgery to the Body, to be engaged in long Pilgrimages to salute this or that Saints Image for better reconciliation. But the Offerings tend to the enriching of that Church, and the Resort of Pilgrims to the enriching of the Town, and thereby to the conciliating of the affections of the Townsmen to so gainful a Religion. But in the mean time the Pilgrim's affairs at home are left at six and seven, his Children to the sole government of his Wife, and his Wife to the oversight of the Ghostly Father, and what other humane Visitants shall put in for her comfort in her Husband's absence. To Pilgrimages might be added Jubilees at the great Metropolis of this Apostatised Church, which though not so frequent, yet at their celebration would be frequented from the remotest parts of Christendom with multitudes of devout Strangers, upon belief of pardon of their sins for so holy a voyage. But the end and inconveniences of this Solemnity would be much the same with those of Pilgrimages, saving that this is more peculiarly designed for the replenishing of the High-priest's coffers. 12. It were an endless business to reckon up all the manners of Superstitious molestations which might be invented for the bodies of deceived and enslaved Christians, under the pretence of fulfilling the Laws of Christianity and of the Church: Such as Going a considerable way barefooted and bareheaded; The putting themselves into cold congeling Springs, the water gushing upon their bare breasts; The rolling themselves in beds of Ice and Snow; The creeping upon their bare knees on flinty Causeys to the cutting of their skin and flesh, and making all run with blood; The wearing of haircloth next their skin, and a girdle of nails and needles; with many such like tragical extravagancies, concerning which I have nothing new to take notice of, but that they are quite contrary to the ingenuous Spirit that breathes in true Christianity, and (as I said before) do too much assimilate the Religion of Christians to the bloody Superstitions of barbarous Pagans. CHAP. XX. 1. The Burden of afflictive Opinions. 2. The distracting puzzles of a Soul entangled with multifarious Superstitions and Conceits. 3. The illaqueations of Religious Vows. 4. Entanglements arising from a Superstitious trust in certain surmised virtues in the Mass. 5. Vexatious Scrupulosities concerning the Intention of the Priest in administering the Sacraments. 1. BUT to let pass these incommodations of the Body; Christianity may be made very uneasy and uncomfortable by several rackings and distractings of the Mind by unnecessary Obligations of the Conscience by entangling Conceits and Opinions: which also being innumerable, it were to no purpose to go about to reckon up all. But some few obvious ones I shall venture to name; such as The supposed duty of worshipping the Cross, the Images or Relics of Saints; The conceit of communion of Merits; The intanglement of Vows; A superstitious trust in the Eucharist, and in the power of the Priest's Intention in that and other Sacraments; The belief of the necessity of Auricular Confession, and of the Assent to every of the smallest points of Doctrine held by the Church, though there be no footsteps thereof in the Scripture, nor any ground in Reason; The excruciating fear of a worse than Pagan Purgatory; and finally the necessity of Penal Satisfaction and Merit. A man may pronounce these words without blistering his tongue; but if he once imbibe them as Principles obliging the Conscience, and be superstitiously entangled in them, he will sleep as uneasily by reason of the unsettledness of his Mind, as if his bed were strewed with chopped hairs or pulverised glass. There is no redemption of the quiet of his Spirit but by taking of a lusty draught of that Soporiferous potion that will make him repose himself wholly on the faith of his Priest, to say and to do just as he will have him without any disquisition or reasoning, and so to metamorphose himself from a rational cautious Man into a mere passive Ass for the false Prophet to ride upon. 2. But if he were seriously set to promote his own happiness upon the account of his own judgement and diligence, how would he be distracted in the multiplicity of the Objects of his Devotion? For if it be so meritorious to visit the Shrine of one Saint, it will be the neglect of his own Salvation to omit another. And if the Saints be so ambitious as to be pleased by our Religious Invocation of them, the invoking one may it not bring upon us the displeasure of the rest who are pretermitted? And if I make one of them my Patron, why may I not suspect that I have thereby made the rest mine Enemies by slighting them, were they thus desirous of Divine Honours as we conceit them? And as concerning their holy Relics that are offered to be kissed by the devout, what pangs of conscience may there arise for our not cordially committing our Lips to the meaner and more unlovely sort of them? How can a man sleep quietly being stung with the sense of so irreligious a piece of incivility, suppose it were but to an holy foul Handkerchief or some other old yellow linen? There being so mighty power also in an exorcized Cross for conservation of health both of Soul and Body, and for the driving away every evil Phantasm, (and the like reason there is of Relics) what conflicts of mind must this cause in the seriously Religious, who, having been able, has not all this time purchased such a safeguard to himself and his house; or, being pinched betwixt the sense of poverty and quick urgencies of Devotion, cannot resolve whether he had best purchase it or no, or when he has, is at a loss how many times a day he should crouch and creep to it, to draw that secret virtue from it which was lodged therein by an holy Enchantment or Exorcisation of the Priest? The same reason there is of Holywater (how often to be sprinkled) and of Exorcized Boughs, and the like. And for the Communion of Merit by being incorporated into this or that holy Sodality or Fraternity, how anxious would it make a man of his choice, that he may be best supplied, and how ambitious of entering into as many as he can? 3. And for the Entanglement of Vows, how easy were it for men to be caught in them, as a Woodcock in a Net? What an harsh and slavish thing is it to be under the Vow of unlimited Obedience to one that I am not sure but may command me (under the pretence of an allowance from an infallible Power) to act what in my own conscience is against the Law of God, of Humanity, and of Nature? What various occasions also there may be of making sundry rash Vows, according to several Passions, Exigences and Importunities, in a Church where they are so much in fashion, and the performance tends to the enriching thereof, (as also the being absolved from the Vow made, by special dispensation) I will not here insist upon; for these things are infinite. 4. There might arise great encumbrances of thought also from a Superstitious trust in the virtue of the Eucharist abused for such ends as it was never intended for. It is ordinarily called Mass. And if it had such virtue and efficacy as this Church would pretend, as of the delivering of Souls from punishment in the other state, and for prosperous success in this; for safe journeying by Sea or by Land, on horseback or on foot; for Women that are barren, big, or bringing forth; for Fevers and Tooth-aches; for Hogs and Hens; for recovery of lost goods, and the like; what multifarious misgivings of mind and anxieties of conscience would issue from thence in those who more carefully considered these virtues and privileges? Wherefore where it is believed that by the power of those Five words of Consecration, Christ does condescend to give himself into the hands of the Priest bodily and personally, to be lifted up and offered to his Father, for the succour and safety of the Good man's Sheep or Poultry or other meaner concerns; how can the said honest man be quiet in his thoughts, believing the irresistible importunity of so stupendious a Sacrifice, and the sure effect thereof, (which will be more certain in matters of more consequence, Are you not Matth. 10. 31. of more value than Sparrows?) if he have not his recourse to the Priest as far as his purse-strings will stretch (and his conscience will be often racked and stretched to save his purse-strings) upon every occasion of the sickness of his cattle, the delay of his wife's belly, in the danger of child-breeding or childbearing, in his or any of his family's travelling, and the like, for fear he be accessary to any of those misfortunes that may befall them for want of timely applying himself to so certain means of prevention; and if the miscarriages prove Tragical, fancy his neglect the sin of Murder? Nay how can men with a good conscience abstain from spending themselves to their very skin, in laying out money for Masses for all their friends and kindred, and then make strict inquiry amongst the poor that may be neglected in that point? Or at least how can they shun being miserably distracted betwixt the fear of impoverishing themselves, and the compassion they bear to them that they fancy may be tormented in the other world for want of some such relief? Such superstitious surmizes as these will indeed bring grist to the mill in plenty for them that infuse them into the heads of the people; but will grind and grate so hard against the believers of such principles, that they must live very ill at ease under this load of a false and adulterate Religion. 5. Which will again be hugely increased by another superadvenient Incertainty, and will cause a greater dissettlement and wavering in all such deliberations, where their propensions would otherwise carry them with more confidence to the succours of Religion and the Assistence of her Sacraments. For supposing their Effect depended on the Intention of the Priest, our own both cost and devotion were utterly lost, if he out of malice or remissness should have his Intention diverted from the work. Which though it tend immensely to make the Priest great and formidable and a little God upon Earth, as having the power, if not of damning, at least of making the Salvation doubtful of as many as depend upon the sincere exercise of his function, in Baptising, administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and in absolving them from their sins, (which that he may discharge faithfully, men will be obliged not only to give him his deuce or wages, but to honour him by all manner of observance, lest he should do them or theirs some everlasting remediless mischief;) yet it were a plague and fret of mind beyond all expression to the poor credulous Laiety, that were made to believe that God had put the power out of his own hand, and unless his Substitute would and intended it should be so, that the Almighty himself could not implant one into the body of the Church, nor the party implanted partake of the grace signified by the Lord's Supper, nor receive express Absolution for his sins, though all things upon his own pious desire were externally administered by one professedly in holy Orders. Which must needs perplex the Religionist with a perpetual uncertainty of his own and others Salvations. CHAP. XXI. 1. Of the necessity of Anniversary Confession. 2. Of Sacerdotal Absolution. 3. What is meant by Binding and Losing, and to what manner of persons Remission of sins is committed. 4. Erasmus his gloss upon that Text of St. John. 5. As also Hugo Grotius his, whence Auricular Confession and Absolution prove groundless. 6. A voluntary Confession and in general useful in the Church in some circumstances, and in order to particular Absolution from the Priest. 7. As also a more particular Confession, if voluntary. 8. The Self-ends of this Church in exacting so punctual a Confession from men. 9, 10. The slavery and Mischief of such kind of Confessions. 11. The infinite vexation to the conscientious and ingenuous from the obtruding upon them incredible and impossible Opinions. 1. ABsolution puts me in mind of the pretence of necessity of Confessing once a year at least (and that to the Priest of the Parish) all a man's sins, not only actually committed, but the very purposes, desires, or propensions to the committing of them. Which might rightly be called Carnificina conscientiarum indeed, and is as base a piece of servitude, and to as ill purpose, as if that all the modest Maids and grave Matrons in the Parish should strip themselves stark naked, and in that manner humble themselves before their Priest once a year: Which would look like a piece of unsupportable Tyranny. And yet this extorted Confession upon pain of Damnation not to conceal any thing, is not the stripping of a man to his naked body, but the stripping him of his body, that they may see his naked Heart, and so by the force of this Superstition break into those secrets which it is the only due privilege of God Almighty to be acquainted with, who is the only rightful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and can neither receive any hurt by seeing the most inward motions of his own handiwork, nor will, knowing whereof we are made, do us any; but will judge with equity in all things, nor will despise the work of his own hands. 2. The pretence for this Confession is the necessity of Absolution by the Priest, which if a man, through his own neglect, have not, he must be undoubtedly damned. But that any such Absolution is necessary, unless upon the case of just Excommunication, cannot be made out by either Scripture or Reason. For when it is said to Peter, to the Church, or to the Apostles, Whatsoever ye bind in earth shall be bound in heaven, or, Matth. 18. 18. Whatsoever ye lose in earth shall be loosed in heaven; and, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, Joh. 20. 23. they are retained; It is impossible the meaning should be, Remit or Retain, Bind or Lose, whether right or wrong, I will ratify all above, whatever the Successors of my Apostles shall do, nor shall any remission of sins be ratified without them, though they succeed only in the external profession, and partake not of the same Spirit with their Predecessors. Wherefore so large and accurate a Commission cannot belong to any but either to the Apostles themselves, or to men of a true Apostolical spirit, who are entirely of one mind with God, and therefore can do only what is right. It being so rare therefore and so difficult a thing to find such a Confessor, it is an argument such an Absolution is not necessary: For neither God nor Nature are wanting in necessaries. But the Binding by Excommunication, and the Losing answering thereto, is of another consideration, and concerns the external Oeconomy of the Church. 3. But to speak truly, That phrase of Binding and Losing, above cited out of Scripture, seems not so much to respect Persons as Things. For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whatsoever, not whomsoever, and reflects upon the known phrases of the Jews, who called that which was declared unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ligatum, but that which was allowed as lawful they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solutum. And therefore that passage does not respect Absolution from sin, but the making of Laws and Institutes for the Church by the Apostles, which Christ says he would ratify in Heaven. But that other place (Joh. 20.) of remitting and retaining men's sins does undoubtedly respect Absolution from sin. But mark to what manner of men this power is committed. As my Father sent me, so send I you, (now Christ was sent full of grace and of the power of the Holy Ghost) and therefore he breathing upon them, says, Receive the Holy Ghost, and did most certainly impart it to them. And thereupon is derived upon them that authority, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 4. Whence Erasmus excellently upon the place; Qui ex his posterioribus cristas erigunt, & Tyrannidem quandam sibi vendicant, cur non meminerunt eorum quae mox praecesserunt? Toti turgemus mundano Spiritu, & tamen placemus nobis authoritate commissâ remittendi aut retinendi peccata. Tuere authoritatem, sed cura ut adsit Spiritus per quem Christus tribuit authoritatem. Which implies that where this Spirit is not, the Authority is not; and that a man cannot rationally be either comforted by the remission, or dismayed by the retaining of sin, when it is from such Ghostly Fathers as are devoid of the Spirit of Christ. 5. Moreover Hugo Grotius does soberly and with judgement, I conceive, interpret this place, of Remission of sins by Baptism, or Reception again into the Communion of the Church, if any be lapsed after Baptism; but the Retaining of sins to be Non-admittance of these into the Church who are not yet penitent Believers, or the Excommunicating them out of it upon a lapse worthy so great a Censure. But what is this to an Anniversary Absolution which must necessitate and squeeze out such an unnecessary and unreasonable Confession? St. James saith, Confess your sins one to another: whose style was ill directed, if it had been such an indispensable duty to confess unto the Priest, and in such a manner as has been described, so frequent, so punctual. This Anniversary Provolution therefore of a Penitent upon the floor at the feet of a formal Confessor, with eyes and hands devoutly lifted up toward him sitting in his majesty, is no part of true Christian Discipline, but (as Erasmus has well intimated) a piece of Antichristian Tyranny; it being a thing very loathsome and burdensome to be bound to unbosom a man's self to him of whose judgement, friendship or fidelity we can have no assurance; and very intolerable to be forced to speak of such things as we do not allow ourselves to think of, and that before such as we may probably ●…spect will conceive some sinful pleasure by the discourse of them. 6. The Injunction therefore of such a punctual Confession has no ground at all in either Scripture or Reason. For neither did the Apostles nor Christ himself require any such particular and complete enumeration of men's sins, nor left in charge with their Successors to do so. And it is sufficient more generally to confess them with a serious profession of detesting and resolution of leaving them: wherein if the Penitent will dissemble, he may as well dissemble the number and circumstances of his sins. So little pretence can there be from hence of this Injunction. But if he profess his sorrow and resolution of amendment, and by reason of some weakness or melancholy cannot lay such fast hold upon the Promise of remission upon unfeigned Repentance, without this visible and palpable seal set thereto, of Sacerdotal Absolution; I do not see but a Priest anointed with the Spirit of Christ, and full of holy compassion to a penitent member of his Church, may rightfully and profitably, by that Authority which was derived upon the Apostles and their Successors, and by that divine power that assists the sincere exercise of his Ministry, seal to him the Remission of his sins, by pronouncing his Absolution, and so restore to peace his disquieted Mind; his sins being as certainly pardoned as if Christ himself in person had absolved him, he in such a case as this assuredly ratifying in Heaven whatever is here transacted upon Earth. Which I suppose Grotius himself will not deny, nor conceive at all clashing with his interpretation of S. John, he not pretending those he mentions the only occasions of remitting or retaining of sins, but the most notable. 7. And as this Voluntary Confession in general to the Priest in order to the Penitent's Absolution is useful and commendable; so likewise a Voluntary unbosoming a man's self in a more particular way to such an one as he could trust, and can presume fit and able for his office, to the end that he may have a more perfect understanding of the state of his Soul, and thereby administer more suitable and effectual counsel, is a thing questionless of very good consequence. 8. But to extort from every Believer every year, or oftener, a punctual enumeration of all his transgressions in thought, word and deed, with all their circumstances, were but a vile and disingenuous pretence of insinuating into all men's bosoms, for the getting out their secrets, of which the Priest may make his private advantage, or communicate to the Churchpoliticians such matters as will tend to the strengthening of their distinct Interest, which is, The conserving or promoting that Honour, Wealth and Power, which they affect in the World. And truly by this means the secrets not of this man or that woman, but of whole Families and Cities, nay of whole Provinces and Kingdoms, and of all Christendom, may flow together into that common Cistern, or, if you will, Sea of Ecclesiastic Intelligence: which is the very Eye of Action, and the Soul of Conduct in all affairs. 9 But though this would be a sweet morsel to this Pseudo-Clergy we are now describing, it would be sour sauce to the Laiety; not only in that it is a foul badge of an inevitable bondage upon them, to be constrained upon pain of Damnation at lest once by the year to cast themselves down upon the ground before them that are so many fathom sunk into the Earth themselves, and to reproach themselves by ripping up their own faults accurately and punctually before such as they have no assurance of either their Candour, Judgement or Friendship, (and for a man to balk his own Priest in this case would be to brand him, and so make one of his chiefest neighbours his greatest enemy:) I say, besides the external slavery of the business, and the doing of a Ceremony which may go so much against the hair even with good and ingenuous spirits, a man may be obnoxious to very great dangers and mischiefs. For he that has the office of hearing men thus accurately and necessarily accusing themselves once a year at least, has a greater opportunity of injustly defaming them (by some tacit insinuations or somewhat expresser notices) then is fit to be put into the hand of any man that is not a Saint upon Earth: of which sort we suppose in this Polity we speak of extremely few. 10. Interrogatories also from such Confessors may, in greatest likelihood, prove to young men and women Lessons of sin and lust; and the knowing of the secrets of Families, the seeds of infinite contentions betwixt Neighbours, and also betwixt those of the same Families. For it will be a hard thing for those that by this Shriving of persons know much of their Interest or disinterest, to hold their itching fingers from acting or intermeddling in their affairs, or their other prurient parts from the soliciting the Chastity of such parties as they find hopeful and coming; or not to be officious Intelligencers or Game-finders for such as pursue the pleasures of Venus. Besides that the vainness of their Penances, which yet must needs look like the right value of the Sin, may harden men into a conceit that there is no great hurt in sinning, and teach them to esteem the transgressing of the Law of God as a thing slight, cheap and trivial. Whereas if the only Penance of sin were the pain of forsaking it, urged upon them from the certain expectation of that most direful Judgement to come; though no other condition but that were annexed to Absolution; it would make men more sensibly feel the weight of sin, and make them make the greater speed to get from under the burden of it. But to draw to an end. 11. That also will pinch very hard, especially upon the more Intellectual or Rational complexions, namely, To be bound in their Conscience upon pain of Damnation to hold whatsoever the Church professes to be true, while she in the mean time obtrudes such things upon men's belief as have no ground neither in Reason nor Scripture. For even in things that are disputable either way it is the fate of some men notwithstanding to be in a manner invincibly inclined to conceive this part to be true rather than the other. What struggling and conflicting therefore must he undergo to hold to the Authority of the Church against such strong and fatal sentiments of his own Mind? But if the Church should be thus Dogmatical not only in things that may, according to the sense of the generality of men, be either way, but conclude and require the belief of such things as are point-blank against either Scripture or Reason, and are impossible according to the Faculties of all men, who are unprejudiced, to be true; as, That one and the same Body may be wholly and entirely in a thousand places at once, and at a thousand mile's distance betwixt all those places; That we may worship a graven Image, and the like; how unevenly must these conditions of Salvation sit upon the spirit of him that is not a mere sot? What reciprocations of belief and misbelief, of hope and despair of Salvation must such an one be tortured with, that holds that his share in eternal bliss depends upon the hearty belief of the truth of the Church in all things, when what she propounds, according to all his Faculties, is not only unlikely, but impossible to be true? CHAP. XXII. 1. The dreadful Figment of Purgatory. 2. That by this affrightful Fable the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burdensome. 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching only to the freeing us from the Gild of sin, not the Punishment. 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into. 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment. 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other. 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers. 8. The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction. 9 The conclusion of the description of this second Limb of Antichristianism. 1. AND now in the last place of all, to make up the full weight of this Antichristian yoke and burden, suppose there were added the fear of a more than Pagan Purgatory, as I said; that is to say, Suppose the Church should determine That no Souls, unless such as are absolutely pure and perfect in this life, (of which rank there are either really none, or if there were, they would not be so immodest as easily to account themselves so) should upon their departure out of this Body go into any easeful or blessed condition, but into a state little different from the torments of Hell, saving that they are not perpetual, but may be for many and many years, unless some care be taken to relieve them and rescue them who are in this sad and dismal place: which I suppose they would set out with all extremity of horror to the rude people, telling them of many sad and ghastly Apparitions, who with wan countenances and mournful tones have made known their extreme distress in this Infernal house of Correction, and have implored their assistance in praying and paying for them as much as they could, that they might find ease. 2. Nor would they forbear the exaggerating this unsupportable calamity by all imaginable Mythology: as namely, That the Souls of men were seen in a Vision, by some holy man of God or other, to be tortured in wonderful manners; some standing up to the knees, others to the navel, othersome to the armholes, others to the very chin, in a stream of fire and brimstone: that others are run through with rods of Iron, and roasted against the fire like Geese upon a spit, the foul infernal Fiends in the mean time some blowing up the coals with their black mouths, or, to save their own breath, with a large pair of brazen bellows, others lading up the grease that fries out of these roasted Souls and pouring it upon them again scalding hot: that others are scourged with whips of red-hot wires, others fried in frying-pans, others racked and turned round upon a wheel full of hot burning hooks: that others had their bowels torn out with the fiery crooked stings of huge overgrown Toads and Serpents; and lastly, that others are put into vessels of hot scalding metals: These dismal chambers of Death reechoing in the mean time from their hollow roof the mournful howl and hideous shriekings of these tormented Ghosts. These or such like terrible fancies of things did they but imbue the minds of the people withal, the belief of them certainly could not but screw the whole-rack of this burdensome Superstition, which I have been all this time describing, to the highest pitch that the wit of man can invent; nor could the flames of this Purgatory fail to prove that very Fire in which these slaves and vassals of the Mystical Pharaoh and his hard Taskmasters (I mean that Apostate Highpriest with the rest of his adulterate Hierarchy which I am delineating) should droyl and sweat in, for the finishing their imposed tales of brick to build these sons of pride their Pyramids and Palaces. 3. Wherefore being stripped and spoiled of all these comfortable succours that the true Faith in Christ Jesus does afford men, and being made to believe that the Passion and Satisfaction of Christ takes away only the Gild of Mortal sins, not the eternal Punishment; but yet, which is a great favour, that by the power of the Keys this eternal Punishment is turned into temporary, which every one is bound to undergo, and satisfy either in this life or that which is to come, and that either in his own person or by some other, that is, He is bound to do or suffer such things himself, or others for him, as the Church shall appoint or accept for satisfaction; which also is to be understood of venial sins; and lastly, that the spots and filth of sin inhering in our Nature must wholly be purged out by Satisfactions and penalties, which if it be not fully done in this life, it must be perfected by the expiation of Fire in the other: I say, if the people should be deluded by such Antichristian Doctrine as this, and have the sweet and easy yoke of Christ taken off from their neck, (which consists only in sincerity, to the best of our power, to live according to the plain and indispensable Law of Christ, and wherein we fail, to be assured that both the Gild and external Penalty is taken away through the intercession of him who is our▪ Advocate with the Father, and a perpetual propitiation for our sins) but instead of this easy and ingenuous service, should be fettered and held fast in that Egyptian bondage we have described; into what a world of slavery and drudgery would mistaken mortals be haled? 4. How would they be forced to bestir themselves by these hard Taskmasters! what trotting from Church to Church, from Shrine to Shrine! what howling and muttering before this Saints Image and that Saints Image! what knocking of breasts, and kissing of pavements! what fastings and watch, not for correction, but satisfaction! what long stretching Pilgrimages from Country to Country, and from one end of the Earth to the other! what prayers and oblations to make the Image, or at least the Priest, to smile! what kissing of unsavoury Relics! what Vows of Coelibate, and Abstinence from meats! what Flagellations and Excoriations of the Body! what Nundinations of Pardons and Indulgences! what awe and servility to the Priest! what strict observation of Fasts and Festivals! what vexatious Scrupulosities about needless opinions! what abject postures and rueful looks in forced Confessions! what covering themselves with Religious habits! what imprisoning and confining to Nunneries and Cloisters, to Solitudes and Hermitages! what creeping of dying men into Monks Cowls, and rolling in beds of Ashes! what besprinkling with Holywater! what Anointing and besmearing with enchanted Oils! what hastening to enrol themselves in this or that holy Fraternity, to share in their merits! what shaving and paring away of children's portions for hired Masses and Prayers, to sing the dying man's Soul out of this imaginary Purgatory! In fine, what endless circuits of drudgery and labour of body and mind does this Egyptian Tyrant put his slaves unto under the lash of this torturing conceit, That the Death of Christ is not for the Remission of Punishment, but of Gild; and that he that would go to Heaven must travel thither upon his own proper cost and charges, must satisfy in his own person for his faults and corruptions in such ways as this adulterous Church has prescribed! Which is no method of freeing Souls from the pains of Purgatory, but of the enslaving them (as I have said) to a worse than Egyptian bondage, and condemning them to gather stubble and make bricks, to work and drudge to hold up the wealth and magnificency of this imperious Pharaoh and his cruel Taskmasters. Which is a Servitude as abominable and Antichristian as can be invented or imagined. For it does absolutely change the condition and nature of Christian Religion (than which there is nothing more free and ingenuous, and more professedly opposed to the yoke of the Mosaical Law) into a poor, pitiful, ignorant and servile pedagogy, and makes it not only exceed the burden of Moses, but (which I cannot too often inculcate) the very bondage of Egypt itself. 5. But though this Figment of Purgatory would be a very profitable invention for the increasing of the wealth and power of this Pseudo-Clergie, and bring vast revenues to their Church; there being a like fear of it and desire to be rid of it, in Princes and Peasants, in Gentle and simple; yet it cannot be denied by any, but such as are past shame, but that it is a mere Figment, and has no grounds of truth at all in it, nay is contrary to what is most certainly true. For it is assuredly true, and any good Christian may feel it to be so, that Christ has satisfied as well in respect of Punishment as Gild; and it is perfect Nonsense, that the sincerely-minded should be justified by the merits of Christ's Passion and the excellency of his Person, (he being that innocent Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world) that is to say, in a Forensal sense be esteemed as Just, and yet be handled or treated as Sinners. For it is as if a man should be acquitted and yet punished for the same crime, at the same Court, than which nothing is more foolish or incongruous. Wherefore it is manifest that there can no external punishment abide the Sincere soul after this life, (for I cannot pronounce any thing in the behalf of the unsincere, but that Hell itself is their portion,) no fire, no whips of Furies or Devils to afflict them, no infernal Bailiffs or horrid Pursivants of Purgatory to arrest them; but they may pass free through all guards and scouts of the invisible Regions, and not one dare to offer to molest them. 6. And that he that was sincere-hearted in this life, and did not only believe in Christ, but to the best of his power and skill followed his Precepts, and had a real enmity against all the appearances of sin whensoever they assaulted him, nor could be overtaken or overcome by the importunity of his Body without sorrow, regret or indignation; that this man should carry in himself any tormenting Hell or Purgatory in his freedom from the body, is a thing impossible and unconceivable. For he being freed from that with which he was so often forced to tug, and in the midst of his greatest conflicts his life being comfortable to him through the sense of his own sincerity and through the assurance of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, what can Death be to such a man but Life from the dead? He that in patience can possess his soul in a prison, cannot fail to enjoy himself in the fresh air; and he that can walk upright in fetters, may easily, if he will, dance for joy when he is out of them. So little fear is there of any such Mormo's or Bug-bears to the sincere Christian when he has passed out of this mortal life. 7. Some pretence indeed they may have for Purgatory from that passage in S. Paul, If any man's work be burnt, he shall suffer loss, but himself 1 Cor. 3. 1●…. shall be saved; but yet so, as by fire: which is the only place in Scripture which makes any show for them. But yet if it were meant of a Purgatory-fire after this life, it will not at all serve their purpose, as neither those several passages of the Fathers do, which seem to make this way; which would be too prolix a business to enter into. But the interpretation which Scaliger and Hugo Grotius give of the place is so genuine and natural and so little inferring any such Purgatory-fire, that this ground will prove very lubricous to the bvilders upon it. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger and Grotius expound thus, That he shall escape, but so as out of the hot fire, it being nothing but a proverbial expression signifying the great danger he will be in. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est preverbiale, ad significationem summi periculi. So that the sense is nothing but this, He will hardly escape the dreadful judgement of God. As for Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the like expressions of the Fathers, they will never establish such a Purgatory as these Masters of mischief would erect in the Universe, who make sure that no man may do any thing meritorious in this condition, nor make any progress in grace and holiness, for all the very Fire is called Purgative. For this would beat down the price of Pardons and Indulgences, make men careless of hiring Masses for the dead, and take away all that costly solicitude from friends for their deceased kindred, if they were conceived to be in a capacity by their own demeanour and careful management of their affairs in the other world to wind themselves out of trouble. 8. But how weak soever their Proofs were for Purgatory, their Motives thereto would be very strong; this Figment making all the rest of their Frauds take more certain effect with men, they being hereby affrighted into a facile and foolish good humour of parting with any thing, even to the impoverishing of themselves and their posterity, so that those may be satisfied who pretend they have the Keys of this prison of Purgatory, and may be persuaded either to excuse them from ever entering into it, or, if they must enter into it, to deliver them out of it as timely and speedily as may be. But the grand Mischief of this cheating Invention is a blasphemous affront to the Merits and Satisfaction of our dear Saviour, and a Tyrannical oppression of the consciences of the simple; but so great a scandal to the more nasute, that it were a strong temptation to them to misbelieve the whole sum of Religion, or any state at all of the Soul after death, but that she is mortal and perishes; these false Apostles having abused the belief of the Doctrine of her survival after the death of the Body so grossly and rancidly, merely to the advancing their own estates in this life, and to the wallowing in wealth, honour and sensual pleasures. 9 This is a competent Draught of the second Limb of Antichristianism, which consists In the heaping together a number of trouble some and unwarrantable Superstitious conceits and observances, whereby the yoke of Christ would be made far more grievous than the dispensation of Moses, yea whereby the Servitude of Christians would be little inferior, if not greater, than the slavery of the Israelites in the Land of Egypt and in that house of bondage, as it is styled peculiarly in the Scripture. And therefore I think this particular constitution of things, which I have described, may very well go for a considerable Member of Antichristianism. BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limbs of Antichristianism do oppose. 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office. 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees. 4. Several places of Scripture alleged to prove the Church Infallible. 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations, by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church, or to Part. 6. The second, by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute, or Conditional. 7. A third, That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered. 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture. 9 An Answer to the second and third. 10. Infallibility a Promise only to the first Founders of the Christian Church. 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth. 12. A further exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy. 13. That if understood of the Universal Church, it may be meant only of it in the Apostles times. 14. And that the like may be said of the last allegation. 1. WE have now done with those Members of Antichristianism that oppose the Privative Ends of the Gospel of Christ, which were, The removing of Idolatry and the Burden of Superstition out of the world: we come now to the Positive End thereof, which in general is The Advancement of the Divine Life, and this either Personally in Christ, or by way of propagation in his Members, the Church. Those Divine Honours and Offices the Person of Christ is advanced to, and are most obvious to take notice of, are those of King, Priest and Prophet; the opposing or supplanting of which cannot but be so many abhorred parts of this wicked Antichristianism, whose Image we are now setting out in its genuine colours. 2. As concerning the first therefore of these; Suppose any man, or company of men, under pretence of being the true Visible Church successively descending from Christ and his Apostles, should take upon them to be the Infallible Interpreters of the Law of Christ, and teach that all men were to embrace and to submit to their Glosses, seem they never so harsh, never so improbable, nay, if you will, never so impossible; and declare it a mortal sin for any to doubt of their determinations in this kind: This surely were a plain opposing or utter supplanting of the Kingly Office of Christ, and the quite taking away His exercise of Sovereignty, which cannot otherwise be exercised then by Commands and Decrees; which when a King has published, if another have power to interpret them any way, as he pleases, the Kingly power will really be in the Interpreter, and not in the King; I say, this pretended right and power of Infallibly interpreting does in very truth make the Interpreter King, and the King a Shadow or cipher. Assuredly no Earthly Prince would think himself truly Sovereign over his people, if all the Injunctions and Edicts he made were not to bear the easy, natural sense which he intends them in, but to be drawn to some other meaning by any exception, or evasion, or any forcible interpretation that some foreign Potentate should put upon them. Wherefore whosoever pretends a Right and Infallibility in the interpreting the Law of Christ, does in effect make Christ no Lawgiver, and consequently no King nor Governor in his Church; than which what can be more grossly Antichristian? 3. Cui jus est interpretandi, hujus Sententia pondus habet legis Divinae, is a saying, which although * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Erasmus has put into the mouth of a mean person, yet is a great Truth. And our Saviour knew, and has noted the mischievous abuse of this presumption so plainly in that instance of the Pharisees, (who could interpret away the force of that Command, Honour thy Father and thy Mother, by saying it was Corban) that it is impossible he should allow of any visible Interpreter with such an unlimited Right as some contend for, to the abuse of his Church, and the taking his Kingly Office out of his own hands. For he has there observed, That the Matth. 15. 6. Pharisees had made the word of God of none effect through their Traditions, that is to say, through their Exceptions, Qualifications and Interpretations of it. 4. I but they will pretend that Christ will make his Church Infallible; and if they be so, he himself will really reign in them, they interpreting always according to his mind. And that he has made his Church Infallible, they will pretend to appear plainly out of such places of Scripture as these: * Matth. 16. That the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her; and again, * Joh. 14. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, which the World cannot receive, etc. again, * Joh. 16. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. To which add that of S. Paul to * 1 Tim. 3. 15. Timothy, where he seems to call the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth. And lastly, that to the * chap. 4. Ephesians, where Christ is said to have given some, Apostles, and some, Prophets, and other some, Evangelists, and other some, Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of Doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ. Let these passages than be their Letters patent, their grand pretended Commission of Infallibly interpreting, and never erring in any Determinations or Conclusions, and we shall easily discover that it is a mere pretence. 5. For I demand whether this Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole visible Church in succession, or some part. That it is not an Absolute, Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain, in that the parties of Christendom differ so much in matters of Belief as they do. But if it be to some part, where is the nomination of that part in these Promises whereby their Right of Interpreting may appear to the world? There is no Particular Church specified there, neither Greek nor Roman, neither Muscovian nor Armenian, nor that of Prester John, nor any other Church else. Whence it is plain that no Particular Church can have any claim or right to any such privilege. 6. Again, suppose some Particular Church had a Promise, how does it appear that the Promise is Inconditionate to this Particular Church, and that it is not upon supposal that they will seriously and sincerely apply their mind to find out the Truth, and purify their Souls from all those worldly and sensual impediments thereto? For this spirit of Infallibility cannot lodge in a body that is subject unto sin: For Purity of heart and life is the very Light and Crystalline Organ, the very Eye of the Soul; and to think of a privilege of Infallibility without Holiness, is like the imagining of a promise to see without Light or Eyes. Wherefore it is such an Hypocritical conceit, that a man cannot well tell whether it be more to be lamented or laughed at, for a Church to pretend that God has an irresistible design of making them Infallible to every Punctilio of Controversy, and yet not of making them Holy and Good. But it is a sign they contemn or abhor Goodness as being contrary to their corrupt natures, but desire the privilege of Infallibility as being agreeable to their natural pride, and the boast thereof an instrument to bring about all their deceitful devices. And therefore we might add to this, That it is questionable whether the Promise be to any Church visible, but to such as the Apostles were, chosen, sanctified, and faithful Regenerate men; for none but these are truly the Church of Christ; and if he make his Promise good only to such as are his true Church, it is sufficient. 7. Moreover, be this Promise Conditionate or Inconditionate, we cannot but be sure that this Infallibility is not Universal as to all Objects whatsoever. And therefore to meddle with such things as are not necessary to Salvation nor really edifying, were to go beyond their Warrant or Commission, and thereby to forfeit, or at least to have no benefit of, the promised Assistence. 8. But let us particularly examine the Texts of Scripture themselves. The first whereof infers no more than this, That the Church of Christ shall never cease to be, that Death shall never be able to prevail against her, neither to extirpate her in this world, or hinder her of a glorious Immortality in the world to come. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Death, or Abolition, or The state of the dead. But this may be true of the Church, though it were not Infallible: So weak is this first Allegation. 9 As for the second, it were well for the Allegers if it were only weak; for it is strong against themselves, and makes much for our Hypothesis, who conceive this Infallibility to be Conditional. For read the whole Context entire, and it runs thus, If ye love me, keep my Commandments; and I will ask the Father, etc. which implies there is a Condition, That they must love Christ and keep his Commandments, if they expect that Spirit which will abide with them for ever, (that is, as long as they lived; for so the word ordinarily signifies in Scripture.) And it is further added, that it is such a Spirit as the World cannot receive: Which therefore does strongly imply that it resides not in those who are worldly and carnally-minded. Which Conditionality of the Promise is also insinuated in the third place alleged, When the Spirit of Truth is come, he will Led you, or guide you, into all Truth; that is, he will lead you as a Man, not hale you or drag you as a Stone, or a brute Beast, which is not a free Agent. So that we see plainly that this Infallibility is Conditional wherever it is. And though I doubt not but the Condition being performed, the Promise will be made good to all men as far as it is necessary to their Salvation; yet these places are not the best that may be produced to that purpose, the Promise being not General here, but directed to certain particular men in such circumstances, as it is evident that it is meant to them in particular, and does not infer any succession. For the men that he speaks to there he deciphers to be such as he was present with, and should be put in mind by the Paraclet what he had said to them when present; such Joh. 14. 16, 17. as were sorrowful upon the occasion of his departure; with other like circumscribing circumstances that cannot belong to any succession of men, but were proper to the Apostles to whom he then spoke. 10. As indeed Infallibility itself seems a Promise most proper to them, they being to lay the Foundations of the Church, and to build the House of God; which they having done in terms plain enough, as to all things necessary to Salvation, the Promise of Infallibility needs reach no further; the Church for ever hereafter being safe, provided she keep but close to what is plainly delivered by the first Founders of her, nothing else need be obtruded upon Believers by way of Infallible imposition. 11. And as for that fourth citation, where the Church seems to be called The Pillar and Ground of Truth: If we admit of Cameron and Capellus 1 Tim. 3. 15. their ingenious conjecture upon the place, viz. That [The Pillar and Ground of Truth] is to be disjoined from the precedent words, by a Colon at least; and understand also what follows [without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness] to be only a Parenthetical Elogium of the Mystery of the Gospel, into which the Apostle was transported upon consideration of those weighty Points thereof which he was a-delivering, God manifest in the Flesh, etc. so that The Pillar and Ground of Truth may be 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Preface to the grand Points of the Christian Truth, which, that Parenthesis being seposed, do immediately follow; according as it was usual with the Jews to prefix before such Fundamentals of knowledge the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Fundamentum & Columna Sapientia: this passage will be wholly dis●…bled from making any show of proof for what it was alleged. 12. But if you will adjoin this Title to the Church, it was the Ephesian Church where Timothy resided, which has vanished long ago. And what other Church then, unless every Particular Church, can urge this place for Infallibility? which experience of contradicting one another does openly confute. Besides that the style itself of [Ground and Pillar] may not signify certain performance, but the duty what they ought to perform: As when the Apostles are called the Light of the world, and the Matth. 5. 13, 14. Salt of the earth; which only signifies what they ought to be, not what they were necessitated to be: For those that aught to be thus, may notwithstanding hid their Talon, or grow unsavoury through their own fault; as it fared in Judas, and in all his succession of false Apostles, which call themselves the Servants, but are the betrayers, of the Lord Jesus. 13. But lastly, Suppose that the Church then in general were here understood; it does not follow, That because that Primaeval and Apostolical Church should by a peremptory design of Providence have engraven upon it or exhibit to the world as Articles of belief nothing but what was true, that the Church in succession should always do the like. For there was a prime care taken that the first establishment of the Church should be in truth and solidity; but that being done, which was sufficient for the after-carrying on the affairs of the Church in a right way by free Agents, the success should afterwards lie upon their industry and fidelity, at least so far as that by no miraculous and supernatural force they should be assisted or driven on to keep things pure and intemerate. And that was sufficient for the Church, I think, which is thought sufficient for every particular man, namely, That the Christian Doctrines and Precepts being faithfully laid down in the Evangelists and other Writings of the Apostles, they might (that usual Grace of God which is not irresistible assisting them) frame their lives and beliefs accordingly in those things that are plain: And all are so that are necessary to Salvation. Which Rule if it had been kept to, no Error had crept into the Church to this very day. 14. Which last Answer will contribute something towards an Answer to the last place alleged; for it seems only to contain a description of a special provision of God for the rightly settling his Truth in the first Ages of the Church. To which purpose he appointed not only Pastors and Teachers, (which Functions continue still) but Apostles having a particular mission from Christ himself, who breathed into them the Spirit of Truth; as also Prophets and Evangelists, men in a special manner inspired and assisted to erect the Fabric of the Church according to the will and purpose of Christ, who then in an extraordinary manner did supervise all by a miraculous assistence of his Spirit. And therefore whatever was wrote for the public use of the Church, while any of those unto whom our Saviour Christ said that the Spirit should abide with them for ever, which should lead them into all Truth, were alive, or was approved by them, is really of certain and infallible authority; but whatever after-Inventions or Superadditions there were in the Church, they are to be measured by this unerring Rule. These unerring Pastors therefore and Teachers, Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, were not a promise to all Successions, but an extraordinary gift, as the Text itself imports, which Christ at that time, namely, at his solemn Coronation or Triumph ascending above all Heavens, that he Eph. 4. 10. might fill all things, cast down as a Royal Largess upon his Church, for the speedy completement of her, for her growing up into the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of Christ, and that she might not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine, but adhere to that only that was delivered by those Heavenly-inspired and miraculously-assisted Ministers of the Gospel. The acknowledgement whereof, I conceive, had been the only sure means to keep the Church in Unity for ever; whenas the pretending to an Infallibility in the succeeding Church, where indeed it was not, and the taking upon them thereupon to impose things with equal authority to the Apostles themselves, would naturally prove the fountain of all Error, Schism and Confusion. CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolic Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility. 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge. 3. That the Scripture not pointing to any Infallible Judge nor any faithful Keeper of Traditions, does ipso facto declare herself the only sufficient Guide. 4. That there is not only no want of an Infallible Judge, but better there should be none. 5. That the want of Infallibility does not take away the Authority of the Church, it being the duty of every person in things really disputable to compromise with her. 6. That though a Visible Judge be necessary in Civil causes, yet it is nothing so in Points of Religion. 7. That every private man has not only a liberty, but a command, to judge for himself in matters of Faith. 8. The said Right or Privilege demonstrated also by Reason. 9 That the Reason or Judgement of every private man is not a private Spirit in that reproachful sense that some speak it. 10. That the claim to a right of judging for one's self in points of Faith does not make a man superior to his Church, 11. Nor yet equal; 12. Nor implies that he thinks himself wiser than his Church, but rather more careful of his own eternal Concerns. 13. That it is not his private Wisdom he sticks to, but the Wisdom of God known to all that are not wilfully blind. 14. That the Church is not Infallible, proved from the Example of the Jewish Church. 15. That there is the same reason of the Christian. 16. That the want of an Infallible Interpreter is no such loss to the common people. 17. That their assurance of the truth of the Scriptures by the Spirit, is a Tenet not so superciliously to be exploded as some make show of. 18. That this Spirit is properly the Spirit of Faith, distinguishable from that of Knowledge and Wisdom, 19 The notorious Fraud and excessive Mischief of this pretence of Infallibility. 1. BUT being worsted thus in Scripture they will pretend Demonstrations in Reason, (upon the presumption they are the true visible Church, successively descended from Christ and his Apostles) that Infallibility is for ever entailed upon them. As first, That unless the Church were successively Infallible, we could have no certain and Infallible belief of the Holy Scriptures, which are avouched to be such by the Church. But I briefly answer, That supposing this successive Church were a trusty & undoubted Conveyer of the Copies of the Holy Scriptures uncorrupted, yet it doth not follow that they must be Infallible Interpreters of these Scriptures; no more than the faithful conveyance of Plato's and Aristotle's Writings to all posterity implies that the Conveyers thereof are Infallible Interpreters of them. For they might preserve the Writings of either by a diligent comparing of Copies upon every transcription; besides that there might be a special watchfulness of Providence over these Holy Writings, for the conservation of them from any material blemishes, as being so exceeding necessary for the continuance of those Truths that were published by such men as (accordingly as I have already intimated) were Divinely and Infallibly inspired. And that there were such Writings, sufficient for the conveyance of the knowledge of Christ, written by them that were infallible Witnesses of the Truth, and that we may be assured that those which commonly bear the Title of them are they, I have without any recourse to the Infallibility of the Church so plainly demonstrated in my Explanation of the Book 7. chap. 10 & 11. Mystery of Godliness, that I think it needless to say any thing further of it in this place. 2. In the second place they will pretend, That the Church must be Infallible, or else there will want an Infallible Judge of Controversies; nay there will not be so much as any Authority in the Church to order the affairs thereof. But the Answer is easy and brief; That there is no want of any such Infallible Judge, and therefore not of the Church's Infallibility; for the Scripture is a Sufficient Rule of Faith to all that have understanding, whether Learned or unlearned, in things necessary to Salvation: and That the belief and practice of these will carry a man to Heaven. The Spirit of God therefore is the only Infallible Judge here, and has declared as plainly as any successive Judges can, in those things that are necessary to Life and Salvation, what is to be believed and to be done: Which if we believe and practise in particular, and do also in general and implicitly believe and stand in a readiness to obey the rest of the Scripture, when the sense thereof appears to us, we are in a safe condition, and need not doubt but it will go well with us in the other State. For it is manifest that what is necessary, is plain in the Word of God to all men; otherwise Salvation were not sufficiently revealed to the world, and what we above recited out of St. Paul were not true, nor the Providence of God sufficiently watchful in the laying the first Foundations of his Church. 3. For if the Scripture were not a Sufficient Infallible evidence of all necessary Truths, God would have afterwards raised other persons of Apostolical purity in conversation, and with the like power of working Miracles, to have made a Supplement to the former, (which yet was never done;) or else those other necessary Truths, taught indeed by the first Apostles, but not written by them, had been committed to Tradition: which had been a very lubricous and perilous way, and unlikely to be taken by Divine Providence. But if any such way had been taken, certainly the Scripture itself, in which all men are agreed, would have pointed it out to us, (as also if there had been any Interpreter instituted) that there might be infallibly communicated to us what remains necessary to our eternal safety. But the Scripture being silent herein, it openly declares itself to be Sufficient to all such as with sincerity and care apply themselves to the understanding of it: as certainly every man considering that his eternal Salvation lies upon it will be enforced to do in his own behalf; whenas if others interpret for him, they may do it more remissly or more fraudulently. 4. Besides that, it is a very unskilful and inept desire that there should be any such Infallible Judge, that has concluded all Controversies to our hands already. For that would prevent or forestall that privacy and peculiarity of converse which God has with those Souls that are more dear to him, who does in a special manner assure them of such Conclusions as are not to be reached at by every hand. But when the Infallible Determination of the Church has passed, all men's assurances will be alike, and God will have, as it were, given the staff out of his own hands. Wherefore there being no external Infallible Judge for the Interpreting obscure places in Scripture, God's right of his dispensing his special favours is preserved, and men of a more devout and Intellectual spirit are divinely employed, and earnestly engaged to extraordinary piety and holiness, that they may win the favour of that inward Infallible Interpreter, even of that Holy Spirit, which the World cannot receive, and by the light of his assistence be enabled to reach the true sense of those Writings which himself dictated to the Apostles and other Holy men of God. 5. And lastly, That the want of Infallibility will take away the Authority of the Church, is a very weak Inference. For her Authority is entire in the urging those Truths and Duties in Scripture that are plain to all men, even to such as do not in the least dream that they are Infallible: And those that are thus plain are such as are the most useful for our safe conduct to Heaven. And for those Doctrines that be more obscure, if they be withal useful and edifying, as also Rites and Ceremonies, the Church has Authority, though she be not Infallible, to declare them and appoint them. Let all things be done decently, and in order. But how she is to behave herself to Dissenters, having spoke of that more copiously elsewhere, 2 Cor. 14. 40. I shall not here so much as touch upon it. I will only add, That in things that are really disputable I conceive it is the duty of every one, whatever his private judgement and inclinations otherwise would be, to compromise with the Authority of the Church, and for Peace and Order sake to be concluded by their Determinations. 6. Now what has been already suggested will serve to null or enervate a third Sophism. For it seems a plausible Objection against the Scripture alone being sufficient to guide us and rule us without a public Infallible Interpreter, That this were as if one should contend that the Law alone in Civil matters were sufficient without a public Judge. For besides what we above insinuated, That a plain Law (and such we aver the Scripture to be in matters necessary to Salvation) may want no Judge, where the Conscience finds itself upon pain of Damnation obliged to understand it aright; we further suggest, That the urging or pressing of the Law of Christ by a public Minister, Interpreter, or Declarer of the sentence of his Law, so far as it is plainly his to all unprejudiced Understandings as well unlearned as learned, is not denied by those that contend that the Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith. And for my own part (as I said before) in places that are not thus plain, if such Interpretations be made as are not repugnant to other plain Texts of Scripture, but tend to the promotion of the Ends of the Gospel, which I have elsewhere specified, I hope no man shall offend God, but do his duty to the Church, in compromising with them in their sentiments of things in such circumstances as these. For they are supposed conscientiously and in the Fear of God to have interpreted the Scripture, and not for their own ends or carnal satisfaction in any thing. And questionless in this case they can show their Commission, and that they act by Authority. Let all things be done to edification. 1 Cor. 14. 26. But that, because every Civil controversy must be determined by a Judge, therefore there must be an Infallible determinative Judge of all the nice and unprofitable controversies that emerge amongst Christians about Scripture and Religion, is but a weak and lame Illation. For Civil controversies cannot be undecided without injury to some party: but no man is injured by not having those unprofitable, at least unnecessary, questions determined; for they may hold their several opinions without wronging one another, if they will but keep to that known Law of Christ, that Royal Law of Charity. Nay the deciding such controversies by a pretended Infallible Judge were a vast wrong to one party, it galling their consciences, and straightening their liberty, and making the way to Heaven narrower than Christ has made it. For so does this Infallible Judge that imposes his Determinations on men upon pain of eternal Damnation. But God of his infinite wisdom and mercy has not given the least Intimation for any such Usurpation. And therefore this Infallible Judge being not appointed by God, and being unappointable by man, the Scripture alone, and not these pretended Infallible decisions, must be the Rule of our belief. 7. The fourth and last pretence is, That unless the Sense of Scripture be determined by the Infallibility of the Church, every private Spirit must be Judge of the meaning thereof; nay and, which is worse, be Judge of the Church, and thereby superior to the Church: than which nothing can be more wild and extravagant. This seems a big difficulty at first: But I answer, That every particular man should judge for himself, he has a Commission from the very Word of God, nay, I may say, a Command: As where he is bid to try 1 Thess. 5. 21. all things, and to hold that which is good; as also, not to believe every 1 John 〈◊〉. spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God; and in another place, to be ready to give a reason of his Faith. The Beroeans also are commended 1 Pet. 3. Acts 17. for searching the Scripture, and trying whether the things that Paul, even an inspired and chosen vessel of God, had taught them, were true or no. But for any one man or any company of men to be appointed by God Authoritatively and absolutely to be Judges for others in matters of Faith and Religion, we do not find any any where in Scripture or in Reason any such Commission given unto them; but we are rather admonished to take heed how we be led hoodwinked by any, lest the blind Matt. 15. 14. leading the blind, both fall into the ditch. 8. But not Scripture only, but Reason itself does plainly commissionate private Spirits, as they call them, to judge for themselves. For these pretenders to Infallibility do it only upon the boast that they are the true successive Church from the Apostles: But unless they will be above all measure ridiculous, they must convince the Reason of him whom they would make a Proselyte to their Church, that their Church is that true and Apostolical one. For to say so without proof, is a madness to be hooted at by all men: But to go about to prove it, is to appeal to the private Reason of him they would convince. And if he be a Christian already, though not of their Church, the common acknowledged Principles are the Holy Scriptures, in arguing from which the Disputant appeals to him he would bring over, if his Interpretation or Allegation of them be not true. But if he be an Infidel or Pagan, he is to use Reasons to prove the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures themselves: Which is still an appeal to the conscience of him that is to be gained to the Church, whether what is offered to him be true or false. And that which is offered to him being the whole Christian Faith, (for that is it which makes a true Church) it is plain that his Reason and Conscience is appealed unto, whether the whole Sum of the Credenda in Christianity is not true. That is to say, Though the Church, and he that argues in the behalf of the Church, have already judged and firmly concluded that the Christian Faith is a true Faith in the whole and in every part, and make no appeal from their own judgement in reference to themselves; yet in reference to the party they would convince, they appeal to him if the grounds of their Belief be not solid, and so imply and acknowledge that he is Judge for himself in these affairs, call that in him a private spirit or what you please. 9 But I do not know but it may be too reproachfully called a private spirit, at least in the sincere and simple-hearted, who have no private designs but to know the Will of God and to do it, and it is the Will of God all men should do so, and the spirit of man * Prov. 20. is said to be the Lamp of the Lord; and that which judges according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the common notions of Reason in all men, and has not lost the * Psell. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those common characters and ingenuous sentiments of Indispensable Truth and Morality which the Father of lights has of old sealed upon the Soul, and which are hardly obliterated quite in any, and are necessarily continued, and that vigorously, in the sincere; I say, such a Life or Spirit as this judging in a man is very hardly to be called a private spirit, it judging according to the Universal sense of humane Nature, and so as every one judges when he is unbiased. Nay, if this will not serve, I say that the Judgement which is thus made is the Judgement of that Universal King and Lawgiver, the Eternal Son of God; it is his sentence in these cases, but writ in the tables of our hearts, and pronounced by our mouths as by the Praeco of a Court. So far is it from being the Judgement of a mere private spirit. But that rather is the Judgement of a private spirit, though it should bear the Title of an Infallible Church, which is decreed not according to the plain Texts of Scripture, so as all unprejudiced men would certainly understand them, nor according to those indelible Characters of Truth which Christ the Eternal Logos has writ in the Rational Souls of all mankind; but according to partial Interest and depraved desires. The sentence of Thousands, nay of Millions, of such Judges is more the verdict of a private spirit, than the Judgement of the meanest private man that pronounces from such Principles as I have declared. 10. Now for that odious imputation of making a man's self Superior to the Church, by laying claim to a Judgement of discretion; I say, he lays claim to no more than is of necessity given him, as I have already demonstrated. For if there be an appeal to the Reason and Conscience of a private man in the endeavouring to convince him, he is ipso facto made Judge; and if to be Judge in this sense is to be Superior, he is necessarily Superior. But I see no necessity that his being Judge thus for himself makes him Superior to his Church. Indeed if he judged for his Church, he were thereby their Superior; but judging for himself only, he usurps no Superiority over the Church; but only is obedient to him that is Superior to both, that is, to Jesus Christ, following his plain Injunctions and Precepts, whether written in the outward Word, or legibly engraven upon the Table of his Heart. To follow therefore the plain and inevitable dictates of his own Conscience, which as the Tribunal of God, is not to exalt a man's self above the Church, but to submit a man's self to God, and exalt him above all. 11. Nor does a man herein equalise himself to his Church; in that he does not define for others, but for himself, and professes himself in the mean time ready to obey the visible Church in such things as are not repugnant to the express Precepts of God and Christ, and to those immutable Characters of Truth which he has imprinted upon the Souls of all men, and which are there to be found, unless gross violence and Interest has obscured or obliterated them. 12. Nor (in the last place) does he make himself wiser than his Church; which were also an odious imputation: But without immodesty it may be thought that a private man may be more solicitous of his own important Concerns, and more faithful to his own Eternal Interest, than many thousand men put together; and that therefore though he may not have so much wit and learning as these, yet he may conduct his own affairs more safely than if they were put into their hands; especially they that pretend to be guides to Heaven for others, seeming to be wholly taken up with the things of this World, as if they had forgot their intended journey. It is not therefore a boast of Wisdom above the Church, but a careful solicitude touching such things as the wise men of the World do not usually trouble themselves much about, that may embolden some private sincere-hearted Christian to descent from some Dictates of the Church; professing himself in other things as weak and childish as they please; remembering that Doxology of our Blessed Saviour, I thank thee, O Father, Matt. 11. Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. 13. Finally, This Wisdom which they adhere to is plainly and evidently not the Dictate of their own private spirit (which to oppose to the Church, were indeed to make a man's self wiser than the Church) but the plain and perspicuous Testimonies of the Word of God, and the common and indubitable Notions of universal humane Nature, writ by the Finger of that Eternal Wisdom which created all things, on the spirits of all men that be in their wits, and therefore is a plain and legible Copy of that Wisdom: So that he that adheres thereto does not prefer his own Wisdom before the Wisdom of the Church, but submits himself faithfully to the Wisdom of God, to which the Church also aught to submit, and not to efface, as much as in them lies, those imprinted Characters of Truth out of the Souls of men, thereby to enslave them to themselves and to the corrupt Interest of their Kingdom of darkness and gross Imposture. 14. But I have been more copious than was needful or intended in confuting this dream of Infallibility. We might have made shorter work of it, and suddenly evinced the folly of that pretence, by actual Errors that have been in the Church of God. As surely the Church of the Jews was as really the Church of God as the visible Christian Church, and has as magnificent promises as it, in Isaiah. For what is spoke Chap. 54. rebounds upon the Church of the Jews first, as Grotius has observed; and there it is said, That they shall all be taught of God, and that with everlasting kindness God will have mercy upon them: And yet this Church was in so gross a mistake, that the Governors and Grandees thereof knew not their Messiah when he was come into the world, but put him to a most shameful death. But even in those times when there was a more palpable Residence of God's miraculous power with them, they erred very heinously; as in the worshipping the Golden Calf in the wilderness, as also in the ten Tribes worshipping those in Bethel, nay apostatising all to the worshipping of Baalim, saving seven Thousand, which were so few in respect of the rest, that Elijah took himself to be left alone. And Ahab consulting the Prophets, found by woeful experience that four hundred of them prophesied false, and only Micaiah true. And * Ch. 5. 30, 31. Jeremy complains of his times; A wonderful and horrible thing, saith he, is committed in the Land, The Prophets prophecy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so; and what will you do in the end thereof? That is also a smart monition of his, * Ch. 7. 4. Trust you not in lying words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, etc. For all which they do that call themselves The Temple of the Lord is not right, as appears in the same Chapter, where they are accused of committing Idolatry openly in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; which could not be, had they not fallen into the hands of blind and erroneous Guides, which might cause them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, and yet in the mean time take up that presumptuous boast, That the Law shall not perish from the Priest, nor the Counsel from the Wise, nor the Word from the Prophet, no not then when they were imagining mischief against the true Prophets of the Lord; as you may see Jeremy 18. But * Ch. 3. 6. Micaiah says plainly, That the Prophets that are only for easy times and for good cheer, Night shall be upon them, and they shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto them, that they cannot divine: That such Seers shall be ashamed, and Diviners confounded, as having no answer from God. And * Ch. 56 10, 11. Esay complains that the watchmen of the City are blind, that they are ignorant shepherds, that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for jollity or gain. Thus clear is it that the Church of the Jews, though it was in such a special manner espoused to God, was not secure from, but did actually fall into very great Errors. 15. And the Christian Church has no greater assurance, but if Avarice, Pride and Sensuality seize upon the Guides thereof, she may also fall into as great errors and blindnesses. The Apostle saith, Let him that stands, take heed lest he fall. And it might have been a seasonable 1 Cor. 10. 12. warning to the Church of Christ betimes, which was not only tottering, but almost universally lapsed into that overspreading Heresy of Arrianism, to reflect upon herself, that while she does stand, she stands upon her good behaviour; and that she is not so Infallibly wise, but that she may be surprised with Error, and overrun therewith, unless true and unfeigned Holiness clear her eyes, and keep her from being benighted in such mists of darkness. And truly if she was above twelve hundred years ago so obnoxious to Error, it is high time for her to awake and consider if after so many Ages of ease and wealth and honour and affluency of all things, she has not grown fat and kicked, and cast the Commandments of God behind her back, and brought in a mere carnal Law of her own devising, more suitable to the will of the flesh and to the carrying on of her own worldly Interest. But it is sufficient in this place to have demonstrated She may err; in what she has erred to define, is beyond the scope of my present discourse. 16. We have fully defeated that Figment of pretended Infallibility, whose downfall our opposers have no colour to bewail, unless in the behalf of the common people, who are illiterate; as if they would hereby be made uncapable of any certainty of Belief, and consequently of Salvation, by reason they have no Infallible grounds to build on, this of the Church being taken away. But they may remember that we have already acknowledged sufficient certainty in that which the Universal Church agrees in, and has agreed in in all Ages, and that is the Scripture. Such an Universal Tradition as the Scripture has is acknowledged a firm Foundation; which the Church may be unfailing conveiers of down to posterity without being infallible Interpreters thereof. The unfailingness of which conveyance notwithstanding, I must confess, may be a more intricate business then what every Vulgar man can make out to himself; though infinitely less hard than to prove That the Church that would appropriate him to their Community, is Infallible. Nay, I must confess, I do not know how it were possible that a Church should so much as prove itself a Church, much less an Infallible Church, without the Scripture. And therefore the belief of the Scripture seems to be the most immediate of all, as * Cael. Secund. Curio against Floribellus. he says well; Nam qui de fide & authoritate Divinarum Scripturarum dubitat, quomodo, quaeso, credet Ecclesiae, quae nullam habet sine eadem Scriptura authoritatem? 17. And therefore I cannot explode that by any means which is so superciliously derided by some, namely, That it is the Spirit of God that does assure us of the Truth of Scriptures more than any thing else whatsoever. For our Saviour Christ saith, None cometh to me but whom my John 6. & ch. 10. Father draweth. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Wherefore there is a discerning Spirit in those that appertain to Salvation, whether it be the Voice of God and Christ or no. For the true Shepherd goeth before, and the sheep follow him, because they know John 10. 4, 5. his voice; but they follow not a stranger, but fly from him, because they know not his voice; as our Saviour discourses most excellently. I say therefore, the Voice, the Call, or Whistle (if you will) of the true Shepherd are the Holy Scriptures, which by an immediate sense they are assured to be the Call of the Shepherd, and are at this day to them that belong to the election of God, as the Voice of Christ and his Apostles when they were upon Earth, the power of whose speech assisted by the Spirit did lead men captive into that Faith that worketh Salvation. And without all question the same Word of Salvation still, which is in those Holy Records, seriously and zealously urged by men of a sincere faith and upright belief, without any mingling of it with humane devices, will have the same effect upon the multitude; and as many as are fitted will be won to an unshaken belief of the Truth of Christianity, as it is exhibited to us in the Holy Scriptures. For they of themselves have the light and life and very breath of Christ and his Apostles wrapped up in them, to the exciting the vulgar sort to a firm and lively Faith, though many subtle Sophisters of the Kingdom of darkness might by crafty and perverse Reasoning entangle them and nonplus them in outward discourse. And therefore they are kept safe in the belief of the Scripture by the power of that Spirit in them, in virtue whereof there is that indissoluble harmony and concord betwixt their spirits and the Scripture, though they cannot defend themselves by humane Literature, nor by the acuteness of Reason and depths of Philosophy. 18. Which Spirit residing in them, and giving them this solid and firm discernment betwixt the Testimony of God and the Traditions and Doctrines of men, I think I may safely and properly call the Spirit of Faith, as it is considered nakedly in itself, and separate from the Spirit of Knowledge and of Wisdom. Which distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Origen of old has taken notice of in his book against Celsus, Lib. 6. upon that Text of S. Paul. And truly I think the Gloss is marvellous solid; namely, That the chiefest and greatest Gift of the Spirit is that Divine Wisdom, whereby a man is in a great measure able to comprehend the reasons and more deep Philosophical grounds of the Truth of the Christian Mystery: The next is Knowledge, suppose of Antiquity, History, the comparing of Prophecies, and helps of the exterior humane literature, the liberal Arts and Languages: The third is Faith, which is also comprised in the other, but is a Gift which is as well general as more necessary, whose nature is such as I have described already; namely, An immediate adherence to the word of Truth comprised in the Scripture, through the power of that Spirit that resides in sincere and well-meaning Souls, that have a savoury and sensible fear of God, and are ready to go where he calls them. For these by an ineffable Sympathy of their hearts with the veracity of the voice of Christ sounding in the Scriptures will be sure to follow their true Shepherd's call, though they turn off from the voice of the stranger and Hireling, who comes not into the Sheepfold but to rob and kill and steal. Whence we further see, that this pretended Infallibility of the Church in reference to the Scripture is as well useless as false, and much as if the Moon should take upon her to witness for the Sun that he sends out light; which every one that is not blind will necessarily see, though the Moon were under the Horizon. So the holy children of God, chosen and faithful, will feel and taste, clearly see and discern that the Scripture is the Truth of God by that light which is in it, that correspondeth with that Spirit derived from the Father of lights which he has shed into their hearts: Which, as I said, is the Spirit of Faith, and the sure portion of every Member of Christ, whether they can make out things by Knowledge and deep Reason or no. And if they be assaulted by Cavillers, it is their prudence to send such to their fellow-members to whom God has given also the Spirit of Knowledge or of Wisdom: or it may be more prudent to let them go as they came, they being not worthy to give any the trouble of discourse, who put questions not with design of being seriously edified and instructed in the Truth, but for captiousness, contention and a conceited hope of puzzling him by whom they make show as if they desired to be informed. 19 The fraudulent End that this pseudochristian Church might drive at in this peremptory boast of Infallibility is very conspicuous, as also the Mischievous events thereof. For what could this tend to but the making this Antichristian power absolute, that they might, without any one's whinching, decree and declare whatever would tend to the increase of their own honour and wealth, seem it never so contrary to common Reason, to the express Word of God and the Precepts of Christ? For the sentence is Infallible, let it look never so strangely and repugnantly to any Rule that we might think right. Wherefore this Power might even do what it pleases, change Times and Laws, even the Law of God itself, and fling the house of God out at windows, as the proverb is. For who has any thing to say against that power which he is already persuaded is Infallible? And to speak summarily, and then which nothing greater can be said, The Admittance of this Infallibility is the Exclusion of Christ from his Kingdom and Throne, and the setting up a mere Mortal, a masterless Man of sin, or a pack of sons of Belial, to sway his Sceptre for him in the world. This alone is enough, if it would take, to supplant the Government of Christ upon Earth. CHAP. III. 1. That the keeping the Law of Christ in an unknown Tongue is an undermining or opposing of his Sovereignty. 2. As also the reproaching and vilifying his Law. 3. Their fraudulent pretence of hiding the Scriptures, with a vindication of their Usefulness and Excellency. 4. The vilifying of the Laws of Christ, by setting far less penalties upon the transgression of them then of the inconsiderable Institutes of the Church. 5. That their rigid Impositions are against the Kingdom of Christ; as also the reading of Legends instead of his Law, in Churches. 6. The dispensing also with the Divine Laws: The Fraud and Mischief thereof. 7. The Treasonable pretence of this Power's being absolute by right of succession in Christ's seat. 8. The evil effect of this pretence discoverable in several Institutes contrary to the written Laws of Christ: 9 As also in nulling those Laws he has given, as he is the Eternal Word. 10. The bloody opposing the Sovereignty and Kingdom of Christ in murdering his faithful Subjects. 1. BUT there are other ways also of lifting the Government from off Christ's shoulders. As first, Suppose They should keep the Law of God in an unknown Tongue, and not let any one read it in the language they understood: nay be so careful that the very Prayers that are used in public, and the celebration of the holy Eucharist, should be unintelligible, lest the power of some passages of Scripture that may occur in the public Service should unhindge men from the blind obedience they are held in under this Antichristian Usurpation. 2. To which you may add, what indeed might better have preceded, a Revilement of the Law of Christ, as a Book full of nothing but dangerous obscurities, a Lesbian or Leaden Rule to be bended any way, a Nose of wax, a dead letter, a Farrago of casual or occasional Writings, which were penned not by any Divine appointment, but only as fortuitous Exigences moved the Prophets or Apostles to write them: And where they would speak most modestly, to say it is an insufficient Law or Rule, and therefore must be made up by Institutes of their own invention, or what they will please to obtrude upon the world for Traditional doctrines and usages. I say, thus to Revile the Law of Christ is to null it, and thereby to null his Sovereignty over his Church, and to betray it into the hands of a stranger, to deal with them as he pleases, and to change Times and Laws and Customs in such sort, that there may be nothing sound left in Christianity, that may any way thwart the Interest of these Usurpers. 3. In brief therefore thus it may be, They may pretend the Scripture obscure all over, because it is so in some places. But we have already sufficiently urged that there is enough clear of it to enlighten the single-hearted in the way of eternal Salvation. But upon the pretence of the uncertain sense of some passages, they may remove all away; that those passages that would plainly discover and reprove their false doctrines and practices might not come into the sight of the people. For (as a Father has well noted) Verbum Dei est Lucerna, ad quam fur deprehenditur; and our Saviour Christ of old, They hate the light, because their deeds are evil. But that Imputation of the Scripture's being writ occasionally, it is as weak as impious and blasphemous. As if the Spirit of God would not assist the Apostles most when occasion called for it; or as if he were to study how to inspire them and illuminate them, and could not do it extempore, or upon emergent occasions, but would be taken unprovided. These things savour of gross carnality and ignorance of the very nature of God and his holy Spirit, which Christ promised should not fail to be with them for ever, for the right settling of the affairs of the Church; that is to say, that it would not desert them so long as they lived, and acted in the Ministry and service thereof: Which therefore must make the Scripture very precious and of inestimable value to all sincere Believers. Wherefore any one Paragraph of the Epistles of S. Paul, to whom Christ appeared, and called to from Heaven, and commissioned to be an Apostle, to lay the Foundation and first structure of his Church, aught to be preferred before many thousands of pretended Infallible Councils, who could never show any such extraordinary Commission to prove themselves Infallible. For God by that miraculous appearing to Paul from Heaven, and so appointing him to be an Apostle, did proclaim to all the World that he would Infallibly assist him; and that therefore what was imparted to the World by him should be a Law irreversible to Christendom. Whence the nulling of the Authority of S. Paul's writings were the abrogating of the very Law of Christ, which were a most rebellious and blasphemous Enterprise against the Sovereignty of Christ himself. 4. But there is also another way of undermining or subverting the Rule and Sovereignty of the Son of God, and that is, An undervaluing his Laws in proportion of Penalties laid upon the transgression of them and of some slighter humane Ecclesiastic Institutes. As surely these would be very Antichristian Instances of this kind, namely, If Absolution for him that kills his Father, or lies with his Mother, should be five or six times Cheaper then of him that takes two Orders in one day, or is Ordained without Letters dismissory: or that to be Ordained out of the set times of the year should have a penalty ten times greater than Lying with a man's own Mother, or, if you will, but equal to the deflowering of a Virgin, the lying with a man's own Sister, Murder, Perjury, Sacrilege, Simony, revealing Confession, keeping a Concubine, lying with a woman in the Church; but equal, I say, to all these nine put together. What could vilify the indispensable Law of God and Christ more, then to make so many transgressions, and so heinous, less than that trifle of humane Tradition, To Ordain only at such times of the year? 5. Again, That were likewise a very conspicuous vilification of the Word of God, if instead thereof there were read in the Churches finelydevised Fables to entertain the People withal. As if they were wiser than the Wisdom of God himself, and could entertain the people more edifyingly with incredible and ridiculous stories, then with the Discourses of Christ Jesus, and sober and easily-intelligible histories of truth, that Divine Providence has recorded for the instruction of his Church. 6. Dispensations also against the Law of Christ, whether written in the Word of God, or comprised in the sacred Law of Nature, which is but the Transcript of that Law in the Eternal Logos, Christ according to his Divinity, were also an Antichristian defeating of Christ's Rule and Sovereignty: as also would be the Interpretation of the serious Injunctions of Christ as if they were not Praecepta, but Consilia, not Commands, but Advice left to us to follow if we would, or to let alone if we pleased; whenas Christ plainly declares, that he that breaks the least of these Matt. 5. Commandments, and teaches men so to do, shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. What then would it be to dispense with Perjury, Treason, Murder, Incest, Adultery, Sodomy and other such heinous crimes? What were it but the utter taking away the Law of Christ, and destroying his Kingdom upon Earth? The Fraud and Self-endedness of which easy Anarchy is only to fill the net full, though it be of rotten sticks and dirt, so long as out of this dirt they can extract Silver. But the Mischief is, that the Riches of this false Church would flow and rise with the height of the Abominations and Transgressions of rich sinners, till a deluge of wrath wash away this deluge of sin. But those in the interim that are so foolish to believe these Dispensations, and think they are come into a fair liberty of spirit, having found so facile ghostly Fathers, will thereby most certainly become the Bondslaves of sin, which in the conclusion will as certainly deliver them up to Eternal Death. 7. But what plea or pretence, will you say, may there be made of acting Religiously, while they act thus enormously, in letting the reins lose to all manner of wickedness to them that will go to the price thereof? Why yes. This Antichristian Power might pretend that all that Power which is in Christ (though it be plainly a casting Christ out of his Royal Throne) is derived upon him or them as his Successors. But Christ being the absolutely-Supreme Power may do as he will, dispense with his own Laws as he pleases: Wherefore this Antichristian power, pretending to be or have the very same power, may dispense with the Laws of Christ as it pleases, especially for the enriching the Church; for all such Interest is pious. Which yet is such an Imagination, that nothing can be more Treasonable against the Regal Office of Christ, nor more destructive of his Kingdom. 8. The effect of which villainous Principle would also certainly appear in this Synagogue of Satan or Antichrist, and we should find Laws and Institutes quite contrary to the Laws and Decrees of the Son of God. As certainly such as these would be; namely, Sundry sorts of Idolatry, such as I have instanced in already, and need not repeat, and have noted the Frauds Book I. ch. 12. and fetches in the practice of them; The teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men, which is expressly against our Saviour's own command, and of which I have given sundry examples in my * Book I. ch. 17: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. second branch of Antichristianism; The withholding the Cup from the Laiety, notwithstanding the Institution of the Lord's Supper by Christ himself does so plainly enjoin the communicating both of Bread and Wine, Drink you all of this; and S. Paul again, following the Example of Christ, Let a man examine himself, Matt. 26. 27. and so eat of this bread, and drink of this cup: which indefinite command 1 Cor. 11. 28. surely includes all. But the drinking of the Cup being made the Privilege of the Priest, it magnifies his condition hugely, and makes the poor Laiety feel and acknowledge their distance, how unholy and how removed from God they are in comparison of the Priesthood. This would be the true Reason, though they might pretend (for I think they have nothing better to pretend) the length of the laymen's beards; which I suppose they would rather cut off, then be cut short in their share of so holy a Sacrament. Again, The serving of God in the Church in an unknown Language, praying to him, and praising him, and reading the Scripture in a Tongue the people understand not, is evidently against the directions of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. in this particular, and against that more universal and indispensable Law, Let all things be done to edifying. As also the worshipping of Angels, 1 Cor. 14. 26. Coloss. 2. 18. which the same Apostle does expressly speak against; and likewise the forbidding to marry, and the abstaining from meats upon a Religious 1 Tim. 4 3. account, with several other such. All which being expressly against the Commands or Laws of Christ, it were a most reproachful and Traitorous affront to him, the true Head of the Church, and a plain declaring against the Right of his Sovereignty, thus to make any Laws or Institutes so contrary to those himself has established. 9 As were also the nulling at any time whatever binds according to the Universally-known Laws of God and Nature: For these are the Laws of Christ, as he is the Eternal Logos. And therefore where any are bound by solemn Oath in public Contracts or Covenants lawfully taken, or are legitimately married, and have committed no offence that might void the bonds of Wedlock; to pretend to have a power to dispense with or to null these Contracts and Oaths, or to legitimate such Marriages as are contrary to the Laws of God and Nature, This also would certainly be a manifest affronting the Sovereignty of Christ, and the Power thus practising would discover itself plainly Antichristian. 10. And lastly, to fill up the measure of this abhorred Limb of Antichrist which we are depainting; If this pretended Infallible Power should commit cruel slaughters and massacres upon the true Subjects of Christ, such as are innocent and guiltless of any wrong against any man according to the Law of God and Nature, but are (as I said) really the true subjects of Christ; were not this practice palpably Antichristian? Which sentence against them would be very hard, if it should run but thus, Let them be put to death without mercy, though they be the true Subjects of Christ Jesus. How Devilishly Antichristian then must that Act be that condemns them to death for that very thing that makes them the true Subjects of Jesus Christ, that is to say, because they faithfully adhere to the indispensable Laws of their Lord and Master? And in what a state of manifest Hostility against Christ's true and faithful Subjects must this Power be, that so professes and practices, that if they could find out any of them, and that if it lay in their power to destroy them, they would root them from off the face of the earth, or attempt to subdue them by all imaginable penalties and cruelties, by imprisonments, tortures, fire and faggot, and what not? And all this (which makes the crime infinitely more execrable) under a pretence of doing service to Christ Jesus, whose dearest and sincerest Members they thus barbarously persecute and destroy. This one Limb alone of Antichristianism, I mean this vafrous and bloody Treason against the holy Majesty of Christ and his true and living Members, has such a weight of wickedness with it, that it is even enough of itself to make almost an entire Antichrist. CHAP. IU. 1. Sundry particular Oppositions against the Prophetic Office of Christ, which may be the Characters of that grand Pseudo-prophet that was to come into the world. 2. That the Spirit of Prophecy is not to be monopolised by any one person, but is free. 3. An Excerpt out of Caelius Secundus Curio to that purpose. 4. The silencing the Dictates of those common Notions implanted in humane Souls, the highest affront to the Prophetic Office of Christ that can be. 5. Several Absurdities propounded as Instances of that Tyranny over the immutable Principles of humane Understanding, with the detection of that eminent False-prophet thereby. 6. That it is infinitely more likely that this pretended Prophet should be fallible, than the foregoing Absurdities true. 7. That the slaying of the Prophets, 8. Together with the abovementioned Oppositions against the Prophetical Office of Christ, make up a conspicuous Limb of Antichristianism. 1. BUT we will further consider this Antichristian Opposition in respect to Christ's Prophetical Office. Where we shall dispatch very briefly, several of those practices against the Kingly Office of Christ equally reflecting upon his Prophetical. As first, The pretending the holy Oracles of God are so obscure that the people can make nothing of them, and then upon that pretence violently withholding them from them, upon pain of death not to meddle with them against the mind of the Church: This would make Christ a Prophet without Predictions or Instructions, as I have noted above; which therefore would be a grand injury to him, as he is that great Prophet of God sent into the world. The prohibiting also the Reading of such Expositions of Scriptures as are writ by plain and sincere followers of Christ, who have interpreted with skill and faithfulness the more useful places of Holy Writ: This also would be an Antichristian resistance of him in his Prophetic Office; but that the utter stifling of the Spirit of Prophecy in his true Members, if they could persuade them that there is already an Infallible Prophet and▪ Interpreter, whose sole meaning is the true sense of the Scripture, and that Scripture itself is nothing without it, and that none has either Authority or Capacity to interpret but he. What an egregious Pseudo-prophet then, think you, would this be, who takes upon him to speak nothing but Oracles and Infallible truth, while he speaks and defines and acts such things as I have hitherto described, Multifarious Idolatries, Insupportable Superstitions, and most impudent Annulments of the plain and express Laws and Doctrines of Christ? Who therefore ever can, if this great Pseudo-prophet do not, prove the famed Antichrist indeed, that monopolizes the Right of Prophesying to himself alone, that he may the better deceive the whole world; and will be Infallible, that is to say, unfailingly inspired, that this extravagant boast may the more palpably discover him to be that eminent False-prophet that Christendom has so long expected and feared? 2. Such a pretended Monopoly of the power of Prophesying as this is diametrically opposite to that liberty of the Spirit of Prophecy which is the Gift of Christ the Eternal Wisdom of God, which is excluded no no where but out of a wicked and polluted heart, out of every Soul that is subject unto sin: otherwise that Spirit is so described in the Book of Wisdom, that it is not in the power of any Potentate to confine it to himself. For it is a lover of that which is good, quick, which cannot be letted or Chap. 7. v. 22, etc. hindered, ready to do good, kind to man, steadfast, sure, having all power, overseeing all things, and going through all understanding, pure and subtle Spirits. For Wisdom is more moving than any motion; she passeth and goes through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore can no defiled thing touch her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the Image of his goodness: And being but one she can do all things, and remaining in herself she maketh all things new; and in all Ages entering into holy Souls she makes them friends of God and Prophets. What one man therefore or company of men can pretend that the Gift of Prophesying is entailed on them only, unless they were the only pure and undefiled? Or rather what ground or assurance have they that themselves can prophecy aright, they living in sin, in luxury and in all worldly impurities? 3. It is nobly concluded of Caelius Secundus Curio against Floribellus: Neque enim vera Dei cognitio, verúsque cultus, unius aut Familiae, aut Gentis, aut Sectae propria esse potest; sed quicunque sensu immortalitatis tanguntur, two ad se eandem pertinere existimare debent. Poterat quidem Judaeorum Gens Circumcisionem externam, Aaronis Familia Sacerdotium, alias item Ceremonias sibi jure quodam vendicare; sed divinam & internam Circumcisionem, vivas illas animi verásque Hostias, aeternas Naturae leges, quas in hominum animis Jova Opt. Max. à principio insculpserat, omnium mortalium sententiis comprobatas, sibi nec Judaei, nec Graeci, nec Romani, nec ulla praeterea Natio, quasi propria vendicare potuerunt. And immediately after speaking more particularly of Christian Religion as it is revealed in the Scripture, Ac nè illud quidem verè dici potest, quod quidam putant, summam Religionis quasi Haereditariam ad unum aliquem venisse, sic ut pro libidine sua interpretari, addere, demere, mutare, statuere, abrogare aliquid in ea possit. Neque enim idcirco Leges divinitus latae sunt, Religióve patefacta, quò in eam mortales jus haberent; sedut omni study, curâ, labour, diligentiâ colerent, ejúsque dignitatem tuerentur. 4. Wherefore as concerning those Eternal and Immutable Rules of Divine Reason which God has engraven upon every man's Spirit, and come in as freely as the Light of the Sun into their natural eyes, and without which whatever Prophecies there are or Instructions in the Holy Writ, it were impossible for us to be ascertained of the Truth of them, or indeed of any meaning in them; I say, upon pretence of an imperious Infallibility to deface these Divine Characters of the Soul, or to command them silence, or to give them the Lie, would be an act of the most notorious False-prophet, and most contradictious to the Prophetic Office of Christ, (whether you respect his Humanity or Divinity) that can ever manifest himself in the world. 5. As for example, If this impudent Oracle should declare, That one and the same individual Body can be in several places at one and the same moment of time, yea in infinite places, in a manner, and at vast distances, at once; That that may be made or created which is already in being; That the real and sensible mode of a Subject may subsist separate from that Subject, as, suppose, Motion or Hardness, where there is nothing moved or hard; That what we have assurance of by all our Senses and by the Senses of all men constantly, the Object being at a due distance, and the Medium fitted, and the Organs rightly disposed, may notwithstanding all this be false; That the same Body at the same time may be bigger and lesser than itself; but an inch distant from me, and a thousand miles distant from me, at once; That one and the same person may be many thousand miles absent from himself, and that he may both sit still and make a journey to himself at the same time; That an entire organised Body may be wholly in every part thereof, all of it in the Eye, and consequently every part in every part, the comely parts in those on which Nature has bestowed less comeliness; That an entire Body may be divided, and yet not into two parts (suppose) but into two wholes, and both the same with the divided Entire body; That the same Body may be now at Athens, and after at Thebes, and yet not pass any medium direct or circuitous to come thither; That a man may swallow every atom of his own body at once into his belly, limbs, back, belly, head, and mouth and all; That one and the same individual person may be of different ages at once, above thirty years old, and yet not above three hours old at the same time; That Religious Worship, even that which is Latria, may be given to Images, and yet without Idolatry; That Christ may satisfy for the faults of men, and yet they remain obnoxious to the penalties due for those faults; with several others of that kind: I say, whosoever, upon pretence of being Prophet-general to the world, should lift up his head on high and utter such Infallible Contradictions as these in the name of the Lord of Hosts, or such oracular Definitions as must be false unless these be true, we need not spend time in ask him, Art thou he, or do we look for another? but may assuredly conclude that he is that expected eminent False-prophet who does Antichristianly oppose himself against the Spirit of Truth which Christ has imparted to the world, partly by writing those immutable and infallible Rules of common Reason in the Souls of men; and partly by those Holy Writings which he has left to his Church, recorded by inspired men and Prophets; and lastly, by a special converse with more holy and sanctified Souls, to whom he does in a more certain and assured way then ordinary impart his Spirit of Illumination, as appears out of what we have cited out of the Book of Wisdom, and might be proved out of sundry other places of the Canonical Scripture. 6. And now whereas such a False-prophet as this has nothing to defend himself from the suspicion of being an Impostor, but the peremptory and impudent bearing men down that he is Infallible, it is but seasonable to appeal here to the world, Whether it be not infinitely more likely that this one man, or company of men, or succession of either, doing no real Miracles to extort belief, nor living better nor so well as other men, should be fallible and subject to error, or given to deceit, then that the abovecited absurd Conclusions should be true. For neither he nor they can be Infallible, if these be real Falsities, as undoubtedly they are. 7. Add unto all this, That if this Pseudoprophetick Power should serve the true Prophets of Christ and faithful Witnesses as the false Prophet did Micaiah, strike them on the cheeks, nay cruelly persecute them and kill them, (dealing so with them as the Jews did of old with our dear Lord and Master, who complained, But now you seek to kill me, a man that has Joh. 8. 40. told you the Truth which I have heard of God) would they not prove themselves to be that Jerusalem that has become an Harlot, and of whom our Saviour has predicted, That it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Luk. 13 33. Jerusalem? she must be the Executioner. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, art not thou that mystical City of Hypocrites, the false House of God, Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord also was crucified as well as the Prophets before him, and his holy Witnesses after him? For the false Jerusalem, the adulterate Church, is ambitious to monopolise to herself the trade of blood and of slaying of the Prophets and Witnesses of God. But this may seem too vehement an Excursion. 8. The thing that I contend for is this; That that Polity that usurps this Authority to themselves, and does all these indignities, injuries and cruelties, and uses all these unlawful means which I have noted, for the stifling of the Spirit of Truth, insomuch that Christ neither in his own person, nor in those Holy Records he has recommended to the world, nor in his living Instruments which he extraordinarily directs and assists, is permitted to admonish and inform men what is the right way, and what those indispensable duties to be done; that that Polity, I say, that behaves itself thus, does therein notoriously Antichristianize, that is, oppose Christ in his Prophetic Office as much as any Antichrist can do; and that the being thus minded and acting after this manner is an undoubted and conspicuous piece of the crassest Antichristianism. CHAP. V. 1. That the pretence of repeating the Oblation of the real Body of Christ is a derogation to the Exceilency of Christ's Priesthood. 2. Fuller Aggravations of this wicked affront. 3. A prevention of a subterfuge. 4. Another more dangerous assault against the Priesthood of Christ, and the main end of his Suffering. 5, 6. The making the Blood of Christ available to take away the Gild of sin only, and not the Punishment, how salvagely Antichristian. 7. Further Aggravations of this despightful piece of Antichristianism. 8. That there can be nothing more fundamentally Antichristian than it. 9 That the crime, considering the circumstances, seems worse than that of Judas; with the Fraud of this wickedness. 10. As also the great Mischief thereof. 11. Injuries against the Mediatorship of Christ. 12. An Answer to some slight pretences. 13. A further confutation of such Antichristian errors and mispractices. 14. The Fraud and Mischief of multiplying Mediators. 15. A special Mischief done thereby to our growth in grace and holiness. 1. LEt us now decipher what Antichristian opposition may be made against the Sacerdotal Office of Christ. There is one main and signal Privilege of the Priesthood of Christ, which is apparently and expressly set down by the Author to the Hebrews, and looked upon as a special Dignity and Perfection thereof, Hebr. 9 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the Highpriest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others: For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed for men once to die, but after this the judgement: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, etc. And again, chap. 10. And every Priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, (which a little before he calls the offering of his Body once for all) sat down at the right hand of God, etc. Which words do plainly declare, That the Excellency of that true Offering of that Eternal Highpriest, when he offered up his Body to his Father to reconcile the World unto God, is such, as that it needs no repetition; Salvation being perfected in that one act of Christ as to the matter of Propitiation for sins. Whence it would follow, That the pretending that Christ is really and actually offered up as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and the dead by the hands of the Priest in the celebration of the Eucharist, were a foul derogation to the Perfectness of that one Oblation of our Transcendent Highpriest Christ Jesus, when he offered himself up to his Father for an Atonement for the sins of the whole World. I say, this presumptuous conceit of offering him up really and bodily in every celebration of the Lord's Supper, were an heinous Antichristian affront against the Sacerdotal Excellency of Christ: 2. Which Figment is still the more vile, if we consider with what course abuses of the Person of Christ, and with what villainous and barbarous injuries it must necessarily be conceived to be accompanied: How often by the mere power of that Quinqueverbal charm we above mentioned, he must be forced to fall into the hands of sinners, though uttered with no devotion toward him at all; for else the whole company might be constrained to commit the grossest Idolatry imaginable, even as gross as the most barbarous Nations ever did commit. But if he come into the Priest's hands, he is betrayed into worse usages than Jeremy that was let down into the miry Dungeon. A man's fancy would abhor to follow whither they send that which they say is the King of Glory, the living and real Body or Person of Christ. Which horrid and nasty servitude he is put to, not once or twice, nor in one of these stinking miry prisons at once, but in many thousands at the same time, and weekly, nay, it may be, daily, for many hundreds of years together. What despite and mockery therefore would it be for to keep their Churches clean and adorned, to burn Incense and sweet Odours, to have all things lightsome and splendid, against the Lord whom they seek come into his Holy Temple; and yet as soon as he is come, not to permit him to have the common enjoyment of these sumptuous preparations, but, as it were in mockery and despite, (as I said) to clap him up into a dungeon more foul and miry then that of the afflicted Prophet? and when he is more gently entreated, yet to enclose him in a Pyx like a reprieved prisoner, that they may afterwards let him out occasionally into the tainted mouths and bodies of expiring men? As if Christ prophesied false upon the Cross when he said, It is finished; when there was such an inexhausted Residue of loathsome drudgery behind for him to undergo. 3. These things are very ugly and unworthy, which though they be not in the power of any man to do against Christ, yet in that they profess to do them, they acknowledge they would do them if they could; and therefore do really vilify him and reproach him, as they that hang up or otherwise execute an escaped Criminal in effigy, declare their mind as much as if they had really executed it upon his person. But this horrid reproach against the Person of Christ is still the more aggravable, if they be so barbarously serious in imprinting it on the minds and beliefs of men, that they will lay violent hands on them that deny it, and slay them. Can a man excogitare a more industriously-managed Blasphemy against that Holy Tabernacle of the Godhead, the Body of the Lord Jesus, than this? or desire a firmer proof of their readiness to use the Body of Christ so coursely and cruelly if they could, when they do not stick to murder those that deny it to be in their power so to do, though they had never so great a mind to do it? 4. But though they fall short of their malice or presumption here, yet they may assault the sacred Office of Christ's Priesthood with a more dangerous and mischievous Attempt, exceeding ungrateful and reproachful, a poison that would eat out the very marrow and sweetness of the Christian Religion, and damp and obscure the grace and glory of the Sacerdotal Function of the Lord Jesus, and frustrate and evacuate the main end of his Sufferings, which was to satisfy the wrath of God for the sins of the world, by making himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice for them; that so many as believed in Christ Jesus, according to the gentle tenor of that New Covenant which he made in his Blood for remission of sins, endeavouring to follow his Precepts according to that light and strength which should be orderly or gradually imparted to them, might be sure of the favour of God, being justified by Faith in the Passion and Merits of Christ, and not by any works or merits of their own. For that this is the tenor of the New Covenant, and the true sum of that most acceptable and joyful news of the Gospel, is abundantly evident through all the Writings of the Apostles: namely, That being justified by Faith, in a Forensal sense, that is, acquitted and assoiled from the guilt of all our sins, as well as in several measures, according to our several ages and growths in Christianity, sanctified and purified from them, (which assoilment from guilt does necessarily imply security from punishment) we might, as the Apostle speaks, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ This assuredly is the very Nature and Genius of the Rom. 5. 1. Evangelical Dispensation, and the sweetest and the most refreshing Flower to decayed Mortals in all this Garden of God, and the peculiar endearment of sincere Souls to be loyal and obedient Children and unfeigned lovers of his Son Jesus. 5. Whence it will follow, That there can be nothing more salvagely and barbarously Antichristian then to root out this comfortable Plant, this Tree of Life, out of God's Paradise, the Church. For such is the Cross of Christ, on which that holy Propitiatory Sacrifice did hang; the influence of whose Death is a cooling balsam that heals the wounds and stings of a troubled Conscience, which the more sincere, many times, the more distressed. And therefore the Atonement of our dying Saviour considered in his Soul-melting Passion is exhibited to her as her only and proper Cure. Nothing therefore more despitefully can be invented against the value and use of that inestimable Blood which our ever-to-be-adored Highpriest shed upon the Cross for the securing our peace, then to misinterpret the efficacy thereof, as if it had the virtue of only taking away the Gild of our sins, but that if we will be free from the Punishment, we must labour out that by our own Merits and satisfactory Penances. This is to turn the intended sweetness of the Christian Dispensation into a Stygian sourness, the joyful and glorious Day of the Gospel into a cloudy Egyptian Night, (wherein dwells nothing but horror and servitude) peace of mind into perturbation, and to make the Blood of the Son of God more vile than that of Bulls and Goats. 6. Wherefore it is manifest, That to teach that we are not justified by Faith, but by Works and Penances, which we must suffer as such, that is to say, as Satisfactory penances, and not by way of correction and emendation of life, such hardships as may be medicinal and curative of whatever depravations of nature we labour under, but merely (as I said) for satisfaction of sin committed, as if so be the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ upon the Cross were not sufficient to atone the wrath of God, without every man suffer for himself also the punishments from which Christ came to free us, that with a more ingenuous love and comfortable liberty of spirit from all such bondages of the Law and slavish anxieties we might serve him in a true and living way, in real holiness and righteousness; I say, to teach such doctrine as this, would be plainly to supplant and oppose the Sacerdotal Office of Christ in that eminent act and genuine issue thereof (the Oblation of himself for the sins of the world, and the making our pacification with God) than which nothing can be excogitated more Antichristian. 7. Which still will appear more hideous if we consider the extent that the necessity of these Penances may be conceived to have, not disturbing the peace only of this life, but pursuing us also, like the Poetical Furies, with whips and torches, to plague us and torment us in the other state, as we have * Book 1. Ch. 22. already described: As if whatever blemish or miscarriage of this frail life has happened could not be expiated, no not by the Blood of the Eternal Son of God, but every man must pay his own debt in the other world to the utmost farthing. Which assuredly makes the Sufferings of Christ of none effect, and is quite against the sense of a Propitiatory Sacrifice. Is this he of whom the Prophet Esay in that melodiously-mournfull burden so sweetly and comfortably complains, He was wounded for our Transgressions, he was bruised for our Iniquities; the Chastisement of our Ch. 53. peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed? No, says this ungrateful and perfidious Antichristian power, every man shall be healed with his own stripes, and bear the burden of his own iniquity; he shall be whipped, and stripped, and wear hair-cloath next his skin, take long and tedious pilgrimages, creep upon his bare knees on flinty causeys, fast and watch, not for correction and emendation of life, but for satisfaction for his sins already committed, as if the Son of God had never satisfied for them. And this he shall suffer not only in this life, but the Fire of Purgatory, which is a temporary Hell, (and must torment men as long as they please to define) shall be kindled about him in the other world; which nothing shall extinguish but the full payment for the whole score, (for if not for all, why for any?) a plenary satisfaction made, not by Christ, but his own self, or any friend else that will do him the favour. For he is taught to decline the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ, who was only able to satisfy for us, and who did it unhired and unrewarded by us; and to fly to any one, may it but bring a piece of Money in to the Church, rather than to him. 8. Can there be then any thing more fundamentally and essentially Antichristian then thus to flight and cast away, or fraudulently for filthy lucre to suppress and conceal, the precious fruit of the Passion and Merits of so sufficient and loving a Saviour, and make men believe that they are to be saved by their own Merits, and to satisfy both here and hereafter for their own sins; whenas it is a thing both impossible and needless, and diametrically opposite to the meaning and design of the Death and Passion and complete Satisfaction made by our Blessed Saviour himself? 9 This doctrine seems abominable enough of itself; but if we consider upon what grounds and with what circumstances it may be foisted into the Church by that Antichristian power we are a-describing, it will be yet infinitely more hateful and execrable. Judas betrayed Christ for a piece of money into the hands of them that crucified him, for which his memory is accursed to all posterity: And yet Christ was betrayed but to that which he was willing to undergo, namely, He willingly underwent the wrath of God, that he might shelter us from it, which was the very end of his Agony and Passion. Now suppose this false Church we are depainting should for a piece of money betray the very End and Design of Christ's Passion, and quite frustrate and evacuate it; were not Christ worse betrayed here then by Judas himself? For Judas betrayed him but to what he had a mind to, that he might be an Oblation to God for the remission of sins to all Believers: But this Antichristian Church, frustrating him of the End of his Suffering, more barbarous than Judas, betray the Saviour of the World to an unwilling death, and disappoint him of that prize for which alone he parted with his dearest blood; and are more truly the Murderers of this Just one then the very Jews that Crucified him, robbing him of that which was the life in his death, and prized by him above his own life, that is to say, His being a sufficient Sacrifice and Atonement for the sins of the whole World. Which holy and weighty Article of the Christian Faith that Church which barters away for gain, to scare the people into the belief of a necessity of buying Pardons and Indulgences, of hiring Priests to sing their Souls out of Purgatory, of redeeming themselves by sums of money from cruel imposed Penances, must needs in this point Antichristianize in the highest and most heinous manner against the Sacerdotal Office of Christ that can be imagined. 10. This is the wicked Fraud they commit, and the Mischief is not unproportionable. For by the persuading of men that they are justified by their own Merits, and must satisfy for themselves for all their sins and offences, either in this life or that which is to come, or both, nay indeed in both, unless they die so perfect as no modest man will ever imagine himself, they put the minds of the serious upon an intolerable rack of solicitude about the torments of Purgatory, which they affrightfully set out to be of the same nature, though not of the same continuance, with those of Hell; or swell the minds of the vain-spirited with unwholesome tumors of Pride, upon conceit of such merit as never was nor ever can be in any man living that is a mere man; and, lastly, deface the peculiar glory of Christ and his Religion, in which there does really breath nothing but sweetness and pity and tender compassion; our Head and Sovereign, the Lord Jesus, sustaining those great torments both of mind and body on the Cross, to set his People free, that they might serve him in a way of Love and Ingenuity, contrary to that bloody and cruel vassalage in which Satan aforetimes had enslaved the world. Wherefore this false Church by the Fiction of Purgatory and the bloody and cruel Penances imposed on the flock of Christ, by merciless Flagellations and excoriations of the flesh, more like the Priests of the Devil, that old Tyrant, then like the Ministers of the Gospel of the Son of God, would make Christendom of one hue again with ancient Paganism, and sell the children of Israel into a second Egyptian bondage to be afflicted and oppressed under those hard Taskmasters: which state of things how grossly Antichristian it is, I have already abundantly noted. 11. But yet there is a further opposing of Christ's Sacerdotal Office, and that very considerable, as he intercedes and meditates for us with God. Concerning which the Scripture is very express, as in the former case, That Christ was offered but once, so in this, That our Mediator is but one. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man 1 Tim. 2. 5, 6. Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Where not only the doctrine is asserted, That there is but one Mediator, but the reason subjoined, Who gave himself a ransom for all. Which being peculiar to him alone, there can be no Mediator betwixt God and Man but he: And the merits of his Passion and all the perfections of his life are of so infinite virtue, as being the declared Son of God, that to join the Merits of any Saints or Angels with his in this behalf, would be a reproachful and blasphemous derogation to the Supereminency of his condition. Wherefore the Right of Mediatorship upon point of Merit being Christ's alone, it must of necessity be an act of Antichristianism, and an injury against Christ's person, to join any other with him in that Office; as if he himself were not sufficient, but were so weak and unable for that Function, that he wanted coadjutors. 12. As for those Allegations, That God will spare a City for fifty righteous in it; and that he would protect Jerusalem for his servant David's sake, because he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; and that he will be merciful to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments; No reasonings from these Scriptures will reach the matter in hand. For these are all about Temporal concernments; and the Fate of the righteous would be involved in that of the wicked in the first instance. As for that of David, he is acknowledged a Type of Christ, but the Sun being up, the Night is fled away. Nor do I see that any thing can be inferred out of that of Exodus, but that the posterity of the just, if they continue so, shall be continued. These therefore are but pretences, and can never reach the case that I would decipher, which is this; That we should put up our Prayers to this or that Saint, entreating them that they would intercede for us, as if they had the same privilege that Christ has, who is God as well as Man, and therefore is every where ready to hear us. 13. Wherefore this is to rob Christ of his honour and privilege, to presume that the Saints have a kind of Omnipresence or Omnisciency, which is only proper to him: As also in a solemn Religious way at the Altar and in the Temple of such or such a Saint to pray to God in the Merits of these Saints to grant this or that petition, were it not to proclaim openly that there is a deficiency in the Merits of Christ our great Mediator, when we thus seek refuge in the names and merits of others? How Antichristian then would it be if they should prefer some Saint, suppose the Virgin Mary, before Christ himself, in their addresses to her, beseeching her that she would command her Son in the virtue of that duty he owes to his Mother; if they should give unto her the Title of the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of Mercies, their Life, their Hope, the Light of the Church, their Advocate and Mediatress; nay should turn all the Psalms of David into Petitions or Praises to her, only putting Domina instead of Dominus, Lady instead of Lord? I say, what an Antichristian Figment would this be, to make the humble Virgin to justle thus with the Son of God for the Sovereignty of Heaven and the Mediatorship general of the whole World? Not to mention the making of whole swarms of other Mediators upon the account also of their own Merit. For if it be not upon account of their own Merits and sufferings, (though they could not merit nor suffer any more than would serve for themselves) why should they make them Mediators? But if their Merits add any thing to the Merits and Sufferings of Christ, how was he a perfect Highpriest, or his Merits perfect? Wherefore it is manifest that to make other Meritorious Mediators besides Christ, is an Antichristian reproach and calumny against the Perfection and Excellency of Christ's Mediatorship. 14. But the wicked Fraud of this Invention may be the multiplying of Offerings to those new and appropriate Intercessors, who, being well bribed, will plead the cause of their Clients very zealously in the Court of Heaven; or at least this Antichristian Priesthood may make them believe so, who has sold away the only Mediatorship of Christ as well as the virtue of his precious Death and Passion, for a piece of money; not considering the grievous Mischiefs that may come upon the Church by multiplying of Patrons and Mediators. For how easily are the heedless people lulled asleep in security by thinking they have such a sure friend of this or that Saint, which they have peculiarly chosen to themselves for their Patron, whom they honour with certain superstitious Ceremonies, and think they so oblige him thereby, that live they as they list, they will notwithstanding get safely to heaven, though let in at some backdoor by such a special friend there, who will be ready to receive them? Whenas our Saviour Christ has told them aforehand, that unless a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; and that those whose lives are unreclaimed, he will not own, but command them to departed as workers of Iniquity. How easily are they hereby drawn off from that faith and reliance they ought to have on God and Christ, expecting even Sanctification and Redemption from that which cannot save? How basely is their mind depressed to low thoughts, which ought to be lifted up to God alone? How subject to be immersed into the coursest and grossest degrees of Idolatry, whilst they without any stop conceit That the Temple, the Altar, the Priest with all his holy Vestments, the Festival and all the holy Offerings are dedicated and designed to the honour of that Saint whom they make their Patron and Advocate? 15. And lastly, How will that excellent and most powerful instrument of our Sanctification and Renovation of our Minds into the lovely Image of the Lord Christ, I mean the Cross and Passion of our only Mediator, and the Meditation thereon, whereby our Souls might effectually be engaged to follow his steps in all things, and serve him out of an unfeigned love, how will this excellent Instrument, I say, be made useless and ineffectual, by this diverting the minds of men to some other self-chosen Patron, or by distracting them amidst the variety of so many Mediators, (which are wholly insignificant as to any service or furtherance of real Sanctity) that that due love and loyalty which is owing only to Christ, and which were the very saving life of our Souls, and the purification of our hearts, and requisite preparation for an eternal commerce with him in his Heavenly Kingdom, would be hugely diminished and made languid, or else quite lost? which is a damage and Mischief plainly incomputable and irreparable. I say, The derivation of our devotion and affection from Christ into so many by-streams, and upon such Objects from which there is infinitely less obligation and urgency upon us to become good and holy, is no less than the hazard or forfeiture of our eternal Salvation. It is plain therefore that the opposing and supplanting the Ends and Usefulness of the Sacerdotal Office of Christ in such sort as I have declared, would be a very considerable part of that Idea of Antichristianism which I endeavour to describe. CHAP. VI 1. The opposing of Christ in his Three noted Offices how heinously Antichristian. 2. An enumeration of other Titles of Christ. Opposition against him as he is the Truth; 3. As he is the Light; 4. As he is the Life. 5, 6. Opposition to his Divinity by equallizing Saints and Angels to him: 7. Yea by preferring what is but a Creature before him. 8, 9, 10. Opposition against his Paternal Title by injuries and cruelties to his children. 11. Opposition to him as he is Prince of Peace, 12. By needless Definitions in points of Opinion; 13. By taking away the obligation of Oaths; 14. By making war with the Saints. 1. THus have we delineated unto you the nature of this Antichristian Opposition in these Three generally-noted Offices of Christ, which even alone considered, one would think enough to make up a complete Antichrist, that is to say, so to corrupt any Ecclesiastic power, as truly and fully to denominate it Antichristian. But yet this Antichristianism may be further displayed by more particular Oppositions to other Titles of Christ We will not be curious to name all, nor so tedious as to insist long upon any which we shall further name, they being reducible some way or other most of them to some one of those Three Offices we have already insisted on. 2. The most notable of these Titles are these; The Truth, The Light, and The Life, in the New Testament; and in Esay, The mighty God, Chap. 9 The everlasting Father, and The Prince of Peace. This is the style, these are the Sacred Titles of Christ: And therefore any Power pretending to succeed him, and to have right and authority to rule for him here on Earth, so far forth as they contradict and oppose these Titles of Christ in their management of things, so far forth they do discover themselves Antichristian. As now if this pretended Power should traffic much in lying Legends and Figments, in false Miracles and cunningly-devised Fables, which the Apostle protests against, to lead about the people with fraud and guilefulness, to engraft such opinions in their Minds as would most of all widen their purses, in such manner as I have had already occasion more particularly to describe; and also to darken all with a multitude of Ceremonies, which are but shadows of the Truth, if they be that: Such a constitution of things as this does plainly discover itself to be Antichristian, and to oppose that Title of Christ which styles him The Truth. Without are Rev. 22 15. Murderers and Sorcerers, and every one that loveth and maketh a Lie: That is not so remarkably spoken in the Apocalypse for nothing. And it is worth the noting also in * Chap. 8. Daniel, that Antiochus, who is generally looked upon as a Type of Antichrist, is said to cast down the Truth to the ground. 3. The next Title is, The Light, which is a figurative Title, and signifies Wisdom and Knowledge; and indeed upon the matter is but a symbolical expression of the former. For Truth and true Wisdom are one and the same thing; but in that it irradiates and informs the minds of others, it is more especially called Light. And Christ is so called both in that he enlightens every man that comes into the world according to his Divine nature, and in that he was the Light of the Gentiles and the Glory of his people Israel in his exterior Personal manifestation to the world. Wherefore to endeavour to keep the people in a worse than Egyptian darkness under pretence of raising their devotion to God, when the plot is to have them wholly at their own devotion, and to abuse them and misled them as they please, it were plainly to Antichristianize against this Second Title of Christ, The Light, and to defeat the End of his coming into the World, which was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and to Isa. 42. 6. bring them that sit in darkness out of the Prisonhouse. And Christ has entailed this Title also upon his true followers and Successors; Ye are Matt. 5. 14. the Light of the World. What then are they that are not only not shining Lights themselves, but industrious abettors and promoters of darkness and ignorance, and diligent hinderers of any true light that may be let into the Church from others? 4. The Third Title of Christ is, The Life, as it is written in S. John's Gospel, In him was the life, and the life was the light of men. Which life I conceive S. Paul describes very savourly, when he saith, That the Kingdom of Heaven is not meat, nor drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Christianity therefore is a dispensation of inward life flowing out into all laudable and useful actions; not a Babel of confused and intangling Opinions and unprofitable Observances, a heap of Ceremonies and Conceits, but a steady abode in God, who is Love, and will teach us and enable us from an inward sense of Life to love him with all our hearts and all our souls, and our Neighbour as ourselves; which is the most eminent fulfilling of the whole Law. Wherefore instead of this holy dispensation of the Spirit and Life, if there were introduced a rigid adherence to empty Opinions and unedifying Observations of multifarious Ceremonies, this would be an Antichristian Trespass against this Third Title of Christ, while we thus substitute insipid Theories and dead Formalities in the place of the Power and Life of Godliness. 5. The Fourth Title is, The mighty God; and the Divinity of Christ is an acknowledged Article of our Faith, and so choice a Prerogative of his Person, that whatsoever does derogate from this, infringe or weaken it, cannot but be deemed considerably Antichristian. Such therefore must be the building of Temples and Altars, the burning of Incense, and religious Invocations and Prayers to Saints or Angels. Nay, though there were no Prayers put up to them, the solemnly reposing the Relics of Saints in any Church or Chappel, and making them therewith the Patrons or Tutelar Genii as it were of such a City or Province, were no less than Idolatry, and a Superstition much like that of the ancient Pagans in their Telesms and Palladium's, and their Dii Tutelares, whose presence they conceited to be detained by these superstitious Ceremonies, and so made them Patrons and Protectors of their Cities and Countries. Wherefore if the Christians by religiously reposing the Relics of this or that Saint in this or that City should be so superstitiously conceited as to repose a Trust in the Aid of these Saints from Pestilence, from War, from Thunder, from Earthquakes or the like, believing them powerful and benign Protectors of the Place; this undoubtedly were a kind of Religious worship done to them, and could not be less than the sin of Idolatry. For all such Faith and Repose upon any particular invisible Power is Idolatrous, as well as Invocation, because it as well supposes in that particular invisible Power what is only proper to God. For there is no certainty of the Presence, and consequently of the Assistence, of an invisible Power in any one place, unless the nature of that Power be to be in all places at once. And therefore he that puts his Trust for Aid and Assistence, in such a sort as I have described, in a particular invisible Power, makes that invisible Power Omnipresent or Omniscient, which are the incommunicable Attributes of God, and thereby commits Idolatry, as I have above more fully argued in the like case. 6. The mere trusting therefore in Saints as Patrons and Protectors of such and such Places, as well as the building of Altars, burning of Incense to them, or invoking them, derogates from the onely-assured Patronage and powerful Divinity of our Blessed Saviour. For by these Divine honours we equallizing such Patrons or Mediators as these to the onely-begotten Son of God, make him less than he is, and but like them; that is to say, make him unlike himself, obscure the peculiarity of his Divinity, and disclaim his Godhead; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the * Coloss. 2. Apostle speaks, letting go our true Head, and putting ourselves under another Chieftain. For there is only one that is capable of this Divine honour, which therefore if we give to any other, we act the part of that Antichrist who is defined by the denying the Father and the Son: 1 John 2 22. For the Father and the Son are one. Such an arguing as this God seems to imply in his expostulation with the Israelites in the wilderness; O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me victim and Sacrifices by the space of forty years in the Wilderness? Yea ye Acts 7. took up the Tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your God Remphan, etc. The sense of which assuredly is this; That though the Israelites did sacrifice, as they thought, or did pretend, their usual sacrifices to God, according to the Law of Moses, during their abode in the wilderness; yet because they served and acknowledged other Gods besides him, he infers (and that truly and justly, even according to the humane Faculties) that they really did not serve him at all, that is, did not acknowledge him to be what he was, the only true God. And therefore they erring in the apprehension of the Excellency of that Object to which Divine worship is due, as if it were so mean that there could be many such, did not direct their worship to him, but to a fancy or Idol of their own making, to which they profanely attributed the name of Jehovah. For the true Jehovah was not so vile a Being as there could be any partakers of Divine honour with himself. And so it is with Christ, who is the same true God blessed for ever. He that gives Divine honour, which is due to him alone, unto Saints or Angels, disclaims his Divinity, and makes him but as one of them. This would be one Antichristian way of undermining his Godhead, by equallizing mere Creatures unto him. 7. But there is another way, or rather the same way but in an higher degree, and consequently more Antichristian; and that is, the preferring that which is but a mere Creature, though a blessed and glorious one, before him or above him. As for example, if either Fraud or blind Devotion should exalt the ever-blessed Virgin, not only to that Divine honour of having Temples and Altars erected to her with Prayers and Invocations of her, as in the worship of the rest of the Saints and Angels, but that these Honours should be done much more frequently and more magnificently to the Virgin Mary then to Christ himself; that is to say, that there should be more Temples and Altars, and more sumptuous, erected to her then to Christ Jesus, more Devotions, Prayers and Offerings made to her then to him, a greater acknowledgement of mercy and goodness from her, then from him who poured out his Life in the bitter Agonies of his bloody Passion for the Salvation of the World; and, lastly, be ascribed unto her a Superiority and Authority over Christ, to command him to do this or that by virtue of that duty he owes unto her. Certainly if this be not against the Divinity of Christ, nothing can be, thus to make him inferior to a deceased woman, even him that is perfect God as well as perfect Man. For it is plainly to un-deify him, if I may so speak, and to declare him to be no God at all. Which is as Antichristian an outrage against the Divinity of Christ as can be imagined. For who is Antichrist if he be not that denies the Father, and the Son 1 John 2. 22. who is one and equal with the Father? And who denies the Godhead of both Father and Son, but he that pronounces the Mother of Christ according to the flesh to be greater than them both, as certainly she is if she be greater than either? 8. The Fifth Title is, The Everlasting Father. The Seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, meaning, I suppose, the world under the Messiah. The efficacy of which Title I conceive the Mystery of Regeneration to reflect upon; Christ regenerating us into his own Image by the inward working of his Eternal Spirit. All things that the Father hath John 16 15. are mine: (and it is no wonder, he being one with the Father) therefore said I, that he (the Spirit) shall take of mine, and show it unto you. Wherefore Christ regenerating the World which was to come by the operation of his Eternal Spirit, he was rightly and fitly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Father of the World to come, or, if you will, The everlasting Father, as being so in his own Essence, and begetting Children to endless Eternity's. Of this Mystery he treated in his converse upon Earth with his secret disciple Nicodemus: Unless a man be born from above, he cannot enter into John 3. 5, 7. the Kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, that we must be born from above. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou knowest not from whence it comes, nor whether it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. No unregenerate man is acquainted with the sense of the first rise and motion of the Spirit, nor understands whither those actions and speeches tend that proceed therefrom. But it is so with these as is said in the Apocalypse of the hundred forty four thousands, who by virtue of their new birth sung a new Song which none could learn but the hundred forty four thousands Chap. 14. which were redeemed from the Earth, by being born from above, as our Saviour spoke to Nicodemus. These are the true Israelites, in whose mouth is found no guile, and who by the guidance of that Spirit by which they are regenerate follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes. 9 Wherefore Christ being to his true Church so real a Father, by a true and living Regeneration and Renovation of their Minds by his Spirit into such holy sentiments as appertain to all those that are indeed the Sons of God; to treat them so as if they were mere Images made of wood or stone, or rather dead matter to be carved upon, and have the inscription of any thing that a pretended Infallible Power shall be pleased to engrave upon them; this is an high Antichristian affront against the Paternity of Christ: as if he did not beget living Children, who have as certainly the sense of discernment in Spiritual things as any Animal birth has in Natural; but that the number of his Elect were but a certain Tale of billets, brick or stone, to be hewn or carved, or any way ordered, according to the petulancy and imperiousness of a selfwilled Power, who, under a pretence of an infallible and unfailing succession that must be in the Church, has stepped into the place of Christ. Maxima debetur puero reverentia—— is most true concerning every child of God. For there is that Divine sense in them, against which whatsoever is unholy and unsavoury will grate very hard and unpleasantly, and what is false will be found by them very disharmonious both to those immutable Principles of Truth in their unprejudiced minds, and also to the written Oracles of God, which were penned down by the same Spirit by which this genuine offspring of Christians are regenerated. Wherefore, as I said, to use these as if there were no life, no spirit, no sense or discernment in them, but that they must as passively, without any Conviction or Appeal to any thing in themselves, bear the Dictates of this usurping Power we describe, as a Table-book or Paper-book which is irresistibly writ upon by that hand that pleases, is an enormous Injury against Christ, as he is the Everlasting Father and holy Regeneratour of his true Church into his own life and likeness. But to murder and massacre these Children of his because they do so stoutly and exactly Patrissare, so conscientiously and carefully tread in their Father's steps, and witness his Truth to the world; I leave to any man to judge if there can be imagined any thing more hellishly Antichristian against the Paternity of Christ then that. For what can be more hostile and contrary to a Father then to murder his genuine children, and for that very reason, because they so lively resemble him, and so faithfully adhere to their Father's virtuous practices and principles? 10. I might add also that the over-exercising of the Minds and Bodies of men in the multifarious observances of external Ceremonies, and making them dance or troth from one Superstitious performance to another, might be a disappointment of the Divine Birth; as the overmuch exercising of Women in dancing or what other feats of Activity or sore labour makes them often miscarry in that Childbearing that is natural. But I will not insist upon these things. 11. The Sixth and last Title is, The Prince of Peace. In which Principality or Authority if any should claim succession, and yet administer the Affairs of Christ's Church such a way as will naturally, if not necessarily, fill it full of broils and contentions; this power would certainly be●… a supplanter of the Peaceable government of Christ, and be the Author of an Antichristian Tyranny and Confusion. As for example, If this usurping Power should coin new Articles of belief for their own benefit, contrary to the known Principles of Scripture and Reason, and require the profession of these from the Church of Christ, as also appoint suspected Observances, smelling rank of Idolatry and Superstition; it were in a manner impossible but that it should cause vast rendings and tearings in the Church, and fill the world full of strife and opposition. Also if they should make it their business to define the sense of Scripture by a more determinate meaning then there were use of in the Church, and put their Determinations and Expositions upon men as necessary points of belief; This would also make much against the Peaceableness of the Church, men being in a manner fatally propending to think this or that way in things that are not necessary to Salvation, to be determined either. There would needless violence therefore be done to the Consciences of men, thereby to set the world on fire. Whenas what is general, is large and unitive and takes all in, and gives them leave to live peaceably one by another without justling or crowding. 12. But the Folly and Fraud of this curiosity would be the Endeavour of gaining or rather extorting respect from the people, and of making their Function seem considerable, and their Learning great, and their Judgements unerrable, and that they may feel their Authority, and make others to feel it, though to the discontent and dissettlement of the Church of Christ. As if their living exemplarily, and urging the performance of what is plain in Scripture, and keeping an orderly Discipline in those things, would not gain them more respect, and make them more honourable both in the eyes of God and man: or as if they would not appear more infallible by insisting in his steps who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, then by grossly crossing this way, or going out of it for some by-advantages of the World: The discovery of which Frauds must needs make them odious to all men. And lastly, as for their having their Authority felt, Christ has showed them the way, if they would follow it; He taught as having authority, and not as the Scribes; for they say, and Matt. 7. & Chap. 23. do not. 13. This is one way of Antichristianizing against that sacred Title of Christ, The Prince of Peace. There is another more vile and execrable than that heart could imagine that is not acquainted with the depths of Satan; and that is, If this Antichristian power we describe should take upon them to absolve the Princes of Christendom from their Oaths and Covenants they make one to another upon their terms of Peace, as also to absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance to their Sovereigns; were not this to break apieces all the bonds of Unity that not only Religion but the Laws of Nature do afford, thus to destroy the Sacredness of an Oath, which is the end of all strife? How then can that Heb. 6. 16. Power challenge a right of succession to the Prince of Peace, which takes away the chiefest tie of Peace that humane affairs are capable of? 14. And lastly, that bloody position of taking away men's lives for mistakes in Opinion, when notwithstanding they are otherwise unblameable in faith and conversation, and unfeigned professors of Christian Truths that are evidently revealed in the Word of God, nay to take away their lives for not doing and holding things quite contrary to the express Word of God written both in our inward Souls and in the Holy Scripture, as I have in several Instances declared in this description of Chap. 3. Sect. 8. Antichristianism; What were this but to hang out the bloody flag against the true Church of Christ, and to proclaim open war against them, to bid battle against them that are enrolled into the company of the Lamb, and are the professed Soldiers of the Prince of Peace? Whose opposers therefore, in such a sort as I have intimated, cannot but be that Apocalyptick Beast that makes war with the Saints, or that Mother Chap. 13. 7. of Har lots who is drunk with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. So little doubt would there be of this last Opposition's proving an Antichristian Chap. 17. 6. Character of the deepest dye: But of this subject more hereafter. CHAP. VII. 1. That any Constitution of things that naturally opposes and suppresses the Divine Life is Antichristian in the highest measure. 2. Such as Idolatry, Superstition, and all the abovementioned Oppositions to Christ's Offices and Titles. 3. The opinion of a virtue in the Sacraments ex opere operato, and of the needlessness of our attention to our Devotions. 4. Dumb shows, and the resting in the mere doing of a Religious duty, be it from what principle it will. 5. Easy Absolution, and slight Penances. 6. Plenary Indulgences purchased by money from Ecclesiastic Authority, 7. A general note prefixed touching the Mischiefs of the several Oppositions against the Divine Life. 8. The plausibility of the Supposition of an Ecclesiastic Power and Pomp more than Imperial. 9 The weakness of the grounds for the said Supposition. 10. The consequential Mischief thereof, in driving the minds of Churchmen from the study of Truth and Holiness: 11. Yea in making them oppose every thing that is True and Holy, if it oppose their designs of Ambition and Avarice. 12. That such a Luciferian Power as this were the very ruin of the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth; 13. And the turning of his Church into a mere Mart or Fair. 1. THus expressly and clearly have we delineated the Image of Antichrist in his opposing of Christ in his Offices, and in running quite counter to the most Sacred Titles that do adorn his Person. We come now to the Divine Life as it is propagable in the world, and for which Christ was pleased to take our nature upon him, and to lay down his life for us; That he might purchase to himself a glorious Church, not having Ephes. 5. 27. spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without ●…mish. Which being the very End of Christ's coming into the world, of the suffering all those hardships during his pilgrimage here on Earth, and of submitting himself to the shameful and unexpressibly-painfull Death of the Cross; for any to oppose, supplant, or any ways to defeat this so serious and earnest design of his by any countenanced method or constitution of things, would certainly be Antichristian in the highest measure. Let us now therefore consider distinctly and articulately the most material ways of opposing or supplanting this design, laying before us in view such depraved Laws, Constitutions or Practices in a Church, as tend to the extinguishing the Divine Life in general, or are more particularly directed against the Root or Branches thereof, namely, either against Faith, that is to say, the belief of the Sum of Christianity, or else against those inestimable Graces of Humility, Purity and Charity. 2. For the depainting of this Opposition against the Divine Life in general, I need not put my pencil into any new colours. Those multifarious ways of Idolatry and Superstition which I have noted in the first Book I. ch. 12, 17, 18, etc. and second Limb of Antichristianism, and which carry men's minds out to external exercises that profit nothing, but elude the right intention of Zeal and Devotion which should better our spirits and make us more inwardly and vitally holy and righteous, these do certainly of their own accord lay asleep or suffocate the Life of God in the Soul, and like false food either poison or starve it. Those Oppositions also that were against the Offices of Christ; the vilifying his Law, the removing it from the eyes of the people, or the reading of it and their public Service in an unknown Tongue; the interpreting his serious Commands for slight Advices left to our pleasure to follow or forbear; false Glosses put upon the Oracles of God by pretended infallible Interpreters; the defeating that mighty Engine of Obedience to Christ, which is the affectionate Meditation upon his Death and Passion, his direful Sufferings for us, by diverting of our Thoughts and distracting them by several insignificant Objects, petty Advocates and Patrons, that run away with our Devotions, and rob Christ of his honour, and our Souls of the chief means of their Sanctification and Salvation: These, with several other particulars I might instance in, are plain Antichristian Assaults and Oppugnations of the Divine Life in general, and tend to the sweeping of all away before them. 3. To which you may add those ungodly surmises; That it is sufficient to number over our Devotions without defixing our Mind upon what we say; and that a more hover and general attention will serve the turn, our particular Thoughts wand'ring to what else we please; That the Sacraments confer Grace ex opere operato; it being the very difference betwixt the Sacraments of the old Covenant and the new, that the former confer Grace ratione operis operantis, the latter ratione operis operati; and That any inward good Motion is not requisite in him that receives the Sacraments: What can more relaxate those earnest breathe and hearty aspire of our Souls towards a real renovation of our natures into true holiness and righteousness, than such corrupt conceits as these? 4. The feeding also the people with dumb shows, instead of searching their Consciences and exciting their zeal by intelligible Exhortations or Forms of Devotion that will remind them of their duty, and imprint upon them the sense of such holy things as they stand in want of, and inflame their desire after them; this also would be a defrauding of the Divine Life of that food which it should be increased and nourished by. As also would be that conceit generally of all Acts of Religion, that the duty of the Act is done if the Act be but externally done, be the Principle what it will, though it neither proceed from nor reach to that fountain of life which ought to be ebullient in every Regenerate Christian, and without which no man can reasonably esteem himself regenerate. Certainly such Opinions, Customs and Usages as these must needs wear out true and living Holiness out of the World. 5. And yet we may conceive a further Antichristian poison, that will wonderfully damp and benumb men in all their endeavours after true Sanctity; and that is easy Absolution and slight Penance after formal Confession. For Confession, which is so rigorously extorted by this Antichristian Church I am now describing, being accompanied with a conceit that upon their Absolution and performance of imposed Penances they are then right and strait, and in as secure a condition as if they had never sinned; the just chastisements of their offended Consciences being slaked by the soft and false interposal of the Priest's pretended Authority to absolve where God has bound, (as certainly every one is bound over to that eternal doom at the last day, let the Priest pretend the power of losing him here as much as he will; and he shall answer for what he has done in the flesh, which no Absolution nor Penance can clear him from, unless he really forsake his wicked ways, and become a sincere Convert to God;) I say, from this constitution of things touching Absolution and Penance, it must needs follow that the reins will be let lose on the necks of all men, they being given to understand what a slight thing it is to sin against God, when they can have their reconcilement upon such easy terms. Whenas it would be a greater awe upon men's spirits to let them be condemned or acquitted by their own Consciences, being so well assisted by the Word of God and the Light of Reason and Nature to lay the Law against them, and never to leave urging them till they have emerged into a competent sincerity of heart: Which when they have arrived to, Christ within them and his Word without them will absolve them and give them peace of mind; and, if need be, they may also receive Absolution from some sober and faithful Priest, whose honesty and exemplarity of life has fitted him for so serious a function, as I have intimated above, where I had slipped aforehand into this Argument. 6. But the most outrageous Antichristian effort against the Divine Life would be the persuasion that upon the paying of certain tolerable sums of money, and doing some slight superstitious performances or other, they shall obtain by virtue of the supreme Ecclesiastic Authority plenary Indulgences and Pardons for vast numbers of years, and the certainty of freeing of themselves or their friends from Purgatory. As, for example, suppose that some Churches, or, if you will, many, may have purchased from the Ecclesiastic Sovereignty a perpetuity of plenary Indulgence, so that he that prays before such an Altar in this Church should have free remission of all his sins past, and security from punishment. But this is a small matter. Suppose that such a piece of Devotion at some other Altars, and in some other Churches, would procure the pardon of sin and punishment for twenty, thirty, fifty, or an hundred thousand years; and that the saying of such and such Prayers at such an Altar would deliver a Soul out of Purgatory; that the bowing at the Name of Jesus may procure toties, quoties, twenty years' pardon, that the mere stooping to kiss a Cross on the pavement of a Church, an Indulgence or Pardon for all a man's sins; that the pattering over so many Prayers, especially if there be the weight of some consecrated Medal, as an Agnus Dei or the like, annexed to them, will save a Soul out of Purgatory; that one Salutation of the Blessed Virgin shall gain eighty years' pardon; that the saying a certain short Prayer, devoutly looking on the Picture of Christ, shall obtain ten thousand days of Pardon, and the saying of others no less than ten hundred thousand years; and for but the looking on a certain Crucifix, six thousand years of Pardon. These intimations would be infinite. I have produced so much already as implies such a Constitution in a Church, as nothing can be more opposite to or destructive of that Life and Holiness Christ came to plant in the World, and therefore cannot but be judged very soully Antichristian. 7. The Falseness and unjustifiableness of these proceed I need not go about to evince, they being so damnable at first sight: nor point at the Fraud, it being so conspicuous; which is, as I have above intimated in like cases, the emunging of the people of their money: And the Mischief is here the Opposition or Extinction of the Divine Life, as it will be likewise in the Root and Branches. So that we need hereafter note no other Mischiefs than will be comprised in the Subject we shall be upon, the Mischiefs being expressed in the very Titles of the Argument. Which I thought fit here to note once for all; and would proceed to the delineating of the next Limb of Antichristianism, did there not one consideration more offer itself to my mind, that would help to make the state of the Church very Stepdame-like to any offers toward growth and increase in life and Godliness. Which supposition is this. 8. Let us imagine that either a mighty party of the ecclesiastics had plotted it so, or the Ambition of one Bishop with some few adherents, being backed with opportunities, and wanting no wit, policy, nor industry, had brought it about to be so, that he and his Successors should be declared, and by a very considerable part accepted for, the Universal Bishop of the World, should be esteemed of an Authority more sacred, high and glorious then of any Emperor or Potentate upon earth: that there should be substituted under him several Orders, some of very high degree, which should be, as it were, so many Ecclesiastic Princes, equal in a manner for Pomp and Splendour to the Kings of the Earth; besides Patriarches, Metropolitans, and many other very rich and illustrious Ranks of the Priesthood, the Church in the interim abounding with sundry sorts of very creditable and profitable Preferments to bear out all. Why, thus far, you will say, is very good news, and it were desirable it were so indeed, That Religion being the most Sacred and precious thing in the world, those that are in a more special manner the Supporters and Pillars thereof should be the most richly splendid and adorned. 9 I do confess so a man would think at first sight. For it seems but a respect to God, whose Servants they are by a more peculiar dedication. But by the same reason our Churches should be as well the most splendid as the most ample Buildings, especially there being no danger of infecting these walls of stone with either the sense of Pride or any other uncomely Passion. But suppose that these pretended living Stones of the Temple of God were as unexcitable to Pride or Lust as the dead Stones of the walls of a Church; though this extreme glory and pomp and excessfull affluency of the World might do them no hurt as to their Manners, yet I believe they would profess they found little good in it, unless it were in being Treasurers for the Poor, (which would be something a Secular employment) or in giving testimony to the World, that Christian Happiness consists not in these things; which yet the World would not think them serious in, unless they did actually quit them. And for the external pomp and splendidness of their own Persons, it is credible they would declare that if the Houses of God, I mean the external Churches, were at least decently, if not in some case gloriously, adorned, their eyes could better view that and with more pleasure than any Imperial Ornaments on their own head and back, which they could not well see without the help of Looking-glasses. This would be a greater pleasure to them, as also to see no poor but such as were wholesomely and handsomely apparelled, not so squalidly and forlornly that they appear as ungrateful Eyesores in Providence. But to make rich Mitres and costly Habiliments for a S. Peter or S. Paul, were not indeed to make a Coat for the Moon, but (which is as ridiculous) to make a golden Cope for the Sun, as if his native splendour did not outshine all such artificial Ornaments. The gorgeousness of Apparel may make the person that wears it to be gazed or stared upon; but unspotted Holiness and Virtue will make the possessor thereof truly reverenced and adored. 10. This excessive Grandeur therefore in the Governors of the Church, though they were as holy as the Apostles themselves, would not seem necessary, nor requisite, nor, it may be, at all desirable. But as for those that are not of such an Apostolical Spirit, as the generality of the world are not, or rather very few are, that of S. John having continued true in all ages in a manner, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The whole world lies soaked in wickedness; in these this glorious setting out, 1 John 5. 19 this fair and glittering Morning will assuredly very suddenly prove a foul Day. There being therefore such Temporal prizes to be aimed at, such several sorts and degrees of Dignities, to the very top of the highest Sovereignry over the world, all men's spirits will be inflamed with the desire and pursuit of what lies so temptingly in their view, and that hellish fire of Ambition will be the very life and soul of the Church; all her activity and motion deriving itself from that hateful Principle. Whence it will follow that nothing but the name of Spirituality will be left, the minds of the Clergy being totally drawn off from meditating what is true, holy and edifying, and quite drowned and immersed in the affairs of the world. For such are also Ecclesiastic Preferments, when they are sought after to satisfy the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. 11. Nor will this mischief stop here, I mean in the neglect of Holy and Divine Meditation, and of either useful or generous Inquiries after Truth; but every one being exalted in the conceit and apprehension of his own place and dignity, especially he whose Superiority is so vast as to pretend to be the Universal Bishop of Christendom, and higher than all the Kings of the Earth, they will be driven on so far with that furious spirit of Ambition, that they will not only neglect, but oppose, every thing that is sacred and holy, if it stand in competition with any devised method of getting in Riches to the Church, that they may Lord it, and carry it out bravely, every man in his respective Office and Dignity. Wherefore the genuine Simplicity of Christian Religion shall be corrupted and adulterated, and Laws and Articles devised by this Infallible Priesthood, that are point-blank against the Laws of Christ and the immutable Rules of sound Reason: The ears of all men will be filled with deceitful Figments and gainful Lies, such as we have already produced many Instances of; the Merits of Christ's Passion vilified and maimed; Truth and Justice banished, persecuted and oppressed; the Old and New Testament made but a dumb and dead letter that has no sense nor information in it, but all Dictates must be immediate from the Church that is resolved to dictate nothing that is against her worldly advantage: that is to say, The two Witnesses must be slain, and their carcases lie breathless in the streets; otherwise those that dwell on the Earth (not those that Apoc. 〈◊〉 are redeemed from the Earth, and have their conversation in Heaven) will not be able to rejoice in such a measure, and to send gifts to one another, that is, mutually support and promote one another's Interest, and merrily share the World amongst themselves. 12. It is plain therefore that such a Luciferian Polity as this would of its own nature clash with the Kingdom of Christ, and totally defeat that Grand design of the Gospel, which is the Renewing of the World in true Righteousness and Holiness. For thus even those which should be the Salt of the Earth will of all men become the most unsavoury; every man's judgement being bribed by either the present possession or earnest expectation of such vast and extravagant Preferments; of which there being so many degrees, the minds of the ambitious will find no rest till they come to the highest that is possible, and therefore will be necessarily entangled and taken up with worldly projects, even as long as they live, and that with great vehemence and solicitude; the Objects seeming so great, and making so glaring a show in their fancies. And Ambition and Pomp in all ranks rendering them indigent of Money, no inferior Candidate can attempt the corrupting of the Superior Authority without success, and every one betime will get as much of Church-preferment as he can, to be able to buy more. Wherefore by Law or Dispensation men shall be enabled to hold not only many Benefices, but Bishoprics, besides other Dignities in the Church; by which means no Shepherd will be able to attend his own flock, but, instead of feeding them with wholesome Doctrine, will help the Devil to infuse the worst poison that can be conveyed into men's minds, namely, That the whole business of Religion is but a device to enrich the Priest. Thus necessarily and unavoidably by their absence and silence will they preach and inculcate Atheism and Infidelity into their scandalized Clergy. For if the Salt itself become thus unsavoury, what better can become of that which it is to season? Will not Lewdness and Irreligion overflow all? 13. To be short, All men's minds upon the reckoning being inflamed with Pride and Ambition, and no man's Ambition being to be served without money; the Temple of God will, as in times past, be filled with buyers and sellers, and the Church become a very Mart or Fair, the Ecclesiastic Polity a City of Merchan dises, and every particular Church a Merchant's Ship or Vessel of Traffic, amidst the populosity of the World, which the Prophetic style resembles to many waters. But I will harp no longer on this string. I have already made a Description full enough of such a Constitution or Frame of the Church as would in an universal manner oppose or disappoint the planting or growth of the Divine Life, whereby it does sufficiently show itself to be extremely Antichristian. CHAP. VIII. 1. That such a Frame of things as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith is highly Antichristian. 2. That A trade of Worldliness in the Spiritual Guides is one part of this Frame. 3. And a Self-ended policy in all the Doctrines and Practices of this Church, another. 4. Thirdly, The profession of uncertainty and obscurity in the Christian Faith. 5. Fourthly, The necessity of being in a Church where there is no Interruption by misordination. 6. Fifthly, The bearing men down that Dissent in any thing takes away certainty in all things. 7,— 12. Sixthly, Lying Miracles. 13,— 16. Seventhly, A rabble of incredible Relics. 17. Eighthly, Transubstantiation. 18. How naturally it superinduces Atheism. 19 What a bundle of Impossibilities it is. 20. That the pretended Infallibility of the Church is infinitely too light to weigh against it: 21. Nor can it be made credible by the countenance of feigned Miracles. 22. Several Characters of them that are excluded the Holy City, comprised in this present Limb of Antichristianism. 1. WE will now proceed to those main parts of the Divine Life, the Root and the Branches. Where it is obvious to take notice that what deads' the Root, whereby the whole Tree must necessarily whither, cannot but be Antichristian to the highest pitch. Wherefore if I describe such a management of Affairs in the Church as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith, which is the necessary Root of the other Divine Graces, no man will doubt but that I have delineated a very considerable Limb of Antichristianism. 2. Of which the first point is what we last of all touched upon: Such a Frame of Government, and such sublimities of Dignities, as would lapse the Church, and immerse it into the World, and thereby make them that should be the Salt of the Earth, an unsavoury mass, and of a secular, dead, insipid spirit, relishing nothing of the Kingdom of God, but wholly taken up with the Profits and Promotions of this present life. For they would thereby look so like Unbelievers themselves, that they would stagger the faith of all those under them, and make them think that there was nothing to be expected after this life, because their Leaders and Guides lived so exactly according to that Principle, That there is nothing to be expected hereafter. 3. Secondly, The Exquisiteness of their Order and Policy in managing the affairs of their Ecclesiastic Empire, if it did surpass all the Cunning and Industry of Secular Princes, and if all those Doctrines and Duties which were most urged and most frequently came into practice were of such a nature as did plainly tend to the either Honour, Power or Profit of the Priesthood; This, I say, would strike very far towards the making the World Infidels, or believers of nothing but this, That the Sum of our Religion is but a witty Invention of so many fictitious Stories, Doctrines, Precepts and Ceremonies, which would serve to hamper the Consciences of men, and make the World more Governable; but so shaped out by the Priests, as made most for their worldly advantage. And such we have already described the Tenants and Doctrines of this Church to be, continuedly displaying the Frauds and Self-endedness of all their Errors and Mispractices, and need not here again repeat them. 4. Thirdly, This also would oppose the Christian Faith, To make the nature of it such, that it must be always doubtful. Of which I must confess I know not what may be the fetch, unless it be to keep men's Minds, as some deceitful Physicians and Surgeons do their Bodies, in such an unsound and valetudinarious condition, that they may have the more frequent recourse to them, and depend the more upon them: or because they mix some things in Religion necessarily to be believed, which it is impossible they should be firmly believed by any but fools. And thus the true and solid points of Christianity, such as have sufficient evidence to convince any ma●… of Reason, must be reputed obscure and uncertain for being found in the company of such gross Falsities or Uncertainties, which yet pretend to an equal right of entire reception with the clearest Truths. And further, It is no wonder that such a Church as places whatever certainty there is of Faith upon her own Infallibility, as if that were the ground of it, should derive both an opinion and profession of the Uncertainty of Belief upon her Nurselings; they having no better ground than what we have so plainly demonstrated already to be hollow and ruinous. But it is their only Shift and Refuge, to make their Infallibility the ground of Belief, the matters they propose to be believed having no recommendation either from Scripture or their own nature to be embraced. And therefore things being thus uncertain at the bottom, upon their Principles, they must instead of a firm and solid Faith be content with an obscure and uncertain one. Which is indeed the destroying of Christian Faith, and the substituting of a more vertiginous fluctuation of mind in lieu thereof. 5. Fourthly, That Principle also tends to the ruining of Faith, which supposes That without right Succession of Bishops and Priests there is no true Church, and therefore no true Faith; and that this Succession may be interrupted by the misordination or misconsecration of a Priest or Bishop, the persons thus ordained or consecrated being Atheists or Jews, or ordained by them that are so, or do out of malice not intent what they ought in the Sacrament of Orders, as some call it. Which were a conceit able to turn all men Sceptics concerning their state in Religion; but is a Position absolutely against inward sense and Reason. As if a man could not feel in his own conscience whether he believed or not the Truths of Holy Scripture, without he were first assured that he was a member of that Church that had an uninterrupted lawful Succession of the Priesthood from the Apostles times till his own. Whenas there is nothing more immediate to a man then inward sense, which it is not in the power of any Sophistry ever to confute. 6. Wherefore though this Position may be spitefully leveled against the Certainty of Faith, yet the execution it can do upon the considerate is very inconsiderable and small: much like that peevish Supposition of the necessity of Unity of Opinion; as if those Churches that did differ in any thing, had the certainty of nothing. An excellent Hypothesis indeed, were it but true, and such as would effectually recommend the usefulness of an Infallible Judge of Controversies, if he could be had for love or money, by whom they might closely compact the parts of the Church Catholic together, as with cramps of Iron. But there is no such force in the Theorem, which will of itself fall asunder into dust, if we consider it can stand upon no other terms than what will supplant the truth of all Reason and Religion in the world; the whole world being divided in their judgements and conclusions concerning both. Whence it is plain that the Attempt, though weak, tends to the bringing in universal Scepticism in all things. In which deluge the Christian Faith would be also drowned, and perish with all other Truths, there being no Ark left to take Sanctuary in, and to be safe from the working and absorptive waves of this reciprocating Euripus. 7. But sixthly, and I shall now instance in what is not only ill-meant, but must needs have a successful efficacy for making the World Atheists or Infidels; and that is, The glutting of them with lying Miracles, and gulling of them with delusions and cozening devices, call them pious Frauds or by what other fine names you please. For the Falsehood being once discovered in such a Church as requires to be believed more upon their own Authority and Infallibility then upon the credibility of the matters which they propound, I say, if they once be taken tardy in Forgeries and guileful Fictions in any points, especially such as tend to their own profit, how can this fail of shaking or rather ruining the whole Frame of belief to the very Foundations? How ruinous then must the Christian Faith be, where such Lies and Figments are frequent, and almost as frequently discovered by those that are more nasute? Certainly Atheism and Infidelity must break in upon such a Church as the Sea upon the cutting of the Banks. 8. That I may the better be understood, I will give you some brief Instances of these impudent Figments. As, for example, If they should have the face to tell the people, that such a Saint, when his Head was struck off, walked four or five mile with it in his hand, only resting himself every mile's end to take breath at his open weasen-pipe. That another Saint being hospitably entertained at the expense of the lives of a Cow and a Calf, restored them again to life, and that they were both of them found the next day in their Master's Meadows. That by another Saint the Devil was seen behind the Altar busily writing down men's sins in a parchment, which being something too scant, he stretched with his teeth, and his hold slipping, knocked his head against the wall, That a certain She-Saint being swallowed by a Dragon, she making a Cross in the Dragon's belly, burst him in pieces, and so was delivered. That a Bishop having cut off his own hand upon its being polluted by the kiss of some over-affectionate female, it was suddenly set on again, and healed by prayers addressed to the Blessed Virgin. The like whereof happened to another Saint whose legs were cut off at the knees: and to the head of another, which being cut off, sprung up and grew on again, but lopped off the second time, by its fall gave the rise to a Fountain or Well. And lastly, that another She-Saint being by ropes to be haled to execution, was so strong upon Crossing herself and calling upon the Virgin Mary, that a whole Team of Oxen could not drag her to the place. 9 But I have not yet done. That also would be a delicious Figment concerning some Saints, that they have had personal converse with the Virgin Mary, and that she has been so kind to some, that she has emptied her Breasts into their mouths on their sick beds to their unspeakable comfort. It were likewise a good roosing miracle, and bigger than belief, that a certain Holy House of the Virgin's should be carried out of Palestine into Italy by an invisible hand through the air. Surely the Angels of God would be very worthily employed in removing such stonework and timber-work. For a Crucifix also to take some fifty mile's journey through the same element in a night, were a pretty Figment to furnish out the Faith of Fools. The speaking also of Crucifixes would help to make up the number of these either Delusions or Incredibilities. 10. To which miraculous Loquacity you may add those more silent fictions of Dreams; The making of marriages betwixt Christ and some Women-Saints; The making Images to roll their eyes, to weep also, and ●…o swear; The Histrionical Scenes of exorcizing upon compact betwixt the feignedly possessed and the Exorcist; Fictitious Stories to set out the wodrous virtue of the Mass, and great holiness thereof: as That the first words that have been spoken by Infants have been, To Mass, To Mass; That it has fed the absent, when they have fasted twenty days; struck the Chains miraculously from the legs of Captives: That at every clinking of the money, at an Offertory, in the basin, a Soul leaps out of Purgarory: That the Host being taken by one not fasting has transformed him into the shape of an Horse or Swine. There might be also fine devices for the magnifying of the Holiness of the Priest, in making such things as come from his body seem to have the virtue of scaring away the Devil: As suppose the Devil be made to appear more impatient when the Priest's glove, hose, girdle, or shirt be applied to any part of the possessed; which may be ex pacto, as well as in the conciliating the opinion of such virtues in the Image or Relics of this or that Saint. But how stupendiously Blessed and Holy must that Priest seem to be, who could make the people believe that he was himself possessed with the Blessed Trinity! And how Sacred must that She-Saint appear, betwixt whom and Christ Jesus there was that dearness of affection, that they wore one another's Hearts interchangeably, Christ's Heart being conveyed into her body, and her Heart into his! 11. The counterfeiting also of Apparitions were a trim way to cut off the belief of there ever having been any true ones. And therefore it would be a very Antichristian piece of Knavery for any Priest to use any such juggle under what pious pretence so ever: As by putting on some Histrionical accoutrements to act the part of an Angel, or of the blessed Virgin descended from Heaven in glory, or of some Ghost from the Infernal parts with wan and ghastly looks, and cold and earthly hands; and in these disguises to visit the perplexed, for either the corroborating of them in the belief of that Religion which they have already entertained, or for the recommendation of that Religion they endeavour to proselyte them to. Another Example of which kind would be, the contrivance of moving Lights in Churchyards, by fastening wax-Candles on the backs of live Crab-fish, which must be interpreted the unquiet Souls of them that are tortured in Purgatory, and seek relief by the Prayers and Offerings of good people. 12. To which you may add the setting out the state of Purgatory with such extravagant Poetical Fabulosities, [as the roasting of Souls against the fire, frying them in frying-pans, the pulling them in pieces with hot pincers, the flesh from the bone, the baptising them in flaming pitch and brimstone and scalding metals; their being bit by the venomous teeth of great Serpents; their being transformed into black horses; the pouring down melted Money into their mouths, and then forcing them to vomit it up again, that it may be again poured in by these officious Fiends; with many such incredible schemes of Torture, from which there is appointed no deliverance but by Pardons, Masses, Oblations, and the like, that is to say, without some worldly benefit accrueing to the Church:] Certainly such a description as this of Purgatory, or a Third place, must naturally engender a misbelief of all Three, and make men think there is neither Heaven nor Hell after this Life, but that all are but Figments and Inventions, for the benefit of the Priest, especially, as I have already intimated, these things being taught in that Church who make their own Credit and Authority the main, if not only, prop of Faith. 13. But I will also describe a seventh way, which is marvellously effectual to extinguish the Christian Faith amongst men; and that is A Rabble of incredible Relics which might be obtruded upon their beliefs; the reverential sight whereof bringing in a●…daily gain to the Church, would be a plain demonstration they will not stick to lie for their advantage: which if they do very grossly and deprehensibly here, how can it fail of ruining Faith in all other matters of Religion? But this point is better understood by certain Instances. As if, for example, they should pretend to show that very Hay that was in the Cratch wherein our Saviour was laid, and more than one Tail of the Ass on which he road in Triumph to Jerusalem: The Stones also that killed S. Stephen, as well as the Arrows whereby S. Sebastian was wounded. If they should pretend to show the Virgin Mary's Smock, as well as Joseph's Pantofles and Breeches; some of the five Barly-loaves and two Fishes with which Christ fed five thousand men in the Wilderness; some of the Blood and Water that flowed out of his side at his Suffering; as also some of that very Ground that Christ stood upon when he ascended into Heaven: The Hair and Blood of S. John Baptist, and the Hair-cloath that he wore: The Table upon which Christ eaten his last Supper, the Stool which he sat upon, and the Towel wherewith he wiped his Disciples feet. 14. The Picture of Christ painted upon a wall by the finger of God, and another drawn by Nicodemus while the Jews were beating of him: The Foreskin also of Christ, his Navel-string, and Secundine in which he was wrapped in the Womb: Also Christ's Handkerchief, and the Shirt which the blessed Virgin made for him; as likewise the Cradle in which he was rocked. 15. Furthermore the Virgin Mary's Veil with which she used to cover her head, her Comb, her Hair, her Girdle, her Needles, sowing-Thread and Work-basket; nay the very House in which she dwelled and wrought, transported (as I said before) out of Palestine into Italy by the hands of Angels: The Reed with which they smote Jesus, the Rope with which they haled him to execution, the very Sponge also with which the Jews gave him vinegar mingled with gall to drink, and some of the Coin for which Judas betrayed him, nay the very Lantern he used in that work of darkness, and the Dice wherewith the Soldiers played for Christ's seamless Coat. Moreover the pure Blood of Christ, and the Milk of Mary his Mother kept in glasses. The Pillar also at which Christ was whipped, and the Stairs or Steps on which he went up into the Judgment-Hall, and some of the Thorns wherewith he was crowned. An Image of the Virgin Mary made by S. Luke, to which an Angelical Statue of Marble was seen often to bow. The paring of the nails of a living dead Crucifix; and the lively Picture of Christ made by himself by the pressing only of a Napkin to his face when he sweat. 16. What would the world say to the credibility of three Tuns of Teeth from the Jaws of one Saint; to the producing of the very Dagger and Shield with which S. Michael fought with the Devil, and a Feather that might then haply fall out of one of the Angel's Wings? What to the showing of the Skull of a Saints head at one place, his Hair in another, his Jawbone in another, his Forehead in a fourth, and yet his whole Head in a fifth? What to the Foreskin of Christ shown also in five several places at once? What to some dozen of Nails wherewith Christ was nailed to the Cross, and as many pieces of the Cross as would load a Cart to carry them; and as many glasses of the Virgin's Milk as would fill all the vessels in a countrey-dairy? How can such gross Impostures as these but wipe the Priests lips clean of all credit and belief, and cast the world into desperate Atheism and Infidelity? 17. But eighthly, and lastly, The Incredible of all Incredibles and the greatest Impossibility of all Impossibilities were that pretended Mystery of Transubstantiation, which being urged with the like necessity and assurance of Truth that any thing is urged by this Antichristian Church, whose Picture I am a-drawing, will do the most fatal execution upon the Christian Faith that any thing imaginable can do. For supposing this the most Fundamental Article of their Creed, or, if you will, the most precious and the most seriously-urged Fundamental of them all, and the very hinge of almost all their public Devotion and God-service; if this break, all must fall to the ground. For if the Church be found shamelessly false in so important a Point as this, it does immediately follow that she will be believed in nothing. Wherefore they whose belief was either wholly or mainly supported by the seeming greatness of her Authority, this failing by the easy discovery of so gross a Falsehood, (and yet by her most earnestly and most seriously avowed for Truth,) the Faith of every such man must also necessarily fail, unless by some special grace of God assisting his conference with the persons or writings of some better-instructed Christians, which he may haply meet with in this vast Wilderness he wanders in, he be stopped from splitting himself apieces from this dangerous precipice he stands on, and from the plunging himself into the mire of Atheism and Unbelief. 18. For undoubtedly▪ if he have no other help but this Pseudo-christian Synagogue, though he may be awed by their external lash from professing his Infidelity, yet it will be impossible for him to hinder the tacit growth of it in his own Soul; but he will naturally disgust and disclaim all hearty commerce with Religion; and even loath it as a pack of lies. Wherefore it is impossible but this congregation of Impostors and Deceivers (which I am setting forth in the truest colours I can) should swarm with multitudes of grown and obdurate Atheists. For the Imposture we speak of now being so signal, and the discovery so easy and obvious, how can it choose but be discovered even by multitudes of people? For the account comes only to this, Whether it be more likely that the Church for her own advantage (which I perceive she does everywhere eagerly and stiffly pursue) may knowingly and wittingly impose upon me, or at least mistake in her own judgement, (of the Infallibility whereof I have no proof but her own boast, when it is in the mean time her Interest to boast so) I say, the account comes only to this, Whether it be more likely that she may practise fraud, or fall into a mistake out of some blind Superstition; or that by the uttering of Five words a Priest should have such a power as to turn a piece of Bread into a Man, the Bread according to all my Senses being as much Bread as it was before. Which is a double Miracle, and greater than ever was yet done in the world considered but thus far; and almost as great a Miracle that any one should believe it. 19 But there are still greater, I cannot say Miracles, but downright Impossibilities. As first, That this Bread is not turned into a Man that was to be, but that was already in being: Which is the hardest Nonsense that can be offered to the mind of man to think upon. And yet, in the second place, the Bread is so turned into a Man, that is to say into the Man Christ, that he is entirely in every place where this consecrated Bread seems to be, that is, in thousands of places at once at very large distances: Which is as perfect a Contradiction as any can be proposed, That one and the same Body should be entirely distant from itself. For how can it be One, being thus divided from itself; since Unity consists in Indivision, and Self-Unity certainly is Self-Indivision? Wherefore if there be one Self at Oxford, suppose, and another at Cambridge at the same time, it is impossible it should be one and the same Person; their distance or division demonstrating them two distinct ones. And thirdly and lastly, From this false supposition, That one and the same Body may be at the same time in several places, it will also follow, That one and the same Person or Body may be at the same time wholly within itself and wholly without itself, wholly above itself and wholly beneath itself, on the right hand of itself and on the left hand of itself: That it may be One Body, and yet many Bodies at once, or rather no Body, but a Spirit, or, to speak more truly, Nothing: That one and the same Person may meet himself and compliment himself, may at the same time move and rest, lie along and walk, be many miles absent from his friend and present with him at once, may be now in Heaven and then in a moment on the Earth, without passing any of the Regions betwixt; with many such like Incongruities, which we having above noted, it is needless any longer here to insist upon. 20. It is already plain enough that Transubstantiation, or the turning of the Bread into the very Body of Christ, is encumbered with so many and so manifestly gross Impossibilities and easily deprehensible, that the Impossibility of the Church's either ignorantly erring or voluntarily imposing uponmen for her own gain, can bear no weight at all to turn the scales in her behalf; but there will be such an irresistible moment of these apparent and plain Contradictions of this so boldly obtruded Article of the Church, I mean this of Transubstantiation, that the weight thereof will naturally sink all her sons that but a little consider of it (if nothing better than their Church help them and buoy them up) into the abhorred pit of Infidelity first, and then of Hell. 21. For there is no plastering over such Impossibilities (which are deprehended to be such according to the Universal and Immutable Laws of Reason) by feigned Miracles, to give countenance thereto. As if they should make such Stories as these; That the Sacrament being struck with a dagger, did bleed: That when the Bread, as was thought, was taken out of the mouth of the Communicant, it proved Flesh in the fingers of the Priest: That the Host has dropped many drops of blood upon the Corporal, as it has been taken into the Priest's hands: That it has flown out of his hands round about the Church, dropping drops of blood on the Marble pavement all the time of its flight: That a lovely fair Child has been seen sometimes to appear out of the consecrated Bread; and the like. For these Stories could not evince the truth of that which is impossible to be true, but would argue their own falseness by the end of their producement. For commonly liars back lies with lies. 22. And now I think I have described so plentifully and punctually this particular Limb of Antichristianism, which is opposite to the Root of the Divine Life, Faith, that nothing can be conceived wanting to the perfection of such a Contrariety, nor any man doubt but that Church which is thus described is really one and the same with that which is excluded out of the New Jerusalem, as being opposite to her inhabitants. For from such a Constitution of things as I have here in this member of Antichristianism set forth, it will plainly follow, that the professed sons of this false Church (as those in the * Chap. 21. & Chap. 22. Apocalypse) must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say, They must either be men whose spirits are intimidated with superstirious Fables, which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fearful, and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as love to hear lies, and believe vain things out of a sottishness and imbecility of mind, and brutish simplicity; or else they must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Unbelievers and Atheists, though they externally for their own peace sake submit to the Orders of their Church; or, lastly, they must be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as forge lies, and help to deceive the people with multifarious Falsehoods and Impostures. Which being the Characters of that Church which is opposite to the Holy City, it is a farther Indication that in the putting together these things that do so diametrically oppose or undermine the Christian Faith, we have truly described a notorious Limb of Antichristianism. CHAP. IX. 1. Humility the proper Characteristic of the Person and Spirit of Christ. 2. The Affectation of an Ecclesiastic Sovereignty contrary to this Divine Grace. 3. The pretence for this Ambition, That the visible Church being One, requires one visible Head; with the Answer thereto. 4. Further Reasons to prove the Church wants no visible Head besides Christ. 5. That this one Head Christ Jesus, and one Apostolic Law, does make the Church sufficiently One. 6. That there is no just pretence for any such claim of being this Universal Head in any Bishop. 7. But that Ambition may purchase such a Title by wicked practices. 8. The method of this Universal Bishop's enslaving the Clergy to himself, and undermining the Secular Powers. 9 His Frauds against the Emperor and other Princes. 10. A further description of the Frauds, Rapine and Pride of this Universal Pastor, and of his Usurpation in a manner of the whole Power of the Empire. 1. WE proceed now to the Description of as lively Opposition as we can to the First Branch of the Divine Life, namely, Humility; which being so special a Characteristic of the nature and Genius of Christ's own Spirit, and so pronounced by himself in his own person when he was upon Earth (Learn of me, for I am humble and meek;) Matt. 11. 29. that which is perfectly opposite to this must needs be tightly Antichristian in all manner of people, but especially in those that do in a more peculiar way presume themselves to be Successors of Christ and his Apostles, whom he of old premonished of Pride and Lordliness, and affectation of Superiority, saying, The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them: But Luke 22. Mark 10. it shall not be so among you, etc. Which lesson Peter remembered, and endeavoured to transmit it to others, where he advises the Pastors to feed their flocks, not for filthy 1 Pet. 5. 2, 3. Lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being Lords over God's Heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. How contrary therefore to this would it be, if some pretended Supreme Pastor (whom others in their several subordinate capacities would in proportion naturally imitate) should not only Lord it over his flock, but tyrannize over Kings and Emperors, and Lucifer-like place himself in the same Throne with God and Christ, or rather displace them, and domineer absolutely according to his own will, treading under foot the plainly-promulgated Laws of God? 2. Let us therefore dip our pencil a little deeper in some of those colours which we made use of in the Description of that member of Antichristianism which was opposite to the Divine Life in general, and portray out more fully such an Ecclesiastic Polity as will appear most oriently Luciferian and Antichristian, and most diametrically opposite to that holy Humility that was recommended by Christ to his Successors. We will therefore suppose, as before, some one Prelate, that has got the start of the rest, to put in for the Title and Authority of Universal Bishop: which whosoever does was declared by Gregory the Great the Forerunner of Antichrist, the Forerunner of that Rex Superbiae cui Sacerdotum praeparatur exercitus. Which is a sign that in Gregory's judgement Antichrist was not to be born of the Tribe of Dan, but of the Tribe of Levi; whom we will further suppose to lay about him for the obtaining of this Levitical Sovereignty, and for the advancement of his Episcopal Chair successively, in some such manner as follows. 3. First, he will pretend that it is unfit that the visible Catholic Church being One, should not be united under One visible Head. Which reasoning yet, though it make a pretty show at first sight, being closely looked into, will vanish into smoke: For this is but a acquaint concinnity urged in the behalf of an impossibility. For the erecting such an Office for one man, which no one man in the world is able to perform, implies that to be possible which is indeed impossible. Whence it is plain that the Head will be too little for the Body, which therefore will be a piece of mischievous Asymmetry or Inconcinnity also. No one Mortal can be a competent Head for that Church which has a right to be Catholic, and to overspread the face of the whole Earth. There can be no such Head but Christ, who is not mere Man, but God invested in Humane nature, and therefore is present with every part of his Church and every member thereof at what distances soever. But to set some one Bishop over the whole Church, were to suppose that great Bishop of our Souls absent from it, who has promised he will be with her to the end of the World; and, you may be sure, not an idle Spectator, but a careful Feeder and Governor of their Souls who do really believe in him and unfeignedly obey him. 4. Nor does the Church- Catholic on Earth lose her Unity hereby; for she is under One common Head of the whole Church as well Triumphant as Militant, which (to come nearer to the Objection) is a Visible Head of his Church to those that can approach his Court, in that glorious Metropolis in Heaven; where undoubtedly he is to be seen sitting on his Sapphire Throne in great Majesty and Glory, and where his true Subjects in a small space of time may either see him themselves, or at least converse with them that have frequent recourse unto him and wait in his presence. And no man, I think, will say that any large Empire has an Invisible Head, because the Emperor himself has placed his Palace in the chiefest Province of his Empire, and never comes within the view of some parts of his Dominion, and multitudes of men never see him, as never having the opportunity of visiting those parts where the Emperor's Court is. Whereas Jesus Christ, the Head of his Church, was seen here on Earth for a good space, as also visibly to travel hence into the higher Regions of his Kingdom, and in due time will visibly return hither again, to take account of the Administratours of his Affairs in these lower Provinces. Wherefore Christ is a more visible Head in his large Empire than any Emperor in his: So evident is it that there wants no One Visible Head of the Church, besides Christ himself. 5. But yet notwithstanding all this, this ambitious Patriarch I describe will bear the world in hand, that it is very fit there should be One visible Head of the Church Universal, which should succeed Christ, or rather some one whom he would pretend to be Prince of the Apostles, and that his Seat is that Apostolical Seat, and that there is a necessity for Unity in the Church, and for slaking all controversies there should be some one such; though the Plea to any indifferent man cannot but seem very weak and frivolous. For, ●…as I have already intimated, the Church will be sufficiently One by being under that One Head Christ Jesus, and under One Law, which is the Word of God; which has been already proved sufficiently plain in all things necessary to Life and Salvation. But for other things, whether Ceremonies or Conceits, they do not at all break the Unity of Christ's Kingdom, but it will be truly and conspicuously his, so long as it professes the Faith of his Apostles; let them otherwise use what difference of Rites they will, or differ as much as they can in unnecessary Opinions: provided always that none of these Rites or Opinions be really and plainly against the Apostolical Doctrines, which are the universal and irreversible Law of Christ's Empire upon Earth. For thus the Church-Catholick being in this sort variegated in Externals, will yet be visibly the Spouse of Christ, though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, though clothed with a Vestment of various flower-work and colours. 6. But for this highflown Patriarch to pretend that his Seat is this Infallible and All-decisive Apostolical Seat, is a Plea that can have nothing solid at the bottom. For if there had been any such Prelation of some one of the Apostles over the rest, it were of that great Moment (if ending of Controversies in all succeeding Ages be of that Moment) that it would have been recorded in the Scripture, and would have ended or prevented all disceptations amongst the Apostles themselves or any others concerning them. But quite contrary S. Paul declares that he is in nothing inferior to the chiefest Apostles; which plainly implies an Equality 2 Cor. 12. amongst them all. Besides, if it were so that some one Apostle had an Authority or Headship over the rest, and had once his Residence in such a particular See; it does not follow that he that succeeds him in that See should succeed him in that Headship, or at all in his Apostleship, but only in his Bishopric: Nor is it credible that if this Prime and Ecumenical Apostle had designed his immediate Successor to the same latitude of Jurisdiction, that the claim should not be made and acknowledged by the Universal Church in those more innocent and morigerous times. Of so little weight are such pretences as these. 7. But if such pretty Sophisms will not serve the turn, since Ambition has inflamed the Patriarch's spirits, he will leave no stone unmoved to accomplish his desire; and what Sophistry cannot do, must be effected, though by the coursest methods of either Worldly or Infernal policy. That they may therefore obtain this absolute Ecclesiastic Sovereignty, the Successors in this pretended prime Apostolical See we will suppose to stick at nothing: But that they will forge or counterfeit Canons of Authentic Councils; and make them speak for the Supremacy of their Patriarchate; that they will countenance, abet or allow Treasons and Murders, though upon Emperors and Empresses, Kings and Queens, and their whole Posterity, by some entrusted Instrument of State, whose ambition instigated him thus bloodily to assassinate his Liege Sovereign, that he might succeed him in his Kingdom or Empire. Whereupon notwithstanding, by parasitical fawning, conniving, or allowing, nay by congratulating the success of so beastly an enterprise, these eager Candidates for the Ecclesiastic Empire will not stick to endeavour to gain the good will of this new Usurper, though his hands be yet reeking with blood, that they may thereby obtain of him this glorious and beneficial Title of Universal Bishop; nor upon the obtaining thereof forbear any cruelties to such Bishops as will detract this new imposed yoke. 8. Which prize they having once gotten, we suppose they will not stick here, but will still by craft encroach upon the Secular Power. For this Universal Bishop will plausibly require an Oath of Obedience from all other Bishops in what Kingdoms soever; which is no less wickedness then to ensnare them in a way to treachery and perfidiousness to their own Sovereigns, and to make them indeed betrayers of their own liberty: For they being thus loosened and alienated from their proper Princes, are made indeed the more firm to this great Patriarch Ecumenical, but withal his surer Vassals to be dealt with in Impositions and Fees and whatever other Injunctions, as he pleases. For we suppose they will also wring out of the Secular Prince's hand (upon pretence of their being the highest Sovereignty in Ecclesiastic Affairs) the Right of Investitures, thereby to make all Bishops less dependent on the Temporal Sovereignty, and more endeared to the Apostolic See, but still more enslaved thereto, as I noted before, and without remedy, if oppressed thereby, whether by removing all considerable Appeals out of the Bishop's Court respective into that Apostolic Judicature, or by what other aggrievances soever. But the Aggrievance of Appeals alone is so great, as if all Christendom were set on the rack, or, if you will, torturously drawn together with the Cramp, to fit the transaction of Affairs to the forced Universality and Interest of this Vicar-General of Christ And yet it will be so according to this Hypothesis, to maintain the Pomp and Ambition of one Universal Domineering Prelate. They will also get the whole body of the Clergy exempt from all Secular Judicatures; they being, indeed, by these successful devices made properly the Subjects of this Ecclesiastic Monarch. But by this feat they do most grossly defraud all Secular Potentates of as many Subjects as there are men of Religious Orders in Christendom, they being ipso facto made the Subjects of this King of Pride, (as Gregory in a Divinatory rapture called him,) and not to be tried at any Secular Tribunal, no not for Murder, Robbery, House-breaking, or what other crime soever. Which Immunity, as it cannot but make them proud and insolent to the Laiety, as they call them; so must it, as I noted before, more throughly enslave the Clergy to this Ecclesiastic Tyrant. For they can rationally expect no succour from those Princes whose Sovereignty they have slipped from under, and consequently from under their Protection, by these Religious Frauds, and therefore lie wholly at the mercy of him whom the greatness of his Title and Pontifical Pomp, exceeding so infinitely his just Revenues, must make a severe exacter of Tribute from them that are most appropriately under his power, and thereby put them to unworthy shifts and sharkings upon the people by pious, or rather impious, Sleights and Frauds, he sending out and dispersing these Birds of his in numerous flocks, to be his hungry Pick-peny's throughout the whole Pastorage of the Empire. 9 Thus great a Pride proportionably fed with the injury of others, and especially of the Bishops and other Clergy whom this Tyrannical high-Priest would pill and poll as he pleases, is discoverable already in the Draught we are a-making of this Member of Antichristianism. But it would be still heightened, if we should imagine further extravagancies. As suppose, if this Universal Priest should not be content to be Supreme Bishop, but put in to out-top the Emperor himself, and should most wretchedly and treacherously watch a safe occasion (as, suppose, while the Imperial forces are generously and faithfully employed to beat the Common Enemy out of Christendom, whether Turks or Saracens) to raise war against the Emperor and his adherents in those parts nearest his own See, to beat him thence, to make room for an opportunity of nimming away some share of the Empire to himself. Certainly it were an high strain of Ambition that could move any to such Devilish practices. What then were it for this Cunning Prelate to send this or that Prince on holy Expeditions, on purpose to cheat them of their Dominions, or fleece them of their Revenues? What to absolve great Ministers of State and all the Subjects of a Prince from their Oaths of Fidelity, and that merely for his own Interest? To take upon him to depose the true Sovereign, and set up another, the liege Subject of the deposed, and who had no right at all to the Crown, for hope of a recompense proportionable to the greatness of his extravagant presumption, and for to enrich himself by the ruins of the injured? To be adored as an Omnipotent Plenipotentiary that may do any thing, and to have his Clients fall down and kiss his feet, and his servants to carry him on their shoulders in procession like the ancient Idols of Babylon? 10. Nay, what shall we say to this Holy man's utterly ruining of the Eastern Empire to enrich himself with the rubbish? what to the forging Deeds of Gift or Donations, to cover over the odiousness of his Rapine? what to the leaving in a manner no Empire at all but what is Sacerdotal, raising it above all Kings, Emperors and Christian Princes whatsoever? and this achieved by such persons as were the most wicked of any that bore the name of Sovereign Holiness? whereby we may be the better assured of the Antichristianism of the Constitution, it being brought about and established by impure Sorcerers, Murderers and Poisoners of Princes. That power therefore which one single Luciferian Prelate shall thus procure, by frauds and rapines, by robbing Kings of their Rights, by subverting States and Kingdoms, by the inveigling the Sons of Emperors into Treason, Rebellion and Parricide, by absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Fealty, by involving Christendom in war and bloodshed, by that insolent presumption of Excommunicating Emperors and Potentates, (they not offending, yea firmly adhering to the Law of Christ) and by disposing of their Dominions as he pleases; if this, I say, be not a right Idea of that signal Antichristian Power perfectly opposite to that Equity, Sweetness, Meekness and Lowliness of spirit which was so conspicuous in Christ Jesus, even in his highest Triumph on Earth, I cannot, nor, I think, any one else, imagine what is. We omit here all that rack of mind and torture of Conscience that the unmeasurable Sublimity of this Prince of Pride might put all Christendom upon by his vexatious and superstitious Opinions and Ceremonies, invented only for the procuring fuel to feed and maintain the Grandeur and Pomp of so stately a Magnifico. All men's minds must be ground with Solicitude, and their Purses emptied to fill up and swell out the fastuous tumour of this Prince-riding Patriarch. Of which theme having spoken sufficiently in my Description of the Second Limb of Antichristianism, it was enough to mention it only here. CHAP. X. 1. The wicked Method of raising the Power of this Supreme Pastor to this height, a demonstration of the excess of Ambition. 2. His blasphemous usurpation or acceptation of the Divine Titles. 3. His barbarous insultation over Excommunicated Kings and Emperors. 4. The excess of Homage done to him by the greatest Personages. 5. His exalting himself above God in point of Jurisdiction. 6. His elation of himself above him in point of Honour or Precedency. 7. Other Instances of that kind of Pride. 8. His exaltation of himself above God even in the very House of God literally so called. 1. WE have already wrought up this Image of Antichristianism in the power of One particular Priest or Patriarch so high, as that by hook or by crook he has wriggled himself into the pretence, if not possession, of Absolute Sovereignty over all the Potentates of Christendom. Which being acquired by such wicked means, it must needs be that a more than Hellish Fire of Ambition lies at the bottom; which will betray itself yet more fully in these visible flames; namely, Certain exorbitant Titles and Prerogatives this Son of Pride is adorned with, His barbarous insultations over subdued Princes and Emperors, and the extravagant Homages and Services done to his person in public Solemnities. 2. As for example, What can be more blasphemously Antichristian then to suffer himself to be decked with the spoils of the Divine Attributes; To be styled Our Lord God, Optimum, Maximum, & Supremum Numen in terris, A God on Earth, A visible Deity; To have declared that his Tribunal and that of God is all one; That his Power is absolute; That what he does, he does as God, and not as Man; and That all must submit to his Decree, as being infallible; That he is all, and above all; That he has the disposing of Kingdoms, can pull down one, and set up another; That he can do all that God can do clavae no●… errante; That he can change the nature of things, make something of nothing, make Injustice Justice, and Wrong Right; That all Laws are in his breast; That he can dispense with the Canons of the Apostles and with the New Testament itself; That he is the Cause of Causes; That it is Sacrilege to doubt of his Power; That he has a Dominion over Angels, Purgatory and Hell; That he is the Monarch of the world, and exceeds the Imperial Majesty as much as the Sun does the Moon; and That he is to be adored by all the Potentates of the Earth? This is one blazing Eruption out of this infernal Aetna of Luciferian Ambition. 3. The second was his haughty Insultation over Excommunicated and subdued Princes. As for example, It were most salvagely Antichristian, for this Triumphant Patriarch after Excommunication, and submission to his power, thereupon to make one Emperor to wait some days together barefoot, and clad in Canvas, with his Empress, for Absolution at his gate, and that in the midst of winter; to make him resign his Imperial Ornaments; and after all this to depose him, and give his Empire to another: To make another prostrate himself publicly in the Church, and in this prostration to set his foot on the Emperor's neck, as if he were crushing an Adder or Snake: To crown another, not with his hands, but with his feet, and then with the same feet to kick the Crown from off the Emperor's head: To make one Prince resign his Crown, and live some days as a private person, and then, upon condition of becoming a Vassal to his High-priestship, to permit him to receive it again at his Legat's hands, lowly kneeling at his feet: To make another, by way of penance, to go creeping along his Holy-Highnesse's Palace upon his hands and knees, with a Collar about his neck like a Dog: To whip another stark naked in an open Cathedral, every Monk or Religious person bestowing some number of lashes on him. Certainly such gross usage as this of Emperors, Kings and Princes, cannot but be the Indication of a Pride and Elation of mind plainly Diabolical. 4. But what speak we of Penances, when we may draw so odious a Draught out of ordinary expected Homages and Observances▪ We will therefore suppose that, according to the known Ceremonies of this Sacerdotal Court, when his Holy-Highness, Universal Head of the Church, will be something still higher by getting on Horseback, that the Emperor or King that is present must of duty hold his Stirrup as he gets up; or if his will is upon some occasion to be transported in a Chair of State, that the Emperor and King are to submit their neck to the yoke, and take up this stately Man in his Chair on their shoulders. When this grand Prelate also goeth to dinner, the Emperor or King there present must have the honour imposed upon them to serve him with Water and a Towel to wash his anointed hands. For which service they shall be permitted to sit down at Table after attendance, till the first Course be served. The Emperor's place also in an Ecumenical Council shall be at this High-priest's feet, like a good son of Gamaliel. And finally, wheresoever this Ecumenical Patriarch goes, the people shall fall down on their knees, or if they do not that Worship willingly and glibly, be knocked down upon them by his rigid Guard, those grim extorters of the Adoration of this Idol. 5. This tenor of Ceremonies will plainly place this Highpriest many degrees higher than the Princes of the Earth, be they Kings or Emperors, or what other Potentates soever. But we will now draw a stroke or two of such an Elation or Haughtiness of spirit in point of Ceremony and Precedency, as may make him justly seem to affect a Sovereignty above that of God himself. Of which Affectation we have given substantial Examples as touching Power, in that he was supposed to cancel the Laws of God, and to substitute in their place some gainful Decrees of his own. Which is a perfect exalting himself above God in point of Authority and real Jurisdiction. 6. And for point of good Manners and Ceremony, If we should imagine that those things which himself and his adherents give the highest Religious Worship to were yet cast lower than this Supreme Prelate, were it not to take precedency of the most High God? As, for example, if the Cross, which they judge Latria due to, were cast so low as this High-priest's feet, were not he then higher then what the highest kind of Divine honour is due to? But this, you will say, perhaps, will but make him equal with God. But the Host or consecrated Bread is already supposed to be esteemed by this Pseudochristian Church the very Body of Christ, or his corporeal Person; that is to say, that where this is, Christ, true God, is truly and corporeally present in his own Person, as truly and really as he is in Heaven. If therefore this Person of Christ, which is ordinarily called the Holy Sacrament, should be less respected than the Highpriest that consecrated it, it is plain that he were exalted above it. Wherefore, for example, If in solemn Processions this Highpriest should appoint the Ceremonies in such sort, as that this Sacrament, that is to say, according to them, the real Person of Jesus, should be placed amongst the less noble of the Pomp, but the Highpriest himself in the midst of the most illustrious Princes; that Jesus Christ should be carried on an Horse, but the Highpriest on the shoulders of Kings and Potentates; that a mean servant of the Sacrist shall lead the Horse that carries Christ Jesus, but, if the Highpriest be on horseback at that time, some Prince or Emperor; that the Canopy over Jesus Christ shall be carried only by Citizens of the City, but the Canopy of the Highpriest by great Nobles or Ambassadors: Were not this plainly and palpably to take place of God Almighty himself, and to be so proud an Ecumenical Patriarch, as to prefer himself before the Eternal Father and Maker of the Universe? 7. Which might be done also in more ordinary journeyings; If this Highpriest, suppose, should appoint Jesus Christ to ride on an ordinary Jennet led by an ordinary Stable-groom, and to go before; (there is Precedency indeed) but amongst the baggage of his Retinue, (Calones, Lixas; & Curtesannas) to be an Harbinger of his holy Highness' coming; himself in the mean time marching fairly on, accompanied with Patriarches, Archbishops, Bishops, and such like persons of Quality. Surely this would suggest to any musing man a very deep conceit or profound meditation, to wit, how one and the same person according to his circumscribed bodily presence should, at one and the same time, ride on Horseback here on Earth disgracefully and contemptibly amongst those Scullions and Courtesans, and yet sit in a Throne of Majesty and Glory in the highest Heavens, encircled with the Praises and Adorations of the Holy Angels. But be that how it will, it is in the mean time very manifest that this sublime Priest is so far out in good manners, as well as in usurpation of real right of Jurisdiction, that he does elate himself above God himself, according to his own concession, or doctrine of his Church, in appointing thus to himself more honour than to the Itinerant Person of Christ. 8. To all which we might further add this supposition also, That this Highpriest at his Inauguration into this Supreme Office might be placed upon the Holy Altar of Christ in some chief Church of his Metropolis, the feet of his Chair of State trampling upon the Sacred Throne of the Body of Christ, and there receive Adoration from his Ecclesiastic Princes and the gazing and amazed People. But I think I have already drawn the Effigies of so perfect an Antichristian Pride, that nothing need be added thereto, nor the least scruple left, but that he that exalts himself thus high cannot but be that Man of sin, which 2 Thess. 2. sits in the House of God; and exalts himself above all that is called God. CHAP. XI. 1. That the Pride of this Superlative Head will diffuse itself also into its Members. 2. Further general Incentives to this Vice in this usurping Priesthood. 3. Peculiar Incentives thereto in some great Dignities. 4. The singularity of Habits, and way of living in some Religious Orders, an occasion of Pride. 5. The pretence of meriting in these Orders an high and hateful Instance of this Vice. 6. That such an elated Pseudo-Clergie as this might well go for that Man of sin that exalts himself above every thing that is worshipped; 7. And be emblematized in the description of the Leviathan, who is called the King of the children of Pride. 1. NOr can we imagine the Head so diabolically proud, but this poison must diffuse itself into all the Body, and swell up all the Members thereof in some sort or other. For though this Highpriest have a great power over his Clergy themselves, to tax them and fleece them; yet they would all of them be not a little puffed up to conceit themselves parts of that Body whose Head is so transcendently raised above all the Princes of the Earth; over whom he having once usurped the Tyranny, and being warm and well settled in his power, he may haply be the more easy and beneficial to his own Tribe. Besides, their being exempted from all Secular Powers must needs elate their minds, and make them haughty and domineering, and prone to be injurious, they being able to recoil to such Judges as will be parties for them. 2. Moreover the power of receiving Auricular Confession is a mighty subjugative and insulting Privilege over the poor prostrate Laiety at the feet of their Confessors. And that distinctive Privilege of the Eucharistick Cup peculiar to the Priest must needs make the Laymen lear or jounge aloof off and look maimedly on't, as acknowledging so vast a distance betwixt them and the Priesthood. All which things tend naturally to the swelling up of this Clergy. How then can they bear that conceit of the power of creating their Creator, and of being such Priests as offer the very Body of Christ for a propitiation, and therefore in this regard may conceit themselves in some sense superior to Christ himself? These are common to the whole Body Sacerdotal. 3. But there are also Considerations peculiar, though to great numbers; as those that are Sacerdotal Princes and great Persons in this Church have a peculiar instigation to this Vice. For it were easy to fancy that this mighty Highpriest may create Ecclesiastic Potentates under him, which may be Co-assessors and sharers with him in this Spiritual Domination over the World; he creating them with some such Form as this, Estote Fratres mei, & Principes mundi: which must needs set their spirits at an high pitch. But many Ranks inferior to these, and yet equal to Secular Princes and Nobles, such as may have the pomp or accommodation of * Rev. 18. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, of Horses and Coaches, and Lackeys or Pages to attend them or run by them, may make up a numerous company of these children of Pride: who yet bearing the Titles of Pastors and Overseers of the Flock of Christ, oversee them in no other sense then of overlooking them; they being placed so high above them, that they have not any mind or ability to feed them, but rather to flay them and Lord it over them. 4. And lastly, for those that are yet more numerous, which we may suppose to have put on the vizard of a more peculiar Holiness, listing themselves under the Title and Conduct of this or that Saint, and making a show of Humility by wearing some uncouth and sordid Habit, and seeming separate from the World by retiring into lazy and populous Monasteries, and mortified to the pride and glory of it, while they seek the praise and admiration of men by setting a badge of special Sanctity on themselves by their peculiar. Habiliments and extravagant method of living; I confess it were a miracle to me, if this self-chosen Sanctity of theirs, consisting in meats and drinks and abstaining from marriage, and the like, did not so puff them up in their carnal conceits, that they may deservedly be looked upon as the most genuine Subjects of this King of Pride. 5. Besides that the very pretence to this By-course of Life may be very impudently turgent to the modest sense of any sober and truly-sanctified Christian, who cannot but esteem it presumptuous to stand upon their own merits, and plead their right to Heaven upon what they could any way do here on Earth for so inestimable and ineffable a Reward. What an high Luciferian Rant then were it in these Spiritual undertakers to pretend that they can do not only their own task, but the tasks of others also? In which pretence there is comprised two of the most hateful Specimens of Pride that can be excogitated: namely, the vilifying of the all-sufficient Merits of Christ, as if they were defectuous, and not able to supply the wants of all men to whom God would be propitious, but they must be eeked and patched out by the Supplements of such self-weening wretches; and then an over-estimation and ridiculously-heightned conceit they have of their own Power, Strength and Sanctimony, that they can do more, and that by way of Merit, then will serve their own turns, or then God requires at their hands. Whenas we are expressly taught by the Holy Scripture to say, That when we have done all we can, we are unprofitable Luke 17. 10. Eph 2. 9 servants; and, that Salvation is by Faith, not by Works, that no man may boast. 6. Wherefore we will look upon this Highpriest and Universal Head of this Pseudo-christian Clergy, together with all the several Religious Ranks and Orders under it, and by devout acknowledgement sodered and cemented to it and influenced by it, all plumped up with one common spirit of Pride and sense of Ruling and Domineering over the persons and consciences of the Laiety, and highly conceited of themselves by reason of these carnal and external shows of Sanctity and Supereminency above the rest of the world, which consists only in Anointings, in Habits, in Abstinence from meat, and the like, which are poor and beggarly Elements, but yet bloating and swelling with a secret poison those that relish them and esteem them and are interessed in the observation of them; I say, we will look upon all these from the highest to the lowest as one Body of one Head, and altogether as one Man of sin, who having one spirit and mind against the Law of God and Christ, do exalt themselves against and above both; though some in one manner, others in another. But they having one mind and will and joint consent, are all accessary to all, and are such a Draught and Representation of Antichristian Pride, as nothing can be more, or more absolute. This is he that * Job 41. 3●…. beholdeth all high things, and is the King of the children of Pride; the highest and most notorious example of a proud and elated Polity as ever yet appeared in the World. 7. And I think the Text itself may not be misapplied, there being that great affinity betwixt Antichrist and the Devil. And it may be greater betwixt him and some expressions of the Text describing the Leviathan, then betwixt the said expressions and his corrival, for the honour of being typified therein. * Verse 15, 16, 17. His Scales are his Pride shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near another that no air can come betwixt them. They are joined one to another, they stick together that they cannot be sundered. Which we will suppose to be the very boast of this Pseudochristian Polity; That they are, as it were, all of one piece, firmly joined each part to another, though not by any tie of Ingenuity and Love, but riveted and nailed together by the iron hand of Necessity and Tyrannical Force; Fear of extremity, joint-interest, and Oaths of absolute Obedience to an Infallible Power, holding them as close together as these brazen shields or sealed scales of the Leviathan. And now if we consider the Head of this monster, His Eyes are said to be * Verse 18. like the Eyelids of the morning, that is, very lofty and supercilious, splendid and glorious, as we have already described the Pomp of this Superlative Head to be. But * Verse 19, 20, 21. out of his mouth go burning Lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. That is to say, He sets all the world on Fire in his Pride and Wrath, by his wicked Incendiaries and Emissaries, that run like lightning at his command into all quarters of the Empire: Or in a pretended Religious Rage against the opposers of his Sovereign Holiness he thunders out Excommunications against Princes, and so kindles war and discord, and involves all in flames and blood. And lastly, to set out the obstinate Immutableness of this Polity in their Dogmatisms and their remorseless Martyring and torturing them that submit not to them, it is said, that * Verse 24. his heart is as firm as stone, and as hard as the nether millstone. But as it is said of Pharaoh King of Egypt in the Psalms, Thou brakest the Heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be Psalm 74. 14. meat to thy people in the wilderness, namely, to the Israelites, to whom all things fell out in Types and Figures: So * Chap. 26. 21. Esay has foretold that the time will come when the Earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword & Chap. 27. 1. (even with that sharp Sword that goeth out of his Mouth) shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent, even Leviathan that crooked Serpent, (and shall meet him in all his fraudulent wind and obliquities) and shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea, that is to say, that dwells betwixt the two Seas, as Grotius interprets the watery Leviathan, in the Psalms, of Pharaoh King of Egypt, because his Dominion was extended betwixt two Seas. In that day sing ye unto her, A Vineyard of red wine; I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it, I will Verse 2, 3▪ keep it night and day. He will cause them of Jacob to take root, Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. But this was Verse 6. an Excursion more than I intended. CHAP. XII. 1. An Antichristian Frame opposite to the Divine Grace of Purity described in general. 2. That the Numerousness of Festivals joined with a dead and Spiritless exercise of Worship leads to Impurity: 3. As also the Vow of Calibate in unmortified Monks and Priests. 4. The opportunities of their Order and Function. 5. The opinion of Fornication being no sin, and Adultery a less one then the breach of the Vow of Single life. 6. Easy Rates for Pardons and Indulgences in these Vices. 7. 'Slight Penances. 8. The dedicating a considerable part of the year to wild extravagancies under Masks and Vizards. 9, 10. Concubines allowed to Priests. 11. The pompous Equippage of Courtesans, and the Suprème Pastour's receiving Tribute from their trading. 12. The example of this Highpriest and his Clergy. 13. The rifeness of Sodomy near his Palace: 14. And its spreading thence into the remotest parts of his Dominion. 15. That an Ecclesiastic Polity in this condition were the Mystical City of Sodom, and characterized in those Apocalyptick Catalogues under the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1. WE return to the pursuit of the matter in hand, and pass on to the next Antichristian Opposition; and that is against the Second Branch of the Divine Life, which is Purity. Where omitting to speak of Hypocrisy, which is one kind of Impurity, and which cannot scape being very frequent in such a Religion as I have hitherto described, that consists so much in outward shows and superficiary Formalities; we will direct our pencil to the drawing of such an Image of Impurity as is more gross and fulsome, the chief parts whereof are Fornication, Adultery and Sodomy. I say therefore, that if the very Frame and Complexion of Ecclesiastic Polity or Doctrine were such as did naturally either necessitate or encourage such Uncleannesses as these, were not this a palpable Antichristian opposing of that Christian Purity unto which we are all called? 2. And such a Frame I conceive were this that I now shall delineate, beginning with smaller things first. We will suppose therefore a great number of holidays, wherein men shall be restrained from working in their honest vocations; and that the exercise of their Religion on those days, as it takes up no considerable time, (unless it be in some ludicrous pomps) so to be of that nature that it does not search the Hearts of men at all, nor engraft the Fear of God in them, nor really mortify them from the lusts of the Flesh; they being only spectators of dumb shows, as it were, and hearers of a public Service they understand not one syllable of; and when this is done, think they have done enough, and, it may be, do not that neither, nor any Secular work upon pain of the high displeasure of the Church, but may be more securely found in a Tavern, Alehouse or Bawdy-house, then working on their Trades. Wherefore I demand, concerning men of unmortified minds, who have no opportunity of being fore-armed against the assaults of the Flesh by a searching and intelligible Service of God in public, or a Soul-convincing Ministry, but necessitated to be idle; what these men can fall more naturally into then tippling and drinking and excess, which joined with this imposed Idleness must needs carry them to such acts of Filthiness as opportunity will offer them. It is a known Aphorism, That Idleness is the Mother of Naughtiness. Haec ut ames faciunt, haec quae fecêre tuentur, Haec sunt jucundi causa cibúsque mali. And therefore the numerosity of Festivals, joined with a dead and spiritless Form of Religious Worship, where the Assistants are but as it were the Spectators of a dumb show, as I said before, what can this be but the School of Lewdness and the Nurse of Impurity? 3. Again, Suppose an Order of men, and that Numerous, that feed and far deliciously, eat and drink of the best, ever Idle, and living only of other men's labours, that are neither in pursuit of more subtle and bewitching Studies of Philosophy and noble Theory, to carry away the redundance of their Strength and to exhaust their Spirits, nor any searching and consuming pangs of Devotion; but only patter over their Offices and set Prayers as an external duty, in which, if they be understood, there may be little that will so affect the Mind as to maim the Body at all; suppose, I say, these men, notwithstanding their ability and fitness for the functions of Virility, should by an irrevocable Vow (taken rashly and indiscreetly, contrary not only to the Law of God, but to that of their own Nature and Complexion) be condemned to perpetual Coelibate: what can be the natural event thereof but frequent Fornications, or Adulteries, or foul Acts of Sodomy? Wherefore Monks, or Priests, or be they what they will that are tied to this Law in these circumstances, cannot fail (unless by a Miracle) to attempt at least the transgressing, if they do not frequently the facto transgress, the Laws of God or Nature, and fill the Christian world with the unsavoury reek and fume of their Filthinesses. And it is likely they might find their game the more easily amongst the female Votaries, if they were supposed also without consulting their own Tempers to have offered themselves, or else by the circumventions and importunities of others to have been contrived into Monasteries. 4. But imagine these were more recluse, yet the World is wide enough; and if that be true that is so commonly said, Casta est quam nemo rogavit, they being so well furnished, and having so little to do but to study such artifices, it will not be hard for them to compass their prize. Nay they need not study opportunities, they being offered to them in some parts of their Religious Function, as in the privacy of Auricular Confession. So strong would Temptation be, though the power of Conscience and the fear of Punishment were yet entire. 5. But suppose some of the Learned should pronounce simple Fornication no sin, as well as Adultery a less one then the breach of the Vow of Coelibate; how cheerfully would these well-appointed monastics go about their work then? and how much more easily would all unmarried both Males and Females be tempted to the satisfying of their lusts in this single kind of Lewdness? 6. But if this will not be so fully apprehended or firmly believed, we will suppose still more Cordials behind, and higher Provocatives to Lust: Such large Indulgences, such easy Rates for Dispensations and Absolutions, from that unholy Highpriest we have so often mentioned, not only for simple Fornication and Adultery, but for Rapes upon Virgins, for the grossest Incest, for lying with one's Niece, nay with his Sister or own Mother; that no man could be much dismayed at the foulest acts of Filthiness, when he has once considered at what a small value that infallible Judge of Controversies has rated them; nor abstain from indulging to himself any pleasing lust, being so much countenanced and so well encouraged by this indulgent Father Ecumenical or Catholic Mitio of the Church. 7. 'Slight Penances also would be another great Animation to this Sin of Uncleanness. As if so be some small Alms, or a few Prayers repeated so many times over, or going round the Stairs of a Market-Cross, or a little Fasting, or the like, would be a compensation for such foul miscarriages in a Layman, and some two or three months' exclusion from the Church for a Priest, though taken in the Act of Adultery. 8. But we may imagine yet further artifices of debauching the world without bidding them in express terms to be naught. As if, for example, a considerable part of the year, suppose a twelfth or sixth part, were solemnly set apart for one continual Festival of wild Frolicks and Revellings, it being permitted for so long time together under masks and vizards to commit any villainies or outrages that the lasciviency of their own lawless fancy shall suggest; as if, because their faces are hid from men, their persons and actions were also concealed from God: Were not this a mere method of fleshing men in lewdness and wickedness, and of instilling into them that vile Principle, That Virtue and Vice are but empty Names, and that any thing may be done by the permission or connivance of Authority? Nay to suggest in too significant an Hieroglyphic, That there is no God, and That sin would be nothing but for the shame of men? 9 This also would be no small countenance to Whoredom, to set an example of that liberty in those who should be more exquisite patterns of Chastity and Continence and Mortification of the Flesh; I mean the Priests, who are the most immediate Guides of the people. If therefore in process of time the corruption of this Church came to that height, that these Holy anointed men of God might, by the allowance of the Laws of their Highpriest, have their Concubines to solace themselves with, which, not being Wives, come as near to the condition of Harlots as four penies to a groat; would not this be a great stumbling-block in the eyes of the People, both Males and Females, to cause them to sin, they seeing him that is their immediate Guide to Heaven so boldly to take along with him an allowed Whore for his intimate companion? For Christian Religion admits of no such thing as a Concubine. Every one is to be the Husband of one Wife, but not any the Husband of a Concubine; that sounds against common sense. 10. Wherefore every young man in the Parish having so Authentic an example of Fornication in his ghostly Guide, who is so Sacred a Person that he is not to be touched by any Officer of the Civil Magistrate, who is so Holy as to be deemed a fit Intercessor in the behalf of the people above at the high Altar in the Sanctum Sanctorum, the people in the mean time being left behind in the body of the Church, as the Israelites at the foot of the Hill when Moses went up to speak with God in private on the top of Mount Sinai; whose Lips are so sanctified that they only (and not the profane Beards of the Laymen) may kiss the Holy Cup, nay drink all off, and then wipe the Chalice clean when he hath done, lest any drop should be left to quench the thirst of any longing Layman or Lay-woman's curiosity; and lastly, whose Breath is so omnipotent, as by the recital of Five words to create the Maker and Creator of all mankind; if so holy and magnificent a person as this, will every youth of the Parish say, (with the young blade in the Comedy) may play such lose pranks with one that is not his Wife; Ego homuncio hoc non faciam? ego verò illud faciam, ac lubens. Thus naturally will they be invited and encouraged by this important example of the Priest, to commit folly in every Village, Town and City in a Kingdom. And so great a scandal will this false Church not stick to give, rather than put herself in a less capacity or probability of being Heir or Executress upon the death of her Priests. 11. And for this Highpriest himself, he might contribute not a little to this debauchery of Christendom, if under his own nose, I mean in his own See, or Metropolis of the Empire, he should be too favourable and remiss in punishing and repressing the boldness of this Vice; as, if he should suffer known Courtesans to pass the streets with a magnificency of Equippage equal to the greatest Ladies, courted, and accompanied even at Noontime of the day (spectante populo) with Clergymen of the highest Rank and Degree, without the correcting so gross an enormity: This certainly were a competent advantage and furtherance towards the bringing the game into Credit. But suppose also his Sanctity should vouchsafe to accept of part of the Gains of these Nuns of Venus, to increase his Revenues thereby; would not that be a further confirmation of the Lawfulness of that sport, and a public signification to the world, that men need not trouble themselves so much to hold out the siege against the importunity of the Lusts of the Flesh, since his Sanctitie's own self has come to fair terms in that point, and will patiently suffer these workers of Impurity to set up shop in numerous companies even in his own Episcopal See, provided they pay but their annual Tribute, and thereby acknowledge his Sacred High-priestship the Supreme Sannio of the City? This were indeed to be a Persecutor of Marriage, and a Patron of Brothels, as one speaks well in this case. For what greater Patronage can they desire then his suffrage and allowance that is or would be held the Universal Infallible Judge in Religious causes at least, and whose very Title or Inscription is Holiness? And that he does allow them, it is plain, in that he accepts, if not extorts, part of their Gains from them. Whenas the true Holy one of Israel would not accept of the * Deut. 23. 1●…. Hire of a Whore, though it were a freewill offering; because he would show his aversation from all such uncleannesses. But it is impossible any man can be knowingly and wittingly or ex pacto sharer in the Gains, upon condition of silence or connivance or abetting any way the wickedness that brings in the gain, but he must be ipso facto a sharer in the wickedness itself. Which being supposed in this Highpriest, it is consequent thereto that he looks upon this Nundination of Venus, I mean the trade of Bawdry, not to be wicked, and thereby lets the whole world lose to Debauchery and Lewdness. 12. Which they would be still the more hastily precipitated and sunk into, if they were surrounded with a multitude of Votes from the inferior Religious Orders, their impudent actions and unsavoury speeches giving witness generally for the trivialness of this sin, if any at all. For we suppose they make it a sin scarce in any thing but this; That they must confess it to the Priest, (that the Priesthood may have the better thank over the Laiety, and feel their own mispractices lie more easy upon their minds, by finding others like themselves) must acknowledge his Authority, and stand to his courtesy, in a business wherein I have already described him very civil and humane. We will therefore suppose the generality of the Clergy of this false Church foul and impure in actions, words and behaviour; and, that nothing may be wanting to the heightening of this Idea of Antichristianism in this point we are upon, (and you may, if you will, suppose the same in others) the Highpriest himself as ill, if not worse than any of the rest, for Whoredoms, Adulteries and Incests. Which things certainly must have a wicked influence for the debauching all that part of Christendom that can have any respect for, or own any homage to, this Sacerdotal Sovereignty. 13. Finally, that there may be nothing wanting to fill up the measure of this Antichristian Pollution or Impurity we do describe, we will further suppose those Regions and Principalities that border nearest to the See of this Supreme Priest to be a second Pentapolis for the most heinous of all Uncleannesses, I mean Sodomy itself. Nay that the High-priests themselves shall be ordinarily so unholy, that they shall be accounted tolerable, if not praiseworthy, provided they content themselves with what ever illicit pleasures they can enjoy from Women, Masculine Venery being so frequent even in the Heads of this Apostatised Church; and That to be Pathics were the next step to the highest Ecclesiastical Preferments, or at least not stop at all thereto; That this foul sin of Gomorrah is grown so much in request, that Ecclesiastic Prince's pride themselves in showing their wit and eloquence in setting forth the pleasures of that Vice, and precellency of it above any enjoyments from the Female sex, and publish such beastly discourses with security and impunity from the Head of this unholy and unwholesome Synagogue; who notwithstanding would thunder against the breach of a Monastic Vow, or any Doctrine tending thereto, with fire and lightning; and it may be suppress any honest satire made to disparage the heinousness of that fulsome crime of Sodomy, nay dispense with whole Families upon small pretences in so execrable a trade of Wickedness. 14. And lastly, That partly by the emboldening examples of this high Praesul's Court, and partly by the strong temptations and importunities of a Monastic life, (Idleness and ineffectual forms of Devotion leaving the Body utterly unmortified, nay more foul and lustful then in ordinary Secular men; and their secluseness from women permitting them no other way to discharge their filthy burdens then by abusing themselves with Mankind) we will further suppose that this noisome poison has spread itself generally in this false Christendom, and that sundry Monasteries would abound with this sin of Gomorrah, this impure heat piercing from that mouth of Hell, the High-priest's Palace, to the more cold and Northern climes of his Antichristian Dominion. 15. Wherefore the very frame and constitution of this Pseudo-christian Polity being such, as of its own nature is prone to bring forth so foul and poisonous fruits as these, even the fruits of Sodom and the apples of Gomorrah; and we supposing that it does actually bring forth such fruits, even the uncleanest works of the Flesh, Fornication, Adultery, Incest, and Sodomy itself in so plentiful a manner: how can we doubt but that this is a considerable Limb of Antichristianism, or of Antichrist himself, where they are found, I mean this gross impurity so conspicuously opposite to the second Branch of the Divine Life; and that this Polity thus infected (if that may be said to be infection which is but the natural flower or fruit of the intrinsical constitution of a thing) with these several kinds of Uncleanness, is that very City, Antichristian in the highest measure, which is mystically called Sodom as well as Egypt, and whose inhabitants Rev. 〈◊〉. are excluded out of the Holy City (the New Jerusalem) as perfectly opposite thereto, and whose portion is the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second Death? In which black list of the damned there are reckoned up amongst others * Rev. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Whores and Whore-mongers, be it simple Fornication, Adultery, or Incest; as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Grotius interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, abusers of themselves with Mankind, and Pathics; to which answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dogs, in the other Catalogue chap. 22. The fury of the lustfulness and obscoenity of Dogs making them promiscuously attempt one another without discrimination of Sex. And this may serve briefly for a Description of that Limb of Antichristianism that opposes that Branch of the Divine Life which is Christian Purity. CHAP. XIII. 1. The excellency of Charity, and that it is the very Life and Soul of the Polity of Christ. 2. A Description of the nature of Christ's Kingdom, out of Scripture. 3. A Collection of the Properties of his Government, out of the forecited Predictions; and that they are all the Effects of Charity. 4. To which the Kingdom of Antichrist is opposite. 5. The Oppression of the poor and needy by this Antichristian Polity. 6. The defrauding men of their Estates, upon a false pretence of Heresy. 7. The imposition of barbarous Penances. 8. Their unparallelled Pride. 9 Their raising of vile Calumnies against the professors of the Truth, as the Pagans did against the Primitive Christians. 10. Several Instances of these Antichristian Calumnies. 1. THE last Branch of the Divine Life is Charity; which is the Summity, the Top-branch, the Flower, nay the very Quintessence of Christianity, and the Life and Soul of that amiable and comfortable Polity and Kingdom of Christ which was predicted in the Holy Scriptures, and should most immediately be seated in Ecclesiastic persons; the Gravity, Meekness and Exemplarity of whose Conversations, and the influence of their powerful Doctrine and comfortable and equitable Discipline, reaching to a more exquisite emendation of men's manners then the Civil Laws do ordinarily aim at, (that is to say, to the making men more sober and more pure in their converse, more fair and tolerable in their exactions, more liberal and compassionate toward the poor, more faithful and sincere, more favourable and candid one to another then Political Laws can effect) should erect that Kingdom of Christ upon Earth which would really prove the great Joy and Happiness of all the Nations of the World, according to their desire and expectation. For there is indeed nothing more desirable than Christ's Kingdom, which we pray every day that it may come, according to those descriptions thereof in the Prophets and Psalms. 2. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the Psal. 7●…. needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. He shall come down like the rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth. And a little after in the same Psalm, He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy: He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. And in * Chap. 4●…. Esay it is said of him, A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he hath brought judgement into victory. And again in the * Psal. 45. Psalms, In thy majesty ride on prosperously because of truth, meekness and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things, namely, to break in pieces the Oppressor, and to put the Fraudulent to open shame. Also in * Chap. 9 Zacharie, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: ●…e is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an Ass, and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass. And again in * Chap. 40. Esay, He shall feed his Flock like a Shepherd, he shall gather the Lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. And in another place more copiously describing the Kingdom of Christ, * Chap. 11. With righteousness, saith he, shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid, and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together, and a little Child shall lead them; and the Cow and the Bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the Lion shall eat straw like an Ox. And a sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp, and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. To all which you may add, That Christ with his Church in the Revelation is all along represented under the Hieroglyphic of a Lamb, that harmless and peaceable creature; and in Daniel under the Type of a Man, whenas the rest of the Kingdoms are typified by wild Beasts. Which intimates that the Kingdom of Christ is not a Kingdom of Belluine Ferocity, but of Reason, Humanity, and tender Lovingkindness. 3. According therefore to this Description of the Kingdom of Christ, it is plainly a Kingdom of Peace and Love, the Empire of that Divine virtue of Charity, and discovers itself in the defending, righting and easing of the poor; in the lowliness and meekness of the Governors; and in the truth and faithfulness of them, in managing their affairs without any guile or deceit; in the unity and friendly conversableness of people; in the cessation of war and hostility; and in the protection of the ●…aints of God from persecution and slaughter. All these Happinesses are included in the Reign of Christ according to the abovecited predictions; and are all of them the Effects of Charity, as S. Paul has described that Grace from the excellent fruits thereof. For Charity is kind, full of acts of Humanity; seeketh not her own, much less what belongs to others, either out of envy or covetousness. 1 Cor. 13. Charity is not puffed up with pride and high-mindedness: has no pleasure in unrighteousness or deceitfulness, but rejoiceth in truth and faithfulness. Charity does not easily think evil of men, or unseemly behave herself out of the bad opinion she conceives of them in matters of Morality or Religion. Charity is so far from exciting others to war, that she is hardly provoked to anger, but is patiented and long-suffering; so far from persecuting and murdering the good, that she will not be over-severe to those that are no better than they should be. For Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; so far is she from persecuting, imprisoning, from racking and killing of innocent and good men (that are endued with the true fear of God) upon worldly Jealousies and Suspicions, that is to say, for fear the spreading of the Truth of the Gospel should bear down their usurped Empire of Idolatrous Tyranny and Superstition. 4. Having therefore so clear a view of the nature and properties of Charity, and of the condition of the Reign of Christ in his Church, whose Dominion is founded in the Law of Love; it will not be hard to draw the picture of an Antichristian Polity so far forth as it is opposite to this last Branch of the Divine Life, which is that transcendent Grace of Charity. Let us suppose therefore a company of men that pretend to succeed Christ and his Apostles (who if they be his legitimate Successors, they should succeed him also in the Graces of his Spirit) to be quite contrary, in the administration of the affairs of the Church, to that Description of the Kingdom of Christ out of the Prophets and Psalms; would not this of a truth prove a most palpable and remarkable Limb of Antichristianism? 5. As suppose first, for example, Whereas our Saviour Christ is described as one that does redeem the souls of the poor and needy from oppression and wrong; if the Frame of this Polity that his pretended Successors set up in the World were a yoke upon the most simple-meaning people greater than that of Judaisme, and a servitude and bondage more intolerable than that of Egypt, as I have above described it, as both burdening and afflicting their Consciences, and also wearying their Bodies, and Book I. ch. 19, 20, 21, 22. emptying their Purses by mulcts for such offences as are neither against the Law of God nor any duty we any way own to our Neighbour, but only against such Superstitious Institutes as were made by the Ignorance of some and the cunning Craft of others, who multiply unnecessary Laws, that they may enjoy the sweet of the Penalties, and suck away the blood and sustenance of the poor labouring-man, as often as they catch him in these nets: were not this point-blank contrary to that part of the Description of Christ's Kingdom that consists in the protecting and easing of the poor and oppressed? 6. It were a very unchristian thing, and a shrewd sign that those were not the true and genuine Successors of Christ, that did not prevail so much upon the Civil Government, that vassalage and slavery and squalid and deplorable poverty should be chased away, for the glory of the Gospel, and the honour of the Kingdom of Christ, which is supposed to be wherever the Gospel is received: But for these pretended hypocritical Successors to be Instruments and Assistants to the enslaving of the World, for the partaking of the spoil, or rather to erect a Spiritual Polity to enslave all, and bring the most insupportable Servitude of Body, Soul and Estate, such as Paganism could scarce ever show the like, certainly this must be very highly Antichristian. For indeed what can be more salvagely oppressive in reference to the very Estates of men, then to frame such a Religion, upon the pretence▪ of their Infallibility, as is perfectly repugnant to the plain Word of God and immutable Rules of Reason; depraving of things so for their own worldly advantage, as I have already abundantly set out, to bring in a more ample Revenue to feed the Pride and Luxury of this false Church? And then when they have thus grossly perverted the Truth of God, to declare that they who will not say Amen to their lies and forgeries, have no more right to their own Estates then a Thief or Robber to what he has got by unlawful spoil: and therefore accordingly not only to hinder them from any employments of either profit or credit, but disable them from making of Wills, and their Heirs from inheriting their Estates, and awing them from laying claim to their Patrimonies, lest their Father's Heresy be entailed upon them whether they will or no. 7. To which Antichristian Barbarities you may add also the scornful and cruel Penances they put upon them that do submit themselves to their Church; making them go in procession in contemptible disguises, or else enjoining them to march in their shirts, bare foot and bare leg, and to whip their own bodies in the sight of the people as they go along. How unlike, nay how utterly contrary, is this to that Meekness and Sweetness that is described in the Discipline and Government of the Kingdom of Christ? But we need not insist upon these things, we having treated sufficiently of them already. 8. Now upon the second particular, viz. that Humility and Lowliness which is also one fruit of Charity, and by which the Person and Rule of our Saviour is described in the ancient Prophecies: We have shown the Antichristian Detestableness of the opposite to this Virtue already in the first Branch of the Divine Life, and need add nothing more thereto. 9 The third character of Charity is, her delighting in true and faithful dealing amongst men. The opposites to which are easily discoverable. To say nothing therefore of the manifold Frauds which we have already taken notice of all along in this our Description of Antichristianism, this certainly must be very Antichristian and uncharitable, namely, To misrepresent men's Actions and Opinions in public Speeches or Writings, nay to invent notorious lies and fictions to the disparagement of men's Persons and Doctrines, and suborn men to write them, and divulge them to the world for truths. Which is to do so as was the custom of those who were under the Dragon, that old Serpent and false accuser of the ancient primitive Christians, whom they aspersed and calumniated as worshippers of the Sun, because they put up their prayers with their faces towards the East; as Man-sacrificers, and as Eaters and Drinkers of humane flesh and blood, because of their calling the Eucharistick Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of Christ, they understanding it only in a mystical or symbolical sense. For professing with S. Paul, There is neither Male nor Female in Christ, but that both have equal admission into his eternal Kingdom, That they had no regard of Sexes, but were vile Sodomites and abusers of themselves with Mankind. For meeting together to serve God in private in Grotts and Caves of the Earth for fear of persecution, That they were Conspirators against the Roman State and Empire. And lastly, for their reverently receiving the Elements of Bread and Wine at their holy Communions, That they were Worshippers of Ceres and Bacchus. 10. In like manner we may imagine that this Pseudo-christian Church may raise such perverse Calumnies against the true members of Christ: as namely traducing them for Atheists, or at least Arrians, because they will not acknowledge the Divinity of a consecrated piece of Bread; reporting them as Manichees, because they do not hold the power of the Church to be superior to that of Emperors and Kings, (to make thereby but one Sovereignty in the Church) but affirm the Secular Power independent thereon; as if the holding these two distinct Powers were, forsooth, the holding the two Principles of the Manichees; defaming them for Beesoneriders or Witches, because they have by reason of hard persecution been driven to inhabit desert and mountainous places; or upon their meeting more privately in houses by night, to impute to them some such horrid and villainous practices as were reported of the primitive Christians, that the Candle being put out they committed Incest and all manner of Uncleanness in the dark, nay that they killed their own children in these concealed Assemblies of theirs. To accuse them of reviling the Saints, merely upon their professing it unlawful to invoke them; or of blaspheming the Blessed Virgin, because they hold it unfit to worship her. To tax them of disobedience to the Magistrate, only because of their persisting in the sincere profession of that Faith that is consonant to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles. And, lastly, to father upon them what abominable actions they please, and, speaking without a Metaphor, to gag the mouths of the thus accused and slandered, that they may not answer for themselves to clear themselves in the audience of the people: Nay to rack men till their very bowels break out of their belly, to force them to acknowledge themselves or their party guilty of such villainous crimes as it is incredible their very persecutors should in good earnest suspect them of, merely to get a pretence from such an extorted Confession to verify their wicked Slanders to the world, and to make the harmless and innocent professors of the Truth of the Gospel to be odious and hateful in the eyes of all men. Certainly, if this be not diametrically opposite to that part of Charity that discovers itself in true and faithful dealing, nothing can be excogitated that is so. CHAP. XIV. 1. The nick-naming of the true Christians by the odious Title of Heretics, with their barbarous injuries thereupon. 2. That Heresy and Schism are sins against the truly-Catholick and Apostolic Church. 3. What is meant by One Catholic and Apostolic Church. 4. What is that heinous sin of Heresy. 5. What Schism. 6. That while men are sincere members of the Apostolic Body, they can be neither Heretics nor Schismatics. 7. The Hypocritical and Schismatical Niceness of this Antichristian Church in forbearing to join in any Religious Duty with any member of the truly-Apostolick Body. 8. Their fraudulent purpose in fostering this Schismatical Niceness and Unsociableness. 1. BUt we will also take notice of that which will be so usually cast upon the Dissenters from this false Church, that it will be scarce accounted any reproach done to them, but rather civility or justice; and that is, the so freely nick-naming them by the style of Heretics and Schismatics. Which yet in their own judgement I suppose not to bear so little weight with it, whenas their real estimate is discoverable by their proceed, they deeming an Heretic so odious or contemptible, that he is not worthy of the common privileges of mankind, and of that protection that the Laws of humane Society do afford men; that he shall not have the security of a Promise though confirmed by Oath; Faith not being to be kept with Heretics. Not to mention here that they have made the penalties of Heresy capital. Which how justly, though a man were an Heretic in the matters of Belief, provided it were not out of Pride and conceitedness, but out of invincible Ignorance, I will not here discuss. 2. It will be of greater use to consider what is real Heresy or Schism; that the sincere and knowing Christian may not be reproached, nor the less skilful affrighted with these Bug-bears. Those that make so great a cry against the heinousness of these sins, their Zeal and Rhetoric would be more usefully placed, if they would be so faithful as to give us a right Notion of them; otherwise while they pretend to be so industriously desirous of Peace and Unity in the Church, they may but give greater occasion of Dissensions and Animosities. For to make more things Heresies and Schisms than are, is to create more quarrels than there need be. I will acknowledge as soon as any, that Heresy and Schism are very grievous crimes, even of the deepest dye; but than it must be truly Heresy or Schism, not whatever the peevishness, or interest, or prejudice of a domineering party will be pleased to call so, under the pretence that they are that One Catholic Church, from whose Doctrine (be it never so false or corrupt) for one to dissent must be Heresy, and to separate from their communion (be their practices never so Idolatrous) Schism. No certainly, those high sins of Heresy and Schism are not against this or that particular Synagogue, be they never so numerous, but against that ancient and truly Catholic and Apostolic Church; and he that sins against her Unity, sins against his Creed, which has taught us to say, I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church. Which words because they may be abused to the making of the Church look less Catholic and One than it is, I shall offer an easy resolution of the sense of them. 3. I conceive therefore that the Object of our Belief in this Clause of the Creed are these three Propositions. First, That the Church of God wherein eternal Salvation is to be had is but One; that is to say, That a man cannot be saved in any Religion, as some wantonly conceit, but that there is one only way of Salvation which is revealed to God's true Church, under which all must come before they can be saved. Secondly, That this Church of God is now a Catholic Church, not Topical or National, as in the Commonwealth of the Jews, but a Church that is by right to spread over the face of the whole Earth, and is designed so to do by Providence, as is expressed in several passages of the Prophets. From the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great amongst the Gentiles, etc. as * Chap. 1. Malachi has foretell. And David in the second Psalm, Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thirdly and lastly, That this One Catholic Church is neither to be stretched so wide as to be acknowledged there where the Apostolical Doctrine, the Faith and Practice delivered and commanded by Christ or his Apostles is oppugned and contradicted, and quite contrary. Doctrines and Practices brought in; nor to be made so narrow, as that such companies of men should not be allowed to be part of this Catholic Church, amongst whom notwithstanding the Apostolical Doctrines do obtain, and Primitive Practices of the Church set on foot by the Apostles or Christ himself are in use: That is to say, The adequate Character of this One Catholic Church is, that it rejects nothing of the Apostolical Doctrines and imitable Usages which were commanded by Christ or by his Apostles to the Church, nor teaches or institutes any thing that is point-blank opposite thereto, or to the Word of God to which Christ and his Apostles give testimony. That therefore is the true Catholic Church in the whole, and in every particular company of it, which has for its visible Laws and Usages, whereby itself becomes also visible, the Laws and Usages of Christ and his Apostles, and nothing contradictorious thereunto. This, I hope, will be acknowledged by all men the most easy and genuine sense of this Article of the Christian Creed that the words are capable of. 4. And hence I think a man may easily discover what that Heresy is that is justly to be deemed so heinous a sin, namely, That it is A Dissent from the Catholic Church even in those things that are in it Apostolical. For by them alone, they being entire and uncontradicted in her, does she discover herself to be that One and only Catholic Church of Christ And this would be an heinous sin indeed against that Authority she has to instruct and imbue the world with this saving truth; I say, to descent from any part of this Apostolic Doctrine out of a spirit of contradiction and self-conceitedness, would be Heresy in the most loathsome circumstances that can be imagined. And the next degree to this would be the dissenting from the Catholic Church in such things as they generally agree in, though they be not expressly any part of the Apostolic Doctrine, but in the mean time not plainly dissonant to the Word of God nor to the immutable Notions of humane Understanding. And the third and last degree is, to descent from the determinations of a man's own particular National Church in the like circumstances with the former. These seem to have something an over-near affinity with what we have defined most properly & primarily to be Heresy. But considering that even Ecumenical Councils themselves may err, and that Scripture in things necessary to Salvation is sufficiently plain, and the Affairs and the Genius of particular Nations exceeding different and changeable, and General Councils very hardly and slowly to be congregated; I must not be overhasty to call a Dissent here, no not from an Ecumenical Doctrine or Usage, by so harsh a denomination as Heretical, there being no entrenchment made thereby upon the Apostolical Laws and Doctrines. But to descent from, or not to subscribe to the determinations of what Church soever that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines Apostolical, were not only not Heretical, but Heroical; especially if the Dissent is likely to beattended with any personal inconveniences to the Dissenter. 5. And now for Schism, there is much-what the same judgement to be made hereon. For it is plain that Schism truly so called is A Separation from the Catholic Church, or from any National Church which is part thereof, even then when she approves herself to be Catholic, that is to say, even then when she is Apostolic, or though she be Apostolic, and offer no Opinions and Usages but such as are conformable to the Usages and Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles. To separate from the Church in such circumstances as these, I confess were a great and damnable sin. But for one to separate from the Church in other things upon an invincible suspicion that the consenting to or doing this or that were sinful and displeasing to God, (though those Opinions might be true, and Practices harmless in themselves) this I conceive though it make a man materially a Schismatic, yet he is not formally so, and he is rather to be pitied then reproached. But if he separate from that part of the Church (if it can be still a part of the Church that does so) which imposes Opinions and Practices plainly repugnant to the Precepts of Christ and his Apostles; Separation in this case need not be pitied, nor aught to be reproached, but highly commended and applauded. And that voice will warrant them that calls for such sober Separatists, Come out of her, my people, lest you partake of her Rev. 18. sins and of her plagues. For the coming out here would be really the going in to the true Church, and the standing still, the abiding disjoined therefrom; as one speaks very smartly and truly, Is Ecclesiae non jungitur qui ab Evangelio separatur. 6. Wherefore from this true and determinate apprehension of things it is manifest how outrageously and Antichristianly uncharitable this false Church would be against the true Members of Christ, in calling them Heretics and Schismatics, and Renders and Tearers in pieces of the Unity of the Church; whenas in truth they are so far from being Heretics, that they are the faithful Witnesses of Jesus, and the only sincere Members of the Apostolic Body, and keep to that one foundation of which Christ is the chief cornerstone, and are so far from being Schismatics in their separation from such a Church as I have described, where gross Idolatry and Superstition has overflown all, that by separating they have redeemed themselves out of this Babylonish or Egyptian Captivity, and returned to that City that is at unity or one with itself, and must never vary, I mean, that one and only true Catholic Church, as being truly Apostolic. For if it be true, That he is not joined to the Church that is separate from the Gospel; I think it will be true also, that he that is sincerely joined to the Gospel cannot be separate from the Church. And therefore this noise of tearing and rending the Church, is but a clamorous Accusation of men that feel their own usurped Power and Interest to shake, as if it would break in sunder at this resurrection of the true Apostolic Church, and Christ's recovering the Power into his own hands for the raising that promised and long-expected Kingdom of Righteousness upon Earth. 7. And yet, in the fourth place, though this false Church be thus perfectly Antichristian, as I have described, grossly Idolatrous, and wretchedly Superstitious, and thus shrilly clamorous and querimonious against the rending of the Unity of the Catholic Church, as she will phrase it, notwithstanding all this, we will suppose her so Hypocritically nice and scrupulous, that she will not contaminate herself with joining in Divine Service with those of the true and Apostolic Church, though there be nothing in their Service but what is Apostolical; no not so much as join in the Lord's Prayer, or giving of thanks at meat, nor say Amen to the shortest Ejaculation or Doxology that occasion should put into the mouth of those that appertain to the Apostolic Body, nor say Grace themselves, for fear these apostolics should join with them, or add their Amen. And yet, forsooth, this Synagogue of Deceivers is so zealous and industrious for the keeping up of the Unity of the Catholic Church as passes, when in the mean time they are so full of rancour and railing against these Heretics, as they call them, that they will style them (and indeed any Church besides their own) the Church of the Devil; and pronounce that God is not God, if he do not damn them; and will forbid their Nurselings to so much as wish a Requiem for their Souls when they are departed this life. 8. But this is but an Histrionical swaggering in comparison. Their Devilish Fraud in the pursuance of this Unsociableness in any Divine duty, betwixt them whom they please to term Heretics and those of their own Church, is conspicuous; viz. for fear commerce in religious matters should give them the knowledge of the Truth, who are held to this false Church by nothing but by believing of Lies: I mean not only such as were long ago framed for the advantage of their Church, but such misinterpretations and falsehoods as they possess their Nurselings with against those whom they call Heretics; whose Doctrines they falsify, and traduce their carriage as they please, and by this interdicting converse with them, keep them in that vile opinion of them which they have infused by their base Calumnies. Besides that, by this scrupulosity in communicating with them in any Religious duty, they ostentate the great Sanctity of their own Pharisaical Church, as I intimated before, and engender an hatred and detestation of all that are opposite: which plots and practices in those who talk so much for Peace and Unity in the Church is a double iniquity, and the highest breach of Charity that comes not yet to blows. But she was certainly the Whore that called so remorslesly for the dividing of the Child, not the genuine Mother. And that must be an Adulterate Church most assuredly, that would have Christians differ wherein they profess themselves all agreed, and clove in sunder wherein they would naturally join together, and that is in the Apostolical Doctrines and Practices. CHAP. XV. 1. What Incendiaries to War and Plotters of abhorred Murders these falsely-pretended Successors of Christ are. 2. Their Butcherly Cruelty to the Sheep of Christ's Fold. 3. Instances of prodigious Barbarities upon them for their very faithfulness to their Saviour and Redeemer. 4. The numerousness of them that thus suffer, with some particular kinds of Cruelty. 5. More Instances of this Diabolical Barbarity. 6. All the Elements made Instruments of the wrath and fury of this Antichristian Power. 7. Most beastly and unnatural Examples of this Antichristian Salvageness. 1. BUT there are yet behind more palpable discoveries of this Antichristian contrariety to that Divine Virtue of Charity, the Royal Law, as I have already said, of the Kingdom of Christ, which is described from the Peace and Security of them that live under it, That there shall none destroy in God's holy Mountain. In the fifth place therefore, How plainly Antichristian would it be in them who pretend to be in a special manner the Successors of Christ, if they should prove Incendiaries to War, and busy Engineers of Destruction in Christendom, witty in Cruelty and Revenge, barbarous in Execution; merciless to the poor, hating them even for their Poverty sake; poisoners of Princes, even by that Bread wherewith they would pretend to feed their Souls to everlasting life; and the High-priests themselves, the Heads of this Antichristian Polity, either the Contrivers or Applauders of such villainous Poison and Murders? 2. But sixthly and lastly, The cruel and bloody Persecution of the true and living Members of the Kingdom of Christ, for their faithful adhering to the plain and undoubted Commands of their Heavenly Sovereign, who is styled King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this certainly must be the most signal and capital Antichristianism that any Polity can be corrupted with, and the most grossly and visibly opposite both to the nature of Charity, which beareth all things and endureth all things, which will not be over-severe to the wicked, much less cruel to the good; and also to the Description of Christ's Government, who is said to redeem the Souls of the needy from deceit and violence, and that their blood is Psalm 72. precious in his sight. He shall feed his Flock like a shepherd, he shall gather Esay 40. his Lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. This is the genuine spirit of the true Christian Pastors, whether of high or low degree, to be thus tenderly affected towards their Sheep. But such as thwack them and beat them, and violently drive them, in stead of leading them by an Evangelical call and going before them in a way of Christian Example, these are not Shepherds, but Butchers, and will easily drive them to the Shambles, and see their throats cut without remorse. 3. Persecution therefore of the Saints of God, even for those things they approve themselves to be Saints in, as in refusing to worship Images, or to commit any other act of Idolatry, in plainly and simply professing the truth of the Gospel, and living according thereto, conscientiously abstaining from all such things as it has declared unlawful; This is as manifest a Limb of Antichristianism as any can be exhibited to our view; and were indeed notoriously Antichristian, though it proceeded no further than to a partial loss of goods, Imprisonment, and Death without any further odious and aggravating circumstances. But to be stripped stark naked of all a man has to perfect beggary; not to be committed to a common Prison, but to be thrust into some lonesome and loathsome cell or Dungeon, upon moist straw or flags, stinking with dung and ordure, or else without this Tapestry, the floor of itself being soft and miry enough, that they may seem to need to pillow, and it may be so straight that they scarce have room enough to lie at their length. And then for their manner of Death, when they are called unto it, how unjust and barbarous were it, to have their Integrity and Sincerity to their Saviour to be reckoned a crime more capital than Theft and Murder, and therefore be punished with a severe●… death? hanging or heading not serving the turn, but they must undergo that death which is most torturous and dreadful. Fire and Faggot must be the reward of their constant and faithful obedience to their dear Redeemer, and it may be with some extraordinary circumstances: they not dispatching them with that favour that they do Murderers of Fathers or Murderers of Husbands, or Conjurers and contractors with the Devil; but lengthening their torments by the malicious artifice of pulleys, dipping them in, and then pulling them up again out of the flames, as if they were ducking them in the Water rather than torturing them in the Fire. Not sparing the Women big with child, no nor the Child that has been baptised with fire as soon as born into the world, but being mercifully transmitted out of the burst womb through the flames, (as untouched almost as the three Children in the fiery furnace) has been cast again into that consuming Element by the cruel hands of the abhorred Hangman; setting less by the poor innocent Infant of an Heretic, then by the litter of a Bitch or young Kitlings, to whom none will be so barbarous as to burn them in the Fire, but commit them rather to the mercies of that more soft and gentle Element of Water. 4. What shall we say to the multitudes of those that are thus martyred, I mean not only in succession, but at a clap, by thirty, fourscores, and hundreds at a time, either at one common fire-pyle, or else in barns and dwelling-houses; severe Officers with their iron weapons forcing them back as often as the heat and smoke would drive them out to seek cooler air? What to the racking and excarnificating their bodies, before this last punishment? to the cutting out their Tongues when they are brought to the stake, that they may be in an utter incapacity of apologizing for themselves, of praising God, or edisying the people? 5. It were a long business to set before your eyes all the ways that this Antichristian Beast, this Pseudo-christian Polity and falsely-pretended Hierarchy of Christ, might use in wreaking their spleen upon the faithful witnesses of Jesus, the living members of his true Church; what outrages they and their Officers, or Instruments and Adherents, inflamed by the poison of their zeal, may commit upon the harmless Flock of Christ; sparing none of either Sex, no not in the most compassionable circumstances; bringing Women, and that of great quality, within three or four days after their delivery out of Childbed, into an abhorred prison, using them with like cruel hardship they do others; forcing them out of the Straw, as it is called, to tumble on a bed of flags in a raw and noisome Gaol-cabbin; and within a while after stretching them so on the rack, and piercing them so to the bone with the strings they tie their legs and arms, and so shattering all their body, that they leave them more than half dead upon the torture. Hanging up others even while the Child is coming out of the Womb: ripping up the Bellies of others, having first nailed down their hands and feet upon some board; and having cut their Children in pieces, stopping their bleeding flesh into the mouths of their Mothers: opening the Wombs of others, and putting their Children of a year or two old into them, and so stifling them in their Mother's blood: hanging Men up by their privities at their own doors, and Ministers of the Town after the same manner in their Church-porches: scraping the hands, lips and crown of such Priests as are converted to the true profession of the Gospel, with sharp knives or broken pieces of glass: dragging men by their legs, whom they have half killed upon the rack, like a dead dog, or such like piece of Carrion, they being unable to go themselves, and thought by the Officers unworthy to be carried. 6. It were an endless task to reckon up all the hardships that frail Mortality is obnoxious to. All the Elements may be made Instruments of the wrath of this Antichristian Power I describe. Besides being burnt therefore, and pitched all over to make the nidour and smoke of the Sacrifice more acceptable to their enraged Cruelty, multitudes may be drowned in Rivers, men and women, even in their parturiency, being forcibly driven into the stream. Others may be benumbed or stifled to death in frosty or smoky air, branches of Trees being set on fire at the mouth of the Caverns where they had taken shelter: And lastly, others be buried alive in the Earth, sending out deep groans from under the ground. To be stripped stark naked, and to be beat with rods of Iron, is also extreme hard measure; as also to have their arms and legs so pierced with the twisting of cords, as to make deep furrows in the flesh for worms to breed in it, and consume it. 7. What shall we say to the flinging of the young Children of Heretics to be eaten by Hogs, and to the boiling of others alive in Caldrons? to the forcing of Children to be the executioners of their Parents, and the Parents sometimes of their own Children, Mothers being constrained to cast their own Infants into the waters? to the pulling out men's eyes, and cutting off their hands, and so sending them out to grope their way in the wide world? to the flaying some, roasting others alive, and half killing others on purpose that they may linger long in torturous pains? What to the ripping the bellies of othersome, to take hold of one end of the small guts, to fasten it to a tree, and then force the poor man to go round, to wind his guts about the tree, to try the length of them? What to the abusing of the bodies of the dead? to the making Candles of their grease, and the selling their fat to the Apothecaries? What to the laying of the bodies of men and women the one upon another in an immodest posture, and to the sending out their boys with whips to lash off men's privities as they lie dead in the field? And, lastly, what to the barbarous insulting over the heads of murdered Ministers openly at the Market-Cross, disfiguring their faces, slitting up their mouths, and cutting their noses, and out of a mad and frantic kind of zeal boxing them about the ears, though to the benumbing of their own hands, upon the dead flesh? So wild and savage are they whom this Spirit of Antichristianism does inspire. CHAP. XVI. 1. A new Scene of Diabolical outrages done to the innocent Flock of Christ. 2. That they are all to be imputed to this Antichristian Synagogue, though not particularly appointed by them. 3. A description of an Infernal Tribunal coloured over with the specious Title of The Holy Inquisition. 4. The Demeanour of these Infernal Judges to the accused. 5. The savage usage of the sentenced party by the grim Executioner. 6. A new addition to the former Torture. 7. The Torment of the hollow Trough, 8. And pan of Charcoal. 9 That this exemplary Cruelty in these Spiritual Judges influencing all the Instruments and Adherents to their Church makes her guilty of all the Military outrages also. 1. BUT I am weary of figuring out such sad and Tragical scenes of things; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the modes of villainy are infinite. There seems nothing more detestable than that cruelty of Cannibals that eat man's flesh. But how far short would it fall thereof, if we should suppose that the Instruments and Adherents to this Antichristian power did riot it with the Brains of men, and set upon the table the Dugs of women fried like Tripes; whom they first ravish, and then cut off their breasts with some parcel of those parts which modesty will hardly name? What should we think of stabbing a man on the soles of his feet and at his ears, cutting off his genital parts, frying the wound with the flame of a Candle, for his greater torment, and for stopping the blood? What of the tearing his nails off with hot pincers, to make him renounce his Religion, and to reconcile him to this Pseudochristian Synagogue? What of spitting naked women through their pudenda, and so carrying them for some space on their shoulders on long poles? What of stripping off the skin of a man's arm and legs in long slices like leathern points, leaving him to starve in this sad condition in prison? What of dragging by the feet at the tail of a Mule through the Streets, the body beating against the Stones, and the people flinging Brickbats at him as he passes by their doors? What of cramming Gunpowder into the mouths and throats of men, and then setting it on fire to tear their heads in fitters? And what lastly of this beastly and barbarous Cruelty, to pull the eyes of a man out, and to cut off his yard, and thrust it into his mouth, and to expose him thus mangled unto the view of the people two or three days together, and in conclusion to flay him alive, and hang the quarters of his skin at the chief windows in the Town? Can there be any thing more damnably Antichristian than such outrages as these against the Innocent Lambs of Christ, whom this false and Imperious Church disguizes with the odious name of Heretics? concerning whom they instruct their bloody Instruments, that they are not worthy to live, nor to die an easy death, nor to have Christian burial; but that their naked bodies are to be exposed to the rage and hunger of greedy swine and dogs. 2. And truly, though these Cruelties, all of them which are here described, are not supposed to be appointed particularly by the Ghostly Fathers of this grand Hypocritical Synagogue: yet their Instruments, Agents and Adherents being informed by them that all that are not of this Church are Heretics, and that all Heretics are worse than Dogs, and to be used worse if we have a mind to it, nay that it is meritorious to abuse them thus, and that their tormenting them in this manner, and killing of them with this barbarity, will free themselves from the fire and torments of Purgatory; it is plain that all this Antichristian salvageness and cruelty is to be laid at the door of these Ghostly Fathers themselves. Which will be still more manifestly their due, if they be supposed to have influence upon the other, not only by their Antichristian Doctrine, but by the Authenticness of their Example. 3. As if, for example, we should frame some such supposition as this, That there were a Court of Judicature set up, for the enquiring after and examining all suspected of Heresy, for the punishing them accordingly when they are discovered; and that some Holy persons of this Church should be Judges in this Sacred Consistory, this Holy Inquisition; but their proceed for point of Cruelty and Injustice not inferior to any thing we have yet named: would not this be a sign or watchword, as it were, to all the Adherents to this Devilish Religion to use the enemies of it as cruelly as opportunity will permit, or the natural bitterness of their own spirits suggest? Let us imagine therefore a Tribunal, though not so just, yet more severe (or rather more cruel) then that of those Judges of Hell, Minos and Rhadamanthus, and, that it may be more like theirs, to be in some subterraneous room, (that the cries and groans of the tormented may not pierce the ears of the people) where all things are transacted in that more impure light and stench of Links and Torches, held by Assistants and Officers as grim of aspect as the infernal Furies; and that the proceed of this Court are infinitely more unrighteous than those of Hell, these Holy Judges having unlimited power, any vile person being admitted for a witness against the suspected, and they making no matter whether the accusation be by word of mouth or by tickets cast in before this Sacred Consistory; for without any personal appearance or confronting one another the process is to be framed, without party, without witness, and without other Law then the pleasure of these Spiritual Judges or Infernal Spirits. 4. Now when the suspected or accused have descended into these shades of Death, we will suppose these subterraneous Judges to begin with some terrifying Premonitions and Comminations, mingling some Hypocritical Exhortations and Protestations, as if they would wash their hands clean, as Pilate of old, of the innocent blood they are about to spill. But if the party will not accuse himself by the terror of these threats, that they may notwithstanding take away his life in such a torturous way as they think fit for Heretics, (yea though he should freely confess that which they will call Heresy, yet if he will not betray all of the same opinion that he either knows or suspects) he is presently sentenced to undergo such Agonies and Trials as these men of Cruelty shall please to adjudge him to. 5. Wherefore there is ready at hand the grim Executioner in a black disguise so horrid as makes him look more like a Devil then a man; who seizing upon the sentenced parties, be they men or women, married or virgins, of mean rank or of noble quality, first strips them naked, to satisfy the lustful eyes of these Holy Lechers: which to the modest Maids and grave Matrons must be a torment worse than Death itself. After this he binds their hands eight or ten times about with Cords; these cruel and lustful Villains on the Bench commanding him to bind one round harder than another, and then with a smaller line their thumbs, and then to fasten the parties hands and thumbs to a pulley that hangs on a gibbet. After this to hang weights of Iron or Lead at their feet, at first, suppose, about five pound, and to twitch them up by the rope till their Head touches the pulley. In which pitiful posture they are called to and bawled at by these savage Judges to confess what they would have them. And thus they hang in this exquisite torture a good space of time. And if the party will confess nothing, nor betray his friends, the true professors of the Gospel and faithful Servants of Jesus, they let him down indeed, but to hoist him up again with a double weight of Iron at his feet; the savage Judges commanding the hangman to let the rope go up and down with many short checks or stops, that the weight of the Iron may rend every joint of his body one from another. Which intolerable pain if it cause the party to shriek and cry out, (as it must needs) these grim Benchers shall drown the noise with roaring and railing at him, and calling him Dog and Heretic for so obstinately (that is, so faithfully) refusing to betray himself and his friends. Which if he persist in, they will let him down again, and add still more weight to his heels, and an higher torment to his whole body; putting this poor member of Christ to these unsupportable tortures for at least two or three hours together; and, it may be, as they shall think fit, some three days after, when his joints are most sore, bring him to suffer the same extremities of torment again, nay repeat it at great distances, if life will endure it, five or six times over. 6. And this I think were a Cruelty little inferior to any we have hitherto intimated in all our barbarous Suppositions. But let us add another Scene somewhat different; The stripping them as before, but then the binding of their hands behind them, and hanging them at the pulley, together with the girding of their thighs so hard, as also their legs, with strong cords, and forcing the strings, by plugs of wood thrust betwixt, so deep into the flesh, that they reach near the very bone: In which intolerable Torment they will keep them two or three hours together. 7. Or else, which is more cruel, if it be possible, to gird both thighs, legs and arms with strong small cords, as before, so hard that they sink out of sight into the flesh to the bone; but withal to lay the party along with his face upwards on a great hollow Trough having a cross bar in the midst, with his back resting on that bar, to his unspeakable diseasement; spreading over his mouth and nostrils a fine Lawn, upon which they pouring out water in a small, but high-falling, stream, drive the Lawn into his mouth and down the furthest part of his throat: which can put him in no less agony than they are that are fetching their last gasp. And what violence is done to him by that softer Engine, I mean the fine Linen when it is twitched out of his mouth, the blood and water that comes with it doth copiously witness; one would think it brought up the very entrails with it out of the body. 8. And lastly, to make an end, That that Element that is most merciless may not seem to be forgotten by these wicked Engineers of Cruelty, it were easy to imagine, that they may make use of great Chark-coal-pans of Iron full of hot coals, forcing the Captives feet as near as they please, and basting them with Lard, to make the pain of scalding more exquisite. Which torture can be little less than the roasting men alive at the fire. 9 Certainly if the Religious Orders of a Church in a form of Justice, and upon pretence of Piety and Zeal against Heretics, can commit these astonishing outrages and acts of Barbarism against the faithful Followers of Christ; how can their example fail of being a School of universal Cruelty for their Adherents against all such whom they shall look upon as Heretics? and they are taught all are so that are not of their Church. And therefore the guilt of all these Tragical cruelties which are done upon the true Members of Christ, though not immediately by the ecclesiastics themselves, but by military men, whose Instructers and Examples they are, is most righteously laid upon this bloody Prophet-murthering Synagogue herself, this cruel and imperious Harlot drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus; as well she may, upon such Principles as I have supposed her to be of, and rage even to immense Massacres, which may exhaust thousands, yea an hundred thousand at a draught. CHAP. XVII. 1. That this Opposition against the Divine Grace of Charity is a most substantial Limb of Antichristianism, and the Character of them without the Holy City. 2. That that repeated Catalogue of abhorred Titles in the Apocalypse is plainly a Synopsis of the main Characters of the Antichristian Polity we describe. 3. The confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom. 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel, as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles. 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches. 7. A Parable to set out the savage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue. 8. The Apodosis of the Parable. 9 That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be; with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary. 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets, the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church. 1. THat this last Limb therefore of our Description, comprised in such things as are notoriously opposite to that Heavenly Virtue of Charity, is a very substantial Limb of Antichristianism, I think it is impossible for any one to doubt: And therefore it is no wonder that the chief Character thereof which is writ in letters of blood, I mean that of Bloody persecution, which I last of all insisted upon, is entered into that black list of Names which are excluded out of the Holy City of God; Without are Dogs, and Sorcerers, and Fornicatours, and Murderers, and Rev. 22. Idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie. Which I doubt not but is a Synopsis of the chief Oppositions to the Holy City, or Body of Christ; and therefore what can this other Body be but the very Body of Antichrist? 2. And I look upon that brief comprehension of those detestable Titles as the more considerable and more exactly computed, because the same sum, though not the same words, seems to be reckoned up in * Revel. ●…1. 〈◊〉. and 22. 25. two several places; for where the words differ, yet reckoning one thing with another, we shall find the same extent of sense taken in. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of equal extent with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For, as I had occasion to note above, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such persons being understood in both as are seducible by false Doctrines and feigned Legends contrary to both the Word of God and common sense, and have their spirits intimidated and basely enslaved and befooled with superstitious Falsehoods and Lies. And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and in both are understood such as coin false doctrines for the profit of their Church, and invent lying Legends, and obtrude supposititious Relics upon the people to pick a penny out of their purses. And lastly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are both included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dogs. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which intimates Unbelief of Religion, is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are Brutes, Religion being the property of a Man. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or abominable, for masculine Venery, is included also in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but with a particular respect to their Species, the Dog being so furiously lustful as to spend promiscuously upon either Sex. And now for the rest of the Titles in each Catalogue, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one, saving the terminations of the words, which altars not the sense at all: but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tightly the same. And therefore the Synopsis is plainly the same in both places. 3. Wherefore enslaving Superstition, Infidelity or Atheism, Foul uncleanness of either kind, Lying Legends, and Doctrines false even to Impossibility and to the plain contradicting of Scripture, the worst of Murders, the bloody Persecution of the Saints, professed Sorcery or Incantation, or a pretence of doing more wonderful things than the greatest Magicians of Egypt, and lastly, gross Idolatry and open Image-worship; all these, I say, being as well noted, and so signally, to be the opposites of the Holy City, which is the Church of Christ, as so execrable in the sight of God as expressly to be doomed or sentenced to be cast into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone; I conceive that my Idea of Antichristianism being made up chief out of these parts, and explicitly comprising them all, besides other particulars of the like nature, it cannot be denied but that it is a true and perfect Idea thereof even upon the testimony of Holy Writ. 4. But I dare briefly appeal to any man's Reason that has imbibed but the first Rudiments of Christianity, and knows but common sense, and has read any ordinary Carechism, has the least spark of Grace in his heart, or any relish of what is holy and divine, whether the nature of those things of which I have composed this Idea of Antichristianism be not essentially and intrinsically Antichristian. For, to take again a compendious view of what we have more largely exspatiated in, and thereby to give judgement more safely on the whole matter; what Hypothesis can be framed more Antichristian then this? That a pack of men (fancy them as numerous as you please) should hold together under one domineering Head, that would trample upon Princes, and tread upon the necks of Emperors, and kick their Crowns off with his foot, and under pretence of being Successors to Christ and his Apostles, (though Christ told the boasting Jews (who yet were unquestionably the posterity of Abraham) that they were of their Father the Devil, because they did his works) claim notwithstanding an Infallibility of Judgement and Right of ordering all the affairs of the world in reference to Christ's Spiritual Kingdom; but yet in the mean time in very truth seek nothing but the increase of their temporal Honour and Power; and to this end undermine and defeat the whole design of the Gospel, not acting according to the Laws of Christ, but making such Institutes and countenancing such Practices as bring in most wealth for the support of the Magnificence of this Tyrannical Highpriest, that takes it to be but his due to ride upon the necks of Princes. And therefore every gainful sin, and serviceable to this purpose, shall be made a Law, (though never so point-blank against the Laws of God and Christ) and all those sacred purposes of Christ's coming into the World shall be trodden upon for a footstool to lift this pack of Impostors into the Throne, that they may the better trample upon all the people of the Earth. That is to say, Whereas Christ, by his Gospel, came to silence idolatry throughout the world, these Deceivers, for their own advantage and profit, will set up openly in their Churches as gross Image-worship as ever was amongst the Heathen. Whereas Christ came to free the people of God from the yoke and burden of Mosaical Ordinances; these Oppressors of Mankind will load their bodies and Consciences with more numerous and tedious Superstitions and Ceremonies than eve●… Moses commanded, and put them to a drudgery and slavery worse than the Egyptian Taskmasters did the children of Israel in their soarest bondage. Whereas Christ was given to the world by his Father to be an absolute King, from whose Decrees there can be no appeal, nor any annulment of dispensation with his Laws; a perfect Highpriest, who by the Sacrifice of himself once made, and self-effectual Intercession, is an all-sufficient Reconciler of us to God; a Prophet and Teacher, whose Instructions and Predictions are all infallible Oracles: this King of Babylon (for so I will call this Tyrannical Seducer) with his Hypocritical Assistants, shall pretend that Christ has given up his Kingdom to them, and that they have the very same Power that Christ himself, can dispense with or abrogate those Laws he has made, or appoint Laws quite contrary to them, o●… have authority to put what sense upon them they please: which is the 〈◊〉 nulling of Christ's authority as he is Lawgiver and King, and the greatest Treason and the most contemptuous that can be committed against his Heavenly Majesty. This false Highpriest with his several Orders of levite, as if that one offering of the Body of Christ, which he himself made once, were not sufficient for the atonement of the World, nor yet his sole Intercession, in virtue of his Infinite Merits and Passion, available for our reconciliation with God, pretend (to the high dishonour and vilification of Christ's own offering himself up once) to offer him up in their own hands really and bodily every day in a manner; and, as if the Intercession of Christ and his own inestimable Merits were of themselves maimed and defectuous, clap to them, to piece them out, the Merits and Intercession of mere Mortals, such as could merit for none but for themselves, nor indeed have got to Heaven but upon the sole merits of their loving Saviour, whom they are made thus to confront in his incommunicable Office. And lastly, This false Prophet with the rest of his devoted Impostors, to the end that their own lies and misleadings of the people may not be discovered, but withal to the unsufferable reproach of that great and true Prophet the Lord Jesus, and the unspeakable injury of his cordial Followers, withhold those lively Oracles delivered by him and his Apostles from the knowledge of men, not without gross revilements and disparagements cast upon those Holy Writings: than which nothing can be more outrageous against the Prophetic Office of Christ. 5. Again, Whereas the Divinity of Christ is plainly and punctually and of set purpose asserted in Scripture, to assure us of the allowableness of that Religious Worship we do to him; it being his peculiar Royalty or Prerogative, as being not mere Man, but God; nay his Godhead being ascertained to us by that argument of Adoration due to him, Worship him all ye gods: yet this perfidious Antichristian Hierarchy will not stick to undermine this Prerogative, and, as much as in them lies, to proclaim to the world that he is no more than mere Man; for, as if they had found an allowed instance of Men-worship in him, they will give Religious worship to hundreds of Saints as well as to himself. Whereas Christ is described in the Prophets as the Prince of Peace; these falsely-pretended Successors of his, or rather the Seed of Satan, who was a man-hater and murderer from the beginning, will prove themselves Fomenters of dissensions and commotions, and causers of embroilments of Nations and Kingdoms in War, upon their politic and pragmatical Machinations for the unjust Interest of their own holy Crew. Whereas Christ was the Light of the World; these will study to keep the world in Ignorance, that they may the better tyrannize over them and enslave them. And whereas Christ professed himself to be the Truth; these will make it their business to fill the world with Falsities and Lies, so they be but so contrived as is most fit for the holding up their Interest, Pomp and Power in the world. 6. And thirdly and lastly, Whereas the chief and most indispensable End of Christ's coming here upon Earth was to enliven the world with that Life which is truly Holy and Divine, wherein are comprised those four Heavenly Graces of Faith, Humility, Purity and Charity; as for the first, This Pseudo-christian Church, by reason of the multitude of their lying Miracles and gross Legends and falsified Relics, their incredible Stories of Purgatory, and shameless Impossibility of Transubstantiation, (all which tend to the Profit and Interest of these Seducers) bring things to such a pass, that if all the counsels of Hell were laid together, they could not invent any thing more destructive of Christian Belief, and more mischievously insinuating that Religion is only a Fiction found out to enrich the Priest and make him powerful and honourable. And then for Humility; Their Supreme Patriarch being so very high, and wrought to that high pitch by such frauds and forgeries, by abetting and countenancing such Treasons, Murders and Villainies, by raising such Seditions and Confusions in Christendom; and this Sacerdotal Monarchy exercised with that haughtiness and unparallelled pride, this Supreme Levite so grossly and rudely treading upon the necks of Princes, and making the greatest Emperors his footstool in his displeasure, and his Sedan-men or Chair-carriers when he is at peace with them; and the whole constitution of their Hierarchy, in the several pomps and degrees thereof, being rather a fiery rack of inflaming Ambition to set all men's spirits on the tenterhooks in their reaching after the bewitching prizes which are ever flaring in their eyes, than an allowable frame of a modest order of Government to keep up wholesome Discipline in the Church; can we imagine any complexion of things more contrary to the Spirit of Humility than this? And then again for Purity; For this lofty Highpriest to stoop so low as to set his Seal to the allowableness of Fornication, by receiving an annual Tribute from the Whores of his Metropolis; and to enjoy●… coelibate to his Priests, as if he meant to drive them into the nets, that these Nuns of Venus may never want trading; to fill the world with monastics, and to set light by all kinds of debauchery, so that the Laws of the Church be observed; is the most effectual method imaginable to make Christendom a Cage of unclean birds, and so quite to whither or lop off that Branch of the Divine Life which we call Purity. And now, lastly, for Charity: What can be more contrary thereto, then to interweave into Law or Religion not only what is naturally unjust, but barbarously cruel; not only killing those who are innocent, but torturing to death with the most savage torments even those who are the most dear and faithful members of Christ, and even for that very reason, because they approve themselves to be so; and that which will make the Barbarity of these Successors of the Devil still more odious, they ensnaring mwn in the point of that Mystery which was the Pledge of the greatest Love of Christ that could be expressed, and was intended for the most endearing and agglutinating Cement of all those that are called by his Name, that they should upon this very score be united to one another with the sincerest love and affection that is possible? Now therefore that this sacred Pledge of Love and Amity and Unity in the Church, I mean the Sacramental Body and Blood of Christ, (which is a lively Commemoration of that ineffable Love of his to his Church in laying down his Life for us) should be made the main Engine and Artifice of entrapping, and afterwards of cruelly torturing and butchering, his most faithful Members; what more horrid, more execrable, and more Antichristian Abuse can there be of our Lord Jesus, or what Hostility against him more damnable or Diabolical? Nay what conspiracy against Humane Nature can be more tragical or direful, or what so palpable a plot to make Mankind mere slaves and vassals, and to take away from them that Privilege by which alone they are distinguishable from brute Beasts? 7. Suppose there were a numerous crew of odly-habited people, inhabiting a certain vast Wood or Wilderness, that would give themselves some fantastic Title, to make the better show of Sanctity, as, suppose, The Knights of the Holy Grove, or The Priests of the Infallible Spirit, or the like; and should take up a resolution amongst themselves to be accounted Unerring in whatsoever they unanimously averred for true; and should agree together and determine (for the gainful vending of so marvellous a commodity) that there is so great virtue in such a form of certain Magical words, which they know how to use, that if one of their Sacred Order speak them over any of those pure, white, round Pebbles which easily are found in Rills and Brooks, straightway this little Stone, though it retain still the same colour, magnitude, figure and hardness that it had before, yet (so wonderful is the mystery) is most assuredly turned into an Eagle, whence this kind of stone also is called the Eagle-stone. Upon which supposition, let us further imagine that these Infallible Knights, meeting (as it is usual) Travellers upon the way, and declaring this wonder-working power of their Order, and showing them one of these stones, and having said the charm over it, protesting that it is really become an Eagle, (though it be not visibly changed at all from what it was before) may sometimes light upon some honest plainhearted passenger that may flatly deny the Exploit, and contend that the enchanted Stone is no Eagle, but a Stone still. Whereupon we will suppose that these Knights of the Holy Grove blowing their Bugles will cause whole Swarms of that Sacred Order to come out of the Wood, who shall avouch upon the Honour of their Infallible Knighthood that the Miracle is really performed, and that which this incredulous Stranger contends to be still a Stone, is in very truth that Royal Bird of Jupiter. But that such should be the honest stoutness and plain-heartedness of the environed Stranger, that notwithstanding all this he should persist in his former opinion, alleging that he cannot believe that to be an Eagle, wherein he can discern neither bill nor taions, head nor foot, wing nor tail, bone nor flesh, but is in every thing as much Stone as before; and that therefore they shall never persuade him of this Magical Transmutation, there being no proof thereof but their own Testimony, and that point-blank against the manifest evidence of Sense and Reason. Whereupon if these Knights of the Grove, putting on a grim Vizard of enraged Zeal in behalf of their own Traffic and Reputation, should fall upon this innocent man, and slay him, seizing upon what he has, his Money, clothes and Gelding, as lawful Booty; would not these Knights or Priests of the Infallible Spirit be accounted in the judgement of all the world a pack of bloody Impostors, a crew of High-way-men, co●…spiring to rob and spoil honest Passengers that go that way? 8. What then shall we think of those numerous Swarms of this pretended Infallible Church we have described, that will be ready to quarrel with any Christian passenger in his pilgrimage through the Wilderness of this World, if he deny the Transubstantiation of a round white Wafer into a perfect Man, when a Priest has said certain words over it, though the Wafer, upon the most exquisite examination of our Senses, be not changed one jot from what it was before? Yet upon the boast of the Infallibility of this Church, a man must believe it against all Sense, Scripture and Reason, or else die the most cruel kind of death that Malefactors are ever put to. Who cannot but look upon such a pack of men as these as not only Antichristian, but Anti-humane, tanquam jur atos humani generis hosts, an accursed company of bloody Thiefs and Robbers, and sworn conspirators against the sons of Adam, who with might and main endeavour to maul them and martyr them, to subdue them and enslave them both Body and Soul, and more cruelly to tyrannize over them than it is fit for any man to do over brute Beasts? Can any thing be imagined more Antichristian then this, or more contrary to that noble and Divine Spirit of Charity and sweet Benignity that was so conspicuous in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is so frequently in Scripture styled the Son of man, as to whom appertains that expected Kingdom of Peace, of holy Love and of Humanity? 9 Wherefore from this short draught I think one may discern that I have given a very true and faithful Idea of that which is real and essential Antichristianism; and truly I think to the highest pitch imaginable. For to excuse the matter in saying, that this Pseudo-christian Church does not openly deny Christ or his Gospel, does not persecute every one that bears the name of a Christian, and, lastly, does not set up Images to the Deities of the Pagans, Mars, Venus, and the rest: to these I briefly answer. To the first, That it were not their Interest to deny the whole Truth of the Gospel; for than their Power and Credit would fail in the world: But it were the Interest of the Church of God they did so; and therefore they are the worst enemies that can be, doing more mischief under the colour of friendship than any declared enemy can. Besides that there are pregnant proofs in the Scripture, that Antichrist is to be a Christian in external Profession, not a Pagan or any other Alien from the Church. To the second, That their not killing all that are called Christians, shows that their Malice and Cruelty is more tightly opposed and directed against Christ, in that their spite is only against his true and sincere Members. For those that are spared are not truly Christ's Servants, but this High-priest's vassals, or at least are taken to be so by him, else they could not escape his sury; so that his opposition to Christ is only more judicious and adequate, not less fierce nor malicious. And to the last, that they worship the Images or Persons, not of Venus, or Neptune, or Mars, but of the Blessed Virgin, S. Peter, S. Paul, etc. Suppose a mighty Potentate, and as virtuous as mighty, should put out severe Edicts against Adultery and carnal Fornication; and that some guilty of the fact should apologise for themselves to their Prince on this wise, It is true indeed, Great Sir, that we have committed Fornication, but beseech you to take notice of the excusableness or justifiableness of the circumstances. For we are not such gross and course-grained Fornicators as defile themselves with any Flesh, but only such as we have (and that upon high desert) a very great respect for and entire love to, and that the rather for their near Relation to your Highness, namely, your Daughters, Sisters and Nieces, and others that are more near than ordinary. Would not such an Apology as this enrage the Prince with the greater wrath against their wicked Lewdness? How odious then and ridiculous would such a Plea be touching this Spiritual Fornication with the nearest Relations and Friends of our Blessed Saviour? Can Spiritual Adultery, which is Idolatry, committed upon the Blessed Virgin, upon S. John and others, be more tolerable then upon Diana, Apollo, and other Mortals canonised by the Heathen? Nay indeed would not this latter be but only simple Fornication, or Adultery, (there being no aversation in such unsanctified persons from the receiving of Divine honours) but the former an execrable Rape, they committing Idolatry or Spiritual Fornication against the wills of these Holy Saints they thus blaspheme and abuse? So that I see not the least reason left to doubt but that I have deciphered the Idea of the most perfect and most detestable Antichristianism that can be. 10. And thus having fully perfected the Draught of the Idea of Antichristianism, I might, according to the method I intimated, make Application thereof to the state of the Church apostatised thereinto. But because some men are so very hardly brought off to believe that any degeneracy of the Christian Church, so long as they do still formally profess Jesus to be the Christ, can amount to the production of that famous and signal Antichrist the Prophecies seem to point at, whom they with all peremptoriness contend to be an open Denier of Jesus, and as express an Assertor of himself to be the expected Messiah, no pretended Successor nor Disciple of the true Christ; I think it very convenient, before I proceed to the Application of my Idea of Antichristianism, to make a more exquisite search into the Prophecies, and thence to demonstrate (as I hope) with unexceptionable evidence, That such an Antichrist for the main, as is represented in that Idea, is also prefigured or foretell by the Holy Prophets, that is to say, such an one as, doing such abominable villainies as I have instanced in, yet professes himself to be Part, nay Chief, of the Body of Christ, which is his Church. For unless I do this, I know that such is the shuffling disposition of Ignorance and Falsehood, that they will think they can evade all by saying, That I have indeed made an operose Description of A true Idea, but not of The true Idea of Antichristianism, such as my Title pretends to: that is to say, That the Church does indeed very naughtily, and in some sense Antichristianly, in these miscarriages; but it will not amount to the making up the Antichrist properly and signally so called, and pointed unto by the Predictions of the Prophets. Which therefore we are necessitated to search into before we go any further; and are the more easily induced so to do, the Method being indifferently natural either way. For the first intended Method was, After this Description of the Idea of Antichristianism, to make punctual Application thereof to the Apostatised condition of the Church; to discover who is de facto that grand Antichrist; and then to apply the Prophecies to the Events, to show that they also do indigitate the same that my Idea does discover. My present purposed Method is, After this Description of the Idea of Antichristianism, to make search into the Prophecies; to find out that their prefigurations of Antichrist are in the main strokes (for neither are the Prophecies concerning Christ predictions of all his particular actions) most manifestly answerable to the Idea we have given, and that the Antichristianism which they foretell of is a Degeneracy or Apostasy of the Church still formally professing Christianity, accordingly as we have described things in our Idea: and then, in the last place, to make a more punctual Application of our Idea of Antichristianism, thus justified by the agreeableness it hath with the Prophetic Predictions, unto the Apostatised state of the Church for so many Ages to our own times. Which will be a more plenary eviction of the stupendious veracity of the Prophecies. And it is as good and natural a method to prove the Truth of the Prophecies by the Fullness of the Events, as to illustrate the Nature of the Events by the Application of the Prophecies. But in the mean time there will be a necessity in this present search to have recourse unto Events, in some sort or other; for who can explain a Prophecy without any recourse to Events? But all the History we need to have recourse to being either such as is distinct from any part of this Idea we have delineated, (and therefore to be brought into view in the interpreting of such passages as require it) or else being but a general knowledge of those Limbs of Antichristianism I have described, of which scarce any are ignorant or unpersuaded of for the main; we may without the least confusion or obscurity (partly by referring to this Idea in things that want no proof, and partly by producing History where occasion requires) apply ourselves to our intended search into the Prophecies for a more full demonstration of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism. Which having finished, we shall make a more punctual Application thereof, for the more undeniably convincing the guilty, and for the clearing the innocent from all such unjust Aspersions. The End of the First Part. SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA, OR, THE SECOND PART OF THE ENQUIRY INTO The Mystery of Iniquity: CONTAINING A Compendious Prospect into those PROPHECIES of the Holy Scripture, wherein The Reign of Antichrist, or The notorious Lapse or Degeneracy of the Church in all those Points comprised in The Idea of Antichristianism, is prefigured or foretold. Theognis. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. DANIEL 4. This matter is by the decree of the Watchers, and the demand by the word of the Holy ones. LONDON, Printed by James Flesher, for William Morden Bookseller in Cambridge, M DC LXIV. The PREFACE to the Reader. READER, I Am not ignorant under what manifold Prejudice The main Prejudices against this present Discourse. this Performance I present thee with may lie; it being a Treatise wholly spent upon the Interpretation of Prophecies, and chief of Daniel and the Apocalypse. For it is over-true that some men look upon such Attempts as very vain and frivolous, having concluded with themselves aforehand that all Prophecies are inextricable Aenigms and Riddles, utterly uncapable of any certain Solution. Others, whose Exception were more material if it were true, have a conceit, that the searching into Prophecies, especially those of the Apocalypse and of Daniel, tends to nothing else but Faction and Confusion, to the trouble and dissettlement of the affairs of Christendom, and to the hazard of the subversion of States and Kingdoms, and the ruin and destruction of the Church of Christ. And haply there may be others, who, though they neither deem the obscurity of these Prophecies invincible, nor the search into them dangerous, nay rather of good use and great consequence, yet are so well satisfied already concerning these things by those worthily-magnified Elucubrations of Mr Joseph Mede, that they may in all likelihood judge any new Essays herein needless and superfluous. With these three grand Prejudices I fancy myself encumbered in regard of the Nature of the Subject I writ of: besides what particular Exceptions men may be prone to make against any parts of the Performance itself. But I do not despair of more than fully quitting myself of them all. 2. For as touching the first, I think there is no man that has the That the Divine Prophecies are not invincibly obscure, and that it smells of Blasphemy and Profaneness to pronounce them so. fear of God before his eyes but he would be ashamed to stand to any such Assertion, it verging so near upon Profaneness and Impiety, nay upon open Blasphemy against the Spirit of God, as if he dictated such things to the holy Prophets as are not sense, nor ever to be understood by any reader of them. Can there be any thing more Scoptical against Divine Inspiration then this, or more undermining the very foundations of Christian Religion? But we need not labour very solicitously in confuting an Error so universally condemned by all parties that are any thing serious in their Religion. For the obscurest Books of Prophecy, I mean those of the Apocalypse and Daniel, are commented upon by Papists, Protestants and Neuters, whereby they have all set to their hands that the Visions are intelligible. But whatsoever Obscurity there may be in them, I think my present pains ought to be the more acceptable, in that I have contributed so much to a clear and certain way of interpreting them, laying down such assured Grounds and Rudiments, as if a man carefully observe, and find History applicable within the compass of these Laws, he can no more fail of the right meaning of a Prophecy, than he will of the rendering the true sense of a Latin or Greek Author, keeping to the Rules of Grammar and the known Interpretations of Dictionaries. Which Laws I having kept to myself so strictly and carefully, I dare appeal to all the world, if I have not demonstratively made out the sense of such Visions as I have undertaken to expound. And for my own part I must freely profess, that I found it no such hard thing to understand those Prophecies I have interpreted; and am certainly persuaded, that neither any such greatness of Parts nor Exuberancy of Learning, as Integrity of heart and Unprejudicedness of mind, is requisite to the understanding of these things. For if that Spirit of life be once revived in a man, he will, by virtue of his Regeneration or new Birth, not only see with his eyes, but feel with his hands the truth of these Mysteries. None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise Dan. 12. 10. shall understand; namely, as many as apply themselves to the search of such things, who will also in the mean time be so prudent as not to prejudge what they never had yet opportunity carefully to examine. 3. Now touching the second Surmise, That the search into That the greater danger there is from false & unskilful Interpretations of them, the greater value there ought to be upon their labour that search out such as are exact and true. these Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse tends to nothing but tumult and sedition in Christendom; it is very rashly and unskilfully spoken. I do not deny but that, as it is said of Philosophy, that a more superficial smattering therein may hazard a man's plunge into Atheism before he be ware; so a slighter inspection into these Prophecies may incline some to a Fanatical unsettledness and a dream of a Fifth Monarchy suitable to the carnal Conceitedness of their own temerarious fancy: But as a more full draught of Philosophical knowledge will again wash away that Atheistical foulness out of the Soul; so I doubt not but a more through search into the meaning of these Divine Predictions will make a man of a more sober mind, and root out of his spirit all those vain pretences to Innovation and Schism. And therefore the pains that I have spent in a more full and through scrutiny into the meaning of these Prophetic Visions may, I hope, at least deserve men's Pardon, if not challenge their Approbation as their due Reward; sigh what tends so much to peace and soberness can not unrightfully seem to challenge the reward of a due Approbation from men. I say then, if by a more careless search there has been framed such meanings of those Prophecies as bear any danger or inconvenience with them, there was the greater necessity that some or other upon a more diligent perusal should dive into the true and genuine sense of them; that that Divine truth which was revealed for the good of the Church, might not by any mistake tend to her detriment and ruin. As certainly such a conceit of the manner of introducing a Fifth Monarchy as some have imagined and entertained, might cause much trouble and mischief in the affairs of Christendom. The Foundation of which Error with the evil Sequels thereof the Seventh Consectary of my Joint-Exposition does quite take away; to say nothing of other Passages. We know likewise Book 2. Ch. 5. Sect. 5. by woeful experience what wild Applications Enthusiasts make of the Ten-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon, phansying in their mad mistaken zeal every legitimate Magistrate that Beast, and every well-ordered Church that Whore; as that famous Romantic Knight in his inflamed courage and distempered fancy encountered the next Windmill he met for a Giant, and innocent Flocks of sheep for so many Armies of men. 4. But he that will but take notice of what I have so plainly proved, An Instance of such an Interpretation in the Vision of the Resurrection of the two Witnesses, with the use thereof against the Quakers & Familists. That the middle Synchronalls must needs cease together, as also that our Reformation in England was an eminent Speciminal Completion of the Resurrection of the Witnesses, he cannot fail of being rid of this frenzy for ever, and of finding himself sufficiently fortified against all those extravagant Sects that bear themselves so stiff in these times, and more particularly against the highflown conceitedness of Quakers and Familists, who can so easily part with all our Religion that refers to the Personal Offices of Christ under the pretence of knowing no man after the Flesh. For if the Protestant Reformation, as in other parts so here in England especially, be the Resurrection of the Witnesses, as most certainly it is; it is as certain and assured that Familism and Quakerism are mere Enthusiastic Freaks, in that they reject or despise all those things that are so fully, declaredly and universally attested by this cloud of Witnesses, or rather by these Witnesses ascending up into Heaven in a cloud. The Completion of which Prophecy I conceive fell out most fully and orderly in our English Reformation, where the Ecclesiastic Witness mounted the highest among the Reformed Churches into this Prophetic Heaven. Which may serve for a just Reproof also to those of the Presbyterian Party that either have or do envy him that Residence. And again for the Quakers and Familists, that are such Gigantic self-sufficient Religionists, and scorn and contemn that part of the Testimony of these Witnesses, which is Remission of sins in the Blood of Christ, and the being justified and acquitted by the merits of his Passion; how silly and ignorantly proud they are in this point, appears in that the Witnesses deliverance from the bondage of that Roman Pharaoh is plainly attributed to their passage through this Red Sea. And we know that the first Protestant Reformers began with the point of Justification in this very sense: wherein the Mystical Egyptians were overthrown horse and man. Which I doubt not but that Epinikion, Revel. 15. alludes to, as * See Book 1. Ch. 4. Sect. 5. Book 2. Ch. 11. Sect. 2. I have proved more particularly in its proper place. 5. Wherefore it is apparent of what great force this aught to be And for the settling this Church and Nation in peace, as also for the establishment of other Protestant States and Kingdoms. to reconcile the minds of all the Sectaries to the Church; the Confession of her Faith, as also her Institutes, being the same with those of these Witnesses who were by special Providence called up to Heaven, and by the fulfilling of that Divine Prediction approved for the Witnesses of God and of the Truth: And likewise of what great usefulness it is for the peace and settlement of all Protestant States and Kingdoms, they being so well assured from hence, that it were to strive against the stream, nay to fight against God and the determinations of Providence, to superinduce upon a People such Antichristian Opinions or Practices as have been witnessed against by these approved Witnesses of God. For there is neither wisdom nor understanding Pro. 21. 30. nor counsel against the Lord. For in such cases as this, God, who can seize the hearts of men at his own pleasure and illuminate their eyes, may so enlighten the people as to make them see more than their professed Prophets, whose sight may be blinded because the reward of unrighteousness is found in their hand, that is to say, because carnal Interest has laid waste their judgement. For then the case would be much like that of Balaam 's riding the Ass, whom he cudgels on this side and on that side, to keep him in the path that leads most directly to his own self-ended design: But the Beast being more afraid of the drawn sword of the Angel then of the furious blows of the Prophet, runs him out of the way, and crushes his leg against the wall. For no humane force can drive any mortal Creature against the power and terror of God. Wherefore it is of great consequence for them in Authority not to be ignorant of the meaning of Prophecies, that they may be sure not to fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nor to steer their Affairs against the Current of Divine Providence: Which Ignorance our Saviour seems to exprobrate to the Jews, Ye Hypocrites, ye can discern Luke 12. the face of the Sky and of the Earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time? So far is the finding of the true sense of the Prophecies from causing tumults and disquietnesses in States or Kingdoms; whenas on the contrary the right understanding of them tends so much every way to their firm settlement and peace. 6. And now touching the third Allegation, wherein I find little That the laudableness of Mr. Mede's performance in interpreting Prophecies is no bar to the usefulness of this present Treatise. propension in myself to be over-loquacious, yet I shall not altogether neglect it, but briefly answer, First, That if I had only made a Collection of the most sound and unexceptionable Interpretations of such Prophecies as concerned my Idea of Antichristianism, this had been no impertinent performance, but necessary for the proving what I had avowed, namely, That my Idea was a Description of such an Antichristianism or Antichrist as is prefigured or foretold in the Holy Scriptures. Which bare Collection of Interpretations would notwithstanding have had their peculiar usefulness distinct from that of Mr. Mede, whose enterprise was to interpret the whole Apocalypse in order. But in this Collection the Reader would be put to the trouble of perusing only such Prophecies as are for the making good the present point we are upon, and which is of so vast concernment. Which useful Compendiousness is a thing very considerable with those that abound not with overmuch leisure, and yet would gladly be satisfied in so weighty a Controversy. Again, I have produced and explained several Prophecies that Mr. Mede never meddled with. Besides that I have made use of none of his Expositions which I have not either rectified or corroborated or some way or other improved, as he has done, with very good success, in several Interpretations of others. To say nothing of our full and perpetual Confutation of Hugo Grotius in all his Expositions wherein he would undermine and elude the orthodox Protestant sense of the Prophecies we make use of in this Treatise. And lastly, Though I am very loath to have any difference with so excellent an Interpreter as Mr. Mede, yet I must ingenuously confess that I cannot but descent from him in several things which I deem not a little material. 7. As first, for example, in his Exposition of the Beast that was, The Author's dissent from Mr. Mede in his Exposition of the Beast that was, and is not. and is not. For of this Beast he saith it might be said in S. John 's time, Et jam olim eam fuisse, necdum tamen natam esse. With this short account would Mr. Mede turn off that Description of him. But I must confess it seems to me impossible that those words should be used with any truth, if restrained or tied to the time when the Vision was exhibited, as if it spoke of his existing or not existing then, and not only of the order of succession of Existence and Nonexistence. For the Beast that was to be again under the last Head, was in actual being in S. John 's time. Wherefore how harsh must it be to say of it while it is in being, that it was? But how plain a contradiction to say it is not, while it is, or that it is not yet born, when it has continued so many ages, and does and is to continue uninterruptedly so many after? Apply this to any particular person still alive and in health and to live many years, will it not grate against common sense to say of him, he was, and is not, while he is alive and in being? Besides that necdum tamen natam esse does not at all specify his succession under the eighth King more than the seventh; that being left out in this Interpretation which is the most plainly and most materially signified in the Prophecy, namely, That the Beast was to cease to be for a time: Which Interval of Nonexistence immediately was to precede the succession of the Beast under the last Head. 8. The oversight whereof seems to me to put Mr. Mede to the As also of the seventh King. plunge also in his Exposition of the eight Kings, where he glosses upon Unus est, & alius nondum venit, after this manner: Unus Regum seu Dynastarum ordo, putà Caesarum, adhuc superest; said is quoque sub Caesaribus Christianis ità mutaturus, ut quasi alius, sed brevis admodum aevi, dynastes videretur; reverâ tamen non alius. Where quasi alius and reverâ tamen non alius I must ingenuously confess seem to me to fall short off, or rather to be quite contrary to, the scope of the Text; this Seventh King being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on purpose to indicate his extreme difference from all that went before him, that he did toto genere differre, as being purely Christian, and that the Eighth and six first have a greater cognation one with another than he with any of them: which is according to truth. Nor can the shortness of his Reign (for was not that of the Decemviri and Dictatours far shorter?) nor his being still Caesar make him not an express and distinct King from the rest. For upon this account the Beast that was, and is not, will want a proper and distinct Head, at least till the Pope perked up into the Caesareate; which will be for some hundreds of years. For the Head of the Empire till Hildebrand 's time, or at least Pope Constantine and the two succeeding Gregory's; were the Caesars. 9 And lastly, Therefore the said oversight put Mr. Mede to the The unaccountableness of there being but seven Heads, though eight Kings, in Mr. Mede's way. puzzle how to make but seven Kings of eight, and upon committing this Paralogism, There are but seven Heads of the Beast, therefore there must be but seven Kings. Whereas if he had considered, according to the plain Indication of the Prophecy, that there was a time when the Beast was for a while to cease to be, (which was the Interval when pure Christianity was the Religion of the Empire) and that the seven Heads of the Beast were Heads of Blasphemy or Idolatry; he might have easily discerned, not only that there might be eight Kings, though but seven Heads of the Beast, but also that it was necessary it should be so. For when the Beast was not in being, his Head was gone also. But the Empire never yet ceased to be, no not in the Interval of the Beast's not being, nor could it be then without a Sovereignty. Wherefore there is a necessity that there should be eight Kings, though but seven Heads of the Beast. For the Beast in his Nonexistence could neither want nor have an Head. The great serviceableness of the Author's Interpretation of the Perdition of the Beast and of the burning of the Whore, for the peace and security of Christendom. 10. This is true, as I have fully, and it may be over-fully, demonstrated in the ensuing Discourse. But if it had not been also mainly useful as well as true, I should not have made it my business so carefully and copiously to have evinced it. Nor take I any pleasure in having different opinions from others, much less in divulging them, were it not for a common good: as this certainly is, it tending so naturally to the peace and safety of all the Secular Powers of the Empire, and to the vindicating of this holy Book of Visions itself from that contempt or hatred that some bear to it, as seeming a Countenancer or Exciter of Fanatical persons to tumultuate against their lawful Sovereigns; whenas on the contrary, (as I have elsewhere intimated) there is not any Book more faithful and more friendly to the Prerogative of Secular Princes than this Volume of Prophecies; the Prediction of the Perdition of this fourth Beast being rather a merciful Promise then a Commination: Which is this, That as it ceased to be for a time, so after a certain Period of time it should cease to be for ever. Now the temporary ceasing of the Beast to be, was only the Empire's entertaining and maintaining the pure and Apostolic Christianity as yet uncontaminate with any Pagan-like Idolatries. Wherefore the ceasing of it to be for ever, is nothing else but the being cleansed for ever from all Idolatry and Antichristianism. Which can be no ill news to the Emperor and Secular Kings or Princes of the Empire; they being quit of Idolatry (which makes the Empire a Beast) and of the imposturous Tyranny and Usurpations of the Pope of Rome over them at once. But for that Hierarchical Power of the Pope and his Clergy, (and truly it will analogically touch such a Presbytery as hath not learned the lesson of due Subjection to the Secular Sovereignty in things indifferent) that Papal Hierarchy, I say, which (as * Praefat. Monitor. ad Caesar. etc. King James of ever-blessed memory has smartly and justly taxed them) sub larvata simulatione curae spiritualis animarum, regna exhaurit, orbémque Christianum caede & sanguine miscet, to this Power I must confess the Visions of the Apocalypse are somewhat more severe, as it is most fit they should be. For this Power (except so much therein as agrees with the Primitive Ages of the Church) comprising in it nothing but a mass of Frauds and Impostures, of Superstitions and Idolatries and bloody and Antichristian Cruelties; the Visions of the Apocalypse were not the Visions of God if they predicted not ill to so ungodly and Diabolical a Polity. And yet, if I might profess freely my opinion, were but that heap of wicked stuff cast out and abolished, and all her false Merchandizes everywhere interdicted, as they are here in England, such a purification as this would undoubtedly fulfil the prediction of the burning of the Whore of Babylon with fire, according to the primary sense or scope of these Visions, and the Church and whatsoever is comely and useful be saved from any farther or severer Castigations; provided they did not Antichristianize in what is left, and place all their Religion merely in an outward, though unexceptionable, Form, neglecting the indispensable Laws of the Life of God and of honest and laudable Morality. So little reason have any to be afraid of the right sense of the Apocalypse in those Visions, unless they have a favour for the Kingdom of sin and dominion of the Devil in the World. 11. Again, I must confess also that I cannot but descent from Mr. His difference from Mr. Mede's way in expounding the three days and an half of the death of the Witnesses, and in the placing of the Vials, etc. Mede in his expounding the three days and an half wherein the Witnesses lay slain, three years and an half, and not three times and an half; which is a mistake of no small consequence. As also in his placing of six of the Vials within the sixth Trumpet, whenas I have shown reason, I think, sufficient, why they should be all ranged within the seventh. Upon which supposition the pouring out of the first will follow the ascension of the Witnesses into Heaven in a cloud, with a very close and natural coherence, and such as is intimated in the very Text. For it is said that they ascended up into Heaven in a cloud, and their Enemies beheld them: and you may be sure Apoc. 11. 12. with a very envious eye, and with much wrath and bitter exulceration of spirit; accordingly as it is said, Ver. 18. And the Nations were angry. This is presently upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet. And the first Vial answerably thereto is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Apoc. 16. 2. an evil and wicked Ulcer or Sore. Which does very significantly indigitate that rancour and exulceration of spirit that fell on them that had the Mark of the Beast, upon their seeing the exaltation of the Witnesses, and hearing the Triumphal Song of those mystical Israelites that had escaped the Tyranny of the Roman Pharaoh, by betaking themselves to the safeguard of the Red Sea, in such a sense as I have above intimated. These are considerable Examples of differences betwixt Mr. Mede 's Interpretations and mine. From which several others must necessarily flow, as depending thereon; beside others that depend not on these, which were to little purpose to note particularly. But they all put together will not amount to any such sum as will at all impair that rich stock of honour and esteem which will be for ever due to so excellent a Writer; whose Modesty, Judgement and useful Industry will, I doubt not, be admired and applauded to all posteritis. For there is no reason at all that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I mention here should derogate any thing from either that singular ability Mr. Mede had of interpreting Prophecies, or from the credit of other performances of his in this kind where he had more maturely considered things, and therefore according to the accuracy of his Judgement had perfected his Interpretations beyond all just exception. But these that I differ from him in, he does ingenuously confess to be but certain Specimina which he had communicated to his private friends, nor did look upon them himself as throughly concocted and completed. 12. These are the main prejudices that seemed to encumber our Design; The reason of the Prolixness of his Alphabet of Prophetic Iconisms. which; I think, I have clearly removed. As for particular Exceptions, they are of less moment: such as might be made against the Prolixity and Inadequateness of my Alphabet of Iconisms; my Confutation of Grotius only, and that with some sharpness in some places; and, lastly, my uncharitable Liberty in applying those Prophecies of the Apocalypse and other Scriptures, which by the ancient Fathers and more modern Writers, even of the Romanists themselves, are understood of the famous Antichrist, unto the Papacy and Church of Rome. To which I shall briefly answer and in order. To the first, That that Alphabet of Prophetic Iconisms is neither prolix nor inadequate to the whole design I had in mine eye when I compiled it, though it be much too long for the use of the present Treatise. But we are to remember that I had occasion to write of other Visions in my Mystery of Godliness, which are pretermitted here as not appertaining to our present Scope. But the use of this Alphabet is extendible also to that former Writing, as likewise to a future design in my last part of the Mystery of Iniquity, where I shall have occasion to range very far into the Prophecies of the Apocalypse, besides other Divine Predictions, even upon this very account, more fully and accurately to examine whether those Comminations that threaten destruction to the Fourth Beast and the Whore (or by whatsoever other Figures those Powers are indigitated) do primarily signify any bloody or boisterous destruction, (such as the keen Fifth-Monarchy-men or any other Enthusiasts are overforward to imagine;) or whether the Mystery of God may not rather be accomplished in such an orderly Reformation as was made by the Sovereign Power of England in King Edward and Queen Elizabeth 's time. Which can be no affrightful news to any that have any Knowledge of God or Love of the Truth. For assuredly that was an eminent Example of Christ's Revisiting the World in the behalf of the faithful, and of his coming again to Judgement, in thus judging the Whore and rescuing this part of his Kingdom here in this Island out of the hands of that Man of Sin; though few have taken due notice hereof, or had a right notion of this so marvellous Event. 13. And therefore it is a wonder to me that there are so many that talk so loud of the Spirit of Elias, and pretend to be in that Dispensation, A Description of the right Spirit or Dispensation of Elias, for the better discovering all false Pretenders thereto. Apoc. 10. 3. and yet know neither his Spirit nor their own, nor what times they are in, nor do that office which is proper for Elias to do, which is to testify that the Lord is come; and as the holy Baptist pointed at Christ at his First coming, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, so to indigitate his Second coming, saying, Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, even that mighty Angel, whose face is as the Sun, with a Rainbow over his head, crying with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth, and discharging his seven thunders upon the Earth. The Series of which undoubtedly commenced upon the Protestant Reformation: For than began the Judgement to sit, and the dominion of the Dan. 7. 26. little Horn to be taken away, to consume and to destroy it to the end. What Monsters of Enthusiasts therefore are they that kick against the sentence and authority of those holy Benchers or Heavenly Witnesses of God, (whom he raised up to judge the Deceiver and to settle Truth upon Earth) dividing themselves from that Church that is the real and genuine Spouse of Christ, so approved by these very Witnesses which God raised from the dead? What a goodly Specimen do those highflown Boasters give of their Elias- like Spirit, who though they imitate something of the Wind, Earthquake and Fire, that appeared before that great Prophet, yet are utterly unacquainted with that still and small voice in which alone the Lord was heard to speak? This Rending and Tearing, this Faction and Siding is the fruit of the Flesh, and not of the Spirit: Nor was Elias zealous about any thing but the indispensable Laws of God. Nor is his office to divide, but to cement and make up the Breaches of the Church of Christ, to reconcile the People to their Governors and their Governors to the People, according as it is written, * Behold, I will send you Elijah the Mal. 4. 5. Prophet, and he shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their Fathers; lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse. Wherefore whatsoever Dispensation drives not on an healing and uniting design in the true Church of Christ, is not the Spirit of that expected Elias, which some dream of, but a second game of Antichrist, contrived, abetted and promoted by his cunning Incendiaries, upon whom that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth●…stick, and will be raging at least till the Fifth Vial. But this is more than I meant to speak in this place. 14. Now concerning Grotius and my confuting him only, and sometimes something smartly: As for the former, it is not wholly true; for That he has not confuted Grotius only in this Treatise: with an Apology for doing of it sometimes something sharply. I have also confuted Ribera, the best of the Roman Expositors upon the Seventeenth of the Revelation; nor have I declined any Interpreter that I could find to speak any thing considerable which is not already confuted in my confutation of these. And for my Smartness against Grotius, I believe I shall appear so to none but such as make an Idol of him, which they will do most that least understand or have read least of his Expositions of Daniel and the Apocalypse touching the Controversy in hand. For I dare pronounce to all the World, that there was never any thing more weak and groundless, as I have made it abundantly clear in the ensuing Discourse. And I think it is not at all unseemly to resist him with some kind of Zeal, who had grown up to that boldness in his contrived Interpretations, as to trample under feet the Sacred Titles of Christ under which he is peculiarly prophesied of in the Divine Oracles, and that in those very Prophecies themselves, See Grotius his Annot. in Dan. 2. 34, 45. and chap. 7. 13. and to cast them as unholy to a Pagan Nation, the People of Rome; merely to cover the shame of that Body of men, who are so hideously lapsed and apostatised from the Truth; and being fast to one party and lose to another, to drive the sincere Protestant into a net under a colourable show of Reconciliation, and to expose again the innocent Lambs of Christ's flock to the merciless teeth of that devouring Wolf of Rome. And yet as smartly as I have dealt with him, I have only expressed my admiration that a Person otherwise so Learned should fall into such unparallelled Weaknesses and Extravagancies in interpreting these Prophecies of Scripture, nor have given the least intimation that gifts had blinded the eyes of the wise, or that he had followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but that he had been tempted in that way, and how far he accepts the condition one may in some sort observe in the Epistle of Du-vair to him and his answer thereunto; and what other transactions there might be, God and his own Conscience best know. But in the interim it cannot be unknown to any that will search into the truth, but that some very great Bias must have been clapped upon so good a Judgement as Grotius his, to make him capable of running so extremely much out of the way. 15. I have elsewhere imputed it to the excess of Candour and Humanity The vindication of himself from the imputation of Uncharitableness, for applying certain Visions usually understood of Antichrist to the Church of Rome. in him, and the love of Peace and Unity; and I spoke as I thought, and am loath to unthink it again, and may sooner tyre myself and my Reader, then satisfy either, by searching into the hidden principles of another man's actions, and therefore I shall dismiss that for ever. It will be more to the purpose to vindicate myself from the imputation of the want of Charity, then to accuse him of the excess thereof or of any other Passion. For it is alleged in the last place, that I have taken to myself a very uncharitable kind of liberty, to apply those Prophecies to so great a share of Christendom as the Roman Church, that have been by ancient Interpreters, and are by the Romanists themselves, understood of Antichrist. To which I freely and ingenuously answer, and as in the presence of him before whom all men's hearts lie open, that I take no more pleasure in the finding of those Antichristian Tokens upon the Church of Rome, than I should in discovering so many Plague-spots upon my dearest Friends or Relations; so that I am not conscious to myself of the least touch of Uncharitableness in this matter. But if the Laws of Charity be so strictly to be observed, (as certainly they are) let us take that method which is approved by the voice of all men, and has passed into a Proverb, of charity's beginning at home, and be as tender of the Protestant Churches in such things as they maintain with truth, as the Papists are of their own party, even in their obtruded Falsities and Deceits. It may therefore more rightfully be imputed to my fidelity to the true Church of Christ then Uncharitableness to the Church of Rome, that I again bring into play, with all due advantages, this common Assertion of the Protestants touching the Great Antichrist. Which appearing to me so solid and unexceptionable a truth, I should be conscious to myself of the highest degree of Uncharitableness to the precious memory of the first Reformers, those Witnesses whom Divine Providence so miraculously raised from the dead, if I did not what in me lies for the maintaining their Credit in so grand a Point; wherein they cannot seem to fail, but with infinite dishonour to themselves and an irreparable prejudice to the Protestant Cause. For as there is no Doctrine wherein the Romanists and we differ more true, so there is none any thing near so potent for the bearing off all their assaults against us, as this of their Church being that City of Babylon which the People of God are expressly commanded to come out of, lest they partake of her sins and of her plagues. Which that Apoc. 18. 4. wise Prince, King James of ever-glorious memory, knew full well, and accordingly kept entire those Primitive Sentiments of the Protestant Reformation, or rather adorned them and improved them by his Royal Pen; as also did those singularly. Devout and Learned Prelates, Bishop Andrews and Bishop Jewel, and several other Pious and Learned Bishops of our Church. Nor will I omit how explicit our Church herself is touching this point in her Homily of the Peril of Idolatry, as also in that against Rebellion. Which illustrious witnesses to so concerning a Truth it were both uncivil and unjust to either suspect or accuse of Uncharitableness. And for my own part I cannot but farther add, (having such an apprehension of things as I have, and so great encouragement from those Heroical Examples in whose footsteps I insist for the main in my Prophetic Interpretations) that I should think myself not only Unfaithful to the true Church of Christ and to the Interest of his Kingdom, which Charity will never betray, but Uncharitable also even to the Church of Rome herself, if I should not use this liberty of prophesying against her which I have, or rather of interpreting Prophecies for her just Reproof and Amendment. Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat. That saying is true as well of him that conceals the sore of his friend, when the disclosing thereof tends to the healing of it, as of him that conceals his own sore. And her own professed Nurslings either cannot or dare not use these Scripture▪ Reproofs to her, they being either blinded with her Lustre, or terrified by her Cruelty. Whence it must be some good Samaritan Stranger that must work her cure. But if it be Uncharitableness to speak some few hard words against her, though never so true, what Barbarity would it be to expose her to the greatest hardships of Fortune that humane Affairs are obnoxious to? as, suppose, to betray her to the successful Rage and Ravin of the overflowing Turk? would that be such a piece of endearing Kindness and Charity? And yet surely those do so to her that sow pillows under her Elbow, that sooth her up, and call her my Sister and my Mother, and say there are no considerable miscarriages in her; whenas she stands guilty of all those sins that are reckoned up, Revel. 9 20, 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, multifarious Idolatries, bloody Persecutions, Conjuring or Enchanting, defiled Coelibate, and pious Frauds or wicked Policies, with Impenitency added to them all. For these sins have the Locusts and Euphratean Horsemen, the Turks and Saracens, laid waste the Eastern Church; and yet it is Uncharitable to admonish the Latin Church thereof, which is much more guilty of these high miscarriages; yea and that in such a time as the Mahometan Forces have fallen so grievously upon the disspirited Empire, and have made all fly before them. To give a stop to whose fury for the future, I am confident nothing can be more effectual than the Reformation of the Roman Church according to the Word of God and the first Primitive Ages, or, to speak more compendiously, according to the platform of our excellent English Reformers. For this would put a new life and spirit into Christendom, and make her grow young and strong again, and able to repulse the Turkish forces for ever with Victory. And truly the whole sum of what may seem either so affrightful or distasteful in my old, Orthodox Protestant way of interpreting the ensuing Prophecies to either the Church of Rome herself or any of her hidden friends or well-willers, is but to reduce the whole Western Church to that unexceptionable Purity and Beauty that our Royal and Reverend Reformers, through the special assistence of God, did reduce this of ours. But if this be of such excellent purpose, must it not be to very great purpose to make the Church of Rome sensible that she wants this Reformation? And is there any thing that can convince her more of that want than that her enormous miscarriages are so plainly depainted (as most certainly they are) in those Visions we have explained in this Treatise; nay are very stingingly and satirically set out by the Spirit of God on purpose to awake the Christian World out of this deep Sopour or Lethargy? For it must be some such rousing Rebuke that can wean or reclaim that Church from so inveterate errors rooted in Custom and founded in a sweet bewitching Interest not to be parted withal upon any easy terms. Which power of the Light of the true meaning of these Prophecies that obnoxious Church does plainly acknowledge herself sensible of, in her hiding herself as well as she can from the convictive perstringency of them, and in getting men to palliate her deformities with all possible art, and to shelter off the searching gleams and piercing Lustre of these veracious Visions by their false and adulterate Glosses: Which is the greatest Uncharitableness and Disser vice that can possibly be done unto her, thus to lull her asleep, to be surprised by the irresistible wrath of God, and to expose her to the fury of his Jealousy. Wherefore had she not better cease to take Sanctuary in such forced and incredible misinterpretations of Scripture, and letting go those false shifts, reform herself according to that Platform which has so manifest approbation from the Divine Oracles, in a sense not only credible but true? 16. For it is demonstratively true by the second Consectary of my Joint-Exposition, That the Church was not grown Antichristian till How well the Protestant Reformation is attested to out of the Apocalypse; especially that of our English Church. And what were the main hindrances to the Author from the applying so illustrious an Event to the Prediction. about 400 years after Christ; As also from the proportion of the Outward Court to the Inward, that it was Symmetral till about that time. Which approvable Ages of the Church were the Pattern of our English Reformation. Besides that, as I have already intimated, the said Reformation is an eminent Speciminal completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses: So that the Rectitute thereof is ratified as well from those Visions that prefigure the Recovery of the Church, as from those that signify her primaevall Purity. Nor can those Perstrictions of the less perfect condition of things, which I elsewhere have noted touching the Reformed Churches, be rightly conceived to concern our English Church; both because it had disappeared in a manner when I penned that Treatise, as also because of her special immunity from those Imputations, as may appear from my Vindication of her at the end of this present Discourse. And as for the whole Protestant Reformation, I must freely and ingenuously confess, I had something a lesser value for it then it does deserve, being born down by the authority of our best Interpreters into a belief that we were not yet past the Sixth Trumpet, much less had advanced any thing in the Seventh. According to which supposition some things have passed my Pen in the Mystery of Godliness, which I here take the opportunity of recalling; judging it, with Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Etbic. Nicom. lib. 1. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which duty is more indispensable in Theology. Though here I must confess I do not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the mistake being not originally mine, but others. Which yet I the more easily swallowed down by reason of my Computing the Woman's abode in the Wilderness, and the mournful condition of the Witnesses, by Days, and not by Semitimes, as the Three days and Half did indigitate. By the former of which Computes the Woman could not be come out of the Wilderness nor the Witnesses be rose from the dead till about this time. But reckoning by Semitimes, the Protestant Reformation will very easily and naturally be a Speciminall Completion of the Prophecy of their Resurrection, it plainly happening in the last Half-Day or Semitime, according to prediction: Nor does the Prophecy require any greater accuracy of Compute then so. Which I confess is a great ease to my mind in the Apprehension of things. For examining the Frame of our Church, and finding it such as I have represented it in the two last Chapters of this Book, it was so near to what (according to my best Judgement) I could desire, and had hinted at in some passages of my Mystery of Godliness, that methought it fared so with me in this matter, as it did once with a musing companion of mine and myself in a short Journey we took together, when we asked the way to a certain Town we were to go to, even then when we had already unawares got into the midst of it. The Reddition is very easy and obvious. But nothing then puzzled me but my compute by Days, as I said, instead of Semitimes, which hindered me from rightly applying so illustrious an Event to the Prediction. But correcting that error, as also a false surmise that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies the full expiration of the time to which it is prefixed, the Application of the Prophecy proved very easy to me, nor do I at all doubt but that it is a Prediction of the Protestant Reformation in Christendom in general. Of which notwithstanding this of the Church of England seems the most noble Specimen, and the Resurrection of the Witnesses and their Ascension more high, more full, more orderly, and more answerable to the Vision, here, than any where else that I know. 17. And as if Providence had a more special eye to this Church A peculiar Attestation to the Church of England in the Completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses above the rest of the Reformed Churches. and to the Platform of the Reformation thereof then to any other, as it indeed seems to me to exceed all the rest in several main Respects, (as in her moderation in the Cinq-Points, her perfect freeness from all manner of superstitious and imposturous Opinions and Usages, her declaredness concerning things indifferent, and apert profession of them to be such, and her Loyal Obsequiousness to the Sovereign Power, with others of the like nature, which at least jointly considered make her condition peculiar;) so she seems to me also to have a more full and peculiar privilege in her being witnessed to from above then any of the rest have. For beside her Resurrection in the East Reformation, which fell within the last Semitime, and is common to her with the rest, she has had of late, after she was suppressed and in a manner extinct for so many years together, another most glorious and unexpected Resuscitation to life, our. Zerobabel and Jesuah, that is to say, that Regal and Episcopal Power of England, which were the first Founders and Establishers, and are now the present Restorers and Upholders of so well a constituted Church, being so happily and providentially restored again to the Nation: What is this but another Resurrection from the dead to the slain Witnesses, and a second Testimony from Heaven to the Sacredness and Inviolableness of our English Reformation, and that beyond all cavil and exception, it falling out not within the last Semitime at large, as the former did, but just at the expiration thereof, or, if you will, of the 1260 Days? For taking a fit Epocha for the matter in hand, which concerns the purely Christian and Antichristian Periods of the Church, and I think there can be none more fit than that year wherein so many were converted to the faith at Antioch, insomuch that the Church was then first called Christian, which was the fourtieth year from the Nativity of Christ; if we add to these forty years 360, the time of the Church's continuing Symmetral, and 1260, the time of the mournful Prophecy of the Witnesses, or of their Political Death; the very last year of the whole sum is the year 1660: Which therefore must be the last year of the Witnesses sad and calamitous condition. And, lo! to the admiration of the whole world, in the very selfsame year is the restoring of our English Protestant Regal and Episcopal Power; our Moses and Aaron do not only stand upon their feet, but ascend into Heaven in a cloud, the whole world looking up and wondering at them. Can there be a more fit fulfilling of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses than this? or a more ample Testimony to the Excellency of our English Reformation, such as I have deciphered at the end of this Book, than this completion of the Prophecy? or, lastly, a more urgent obligation from Divine Providence upon these so miraculouslyrevived Witnesses for the perfecting of Faith and Holiness? Whom God seems on purpose, after his paternal chastisements, to have restored in such a point of time as may for ever re-mind them of the end of their restitution, namely, That they may never fail with all faithfulness and diligence to witness to the Truth, and to support, propagate and emprove that saving Light of the Gospel which was * Namely, since Popery. first let into this Island by their Pious and Reverend Predecessors, the first renowned Authors of so blessed a Reformation, and keep it intemerate and incorrupt from all Papal impurities, and adorn it with all sanctity of life and sobriety of conversation. 18. Wherefore there is no reason at all for any Protestant Party to look That the Reformed part of Christendom is the real Fifth Monarchy; and how perilous a Project that of Grotius is, to reconcile the Protestant Churches to the Church of Rome before she be reconciled to the ancient Apostolic Church of the Primitive Ages. upon the Apocalypse, if rightly understood, as such an affrightful Mormo or Megaera; and less for the English Church then any, there being such illustrious Testimonies therein of her peculiar worth and precellency. And as for the Roman Church herself, though she be, I must confess, most sharply and satirically reproved in some Visions there [Ch. 17 & 18.] and seems most dreadfully to be menaced; yet I am well assured that none of those Comminations are meant in the harshest sense, unless she will by her own obstinacy make them so; but only of a destruction of what is evil in her, and of the Reformation of her from what is really and properly Antichristian. But she is indeed there charged most plainly and apertly, in the judgement of any one that is not wilfully blind, with the highest Instances of Antichristianism, to the end that she might Reform and repent, and undergo no Destruction but what is her real Perfection; As certainly it would be to be reduced to the Purity of the Primitive times, or to take a Pattern from our Church which is already so conformable thereto. Which free Advertisement to this so deeply apostatised Church of Rome I think is the greatest act of Charity that any member of Christ can do for her. But for us Protestants to reconcile to her, before she be reconciled to the Primitive Church in those Symmetrall Ages thereof, would be to rend ourselves from Christ and his Church, or at least to daub with untempered mortar. Associate yourselves, Oye people, and ye shall Esay 8. 9 be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. So little good can there come of that Union that is founded in that which is so evil. For, to make the Church of Christ seem all of one piece by the Protestants conforming to the Church of Rome, were indeed to make all Christendom one entire Field of Egyptian Reeds for the fire of God's Jealousy to consume. Such Counsels, I say, were not only unskilful and perilous, but downright Treachery and Treason against the Empire of Christ and against the Princes of the Provinces thereof. For it were the betraying of any Protestant Prince to the displeasure of God and wrath of the Lamb, to persuade him to come again under the Laws and Religion of that Man of Sin; and so to betray that trust Christ has committed to him, by thus perfidiously surrendering part of his regained Empire into the hands of his declared enemy. For I say the Reformed parts of Christendom are the Empire of Christ and the real Fifth Monarchy, (to the shame and reproach of those blind Enthusiasts that would tumultuously and rebelliously erect it where it already is) not to be impaired by Revolts to Antichrist, but to be propagated, improved and enlarged by the ruin and destruction of his Kingdom. Accordingly as Daniel has foretold touching the little Horn with the eyes of a man and a Dan. 7. 8. mouth speaking great things, (which I have demonstrated against Grotius to be meant of the Papacy) That this Judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume Dan. 7. 26. and destroy it unto the end. So that according to the design of God the Papacy is to decay and consume after the rising of the Witnesses, and that the Seventh Trumpet has once begun to sound. For in it the Mystery of God is to be finished, and the Seven Apoc. 10. 7. Vials to be poured on the Two-horned Beast or the False-Prophet. Which Seventh Trumpet has begun to sound already, and we are under the first Thunder thereof comprising the Seven Vials, which are the Seven last Plagues, and we are under the effusion of the Third of them. And therefore to sound a retreat to Rome under the Conduct of Grotius or of any one else, were to bid battle against Heaven, and to harden our faces against the dreadful Flashes and direful Thunderclaps of the Almighty; against whom there is neither Force nor Counsel, neither can any man disannul his Judgement. For who has Job 40. 9 an arm like God? or who can thunder with a voice like him? There are many devices in a man's heart: nevertheless the Pro. 19 21. Counsel of the Lord that shall stand. SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA; OR A compendious Prospect into the Prophecies in the Holy Scriptures touching the ANTICHRIST to come. BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. That the Antichristianism we have so punctually described in our Idea, and is for the general so notoriously known to have overrun the Church, is in truth a kind of Paganochristianism. 2. That it is incredible that there should be no Divine Predictions of so considerable a Change. 3. The ill-spent pains of those Interpreters who endeavour to obscure such Predictions by distorting them to other useless meanings. 4. Whether this Great Antichrist be prophesied of in the Epistle of S. John, under that very Name. 5. That Barchocab, if applicable at all to the Text, may be a Type of this famous Antichrist. 6. That the mention of those many Antichrists in S. John was occasioned from the fame of that Great Antichrist predicted in Daniel. 7. That there is much-what the same reason of the slowness of Christians in discovering the true Antichrist, as of the Jews in discovering the true Christ 8. That a fraudulent and Hypocritical Opposer of Christ may be as real and considerable an Antichrist as an open Enemy; as also S. John's description as easily applicable to him. 9 The inept Niceness of declining the Name of Antichrist; and that the Title was put upon this great Enemy of the Church by the ancient Fathers occasionally from this Epistle of S. John. 10. Certain Considerations proposed touching the Obscurity of the Prophetic style. 1. WE have sufficiently discovered to what a great measure the Church of Christ may degenerate, or rather apostatise, from the Purity of the Gospel into that abhorred condition of Antichristianism, and yet retain the external Profession of Christianity; using indeed the Name and History of Christ and his Apostles, but introducing thereupon such a face of Idolatry and Heathenish Superstition and barbarous Cruelty against the true Servants of Christ, that by those whose judgements are more free and piercing, such a state of the Church cannot but be deemed rather a Revival of Paganism than an uninterrupted Succession of true Christianity in the world; or, to use the softest language that the truth of the thing will admit of, it cannot be judged pure and unadulterate Christianity, but a kind of Paganochristianism, the Pagan Rites, Idolatries and Superstitions being practised upon Christian Objects, and this Paganism in this pretended Christianity being maintained with as ferine cruelty as Paganism itself was in the time of the Heathen Emperors. It remains now, according to our proposed Method, to search into the holy Oracles, to find out Whether such a kind of Antichristianism as I have described be not prefigured therein; and Whether so horrible a Mutation in the Church of Christ, which for the general it is apparent (even in the judgements of all that are not wilfully blind) has for these many Ages seized upon the Church, was not predicted of old by the Prophets, or Apostles, or by both. 2. For it seems to me a wonderful thing and incredible, That God, who was so careful and watchful over the Church of the Jews, foretelling their Captivities and Returns out of Captivity, and fore-advertising them in a manner of all their affairs of Importance by the mouths of his Prophets sometimes many hundred years before, should leave the Church of Christ for so great a number of Ages without Ephod and without Teraphim, without Prophets or timely Predictions what things would betid her in the decursion of so long a space as twelve or thirteen hundred years together, to let her be bewildered thus in so endless a Night, and leave her floating upon the waves without any Cynosura to steer by. Wherefore I do not doubt but Christ has been so faithful to his Spouse, that he has left some Oracular Records wherein a man may read, if he come with unprejudiced eyes, in a very legible Character, the state and condition of the Church, and this grand Apostasy of it, with the most notorious circumstances thereunto appertaining; that is to say, He shall find in a manner all those Heads of Antichristianism which I have insisted upon, intimated some way or other, and charged upon that Church especially which History has found so guilty thereof. 3. Which thing I being so fully persuaded of in my own judgement, cannot without a great measure of grief or indignation reflect upon the misspent pains of some learned Pens, who have endeavoured to pervert all those illustrious Prophecies (whether in Daniel, the Apocalypse or other places) that do forewarn the people of God of this grand Degeneracy of the Church, unto some other sense and meaning, though never so forced and frivolous, though never so strained and inconsiderable; thereby obscuring both the glorious Providence of God, of whose watchfulness over his Church the true and easy sense of these Prophecies is a most ample witness, as also hindering that benefit which was to accrue to us by the right understanding of these holy Prefigurations and Predictions, which if rightly interpreted would be of wonderful great virtue for the reclaiming of the world and converting of Christendom to that ancient and Apostolic purity as well in Practice as Doctrines from which they have so long time swerved. Wherefore out of a due sense of the Honour of God and the Interest of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, I hold it fit to bring into view all those Prophecies as well of the Old as New Testament that have been by the Ancients understood of this Antichristian Apostasy; and with an unprejudiced freedom and impartiality to unfold the meaning of them. Which I hope I shall do with that plainness and simplicity of evidence, offering so unforced, so easy and so natural a sense of things and so coherent with undubitable Principles, that there is no man that is not grossly prejudiced but will receive full satisfaction concerning the true meaning of these Divine Oracles. 4. I must confess that it is hard to produce any Text of Scripture wherein this Apostatised state of the Church is undoubtedly foretold under the very Name of Antichrist, though that Name be found more than once in the Epistles of S. John, But though some do, yet I dare not contend that this Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto described is so clearly pointed at in every one of those places. Not only Grotius, but Mr. Mede himself understands those Antichrists of the Pseudo-christs that our Saviour foretells of in Matthew, which should start up before and after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the last hour of the Jewish Commonwealth. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indifferently rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) and the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel being the last, the time of that Kingdom may be also intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Whence that in S. John * 1 Ep. 2. 18. [My little children, it is the last hour, and as you heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that that famous Antichrist will come, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know it is the last hour] may bear this sense upon supposition the Prediction is somewhat Elliptically set down; That the last time in Daniel's Calendar of his Four Kingdoms, that is to say, the last Kingdom, was then a running on, which is the Roman, during which Kingdom the Little horn, which here is called Antichrist, shall come upon the stage. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith he) that famous Antichrist whom you may have heard of out of Daniel, but this is a greater distance off. Wherefore to speak what more pressly concerns you, Even now there are many Antichrists, which not Daniel, but our Saviour foretold of, whereby again we know it is the last hour; but I mean not of the Four Kingdoms of Daniel, but of the Jewish Commonwealth, according as our Lord has predicted. Or more briefly thus; My little children, it is the last hour, that is to say, the last Kingdom of the Four, namely the Roman: and as you have heard that that famous Antichrist will then come, viz. in that last hour; so also now in the last hour of the Jewish Polity there are many Antichrists, whence we may gather it is the last hour thereof, these many Antichrists, according to prediction, attending this last hour, as that one famous Antichrist that. In some such sense as this, I do confess that that Antichrist or Antichristianism which I have hitherto treated of may be by very Name intimated in this Text of Scripture, though I shall quarrel with no man that would interpret it otherwise. Grotius expounds this famous Antichrist, of whom they might have heard, of Barchocab. But there being no mention of any one famous Impostor above the rest in our Saviour's Predictions in Matthew, it is very suspicable that this rumour was raised out of the Prophecy of Daniel touching that little mischievous Horn; which certainly is a Prophetic Figure of that eximious Antichrist that was to come. 5. The same Author also interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; of Barchocab, and renders it Quis potest esse major impostor? and I believe very rightly. For it were a dilute business for the Apostle to describe Antichrist only by the bare denial of Jesus his being the Christ, that great King, Priest and Prophet sent of God to whom all Nations should flow. For such Antichrists are all Infidels, which are innumerable. Wherefore such a Denier of Christ is here intimated as by playing the Impostor and by making of himself Christ, or by putting of himself into the place of the true Christ, which is Jesus, denies Jesus to be the Christ, and so by denying him denies him that sent him, and witnessed of him that he was his beloved Son whom all should hear. Such an Antichrist was Barchocab especially, who by making himself the Messiah, did thereby plainly deny that Jesus was he. But as there were eximious Types of Christ amongst the people of the Jews, and such as one and the same Prophecies touch as well as Christ himself; so it is obvious to conceive that there might also Antichrists arise among the said people, to whom all things befell in figures, which were Types of the famous Antichrist in the Christian Church, and that one and the same Text might point at both, as it is not hard to conceive that this does. For as for that great Antichrist which I have described in my Idea of Antichristianism, it is plain that he puts Jesus out of his Kingly, Priestly and Prophetic Office, usurping all that himself, or conferring it upon others, as is there copiously declared. Wherefore he making himself so absolute an Head of the Church, he does ipso facto cut off Jesus from being Head of the same, and thereby discovers himself to be that notorious Antichrist in Christendom; And by denying that Jesus is that Supreme King, Priest and Prophet to whom all are to listen and obey, whose Decrees and Words are an immutable Law, he does thereby deny also the Father that sent him, as much as any other Antichrist amongst the Jews can be imagined ever to have done. For which of them was ever said to have professed himself an Atheist? 6. Which things duly considered will enable us with ease to understand also the meaning of what is writ in the fourth chapter of this Epistle of S. John, where he saith, That every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Messiah come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is the Messiah come in the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist which you have heard shall come, and is now already in the World. The vulgar Latin hath it, Et hic est Antichristus de quo audîstis quoniam venit, & nunc jam in mundo est. Which implies they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Of which Antichrist you have heard that he shall come. And he adds, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like that of S. Paul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the futurity of a more notorious Antichrist is not excluded in neither place. In this of S. John, Grotius again understands the Impostor Barchocab; but the Ancients, even the Romanists themselves, the famous Antichrist of the Fathers, Whence it is confessedly true both from Grotius and the Romanists, that such a Denier of Jesus his being the Messiah or Christ come in the flesh is understood as is an Impostor, and boasts himself to be that Christ, whereby he denies Jesus to be him; as I have noted upon the former Text. And the sense of both may be this, namely, That whereas those to whom S. John wrote had received a rumour or fame of that eximious Antichrist that was to come into the world in the last time, occasioned (I doubt not) from Daniel's Prophecies of the little Horn and of that King of pride that would exalt himself above all; the Event of these Prophecies being further off, though at last certainly to come, he fixes their minds upon such Antichrists as were nearer at hand; and though but the Types and Figures of that great Antichrist to come some Ages after, yet of more concernment to them to take notice of: but in the interim describes Antichrist so, that though it does more palpably point at these Types of the future Antichrist, yet the Description, more narrowly searched into, takes fast hold also on that great Antichrist himself, forasmuch as it is implied, that it is one who by way of imposture puts himself into the place of Jesus, who is the true Christ, that King, Priest and Prophet appointed by God, to whom all must submit. Which not only Barchocab and such false Messiasses in the Jewish Commonwealth have done, but he that has so made himself the Head of the Church as to null the Laws and Doctrines of Christ is deprehended to do the like also. 7. I must confess the Opposition and Intrusion of this grand Antichrist among Christians is more obliqne and more subtle than the claim of those false Messiasses amongst the Jews: but we are withal to take notice that the Christians Messiah or Christ is more spiritual than what the Jews expected, and therefore it is no wonder that their Antichrist be of another nature; not a gross and violent Invader of the Empire of Christ, but a more cunning Impostor and insinuating Hypocrite. Nor are we to marvel that Christendom has been so slow-sighted in discovering this Antichrist after he was come; the same thing happening to them that befell the Jews, who could not discern their Messiah when he daily conversed before their eyes. For both these mistakes arose from a like prejudice and false prenotion of things: the Jews deciphering in their minds such a Messiah as should conquer Kingdoms for them, and make them a rich and potent people upon Earth; (so crass and external a conceit had they of his Power and Office) and the Christians prefiguring such an Antichrist as would cast away the external profession of Christ, and directly and professedly oppose him in his Kingdom. 8. But fraudulent and hypocritical Opposition is as true and a more mischievous Opposition then that which is open and direct. And he that calls another Lord and King, but professes a power of abrogating his Laws, and of making what Laws he lists himself, and of forcing this Prince's Subjects to obey them, this man has really made himself King. And therefore he that takes upon him the power to null the Laws of Christ, and makes new ones of his own for the Rule of Christendom, he in like manner makes himself Christ, and is a more eminent Antichrist then Barchocab, whom Grotius would bear us in hand to be the man indigitated by S. John in these words, The Antichrist of whom you have heard that he shall come; whenas I have already noted that they had no news of any one eminent Antichrist but from the little Horn in Daniel, and that King of pride that exalts himself above all that is called God. And truly all those dreadful particularities comprised in the Description of Antichrist in S. John will be found in this Man of sin. For in making himself Christ, which he does interpretatively, he does therewithal deny Jesus to be him, who is the Giver of a Law indispensable by any Power upon Earth, his Decrees being the Decrees of the Eternal Son of God. Wherefore he that takes upon him the power of contradicting, of nulling and dispensing with these Doctrines and Decrees, does thereby deny that Jesus is the Son of God; and he that denies the Son, denies also the Father that sent him. This sense, I think, will appear very plain to any indifferent judgement; and I need not insist any longer thereon, having intimated something to the same purpose before. Only I will suggest how ordinary it is in Scripture to charge the sinner directly with what he perpetrates but interpretatively. As where God says, the Israelites did not sacrifice to him in Amos 5. 25. the wilderness: which is true only interpretatively, forasmuch as they sacrificed also to other Gods, and so did not sacrifice to Jehovah the true See Idea Antichrist, book 2. chap. 6. sect. 6. God, he being so matchless a Perfection that he is uncapable of any Corrival or Copartner in Religious Worship; which they doing to others, they interpretatively disowned Jehovah to be what he was, and therefore sacrificed not to him, no not when they pretended it, but to a Figment of their own fancy. So Jeremy makes the Jews to say to a Stock, Thou art my Father, and to a Stone, Thou hast begotten me: which Charge notwithstanding Jer. 2. 27. is only true interpretatively, forasmuch as they did Religious Worship to Stocks and Stones, and thereby acknowledged them to be God, the Father of all Mankind and Creator of the world. And, lastly, in this very Epistle S. John says, that he that denies that Jesus is the Christ, denies both the Father and the Son. But who ever heard that Barchocab or any other Jewish Pseudo-christ directly denied God that was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Several like Examples occur in Scripture, which are so obvious that it is needless to produce them. These may serve for a pledge of the reasonableness of our Interpretation. 9 But suppose we should give up all for lost in S. John's Epistle, and acknowledge that this eminent Antichrist, that has reigned thus long in Christendom, is not pointed at in any place of that Writing; it will follow, I confess, that this Antichristian Power which we have so amply described in our other Treatise is no no where in Scripture called Antichrist; and so that corrupt Highpriest with his apostatising Clergy will be exempted from the infamy of being branded with that very Name by the finger of God himself: but in the mean time I cannot but deem this as ridiculous a piece of niceness and shieness thus to abhor from names, when the things thereby signified are so conspicuous in the party, as if some Monster of men of twelve cubit's stature should conceive a great indignation at the being called Gigas, but think himself not at all injured by the appellation of Dodecapechys; whenas a man on this side of twelve cubit's stature may fitly and justly be styled Giant. But for my own part, I think it was more for compendium then for any greater disgracefulness of the Title, that that Person or Body politic which was really become Antichristian was vulgarly called Antichrist, rather than The Whore of Babylon, The two-horned Beast, The Man of sin, and the like; which Titles are no less odious, though less compendious. And it is observable that those Texts of Scripture upon which the ancient Fathers have written, A Prophecy of Antichrist, let us suppose them to have fetched the Title from whence you will, (though I doubt not but they had it from this Epistle of S. John) are to admiration fit and applicable to those Events we see before our eyes in the Roman Hierarchy. If therefore we will stand to the Nomenclature of the Ancients, those Prophecies which they interpreted of Antichrist being found plainly and undoubtedly to concern that degenerate Body of Christendom, there is all reason that the said Body with the Head thereof should be noted by that more general and compendious Appellation. 10. But for the making out that wonderful fitness and applicableness of these Prophecies, it is a business more operose and laborious, and will be the more successfully attempted if we prepare the way by some Considerations concerning the Obscurity of the Prophetic style, especially in Daniel and the Apocalypse; as namely, Wherefore this Obscurity is, and then, Wherein it consists, and lastly, What is the best way to clear and familiarize the same unto us. CHAP. II. 1. Why Prophecies are wrapped up in some considerable Obscurity. 2. An indispensable necessity of these kinds of involutions in regard of man's Free will: 3. As also in regard of the Enemies of the Church, both Men and Devils. 4. Arecital of such Schemes and Figures wherein this Obscurity does most-what consist. 5. What Diorismus is, with several examples of Numeral Diorisms. 6. That it seems most safe to expound the * Rev 9 5, & 10. five months of the Locusts according to this Figure. 7. The reason of the use of Numeral Diorisms. 8. From whence also some light is offered toward the understanding the reason of the uncertain designation of * Vers. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 Examples of Proportional Diorisms; 10. As also of Specifical. 1. THat Prophecies are delivered in obscure Ambages, we need neither admire, nor aught to complain, there being so evident reason for it and so just. For it is fit that that knowledge that is so far removed above humane capacity should be received with as humble and profound veneration, which Obscurity and Mysteriousness conciliates to all Truths, but is most due to them that are the greatest and the most beyond our natural reach, as this of Prophecy is. Besides that this Obscurity does not a little bridle or oppose that precipitant fervour and heat wherewith men are usually carried to the knowledge of things to come. Which though it fall to the shares of very few to be immediate Receivers of; yet if any one be, all men are ready to throng and crowd to him, out of that natural curiosity and desire of being instructed concerning future events. Upon which fiery and prurient itch after the knowledge of Futurities Providence has cast this bridle of hard and Enigmatical uttering of Prophetical Predictions; as he has the Laws of natural shame and modesty, besides superinduced Institutes of Religion and humane Policy, upon that impetuous propension of experimenting the pleasures of the Nuptial Bed, that so strong Inclinations may not be gratified without the Ceremony of some tedious attendance and expectation thereof. And it may be that this Expectation and hope, being a kind of prelibation of enjoyment, may in both cases lengthen out the pleasure. 2. But there is also a great necessity of this Obscurity which we have not yet hinted, and that is, That these Divine Predictions concerning the Church of God may not be easily or at all understood by those that are to be the fulfillers of them, till the appointed time come, when it may be without prejudice to the true Church; that is to say, That things are not to be so clearly prefigured as would bear too hard against that free Principle in Man whereby he does (unless thus miraculously called to from Heaven) determine his ways according to his own pleasure. For so plain a Divine Prediction as should certainly inform the party that he should do such an act as would tend to his shame and destruction, or be a badge or mark conspicuous and infallible to all the world that he was that odious person that so ill a fate must attend; would without all doubt (unless God should use a strong force upon him to make him fulfil the Prophecy) cause him to decline the fulfilling of it merely for his own honour and security, and make him omit any such circumstances as he is prefigured by, to the end that he may deface the characteristics of his own person in the Prophecy. As for example, If S. John had said expressly, that by the Two-horned Beast and by The Whore of Babylon he did understand a Succession of Bishops of Rome with their whole Hierarchy adhering thereunto; it would be an hard thing to conceive that this Ecumenical Prelate would not, to hid his shame, have been tempted to change his Seven-hilled See, that he might not seem to be the man at whom the Prophecy pointed. At least they would never have wrote Mysterium upon the Pope's Crown, as it is on the Whore of Babylon, if they had been ware that his Holiness had been so much concerned in that Vision. Nor can we imagine that, if instead of Six hundred sixty six, Twenty five had been said to be the Number of the Beast, the Church of Rome would have affected that Number so much as they have. And many more such Instances may be produced. But God could hardly be said to leave man in the hand of his own Counsel, and let him act freely according to his own nature, if he should have uttered these Divine Oracles concerning future things in so plain and naked a manner, and yet brought about the fulfilling of them. 3. Besides this, The knowledge of future things concerning the Church communicated to the Enemies thereof may tend to her prejudice; it being ordinarily unsafe to let an Adversary get intelligence of our consultations and purposes. Which is not only true in respect of Men, but of those Invisible enemies of the Church, who ever attempt her and oppose her under the conduct of the Prince of the Powers of the air, who are the great Abettors and Assisters of the children of Disobedience. An eximious instance whereof is that taken notice of by Mr. Mede out of S. Austin; How the Devil (who of old had so much skill in Mathematics as to puzzle the Athenians by the Problem of doubling the Cube) computing the proportion betwixt the Outward Court of the Temple and the Inward, which it seems he found to be as 1260 to 365, or thereabout, presently concluded, That Christianity would continue but 365 years in the World, and that then Paganism would up again: And therefore adorning the credit of his own Oracles by this stolen, but misunderstood, Prediction out of the Apocalypse, gave it out accordingly, that thereby he might hinder men's conversion to the Faith of Christ. Which I think is argument enough to persuade us how necessary it is that the holy Prophecies should be wrapped up in Enigmatical cover, and be made of uncertain Interpretation by undeterminable lubricities, till either Events, or some faithful Interpreter more than ordinarily assisted by God, shall give their clear Solution. 4. Now for the Art of obscuring Predictions wherein it consists; though I will not undertake the declaration of the whole, yet I will bring in as great a share thereof as may, at least, suffice for our present design: which I shall comprise in the Explication of these few Prophetic Figures or Schemes, which I will venture to call Diorismus, Hylasmus, Henopoeia, Zoopoeia, Israelismus, Ellipsis, Metalepsis, Homonymia, Antichronismus, Icasmus; most of which do as well embellish and adorn the external Cortex of Prophecies, as conceal and cover the more precious and inward Sense of them. 5. Diorismus is such a Scheme of the Prophetic style as polishes the outward letter with an appearing sense of a very exact and determinate account of things either as to Number, Proportion, or Specification. Which does the more strongly strike the Fancy, as an Object settled and unmoved makes a stronger impress upon the Sight then that which is flitting, as ordinary Experience tells us. So any determinate Conception does more vigorously and palpably affect the Mind then what is more general and undeterminate. An Example of the first kind of this Figure I conceive is that, Apocal. 2. Ye shall have the affliction of ten days. Where I must confess I could never imagine that spoken otherwise then figuratively by a Diorismus, and to be a modest subinsinuation of the most perfect and full persecution, as is intimated from the following words, Be thou faithful unto death, etc. See Vatablus and Drusius upon the place, who produces several examples of Ten being put for many. Which sense if the Ten Horns on the Beast be supposed to have, there is no absurdity in admitting that meaning; though I do not condemn their industry that are so solicitous to find just Ten and no more. For it may the more potently convince the obstinate, while others may be satisfied that that condition is only intimated of the Empire when it was divided into a considerable Number of Kingdoms or Principalities enjoying Sovereign Power within themselves. And that the Hundred forty four thousand with the Lamb on Mount Zion are not to be conceived just so many or so few, any one will grant that observes that the number 144 is only the square of 12, and therefore, according to the mode of the ancient Cabbala, signifies symbolically the Apostolicalness of that Company, but not their determinate number, no more than 666 the number of them that follow the Beast. I suspect also that those 7000 names of men said to be slain in that great Earthquake, Apocal. 11. is spoken only by way of a Prophetic Diorismus; but what the genuine sense is I shall take notice in its proper place. I will cast in a fourth Example; The 1260 Days, they being but the Diduction of those larger measures of three Times and an half, or of forty two Months, into more numerous parts, it is not irrational to suspect that it was rather for the varying of the phrase and for the polishing of the external frame of the Prophecy by such a determinate numbering of those times or months into 1260 days, then that it did challenge our expectation to be satisfied to a Prophetic day; one Day in so many, and in matters of so voluminous a transaction, being not considerable and of small use, the Epocha also being uncertain from whence the time exactly is to commence. Besides what Mr. Mede has hinted, that varying of the time into Months and into Days respects the works of Light and the works of Darkness: and therefore their continuance who are under the Principality of Light is reckoned by Days; but theirs who are under the Principality of Darkness, the Moon being the Governess of the Night, is reckoned by Months. Wherefore a man might not without ground imagine that there may be a latitude of reckoning in this solution of the three Times and an half, or the 42 Months, into 126 Decades of Days, as well as there is in those Times and Months; and that any variation, above or within, that exceeds not a Decad, breaks no squares; Divine Prophecies being not for the ostentation of God's Omnisciency, (for who knows not but that he can compute Events to the smallest moment of an Hour?) nor yet for the gratifying of the excess of humane Curiosity, but for the use and exercise of his Church. The Witnesses also lying unburied three days and a half is an eximious Example of this Numeral Diorism; but the meaning may be the same with three times and an half, as I have elsewhere intimated. 6. And lastly, the five months allotted to the Locusts for tormenting men, I must confess upon better consideration I do suspect to be a Diorismus Rev. 9 also, and to signify merely Symbolically, not Arithmetically. For the continuation of the Saracenical Kingdom (I mean of that more notable interval thereof from the beginning of the Caliphate of the Abasidae See Mr. Mede's Comment. Apocalypt. upon Chap. 9 at Bagdad to the taking of that City by Togrulbeck) is neither exactly twice five months of years; nor this doubling of the five months sufficiently grounded from the time being twice mentioned in the Prophecy, (for the mentioning of the same number twice in Prophecy or History does not warrant the addition of them to make up a new sum, as if it were a Bill of Particulars;) nor, lastly, is it likely that the Spirit of God would indigitate 300 years by those twice five months, whenas the Duration of the Saracens Empire was much longer, as well as the continuation of the Caliphate at Bagdad not adequate. That Infestation of Italy by the Saracens from the year 830 to 980 had been more plausible, if it had been commensurate; but it extends beyond the year 980. For anno 1001 the Saracens are expelled Capua by Otho, and in the next year they besiege Salernum, in the year 1008 they are raised from the Siege of Barium and Capua, in the year 1017 they invade Italy again; besides other fights and troubles afterwards. But this is enough to show, that five months of years will not be well applicable to their molestation of Italy neither, though I think Mr. Mede has made things look as handsomely as they are capable of. But the Attempt was as well needless as unsuccessful. For there is exactly no determinate time intended by these five months, but it is only an elegant Diorism respecting the Type, which are Locusts, whose continuance in life not reaching to the space of a Year, it was fit, by an Antichronismus, to number by Months. And what number fit than five? not only because it may be a Symbol of incompleteness, (as Ribera suggests, and those Locusts are said only to torment, not kill) but also in respect of the length of their life, which, according to Pliny, Aristotle and other Naturalists, is in all likelihood about five months. So that the solution of the Mystery of these numbers is not merely into such an Antichronismus, where the figurative number will determinate the true, but also into a Diorismus, where this accuracy is expressed in the Cortex, but not intended in the inward meaning. Which Scheme is here used with a special elegancy by reason of the reflection it has upon the noted time of the continuance of those Creatures which are the Type. 7. But why these kind of Diorisms are made use of, and why there is not the same accuracy in the inside of these Prophecies as there is engraven on the outside, is a Problem too curious to inquire into, but not altogether inextricable with those that are well assured of the Cabbalistick style, and also throughly consider how shy Providence is of bearing too hard against that free Principle in Man, by necessarily determining what is more naturally left lose to play of itself, and use its own free Agency. 8. Which also may give an account of the manner of expression of that period of time from the taking of Bagdad by Togrulbeck to the sacking of Constantinople by Mahomet the second. For though the interval of time be just 396 years, as Mr. Mede has made good out of Elmachinus the Arabian Historian; yet the expression of it in the Prophecy, * Apocal. 9 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, may, as generally Interpreters observe, signify no more than their readiness at the time appointed, whether at a day, month, or year. For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all likelihood the Prophecy meant not that part of time which we call an Hour, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the article prefixed may intimate, it being prefixed to it only. And the sense might have been, Ready at the time appointed, whether day, month, or year, that is to say, at any time. But the Event is so exact and conspicuous, that I doubt not but the meaning is, Ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, namely, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ready at that season that is indigitated by both a day and a month and a year, which would be no indication at all but by adding of them together; which then make up 396 days, which stylo Prophetico are so many years. Which answers tightly to the Event, and therefore is a sure stake to fix down this Prophecy of the Euphratean Horsemen to the affairs of the Turkish Empire. Whereby, as also by the Description of the Breastplates of these Horsemen, we know to what Ages of the World this Prophecy appertains, and consequently that of the Locusts. Whence the noting of their time more than by way of Diorism for the adorning of the Prophecy, was the more needless. 9 Examples of Proportional Diorisms are such as these, Apoc. 8. The third part of the Trees was burnt up, The third part of the Ships was destroyed, The third part of the Sea became blood; and ch. 12. The third part of the Sun was smitten, and the third part of the Moon, etc. where Third does not signify the proportion of that which was smitten to that which did escape, but the Empire at large which was smitten is indigitated by this Number. Which has a smack of the Cabbalistick Genius, who use Numbers for the Symbols of things, as I have already noted. So the Tenth part of the City is not the Tenth of the City that then was, but of a City whose extent bore but the proportion of a Tenth part to what it had been, as Mr. Mede has carefully computed. To this head you may also refer that Apoc. 18. Double unto her double according to her works, and Fill unto her double. Which is so definitively spoken as if she should be repaid with as much more as she had injured others; but the sense is only that she should be paid home for all her injurious deal. 10. Examples of Specifical Diorisms are such as usual Synecdoches are that put the Species for the Genus, which being a more determinate Object strikes the Fancy stronglier and with fuller gratification. Thus is the Imagination more loudly alarmed by being informed that such a Thing or Person shall be burnt or consumed with fire, then if it were only said they should perish, or be consumed, and not specify the manner. So to make war is more determinate and specific then to oppose, and to be beheaded then simply to die or be killed, and to be slain more specific then to be destroyed, and lastly, King is a more specific term and more fully strikes upon the fancy then Supreme Magistrate, or whatever other appellation that is more general, and consequently more dilute. Which Examples of this third kind of Diorismus occur up and down in the Apocalypse, and indeed every where in the Prophets. CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is, with the kinds thereof. 2. Eximious Examples of each kind. 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia. 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politic, demonstrated out of Daniel. 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual. 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politic from its rise to its fall. 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politic in the Prophetic style. 8. The second kind of Henopoeia, what it is. 9 What Zoopoeia, with examples thereof. 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples. 1. HYlasmus is a Prophetic Scheme bearing strongly upon the Fancy by exhibiting crass and palpable Objects, such as in Logic would bear the Notion of Subject or Matter. The first kind is coincident with Metonymia Subjecti; as when a City is put for the Inhabitants, or a Temple for them that worship therein. Examples of this kind are frequent every where. To the second kind I would refer such Representations as are from Buildings, Pavements and the like, which are compact of crass and palpable Materials, but are Mystical or Spiritual Symbols of quite another thing. Examples of this kind are the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple, the one Symmetral, the other Asymmetral; which signifies the Christian Church, one while in her Purity, another while in her Apostasy to Idols. So the Holy City trodden down by the Gentiles signifies the Christian Church overrun with Gentilism. So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case is an Emblem of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Body Politic, as Temple may be of the living Church of Christ. 2. An eximious Example of this kind of Hylasmus is the Description of Jerusalem, Apoc. 21. with its high wall and twelve gates, and by a Prophetic Diorism the measure of the City is concluded twelve thousand furlongs, and the wall an hundred forty four cubits; and the Materials are Gold and Pearls and precious Stone. And yet this City so Hylastically set out has a most Spiritual meaning, and signifies nothing else but the Church of Christ reduced again to Apostolical Purity. But the most notable Instance of a Prophetic Hylasmus is the Description of the Temple by Ezekiel, to which I cannot say but this of S. John alludes in several passages: And that it is an Hylasmus, and not a literal Description, I think any one will easily grant that does but peruse the 47 Chapter. Lastly, The destruction of the City Babylon in the Apocalypse is also a remarkable Example of this Scheme: but though in the general it appertain to this second kind of Hylasmus, yet things are there set out very much by the former kind, which is a Metonymia Subjecti, not continentis, as before, but occupantis, the Objects of their Spiritual Negotiations being so crassly discovered and described. 3. The next Prophetic Scheme is Henopoeia, and the most graceful, but withal as much obscuring as any. And the first and chiefest kind thereof is this, The collection of a multitude of Individuals into the show of one Individual, as also of a Succession of Individuals or Multitudes into the show of one standing Individual. This is an ancient method of delivering Mysteries, as any one will discern if he throughly perpend the nature and truth of the ancient Cabbala. Which that both Daniel and S. John, I may add S. Paul too, have imitated in their Prophecies, I think is easily to be evinced. 4. Touching the collection of a Multitude into the show or representation of one Individual, it is plain in Daniel; for one individual Lion there denotes the whole Kingdom of the Babylonians, one Bear the Kingdom Dan. 7. of the Medo-Persians, one Leopard the Kingdom of the Greeks, and the fourth Beast the Roman Kingdom. It is true it is said, The four Beasts are four Kings; but the vulgar Latin has it, four Kingdoms, as also Theodotion, and the Text says expressly, that the fourth Beast is the fourth Kingdom upon earth. So the Ram and the Goat in the eighth Chapter, (according to Grotius his own Interpretation out of the Hebrew Idiom) though they be said to be Kings, are Kingdoms. And whereas it is written, And the rough Goat is the King of Graecia, and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King; unless this Goat either signify a Succession of Kings, or a Kingdom, it is not sense; yea, though Succession, yet it will be very harsh sense to make the great Horn the first King, and the Body the rest. Wherefore unless we would distort things beyond all measure, the Body of the Goat must signify the Kingdom of Graecia, as the Horns the Supreme Power; consonantly to what Grotius has written, and I doubt not but his Interpretation is true. And I think that scarce any one can be so weak, but upon the reading of Daniel he will be assured that in Prophetic Figurations one individual Beast signifies a Multitude of men ordered together into the Body of a Kingdom. 5. But as the great Horn of the He-goat is said to be the first King, so the four Horns undoubtedly signified four succeeding Kings in this divided Kingdom in their several series; so that four Successions of Individuals, so far as they would last, were represented under the show of four single Individuals, namely those four Horns. And truly when it is apparent that one Individual Beast represents the succession of a Multitude for many Ages together, (who are mortal as well as single men) coagmentated into the body of one Kingdom, it were a very nice and humoursome thing to stick at the succession of single Persons being represented under the show of one Head or Horn. 6. And that one and the same Beast stands for a Kingdom or Empire from its rise to its fall, is plain both in Daniel and the Apocalypse. For the Four Beasts are said to rise out of the great Sea, Dan. 7. and the destruction of the Fourth is set down in the same Chapter, who is supposed to tread down the Third, as the Third is after declared to vanquish the Second in the following Chapters. And in the Apocalypse the Rise of the Beasts there is set down, as also their destruction in the Lake of fire and brimstone. Whence it is evident that one Individual Beast represents not only a Multitude of men under one Government, but the Succession of this multitude for many Ages, even till it cease to be such a Multitude; and consequently the successive Sovereignty of this multitude must be thus far represented (be it in one or many) by the Head or Horns of such Beasts, unless we can fancy a Polity without an Head, which would not be a Polity, but Anarchy. 7. Nor are Irrational Creatures only made Henopoetick Types of a Multitude collected into one Government, but also Rational: As it is evident in the Woman in the Wilderness, which it were ridiculous to understand of some one single Woman, and not of the Body of the Church, whose true and living Head is Christ Jesus. The Woman also in Esdras signifies Zion or the people of God; and it may be the Man there coming out of the Sea has some such sense. For why may not one Man signify a People or Multitude as well as one Woman? And it is plain that the people of Israel is called the Son of God, (Israel my son, my firstborn.) And therefore the * 2 Thess. 〈◊〉. Son of perdition and that Man of sin need not signify one single man or a succession of single men, but a Body Politic under one Head of mischievous contrivances. By the like Henopoeia also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the false Prophet, signifies not one single Person, or the succession of such single persons, but a Collection or Body of Deceivers combining together under one Government. These things are so easy and so obvious that I am afraid I shall seem to have insisted overlong upon them. 8. I will only note a second kind of Henopoeia, which is also of useful consideration, and that is when things of different natures are comprised under one Type. We have a very warrantable Instance of this way of interpreting Prophecy, Apoc. 17. where the Angel does declare that not only Seven Kings but Seven Hills are couched under the Symbol of the Seven Heads of the Beast. According to this Analogy it may not be unsafe to interpret Babylon both of the City of Rome and of the Hierarchy; the Two Witnesses, of the Old and New Testament, of them under the Legal and Evangelical dispensation, and of Magistracy and Ministry; the Horns of the two-horned Beast, of the two Imperial Patriarchates, of the two Horns of the Bishop's Mitre, and of the twofold power of Binding and Losing. Which second kind of Henopoeia need not seem new nor strange, the ancient Pythagoreans and Cabalists concealing and crowding together under the Symbol of one single Number many and multifarious Notions. 9 Zoopoeia is the typifying out some inanimate thing by what has life, be it Person, or any other living Creature, or part of that Creature. In which sense the Seven Hills being signified by the Seven Heads of the Beast is a Zoopoeia. As also it would be if we understood * Rev. 11. the Two Witnesses of the Two Books of the Old and New Testament, and the * Rev. 19 Word of God riding the white Horse, of the whole Bible. But I shall in its due place intimate that these are but collateral senses, and reducible to one more primary one by an Henopoeia. The making of * Rev. 6. 〈◊〉. Hell to lackey by him that rides the pale Horse, seems a more absolute Zoopoeia: as also that Gen. 4. The voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the ground; where the actions of life are given to the blood of a dead man. 10. But we will here take notice also of a second kind of Zoopoeia, which may seem less harsh and most elegant; and that is, when free Actions are attributed to free Agents, of which notwithstanding they may be no more the causes then if they were inanimate Being's, or not in being at all. According to this Figure is that of Virgil, in the mouth of Aenea slaying Turnus, — Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas Immolat, & poenas scelerato ex sanguine sumit. Pallas being dead is said to slay Turnus, though he did nothing here towards the slaying of him, but what he suffered only gave occasion to Aeneas to take revenge. According to which Figure of speech a more large Allusion or Parable might be raised. As if Aeneas instead of slaying one single man had sacked a City, put man, woman and child to the sword, burnt their houses, and left them as an heap of stones in revenge of the death of Pallas; he might say of his friend now dead, that it was he that inflamed the courage of the Soldiers to scale the Walls; that it was he that gave out that just, though severe, Edict of slaying man, woman and child; that it was he that burned down their houses, and laid their City levelly with the ground; and, lastly, that it was he whom they deservedly found a more mischievous enemy to them after his death then while he was living. Certainly this Figure of speech would be very intelligible, and withal bear along with it an extraordinary height of Rhetoric and Elegancy. According to this Scheme is that example in Scripture of * Revel. 6. 9 the Souls crying under the Altar, O Lord, how long, etc. Which is nothing but a Parable signifying that their death required Vengeance from the Justice of God. Eae animae (saith Grotius) corpore solutae multò magis quàm sanguis mortem toleratam testantur. For he had said before, Sanguis Abelis vindictam poscit, sic & animae martyrum. Wherefore there is acknowledged a Zoopoeia in both cases. Alcazar also upon the place; Idem est dici Animas petere vindictam ac dici earum sanguinem illam petere. To which sense also speaks Tychonius, as you may see in Ribera. All which will make good this second kind of Zoopoeia, which attributes free and living Actions to free Agents, which in respect of them notwithstanding are no free Actions, but necessary Consequences that result from something that these persons have suffered or do suffer. Which is a Prophetic Scheme worthy the taking notice of. CHAP. IU. 1. Israelismus what it is. 2. That the reason of the frequent use thereof is the Sacramentalness of the Jewish Church in reference to the Christian, as appears in their Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 3. In the brazen Serpent, Manna, strucken Rock, and fiery Law; 4. In the High-priest's Robes, in his entering alone once a year into the most Holy, and in the Jews worshipping towards the Mercy-seat; 5. In their bondage in Egypt, and in their escape through the Red Sea. 6. What is properly a Prophetic Ellipsis. 7. What the meaning of the Apocalyptick Book being written within and without. 8. The difference of a Prophetic Ellipsis illustrated by example. 9 Homonymia what it is, and in what it differs from an Henopoeia of the second kind. 10. What Metalepsis, with the proof and examples thereof. 11. Antichronismus what it is, together with the rise thereof. 12. That the three days and an half of the unburied Witnesses put for three times and an half is apparently resolvible into this Figure. 13. What Icasmus is, and that the frequency of the Figure does not so obscure Prophecies but that they are as intelligible as ordinary Heraldry. 1. ISraelismus is a Prophetic Scheme exceeding frequent, especially in the Apocalypse, which is a speaking of the affairs of the Christian Church under the names and with allusion to such places, or persons, or things, as did of old concern the Israelites and people of the Jews, and that in a mystical or spiritual meaning. * Rev. 11. 8. Which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. From whence is also insinuated that the Plagues on this Mystical Egypt, and the burning of this Spiritual Sodom, must be understood mystically and spiritually. 2. The frequency of this Scheme is not to be wondered at, if we consider that the People of Israel were one great and entire mysterious Type or Sacrament of the Church of God such as it should be under Christ: According as S. Paul has written, * 1 Cor. 10. That all things befell them in figures, but are recorded for our sakes upon whom the ends of the world are come. And truly it is a marvellous and enravishing spectacle to consider how at once the Church of Christ is represented by the people of Israel in the Wilderness, and how their whole Camp was but one living and moving Sacramental Image of Christ and his Body, in the most concerning Points of our Religion. For what was that Tabernacle and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence God spoke, but an Emblem of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacling in our flesh? For the Pythagoreans called this Body of ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as * 2 Ep. ch. 〈◊〉. 13. S. Peter also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, While I am in this tabernacle, saith he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And S. John speaking of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, And the Word was made flesh, and placed his tabernacle amongst us, even as he did in the Wilderness dwell with his people there in a Tabernacle while they dwelled in Booths. And therefore I do wonder that the Jews should scruple more the doing Divine Worship toward the most holy Body of the Messiah then toward the Dabir or Mercy-seat, or toward the Tabernacle of God. But that only by the buy. 3. The Tabernacle therefore of God amongst the Jews living in Tabernacles is a Type or Sacrament of the Incarnation of Christ: The brazen Serpent erected in their Camp such a Type of Christ's hanging on the Cross; and the use of it to them so tightly analogical to that we Christians make of looking upon Christ's Crucifixion when we are stung with the sense of either the guilt or poison of Sin, that it would even astonish one with amazement to consider what an unexpressible vigour and life of representation does result from this ancient Figure or Shadow, that ever moved along with the Camp of Israel in the Wilderness for the healing them when they were bit with fiery flying Serpents, as the crucified Jesus does us when we find ourselves wounded with Sin. The Manna also of which the children of Israel eaten in the Wilderness, was it not a Type of eating that true Bread that came down from Heaven, even the Body of Christ, which is the daily food of the Faithful: And the Rock that was struck, out of which came water, was it not an apparent Emblem of the Blood of Christ, out of whose side came Blood and Water? The giving of the Law also with flashings of Fire, was it not plainly a forerunner of the Law of Christ which was divulged by his Apostles, upon whom fiery Tongues descended; and is indeed that Law of the Spirit, which, as Esdras does interpret, is like unto fire, by which the wicked are to be consumed, as that Vision seems to import? 2 Esdr. 13. 38. 4. And for the Divinity of Christ, is it not plainly emblematized upon the Robes of Aaron, which do so tightly resemble the Universe, and therefore can be the clothing of none but God? And lastly, his Onely-Mediatourship and Apotheosis after death (for it would be endless to insist upon all) were they not also lively represented, the one by the High-priest's entering alone into the most Holy to intercede for the people, the other by the Tabernacle and Mercy-seat toward which the Jews were to worship, as is plain from that in the Apocalypse? For to this, in the Christian dispensation, succeeds the Humane Nature of Christ; he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mercy-seat, and his Body the Temple towards which we are to direct our eyes; accordingly as it is written, I saw no Temple there, but God Almighty and the Lamb is the Temple thereof. And such a Temple as Revel. 21. certainly may be worshipped towards with as little suspicion of Idolatry as ever the Temple or Mercy-seat was amongst the Jews. 5. Wherefore the people of the Jews being so illustrious and copious a Sacrament of all things appertaining to the Christian Church, it is no wonder that those Visions that concern the State thereof are so full of Allusions to what befell that people. Amongst which Accidents their Bondage in Egypt is of famous note, and therefore often alluded to in the Apocalypse; and their passing through the Red Sea, where that Tyrant Pharaoh was overthrown, so lively a Symbol of the Church's getting from under that servile yoke of the Romish Hierarchy by their recourse to the Blood of Christ, by which they are justified and freed from that blind bondage they were held in under those hard Taskmasters, that the Concinnity is marvellous to consider, the Type being so clear a Prophecy of what has happened within these last Ages in breaking from that Tyrannical bondage of the Italian Pharaoh. But such Instances as these are infinite. 6. The next obscuring Scheme is Ellipsis, which is an omission of some word or words which are requisite to determine the sense. Examples of Ellipses occur everywhere in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, Job, and other Books. But by an Ellipsis here I understand not merely the defect of something to make up the full sense, but such an artificial defect as shall make the sense seem complete without the supplement understood. For that seems to be the Genius of these Apocalyptick Visions especially, that they are made so as to seem very trim and express, very complete and articulate in the very outward Cortex, as a Book that has some pleasing Embellishments on the backside, as well as the History of truth within. 7. Which I little doubt but may be alluded to in that expression concerning this Volume of Visions, that it was * Revel. 5. 1. written within and without, according to the ancient manner of the Cabbalistick Mysteries. Touching which Traditions Parmenides had got that Principle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is a twofold traditionary Knowledge, the one Truth, (it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Daniel in counterdistinction to his Enigmatical Visions) the other Types or Parables accommodate to the conceit and gust of the Vulgar. S. Hierom also, Rupertus and several others understand this being written within and on the backside, of a Literal and Mystical sense. Grotius pretends the Text is not rightly commaed, but reads it thus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Written within, and sealed on the backside: As if there were any Books written on the backside and sealed within. So unfortunate an Interpreter of the Apocalypse is the great Hugo even in lesser matters. But to return to the matter in hand. 8. The difference of those two kinds of Ellipses we have described may be seen in these Examples. Exod. 3. where Moses ask God his Name, he returns this answer, I am that I am: which is an Elliptical speech, and fully supplied, is, My Name is I am that I am. Something like this is that also in the * Chap. 1. 4. Apocalypse, Grace to you and peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were more full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But these Ellipses are such that they discover the defect of what is to be supplied. But sometimes it is not so, as Apocal. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. And a little after, When they behold the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Which seems a smooth entire sense in the exterior Cortex of the Prophecy, whenas no good sense at all can be made of it unless there be conceived some such Ellipsis as before; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But to have been thus express had laid this Mystery over-open, which ought to be in a greater measure concealed, and therefore it was thus carefully locked up in this Prophetic Ellipsis. Of which Text more fully in its proper place. 9 Homonymia is the Diversity of significations in one and the same Symbol, whereof one alone is to be understood, else it were coincident with an Henopoeia of the second kind. Which Homonymia may fall out ex accidenti, (and is of no greater difficulty than that ordinary Homonymia of words, whose sense the consideration of the contexture of things will determine;) or else it may be intended of set purpose to make up a more graceful insculpture upon the external Cortex of a Vision. As in the Vision of the Witnesses, I suspect that the three days and an half that they lie dead in the street do not signify, as in the beginning of that Vision, three years and an half, but three times and an half, that is, 1260 years. Nay that they do signify so, I do confess I do more than suspect, am indeed well assured in my own judgement of the truth thereof. But whether there be any likelihood of their signifying also three years and an half Events will better determine. Which if they did, there would not be a simple Homonymia in this Symbol of three days and an half, but an Henopoeia of the second kind. 10. Metalepsis is a Prophetic Scheme whereby an Effect or Event is transferred or communicated to some eminent Person merely, or at least mainly, because the place and time is coincident with his; and there is the same reason of Things. This Scheme I must confess is very Poetical, but not unelegant nor unusual. Like to this is that of Virgil, Candidus auratis aperit cùm cornibus annum Taurus——— and again, Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerat horas. Where Taurus and Libra, because they are then in conjunction with the Sun, have attributed to them or transferred upon them those Effects which really are the Sun's only and not theirs. But that there is such a Metalepsis as I have described in the Prophetic style, that one example of the Rider of the red Horse in the * Chap. 6. 4. Apocalypse will make good, who is armed with a great sword in his hand, and is said to take peace from the Earth: Whenas nothing else is signified, but that in this Emperor's time there would be very furious kill and slaying in the Empire, though by no fault of his. For it is said, they should kill one another, as if the Text on purpose did cast in that key for the opening the meaning of the Vision, as Mr. Mede has judiciously observed. Whose interpretation of the First six Seals is so solid, that it is impossible, I think, taking all things together, for any unprejudiced Reader not to be assured of the truth of them. Whence it is that I am so well assured of this present Prophetic Figure I have set down. 11. Antichronismus is an obscurative Scheme in Prophecy which sets down one measure of time for another; as a Week for Seven years, as in Daniel, a Month for Thirty years, a Day for a Year. Which Figure seems to be used in the Apocalyptick Visions not only for concealment sake, but for proportion and Decorum, that the external Cortex of the Prophecies may not want their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that winning and pleasing Credibility of Story. Wherefore these Antichronismi are a necessary Consequence of that Prophetic Henopoeia, that contracts vast Empires and other Bodies Politic with their long Successions into the figure or shape of Beasts or single Persons; whence, that the duration of their lives may not be over-proportionated to their nature, it was necessary to declare their continuance also under a disguise, putting Days for Tears. For their living may be shortened by several accidents; but to tell of a Beast or a Woman or of two Witnesses that should live 1260 years, would not keep the Decorum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but would look like an incredible Narration. 12. As it would also that the dead bodies of the two Witnesses should lie unburied in the open streets of the City for three years and an half; whenas they would stink in the space of four days, as is noted in the body of Lazarus. How harsh then had it been to have represented the bodies of the Witnesses lying dead in the streets for 1260 years together? Wherefore though their lying thus slain and unburied was the fittest and the most lively Representation of that condition that those that are represented under the figure of the two Witnesses were to be in for 1260 years together; yet that the laws of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Story might be observed, it was requisite that these 1260 years should be disguised under the Symbol of three days and an half. Which signifying the same that three times and an half, (for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are promiscuously used the one for the other) and these three times and an half signifying 1260 years, both the truth which the Prophecy aims at is faithfully conveyed, and that decorous embellishment in the external Cortex of the Prophecy punctually observed. And that not only by contracting the time, but also by annexing it to the end of the 1260 days by a Lemmatosynechia, which is in Latin as much as Corticis Continuatio. And that this Prophetic Figure, which I call Antichronismus, is not a mere Supposition of mine, but a solid Truth, I have already made good in my Mystery of Godliness, and shall further demonstrate even with Mathematical Certitude out of my Joint Exposition of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Apocalypse. 13. Icasmus is a Prophetic Scheme that bears by far the greatest part in all the Visions of Daniel and S. John, and is nothing else but the Representation of things and events by such Symbols as bear some similitude with the things and events they stand for. Which Symbols being many make the skill of interpreting Prophecy the more difficult, but not at all desperate, as some delicate Wits would fancy to themselves, and pretend an horror and affrightment at the uncouth mention of such variouslyshaped Beasts, and at the clatter of their Horns: whenas if they would be pleased to lay aside their niceness, they might understand that these Hieroglyphics of Prophecy might with far more ease be made familiar to them then the knowledge of Heraldry or Blazonry, which is no such profound and unconquerable study. CHAP. V. 1. The great Usefulness of an Alphabet of Prophetic Iconisms. 2. What the best way of attaining to the right sense of them. 3. What weight the Onirocriticks of the Ancients may cast in toward the determining their meaning. 4. That there is the same reason of the Signification and Interpretation of Dreams as there is of Visions, provided they be merely Typical, and not Complexional. 5. Angels; Their Ministry in all affairs of Providence a noted Supposition in the ancient Cabbala and in the Apocalypse. 6. Ascension into Heaven. 7. Air the special Region of Devils. 8. Balances. 9 Beast; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatrous Kingdoms. 10. The reason of the Lamb's signifying one single Person, and of wild Beasts noting Idolatry as well as Cruelty. 11. Blasphemy, That it signifies Idolatry made out both upon the account of Reason, use of Scripture and Authority of Interpreters. 12. Blood. 13. Bow and Arrows; Buildings; Burial. 1. WE have shown wherein the Obscurity of Prophecy does mainly consist, and by the explication of the foregoing Figures have already done something toward the making of the skill of Interpreting easy to us. But there being so many and so various Examples of the last Scheme, we hold it needful to bring the most considerable of them into one Alphabet, and to set down the signification of them. Which being taken notice of will much conduce to the easy spelling out the true meaning of all Enigmatical Prophecies in Scripture. For what * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 2. Aristotle says of Enigmatical Dreams, is true also of these kind of Visions. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he is the most artificial Interpreter of Dreams that is best at discerning Similitudes and Resemblances: but for such Dreams as exhibit to the Fancy the things themselves, every one can judge of them. Now the Visions of Daniel and Apocalyps are not of the nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, representing things under Symbols or Similitudes: And therefore to have a settled and determinate meaning (and that upon solid and rational grounds) of such Symbols and Iconisms must needs contribute much to the enabling us with ease and success to interpret these Prophecies, or to make us understand and approve or with judgement disapprove of the Interpretations of other men. 2. And for my own part I know no solider method of settling and securing to ourselves the true sense of these Symbols, then by attending what the Scripture itself declares of them, and by strictly observing what Reason will unforcedly suggest or spy out concerning their significancy and representativeness of things. To which if we add the Suffrages of them that have wrote of Onirocriticks, whether most-what out of their own reason and observation, as Artemidorus professes, or (which is more to our purpose) have made a Collection of the most ancient Writings of that kind, such as Achmetes the son of Seirim has provided us; it cannot but strengthen our assurance of the meaning of such Iconisms. 3. And these of Achmetes more especially, they being the Onirocriticks of three famous Interpreters of the Kings of India, Persia and Egypt, and therefore being so ancient and so Eastern, the more probable to have a greater cognation with the Prophetic Schemes of the Holy Writ. The first of these is Syrbacham, Interpreter to the King of India: but he does Christianize so frequently and so palpably, that his Antiquity may be much suspected, and necessarily concluded since the coming of Christ. The second is Baram, Interpreter to Saanisan King of Persia; and the last Tarphan, Interpreter to Pharaoh King of Egypt. The use of whose Interpretations is approved even by Expositors of quite different ways, Grotius I mean and Mr. Mede, who has the honour of first breaking the ice in this business. 4. Nor is there any scruple for that these are the Interpretations of Dreams, and not of Visions: For besides that there is a great affinity betwixt Visions and Dreams, they being both Phantasms impressed on the Imagination, not by any free act or excitation of ourselves, but in a way merely passive, the external Senses also being in a manner consopite in both, (whence these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Achmetes;) the question is not concerning the Principle from whence, or the manner how these divinatory Impresses come, but what they represent or signify: which if it be granted, that they prefigure rightly and unforcedly such or such things in Dreams, it is manifest that they will do the same in Visions. For I speak of such Impresses as have not the nature of the Effects of Complexion or of any other natural Cause, but of a mere Type or Prefiguration. Wherefore it will not be impertinent to adjoin sometimes the suffrage of these Onirocritical Writers to what weight we produce out of Scripture and from Reason, for the interpreting of such Symbols or Iconisms as we shall comprise in our Prophetic Alphabet; which I shall now exhibit to view. 5. Angels. There is such frequent mention of the Ministry of Angels in the Apocalypse, and the Presidency there so prefixed to every thing, that I cannot omit to take notice of this Scheme amongst the rest, though peradventure it does not fall so right under the notion of an Icasmus, they being rather the Instruments of Divine Providence then the Emblem of it. But if we reflect upon their vulgar representation, (which doubtless took its ground from the Mosaic Cherubims) how well they are appointed with wings for the quicker dispatch of those services that are expected of them, they are not unsignificative of that Wisdom that is * Wisd. 8. said to be more quick and moving then any motion, and to reach from one end to another mightily and sweetly to order all things. But that Angels are in these Apocalyptick Visions so constantly and particularly set over every negotiation of Divine Providence, is exceeding consonant to the sense of Daniel, (as in that great change of Nebuchadnezzar's condition which is said to come to pass by the decree of the Watchers, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Greeks would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Excubitores or Vigiles, by which are understood Angels) and also to the sense of the ancient Cabbala, that makes the number Seven a Symbol of the Sabbatism of God, (wherein he rests from his works) and calls that number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in relation to this employment of these Excubitores or Vigiles, these holy Angels whom God employs in the administration of his Providence. 6. Ascension into Heaven. A Kingdom or Polity being so expressly resembled to the World or Universe, (as we shall see under that Title) it is an easy Analogy to parallel the Heavens to the high Places and Dignities of it. According to this sense is that of * Chap. 14. 12. Esay, How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into Heaven, etc. Aspiraveras ad summam dignitatem, so Vatablus. And Achmetes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onirocrit. c. 161. And in the following Chapter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And a little after, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Thus Achmetes out of the writings of the Indians, Persians and Egyptians. All which does expressly declare that Ascending into Heaven signifies the acquisition or increase of Political Dignities and Honours. 7. Air. That the Air is taken for the place of the Empire of the Devil, appears from Ephes. 2. And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the Air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of Unbelief; that is to say, in Infidels, such as have not submitted themselves to the Kingdom of God, but serve Idols and walk after the lusts of their own mind. Upon which place Drusius out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sciendum à terra usque ad Expansum omnia plena esse turmis ac praefectis. According to which opinion of the Hebrew Rabbins the Apostle again speaks, Chap. 6. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, against the Rulers of the darkness of this world, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, against those that hold fast the Rule of this lower world, this dark caliginous Air; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, against wicked Spirits or Devils in these Aereal places. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is but to the same sense that Expansum is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the space from the clouds downward, as it is limited Gen. 1. Else how could these wicked Spirits be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as both Peter and Judas declare of them? But enough of this, and the rather, because where Air occurs in the Prophetic Visions in this sense we have spoke of, it is rather an ordinary Metonymy than an Icasmus. 8. Balance. That a Balance should signify Justice, is obvious to any one to conceive, it being a main Instrument of commutative Justice, and a fit Emblem of exactly weighing out and sharing all things, or rather dispensing all things accurately. Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks, chap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I omit to transcribe how he refers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Scales to the Ears of the Judge, and the Weights in these Scales to the matter pleaded on both sides for him to ponder with an indifferent hearing. And again in the same Chapter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and more particularly he descants upon the condition of the Scales and Beam: but here is enough already to show how confessed an Emblem a Balance is of Justice. And he insinuates the same of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of Measures. 9 Beast. What a plain resemblance there is betwixt a Body Politic and a living Creature S. Paul copiously declares, 1 Cor. 12. And it is a thing easy to conceive, that as in a Creature that has life there are distinctly-framed parts, so ordered one in reference to another, that they are all to be moved for the good of the whole by that power that resides in the Brain in virtue of the spirits pervading throughout: so in a Polity, that there are several Orders and Ranks of men held together by one common Law, (which is as the life and spirit of the Body Politic) and to be moved and directed for the common good by the command and appointment of the Sovereign Power which is the Head of this Kingdom or Polity. Wherefore it is no wonder that Men or Nations thus framed into a Body Politic, which is called a Kingdom, be represented in Daniel under the resemblance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, living Creatures, but such as are rightly translated by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ferae, wild Beasts, they being such that appear in those Visions. Of which Grotius upon Dan. 7. where there is mention of the four great Beasts ascending out of the Sea; Ideo Bestiae, saith he, quia Idololatrica erant Imperia, ut notat hîc Jacchiades. But not for their Idolatry only, but also for their bloody Tyranny, as the same Grotius has noted excellently well upon Matth. 20. where Christ declaring that he that would be greatest and first in his Kingdom must be the minister and servant of the rest, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not lord it or swagger it over his inferiors, as the Rulers of the Gentiles do; Haec oppositio, saith he, ostendit cur apud Prophetas Imperia mundi, Bestiarum; Regnum Christi, Hominis imagine, depingantur. Where by Bestiae we are to understand wild Beasts, as the word usually signifies, and in that sense will exactly answer to the Seventy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (from whence the Latin word Ferae (which always signifies wild Beasts) is derived, by turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aeolic Dialect.) Otherwise the Kingdoms of the world might be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the four Beasts in the Apocalypse (which allude to the Camp of Israel distributed into four quarters, as Mr. Mede has rightly observed) are called, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that being a very unfit Title for any Polity where Humanity and Equity bears sway. 10. But much less fit would it be for the true Body of Christ, but least of all for the Lamb himself; nor the Lamb a fit Prophetic Representative of one single person, but that Christ had got that Title before, being called by John The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World, as being indeed that Paschal Lamb whose Blood is the Salvation of his people. Wherefore unless there be some such bar as this, (which is an Instantia Monodica) it is most assuredly true, That an Animal or Beast in the Prophetic style signifies not one single Man, but a Company, Polity, or Kingdom. For how can they be said to have Horns and Heads, and those Horns and Heads be expressly by an Angel from Heaven interpreted of Kings, if the whole Beasts did not signify, not single persons, but Kingdoms? But why these wild Beasts should imply Idolatry as well as Cruelty in their Type, the reason lies a little deeper, but yet is not fathomless, which I conceive is this: Because Idolatrous worship is lodged within the Verges of the mere Bestial or Animal nature, as may appear from what I have wrote in my Mystery of Godliness, to which, for brevity sake, I refer the Book 2. chap. 10. Reader. 11. Blasphemy. Blasphemy for Idolatry is also an Icasmus, and the Analogy is discernible enough. For what reproachful words are concerning God to the Ears, the same is the worshipping of Images or any Creature with religious worship to the Eyes. For by either way is declared that which is a contumely and vilification of God. And therefore it is no wonder that the Prophetic style affecting an artificial concealment substitutes one kind of Blasphemy for another, that Blasphemy which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Chrysostom distinguishes of Divine Predictions. But it is observable that the Scripture also in several places terms Idolatry Blasphemy. As in Esay, I will recompense into their bosoms your iniquities Chap. 65. 7. and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: which certainly was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by their acts of Idolatry. Qui colunt Idola quasi Deos, exprobrant Deo arrogantiam Divinitatis, saith A lapide. The like express passage is in Ezekiel; Thus saith the Lord God, Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that Chap. 20. 27, 28. they have committed a trespass against me: namely, when I brought them into the Land for the which I lifted up my hand to give it to them, than they saw every high hill and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and thereby presented the provocation of their offering, etc. which the same Interpreter again expounds of their Idolatries, as also Gaspar Sanctius. Again, Deuter. 31. When they shall have eaten and filled themselves Vers. 20. and waxed fat, then will they turn to other Gods and serve them, and provoke me; so our Translation: but the Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is properly, they will blaspheme me; as it is translated by the Seventy in Esay 52. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered Ezek. 35. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the Original. Lastly, it is observable also that in Psalm 69. 9 where the Prophet David says, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (which is the same as if it had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) are fallen upon me, the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it of that reproach which God receives by communicating his Worship unto Idols, whenas yet it is expressed by Blasphemy or contumely of words; for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies. Wherefore seeing the children of Israel are said in their prevaricating in the Worship of God, and turning to Idols, to blaspheme; it is very easy to conceive, by the rule of Conjugates, that this Idolatry of theirs may well be called Blasphemy. Accordingly therefore Alcazar interprets the Names of Blasphemy, in the Apocalypse, on the seven Heads of the Beast, of the Temples of Idols; and Grotius paraphrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Plena diis qui ità dicebantur in veri Dei injuriam. So easily is it acknowledged on all hands, that Blasphemy may be put for Idolatry. And it is the most happy and significant Icasmus that can be, nothing expressing the detestable nature of Idolatry so well as it. For Idolatry is as absolute a subsannation and vilification of God as malice could invent, and as ill as if they should call him by the names of all that base liveless matter that they make their Images of, and proclaim him no better than it: For they giving Divine worship to it, make it equal to him. And this Blasphemy is proportionable in other more worthy Objects that are not God: for they are infinitely worthless in comparison of him, and therefore it is an infinite reproach and horrid blasphemy against God to worship any thing besides him. 12. Blood. That Blood is an Hieroglyphic of Slaughter, Providence itself seems to take for granted in praemitting that Prodigy of raining Blood before the eruptions of war and bloodshed, as History reports, and all men naturally interpret. And where the Apostle says, Ye have not resisted unto blood, the meaning is, unto death, be it mystically or naturally meant. But even there where Death is meant mystically, there is mention of Blood: as when the Prophet is charged to denounce to him that sins Ezek. 33. 8. against the Law of God with an high hand, that he shall surely die, speaking of eternal death; yet, upon the omission of this warning, it is said that his Blood shall be upon the Prophet. And chap. 14. 19 even natural death, where there is no effusion of blood, is so expressed; Or if I send pestilence into the land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast. Upon which Grotius rightly out of the Chaldee Paraphrast, Omne mortis immaturae genus Sanguis Hebraeis. Blood therefore signifies Death, and bloody, dead; because, as it is written, In the blood thereof is the life thereof. And answerably to this * Onirocrit, c. 103. Achmetes, according to the sense of the Egyptians and Persians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the letting out his blood must be his death; and in Analogy, the destroying the strength of any thing, or that power or virtue whereby it is what it is, is the death of that thing, not considering whether it be animate or inimate. 13. Bow and Arrows. They naturally signify the aiming at some thing, and the hitting the mark the enjoying the scope of our enterprises: But it may more peculiarly refer to Victory in war, and the rather because they are warlike weapons. Achmetes out of the Onirocriticks of the Egyptians and Persians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onirocrit. 249. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If a man dream he holds in his hand Bow and Arrows, he shall victoriously insult over his enemies. Buildings. Achmetes according to the sense of the Indian Interpreter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If one dream he is in an house of Marble or Stone, it imports long life, and riches where thiefs cannot break through nor steal. Burial. For a dead body to be unburied, it may have a twofold signification, either of a more infamous death, or of hope of recovering into life. According to the first is that of Ecclesias●…es, If a man beget an hundred Chap. 6. 3. children, and live many years, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. Otherwise not to be buried may signify only that what the Vision portends will not be quite finished; Burial being the consummation of all, even of Death itself. Whence Leonas Syrus dreaming that he was dead, but not buried, Artemidorus interprets it of that Event, viz. that he was Artemidor. lib. 4 c. 84. victorious, but not crowned. But Menander of Smyrna dreaming also that he was buried, was also crowned Victor at the Olympic Games. Wherefore not to be buried, in Visions that portend good, is bad; in those that portend bad, is good. And Achmetes expressly, according to the sense of the Indian Interpreters, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any thing wanting whereby the Interrement is hindered, it signifies hope of recovery to life. CHAP. VI 1. Candle. 2. Character. 3. Clouds of Heaven. 4. Crown of precious Stones. 5. Darkness; Day; Death. 6. Desert. 7. Dragon, a figure of the Devil according to the ancient Cabbala, and then of the chief Polities that oppose the Church. 8. Drunkenness. 9 Eagle; Earthquake. 10. Eclipses. 11. Eye, an Hieroglyphic of Counsel and Prudence. 12. Fishing; Fish dead in the Sea. 13. Fire, the different significations thereof. 14. Fire from Heaven, its exact significancy of Excommunication. 15, 16. Flesh, two notable significations thereof. 17. Flood; Fornication; Frogs. 18. Gems and precious Stones; God. 1. CAndle. Candle seems to signify the prosperous state of things in this world. Job 18. Yea the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine: The light shall be dark in his Tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out. And chap. 29. O that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness. The like prosperous success the Psalmist also denotes by the same figure, Psal. 18. For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will make my darkness to be light; in his Song of thanksgiving for his deliverance out of the hand of Saul. Astrampsychus and Nicephorus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Artemidorus, lib. 2. c. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. A Candle seen burning bright in the house portends good, the increase of riches and plenty. Lastly, Achmetes, according to the meaning of the Egyptians and Persians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And in the same Chapter again he saith, That the lighting up of Lights signifies joy and cheerfulness, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the extinction of them against a man's will, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, affliction and distress from a man's enemies proportionable to the darkness. 2. Character. That Servants and Soldiers received Marks upon their foreheads and hands, whereby it might be known to whom they did belong, is a piece of indisputable Antiquity, there being sufficient testimony thereof in Authors. See what is congested in Mr. Mede and Grotius upon Apocal. 13. But in the Prophetic style it does not imply that there is any visible mark in the hand or on the head of those that are said to be marked, but only that there is an open profession of belonging to them whose mark they are said to receive. For they are only Types of Propriety, and are no more to be conceived to be really impressed upon them that are said to bear them, than those whole Kingdoms of men, that are called Beasts in the Prophetic style, are to be imagined to be metamorphozed into Bears or Leopards. For all these are Typical Attributes, not Real. 3. Clouds of Heaven. In the Scripture-phrase they seem to signify Power and great Glory. Achmetes, Chap. 194. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to the mind of the Persians and Egyptians. And Chap. 162. according to the Egyptians, Persians and Indians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And again in the same Chapter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The sense of all which is this, That the riding upon the Clouds and ascending into Heaven signifies honourable prosperity, and success against our enemies, and enlargement of power and dignity. 4. Crown of Gems and precious Stones. Achmetes out of the Onirocriticks of the Indians, Chap. 247. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Where the force of the Interpretation bears most upon the Gems or precious Stones, they being the Emblems of Riches, Height and Honour. They have also a more Mystical meaning in this very Chapter, and signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the brightness of Divine doctrine or Truth. But Chap. 248. they are only interpreted of worldly things according to the mind of the Egyptians and Persians: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, viz. Pearls and precious Stones, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he has got abundance of them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he shall find proportionable riches and honour. 5. Darkness. See Candle and Eye. Day. See Time. Death. Death is a dissolution of Body and Soul, and therefore properly belongs only to a natural Animal; but by Analogy may be transferred to all Bodies Politic, which the Prophetic style represents under the figure of Animals or single Persons, whether by the simple Appellation of Man or Woman, or else such Conditions of man or woman, as Whore, Wife, Witness, or the like. Now what Life and Spirit is to a natural Animal, that is Rule and Power to figurative Persons or Animals in the Prophetic sense, which are Bodies Politic. And therefore as the loss of the one is the death of the one, so the loss of the other is the death of the other. And because there is a Spirit in all things, even in those things that are inanimate, the fading or vanishing of that spirit may be said analogically to be the Death of those things. Instances are innumerable. I will only add, that as in the Hebrew Idiom not to be is to be dead; so in analogy any thing that is not what it was, namely, any thing that is changed from its former condition, this change thereof may go for a kind of Death; as Death is ordinarily said to be a Change. 6. Desert. That by Desert is meant Paganism, Alcazar pronounces with great confidence, speaking of the Woman in the wilderness; In qua locutione notandum est per Desertum proculdubio figurari Gentilitatem. For which opinion he produces a cloud of witnesses, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Ambrose, Basilius, Hieronymus, Gregorius, Hilarius, Hesychius, etc. The reason of which Hieroglyphic I conceive is this; The Idolatry of the Pagans was much in Woods and Groves and on the tops of Mountains and waste places; and the names of their Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have reference to the fields and deserts. Besides that Idolaters do not emerge above the pitch of the mere Animal life, and their worship and devotion is little higher than that of the Elephant or Cercopithecus. The Rapacity also and bloody Cruelty of the Pagan Kingdoms farther fill out the congruity of the Type. And consequently where such a condition of things is as this does typify, that is to say, whatever Kingdoms or Empires do paganize, they do ipso facto become a Wilderness or Desert. 7. Dragon. The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies Draco or Serpens, and also Cetus, as being the great Serpent or Dragon of the Sea. And accordingly the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That it is a Figure of the Devil, the ancient Cabbala of Moses may assure us; and it may be, though one be noted chief, yet the Serpent there may have a Prophetic Henopoeia in it, and signify the whole Principality of Satan, that Kingdom of Darkness which has been ever in opposition against the Kingdom of God: and therefore it is no wonder that those Kingdoms that have in such a special manner afflicted the Church, have been represented under this Figure, as Egypt and the Roman Empire. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the Esay 51. ancient days, in the generations of old. Art no●… thou he that hath cut Rahab, (that is, Egypt, see Forerius) and wounded the Dragon? which is Pharaoh, as Ezekiel plainly speaks out; I am against thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great Dragon that lieth in the midst of the Chap. 29. Rivers. And for that he lies thus in the Rivers, he is called Leviathan, as if he were a Water-serpent or a Whale. Psalm 74. Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to thy people in the Wilderness. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heads of the Leviathan; as if this Leviathan, as the Dragon in the Apocalypse, had more Heads than one. These considerations plainly intimate to us, That the Seven-headed Serpent in the Apocalypse, which is the Roman State or Kingdom, is so represented not only in regard of that old Serpentine form that tempted our first Parents, but has a reflection also upon that Tyrannical Kingdom of Egypt which is typified under the image of a Dragon and Leviathan; and that not only Rome Pagan has a share in this Type, but Rome Pagano-Christian. For all the Seven Heads are from the Body of the Dragon; and the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, is as well the Dragon as not the Dragon, and therefore is as well Egypt (and I wish I could not say more) as the Church of God, or the Kingdom of his Son Jesus. 8. Drunkenness. It is taken sometimes for the being so filled and intoxicated with the pleasures and affluences of this world, as to be regardless and senseless of the things of God. Esay 29. Stay yourselves and wonder, cry ye out and cry: They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and the rulers, the seers hath he covered. Such a remiss Stupor and Drunkenness does the prosperity of this world often cast men into. Achmetes from the Indian Interpretations, cap. 111. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he is drunk with wine, riches and power will flow in to him proportionably to his dunkenness. And he affirms the like in the following Chapter according to the sense of the Egyptians and Persians. There is also a Drunkenness from the Cup of Affliction, which is often intimated in the Scriptures. 9 Eagle. Esay 40. 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint. And Exod. 19 4. Ye had seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For poor men to dream they ride upon an Eagle, it is good; for it signifies they will be supported and well relieved by the rich. Earthquake. So we usually turn the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but it signifies also more generally any shaking or concussion; as Heb. 12. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Author says this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the removing of those things that are shaken. Hagg. 2. 21. Speak to Zerubbabel Governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the Heavens and the Earth, and I will overthrow the Thrones of Kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the Heathen. This is a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The like ruin and overturning of things is set out, but by what is the effect of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an Earthquake properly so called, Jer. 4. 24. I beheld the Mountains, and lo they trembled, and all the Hills moved lightly. Which, verse 26, he interprets as Haggai before, I beheld, and lo the fruitful place was a Wilderness, and all the Cities thereof were broken down, etc. Achmetes out of the Indian, Persian and Egyptian Onirocriticks, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But this is so easy an Iconism, that it was needless to produce so many testimonies. 10. Eclipses. The Eclipses of the Luminaries what they mean, will easily be understood if we consider what the Sun and Moon are in the Political Universe. For certainly they are the highest Dignities in that Heaven. Of which more under their proper Titles. In the mean time it shall suffice briefly to note out of Achmetes, that according to the Indian, Persian and Egyptian Onirocriticks, If the Sun be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, without brightness (in such an hue, I suppose, as Virgil describes, Cùm caput obscurâ nitidum ferrugine tinxit) and without rays, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that inglorious obscurity and duskishness is referred to the person of the King, and implies an imminution of his glory. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if the Sun be eclipsed, he will be afflicted and oppressed by war. The same judgement they give of the Moon and of the Stars, if they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. See cap. 167, 168. These things are too easy to insist upon, and will be necessarily acknowledged, it being once granted That the Universe is a Prophetic Emblem of a Kingdom or Polity, as we shall clearly show in its due place. 11. Eye. The light of the body, saith our Saviour, is the Eye. And * Topic. l. 1. c. 14. Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That the Eye of the Soul is the Understanding or Intellect. So that it is plain that the Eye is an Iconism of Knowledge, as Darkness and Blindness is of Ignorance; an expression frequent in the Scripture. But there is also a peculiar fitness of significancy of humane Policy and Prospection in the Eye; that Organ of the Body being not only in the Head, but the chief guide of it and the whole Body, as being able to reach further by far and to act more quick than any other Sense whatsoever. Wherefore Prospicere in longitudinem, that is to say, wisely to consult aforehand for the rightly managing affairs, and to contrive Counsels so as makes most for the future safety of things, and for the advancement of the Interest of a State, the Eye is a fit Emblem of this skill. Which the Egyptians seem to have intimated in that known Hieroglyphic of theirs, A Sceptre with an Eye on the top of it: where it is plain that the Eye signified that Political skill, prospection and counsel which is necessary in managing and ordering affairs of State, for the greatest security and promotion of them. And that Eyes signify the administration of Divine Providence also, seems to be intimated Zach. 4. 10. on which we have not here time to insist. 12. Fishing. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To dream of catching fishes many and great, is good, and portends profit to all that dream so. Achmetes; c. 178. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. If any one dream that he catches fishes by angling in the Sea, he shall find riches, etc. Fish dead in the Sea. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To seem to see Fishes dead in the Sea, is not good: for it signifies disappointment of our hope, and that what we expect will not come to pass. 13. Fire. Fire is a various Symbol, and signifies as well good as ill, but always in a way of Consumption or Destructiveness: but when it destroys that which is bad, it is good. The Holy Ghost itself is assimilated to Fire, as the Baptist witnesses of Christ, He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire; such a Fire as is to burn up the chaff, but save the wheat, as is intimated Matth. 3. 11. in the place. So Malac. 3. Who shall abide the day of his coming? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; that is, consume away their dross. Manifold instances there are of this sense of Fire, but it is needless to produce them. But for Fire in the other destructive sense, it is still more obvious. I shall name one place for many; Esa. 66. 15. For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire. For by fire and by sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. The fitness of the Fire's signifying Consumption or Destruction Artemidorus has taken notice of, lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And in the same Chapter he says it signifies, if there be a considerable quantity of it in the Heavens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the incursion of Enemies, and their coming from that part in what quarter of the Heaven it is seen. And answerably to this Achmetes, according to the sense of the Indians, c. 159. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of the Persians and Egyptians, c. 160. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And again, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And, lastly, he saith, that if his Chariot appear to be set on fire, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So destructive is the Symbol of Fire everywhere, and particularly denotes a destruction by war and hostility, as is observable out of these citations. 14. Fire from Heaven. Fire from Heaven and Thunder may very well be the same, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Artemidorus speaks, lib. 2. c. 8. But in allusion to Elias his bringing down fire from Heaven upon those Fifties that were sent to him from Ahaziah to apprehend him, the fame of that eminent Miracle may make the bringing down Fire from Heaven pass into a Proverbial phrase, for the doing exceeding great Miracles. This may be good sense, but we seek for an Icasmus. Fire from Heaven therefore according to Artemidorus may signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the commination of those that are in Authority; and that very fitly, Heaven being the place of Dignity in the Political Universe. But nothing so minacious as that Fire or Lightning that goes before Thunder. What therefore can be more significative of Excommunication than this? especially if conceived to be vibrated from no inferior Officer, but from an Ecumenical Bishop, the Head of the Church Catholic, who is placed in the higher Regions of the Political Heaven. Which Analogy will be still more exact, if we consider what Artemidorus observes of Thunder, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For Thunder and Lightning does not unite, but disjoins things that are united. So does Excommunication that rives off a Member from the Church. And there is still a further congruity that Excommunication should be called Thunder and Lightning, or Fire from Heaven, in that it is the commination of Hell-fire, of which the destruction of Sodom was a Type, which was burnt by fire from Heaven, as Mr. Mede has judiciously observed. And what is the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Fire from Heaven? To which destruction whoever do take upon them to adjudge men, may very well be said to bring down fire from Heaven upon them, which that Thunderbolt of Excommunication does threaten. 15. Flesh. By Flesh is understood in Scripture whatsoever is opposite to the Spirit, and I mean in a Moral or Mystical way, and that is all to be consumed by the Spirit and by Fire. But more particularly Flesh signifies sometimes that which they vulgarly call Carnal Ordinances, in some such sense as that is meant by S. Paul, Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Gal. 3. 3. spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Where he speaks of the Law of Moses. And the Author to the Hebrews more expressly, who speaking Chap. 7. v. 16. of Christ, and comparing of him with the Mosaic Aaron, Who is made (saith he) not after the Law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. And still nearer to our purpose, chap. 9 ver. 10. where he speaks of a service which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation. By Flesh therefore may be understood all the external Ordinances and Institutes that men have rashly heaped upon Christianity, whether merely useless, or else Superstitious and Idolatrous: for these are to the spirit of Christianity, as the over-load of a fulsome and overgrown and unwholesome Flesh to the spirit of man. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 16. But there is another sense of Flesh taken much notice of in the Onirocriticks. Artemidor. lib. 3. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good for a rich man to dream he eats his own flesh, for it signifies the utter wasting of his riches or substance. Achmetes c. 283. according to the Indian, Persian and Egyptian Interpreters, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Like that of the Israelites eating the flesh or the Leviathan in the Wilderness; for the Leviathan or Dragon is the King of Egypt. And again, c. 285. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And, lastly, according to the Indians, c. 87. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And compendiously and at once, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh is universally referred to gold and riches in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams. 17. Flood. See Water. Fornication. See Whoredom. Frogs. A Frog is an Hieroglyphic of Imperfection, says * Hieroglyph. lib. 29. Pierius, according to the sense of the Egyptian Priests: and he makes as if the occasion thereof was the observation of the half-finished generation of this Animal out of the slime of Nilus which he casts up in his overflowing, after which this Creature is seen half-formed, part Frog, part Mud; as * Lib. 1. Hieroglyph. 25. Horus Apollo also expressly affirms, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But in that it is thus gendered of filth and mire, I should look upon it as a fit Emblem of that Wisdom which is not from above, but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Earthly, Animal or Sensual, and Devilish, and is accompanied with bitter zeal and strife in the heart, as the Apostle intimates just before, and contrary to that Wisdom which is from above, which is first pure, not bemired with worldly lusts, then peaceable, not breeding contention, nor full of words and brawlings, like the importunate, narsh and disharmonious Coaxations of Frogs, (so called in the Greek from that very ungrateful noise, as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the shrilness and asperity of the noise they make) much less forward to war and bloodshed, or to the instigating of Princes and men in Power thereunto: which the hoarse and harsh Coaxation of these Creatures may be a fit Symbol of; and the rather, if these Trumpeters to war be conceived to be such men as are as soft and unwarlike as these naked and slimy Animals, no more fit to fight than they, but be only Trumpeters to war and confusion, and that for their own Interest; the zealous declamations and vociferations they make being in behalf of themselves, as all the noise the Frog makes is with its tongue turned inwards towards its one gullet. Whence that Creature seems a very lively Emblem of such Wretches as these. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranae homines impostores & scurras significant; which has no small affinity with our larger description of them. 18. Gems and precious Stones. See Crown. God. In the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Magistrates as well as God; as appears from several places of Scripture. And Artemidorus has taken notice of the Analogy even from the highest Antiquity, lib. 2. c. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Quicquid dominatur, vim habet Dei. And again, lib. 3. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If any rich man dream he is made a God, it prognosticates a very great Principality: For Princes are in a power of doing good and hurt in a manner equal to the very Gods. CHAP. VII. 1. Hail; the signification thereof according to Scripture, 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks. 3. Harvest, the evil and auspicious sense thereof. 4. Head, how clearly significative of Sovereign Power, whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth. 6. Horn. 7. Horse; Islands. 8. King, and Kingdom. 9 That Kind's or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if individuals of the same Kind. 10. Leopard; Locusts. 11. Male-child; Mark; Measure; Mill; Month; Moon. 12. Mountain, the several significations thereof. 1. HAil. Whenas Winds and Storms signify Political Commotions and Wars, as is acknowledged by Grotius and all other Interpreters that they do, as in Daniel 7. 2. (where the Four winds of Heaven are said to strive upon the great Sea,) well may a storm of Hail signify War and Incursion of the enemy; and especially if they come from the North, the congeledness of this Meteor bearing upon it the character of that Quarter. Two eminent Examples of this Prophetic Figure we have in Esay. The first, Ch. 28. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong One, which as a Tempest of Hail and destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the Earth violently. The crown of Pride, the Drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet. Haec significant (saith Forerius) hostium adventum, qui universum regnum Israel devastaturi erant. But it is so plain it wanted no interpretation. The other example is Esay ch. 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, and with a flame of devouring fire, with scattering, and tempests, and hailstones. For with the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, etc. that is to say, The forces of the Lord will come against Assur like Thunder and Lightning and Hail. So plain is it that an Hail-storm is significative of the incursion and assault of an enemy, according to the style of Scripture. 2. The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks. Artemidor. lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel. But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail; Achmetes, out of the Indian, Persian and Egyptian Onirocritical Solutions, c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But yet more particularly of Hail, and more to our present purpose, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place, he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemy. And further, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stems or stalks of the Corn, accordingly as they are broken, in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place. 3. Harvest. That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men, appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Cornfields with scythes in Merchia, upon which a pestilence followed. But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby. Achmetes, out of the Indian Onirocriticks, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Country, he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people. This similitude is also used in Scripture. Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor, it is time to thrash her; yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come. But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense, as in that of our Saviour, John 4. 35. Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to Harvest. And he that reapeth, receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 4. Head. That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetic Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides, is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetic, three Numbers being given. For we have three terms of the Analogy here also; viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof, and a Beast which is the Prophetic figure of a Kingdom: Wherefore we cannot miss to say, As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof, so is this Prophetic or figurative Beast to the Head thereof; and alternately, As the Kingdom to the Beast, so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast. Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power, and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many. For as the Power abstractedly is not considered, so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power; but both, in concreto, make up this Head Politic. And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many, those many are the Head; and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons, no more than the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons. Nay, if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Fancy rather than his Reason, a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person: As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together, a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets, such as the whole body consisted of. 5. Heaven and Earth. By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe, as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis, and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe, that is, a Kingdom or Polity, there needs no further proof thereof than what is found in Esay ch. 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God, that divided the Sea whose waves roared, the Lord of Hosts is my Name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people; that is to say, to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Egypt before, a Kingdom or Polity, to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates. Again, chap. 65. 17. For behold, I create new Heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. Upon which Text Forerius, Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere, by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth, that is, his Church. According to which sense also he interprets, For as the new Heavens and the new Earth, which I shall make, shall remain before me, so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain: Quam diu duraret novus Orbis, i. e. Regnum Dei & Ecclesiae, etc. And Grotius also, though he look askew, and is very shy (himself best knows the reason) at these places that have been mentioned, yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth, Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth. And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expressly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense. Which notion was worth the clearing, because this general Analogy will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify; as, to be called up into Heaven, or cast down to the Earth, and the like. 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politic, which is resembled to a Beast, it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body. It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel, The great Horn is the first King. And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalypse. For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms, though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast. 7. Horse. There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture. But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command. Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is, Prosper and ride: which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Prosper and reign. But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him. So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas, (which is a generous Steed) which goes orderly and obediently, he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on. And so after he descants on the largeness, thickness and length of the tail, declaring that his power and train shall be answerable; but if bob-tailed or thin of hair, it signifies defect of power. The halting of the Horse also signifies impediments in the affairs of the Rider; and his contumacy and intractableness (if he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard-mouthed) the Rider's both fault and affliction. And several other things in the Horse are in like manner referred to him that rides him, c. 152. And again, c. 233. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And presently after, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And a little after, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And lastly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Out of all which it is plainly manifest that these Horses are the Symbols of the Conditions of their Riders, or of the People over which they are set, who are the Beast they ride upon. Which will facilitate the understanding of the Visions of the Four Horses in the Apocalypse, whose Riders are easily conceived to be Commanders, who are properly Emperors, and what is signified in the Horses, to respect either the Empire or the Emperors themselves. Hour. See Time. Islands. That Islands may signify persons of greater Dignity, their eminency or bearing themselves above the Planicies of the Sea does intimate to us: But that they may sometimes signify Temples or places consecrate, their being disterminated from other Land, as these Edifices are from all other Houses, may well allure a man's imagination to believe. See Mr. Mede upon the Sixth Seal. 8. King and Kingdom. If King be looked upon as one distinct kind of Sovereignty, when it is put for Supreme Governor, it may either be an Icasmus, (for every Supreme Governor is to his Body Politic as a King to his) or else a Diorismus, which is a kind of Prophetic Synecdoche, as I have said, setting down the Species for the Genus. But if it be so, as Mr. Mede seems abundantly to have proved (in his Regnum Romanum est quartum Regnum Danielis,) that King and Kingdom in the Hebrew is as large in use of signification as Supreme Power and that Body that is subject thereto, be it Kingdom or Commonwealth, then to use King promiscuously of any Supreme Power, calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Apoc. 17. it is only an Hellenism; and the calling the Seven Heads there Seven Kings needs neither the solution into a Diorismus nor Icasmus, but only an Henopoeia, for those Heads amongst them which are conceived to be such a Sovereignty as resides in many. 9 And that they are said to be Seven Kings, and not seven sorts of Kings, that is no unusual manner of speech; for we say, Four Moral Virtues, Five Senses, Three Physical Principles, Four Passions, and the like, for three kinds and four kinds of Principals and Passions, and so of the rest. So the Four Beasts in Daniel that are said to rise out of the Sea are four kinds of Beasts, not Individuals of the same kind. And the Two Witnesses in the Apocalypse are Two several kinds of Witnesses, as Grotius himself acknowledges. But were it not that use has made it thus familiar, to call seven sorts of Kings seven Kings were a Diorismus, the speech being more restrained and determinate. For an Individual is more determinate than the Species, and the Species than the Genus. So little difficulty is there in calling seven sorts of Supreme Governors Seven Kings, as the Text of the Apocalypse does, chap. 17. 10. 10. Leopard. Achmetes, c. 272. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A Leopard signifies an unreconcilable Enemy. And in the same Paragraph he saith, If a Commander dreams that he fights with this Animal, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Come host potente, fraudulento & formidoloso bellum geret. Locusts. That Locusts signify numerous Armies of men pillaging and destroying a Country, is plain from Joel 1. 6. For a Nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion, and be hath the cheek-teeths of a great Lion. He hath laid my Vine waste, and hath barked my Figtree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away, the branches thereof are made white. By Nation the Jews and Vatablus with others understand a multitude of Locusts; but that is but the Type. The Persians and Babylonians, as also other Nations that were to lay waste Judaea, are signified thereby, according to Munster and Clarius. Grotius also interprets it of the Armies of Phul and Salmanasser. Also in the next Chapter, vers. 2. the gloominess and darkness of that day is imputed to the cloud of Locusts that fly in the air; and their sudden lighting on the place compared to the morning spread upon the mountains. And v. 3. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; namely, by reason of their devouring all the green herbs wherever they come. That is the Interpretation of several Hebrew Expositors, as also of Vatablus, Castalio, Drusius, Liveleius. But Munster and Grotius expound it of the numerous Armies of the Babylonians and Assyrians that were to waste and destroy Judaea. Achmetes, c. 300. according to the mind of the Indians, Persians and Egyptians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The latter part of which Aphorism is to be referred to the Indian Onirocriticks, and does assuredly allude to that of Joel. And again, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any King or Potentate see Locusts come upon a place, let him expect a powerful multitude of Enemies there; and look what hurt the Locusts do, the enemy will do mischief proportionably. 11. Male-child. As the Woman that brings forth is not a single woman, but the Apostolic Church; so the Child must not be a single person, but a company, Apoc. 12. to which Grotius also subscribes. And Andreas upon the place, Filius masculus est Ecclesiae populus, the Mystical Christ. Totus enim Christus & Caput & Corpus est, as * Cassandr. Consult. Art. 7. Cassander has noted out of S. Austin. If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore may be understood of a Multitude under one Head, why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 2 Thess. 2. 3? Measure. See Balance. Mark. See Character. Mill. Achmetes, out of the Onirocriticks of the Indians, c. 194. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. If any one dream he has a Mill grinding, he shall prosper in his employment, and live in affluence proportionably to the●… thickness and fairness of the Millstones, etc. And cap. 195. out of the Persian and Egyptian Interpretations, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Month. See Time. Moon. See Sun, Moon and Stars. 12. Mountain. Mountain may have several significations. As first, it may signify the Temples or Holy places of Idolaters, of which there is frequent mention in Scripture under the title of High places. Jer. 3. 23. according to the vulgar Latin, Verè mendaces erant colles, & multitudo montium; verè in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel. Upon which Grotius, Colles illi in quibus Idola colebantur nos deceperunt. Secondly, Mountains signify Cities. Esa. ch. 13. 2. concerning Babylon, Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain. Forerius out of the Chaldee Paraphrast, super munitionem quae habitat pacificé. The vulgar Latin has it, super montem caliginosum. Upon which Grotius, Id ideo, quia vetus Babylon in palustribus locis sita erat, unde ascendens vapor urbem obscurabat. Jer. 51. 25. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks. Upon which Munster, Vocat Babylonem montem ob aedificiorum molem, cùm urbs ipsa in planitie fuerit sita; and analogically he interprets the Rocks, de praesidiis turrium eminentium. To which Vatablus and Clarius agree expressly. But all interpret this Mountain of the City Babylon. And Zach. 4. 7. Who art thou, O great Mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. Grotius interprets it of Babylon cast down by Cyrus. Thirdly, Achmetes, according to the sense of the Persians, Indians and Egyptians, interprets Mountains of great and wealthy men, cap. 144. where speaking of Earthquakes and the things that are overturned by them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith he) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And lastly, it seems to be spoke of a whole Kingdom that is grown great, as Dan. 2. where the Stone cut out without hands becomes a Mountain, and fills the whole Earth. CHAP. VIII. 1. Nakedness; Paradise. 2. Philtre. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Virus amatorium. 3. That Magical words were used in the mixing of Philtres. 4. Pillars; Rain; Red. The seventh Head of the red Dragon what it intimates. 5. Resurrection. That to be cut off and slain signifies also Politically. 6. Rivers, what they signify in reference to the Sea. 7. What in respect of their limpidity and irrigation. 8. Saints; Scorpion; Scorched by the Sun. 9 Sea; Serpent; Slain; Slaughter. 10. Sun, Moon and Stars. The spiritual signification of Sun and Moon. 11. A secular signification of them in general. 12. A more particular signification of them in that sense. 13. In what sense the King of Babylon is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lucifer; and the Western Caesar a Star in the Apocalypse. 14. A more mystical signification of Stars, and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies. 1. NAkedness. It is either understood spiritually, as Apocal. 3. 18. for being destitute of Divine Graces; or else in a more vulgar meaning for Distress, Poverty and Disgrace. Achmetes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. See also ch. 117. to the same purpose. Paradise. Achmetes cap. 8. according to the sense of the Indian Interpreters, If a man dream he enters Paradise, it fore-signifies salvation to him: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, But it signifies also riches and worldly prosperity. And presently after, concerning the fruits of Paradise, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the fruits of Paradise are Divine and useful Notions. 2. Philtre. Philtrum is a Love-potion, Virus amatorium, a Composition that is to extort love from the party that drinks it. Mr. Mede makes that Apocal. 14. 8. of the wine of the wrath of her Fornication (which in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to be a Periphrasis of a Philtre: which therefore he renders thus, ex vino veneficii scortationis suae. For as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both wrath and poison, so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the like: as is plain out of that one place, Deuteron. 32. 33. Their wine is the poison of Dragons, and the cruel venom of Asps: which the Seventy render, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. There are also several other places of Scripture to the same purpose. See Grotius on the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is as much as Vinum venenatum, in such a sense as it may be Virus amatorium. For what other kind of Potion should be in the hand of a Whore? especially such an one who is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by her sorcery and enchantment to have deceived the nations of the earth, that is to say, by her enchanted cup, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies venenum as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 3. But that Magical Rites and Charms were used in the mingling these Love-potions, is up and down famed in the writings of the Poets. As in Juvenal, Satyr. 6. Hippomanes carménque loquar coctúmque venenum. And towards the end of that Satire, Hic magicos affert cantus, hic Thessala vendit Philtra—— Which plainly implies that Philtres are made by Witchcraft. And Virgil concerning the superstitious gathering of Hippomanes, potent, as it was believed, for this purpose, Georgic. 3. intimates the like; Hippomanes quod saepe malae legere Novercae, Miscuerúntque herbas & non innoxia verba. And, lastly, Ovid in his De Arte amandi, lib. 2. Non facient ●…t vivet amor Medeïdes herbae, Mistáque cum magicis Marsa venena sonis. All which places with several others do sufficiently inform us of the nature of a Philtre, That it is a Magical potion, and superstitiously mingled according to certain Rites and Laws of Sorcery or Witchcraft, whatever the Ingredients be. And that therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rendered Vinum Veneficii, or Philtrum, which is Virus amatorium, agrees very well with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with the Sorcery of the Whore mentioned Apocal. 18. 23. which she being accused of, and no other signs appearing upon her of that wickedness but this Cup in her hand, it is in all likelihood to be found there. 4. Pillar. Pillars signify Princes or Nobles in a Kingdom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you may see in Achmetes, c. 148. & 160. Rain. Rain may signify the refreshment of pure and heavenly Doctrine. As in Deuteronom. ch. 32. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the Rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Also Peace and Righteousness through the goodness of the sovereign power. Psal. 72. 6. the Kingdom of Christ is so described, He shall come down like the rain upon the mown grass, as showers water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth. So likewise Hosea 10. 12. there is mention of the Lord's coming and raining down righteousness upon them. Achmetes out of the Indian Solutions, c. 171. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rain is an emblem of mercy from God in answering our Prayers. And therefore he saith, If any one dream that his field is reigned upon, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he shall find riches, and joy, and mercy from God. And a little after he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. According to which is that of the Psalmist, Thou, O God, sentest a gracious rain on thine inheritance, and refreshedst it when it was dry. Red. That Red does emblematize bloody Cruelty and barbarous Persecution, is so obvious to conceive, that it seems needless to have noted it. Every one acknowledges that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apocal. 12. that great red Dragon with seven Heads is so called from his Sanguinolency: But that his Seventh head's growing out of this red body signifies that this Beast will be cruel also under the Seventh Head, and that this Cruelty itself is part of the Image of the Beast, this every one has not noted. 5. Resurrection. That the Resurrection of the dead has a Political sense as well as a Theological or Physical, may appear plainly from Ezekiel 37. 9 Then said he unto me, Prophecy unto the wind, prophecy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. That this is to be understood in a Political sense concerning the restoring of the people of Israel to their own Land out of thraldom and captivity, is plain from the very mouth of God himself in the following verses; Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts: Therefore prophecy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Whence it is plain that to be cut off, to be slain, and to rise from the dead, has (as I said) a Political sense as well as a Natural or Theological; and that Resurrection is a Recuperation of such rights and liberties as have been taken away, and a deliverance from persecution, affliction and bondage. Achmetes, cap. 5. according to the Indian doctrine, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And cap. 6. according to the doctrine of the Persian Onirocriticks, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And lastly, according to the Egyptians, c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The sense of all which put together is, That the dreaming of men rising from the dead signifies the execution of Justice, and deliverance from war, bondage and affliction. 6. Rivers. A River has a double consideration. The first in respect of its Original and its recourse thither; which is hinted Ecclesiast. 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full: unto the place from whence the Rivers come, thither they return again. According to which consideration, supposing the Sea a Type of the Extent of the Jurisdiction or Empire of any Potentate, as it indeed is, Rivers will signify any Emissary Powers from thence, whether Armies, or Provincial Magistrates, or what Agents abroad soever that are under this chief Power, and so act in reference to it. These may, according to exact Analogy, be called Rivers, because both themselves and their affairs have recourse to the main Sea, the amplitude of that Jurisdiction to which they belong. Achmetes, c. 178. according to the mind of the Indians, Persians and Egyptians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The sense of which is, That any great King is resembled by the Sea, I suppose he means his Kingdom; and as all Rivers run into the Sea, so the wealth of the world to him. And again to the same purpose, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That new Rivers running into the Sea signify new Revenues accrueing to the King or Kingdom from people afar off, suppose made Provinces by his power. 7. The other consideration of Rivers is their limpidness and irrigation: but in this respect they have either a Spiritual sense or more Mundane. The former appears from what our Saviour hath said John 7. 38. He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water. This he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believed in him should receive. The fruit of which Spirit, as it is communicable to the generality of the Church, is Righteousness, Peace and Joy; according to that Onirocritical solution of Astrampsychus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Of this Water our Saviour Christ, John 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Like that in Esay 58. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. But Waters are also meant of worldly affluency: Jerem. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come, and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Achmetes, c. 176. according to the Egyptian Solutions, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rivers that water the soil are interpreted of man's livelihood. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one sees a River that uses to water the country dried up, it portends death, sorrow and affliction. 8. Saints. The first style of Saintship belongs to the Israelites, who were a separate people, set apart from other Nations and made holy to the Lord by adhering to that Law he gave them, not contaminating themselves with the Idolatrous Institutes of the Gentiles. Deuteron. 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai, and risen from Seir unto them; he shined from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of Saints: that is to say, (saith Vatablus) cum populo Israel, quorum fuerunt quidem multa millia; licèt n●…n singuli Sancti, tamen sancta fuerunt millia, quòd Deus illos sanctificâsset, & in populum suum illos sibi segregâsset. And further in the following verse, Yea he loved the people; all his Saints are in thy hand. Which is plainly spoke of the Israelites according to that sense in Exodus ch. 19 v. 5, 6. where they are called a peculiar treasure above all people, and also a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation. And this they are said to be, if they obey his voice and keep his Covenant. Whence it is easy to conceive that those Christians succeed into this Title that are purely Evangelical, and do not contaminate themselves by any Idolatrous Practices against the Command and Covenant of God; they are Saints in this peculiar and separate sense, in that they do not mingle with the Rites of the Gentiles, but keep themselves to the Commands of that one Master, Christ. If they do this sincerely and constantly, (and truly there is little doubt of their sincerity, that did not stick to lay down their lives for the truth) though they be not so wise and plausible according to the mode of the world, nor devoid of all blemishes of humane infirmity; yet undoubtedly they are those Saints of which there is so frequent mention in the Apocalypse, and are the true Israel of God, under whatsoever hardship or low condition of fortune they may be found, to disguise the worthiness of their persons. For the Witnesses were to be clothed in sackcloth a thousand two hundred sixty days. Scorpion. See Serpent. Scorched by the Sun. Achmetes, Onirocrit. c. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that the Sun has scorched him much, he will be punished by the King proportionably to that scorching, according to the doctrine of the Egyptians, Indians and Persians. 9 Sea. Waters signifying people, as the Angel tells S. John; the gathering together of people into one Body Politic, Kingdom or Jurisdiction, may fitly be called a Sea in the Political world, as the gathering together of the Waters is so termed in the Natural, Gen. 1. And the whole University of Kingdoms or a great part of them may according to this analogy be called either the great Sea or Ocean, as is figured out also in the Vision of Daniel, Ch. 7. I saw in my Vision by night, and behold the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great Sea. Where by Winds undoubtedly is meant War, as well as by the great Sea a comprehension of several Kingdoms in which this bluster and tempest of War is made, one Kingdom fight against another to enlarge their dominions. This analogy of the Sea is also acknowledged in the Interpretations of the Indians, Persians and Egyptians. Achmetes, c. 178. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If any dream he is Master of the Sea, he will be entire successor in the whole Kingdom. And so likewise of the Winds, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If a King see the Sea troubled by a wind from a known quarter, ●…e will be molested by some Nation from that quarter. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But if he see the Sea calm, he will enjoy his Kingdom in peace. This interpretation therefore of the Sea will farther confirm that of the Rivers. Serpent. That notorious Serpentine shape which deceived Adam and Eve and lapsed them into rebellion against God, cannot but assure any one that in Scripture all the Serpentine kind that are described in Prophecy do in all likelihood refer to the Kingdom of the Devil. Ship. That a Ship as well as a Mill may be an Hieroglyphic of Profit, any one may easily conceive, if he think but of Merchandizing. Achmetes, according to the mind of the Egyptians and Persians, c. 180. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If one dream he builds Ships, he shall grow rich proportionably to the number of the Ships he builds. But out of the foregoing Chapter, according to the doctrine of the Indian Interpreters, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which is an interpretation as far fetched as from the Indies indeed. Nor is it easy to conjecture why a Ship should intimate the congregating of men for the celebrating religious Mysteries, unless we conceive a Ship to represent a Temple: Which why we should, I know not, unless because they are disterminated and solitary buildings, as Temples are; not joined to one another, no more than a Temple to other Houses. But in that it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Navis mercatoria, it may be the profit of the Priest from sacrifices or offerings to Idols may be alluded to. And whether any darker recesses in the Ship may represent the Adyta in Temples, I know not. Such particularities I leave to every man's fancy to pursue at leisure. Slain. See Resurrection. Slaughter. See Death. 10. Sun, Moon and Stars. The Sun and Moon have either a Spiritual signification or a Secular. Of the Spiritual signification of the Sun there is an example, where Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness, as he is by the Prophet Malachi. Also the Apostle to the Ephesians, Awake th●… that sleepest, that Christ may give thee light. The Moon also may have a Spiritual signification, supposing it to typify the Mosaical dispensation: Which it may very well do, both because it is a light, and a far dimmer light than that of the Gospel; as also in allusion to their New Moons and other Festivals of the Jews, the order of which depended on that Planet. See Mr. Mede on Apocal. 12. To which you may add, That as the Law of Moses is compared to the Moon, so may the Light of the Gospel of Christ be compared to the Sun. For that the Word of God is compared to Light, is plain from that of David, Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet, and a Light unto my path. And Psalm 119. 105. that great Lamp of the Universe, the Sun, is the clearest Light men can walk by. Whence that vulgar expression of the Sunshine of the Gospel was framed by very warrantable analogy; and does further assure unto us, that the Light of the Gospel may also be one Spiritual signification of the Sun. 11. The Secular signification of Sun and Moon is when they signify the Power and Glory of this world. And that either generally and at large, as Jerem. 15. 9 Her Sun is gone down while it was yet day: Which the Targum renders, Their glory passed from them in their life-time. The like to which is in Amos 8. 9 I will cause the Sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the Earth in the clear day. Vatabl. Cùm eritis in supremo felicitat is gradu, tunc indè vos dejiciam & infelicissimos reddam. Again, Esay 60. 20. Thy Sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy Moon withdraw herself: that is to say, Thou shalt have uninterrupted glory and prosperity, as it follows presently after, The days of thy mourning shall be ended. In such places as these Sun and Moon have not a sense determined to any particular Dignity in a Kingdom, but signify only at large the Glory and Prosperity thereof. 12. But in other places there may be a more particular meaning of these Lights. For as there is a Political Universe as well as a Natural, (as I have already shown) which has its Heaven also as well as Earth: so there must be something answering in the Political Heaven to those chief conspicuous parts of the Natural, the Sun, Moon and Stars. Whence it will follow, that he that is chief in a Political world must be the Sun thereof; as may appear, though in an inferior instance touching a Body Oeconomical, Gen. 37. 9 viz. the Dream of Joseph, that the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars made obeisance to him. Which Jacob unriddling, What is this dream, saith he to his son, that thou hast dreamt? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to how down ourselves to thee to the Earth? Wherefore if these Symbols signify so distinctly in a Family, which is but a Body Oeconomical, much more is it to be expected that it may signify so in a Body Politic. Achmetes, according to the mind of the Indians, Persians and Egyptians, cap. 167. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. (In the next chapter he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the second or lesser King.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whom he calls in the following chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The sense of all which is in brief, that in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams the Sun immutably represents the King, the Moon the next in power to him, the Planet Venus the Queen, and the rest of the bigger Stars the Princes or Nobles of the Kingdom. 13. Which is not so superstitiously to be understood but that, if there were no Queen, any third in dignity might be represented thereby. For this Venus is also Lucifer, which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, under which the mighty King of Babylon is represented, Esay 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the Morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst weaken the Nations! Which seems to be against the analogy of the Onirocriticks, which say the Sun signifies the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But they do not say a Star may not signify him, especially when he is not compared with his own Nobles and Princes, but with other Kings. For a plurality of Suns is unnatural. Wherefore in that case the Parable is to be made from the Stars only, and the chiefest King is the greatest and most glorious Star. Whence when the Roman Empire had two Caesar's unsubordinate to one another, they could not well be called Suns, but Stars, though glorious ones. Which agrees well with Mr. Mede's interpreting of that great Star that fell at the sound of the third Trumpet, of the expiring of the Western Caesareate. 14. But that there is a more Mystical sense of Stars also, may appear in that Promise of Christ, * Revel. 2. 28. I will give him the Morningstar. But where Christ saith, * Chap. 22. 16. I am the root of David and the bright Morningstar, I know not but that may be understood in a Political sense; for all Kingdoms had not then, nor have yet, submitted unto him. But where Stars signify Angels, that is more Cabbalistical. Apocal. 1. 20. The seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven Churches: According as they signify also in Job 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. As many of which as kept not their station, but fell into this terrestrial pollution, may well be called Fallen Stars, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Stars fallen from Heaven to the Earth. According to which that Apocal. 9 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Periphrasis of some one fallen Angel or Devil, who afterwards is called the Angel of the Abyss, a great Officer in the Kingdom of darkness. That this is the sense is plain, in that it is said, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preterperfect Tense. It may not be impertinent also to add what * Lib. 2. Hieroglyph. 1. Horus Apollo says of this Hieroglyphic: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. CHAP. IX. 1. Tail; Temple. 2. Throes; Throne of God. 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies. 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof. 5. Time; Hours; Days. That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus. 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous, with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalypse. 7. Trees; Vintage; Water. 8. White-clothing; Wilderness; Winds. 9 Whore and Whoredom. 10. The exquisite Analogy Idolatry bears thereunto. 11. Wine-press. 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter. 13. Woman and Women. 14. Worship; World. 15. That the Prophetic style is so determinately intelligible, that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein. 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by, which are more warrantable and genuine, which less. 1. TAil. The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes behind, to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogy. But, methinks, the Analogy is most exact in Serpents of a great length, who therefore have a long train following them. But it is significant enough in other Animals also, as the Onirocriticks have taken notice. Achmet. c. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed, (such as the Persians called Pharas) having a large Tail, thick of hair and long, he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fullness and length of the Tail. This Analogy will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Emperors, or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom. In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail. Temple. To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple, it signifies sometimes in the Prophetic style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him, and so set apart from other Nations, as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plaits of ground. 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou mayest know how to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church. And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God: which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible; Grotius of the Sardian, Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholic. 2. Throes of Childbirth. The Throes of Childbirth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass, not without much difficulty, pain and danger. And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with, and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under. There are several examples of this Iconism in the Prophets. Jer. 30. 6, 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the day of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a manchild: which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church, I mean, of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it; Grotius, of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus. Throne of God. The Throne of God signifies a great Throne, a magnificent Throne, according to that usual Hebraism, where Nouns joined with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acquire a sense of excellency, vehemency or greatness. So the Trees of God, the Cedars of God, the Mountains of God, are great and high Trees, Cedars and Mountains, the Fire of God a vehement Fire, and the like. According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne, a Royal or Imperial Seat, from whence the Political World is ruled, as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe. 3. Thunder. Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissipation of the forces of War. Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of Hosts with Thunder and Earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire. And Job 39 25. He smelleth the battle afar of, the thunder of the Captains and their Chariots. It is very frequently used of God's discomfiting of the enemies of his Church. 1 Sam. 2. 10. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of Heaven shall he thunder upon them. Again, chap. 7. v. 10. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder that day upon the Philistines, and smote them until they came to Bethcar. Which whether it be understood figuratively here or naturally by an Israelism, it will be an Image or Figure of the deliverance of the Church from her Enemies to all posterity. David also describes his deliverance from his enemies after this manner, Psal. 18. The Lord thundered in the Heavens, and the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Yea he sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. 4. But there is also another more Mystical signification of Thunder; Prophecy or Revelation from God being signified thereby, by way of allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filia vocis, which is one kind of Prophecy. Such was that voice from Heaven testifying of our Saviour Christ, Matth. 3. 17. as also Joh. 12. 28. where the people that stood by said, It thundered. See Drusius upon the place. But besides this, Thunder has of itself a significancy of Prophecy, the one being the Voice of Heaven, and called the voice of God, the other an Oracle from God. But there is yet another sense that Thunder may be capable of; as, namely, of some special and signal Promulgation of the Gospel to a people that has not yet either heard of it, assented to it, or rightly believed it; and this by an allusion to the Law given to the Israelites in Thunder and Lightning: not to say, with some respect to the manner of God's witnessing out of the clouds to his Son Christ, and declaring of him, in a voice of * Joh. 12. 28, 29. Thunder, that he had glorified him, and would glorify him again. See Fire. 5. Time. That a Time and Times and half a Time in Daniel signifies three years and an half, we have the suffrage of Grotius, and indeed no Interpreters that I know dissent. But this Figure of speech is referrible to none of the Prophetic Schemes which I have set down, but is a mere Synecdoche Generis; as Hour is indeed a Synecdoche Speciei, when it is put for an indefinite short time, as it is sometimes. As 1 Thess. 2. 17. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, etc. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Also Philem. 15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou mightest enjoy him for ever. For a season is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This use of an Hour in the ordinary style is, as I said, but a Synecdoche Speciei, but in the Prophetic style there is a Diorismus in it. But as for a Day when it is taken for a Year, it is an Icasmus, there being a Circuit of the Sun in each, and therefore they bear a similitude one to another. From whence it will follow that if one Day will stand for one Year, then in proportion one Month of days will stand for Thirty years. 6. But that numbering by Months is appropriate to the works of Darkness, as reflecting upon the Circuits of the Moon, which is the Governess of the Night, and numbering by the courses of the Sun appropriate to the works of Righteousness, is, as I have noted already, an observation of Mr. Mede's, and is exactly true in the Apocalypse: where the continuing of the Beast and the profaning of the holy City by the Gentiles is reckoned by Months; but the Prophecy of the Witnesses; as also their undergoing that Martyrdom, and their lying unburied, by Days. The abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is also numbered by Days, and by a time and times and half a time; which, according to this curiosity of Appropriation, must of necessity signify three Solar years and an half; of which notwithstanding they fall short near twenty days. But Modicum nec curate Praetor nec Propheta is better here applied then as Grotius applies it. And hence it is demonstrable that there is a concealed or tacit latitude of twenty years at least in these 1260 days, which are the same with a Time and Times and half a Time; and that the first measure may be an Icad. But because the Sixty sounds, and that is silent in this Number, it is not improbable but an Hexecad might, if need were, be taken for the first measure or Divisor of 1260. But that 1260 days is a Diorismus, I have expressly taken notice of above. 7. Trees. That Trees according to their several bigness and procerity signify several degrees of men, is plain from that of Zacharie, chap. 11. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy Cedars. Howl, O Fir-tree, for the Cedar is fallen, because all the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O ye Oaks of Basan, for the forest of the Vintage is come down. Those few words, All the mighty are spoiled, are a certain Key to the Parable, and show that the Prophecy does not point at Trees, but Men: and therefore Vatablus and other Interpreters do interpret it accordingly. That Proverbial jambick, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sounds to this sense; and the Onirocriticks of Nicephorus give a further and clearer suffrage thereto, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Achmetes, according to the doctrine of the Persians, Indians and Egyptians, does largely insist upon these Iconisms, applying several sorts of Trees to several qualities of persons. See Onirocrit. cap. 151. Which yet he does more copiously and particularly cap. 200. And lastly, cap. 165. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To which purpose he also speaks in the following Chapter. Vintage. See Wine-press. Water. That Waters may be the Hieroglyphic of Words and Speech, or of that Doctrine that is conveyed by them, appears from Prov. 18. 4. The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. Also chap. 15. 28. The heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. But never so bad as when it poureth out such speeches as tend to strife and contention, which is like the cutting a bank in the Sea and overflowing all. Whence it is that the Wise man gives that wholesome advice, Leave Prov. 17. 14. off contention before it be meddled withal, for the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. See other significations of Water in River and in Sea. 8. White-clothing. By comparing Nicephorus with Astrampsychus. White-clothing should signify that honour and cheerfulness that arises from a man's innocency and integrity. Astrampsychus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Nicephorus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Achmetes, according to the sense of the Indians, c. 157. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And again, cap. 232. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the sense of the Egyptians and Persians. I need not add what is said in the Apocalypse, That the White raiment is the Righteousness of the Saints. 9 Whore and Whoredom. That by Whoredom is signified Idolatry, there are infinite Instances in the Old Testament. Exod. 34. 15. Lest thou make a Covenant with the inhabitants of the Land, and they go whoring after their Gods, etc. Deut. 31. 16. This people will rise up and go whoring after the Gods of the strangers of the Land, etc. And Ezek. 6. 9 I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me, and with their eyes that go whoring after their Idols. That Idolatry therefore is compared to Whoredom is a plain case. And truly the reason of this Icasmus is not obscure, since the people of God are his Spouse, and God calls himself their Husband. By which Figure is meant that the highest Joy of the Soul of man is by keeping herself in strict union with her God, and by being sincere in his Covenant; as also that it is his duty to be so, and that that high act of Religion and devotional Love which is due to him should not in any measure be diverted upon another, but that the eye of our Mind should be wholly fixed upon him. This is the duty of every Rational Soul, whether she be in exterior Covenant with God or no. And therefore the very Idolatry of the Heathen in this regard is rightly called Whoredom, as it is in that first place of Exodus which I cited. But when she is in external Covenant with God, and God becomes her Husband both jure and de facto, the Whoredom is double. 10. We see therefore the Analogy betwixt Whoredom and Idolatry. For as in Whoredom that special kind of passion and the proper effects thereof, which are due only to a Legitimate Husband, are derived upon some other person; so in Idolatry that summity and flower of our Divinest affection, which is Religious Devotion and Adoration, with the outward signs thereof due to God alone, are discharged and exercised upon some Creature, whether Idols of wood and stone, or any other things which are not God. This is a fundamental reason of this frequent Iconism in Scripture. To which you may add some other few Resemblances. As the Provocation of God's jealousy against them especially that be in an exterior Covenant with him: The ornamental Pompousness in Idolatry, answering to the garishness of Whores and the pranking up themselves to allure their Paramours: The Pronity also and Propenseness to fall into this sin, it being even as natural to this corrupt condition of the Soul to dote on a visible Object of Worship, as for the Body to incline to the reaping of those joys it presages upon every enticing Object, did not an higher Law forbidden it in both cases. To which you may further add the Remorselesness of Conscience which men easily fall into in both sins, they rowing down so easily with the stream, and their Animal nature being so much gratified by them. Such is the way of the adulterous woman in both senses; She eateth and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. Prov. 30. ●…0. And, lastly, as the being engaged in whorish practices extinguishes that love and respect that is due to a Husband; so the being inveigled in Idolatrous worship does quite suffocate and dead that Divine sense whereby we enjoy God indeed and know our true duty to him, and relish those indispensable points of Obedience wherein we are really to honour him. So deep and weighty a sense is there concealed under this one Prophetic Iconism, Fornication or Whoredom. Which therefore seems to be so particularly affected in the Apocalypse, not only by way of just reproach to the sin, but for the exquisiteness of signification, it so fully and so truly emblematizing the nature of Idolatry. Wilderness. See Desert. Winds. See Sea. 11. Wine-press. That a Wine-press is an Hieroglyphic of great pressure and Affliction, yea of effusion of blood and great slaughter, the nature of the thing itself does witness, I mean, the pressing of the grapes till their blood comes out, as it is called Deut. 32. 14. And accordingly Scripture has made use of this Emblem, Lam. 1. 15. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me, he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the Virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a Wine-press. And Joel 3. 12. Let the Heathen he awakened and come up to the Valley of Jehosaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the Heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the Harvest is ripe; come, get ye down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. This is understood of the great slaughter of the enemies of the Jews in the valley of Jehosaphat, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Seventy render it. 12. But though this Iconism of the Wine-press signify slaughter or an abundant effusion of blood, yet we are to remember that death and slaughter itself does not always signify Physically, but sometimes Morally. And for my part I do not question but that of Esay 63. [Who is this that cometh from Edom, with his died garments from Bosra, & c? and again, I have trodden the Wine-press alone, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments] what ever other sense there is thereof, has some such Allegorical meaning as the Fathers have put upon it concerning Christ his spiritual Victories, as I shall have occasion to insist more largely upon in its due place. 13. Woman and Women. That Woman by a Prophetic Scheme signifies not one single Woman, but a Body Politic, I have already taken notice. For I have heard a voice as of a Woman in travel— the voice of the Daughter of Zion, Jer. 4. 31. But this Scheme is so usual, that it is needless to insist upon Instances. Here Zion, that is, the Inhabitants of her, is called both Woman and Daughter. The second in a sense of delicacy and nobility, as if we should say in English, The Damosel Zion. But there is another sense of Daughter, which is conspicuous Ezek. 16. where he calls Jerusalem Harlot, v. 35. Wherefore, O Harlot, hear the word of the Lord, etc. And does in the process of the charge or complaint declare how Jerusalem with her Daughters was worse than her two Sisters, Sodom and Samaria, with their Daughters; who yet notwithstanding, v. 45. are said to have loatbed their Husbands, that is to say, to have been Whores and to have committed Idolatry. A Metropolis therefore with the lesser Towns are Mother and Daughters, and consequently all Women; but if Idolatrous, such Women as it will defile them who join with them in public worship. But there is yet another sense of Woman, not Political, but more Physical and Cabbalistical, and that is, The life, sense and relish of this Body: This is a Woman that we must have a special care of being polluted by, through over-passionately closing with any of her suggestions, or over-deeply sympathising with or resenting of those pleasures she would allure us by, and so desix our desire upon her. For not Idolatry only but all other Enormities arise in us from the listening to the false counsel of this domestic Eve. 14. Worship. That Worship or Adoration may be an Iconism of Subjection, is plain from the nature of the Ceremony itself; the bowing of the Body being a fit Symbol of submitting the Mind and Will to his power to whom we do this homage. And that it does signify thus in the Hebrew Idiom, is manifest from several Instances. But the very Symbol itself is explained, Gen. 37. where the Sheafs of Joseph's brethren are said to make obeisance to Joseph's Sheaf, that is, to worship Joseph's Sheaf; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Your Sheafs worshipped my Sheaf. Whereupon his Brethren presently interpreting the Dream say unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or, Shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? that is to say, Shall we be your Subjects, or fall under your Dominion? So Esa. 45. 14. speaking of the subjection of the Aethiopians and Sabeans to King Cyrus, They shall come after thee, saith he, in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, They shall worship thee. All which signify submission and subjection to his Sovereignty. I will only add one place more, Gen. 27. the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob, Let people serve thee, and Nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both places, and signifies obedience or subjection at large, as is manifest. But suppose it had not that general signification of itself, but only denoted that part of the duty of subjection which is Worship or Incurvation, it might notwithstanding signify thus largely, Stylo Prophetico, by a Diorismus. World. See Heaven and Earth. 15. These be the chief Icastick terms that occur in the Prophetic style; which if they haply prove more in number than we shall have use for in this Discourse, yet I account my pains not improper in reference to what I have had occasion to treat of in my Mystery of Godliness, besides their desirable usefulness at large for understanding the chief Visions and Prophecies in Scripture. And I hope I have made it appear, partly by this Alphabet of Iconisms, and partly by my Explication of those preceding Prophetic Schemes, That it is as easy a thing to render a Prophecy or Vision out of this Prophetic style into ordinary language, as it is to interpret one language by another; and That the difficulty of understanding Prophecies is in a manner no greater, when once a man has taken notice of the settled meaning of the peculiar Icas●…s therein, then if they had been penned down in the vulgar speech, in which there are as frequent Homonymies of words as here there are of Iconisms; and That therefore it need be no reproach to any one that he endeavours to understand the Prophecies of Scripture, more than the Histories thereof; Prophecy being nothing else but an Anticipatory History, and, when once fulfilled, as plain an History as that which was never prophesied of. 16. We will only annex a few Rules concerning the Preference of one Interpretation of Prophecy before another, and then conclude. The first Rule. That Interpretation that keeps close to the approved Examples and Analogy of the Prophetic style is to be preferred before such as are framed at pleasure according to the private fancy of the Interpreter. The ground of this Rule is this, That besides that it is safer to follow an approved Example then to be destitute thereof, and wholly lean upon a man's private sense; the very style of the Prophets being as it were a peculiar language or dialect, there is a necessity of understanding things according to the meaning of their dialect or language, and not according to what it would sound in our own. Which is as fond and ridiculous, as if an Englishman in hearing of Latin spoken, where the word Fur is occasionally brought in, should think the Fur of an Alderman's Gown were meant; or at the sounding of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek should let his fancy presently fall into the dripping-pan. And yet as absonous and incongruous is it to interpret the Iconisms of the Prophets according to what conceits are either vulgar or peculiar to ourselves. As if because Vices and Virtues are painted out in the figure of Women or Beasts, we should therefore apply that meaning to the Prophetic style; whenas they always signify a Body Politic, even in that very Scheme where abstract Inscriptions are upon them: as Zech. 5. 7. where the Woman in the Epha is said to be Wickedness. By which Woman notwithstanding Vatablus understands the Ten Tribes revolted to Idolatry, and other Interpreters expound it to the same purpose. And so to interpret Hail of hardness of heart is like the interpreting of Latin or Greek by what they sound nearest in English. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Aristotle speaks, and quite to forget where we are or what we are about. The second Rule. That Interpretation that keeps one tenor of sense of the same words, in one and the same Vision especially, is to be preferred before that which varies backward and forward, and takes the same word in as many different senses as it occurs in different places of the Vision. To be in many tales is accounted an infallible sign of a false story; and to vary the Interpretation of the same word in one and the same Vision, without any account or reason, is as great a demonstration of fraud and forcedness in the Interpretation, and that the Interpreter was biased by some design or interest, and that he has done violence to the Text for his own advantage. As for example, If one should interpret that Iconism of a Beast, one while to signify a Kingdom or Empire, another while some single Person of that Empire, and then again some grand Vice thereof; were not this a mere botch in comparison of interpreting this Beast of such a Kingdom or Body Politic in every place of the Vision? I might instance in other such like shufflings, but this one intimation shall suffice. The third Rule. That Interpretation that does concern the affairs of Religion and the Church of God, and is of the greatest use and serviceableness to us, is a more likely Interpretation and to be preferred before that which less respects us, but seems to make the Spirit of God to have predicted things with little or no reference to the usefulness of the Church. The truth of this Rule appears not only from the perpetual Examples of Prophecy, where it is rare to find any that do not respect the Church of God some way or other in a special manner, (for even the * Rev. 6. Riders of the red, black and pale Horses were as it were so many Scouts to inform the Church of the succeeding Periods of her affairs) but also from the reason of the thing itself. For if the number of Prophecies be not limited by this measure, what must be the bounds of them? And if there be any beyond this, why are there not Prophecies of all Nations and of their affairs without any reference to the Church? The last Rule. Those Interpretations are more likely to be true that are suggested to a Mind unprejudiced and unbiased by any outward respects, than those that are made by such as the sense of Interest, worldly hopes or fears, or any feud or disgust may put a false bias upon, and make the judgement partial. The truth of this Rule is plain at first sight, but I must confess the usefulness is more maimed and uncertain. For though it may be apparent enough in many cases, that an Interpreter is prejudiced by some of those ways I have intimated; yet because it is very hard to be assured of any man's being entirely free from prejudice, the application of the Rule will be found the more difficult. But where certain Demonstration will not reach, wary Conjecture may claim a right of succeeding in its place. Nor need we be over-solicitous concerning the force or use of this last Rule, it respecting the Interpreter more than the Interpretation, and arguing rather from the quality of the person than the solidity of the performance; which is better examined by the three foregoing Rules, and other firm Principles of Reason and Knowledge. CHAP. X. 1. The order and entrance of his Search into the Prophecies, beginning at the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse. 2. That the Seventeenth Chapter and the Thirteenth treat adequately of the same Subject, proved by Two Parallelisms of Agreements. 3. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon. 4. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the thirteenth Chapter, and the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the seventeenth. 5. That the Parallelism of the Seven-headed Beasts in those Chapters is perfectly adequate and exact: And also of the Two-horned Beast and the Whore, saving that her Original is omitted and her Destruction mentioned in the Seventeenth Chapter; of both which a sufficient account is rendered. 6. The Adequateness of these Parallelisms demonstrated by comparing the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters, so as it may appear that the one does wholly imbibe the other, saving in what is above excepted. 7. That the naturalness and unforcedness of this Imbibition shall be made good by a joint-Exposition of the two Chapters. 1. WE are now, I hope, competenty well appointed to pursue our main Design, which is, To trace ●…t in Prophecies of Scripture the Predictions and Prefigurations of this sad Apostatised state of Christendom into that Antichristian condition which it is notoriously known to have degenerated into. Which we shall do in the same order which we have observed in our Idea of Antichristianism, beginning first with that first and most eminent member of Antichristianism, Idolatry; which we shall note through all those Prophecies which we conceive to have pointed thereat, whether in the Old or New Testament, beginning at the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse, which is the Royal Gate which will let us in to view with the greatest certainty and assurance desirable all those Scenes of future things which are exhibited either by S. John himself, by S. Paul, or Daniel, touching the Church of Christ in that State we have described. Wherefore it being of so great importance to be well ascertained of the true meaning of the Vision of that Chapter, I have thought fit with more than ordinary diligence (and I hope with proportionable success) to search into the genuine sense thereof; and have, I think, by carefully comparing of it with the Vision of the Thirteenth Chapter, thereby demonstrating that both Chapters do adequately treat of the selfsame things, as also by strictly keeping myself to the known Analogy of Prophetic Schemes, wrought out such an undeniable clearness of the meaning of both those Visions, that no man that is not wilfully blind can fail of discerning the truth thereof. 2. That both these Chapters have the very selfsame Subject, and more particularly that the Two-horned Beast is the same with the Whore of Babylon, and the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the Thirteenth Chapter the same in all respects with the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the Seventeenth Chapter, the manifold Agreements betwixt the first two, and second two, in these two following Parallelisms will abundantly make good. 3. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon. Agreement I. The Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon are both the Restorers and Promoters of Idolatry in the Empire. Agreement II. They both had the Rule and government over the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns. Agreement III. They both aspired to a Majesty and Power plainly Imperial. Agreement IU. They both were workers of Miracles, or a kind of Magicians or Sorcerers, and that in reference to the restoring of Idolatry. Agreement V They are both Pretenders to Sanctity, and make a show of acting in the behalf of Christ, when indeed they are Introducers of Idolatry and Antichristianism. Agreement VI They are both cruel and bloody Persecutors of the Saints and of the Witnesses of Jesus. Agreement VII. They are both so described as to have a Jurisdiction over the whole Empire, as well Oriental as Occidental. Agreement VIII. The Seat of them both is so indigitated at first, as that it may be understood to be as well at New Rome or Constantinople as at Old Rome. Agreement IX. Both their Seats are afterwards expressly determined to Old Rome. 4. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the Thirteenth Chapter and the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the Seventeenth. Agreement I. They both have seven Heads and ten Horns. Agreement II. The bodies of them both are set out by the Symbols of Cruelty and Idolatry. Agreement III. In both Visions this Seven-headed Beast is a Beast that had in some sort ceased to be, and was restored, and healed, and revived again. Agreement IU. The time of the Death or of the Nonexistence of either was not long. Agreement V In neither Vision this Beast is so perfectly restored as to be utterly the same again, but rather the Image of the former; or is so the former in one sense that it is not in another. Whence it is called The Beast that is not, and yet is; or, Was, and is not, and yet is. Agreement VI. Both the Beasts are said to rise out of the Sea. Agreement VII. They are both ordained to destruction, as not being that Kingdom of the Saints that is to last for ever and ever. Agreement VIII. Of both these restored Beasts it is said, that they whose Names are not written in the Book of Life shall worship them and wonder after them. Agreement IX. The Seven Heads in each Beast are Idolatrous Heads. Agreement X. The Beasts are slain or exterminated out of Being in the Sixth Head, restored or revived in the Seventh. Agreement XI. The ten Horns in neither Beast did actually reign in S. John's time. Agreement XII. The ten Horns in each Beast begin their reign with the Beast. Agreement XIII. The ten Horns in each Beast give their strength to the Beast. Agreement XIV. The Beasts in each Vision make war with the Saints. Agreement XV. The Saints in each Vision overcome the Beast at last. Agreement XVI. The Faith and Constancy of the Saints is exercised by both the Beasts. Agreement XVII. The time of each Beast is said to be determined by God, and to be predicted by his holy Prophets. Agreement XVIII. The Seat of this Seven-headed Beast is not set down, (but left free in either Vision) though the Seat of the Whore and the Two-horned Beast be determined: which has an admirable correspondence with the Event. 5. These be the two Parallelisms of Agreements: concerning the latter whereof I dare affirm that it is so exact and adequate, that the Parallels betwixt the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter and the Seven-headed Beast in the Seventeenth exhaust all in each Chapter concerning that Beast. The former Parallelism is not so accurate, the Original of the Two-horned Beast being parallel to nothing in the Whore, and the Destruction of the Whore parallel to nothing in the Two-horned Beast as he is there described. Wherefore there is that peculiar in the Vision of the 17. Chapter, that it treats also of the judgement of the two-horned Beast or the Whore, according to the very title of the Vision, I will show thee the judgement of the great Whore. But this is no argument at all against the Identity of their persons, especially the Two-horned Beast being also to be destroyed, and at the same time with the Whore, as it is easy to be made out by the Apocalyptick Synchronisms. And as for the omission of the Original of the Whore to parallel the Original of the Two-horned Beast, that is no argument against their Identity neither. Indeed if there had been an Original assigned to the Whore different from that of the Two-horned Beast, it had been something; but this bare omission signifies nothing but the art and accuracy of the very outside of these Visions, which keep a Decorum in all things. And therefore because it was not so seemly nor suitable to say a Woman risen out of the Earth, (though Brutes did so, Gen. 1. 24.) the mention of her Original was fairly declined. 6. But whenas a lesser number of Agreements in each Parallelism (provided there were nothing contrary) could not but have been a strong presumption of the Identity of the Subjects of the Visions in each Chapter, I mean, That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are one, and the Seven-headed Beast in each Chapter the same; how fully assured must we needs be of these Identities, the Agreements of these two Parallelisms (those passages only excepted of which I have given so fair an account) perfectly exhausting the whole substance of each Chapter? Which that it may be more plainly discerned, I shall expose to your eyes the whole XVII. Chapter, and to every Verse in order subjoin what is parallel to it in the XIII. For we shall see it will imbibe the whole Chapter. Apoc. Chap. 17. 1. And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgement of the great Whore that sitteth upon many Waters. Chap. 13. Most of this first verse of this Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse is but Introductory to the Vision, no part of the Vision itself, and therefore there needs no Parallel to it in this Thirteenth Chapter. But how the Whore's being placed upon many waters may seem to comply with one of our Parallels, I shall note in its due place, when I come to give a Joint-Exposition of these two Chapters. Chap. 17. 2. With whom the Kings of the Earth have committed ᵃ fornication, and the Inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Chap. 13. 11.— And he spoke as a a Parallelism 1. Agreement 1. Dragon. 12. And causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the ᵃ first Beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 14.— Saying to them that dwell on the Earth, that they should make an ᵃ Image to the Beast who had the wound by the sword, and did live. Chap. 17. 3. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a Woman * sit upon a ᵃ scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of ᵇ blasphemy, having ᶜ seven heads and ten horns. Chap. 13. 15. * Par. 1. Agr. 2. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast should speak. 2. And the Beast that I saw was like unto a a Paral. 2. Agr. 2. Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a Bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and b Paral. 2. Agr. 2. Blasphemies. 6. And he opened his mouth in ᵇ blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. 1. And I saw a Beast having c Parall. 2. Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns. Chap. 17. 4. And the Woman was arrayed in ᵃ purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden ᵇ cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Chap. 13. 12. And he exercizeth a Par. 1. Agr. 3. all the power of the first Beast before him. 13. And he doth great b Par. 1. Agr. 4. wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men; 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by those ᵇ miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the Beast. Chap. 17. 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, ᵃ Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming out of the Earth, and he had two horns like a a Par. 1. Agr. 5. Lamb, and he spoke like a Dragon. Chap. 17. 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the ᵃ blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Chap. 13. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be a Par. 1. Agr. 6. killed. Chap. 17. 7. And the Angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast that ᵃ carrieth her, which hath the ᵇ seven heads and ten horns. Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had a Par. 〈◊〉. Agr. 7. two horns. 1. And I saw a Beast having b Par. 2 Agr. 1. seven heads and ten horns. Chap. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest, ᵃ was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the ᵇ bottomless pit and go into ᶜ perdition; and they that dwell on the Earth shall ᵈ wonder, (whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world) when they behold the Beast that ᵉ was, and is not, and yet is. Chap. 13. 2. And the a Par. 2. Agr. 3. Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. 4. And they worshipped the ᵃ Dragon that gave power to the Beast, etc. See also verse 3. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea, and I saw a Beast b Par. 2. Agr. 6. rise up out of the Sea. 10. He that leadeth into c Par. 2. Agr. 7. captivity, must go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword, must be ᶜ killed with the sword. 3. And all the world d Par. 2. Agr. 8. wondered after the Beast. 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him, whose names are not ᵈ written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to a Par. 2. Agr. 3. death, and his deadly wound was ᵃ healed. 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth, that they should make an c Par. 2. Agr. 5. Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword, and the Beast revived. 15. And he had power to give life to the ᶜ Image of the Beast, insomuch that the Image of the Beast should speak. Chap. 17. 9 And here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven Heads are the ᵃ seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth. Chap. 13. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 8. two horns like a Lamb, but spoke as a Dragon. Chap. 17. 10. And they are seven Kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the a Par. 2. Agr. 10. other is not yet come: and when he cometh, he must continue a b Par. 2. Agr. 4. short space. Chap. 13. 1.— Having ᵃ seven heads, and upon his heads the name of ᵃ blasphemy. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was ᵇ healed. Chap. 17. 11. And the Beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the a Par. 2. Agr. 9 seven, and goeth into b Par. 2. Agr. 7. perdition. Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads,— and upon his heads the name of ᵃ blasphemy. 10. He that killeth with the sword, must be ᵇ killed with the sword. Chap. 17. 12. And the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings, which have received ᵃ no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings ᵃ one hour with the Beast. Chap. 13. 1. Having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten a Par. 2. Agr. 11, 12. crowns. Chap. 17. 13. These have one mind, and shall ᵃ give their strength and power to the Beast. Chap. 13. 1. I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea, a Par. 2. Agr. 13. having ten horns. Chap. 17. 14. These shall make ᵃ war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall ᵇ overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are ᶜ called and chosen and faithful. Chap. 13. 4. Who is like to the Beast? who is able to make a Par. 2. Agr. 14. war with him? 7. And it was given him to make ᵃ War with the Saints, and to overcome them. 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or on their foreheads. 17. And that no man may ᵃ buy or sell, save he that has the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name. 10. He that leadeth into captivity, shall b Par. 2. Agr. 15. go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword, shall be ᵇ killed with the sword. Here is the patience and c Par. 2. Agr. 16. faith of the Saints. Chap. 17. 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the Whore sitteth, are ᵃ peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Chap. 13. 7. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. 12. And I beheld another Beast come out of the Earth, and he had a Par. 1. Agr. 7. two horns like a Lamb, and he exercizeth ᵃ all the power of the first Beast before him. Chap. 17. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast, these shall hate the Whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Chap. 13. There is nothing in this Thirteenth Chapter answering to the 16. verse of the other; but that verse answers punctually to the main Title of the Vision, which is The judgement of the great Whore. But that this defect is no prejudice to the certainty of our Parallelism, I have already noted. Chap. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast, until the ᵃ words of God shall be fulfilled. Chap. 13. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue a Par. 2. Agr. 17. forty and two months. Chap. 17. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest, is that great City which a Par. 1. Agr. 9 reigneth over the Kings of the Earth. Chap. 13. 18. Here is Wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast; for it is the number of a man, and his number is ᵃ six hundred threescore and six. 7. Thus you see the Two Visions of the Thirteenth Chapter wholly imbibed into the Vision of the Seventeenth, excepting the Original of the Two-horned Beast, of which I have given an account already. And that it is naturally drunk in, not dashed in by force, will appear from that joint-Exposition which I shall make of these two Chapters together, interpreting those verses or parts of verses of the Thirteenth which I have subnected to each verse of the Seventeeths, together with the verses they are in order subnected to. But before I set upon this task, I will first prepare the way by making good a certain Position that is of main concern and of common influence for the clearing and ascertaining of the true meaning of the Visions in both Chapters. Which I shall do as accurately, and yet as briefly, as I can. CHAP. XI. 1. The great importance of proving the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Sorts of Governors. 2. That the proving of the Seven-headed Beast to signify the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous, will go far toward the proof of the former Position. 3. That the Seven-headed Beast is a Kingdom or Empire; 4. And particularly the Roman. 5. That it is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire. 6. That it is this Idolatrous Empire or Kingdom through all those Ages it is Idolatrous. 7. That it represents the Roman Kingdom or Empire in those Ages only in which it is Idolatrous. Whence the true meaning of the slaying of the Beast, and a further confirmation of the foregoing Assertion, is to be understood. 8. That this adequate Representation of the Idolatrous duration of the Empire implies that no Seven single Persons can be the Seven Heads thereof. 9 The same conclusion inferred from the Stigmatising these Seven Heads with the note of Idolatry, whenas more than Seven, nay all, of the Pagan Emperors were Idolaters. 10. Also from the ordinary form of speech in distinguishing Animals by the number of their parts. 11. And finally from the certainty of the Seventh Head's being not one single Person but a Succession. 12. That whatever Interpretation supposes these Seven Heads Seven single persons is not only false, but impossible. 13. That it follows from what has been evinced, That the Beast in the 17 chap. of the Apocalypse is the Roman Empire degenerated again into a kind of Paganism. 14. As also that the Whore of Babylon is not Rome Pagan, but Pagano-christian. 15. And that the coming of Antichrist at the very last end of the World is a chimerical Fiction. 16. The true Subject of the Visions of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Revelation. 1. THE Position which I mentioned, and which is of so great importance, is this; That the Seven Heads of the Beast are not any seven single Persons, whether Emperors or any other Supreme Governors, but Seven sorts of Governors succeeding one another. Which being cleared, we shall then be infallibly assured what is the Subject and the genuine sense of the Visions of these two Chapters we have in hand. 2. And truly we shall strike very far into the proof of this so important a Thesis, if we can but make good this preparatory Conclusion thereto, namely, That the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns signifies the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous, that is to say, when and so long as Idolatrous, and no farther. The truth of which Proposition I shall endeavour to demonstrate gradually and by parts. 3. First therefore, That by Beast is understood a Kingdom or Empire, it is needless here to repeat, having proved that in my Prophetic Alphabet; Chap. 5. Sect. 9 as also advertised in my first Rule of comparing Interpretations of Prophecy, how absonous and ridiculous it is not to interpret Prophetic Figures according to the approved meaning and observable use of the Prophetic style. To which, lastly, you may add, that the Seven Heads of the Beast being interpreted Seven Kings in succession, and the Ten Horns Ten Kings at once appertaining to it, it must of necessity be a Kingdom or Empire. 4. Secondly, That this Seven-headed Beast with Ten Horns is the Roman Kingdom or Empire, besides that those Ten Horns answerable to the Beast with ten Horns in Daniel (which the Church has constantly interpreted of the Roman State) seem to defix and determinate the Prophecy to that sense, the Whore of Babylon, which is said to sit on this Beast with seven Heads, which is universally understood of Rome, (Alcazar citys at least twenty Interpreters) must of necessity infer the same. And, lastly, the Interpretation of the Angel, who makes the Seven Heads of the Beast to signify as well Seven Hills as Seven Kings, does plainly demonstrate that the Beast is Roman, the Hills being the Hills of Rome. For how can the Seven Hills of Rome be said to be the Beast's Seven Heads, if the Beast were not the Roman Empire? But that the Seven Hills do denote Rome, Ribera himself dares not deny; and Grotius expressly upon the Text, Noti satis Montes ex Poetis & Historiis, nec ulla poterat ad describendam Romam adferri nota illustrior. And it is universally the sense of all Interpreters. And Bishop Montague, who would extend it to the Turkish Empire, which has gotten the possession of Constantinople, (which History has also in some measure noted for her seven Hills) yet he does not exclude Old Rome from the Angel's Interpretation. But that the Seven-headed Beast cannot be the Turkish Empire, we may conclude with Mathematic certitude; Because it is an Empire that had continued the Succession of Five Heads in S. John's time, whenas the Turkish Empire was not so much as in being by many hundred years. Nor was there any Empire whose Metropolis was famous for Seven Hills but the Roman. Whence we have all desirable assurance that the Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns is the Roman Empire. 5. Thirdly, That this Seven-headed Beast is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire, may appear from several indications. As first, in that this very Figure of a Beast in that sense that the Greek word sounds, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Fera, does of itself signify an Idolatrous Kingdom or Empire, as I have already made good in my Prophetic Alphabet: which Chap. 5. Sect. 9 alone were sufficient to evince this third part of our Assertion. But besides this, it is observable that in every Vision wherein this Seven-headed Beast is represented, there is that which plainly speaks him Idolatrous. As Apocalypse 12. he is a Dragon or Serpent. Which therefore must needs be a Pagan Power, or Idolatrous Empire; his shape being the very Effigies of the Devil, his War against the Church of Christ, and his downfall the Exaltation of Christ's Kingdom. And Grotius himself will acknowledge that this * Rev. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this great red Dragon, is Mars the President-Daemon of the Roman Polity, which was as notoriously Idolatrous as Cruel. Now as it is certain that the red Dragon is the Idolatrous Roman Empire; so that the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 Chapter is the same Idolatrous Empire, is as certainly employed, in that it is the Beast healed of that deadly wound it had in its conflict with the Host of Michael, and in that the Dragon is said to have delivered his power to this Beast, and this Beast is termed the Image of the Dragon that was so mortally wounded: As also chap. 17. the Seven-headed Beast there exhibited is said to be the Beast that was: and, I pray, who was that but the Dragon? and therefore this Draco redivivus or this Image of the Dragon cannot but be an Idolatrous Empire, or the Empire again becoming Idolatrous. And, lastly, lest the Reader should not be heedful enough to observe the Idolatry of the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 and 17 Chapters from this consideration I have named, the Spirit of God has farther and more expressly stigmatised him with this Note in both those Visions, placing the Name of Blasphemy on his Seven Heads in the 13 Chapter, and declaring his Body to be full of the Names of Blasphemy in the 17, by Blasphemy meaning Idolatry, as I have abundantly proved in my Prophetic Alphabet. 6. Fourthly, That these Visions exhibit the Roman Empire Idolatrous through all the time it was so or was to be so, appears, First, from the general nature of these Prophetic Figures, where a Beast signifies a Kingdom See Chap. 3. Sect. 6. or Empire in its entire succession and duration, unless any thing be intimated to the contrary. Which is clear as well from those examples in Daniel, where the Four Beasts signify so many Kingdoms in their entire Successions, as also from the very nature of that Prophetic Scheme which we call Henopoeia, which always goes along with these Iconisms of Beasts. For an Henopoeia is nothing else but a Collection as well of Succession as of Multitude into one Individual Form or Shape, be it Humane or Belluine. Again, in that the Seven-headed Beast in the 13 Chapter is said to be the Image of the Dragon, and the said Beast in the 17 to be the Beast that was, which certainly was the Dragon, this shows that those Visions intent to represent the Empire through all the times of its being Idolatrous, as well the times of its primitive or purely Pagan Idolatry, as of the Image or Restauration thereof in a Paganish or Idolatrous kind of Christianity. Or more fully thus: This Seven-headed Beast is represented under some one of his Heads to fight and to be wounded to death, but after to be revived; also to have been for a certain time, and then to cease to be, but after to be again, and then finally to perish. Wherefore the whole Duration and Continuance of the Beast seems to be comprised therein, divided into two parts by this death and interceasing of the Beast for a time: Of which the plain sense is this, The Roman Kingdom or Empire has been and shall be a Beast, that is to say, Idolatrous, for a certain series of time, then cease to be so for a while, but after be Idolatrous again, and then cease to be so for ever. These Prophetic Figures therefore, I mean these Beasts, that exhibit this sense, must needs imply these two entire parts of time wherein the Empire is represented Idolatrous: as he that divides a Line into two, divides the whole Line into two parts. To all which you may add, That the Seven Heads of the Dragon being represented as actually crowned, whenas yet Five were gone in S. John's time, and but one present, and therefore the Seventh not yet in being; it plainly intimates that the whole Duration and Succession of the Beast is exhibited at once. Which is still more evident, in that the Seventh Head is the last, under which the Beast perisheth together with that Head, as that Elliptical Text doth certainly imply, chap. 17. 11. the entire sense whereof is this, And the Beast that was, and is not, even his Head is the Eighth, and is one of the Seven; and he together with his Head goes into perdition: as I shall have occasion more fully to note in its due place. Wherefore it is reasonable to conceive that the first Head reaches to the first beginning of the Beast, that is, of the Roman Empire, as well as the last to its destruction. Nor will I add, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 connoting the Roman Empire as well as the Devil, may also connote the antiquity of the one as well as of the other. 7. Fifthly and lastly, That the Seven-headed Beast represents the Roman Empire no further then as Idolatrous, (which is the last part of our Assertion) will appear from this, That this Prophetic Image or Iconism of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fera is not used for the Representation of any Empire but what is Idolatrous, as I have already intimated: and therefore if it should stand for a Kingdom or Empire while it is not Idolatrous, it would be like a false affirmation in words, and prove an Emblematical slander. The names of Blasphemy also on his Heads and on his Body make this Seven-headed Beast still more inept to represent any Kingdom while it stands free from Idolatry; I mean, the Life and Being of the Beast is thus inept. But the slaughter of the Beast, or extermination of him out of Being, may signify that an Empire that was Idolatrous, and consequently, according to the Prophetic style, a Beast, ceases to be so still: And considering that the Roman Empire, as an Empire, has not yet ceased to be, but that it did cease to be Idolatrous upon Constantine his turning Christian, it is manifest that the Beast's being slain or ceasing to be is to be understood of that state of the Empire. For from Constantine's time till the entrance again of Idolatry into the Empire, the Beast in life and being was an inept Emblem thereof, and, as I said, a mere Hieroglyphic slander. But as the slain Beast, during the time it lies slain, comprises in it all the time of the Empire's pure Christianity: so the Beast as yet not slain, as also after the slaughter again restored to life, comprises all that tract of time of the Roman Kingdom or Empire's Idolatry, as well that before as that after the flourishing of pure Christianity in it. Which is another plain discovery of the truth of the fourth part of our Assertion. 8. It is abundantly plain therefore from what we have alleged, That the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns signifies the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous, that is to say, when and so long as Idolatrous, and no longer. Which is one considerable Argument to evince that the Seven Heads of the Beast are not Seven single Persons succeeding one another, but Seven sorts of Supreme Governors. For what seven Persons can fill out the time of the duration of the Empire while Idolatrous, and not leave it many hundreds, if not above a thousand years, destitute of Sovereign Power, and so make it a Beast living so many Ages without an Head? then which nothing can be more absurd. 9 But this is not our only Argument, though it alone may seem sufficient to prove our main Thesis. For it may be farther confirmed by reflecting on the nature and description of these Seven Heads: for what they are set out by aught to be conceived as a character to distinguish them from all other Heads of the Beast (if there be any besides them) that are omitted, and to denote that these thus characterized are all that are of this character. And therefore whenas these Seven Heads are said to have Seven Crowns upon them, (were it not to distinguish them from the Seven Hills to which Crowns are not so proper) I should demand of them that make these seven Heads seven Roman Emperors, if there were but seven Roman Emperors crowned. But I have already answered my own demand, by acknowledging that the seven Heads bear seven Crowns, to determine the sense in that place to such Objects as it is proper to wear Crowns, namely, Seven Kings; and that the fancy may make no divagation to the Seven Hills. But whereas in the following Chapter these Seven Heads (for that they are the same that fought with Michael, appears in that one of them is represented as wounded in the battle) are said to have inscribed upon them the Name of Blasphemy, that is to say, of Idolatry; here I seriously demand, if there were no more than Seven Blasphemous or Idolatrous Emperors in the whole Roman Succession. And I dare answer, without expecting the consent of our Adversaries, that there were. And that therefore Seven single Emperors cannot be understood by these Seven Heads, but Seven sorts of Governors. 10. To which in the second place you may add, That as in ordinary speech by a two-footed Animal is understood an Animal that has two feet and no more; as also in a fourfooted Animal, four feet and no more: so by this Seven-headed Beast is naturally to be understood a Beast that has Seven Heads and no more; it being so * All Seven crowned, Apoc. 12. one of the Seven woun●…ed, ch. 13. the succession of all Seven, ch. 17. Which are all the pla●…es where the Heads of the Beast are mentioned. constantly represented with that number of Heads and no more. Which cannot be true of the Roman Idolatrous Empire, unless Seven sorts of Governors, not that number of Persons, be understood. For seven single Persons in the whole tract of the Empire's continuance will make no better show then a tuft of seven bristles on the back of the Calydonian Boar; which can neither be painted nor called the Boar with seven Bristles, when there is a whole row or ridge of these setaceous prickles of the same nature with them that are either mentioned or depainted. 11. Lastly, The Beast (as appears plainly from the Text) was slain under the Sixth Head, because the slaughter of him is a Prediction by S. John, who himself lived while the Sixth Head was in being, and the last Head is the Head of his restoring or reviving; and there are but Seven Heads in all. Wherefore it is plain that the Beast was slain under the Sixth Head. Nor could the last Head be said to be the Head of the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, if it had started up before the Beast was slain or before he was restored. Wherefore it is plain that his slaughter was under the Sixth, as it is also that the Beast revived has but one Head from the commencement of his restauration to his final perdition; for there are but Seven Heads in all. But now the slaying of the Beast or making of him cease to be, it is manifest that it was the Introduction of Christianity instead of Paganism into the Empire, and of the Christian Emperors into the place of the Pagan Caesar's: the continuance of which state of things is said to be but * Revel. 17. a little while in comparison of this succeeding or reviving Beast. (For the preceding Head is nothing to our present purpose.) But that little while there is none will say was so little as to be concluded within the reign of one Christian Emperor, and therefore must signify a Succession of Emperors purely Christian. Much more therefore must the Seventh Head (which is also called the Eighth King, but amongst the Heads is as well the Last as the Seventh) signify a Succession, it being to continue much longer. But for those that make the return of Idolatry into the Empire more late or not yet, how long will the reign of that Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, be found in their compute? If the little while be already thirteen hundred years, how many thousands must the reign of the revived Beast be? So impossible is it that the Seventh or Last Head should be understood of any single Person, but of a Succession; unless they will have a Beast live some thousands of years without an Head. But if the Seventh or Last Head signify a Succession of Supreme Governors of such a kind, and not one single Person, then must the other Six also signify six sorts of Governors, not six persons, as any one unprejudiced will easily acknowledge. 12. Which Conclusion was worth the searching into; the firmly establishing it so plainly evincing, that such an Interpretation as implies That the Seven Heads are Seven successions of different sorts of Governors, is not only fit and agreeing to the Text, but necessary, and that all other Interpretations that run upon Seven persons are not only false but impossible. 13. Now out of what we have concluded it is further manifest what is the main Subject of this Vision in this Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse, namely, That it is not the Roman Empire purely Pagan; for that had passed under the Five first Heads, and was passing away under the Sixth in S. John's time. Which Sixth Head together with the Beast was slain and ceased to be upon the Roman Empire's receiving Christianity, and the Emperor's becoming Christians, and the Christian Religion continuing untainted with Idolatry. For while that was, (and it was so once) the Beast ceased to be. But the Beast exhibited to S. John in this Vision is the Beast that was, and then ceased to be, but after was to be again, and then was utterly to be destroyed. Which Notes all put together are only compatible to the Beast upon his temporary ceasing to be, and is a Name given to him with regard to that time of his temporary cessation, for than was all that true of him; and is a proper Characteristic of his nature and order of succession. Wherefore it is plain that the Subject of this Vision is the Roman Empire again revived into Idolatry, and so to continue till the final extirpation of Idolatry out of it: Which is the utter Perdition of the Beast, and the making of him cease to be for ever; as the exterminating of Idolatry out of the Empire for a time was the deadly wounding or killing the Beast for a time, but so as that he revived again in a very lively Image of himself. 14. From whence it will also follow, That the Whore of Babylon cannot be understood of Rome Pagan, but of Rome Pagano-Christian, or of the Roman Hierarchy (taking Roman in the largest sense) corrupting Christianity with the illicite Doctrines and practices of Idolatry. For how can Rome Pagan that past under the first Six Heads sit upon the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is; that is to say, upon that Beast that had no existence before pure Christianity had become the Religion of the Empire, but was afterwards to succeed that State, as a sad Corruption thereof, under the Seventh Head? Rome Pagan therefore sat upon the Beast under the succession of the Six first Heads only. At which only time it could rightly be said of the Beast, and simply, That he is. But the incorrupted Christianity being once made the Religion of the Empire, at that time it might rightly be said, That the Beast was, but is not, but that he was again to ascend out of the Abyss, and then after a certain considerable duration of time utterly to perish. But during the time of that corrupted Condition, when Christian Religion became Paganish and Idolatrous, it might rightly be said of the Empire then, That it is the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. But the Whore is said to ride this very Beast. Wherefore it is not ancient Rome, but the Pagano-Christian Harlot, or the Roman Hierarchy, which is the Whore that rides the Beast in this Vision. 15. Nor can the Vision be understood of Paganism grossly so termed, that should again overrun the Roman Empire a little before the End of the World under a Chimaerical Antichrist then to appear, (as some are willing to fancy for a shuffle;) but is to be interpreted of an Antichristianism that has already seized it; forasmuch as it is said, that the truly Christian Caesars shall continue but * Revel. 17. a short time. Which implies that the Antichristian State will continue a long time in comparison thereof. Wherefore if this Antichristian State is not come, but all is well, and that Pagano-Christian Idolatry has not entered from the reign of Constantine to this very day; the Reign of Antichrist will be at least three or four thousand years long: Which is so monstrous a consequence, and so point-blank contrary to Scripture, that the Position must be necessarily false that infers it. 16. Wherefore we may safely conclude, That the main Subject of the Vision in this 17th Chapter of the Apocalypse, as also of that in the 13th (which is in a manner the very same with this) is the State of the Roman Empire corrupted and degenerated from the true and pure Christianity into a Paganish and Idolatrous condition, by reason of the false direction and guidance of those of the Roman Hierarchy that took upon them to rule the Empire in matters of Religion: But withal, That this Idolatrous condition both in the Hierarchy and Empire after a certain Period of time shall be changed, and true Christianity overflow all again, and Idolatry never again revive. This is the Summary Account of these Visions. We will now fall upon the Exposition of every Particular of each Chapter, whereby this general Account may be still more convincingly demonstrated. CHAP. XII. 1. The Scope and Order of his Joint-Exposition. Ver. I. What is meant by Whore. 2. What by her Greatness. 3. That she is not Rome Heathen, but Rome Pseudo-christian. Ver. II. Who the Kings of the Earth, and what their Drunkenness. 2. The first Agreement of the first Parallelism made good. Ver. III. That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore's being in the wilderness might have made one of the Agreements of the first Parallelism. 2. The second Agreement of the first Parallelism. 3. What meant by the scarlet colour of the Beast. 4. The second Agreement of the second Parallelism. 5. The first Agreement of the second. Ver. IU. The Woman's purple and scarlet and precious stones and pearls, what they signify. 2. And how plainly the third Agreement of the first Parallelism is evinced. 3. What is meant by the Cup of abominations in the hand of the Whore. 4. That it is a Philtrous Cup, with an inference therefrom of the truth of the fourth Agreement of the first Parallelism. 5. The chief charm used in the mingling of this Philtre. 6. Fire from Heaven Excommunication. 7. Other Miracles for the promoting Idolatry. 8. What the golden Cup signifies in respect of the Metal. Ver. V The names of Whores inscribed on their forcheads. 2. That the whole sentence is the Whore's Name; and how ridiculous it is to understand by [Mystery] a mere Synecdoche. 3. The Interpretation of these parts of her name, Mystery, and Babylon. 4. As also of, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Fornications. 5. A demonstration of the fifth Agreement of the first Parallelism. 6. The different Rise of the Two-horned Beast from Others. 1. IN this Joint-Exposition, though I shall not be wanting in other Particulars, my main drift shall be to note out and confirm the Agreements of the two Parallelisms I have above delineated. And for brevity sake, without any farther Analyse, I shall guide my Exposition by the Order of the Verses of the Seventeenth Chapter, passing from verse to verse, and comparing those out of the Thirteenth which I have subjoined, with what is comprised in each Verse of the Seventeenth, accordingly as I have above intimated. Ver. I. The Judgement of the Great Whore that sitteth upon many waters. The Judgement or Condemnation of the Great Whore, the Punishment to which she is sentenced, is a special part of this Vision, and therefore bears the Title of the whole. I need not here insist upon what I have so fully instructed my Reader in, in my Doctrine of the Prophetic Schemes; How in the Prophetic style a Body Politic or a Multitude of Persons and their Succession is represented under one Individual show or shape, whether Belluine or Humane: which Scheme we called Henopoeia. And Ch. 3. Sect. 7. therefore he will easily understand that the Whore is no single or particular Woman, but a Type of a Body Politic, which being called a Whore, implies their Idolatrousness, as I have abundantly made good in the Explication of that Icasme in my Prophetic Alphabet. Ch. 9 Sect. 9 2. And that she is said to be that Great Whore, it may either signify the height of her Whoredom, or the extent of her Jurisdiction; the latter whereof is agreeable to her being placed upon many waters. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, where the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be demonstrative and emphatical, pointing at the whole Roman Empire. For that is those many waters indeed, a great Sea or Ocean, in the Prophetic style. Whence I conceive the Great Whore to be the Roman Hierarchy in a larger sense, understanding thereby the whole Body of the Idolatrous Clergy throughout the Roman Empire: though I do not doubt but that this imputation will more notoriously concern one part then another, more the Roman then the Greek Church; and then especially when the Bishop of Rome had once got the Title of Universal Bishop, he in a more peculiar manner entitling himself thereby to all the foul miscarriages of the Catholic Church. 3. And that the Vision of the Two-horned Beast does also imply such an universal Idolatrous Corruption in the Clergy, as well in the Oriental as Par. 1. Agr. 7. in the Occidental parts of the Empire, is intimated in the Two horns of that Beast, as also in exercising all the power of the former Beast in his sight, which I will defer to speak of till we come to the 15th verse of this present Chapter. I shall only take notice before I pass any farther, that I have in the foregoing Chapter proved by a method plainly Demonstrative, That this Great Whore is not to be understood of any Body Politic that promoted Idolatry while the Empire was Pagan, but after it became and continued Christian, though contaminated with a Pagan-like Idolatry of a new Fashion; which I have proved to have been many Ages already in being, according to the evident sense of this Prophecy. So that there can be no rub nor scruple as concerning this. Ver. II. With whom the Kings of the Earth have committed Fornication. That is to say, By whose allurements and persuasions the Kings of the Roman Empire (which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inhabited Earth, Luke 2.) have admitted and embraced Idolatrous doctrines and practices, which is Spiritual Whoredom. Haply the Ten Kings may be alluded to which are mentioned v. 13. and are said to have one mind, and to give their power and strength to the Beast, which the Whore rides. And the Inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication: that is to say, The people of the Empire were so inflamed, intoxicated and dementated with the unwholesome heat of Idolatrous zeal, that it made them very tragically quarrelsome against all Opposers or Despisers of their fair Diana; and made them so sottish, secure and heedless, that they were exposed to all the deceits and injuries this intoxicating Circe could put upon them. 2. Now as this Great Whore is said to be such a Promoter or Restorer of Idolatry: so likewise is the Two-horned Beast; which though he have two horns like a Lamb, yet is said to speak like a Dragon, that is, to publish Paral. 1. Agr. 1. Idolatrous Edicts or Doctrines. And again v. 12. he is said to cause the Earth and them that dwell therein, that is, the Empire, (as I said before) to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed: And v. 14. to command them that dwell on the Earth, that they should make an Image to the Beast who had the wound by the sword, and did live. The sense of the latter of which citations is this, That the Two-horned Beast by his authority and power of speech persuaded them of the Empire, which was now purely Christian, (and was therefore the death of the Beast, as I have demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter) to introduce such a face of Idolatry again, (though upon pretence of the better adorning and promoting Christianity) that the slain Beast might justly seem to revive again in this Image, that is to say, that the Empire might be said to become a Beast again by becoming Idolatrous, as the death of the Beast was the Empire's ceasing from Idolatry. And therefore to make an Image to the Beast that was slain, is as much as to make an Image in the behalf of the Beast that was slain; that he might at least live again in this Image. And it is said in the very Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & revixit; so Vatablus and Grotius: that is, upon the making this Image the slain Beast revived again and lived in this Image. Wherefore it is no wonder that this Two-horned Beast is said to make them that dwell on the Earth to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed, when he was the Healer and Reviver of him, and put him in a capacity of being worshipped, that is, obeyed, as I have noted in my Alphabet, and that in such Injunctions as were Impious and Idolatrous. For this Paganochristianism becoming the Religion of the Empire, it was made thereby the Law and Commandment of the Empire, so that the healed Beast may be rightly said to be obeyed in the submission thereto. Out of all which does plainly appear, That the Two-horned Beast as well as the Whore of Babylon was a Restorer and Promoter of Idolatry in the Empire. Ver. III. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. This is no part of the Vision, unless we make Wilderness Hieroglyphical. And indeed Alcazar from the authority of many of the Fathers makes it a Symbol of Gentilism. But whether you consider the Type or no, this Two-horned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wild beast will naturally be conceived to be in the wilderness as well as the Whore is declared to be so; and this Paganochristianism, of which they are both the Authors, what is it but a kind of Gentilism? So that it had not been inept to have made this one Agreement in our first Parallelism. 2. And I saw a Woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured Beast. The sitting upon a Beast implies the riding and guiding of him, the exciting and quickening of him to this or that course, as the Rider pleases. And the Two-horned Beast is said likewise to animate the Seven-headed Beast, and to prick Paral. 1. Agr. 2. him up to those bloody Edicts that seem to be alluded to Chap. 13. v. 15. That the revived Beast should speak, and cause as many as will not submit to him as Beast, that is to say, as Idolatrous, to be slain. And this may suffice for an intimation of the truth of the second Agreement of the first Parallelism; That as well the Whore, as the Two-horned Beast, has the governance and rule over the Beast with seven Heads. 3. Now for the scarlet colour of the Beast, it has a double indication; the one of Tyrannical Cruelty, the other of Imperial Majesty. In the former Paral. 2. Agr. 2. sense Victorinus, Aretas, Zegerus, Viegas, Alcazar and others interpret it. In the latter Cornelius à Lapide, Paraeus, Ribera and Grotius. Fera coccinea, (saith he) nimirum quia eo colore tingi solebant Imperatorum Romanorum Paludamenta. But where both senses are so fit, they are both to be understood by an Henopoeia, which reduces many Objects prefigured, under one Type. But for the present I shall only take notice of the Cruelty of the Beast set out by this bloody colour. And the like is also figured in the shape of the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter: His body there being like that of a Leopard, his feet like a Bear's, and his mouth like a Lion's. All which are Beasts of great Rapine and Cruelty. 4. Full of names of Blasphemy, that is, Full of Titles or Kind's of Idolatry. Plenam Diis, so Grotius, understanding it of the Pagan Empire; and we may safely render it, full of Daemons, in Mr. Mede's sense, that is, full of the superstitious and Idolatrous worship of the Souls of the Saints departed, (besides other Idolatries committed in the manner of worshipping the due Object of our Religion, God and Christ) since the Empire has become Pagano-Christian. Nor is the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter less remarkable for this foul sin. For as the Scarlet Beast was full of names of blasphemy, dappled as it Par. 2. Agr. 2. were with those black Titles; so Grotius makes the Leopard spotted with various objects of Idolatry. Pardalis varii coloris animal; sic Idololatria Romana Deos habebat mares, foeminas, mari-foeminas, maximos, medioximos, minimos, vario vultu, vario habitu, variâ potestate. And does the Pagano-Christian Idolatry fall any thing short? Has it not its He-Saints and She-Saints, to which they give Religious worship? Do they not profess a Dulia and Hyperdulia, as well as Latria? which bids fair towards the Heathens Dii Minimi and Medioximi. Has it not some Saints famous for inflicting particular mischiefs, and others for doing this or that particular good? some Saints of one aspect and dress, and others of another? Have not some one office, and others another? as shall be seen more punctually hereafter. But the Blasphemy, that is, the Idolatry of this Beast is more copiously recorded and more expressly v. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; that is to say, an Authority decreeing gross Idolatries to the reproach of the living God; whose name he is said to blaspheme, in the following verse, and his Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. To blaspheme God, viz. by worshipping him by Images, or by giving Religious worship to others which is only due to him, and thereby vilifying him and making him no better than a Creature. To blaspheme the Tabernacle of God, that is, the Body of Christ, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily, (as the Apostle speaketh) by pretending that a piece of Bread, which they put into See my Idea of Antichrist. Book 2. Ch. 5. Sect. 2, 3. that foul prison whither a man's fancy is loath to descend, is the very Body of Christ, even that Body so full of stupendious glory: which certainly is wretchedly eclipsed, while a morsel of Bread is avowed to be really it, and is adored towards accordingly. And, lastly, To blaspheme them that dwell in Heaven, namely the Saints, by declaring they are so ambitious See Idea of Antichristianism, Book 1. Ch. 16. Sect. 2. and rebellious against God, that they do not only accept, but would extort Religious worship from men by deaths and imprisonments, and various pressures and afflictions, which this bloody Beast does execute against the sincere members of Christ, having first branded them with the odious Nickname of Heretics; pretending herein their Zeal and Honour to the Saints, while they are really by these courses very highly reproached and blasphemed as cruel and inhuman against men, as well as rebellious and treacherous against God. So wonderfully true and significant is this Character of Blasphemy upon the Beast, and so plainly have we made out the second Agreement of the second Parallelism. 5. Having seven Heads and ten Horns. So Chap. 13. And I saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea, having seven Heads and ten Horns. Which Par. 2. Agr 〈◊〉. is a palpable evidence of the first Agreement of our second Parallelism. What is meant by these seven Heads and ten Horns we shall understand anon. Ver. IU. And the Woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. That Purple and Scarlet is an Imperial colour, we have already noted, and is here again allowed by Grotius on this 4. verse. But here it is seasonable to observe, That as the Beast, which is the whole Roman Empire, was allowed to be called a Scarlet Beast, though that Wear was peculiar to the Heads of the Empire, I mean the Emperors themselves or the Senate; so this Whore may be said to be arrayed in purple and scarlet (that is, the Roman Hierarchy or whole Body of that Clergy) though this colour should belong only to the Head, or at least those higher Governors of this Body next to this chief Head. And such are the Robes and Habits of the Roman Cardinals, as is well known. And for the Gold and precious Stones and Pearls, it does plainly refer to the Pope's Triple Crown of Gold glistering with rich gems and precious stones, as also to the pearls of his rich Cope, etc. Which shows that this Vision hath a more peculiar regard to the Church of Rome properly so called, though it may cast a lighter glance on the whole Idolatrous Clergy of the Empire. But this Head of the Roman Hierarchy with his purple Cardinals are so Emperour-like and of such a Senatorious splendour, that it is manifest that there is an affectation of Imperial power in the Pope himself; his Crown and Vestments being so plainly Imperial. And though the colour of the Beast and the Seventh Head distinct from this Mitred Head implies there is an Emperor to be acknowledged distinct from the Pope; yet this Hieroglyphic does plainly signify that the Pope does play the Emperor as well or more than he. Which does admirably agree with the known event of things, and is plainly foretold also in the 13. Chap. v. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him, that Par. 1. Agr. 3. is to say, He plays the Emperor as much or more than Herald Which must be understood of this Two-horned Beast most especially as residing at Old Rome, who timely challenged the right of Universal Bishop, and had it early conferred upon him by the bounty of Phocas the Emperor; and after so out-topped the Emperors, that he made himself greater than they: though I do not stick to confess with Grotius, that neither they nor their Empire has yet ceased to be, accordingly as the Prophecy itself may seem to testify, there being a Seventh Head of this Beast distinct from the Head of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore. 2. But that this Two-horned Beast, viz. the chief and most eminent part of him, does exercise all the power of the first Beast before him, is to admiration Par. 1. Agr. 3. fulfilled in the Pope's playing the Emperor: As in wearing not only a single myrrh as Bishop, but a Triple Imperial Diadem as if he were Emperor. His purple Vestments also and crimson pantofles; his Title of Dominus Deus noster; his Senate of purpurate Cardinals; his making Kings and Princes kiss his feet; his receiving Tribute even from the remotest parts of the Empire; his Canonising of Saints with the joint suffrages of the Cardinals; his sending of his Legates to Princes; his Revenue out of Stews, etc. (of which and others of the like nature you may be informed more punctually in * Molin. Var. Lib 5. c. 17. Molinaeus) all these were imitations of the Imperial Power and Dignity. So exactly may he be said to exercise all the power of the first Beast before him. And is yet still more palpably true, in that he takes away all power in Ecclesiastic affairs from the Emperor, and will exercise it solely himself: not to add that by virtue of this entire Ecclesiastic Power he has wrested even the Civil Power of the Empire out of the Emperor's hands in a very great measure; so awful a thing has been the Pope's thunder of Excommunication. And this is sufficient to make good the third Agreement of my first Parallelism. 3. Having a golden Cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications. Where Grotius upon the word Abominations, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith he, In Viso quidem intelligendo humour foetens, in re verò Dii falsi, quos Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And therefore the filthiness of her Fornications is the same with the former, they all signifying the Idolatry of the Roman Hierarchy. And as we have already demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter, that this Whore is not understood of Rome Pagan, so this Circumstance amongst others agrees very naturally thereto. For this Woman with her Cup in her hand implies she is the beginner, not of an health, but of this damnable Pollution of Idolatry; and that, whereas the Empire had grown chaste and cold to this folly and madness through the power of the pure Gospel of Christ, this Woman by this Incentive, this Virus amatorium, would inflame their spirits again with new lustful motions after Idols, and make them go whoring from their God. 4. But there is something further observable in this golden Cup, wherein the force of its bewitchery may consist. For that it is an enchanted Cup or a Philtrum, I have abundantly made good under that Title in my Prophetic Alphabet; and not only Mr. Mede, but Cornelius à Lapide and Cham 8. Sect. 2. Alcazar interpret it to that sense. The latter of whom besides the filthiness of the Composition, as the ashes of Toads and of men's brains hanged at the Gallows, adds also Cantiones & execranda verba, Charms and direful words: which must needs therefore be conceived to be Magical and of a miraculous power. Analogical to which is that Chap. 13. concerning V 13. 14. the Two-horned Beast, that he doth great wonders, even so much that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven, and so deceiveth them Par. 1. Agr. 4. that dwell on the Earth by those miracles that he had power to do in the sight of the Beast; that is to say, in the sight of the Empire which he seduced into Idolatry by these Miracles, and so reintroduced the Image of the slain Beast by this seduction. Whence it is plain, That the Magic and the Miracles of the Whore and of the Two-horned Beast tended to one end, the reviving of Idolatry again in the Empire, according to the fourth Agreement of our first Parallelism. 5. But one chief Charm that was used over this Magical Cup undoubtedly are those powerful and affrightful words of Excommunication, that Menace of committing men to Hell-fire, if they did not submit to these Idolatrous Institutes of the Church. This Thunder from that Roman Vejovis did not sour but sweeten this Cup, and make it go off with a great deal of pleasure; it looking so like the Cup of salvation to those that drank it, when it was so authoritatively and terribly declared that those that refused it should undoubtedly perish. This is that main Spell that did invigorate the virtue of this Potion, and made the Whore's Paramours lie more close in her bosom, when they were terrified with such ineffable danger and misery that should befall them out of it. Which pretended power being neither lawful nor natural, but above the limits of Nature, what can it be justly deemed but Magical or Diabolical? And this is that very same power which is plainly and apertly figured out in those words of the 13 Chapter, where the Two-horned Beast is said to make fire come down from Heaven: which I have already, in my Prophetic Alphabet, plainly Chap. 6. Sect. 14. proved to be a very significant Iconism of Excommunication. 6. And there is nothing more frequent in the mouths of all men than the Pope's Thunderbolt; of which they have conceived so miraculous an effect, that the people at Paris were made generally to believe that it had so blasted the Heretics, that their very faces were grown black and ugly as Devils, their eyes and looks ghastly, their breaths noisome and pestilent, as Sir Edwin Sandys has recorded in his Europae Speculum. Erasmus also runs much upon this Metaphor in his Colloquies, and the Popes themselves glory in it. And as if the people were not quick enough to understand the similitude without some visible Ceremony, the Pope casts down burning Firebrands from aloft at a certain solemn Excommunication. And, lastly, Nauclerus uses this phrase of being thus Thunderstruck three or four times within the compass of a page or two. And the Popes themselves look upon them whom they have Excommunicated tanquam fulmine afflatos, and so speak of them, as Paraeus has also observed upon the place. So that there is not room left for the least Hesitation whether Excommunication be not alluded to in that miraculous bringing down fire from Heaven. 7. But whereas it is said, That he deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by reason of those Miracles which he had power to do; I must confess I think other Miracles may also be glanced at, of which there is abundance boasted of by the Roman Church themselves, by which they would confirm several sorts of Idolatries practised amongst them. Which may be attributed, as many of them as are true, to the great activity and desire of their Priests to promote Idolatry, who thereby invite the Devil to play such pranks at their Images or Altars or in their Coemeteries. But to return to the Magick-Cup. 8. We have considered the contents of it, and that supernatural Magic infused into the Liquor thereof. But the very Metal of the Cup, which is Gold, has also its significancy, and bears with it a meaning of a more natural Magic that attracts all. —— Quid non mortalia pector a cogis, Auri sacra fames? Wherefore that great Affluency of Riches, Honours and Preferments that are to be had in the Roman Church is no small part of this intoxicating Potion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay indeed has made the Inhabitants of the Earth drunk, the fumes of Ambition and Covetousness possessing their Brains; especially theirs of the Roman Clergy, who are not enriched with these Golden gifts of the Church but upon the condition of assisting and abetting the Idolatry thereof. This Cup therefore I conceive may also be an Emblem of Sensuality, Luxury and Affluency; and to be drunk therewith, to abound with worldly felicity even to an Insensibility of better things, and to a besotted security and contentedness with the present enjoyments of this Life. This also may be one sense of this intoxicating Cup, besides what I have touched upon before. Ver. V And upon her forehead was a Name written. Which Interpreters have rightly noted to allude to the custom of some impudent Harlots who had their names written upon their foreheads; as appears from that in Seneca, Nomen tuum pependit in front, pretia stupri accepisti; & manus quae Diis datura erat sacra, capturas tulit. 2. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. All which Inscription I conceive is the Name of the Whore. For the Scripture often makes long Names, even a whole Sentence, as I shall have occasion more fully to note anon. I say, the very word [Mystery] is part of the Name. And the sense of the whole is, That the Name of the Whore is Mystical Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, or rather the Mother of Fornications, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some Copies, which the Vulgar Latin follows, and Grotius best approves of, and best fits with what follows, and of the Abominations of the Earth, that they may be both Abstracts. And Mystical here signifies the same that Spiritual elsewhere in the Apocalypse, Which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, as Chap. 11. v. 8. Cornelius à Lapide has also compared them: and it is the Great City there too which is so called. Wherefore let any one judge if Mystical or Spiritual Babylon can be understood of Rome Pagan, or whether it is likely that the Spirit of God should prefix the term [Mystery] to an Inscription that hath no more in it then a dry Synecdoche. For if Rome Pagan be understood, it is no more but putting one Pagan, Idolatrous and Persecutive City for another. With which certainly so profound and venerable a Preface as [Mystery] cannot well suit. 3. Wherefore it must be understood of a Christian City or Polity Idolatrizing and debauching others with Idolatry. And the meaning of the Mystery must be this: Even that that Hierarchy which should overspread the Empire, & pretend to be the pure and unadulterate Apostolic Church, and be generally believed to be so; nay, to be that City from Heaven, the foundations of whose Walls are twelve, with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed upon them; that City wherein God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his servants, where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain, that is to say, no more bloody Persecutions, Pressures nor Tortures of the faithful Servants of Christ, as Grotius well interprets it; and, lastly, that City wherein there is no Temple, that is to say, no Object towards which we bow, besides the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, who alone is worshipped with Religious worship; I say, the Mystery is this, That that Ecumenical Hierarchy or Body of the Clergy that boast themselves to be this pure and Apostolic City, as being of an unerring judgement, should indeed be the very City Babylon itself, which in stead of being so chaste a pattern of Purity of Worship, were Sacrificers to the dead, and the Adorers or Worshippers of Bel, and the Propagators of the worship of the Baalim, that is to say, of the worship of Daemons or false Gods, through the world, infecting therewith even the very Jews themselves, the peculiar people of God; and in stead of being a Protection and Refreshment to the Servants of the true God, held them in a long and sad Captivity, casting them that would not bow to the Image that Nabuchadnezzar had set up into an hot fiery Furnace. This is the Mystery, and yet a very true one. For it is over-manifest of this Pseudo-christian Hierarchy, that they have debauched the professed People of God with various kinds of Idolatry, and have held them captive a long time under an hard servitude, and besides other tortures and persecutions have burned thousands of the faithful servants of Christ with Fire and Faggot. Wherefore it is a Mystery indeed that she that so boldly professes herself the City of God, and had the luck to be believed, so generally, to be so, should in truth be found to be that bloody and Idolatrous Babylon. 4. And because she boasts herself also to be the Catholic as well as the Apostolic Church, she is farther adorned with the Title of Great as well as of Babylon, and is at once styled Babylon the Great; the vast extent of that City (which they that have made the most frugal computation reckon 360 or 380 Stadia in compass, Pliny and Herodotus 480) being a fit Symbol of their pretence to Catholickness or Universality. And, lastly, because she will pretend to be the Spouse of the Lamb, and be called Our Mother the Church, the Spirit of God in reproach to this false Beast has styled her the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. 5. Which style does plainly discover that this City Babylon is not Rome Heathen, but a Polity Christian. For Rome Heathen was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Grotius reads it, the Mother, that is, the Author and Dispenser, of Idolatry over the face of the Earth: for the Nations were Idolatrous of themselves without her, and she rather a Learner and Receiver of their Idolatries, which she increased as she advanced her Trophies; as it may appear by that promissory Charm which Macrobius sets down, used by Saturnal. lib. 3. cap. 9 the Romans when they had hopes of taking a City, calling out thereby the Tutelary Gods of the Place, and promising them Temples and Solemnities at Rome. Wherefore the Title of Mystery prefixed to the Name of the Whore (or rather it being a part of it, and which easily answers to that Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of) jointly considered with this part of the 2 Thess. 2. 7. Name [The Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth] does evidently agree with our Demonstration in the foregoing Chapter, that proved it necessary to understand by Babylon, not Rome Heathen, but a State of the Church degenerating into Heathenism and Idolatry. Which lying deeper than that every man can discover it at first sight, as being coloured and gilded over with fair pretences of magnifying Christ and his Apostles and the rest of the Saints, especially the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ, is rightly called a Mystery. In which this Whore and the Two-horned Paral. 1. Agr. 5. Beast do exactly agree. For his having Horns like a Lamb is that outward pretext of Succession from Christ and his Apostles, and of having a power from them to rule and discipline the Church according to the mind of Christ, to his Honour and for his interest, which they pretend in every thing: But his speaking like a Dragon bespeaks him a Decreer of Idolatrous practices, and a publisher of Doctrines of Adulterate Worship. Whence the fifth Agreement of our first Parallelism is manifest; both the Whore and the Two-horned Beast being found Introducers of Idolatry under pretence of promoting Christianity. 6. That was the meaning of the Lamblike Horns and Dragon's speech of the Two-horned Beast: But concerning his rising up out of the Earth, which is peculiar to him, other Beasts being described both in Daniel and the Apocalypse to rise out of the Sea, the Winds also bustling against one another on the surface thereof in those four Beasts in Daniel; this discovereth this Beast to be quite of another kind, getting up, not by War nor by power of the Sword, as the Potentates of the world do, but in a more still and concealed way, and from a meaner condition; Cui origo privata, Apoc. 13. 11. non publica, saith Grotius: and he adds further, Mos est Hebraeorum vocare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populum terrae. And Molinaeus also upon the Text, Sic Latini homines novos & ex sordibus provectos ad nobilitatem & opes vocant Terrae filios, ipsáque Scriptura dicit Deum attollere humilem expulvere. Which how true it is of the Whore and the Two-horned Beast every one knows. CHAP. XIII. V●…r. VI What is meant by the Martyrs of Jesus. 2. The sixth Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. VII. That the Woman is not Rome Heathen, demonstrable from the Beast that carries her. 2. That she rides the whole Empire. 3. That the Two Horns of the Beast are the Two Imperial Patriarchates, but by an Henopoeia may glance also at the Power of Binding and Losing, and at the Horns of the Episcopal Mitre. 4. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism. 5. The first Agreement of the second. Ver. VIII. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 2. That the end of the Vision of the Beast in this Chapter is to represent the Empire in that Succession wherein it is Pagano-Christian. 3. That the prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast. 4. The meaning of the Name. 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire, fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian, and why. And that is thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood. 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into, Was, is not, and yet is. Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced. 7, 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names: And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, etc. 9 That the Name Was, and is not, and shall ascend, etc. signifies the successive Order in being, not the actual being or not being of the Beast; with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar. 10. A plain Eviction from the Name [Was, is not, and yet is] that [Was, and is, and is not] do not signify actual Existence or Nonexistence, but order of Existence and Similitude. 11. That [Is not, and yet is] would neither be good sense nor any elegancy, unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion. 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness, in either Essence or Qualification, could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity. Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby. 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title [Was, is not, and yet is] confirms the sense of the former, and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast; which is farther argued from other considerations. 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast, of the Empire's becoming Idolatrous again, rather than of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power. 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism. 16. The sixth Agreement. 17. The seventh. 18. The eighth Agreement. 19 The third Agreement again noted, with a Confirmation, therefrom, of the abovementioned Ellipsis. 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech: Whence, The Beast that was, is not, and yet is, and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one, and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed. Ver. VI ANd I saw the Woman drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus: that is to say, with the blood of the Saints which were the Martyrs of Jesus. Which were not Martyrs for the Doctrine of this or that seducing Spirit or false Teacher, who might besot them with a foolish confidence and hardy resolution of laying down their life to witness to a Lie cunningly contrived for the Interest & Advantage of the Inventours of it. No, these were the close followers of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and trod in his footsteps only, and in the footsteps of them that faithfully followed him, I mean the Apostles, according to their own direction, Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ And him they did follow through prosperity and adversity, through good report and 1 Cor. 11. 1. evil report, through life and death itself. 2. Whose Death is imputed here to the Whore, because she by her counsel and animation stirs up the Seven-headed Beast to this Murder and Bloodshed. Accordingly as it is said of the Two-horned Beast, that he gave life and animation to this revived Beast, and made this breathing Image speak, and cause as many as would not worship, that is, obey and submit to the commands of the Image of the Beast, even in those things wherein it was the slain Beast's Image, viz. in Idolatry, that they should be killed. Which is plainly the sixth Agreement of our first Parallelism. Ver. VII. I will tell thee the mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast that carrieth her. Which Mystery of the Woman he unlocks by unfolding first the order and succession of the Beast that carrieth her: for that is a demonstration that it is not meant of Rome Pagan, as I have clearly proved in the eleventh Chapter of this Book; and consequently that the meaning of this Mystery of the Whore's Title, which displays her nature, is such as I have declared upon the Fifth verse in the foregoing Chapter. 2. Here we shall only note, that her riding of the Beast implies her to be such a Polity as had the Governance of the whole Empire, was not confined to one part thereof. As he that rides an Horse is not conceived to ride one part of him, and leave the other unridden, but to ride the whole. So the Whore rides the whole Beast, that is, the whole Empire, as well Oriental as Occidental. Which agrees with the description of the Two-horned Beast, whom I conceive to be so depainted in the Vision, because of the two Imperial Patriarchates, the one at Rome, the other at Constantinople, dividing in a manner the Empire thus betwixt them, as the Eastern and Western Caesar's did. But all the whole Clergy of the Empire, I mean the Idolatrizing Clergy, are the Body of this Whore or Beast, of which these two Imperial Patriarchates are the Horns. 3. Nor have I found any thing yet in the Interpreters that can according to the Prophetic style be interpreted Horns, unless some such Concrete Power as this may have place also in the Type. But by a secondary Henopoeia (it being once admitted that these two Patriarchates are two real Concrete Powers and Dignities, for I understand the two Patriarches themselves thus empowered) it may be the two Horns of the Episcopal Mitre may be also glanced at, as the seven Heads signify as well seven Hills as seven Kings. And Josephus Acosta in his Treatise of the Last times, speaking of this Two-horned Beast, Duo cornua, saith he, Episcopalis De Temp. Noviss. lib. 2. c. 17. dignitatis, putà Mitrae sive Infulae, (haec enim est Bicornis) insigne sunt. Videtur ergò quòd hic Pseudopropheta erit Episcopus quispiam Apostata & simulator Religionis. Which Interpretation of the two Horns of the Beast Cornelius à Lapide seems also inclinable to, and does rightly conceive that the Interpretation is no more a reproach to Episcopacy, then that they are Agni cornua is a reproach to Christ; but rather an argument of the Excellency of that Degree and Function, this great Apostate endeavouring to recommend himself to the world under that Habit and Dignity. Nor need we exclude Mr. Mede's Interpretation, who understands by these two Horns the power of Binding and Losing, which this Pseudoprophetick Beast pretends to be derived upon him from the Lamb Christ Jesus. For these two significations, and more, if there were more as fit and convenient, may by an Henopoeia be couched under this one Type; provided first, as I have already said: that the Type have one signification plainly allowable according to the Prophetic style, which everywhere in Daniel and the Apocalypse understands by Horns some Persons or other in high place and dignity, not abstract Powers or Virtues; as if one should make an Emperor to have two Horns, because he had the power of Life and Death. This is not warrantable in the Prophetic style, nor would that sense alone support so substantial an Emblem as this. 4. Wherefore these two Horns implying the Pseudoprophetick Beast Paral. 1. Agr. 7. to be spread as well over the Oriental as Occidental part of the Empire, and the Whore's riding the Beast with seven Heads denoting also what a thank she had upon the whole Empire; it appears that the seventh Agreement of our first Parallelism is not without grounds in these Visions. To which you may superadd a farther and fuller Confirmation from what we have said upon the first verse in the preceding Chapter; in the second and third Sections. 5. Which has the seven Heads and ten Horns. The same description of Paral. 2. Agr. 1. the Beast as to this point is in the Thirteenth Chapter, verse 2. And we have already noted that it makes good the first Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. VIII. The Beast that thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, into utter destruction, or into final perdition: for the circumstance does plainly imply that sense. For in that it is said, before this last course, that he was not, (which imports that he was destroyed) it naturally follows, that this last is a more signal destruction, and final as well as last, and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken in such a sense as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Son of perdition, who is so called because he is utterly to be blasted and consumed by the brightness of Christ's appearing. And therefore this Perdition is the very same that is spoken of in Daniel, I beheld till the Beast was slain, (and he speaks there of the Ten-horned Beast) and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame, which was to be utterly consumed. But the understanding of this eighth Verse being of so great importance, I shall something more largely paraphrase thereon, that we may the more fully understand the scope thereof; which I conceive is to this sense. 2. The Beast which thou sawest, and which thou didst see in the two former Visions, is the same Beast, as may appear from the chief Character thereof, seven Heads and ten Horns, and is one and the same Idolatrous Kingdom or Empire, as is evident in the Serpentine body thereof in the first Vision, from the names of Blasphemy on each Head in the second, and from the body full of names of Blasphemy in this third and last. But the chief drift of this last Vision (though it have a reflection upon the former part of the Succession of this Idolatrous Empire, as it is of afresh represented in that part of the whole Succession which is next after that interval wherein for a time it ceased to be,) I say, the chief drift of this Vision is, to represent determinately this Idolatrous Empire, and adequately under that succession of time which commenced upon the expiration of that season wherein the Empire was purely Christian, and as yet untainted with Idolatrous Superstitions, even unto that very time wherein Idolatry, having taken its course once more, is quite to be exterminated out of the Empire, never to return thither again. 3. Wherefore the Angel counting as it were upon his fingers the order of things, and then more particularly pointing at this succession of time; The Beast which thou sawest; (saith he to John) his name is (for the Ecstatical style of Prophecy may easily admit of such an Ellipsis) Was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. Which is a name of fewer syllables than Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of fornications and abominations of the Earth. But such long names are not unusual in Scripture, as appears in Mahershalalhashbaz, which in English Esa. 8. 1. is, In making speed to the spoil he hasteneth the prey. 4. But now the meaning of the Beast's Title or Name is this; That this Idolatrous Empire is represented only under that succession of time (according to the main scope of this present Vision) under which it being considered, it will be sometime opportune to say, That it is the Beast that was, and is not, but will ascend again out of the bottomless pit; and then go into perdition, that is to say, be finally destroyed, never to revive again. Of that time or state of the Empire under which considered it is sometime seasonable to pronounce thus, is this present Vision of the Beast to be understood, and of no other▪ and therefore was thereby especially recommended to the Church of Christ for that season when the Empire ceased to be Idolatrous. 5. The Angel therefore placing his thoughts on those times of the Church, does here preadvertise them of a strange alteration of the Christian Empire, even while they find it thus purely Christian, and as yet untainted with Idolatry; namely, that this pure and happy state will pass away, and that the Beast will revive and come again into Being; that is, that the Empire will again become Idolatrous. Which premonition being so useful to as many as receive it, to fortify them against those Idolatrous Innovations that would be brought into the Church, it is no wonder that the mind of the Angel was fixed on those times when he unriddled the meaning of this Vision to John, as if he were present then amongst them forewarning them of the danger to come. This is one way of determining the sense of this Vision to the intended time and state of the Idolatrous Empire, that is here aimed at, namely, by placing our minds on those times wherein this Note or Name of the Beast is rightly applicable to him as future, and not again returned into Being; which was when the Empire was purely Christian. 6. But that you may still lay farther hold upon the meaning of the Vision, and certainly understand under what succession of time this Idolatrous Empire is represented, I will a little alter his Note or Name, saith the Angel, and style him The Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Which Title imports him considered as present, though acknowledged yet to come; for it is a Prophecy, and not an History. But I say in this Title he is considered as present; as those words also most naturally imply, When they behold the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. For we behold and eye things present; and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems the more reasonable reading as well as the more authentic and approved, (and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Mr. Mede would have it out of Arethas) and denotes the Empire become Idolatrous again as it was once, and therefore to be the Beast that was, and yet to be true that the Beast is also. But it is not that Idolatry that consists in worshipping the ancient Pagan Deities, Mars, Venus, Vulcan, etc. Wherefore in this respect it is the Beast that was, but is not. But considering again, as I said, that only the Objects are changed, and that the Saints are worshipped with such like Idolatry as the Heathen Deities were, it is in that respect rank Paganism, though exercised upon new Objects; and therefore though the Beast be, in some sense, said not to be, yet it is true in a very considerable sense that he is. Whence it is evident that by the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, is meant this Roman Empire degenerated into a Paganizing or Idolatrizing Christianity; which though it profess Christianity, bears the Image of the ancient Pagan Idolatrous Empire. So that the Image of the Beast and the Beast that was, and is not, and yes Paral. 2. Agr. 5. is, do answer exactly one to another. For the Image is, and is not that of which it is the Image, as is easily acknowledged and conceived by any one. Whence the truth of the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism plainly appears. 7. This Interpretation which I have given of this verse is so natural and coherent, that I think it were impossible for any one to doubt of it, were it not for that obscurity which arises from that Elliptical manner of speech in the beginning of the verse, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend, etc. For it seems to import that this Idolatrous Roman Empire was not in S. John's time; which is contrary to truth. But I answer, that there is an Ellipsis to be supplied, and then this mistake will vanish. Which supplement may be made either thus, as I have already hinted, The Beast which thou sawest, his name is, Was, and is not, etc. or thus, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend, etc. this is his Name, this his Character whereby you shall understand under what succession of time he is to be expected. For it is to be conceived that the Angel had before his sight the entire Succession of the Beast dissected into two parts by that temporary Interemption of him in the introduction of pure Christianity into the place of Paganism, that it might become the Religion of the Empire. Now he revolving these series of Ages in his mind, in reference to the Beast, on the first he could not inscribe any other Title then, Is. For till that intercessation of the Idolatry of the Empire by the victory of pure and untainted Christianity, it was not proper to say of the Beast, that he was, he continuing still in being; much less that he is not, he being still in existence. Nor was it seasonable to take notice of his ascent again out of the bottomless pit, he being as yet not descended thither; nor of his utter and final perdition, he being to revive again after his first Interemption. 8. Wherefore this Title being incompetible to the Idolatrous Empire in the first series of time it was considered in, it is plain that the Angel casting his sight forward on these successions of Ages, and finding a season wherein the Beast ceases to be, but withal foreseeing that he would get up again, and then after a certain continuance finally perish, he describes the Beast under that Period, styling him, (in an abrupt and rapturous way, without prefacing that it is his style) The Beast that was, and is not, but would again emerge into Being, and then finally perish. Which Name the Angel gives him while his eye is fixed on that Interregnum of his, his temporary cessation from Being. Which occasion of his name though it was transient, as that of the child who was called Mahershalalhashbaz, yet it may be a permanent Appellation of the Beast, to show his order in succession. For his Condition and order of succession into existence is rather hereby noted, than any thing declared of his existing or not existing in S. John's time. Which duly considered and rightly understood will easily take away this seeming difficulty of the Text's implying that the Beast was not in the time of S. John. 9 For this Expression concerns not itself at all in any such Assertion, but only considers the succession and series of time under which this Idolatrous Empire is comprehended, and has given a name to the Beast under the last succession, not in reference to S. John's time, but in reference to the first series of time under which the Idolatrous Empire was to be, and then of the time it was not to be, and lastly of that series of succession it was to be again, and then finally to perish. Which Character from these series of times compared one with another, might have been made as well in Daniel's time as S. John's, they having no coherence or ligation with the time of the Prophet, but only with one another. For so far forth as is expressed in this verse, the signification is only of succeeding Order, in Existence and Nonexistence and Re-existence, which changes upon that consideration are indeed tied to one another, but free as yet from being fixed to the Prophet's time, or any one's time else. Which thing though I have been so careful to make good, yet is an apprehension so easy to admit, that Alcazar in his Exposition supposes it without ask leave or giving any account. For he understanding the revived or re-existent Beast of the persecuting Empire under Julian the Apostate, whom he makes the eighth King, and acknowledging the Visions exhibited to John in Domitian's time when the Roman Empire was actually persecutive, does evidently imply that [The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not] is not to be understood of Existence or Nonexistence joined with the time of the Vision, (for it had been false to say the Beast is not, in Domitian's time) but only of permutations and successions of the Condition of the Empire. Cùm igitur (saith he) persecutiones interrumpendae forent, hâc ipsâ interruptione significatur quod Angelus ter repetit capite decimo septimo, dum ait de Bestia, Fuit & non est, Erat & non est; Quod idem est ac si diceret, Modò est & modò non est. Which phrase signifies no set time of Existence or Nonexistence, but only the vicissitude of them. This upon the Thirteenth Chapter; and to the same purpose he speaks upon the Seventeenth, where he asserts that by the Beast that was, and is not, the Angel only intimates that there would be an Intermission of Persecution. I might add also that our Protestant Expositors go generally upon the same supposition, as Paraeus has noted. But this point, I hope, is abundantly cleared. 10. And what has been said of this first Description of the Beast, Was, is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition, is to be understood of the second, Was, is not, and yet is; namely, that it is the Name, Nature, or Character of the Beast, not any Assertion concerning his present Existing or Not-existing. For of that Idolatrous Empire which is here indigitated, it could not be properly said, when S. John wrote, that it was, but is not; for it did then continue still in an uninterrupted being. Nor could it be said of it, Is not, and yet is; for it was not the Image of the Pagan Idolatrous Empire●…, but that very Empire itself. And it is remarkable that this Beast is described as to come hereafter out of the bottomless pit, and that the world shall wonder at him, when he ascends again upon the Stage, beholding the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Where therefore neither Was nor Is not have any connexion or ligation with that present Age of S. John, seeing it is so evident that Is has not, the prediction being not of a present Beast, but of one to come. And indeed to me it seems very improbable that the Title or Name of the Beast would have been so presently in the same verse repeated again with this little variation, had it not been done on purpose to be a Key to the meaning of the former Title, and to cast the considerate Reader upon such a sense as I have pitched upon. But to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is to make the Prophecy guilty of a sapless and useless Tautology, and to deface in it a special Note and Mark of direction to the true meaning thereof. But we proceed. 11. Nor can [Is not, and yet is] be understood of any Object but with a close touch on the known laws of a right Contradiction. Which is the Mysterious dress which is here affected to excite amusement, and without which it will not sound like either sense or an Elegancy. The same thing therefore in some sense or other must be affirmed and denied of the same Subject. Wherefore as by that part of the Title [Was, and is not] it is naturally understood he is not what he was; and as [Is not] is to be understood in the same extent that Was, (as if [Was] intimate his whole Existence, [Is not] must take away his whole Existence; and if [Was] intimate only the Condition or Qualification of Existence, [Is not] must take away just so much and no more:) So [Is not, and yet is] must be understood in the same extent, and the Object of their Affirmation and Negation must be equal; that is to say, either the whole Existence of the thing must be affirmed and denied, or the same Condition or Qualification. 12. The former in this case cannot be pretended to, it being so real a Contradiction that it is a downright Falsity. And in the latter if there were a perfect Sameness, it would be as rank and as unreconcilable a Contradiction. As suppose a man were a King, and should be deposed for a time, but then afterwards be restored to his Kingdom in as full power as ever; it were a real contradiction and gross falsehood to say, He is not King, as well as, He is King. Whence the fondness of Hugo Grotius his interpretation is detected, who makes Domitian the Beast that is not, and yet is. For it could never be said of him while he was Emperor, that he was not Emperor, or while he was not Emperor, that he was Emperor; because to be Emperor was utterly the same Condition at both times he was so, if he was so twice. For which he has no evasion but by reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But when this sameness is in some respect defective, and verges rather towards similitude then exact Identity, than indeed this Riddle is proper; and though the Aenigma seems to amuse a man with a contradiction, yet it declares a truth. As is apparent in our Interpretation of the Beast that Paral. 2 Agr. 5. is not, and yet is; which is this, That the ancient Idolatrous Empire is not, and yet is: where both parts are true. For as to the manner of Idolatry it is the same Beast, but in respect of the persons whom they would worship it is not the same; and therefore, as I have already noted, is also called the Image of the Beast. 13. Wherefore this second Title of the Beast [Was, and is not, and yet is] being thus plainly discovered not to signify existence, but condition and order of succession, it is a farther assurance that our Interpretation of the former Title of the Beast is true also: and that the omitting of the Intersertion or subjunction of This is his Name or Property, or the like, is a mere Prophetic Ellipsis, and Artifice of concealment, warrantable upon a double ground; either as spoken rapturously and ecstatically, and therefore thus Elliptically; or else because there are Examples of such an Ellipsis in other places of Scripture and in the very same case, as Apoc. 1. and Exod. 3. But to object that there they breed no such obscurity or sense as in this place, is to acknowledge what I contend for, that the Ellipsis is here used on set pupose for concealment; but the concealment again more recommendable, and not at all invincible, because this Ellipsis is not without Examples in Scripture, and made, it may be, not without some allusion to those very Texts, where the Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ero Exod. 3. 14. qui ero, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Zegerus and Cornelius à Lapide compare with this name of the Beast, to show the great discrepancy. And the latter of them concludes, that the Reign of the wicked is fitly expressed by Erat, & non est; but the Name of God, who alone has immortality, and whose Kingdom is a Kingdom of all Ages, by Qui est, & qui er at, & qui venturus est: and much more he has to that purpose in comparing this Name of God with the Name of the Beast; for so he also calls this description of him. Sicut Dei Nomen est Jehova, h. e. Qui est; ità Bestiae Nomen est, Qui non est. Secundò, Dei Nomen est, Qui ●…uit & est; Bestiae, Qui fuit & non est. Tertiò, Dei Nomen est, Fuit & erit; Bestiae, Non erit ampliús. So Cornelius. The last of which answers exactly to our sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But we have been overcopious and industrious in clearing a point which we had already so fully demonstrated by proving, That this Beast, whose Chap 11. Sect. 13, 14, etc. Name, or Title, or Description (call it what you will) is [Was, and is not,] etc. is the Roman Empire after it had taken the profession of Christianity upon it, and had degenerated therein into a kind of an After-Paganism. 14. And that I have interpreted the Beast in his Re-existence of the Empire turning Idolatrous, rather than being moulded into any new Political Government, as many do, my reason is, because this is more consonant to my third Rule of interpreting Prophecies: and likewise because the Empire in a Political sense cannot be said to have ever yet ceased to be; there was never yet a season since its being when a man might say, It is not: and lastly, the Whore or Two-horned Beast will not be Synchronal with the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, unless this Beast's Commencement begin upon those terms I have declared, namely, That the Rising again of the Beast was the Empire's Relapse into a kind of Paganism & Idolatry. 15. But we shall now pursue the detection of Agreements. Was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. That is to say, It was in that decursion of time before the Dragon was fought by Michael and slain, but ceased to be upon that slaughter. And therefore it is said in the Thirteenth Chapter, that the Dragon gave him his power, that is, he succeeded as Heir to the powers of the Dragon; and the Dragon's forces (for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sign●…fies, as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) were left to his conduct and management. Or, because the Dragon signifies the Devil as well as the Pagan Empire, The Devil delivered to this Beast his forces, his power and throne, so as he had done to the Pagan Empire, that is, the assistence of evil Spirits, Idols, or Images, and all the Pomp and Train of his Kingdom of Darkness; but yet changing himself and all these into a show of true light, and hiding his villainy under a pretext of adorning and improving the Christian worship, See Mr. Mede upon the place. Which setting up again of the Beast that had the deadly wound, and Paral. 2. Agr. 3. getting into life by means of the Dragon's assistence and proper weapons of his warfare, such as Idols and Images and false Miracles, answers very fitly to his reascending here out of the bottomless pit: For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify as well as the Sea, or Abolition, or Evanescency. And hence is manifested the truth of the third Agreement of our second Parallelism. 16. But if we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify the Sea, as it usually Paral. 2. Agr. 6. does, and in reference to the Empire itself I doubt not but does also here; this answers to the Seven-headed Beast's rising out of the Sea chap. 13. v. 1. and is the sixth Agreement of our second Parallelism. 17. And go into perdition. According as it is said chap. 13. v. 10. Paral. 2. Agr. 7. He that leadeth into Captivity, must go into Captivity: He that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword. Which is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism. 18. And they that dwell on the Earth shall wonder, whose names were Paral. 2. Agr. 8. not written in the book of life. According to what we read chap. 13. v. 3. And all the world wondered after the Beast: and v. 8. And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of Life of the Lamb, etc. Which is the eighth Agreement of our second Parallelism. 19 When they behold the Beast that was, and is not. He is said here, or rather in the beginning of this verse, not to be, answerably to his being said to be slain chap. 13. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; so the English Translation. But the Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, caesa ad mortem. Nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we render as it were, imply that his head was not slain and struck with so deadly a wound that it died. For besides that this wound is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a deadly wound, more than once; it is evident that the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not always weaken or lessen the sense, as appears ch. 5. v. 6. where we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Lamb notwithstanding was really and downright slain. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore refers to the Imaginativeness of the Representation, not to the Imperfectness of the Death or Slaughter represented. Wherefore this Head was really slain and killed, and therefore implies the Body was dead also, and that the Beast ceased to be, according as it is here said that he is not: Which I Paral. 2. Agr. 3. have already noted to be the third Agreement of our second Parallelism. Which Agreement considered jointly with the perpetual Agreements of that Parallelism is also an invincible Confirmation of the truth of our Exposition of, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, etc. namely, That he speaks adequately of the Beast under the last Succession, re-existing, in this Seventeeths Chapter, as he does of the healed Beast in the Thirteenth; and that there can be no objection against the over-close concealment of the sense in this notable Ellipsis, because though the commissure be as invisible as that in curious Steel-work, yet the apparent Agreements of this second Parallelism betwixt the Seven-headed Beast in this and the Thirteenth Chapter would not fail to unscrue the meaning with the considerate and intelligent. 20. Is not, and yet is. Of which I have shown already that there can Paral. 2. Agr. 5. be no good sense, unless we understand not a perfect Identity, but rather a Resemblance or Similitude. Which Resemblance by way of elegancy gives the title of Identity, as if that which is very like were exactly the same. So he that came in the Spirit of Elias was called Elias; and one egregiously Epicurean or Platonical, might be called Epicurus redivivus, or Plato redivivus, as if the one were really Epicurus, the other Plato. And it is a vulgar expression, That such an one will never die, while such a Son of his, namely, one that is exactly like him, is alive; conceding herein that the Father may be dead and alive at once, dead in his own person, but alive in that lively image of himself, his surviving Son. Quanquam nullum monumentum clarius Servius Sulpitius relinquere potuit quàm effigiem morum suorum, constantiae, pietatis, ingenii, filium. Of such a son as this is that saying of Siracides, Though his father die, Ecclesiastic. 30. 4. yet he is as though he were not dead; for he has left one behind him that is like him. So then, as Servius Sulpitius may be said to be dead and alive at once, dead in his own person, but alive in his son who is so perfect an Effigies of him; so it may be said of the Beast, that he is not, and yet is: Because he is not really that ancient Pagan Empire which was the Beast killed by the introduction of pure Christianity; but yet he is, in that he is revived in the Empire's becoming again so Paganly Idolatrous, and so lively representing the state thereof in the Dragon's time. Res enim dicitur existere (saith à Lapide) cùm ejus Exemplar, Imago, Typus, aut Figura existit. And how lively an Image or Resemblance this degenerate Empire is of that under the Dragon, I might here particularly display, but I will rather defer it to the following Chapters. In the mean time this may suffice in general to prove the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism. CHAP. XIV. Ver. IX. What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof. 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills, and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governors is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but a natural and necessary truth. 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts. 3. The only true reason why there are numbered Eight Kings, though but Seven Heads of the Beast. 4. That the dividing of the Emperors into Pagan, Christian and Pagano-Christian, is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings, is an unexceptionable Truth. 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was looked upon by the Angel but what respected Religion. 6. A demonstrative Inference from [One is] that there is an Ellipsis in, The Beast that thou sawest, was, and is not, etc. 7. Why * Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Whence the last subdivision is confirmed, and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good. 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. XI. That the description of the Beast is his Name, and part thereof used for the whole, as in the Name of God; which farther confirms the abovementioned. Ellipsis. 2. The easy and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 3. That the meaning of [ * Verse 11. The Beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth] is, that his Head is the eighth. 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time, and why. 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism. 6. The seventh Agreement. Ver. XII. The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism. 2. The twelfth Agreement. 3. The meaning of * Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ver. XIII. The thirteenth Agreement, together with the meaning of * Verse 13. being of one mind, and of giving their strength and power to the Beast. 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperor even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head, there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire. Ver. XIV. The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. 2. The fifteenth Agreement. 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. IX. AND here is the mind that hath wisdom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In such a sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ch. 13. 18. Here is wisdom, that is, Here is a special Arcanum, Here is recondite Wisdom, or a Cabbalistical Parable. According as is intimated Ecclesiastic. 6. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wisdom is according to her name, and is not manifest to the vulgar. Where Siracides in all likelihood alludes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies to cover over a thing and so conceal it, as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were derived from thence. And assuredly the Wisdom of the Ancients was such, had an outward crust or rind as well as an inward pulp: And Diogenes should have rather wrote thus of Parmenides, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That the ancient Sophia, which Siracides would have sound like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, had a double sense, one according to external appearance, the other according to an inward truth. Wherefore as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies, Here is such a kind of recondite wisdom as I have described; so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies, Here is a meaning that implies a special example of the ancient Sophia, which used to hid great and concerning Truths under outward Hieroglyphics and Types. 2. The seven Heads are seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth. That Old Rome is here indigitated by these seven Hills, Interpreters generally consent; that City being so famously taken notice of for them both by Historians and Poets. As by Dionysius Halicarnasseus, Pliny, Plutarch; also by Varro, Tertullian and others. By Poets, as Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Claudian and the Sibylls. Which things being so well known and obvious in Commentators, I think it needless to produce any examples. But there are that please themselves in finding Records of Constantinople's being also noted for her seven Hills: which Bishop Montague does Part 2. Ch. 5. in his Appello Caesarem; where he saith, this City is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nicetas, Urbs Septicollis by Paulus Diaconus, and that it is so acknowledged by Janus Dousa and by Mr. Richard Knolls in his Turkish History. To which I will add what I find in Theatrum Urbium, That Scholarius Patriarch of Constantinople, in his Enarratio Vaticinii de Turcici Reg ni interitu, styles the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Dilichius also in his description of the City not only mentions the seven Hills, but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them. And lastly, Ludovicus Gotofredus, Muri ejus (saith he speaking of this City) sunt incredibilis altitudinis, complectentes ambitu suo septem Colles. So that though there be not so ancient and early mention of the Seven Hills of Byzantium or Constantinople as of those of Rome, and that it may be probably conceived that upon the Emperor's pleasure of having the City called New Rome, they would also find seven Hills in it, (in emulation of the old Imperial City) whether there were just Seven or no, I mean though there might be more than seven, or if fewer, take occasion to fancy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more than one; yet I cannot well distrust but that there is a tolerable ground for this Title: and being that it has obtained in the Writers of her History, I will not gainsay but that she may also go for Urbs Septicollis. Which will be no inconvenience to our Interpretation, but a further confirmation of our Exposition of the Two Horns of the Beast, which I conceive to be the two Imperial Patriarchates, the Roman and Constantinopolitan: which shows the extent of that Pseudoprophetick Beast, that it reached over the whole Empire, as well Oriental as Occidental. And here we find the Seat of the Whore as broad; these Seven Hills not confining her, as is usually conceived, to Old Rome, but permitting her to reside also at New Rome or Constantinople, there being Seven Hills Paral. 1. Agr. 〈◊〉. there as well as at the other Seat, but not so famous as those other; as the fame of her whoredoms is not so great from the one as from the other. According to which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, would be rendered Septem capita septeni sunt montes, The seven Heads signify the two Septenaries of Mountains, the one at Rome, the other at Constantinople. From whence the eighth Agreement of our first Parallelism is cleared. Ver. X. And they are seven Kings; that is, They signify seven sorts of Supreme Governors, which are called Kings here by a Diorismus or an Hebraism, who understand by King and Kingdom any Body Politic with the supreme Power thereof, be it in one or in many. And these Seven Sorts are not seven Individuals of different sorts, but the whole Succession of each sort, by an usual Henopoeia. And that seven different Sorts of Governors may be called Seven Heads as well as seven Individual Persons, I think is demonstrable by Reason, because there is a greater difference betwixt Kind and kind, then betwixt Individuals of the same kind. Whence I wonder that Grotius should call seven forms of Government, taken concretely, (as every one does take them) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Whenas if there be such a sevenfold difference in the supreme Powers in the succession of an Empire, the Empire once considered as a Beast, it will be ipso facto Seven-headed whether we will or no. So fare is it from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that it is a natural and inevitable truth. 2. Now the Division of the succession of the Supreme Powers of the Empire is made naturally thus. This Power was either in many or in one: In many, as in the Consuls, the Tribuni Militum, the Decemviri; In one, as in the Kings, Dictatours, and Emperors. Which Emperors I will again divide into Pagan, Christian, and Pagano-Christian. So that the whole line of succession of these Supreme Powers is divided, first into two equal parts, and then each of those two subdivided into three, and then one part of the second subdivision into three again. So that the whole line does naturally fall into eight parts, agreeably to the History of things and declaration of the Prophecy. For there are plainly numbered Eight Kings, though but Seven Heads of the Beast. For under the Christian Emperors the Empire was no Beast, and therefore there could be no Head thereof. 3. Nor know I any tolerable solution of this Riddle of Eight Kings and yet but Seven Heads, but this. For the shortness of the stay of the Christian Succession cannot put them out of the number of the Heads, since the stay of the Decemviri was above forty times shorter. Wherefore it is not this, but because the Empire during their succession was not a Beast, nor they either fit or actual Heads of one; but were only Heads or Kings of the undegenerated and not-yet-again-Paganizing Empire. Which therefore was the time of the Death of the Beast, when he was not, and therefore was to have no Head, nor could have any. 4. Nor is there the least ground of any Cavil against our last Subdivision, which is of Emperors into Pagan, purely Christian, and Pagano-Christian, as if there were not a cause fundamental enough of this last Distribution: Whenas on the contrary there is such a strong Opposition betwixt the two first members thereof, that one outs the other, the seventh King being the wonder and killer of the sixth Head. And forasmuch as when a Religion is made the Religion of a Kingdom or Empire, it is in a sort the Law of that Empire; it may be rationally conceived that there is even a Political difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperor. And, lastly, be that how it will, it is plain to all men that there is a very eminent and notorious difference betwixt a Christian and a Pagan Emperor, and of more concernment to the Church of God than any Political Distinction of Government. And that which most concerns his Church, we may be assured God takes most notice of; and therefore would be as likely to distinguish the succession of Supreme Governors by this difference as by any. 5. Nay I think I may safely add, that it is likely, that when once the Angel had come to the division of the Heads or rather Kings into Christian and Pagano-Christian, he did wholly neglect the consideration of the Political differences of forms of Government in the Empire, that notion being now impertinent to his design, and contented himself with the distinction of them from the account of Religion only. But till this he numbered according to the distinction of Political form, they all of them till now agreeing in pure Paganism. So that the sense of [The Beast that was, and is not, his Head is the eighth King] seems to be this, That supreme Power, be the Political frame or Title of it what it will, which is over the Beast revived, that is, over the Empire Idolatrizing again, all that Succession, pitch upon it where you will, be it Pope, be it Emperor, is looked upon as the Eighth King or last Head of the Beast. For this is that which this Vision only concerns itself in, and not useless discriminations and niceties. Which supposition is agreeable to our third Rule of interpreting Prophecy. And what was said in the behalf of the Distinction of the two first Members of my last Subdivision, is so easily applicable to the last compared with the second, that is to say, Pagano-Christian with Christian, that I need only advertise so much, and pass to other things. The Proof of the truth of my first Subdivision into consuls, Tribuni militum, Decemviri, and Kings, Dictator's and Emperor's, or Caesars, I will defer till after I have finished my Joint-Exposition. 6. Five are fallen, one is. The five fallen in S. John's time were Kings, Consuls, Decemviri, Dictator's and Tribuni militum; the one that then was, was the continued Succession of the Pagan Caesar's. And here it will be seasonable to note, That S. John so plainly asserting that one of the seven Heads of the Beast was alive and not slain as yet, when he had this Vision, that the Beast itself was still alive and in being; and that therefore the Beast than was not come to the state of [was, and is not.] Which is a demonstration no less than Mathematical that [was, and is not] do not signify fixed or determined Existence or Nonexistence, but only the order of them, accordingly as I have declared; and that consequently there is such an Ellipsis as I have supposed in [The Beast that thou sawest, was, and is not] etc. So demonstratively evident in every point is our Interpretation. But I proceed. 7. And the other is not yet come. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He does not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because this Seventh is not of the line properly of the predecessors, they being all Pagans. And therefore he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that excessive difference he had, or distinction from them that went before, as if it were plainly specific; according as Porphyrius has defined, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And then he adds, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Differences that make a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called Specific differences, which are the greatest Differences that can be. So just a ground is there of our last Subdivision. Out of which is also discoverable that the Beast was wounded in the Par. 2. Agr. 10. sixth Head. For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being so perfectly opposite and contrary to him, outed him out of Being; it being impossible that the Head of the Empire should be purely Christian and yet Pagan at once. Which is agreeable to what we have in the Thirteenth Chapter, where there are numbered Seven Heads of the Beast with the Inscription of Blasphemy upon them, that is, of Idolatry. Now there being but Seven Idolatrous Heads, whereof Five were gone in S. John's time, and the Seventh or last appertained to the Beast restored, which is here called the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is; it necessarily falls to the share of the Sixth Head there to be the wounded or slain Head, as it is the Head exterminated out of Being in this Seventeenth Chapter. From whence appears the tenth Agreement of our second Parallelism. 8. And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. Short and Long are terms of comparison, and must respect some other te●…m with which they are compared. And assuredly the nearest and most freshly mentioned is the most naturally glanced at, namely, the duration of the Sixth Head or King: The stay of this Seventh King will be short in comparison of the Sixth. And that his stay will be short seems also to be prefigured in that expression in the Thirteenth Chapter, And his deadly wound was healed. For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies him at length really dead, yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his deadly wound was healed, seems to infer that his stay in death was not long, but more like a deep and profound trance, or deadly stound. For such a wound as transmits' a man into the state of death for a long time is a wound not to be cured, as here it is said to be. Wherefore this state of death in this deadly-wounded Beast was but for a short space, as the reign of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is described to be; the one necessarily Paral. 2. Agr. 4. implying the other. For just so long as the Caesars were purely Christian did the Sixth Head that was slain (which were the Idolatrous Caesars) lie dead upon the spot, and no longer. Which makes good the fourth Agreement of our second Parallelism, That the time of the Death or Nonexistence of the Beast is not long in either Description of his fate. Ver. XI. And the Beast that was, and is not, even he is the Eighth. It is observable, that as in Exodus 3. after God had declared his Name to be I AM THAT I AM, afterwards he takes but part of it, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you; so here, whenas this Beast was thus defined, [Was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition] and afterwards [Was, and is not, and yet is] yet hear a short portion of the Title is made use of, [The Beast that was, and is not.] Whereby I conceive is intimated (accordingly as I have above noted) that this Description of him is looked upon as his Name, so as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Name of God: And that in all these places there is an Ellipsis or defect of that intimation. But is to be understood as firmly as if it had been thus supplied, v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. and in the same verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in this 11. verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. 2. Even he is the Eighth: So our English; but this sense is not so even and so adequate. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is most easily and naturally rendered, Et ipsissimus ille octavus est, & tamen è septem, or more briefly, Et ipse octavus est, & de septem: That this Beast that was, and is not, namely, his Head, (for it is manifestly a Synecdoche) is both the Eighth King, and also of the Seven, to wit, of those seven Kings that are understood by the Heads of Blasphemy or Idolatrous Heads. Where it is remarkable with what caution and circumspection things are penned down in this holy and mysterious Book of the Apocalypse. For first; when he came to the Sixth Head, he did not say the Sixth is, but One is, to make way for the reckoning the next under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is so significant, as I have already noted, and so necessary an Expression to set off the quite different nature of him from all that went before, he not being properly of that kind of Line. For what communion or affinity had the pure Christian Caesars with the purely Pagan? But now when he comes to this last Head, which I cannot avoid for significancy to term Pagano-Christian, (the whole Empire from head to foot being supposed such) this King he thinks good to call the Eighth, because he being derived from a double Line, takes in all Predecessors before him, as well Christian as Pagan; and therefore reckoning here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Succession, from whom also he is derived, he is rightly called the Eighth King; and yet considering that he is a Paganizing or Idolatrizing Head as well as Christian, he is said to be one of the Seven, namely, of those seven Kings that are noted by the seven blasphemous Heads of the Beast, which were seven, and no more. This, in my apprehension, is the most easy and the most assured sense that ●…ny can desire of any place of Scripture. 3. Nor need we distrust it for the seeming harshness of that Synecdoche by which the whole Beast is put for part, namely, the Head, the speech being to be salved not only by this Figure, but confirmed by Example. As Dan. 2. 38. Thou art this Head of Gold: and yet this Head of Gold was a Type of the whole Kingdom of Babylon. Wherefore it is plain that the whole Head of Gold is put for some chief part thereof. Also Dan. 4. 20, 22. The Tree which thou sawest, which grew and was strong, etc. It is thou, O King, that art grown and become strong, etc. Where notwithstanding that Tree was an Emblem of his whole Kingdom, and of the large extent of the Dominion thereof. So that the King is here again called the Tree, whenas indeed he was but part thereof, the Root, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the stumping of the Tree to the ground was a Figure to represent the cutting him off from his Kingdom for a time. Besides all which it is not sense without this Synecdoche; for how can any Head be truly and properly the whole Beast? 4. Wherefore the Eighth King is the Succession of the Christian Caesars for that time wherein the Empire Paganizes', that is, Idolatrizes in Christianity. Which, though their Succession be long, and their Persons more than one at a time in some Ages, yet by an Henopoeia they are expressed under the show of one single King. For the Division into Seven was not by Individuals, but by difference of Kind, as I have above declared. And therefore the Eastern and Western Emperors reigning at once in the Empire breaks no squares in this Prophetic way of Computation, which reckons not by Individuals, but by Sorts and Successions contrived into one Individual shape or show. Which is the reason there is no mention of succession of Persons, no more than enumeration of Years in this Book of the Apocalypse, though it treat of things that fill the Period of almost two thousand years, and that of this side of the Millennium. 5. And is of the Seven. This also intimates that the Seven Heads of Par. 2. Agr. 9 the Beast are Idolatrous Heads, accordingly as they are declared Chap. 13. v. 1. Which is the evidence of the ninth Agreement of our second Parallelism. 6. And goeth into perdition, that is, into final destruction, as is intimated Par. 2. Agr. 7. also in the Thirteenth Chapter, v. 5 and 10. where his time is set 1260 days, but then death allotted him. It is the seventh Agreement of our second Parallelism, as I have noted already. Ver. XII. And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are Ten Kings, which Par. 2. Agr. 11. have received no Kingdom as yet, that is to say, in S. John's time, who lived in the reign of the Sixth Head, under which the Beast fought and was slain by Michael; in which Battle he is also represented with Seven Heads and Ten Horns, but no Crowns upon these Horns, their actual Coronation being not till the Seventh Head: And therefore, Which have received, no Kingdom as yet, answers to that Type of the Horns without Crowns upon them: Which is the eleventh Agreement of our second Parallelism. 2. But receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast; that is to say, Par. 2. Agr. 12. with the Beast whose name is [Was, and is not, and yet is,] which is the Beast considered under the succession of the Seventh or last Head, the healed or revived Head from the mortal blow it lay under: the Kings receive power and are actually crowned Kings at the time of this Beast's getting again into Being. And therefore this healed Beast his ten Horns are represented with ten Crowns on them, Chap. 13. 1. which answers exactly to this present Text, They receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast, and is a manifest proof of the twelfth Agreement of our second Parallelism. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The meaning is, I conceive, But they are receiving power about the same hour with the Beast. For the present Tense may intimate a productedness of the Action as being in fieri: nor does imply but that they may be receiving (though not in such a passive way as it does not involve with it some stout effort of their own towards the getting of this power; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have an higher sense and more active than so) that they may be receiving, I say, this Royal power for some time together, though some speed sooner than other some, but none long without their booty. For so I would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Diorismus, that it does not signify an Hour properly so called, but any short space of time the measure of which Circumstances will make us the best to understand. Wherefore I would render it, But they receive power as Kings about the same time with the Beast: so as it is understood, Exod. 9 18. Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very great hail. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is plain from Exod. 36. 9 and several other places of Scripture. The sense therefore is this, That about what time the Beast should revive, and be worshipped, that is, obeyed, or, in plainer English, About what time the Empire should relapse again into Idolatry, and be a-resuming the ancient Pagan Rites, though placing them upon Christian Objects; about that very time should the Empire be rending into Ten Kingdoms, or these Ten Kings be catching at and receiving power as Kings, all of them appearing and succeeding in their Enterprises within a little time from the first Degeneracy of the Empire into Pagan Idolatries and Superstitions: which may be within the space of forty or fifty years. See Mr. Mede's Diagram of the ten Kings. Ver. XIII. These have one mind, and shall give their strength and power Par. 2. Agr. 13. to the Beast. And therefore in the Thirteenth Chapter he is also adorned with this gift, where he is described The Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, and upon his Horns ten Crowns; which shows that even when they were actually Kings, they were voluntarily the strength of this Beast. For what strength in the Empire could have constrained them, they being the very strength thereof? Whence appears the thirteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism. But the sense of this verse is briefly this: These ten Kings shall be of one mind, that is, of one mind in matters of Religion, shall be of the Religion of the Empire, that is to say, of the Pagano-Christian Religion, whereby the Empire had again become a Beast; and shall give their power and strength unto this Beast, that is to say, shall be ready even by force of Arms, if need be, or by what other power or authority they have, to maintain this Beast in its beastly, that is, in its Idolatrous condition and Pagan-like Superstitions: or else, understanding all along a Synecdoche, shall give the Pagano-Christian Emperor (which is the Head of this Beast) the aid or afford him the assistence of their Armies or forces, if need should so require, against all Opposers of this Paganochristianism. For the Emperor is looked upon as the chief Champion and Generalissimo of all the Pagano-Christian Forces. And though those Kings be distinct and absolute in their own Dominions, yet looking upon them as held together in one upon the account of the Religion of the Empire, of which the Emperor is by place the chief Champion, these ten Kings may be considered as coming into a kind of subordination unto him, and be conceived to be the Horns of this Head, I mean, of this Generalissimo or Emperor of that Army which makes War with the Lamb. But that Power which influences all is the Whore that rides the Beast. 2. And truly when the Head of this Whore is once found to be so big as to out-top the Secular Head of the Empire, the Emperors themselves, and both pretends to and makes use of that boasted Jus utriusque gladii; that is to say, So soon as the Pope is found to act the Caesar as well as the Universal Patriarch, there is no incongruity to allow him represented in two places as well as he sustains two parts, and conceive him to be typified as well in the last Head of the Beast as in the costly adorned Head of the Whore. But my way is more distinct and more compliable with Grotius his opinion, who stands so stoutly for the permanency of the Imperial Majesty to this day. And it seems also reasonable to me to interpret Prophecy according to the sense and phrase of History; Prophecy being nothing else but an Anticipative History. And therefore the Series of Roman Emperors and Title of the Empire and the Body of the Empire continuing still, (though much contracted) and being so looked upon in History, I should think it is the most natural way to interpret according to the common acknowledged phrase and sense of Historians. But, as I said, if the Pope be conceived to supply the room of the Emperors, as soon or as oft as he appears to out-top them even in Secular power, and to prove the real Head of the Empire, acting the Caesar as well as the Patriarch; that Interpretation also is very approvable and unexceptionable. For the Supreme Power of the Beast that was, and is not, is by the Angel looked upon as one and the same Head, provided it be but all along the Head of that Beast that is Pagano-Christian. For the spirit of Prophecy takes no notice of any useless distinctions and discriminations. Wherefore that Supreme Power that shall be found Pagano-Christian is still one Head in the style of this Prophecy, as I have above noted. And that which is under it, though it were invested with the Title of Emperor, will fall under the number of the Ten Horns after the division of the Empire into many Kingdoms, Ten suppose at least, or thereabout. For I look upon the number to signify Symbolically rather then purely Arithmetically. Ver. XIV. These shall make war with the Lamb. What is said of these Par. 2. Agr. 14. Ten Kings, is said of the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter, That he should make war with the Saints; which is the same as to war with the Lamb. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And these Ten Kings being the Horns of the Beast, what is done by them is done by the Beast. So that the Beasts in both Chapters make war with the Saints, according to the fourteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism. As for the 16 and 17 verses of the Thirteenth Chapter, the sense of them is this; That no man, of what degree soever, that was not of the Pagano-Christian Profession, (for that is meant by receiving a mark in the hand or in the forehead) should have any traffic or commerce in the Empire or Territories of any of these Ten Kings, which is a kind of besieging them with famine, and therefore not unfitly reckoned under the Hostilities of War. Which interdiction of all commerce and traffic is an effect of Excommunication by the Two-horned Beast. Examples of which Warfare are obvious everywhere in History. Concerning the Name of the Beast and the Number of his name, mentioned in those 16 and 17 verses, I shall speak upon the last verse of this present Chapter. 2. And the Lamb shall overcome them. According to that in the Thirteenth Par. 2. Agr. 15. Chapter, v. 10. He that leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity. This fifteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is very manifest. 3. And they that are with him are Called, and Chosen, and Faithful. Par. 2. Agr. 16. Suitably to that in the Thirteenth Chapter, v. 10. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints. The great stress lies upon Chosen and Faithful, Patience and Faith: For many are called, but few are chosen. But those choice ones that are said to be with him are stout Soldiers that will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes, never leave him for any persecution whatsoever; but be Firm and Faithful unto him, be their Patience never so much exercised by sufferings. In which is comprised the sixteenth Agreement of our second Parallelism. CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. XVI. The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire. Ver. XVII. The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God, how stupendious an Arcanum. 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts. 3. That it is rather Fate than Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto, with an Admonition thereupon. 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled; with a further Admonition to the Apostatised Church. 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. XVIII. Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecy. 2, 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore, with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse. 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome; and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalypse. 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that it is so to be written, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue. 6. That the ancient Latins, who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong, pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks. 7. How tightly this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events. 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this. 9 In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast. 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys. 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism. 12. The last Agreement of the second. 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome. 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on the Pope's Crown, and of a Woman-Pope. Ver. XV. THe Waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. This Interpretation of Waters in reference to the describing of the Extent of the Whore's Jurisdiction does imply that it was very large: and if we compare it with what is in the Thirteenth Chapter, v. 7. it seems to indicate no less compass than that of the whole Empire. For the Beast there is certainly the whole Empire, and it is but said of him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Here is not indeed in this present verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. for the Angel here delivers a precept of the Art of interpreting of Prophecies, and therefore could not so well say that Waters signify All peoples and multitudes; but his heaping up so many words more than in the forecited Verse of the other Chapter, and that in the plural number, seems to drive at as large extent as the other. Which the consideration of his calling these People's and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of this Prophecy (which seems to point at the whole Empire, as I have intimated above) does farther ratify. To which you may add, that both Grotius and Alcazar understand the meaning of the place of the universal extent of the Roman Empire. And à Lapide also, who glosses upon the Text; Aquae quas vidisti (saith he) significant omnes gentes & populos quibus Roma imperabit. But that the Two Horns of the Second Beast import the same thing, Par. 1. Agr. 7. I have already named; and whether this exercising all the power of the first Beast before him may not as well respect extent of place as the kinds of power, I leave to further disquisition. Enough already has been produced for the making good of the seventh Agreement of our first Parallelism. Ver. XVI. And the Ten Horns which thou sawest upon the Beast, these shall hate the Whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. To burn with fire is a Diorismus, and signifies only to consume and destroy, and to make to cease to be what it was. What execution also the making of her desolate and naked and eating of her flesh does imply, I shall defer to declare till the last part of our Discourse. In the mean time having so plainly discovered that this Whore is not a City built with Wood and Stone, but an Hierarchical Polity degenerated into a kind of Idolatrous Paganism, the very same with the Two-horned Beast or Pseudoprophetick Body, I must confess I see no necessity of any such War as should aim at the burning of the ancient City of Rome, but that this Prophecy may be fulfilled without any such martial noise, or ruins, or garments rolled in blood. Which is a thing seriously to be considered for the peace and welfare of Christendom. For the hatred of these Ten Horns against the Whore, and their persecution of her, implies no such raising of Forces, or marching in Battalia against Bulwarks and Walls and Houses, and taking so long an Expedition as to Rome. For this City is larger than to be comprised within the whole confines of Italy. For it is a Pseudoprophetick Polity that has spread through the whole Territories of the Empire, a Water-Nymph whose skirts are so large, that she has sat floating upon the whole Imperial Ocean for these many Ages; and therefore is such as neither the Punishment of burning nor drowning is compatible to, in that crass and literal sense as vulgarly is understood. But of these things in their more proper place. Ver. XVII. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast. This seems to be but the very same with the thirteenth verse, These have one mind, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here) and shall give their power and strength to the Beast. But that which is the most stupendious Arcanum, and not to be thought upon but with the greatest humility and veneration, is, That God is here entitled to this counsel and joint-purpose of these Kings; he is said to put this in their hearts, and it is called the fulfilling of his purpose or counsel (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to give their Kingdom to the Beast. Of which the easy sense is, to contribute their Kingdoms to make up this Ten-horned Beast; as the children of Israel might be said to contribute to the golden Calf. 2. This seems a wonderful passage of Providence, which that of S. Paul Act. 17. will hardly come up to, where speaking of the gross Idolatries of the Pagans which reigned in the world so many Ages, And the times, saith he, of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every Vers. 30. where to repent. But God is said here not to wink at the thing, but to put it into the hearts of these Kings, etc. Wherefore it seems most like to that of hardening Pharaoh's heart, that he might not let Israel go; or of the Jews crucifying our Saviour Christ, whom (Peter saith) they took, and by wicked hands crucified, and slew him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being exposed Act. 2. 23. and given up to them (as it were) by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Wherefore it should seem that such invincible circumstances and inviting opportunities which God by his permissive or more positive Providence brings into the world, to try or rather discover what is in the hearts of the wicked, and which he is well assured will naturally take effect in those that are lapsed into this lower Fate, are looked upon as Suggestions or Transmissions and Motions upon the hearts of men from God himself; and that by such a providential frame of affairs of his allowing at least, if not contriving, the minds of men are determinated to act thus or thus. And no other way then this need we understand touching Pharaoh's heart being hardened by God: the grand cause whereof was his permitting the Magicians to emulate, if not equalise, the Miracles of Moses for the most part; for so the Text runs, And the Magicians did so with their Enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And it is as easy to conceive that it might be permitted to the Pseudoprophetick Beast (by the officious Assistence of the Powers of Darkness) to do such Miracles and use such ways of imposing upon the Ten Kings as would certainly enough determine them to the Idolatrous Religion of the Empire. But that they were thus certain to be deceived, is the fault of their own lapse and of the after-Consequences of it, not any Injustice in God. 3. But it is here seasonable to consider (lest that School of false Prophet's sacrifice too much to their own Nets, and too lavishly applaud the marvellous pitch of their own policy and the policy of their predecessors,) how the Romish. Politicians have hitherto rowed in a manner with the stream, and how God has winked at the times of this Ignorance. But let them be assured that the Night is far spent, and the Day is at hand wherein God will no longer wink nor men be so universally asleep and in so deep a sopor, but that they will be easily awakened by that voice of S. Paul commanding all men every where to repent; or, if you will, of John the Baptist, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. For there is no other prevention of that dreadful and peremptory judgement against the Great Whore, (who, being lulled in security by long and fatal successes, saith in her heart, I sit as Queen, and am no widow, and Apoc. 18. 7. shall see no sorrow) then by casting away her Idols and by serving the living God. Otherwise the stream of Fate and Providence will turn, and that Doom shall be fulfilled upon her in the most unwelcome sense, Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine: For strong is the Lord God that judgeth her. For her time of prosperity is set, as is plain by what follows in this present verse of this Seventeenth Chapter; 4. Until the words of God be fulfilled. That is, These Ten Kingdoms, which were contributed to the making up the Ten-horned Beast which was to be rid by the Whore and be at her devotion, will be in this subjection but such a time as is decreed by God and predicted by his Prophets. So long indeed they will be her servants, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, till the words of God be fulfilled spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel, but no longer. For in Daniel 7. it is plainly said of the little Horn that there takes upon him to change Times and Laws, (that is, that makes what Festivals and Solemnities he pleases, and for his own advantage appoints Laws and Institutes not only new, but grossly clashing with the known Laws of God) that they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But than it presently follows, But the Judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end. This 17th verse therefore gives a reason of the unexpected hatred and hostility of the Ten Horns against the Whore in the foregoing verse, namely, That their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast (which is their professing of that Idolatrous Religion they were intoxicated with by the Whore that rides the Beast) was to be but for a determinate time foretold by the Oracles of God; but that Period expiring, the Scene of things would fatally change, and the doom of the little Horn or of the great Whore would be executed upon them. And there is no kicking against Acts 9 the pricks, as our Saviour told Saul out of Heaven. And I wish those whom it most concerns would believe the voice, and so become of Persecuters the true followers of Christ, and living members of his body, the truly Catholic and Apostolic Church, and would cease to be the Body of an Harlot. 5. But we may observe from the joint consideration of these two verses together, That these Ten Kings their giving their Kingdoms to the Beast, and their being in league with the Whore, is all one. For their being guided by this Whore makes the Empire Beast, by making it Idolatrous. And for these Ten Kingdoms, though their Kings be called the Horns of the Beast, (as the four Successors of Alexander are called the four Horns of the Greek Empire divided into four shares;) yet these Kingdoms themselves may be looked upon as the greatest share of the Body of the Beast, while they are at the devotion of the Whore, and profess her Idolatrous Religion. Whence their flying upon the Harlot to consume her is ipso facto the dissolving or destroying the Beast, that is, the making the Empire to cease to be Idolatrous. Wherefore it is plain that the continuance of this Ten-horned Beast is Par. 2. Agr. 17. said to be determined by God in this Chapter as well as in the Thirteenth, where it is said that it is given unto him to continue forty two months, which is plainly three years and an half, the same that a Time and Times and half a Time. Whence the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of our second Parallelism is cleared. Ver. XVIII. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth. The adjection of this last part of the Interpretation is of special consequence, and very answerable to the event of things. For this Idolatrous Hierarchy having at first as magnificent a Seat in the Oriental part of the Empire as the Occidental, and both these Imperial Patriarchates being in a manner alike engaged and alike active, or at least alike authoritative, in the debauching of the Empire with Idolatrous doctrines and practices; the Seat of the Great Whore is not restrained necessarily to one place more than another at first. But because afterwards this Occidental Patriarchate did so much emerge above the other, and exceed the other, not only in his peremptoriness and activity in keeping up and propagating Idolatry, and is so foully besmeared, or rather has been so swinishly drunk, with the blood of the Witnesses of Jesus, but also besides all this did acquire to himself the Right and Title of Universal Bishop, and has for a long time laid claim to and exercised this power; (to say nothing of his high insultations over the Caesarean Majesty, and his usurping as well his Rights, as wearing the Imperial Ensigns) I say, this Idolatrous Hierarchy growing so big in time in these Western parts of the Empire, and their power shrivelling up or melting away so much in the Eastern, and not continuing in nor advancing to that gross measure of Antichristianism that is found in the other, the Spirit of God has accordingly more strongly stamped the mark of discovery on the Western Hierarchy then on the Eastern; and because that See lays claim to an Universal Jurisdiction, has made Old Rome, I mean the whole Hierarchy whose Head is seated there, to be this Great Whore. For he saith, The Woman which thou sawest is that great City which [now reigneth] over the Kings of the Earth. For it is the present Tense, and spoken in S. John's time, when there was no Seven-Hilled City that reigned over the Kings of the Earth but Old Rome. And therefore of necessity it is she. 2. But besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the present Tense, and is all one as if one should say, quae nunc regnat; it is farther observable, that if it were not determined to this sense it would rather be a Nugation, if a man may speak it with reverence, than an Interpretation, and would be added to no purpose, as being of an uncertain sound, and not able to signify any thing but what was said before. For in that she is said to whore with the Kings of the Earth, and to ride the Beast, and to sit upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues, this already amounts to as much as the reigning over the Kings of the Earth. Wherefore this Adjection must have this peculiar in it, that in saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it implies that that City was meant that ruled the world in S. John's time, and therefore is the Seven-Hilled Rome. But why do I go about so industriously to prove that which our very Adversaries do not deny, as Ribera and Cornelius à Lapide, who both acknowledge Old Rome here meant, and Alcazar also and Bellarmine upon particular evincement from this verse? The words of Bellarmine are, Neque enim alia Civitas est quae Joannis tempore imperium habuerit super Reges terrae quàm Roma, & notissimum est supra septem montes Romam adificatam esse. Which two things joined together is a Demonstration that Rome in Italy here is meant, and no other City. 3. The sense therefore of the Verse may be clearly delivered in this short Paraphrase. The Woman which thou sawest riding on the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, is that great City which now ruleth over the Kings of the Earth, that is to say, it is Rome, whose Inhabitants, though flowing successively, are accounted one and the same City, because included within the same walls or buildings; as that is accounted one and the same River that flows betwixt the same banks, though the same Water does not continue for a day together. This Woman then which S. John saw riding the Empire under the last▪ Head thereof, upon the pretence of being the true Catholic and Apostolic Church, though indeed become an Apostatised Harlot, this Woman, I say, is that very City, that great City, that great Roman State or Polity that now rules over the Kings of the Earth, saith the Angel to S. John. But where or from whence could that be but from Rome the Imperial City? Whence it is evident that the Roman Catholic Church (as she calls herself) which rules the world from the Seven Hills, is to be understood, as being looked upon as one and the same Woman; this new Roman Hierarchy succeeding and being seated as much in the same City, that is, as much within the Roman walls, as that ancient Polity was. Which is as easy to conceive, as if one should prophecy of a certain River that it should run blood three hundred years hence, and then should add that this River is that River that now discharges itself with seven mouths into the Mediterranean. For it is evident that this must be understood of the waters of Nilus, and yet not of those that flow now, but those that shall flow three hundred years hence. And as we would say, that this very River Nilus that runs now into the Mediterranean is the River that will run tinctured with blood three hundred years hence, though the water is not the same now and then nor of the same Quality: so might it be said in S. John's time that that very City (meaning the Power or Polity there) which then ruled the world would ride the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, so many Ages after, though the Polity be no more the same than the water of Nilus now running is the same with the bloody water which is foretold shall flow within his banks three hundred years hence. So easy and natural is the Expression of the Angel in this last verse, and so manifest the determination of the Woman's Seat to Old Rome, accordingly as it has come to pass. 4. And that the Vision of the Two-horned Beast may keep perfect pace with this of the Whore, for the same reasons which I have already here alleged the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is likewise at last restrained to Rome; as the only See of the Universal Head of the Pseudoprophetick Body. Which restriction is discoverable as well by the Numeral Name of the Beast, as by numbering that Number comprised in his Name. The former Computation is observed by Bishop Dounham to be cavilled against by some as Cabbalistical. But he proves it plainly enough out of Irenaeus, that this kind of Computation is Traditionary even from S. John himself: De Antichrist. lib. 6. cap. 4. And though a many Pseudo-Cabbalists have brought the very name of Cabbala into a suspectedness, yet I must confess that I think the fame thereof was not raised upon nothing, but that there was such an hidden way of delivering the great Arcana of knowledge, and that part thereof was the Symbol of Numbers, (which is frequent in this Book of the Apocalypse as well as continual in the first Chapter of Genesis.) Not to take notice that that very Expression of Alpha and Omega seems to be Cabbalistical, there being frequent mention with them of Aleph lucidum and Aleph tenebrosum; concerning which Robert Flood, (who pleased himself in diving into these depths so far as his bucket would reach) Habetis, saith he, Aleph Me●…eorolog. Cosmic. lib. 4. cap. 3. Cabbalistarum tenebrosum in lucidum conversum, omnia creans, coelúmque & terram informans, & consequenter habetis Alpha & Omega Principium & Finem. This is answerable to that verse of Orpheus concerning God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Plato calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I doubt not but was the doctrine of the old Cabalists, and in all likelihood hid in some such dress as this. Grotius acknowledges the phrase of Alpha and Omega to be Rabbinical, and to be taken from their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And that which follows, * Apocal. 1 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what is it but a Talmudistical Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ and is peculiar to this Book of the Apocalypse. Wherefore if it be found to Cabbalize in other things, this Cabbalistical computation of the Number of the Beast is rather the more credible for being Cabbalistical. 6. Nor can these Examples be excepted against for their antiquity; because the Ancient Latines pronounced the nearest to the Greeks, as appears in those diphthongs of oe and ae, and in y, which the After-Latines distinguished not from i; but it was the Greeks short u, and they had no other. And that the Greeks sounded it like u, appears from several words derived from that tongue; as in Sus, Super, Fucus, Turba, Trutina, and the like, which are from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which analogy Ennius keeps to, in that he says Olumpus and not Olympus, Cuclops and not Cyclops, Luchnus and not Lychnus; and pronounces oe, oi, and ae, ai: ————— Adeste, Annal. lib. 1. Musai, quai pedibus magnum polsatis Olumpum. And for that example of Cuclops, it is in the ninth Book of his Annals; Cuclopis venture velut olim turserat, alti Carnibus humaneis——— And the third example is also had in the same place, — Luchnorum lumina bis sex. For the pronouncing oe like oi, there has been one example already in Poinei; to which you may add, Book 1. Quanquam molta manus ad coilei coirola templa Tendebam lacrumans. where there is also lacrumans for lacrymen, which is from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by changing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into l, as in Ulysses from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. We have also had two examples of sounding ae like ai, in Musai and quai; to which you may add out of the same Book, —— O gnata tibei sunt anteferendai Airomnai. And infinite other examples there are to the same purpose: whereby it may appear that the ancient Latins pronounced more exactly according to the mode of the Greeks then the latter Latins did; and that therefore it is most likely that the Greeks pronounced Latin words according to the mode of the ancient Latins; and that they saying Lateinus, and not Latinus, the Greeks without any more ado spoke and wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be found in Greek Authors, it is the unskilful officiousness of some pragmatical Scribe or Critic that has depraved the Orthography of the word. Of which pragmaticalness there are innumerable examples. But these are subjects too trivial to insist upon. 7. Thus have we made good the Orthography of the Name. Now the Application is to admiration fitted to the Two-horned Beast. For though at first he might wear his Horns somewhat equilibriously; yet the Eastern Horn being afterwards so out-topped by the other in every respect, and shrinking into so small a power, the Beast became at last solely in a manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And it is well known that upon the Division of the Empire into Eastern and Western, the Greeks called the Western Churches the Latin Church, but called themselves Romans. Wherefore whenas not only the Latins but the Greeks called themselves Romans, and their Emperors Imperatores Romani, their City also New Rome, and the Country about it Romania; the Latin Church, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is very particularly and discriminatively aimed at and described by this Numeral name of the Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Event exactly agreeing with the Prophecy. For this distinction of the Greek and Latin Church was so notorious and acknowledged, that in general Councils the Western Bishops were called the Latin Bishops, and the Subscriptions of them both were accordingly distinct under the Titles of Patrum Latinorum & Patrum Graecorum. Thus tightly does the Name of the Beast determine him to Rome and Italy. 8. Nor is it any thing to the purpose to say there are several other Names wherein the letters will make up 666. For that this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is notwithstanding the right, not only the Event shows, but the Connexion which the Two-horned Beast has with the Beast that has Seven heads and Ten horns, which is undoubtedly the Roman Empire. Who therefore so fit to play these pranks therein as this Latin Beast, as he is discovered to be, and doth so Latinize in every thing; Mass, Prayers, Hymns, Litany, Canons, Decretals, Bulls, Councils, Bible, and every thing so in Latin, that it cannot seem a slight cause that moved the Spirit of Prophecy to characterise him so particularly by this Name? I say, not every thing whose Name contains 666, in the letters thereof, can be this Beast; but together with a Name containing this Number, all those things that are said of the Two-horned Beast must be also applicable to whatever any one will pitch upon for Him. For no man that minds what he saith will argue thus, This Person or Polity's Name comprises 666, therefore he is the Beast: but rather thus, This Person or Polity does or has done all those things that the Two-horned Beast is said to have done in reference to the Roman Empire, and moreover his Name also comprehends 666; wherefore this is most assuredly the Beast. This is sound Reasoning, yea perfect Demonstration. 9 Hitherto we have but numbered the Number of the Beast in the Name of the Beast. But there is a farther piece of Cabbalism in the numbering the Number itself; whereby the chief Residence of the Beast will again be determinately detected, and the now Roman Catholic Church, so called, discovered to be chief aimed at in this Vision of the Two-horned Beast. Wherefore as in the ancient Cabbala the Number Ten and the Number Thirty six are each called the Tetractys; whenas indeed they are rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or power of the Tetractys, (though more in a Cabbalistical sense then a Geometrical or Arithmetical) the one arising from the parts of Four put together, the other from the addition of the four first faminine and masculine Numbers: so is this Number of the Beast (though it be called his Number) rather the power of that Number that detects the Beast than the Number itself. For he could not say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and, Let him that has understanding count the Number of the Beast, if it were a mere reading of the Number, or but summing the Numeral letters of some Name. Therefore there is a greater skill required to the counting of the Number of the Beast then of the Number of his Name. And yet it is to be counted humano more, as it is intimated by [It is the Number of a man.] But there is no numbering of one Number given but by extracting of the Root. 10. Wherefore as the Square-Root of 36. may rightly be conceived to detect that that famed Tetractys had a relation to the Hexameron of Moses, and signified that every Day's Creation had its Feminine Principle as well as Masculine, the First itself not excepted, (which is consonant to that Aphorism of the Jews, Nulla virtus divina descendit sine indumento, and to Moses his assimilating the First Day's Creation to Light:) so the Square-Root of this Number of the Beast may also detect to whom this Vision of the Two-horned Beast doth belong. And I have already showed in my Mystery of Godliness, that the Root of this Number is 25, and that Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 8. it does plainly agree with several substantial Observables concerning the Church of Rome and their City, and that in a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 12, which is the Root of 144, the number of the Regiments that appear with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Which things being sufficiently cleared in the said Treatise, and may be more copiously understood out of Mr. Potter, I shall spare to speak any thing farther of them in this place, but wholly remit the Reader thither for satisfaction. 11. In the mean time I will not stick to conclude, that it is apparent Paral. 2. Agr. 9 partly from what I have delivered there, and partly from what is added in this place, That the Seat as well of the Two-horned Beast as of the Whore is at last in their respective Visions determined to Old Rome, as being the most permanent and conspicuous Residence of the Apostatised Priesthood, and such as, by being so notorious an Instance of this Wickedness, becomes a Measure and Rule of comparing and judging of the greatness of the Apostasy of other Churches by their nearer accession and agreement to this Queen of Harlots. And therefore by intimating the Name, Number and Seat of this chief part of the Apostatised Clergy, it gives us the clear knowledge and fast apprehension of the whole corrupted Body and all the parts thereof, wherever and how long soever they be found within the Boundaries of the Roman Empire. But when once they are swallowed up and washed off by some extraneous Power, and fall under the Jurisdiction of some other Empire, I must confess (though we may judge these too by this measure) I do not see how they then can so well be concerned or aimed at in these two Prophecies, both the Two-horned Beast and the Whore being looked upon as Riders and Guiders of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, and therefore supposed within the Roman Empire. Which is a plain cause why these Prophecies have laid so fast hold on the Church of Rome in the conclusion of them, as if she were in a manner solely concerned. For it was fit so to do by reason of her Permanency in Duration, as well as Eminency in wickedness. Which may be one reason also why this body of the adulterate Clergy is called the Beast with two Horns; because all those Patriarchates annumerated to the Greek Church were betimes swept away, a new Empire overflowing them, whenas the Patriarchate of Constantinople was free from this inundation till about two hundred years ago. So faithful is the Spirit of Prophecy in the Prefiguration of Events; as he may easily see that pleases to consult History. In the mean time, as I said, it is manifest enough that the Seat as well of the Whore as the Two-horned Beast in each Vision is determined to Old Rome. Which is the last Agreement of our first Parallelism. 12. As the last of our second is, That the Seat of the Seven-headed Par. 2. Agr. 1●…. Beast is left free in either Vision, and not fixed to any Metropolis. Indeed the Seven Heads of the Beast being also interpreted of the Seven Hills of Rome, it is apparent that the Beast has some relation to that place, and must have some Title or denomination from that City, else why should the Beast's Heads have any thing to do to typify those Seven Hills? But the Prophecy, as it were datâ operâ, declining the fixing the Imperial Seat of the Seven-headed Beast, bestows that Privilege on the Whore, assigns her the Seven-Hilled seat, saying, The seven Heads are seven Hills where the Whore sitteth. Which is admirably agreeable to the event. For indeed Rome has been the constant See of the Whore, but the Seat of the Seven-headed Beast has been very changeable, some time at Rome, then at Constantinople, and lastly in Germany. 13. And thus we have seen the exquisite Congruity and Coincidence of all the parts of the Visions of these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters one with another: which though they be so accurately correspondent, yet I must confess not altogether so adequately, but that the Vision of the Whore bears a more press and close respect to the Church of Rome all along; and besides the plain designment of her Seat, which is common to both, her gorgeous attire and bloud-thirstiness, or rather her being so lavishly bloud-drunk, as she is described, seems to appropriate the Vision more peculiarly to her then the Greek Church. Which Drunkenness as well as Gorgeousness of Apparel, though it be not all along the reign of the Whore, yet according to the nature of these Prophetic Figures, which exhibit the whole Succession of affairs under one joint show, they were without any discrimination to be represented at once. Which Consideration may take off any the like scruple in these Prophetic Schemes and Representations. For what was done but for a while adorns those Images as much as what is permanent, there being no mention of Succession of time, but all represented at once. 14. And therefore, though that Inscription [Mysterium] upon the Pope's Crown, which was questionless in imitation of the Inscription on Aaron's Mitre, (all his vestments and ornaments being so industriously imitated in the Pontifical Habiliments) be now turned into Julius Pontifex Maximus; yet it is not the less probable that it was glanced at in this Description of the Whore. The truth of which Story Bishop Dounham does assert with all imaginable confidence. Quod autem ait in front Meretricis De Antichristo, lib. 1. cap. 7. scriptum fuisse nomen [Mysterium,] it in Romano Pontifice completum esse pro comperto habemus. Which passage is so confessed a truth, that Lessius, in his Answer to King James, could not deny it. Wherefore as our Saviour Christ's uttering that first verse of the twenty second Psalms, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? intimated to the world that the whole Psalm was a Prophecy of his Passion; so this first word of the Name of the Whore of Babylon on the Papal Tiara was an indication that the whole Name or Title belonged to the Pope with his Clergy, and that they are this Great Whore that has made drunk the Inhabitants of the Earth with the cup of her Fornication. This Inscription on the Pope's Crown, and the choosing of a Woman-Pope, who (besides other feats) betrayed herself to be a Whore by falling into labour in the streets of Rome at a solemn Procession, (and did therein by a palpable Hieroglyphic insinuate to the world that Rome was indeed the Seat of that great Apocalyptick Strumpet) are two notorious Specimens of that Jocantry and Festivity, as I may so speak, that is sometimes observable in Divine Providence, answerable to that Ludibundness in Nature in her Gamaieu's and such like sportful and ludicrous Productions. And verily this Accident of a Woman-Pope is as assured a truth as that of the Inscription, if the Testimonies of above threescore Authors, and that of the Romish Party, may be thought sufficient to assure it. All which are produced by Gabriel Powel in his Theological Disputations De Antichristo. Lib. 1. cap. 28. Thes 7. But these things I was not hasty to interweave in my Exposition of these Chapters, the contexture of things being abundantly clear and full and firm without them. CHAP. XVI. 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition. 2. That the Roman State, from the beginning to the end, is to be looked upon as One Kingdom or Empire, appears out of Florus. 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State, Reges, consuls, Tribuni Consulares, Decemviri, Dictatores: and that the Tribuni Plebis were not Supreme Power. 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled. 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were. 6. As also the Dictator's. 7. That there had been no more than Five sorts of Supreme Governors in S. John's time; and that the Interreges were not, nor were at all reckoned by Historians, a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings. 8. That the Triumvirs Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State; 9 Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus, Lepidus and Antonius. 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperors and the Five foregoing Forms. 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct, but yet of a near affinity with some of the other, it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with. 12. But that there is a greater Exactness than this in the Application of this Vision, and such as Scepticism itself can hardly doubt of. 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter, with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof. 1. I Have now finished my Joint-Exposition of these 17th and 13th Chapters of the Apocalypse, saving that I am more fully to confirm that part concerning the Seven Heads being Seven sorts of Supreme Governors succeeding one another in the Empire; as also more particularly to indigitate How exact an Image of the Beast that was slain the Revived Beast became in points of Superstition and Idolatry. To which if I add a solid confutation of Ribera's Interpretation of the Seven-headed Beast, as also of Grotius his, I think there will be nothing wanting to the greatest assurance of the truth of our Interpretation that any one can desire. 2. In the first, the Controversy is only concerning the Six first Heads, Whether from the Kings to the Pagan Emperors, speaking inclusively, there were Six Forms of Government, and no more: or, if you will, Whether there were just Five before the Roman Caesars. That the Roman Kingdom or Empire is to be reckoned from their first Kings downwards, I think no man will scruple, nor that it is all along the same Beast, as well as Florus considers it as one Man, and distinguishes his Ages, allotting the first 250 years from Romulus to the Infancy of the Roman People or Empire, and then 200 years more to its Youth, and then 250 years more, which reached to Augustus his time, to the Manly Age of the Empire; but the next 200 years he calls Senectutem Imperii. Which shows plainly that he looks upon the whole Succession as one and the same Empire, though under several growths; which yet was longer-lived a great deal then to be accounted old in Trajan's time. Wherefore History itself looking upon the whole Succession of the Roman People as one Body Politic, there can be no harshness at all in describing this Body by such a number of Heads as reached from the first beginning of this Succession to the last Period of the Empire. 3. Five whereof had passed away in S. John's time, and no more nor no fewer than Five, as I come now to make good, namely, Kings, Consuls, Tribunes, Decemviri and Dictator's. For the People of Rome had never any other Supreme Powers over them but these, before their Caesar's; viz. Reges, consuls, Tribuni Consulares, Decemviri, Dictatores. Of Kings and Consuls there is no controversy at all. Now for these Tribuni Consulares, they are so called, to distinguish them from the Tribuni Plebis, and the Tribuni Militum ordinarily so styled, neither of which were the Supreme Powers of the Roman State or Empire. For the Tribuni Plebis were rather Plebis then Populi Romani Magistratus. And for those few years wherein they hindered the choosing of other Magistrates, the City was looked upon to have no Magistracy at all. Quatuor annis sine Magistratibus Roma fuit, saith Sextus Rufus of that time. Which condition of the City Diodorus Siculus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And that likewise of Marcus Varro in Gellius plainly shows that they could be no Supreme A. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 12. Power. In Magistratu habent alii Vocationem, alii Prensionem, alii neutrum. Vocationem, ut consuls & alii qui habent Imperium: Prensionem, ut Tribuni Plebis & alii qui habent Viatorem: Neque Vocationem neque Prensionem, ut Quaestores & caeteri qui neque Lictorem habent neque Viatorem. Where it is plain that the Tribuni Plebis are reckoned amongst them qui non habent imperium, and therefore are no Supreme Powers. 4. No more are the Tribuni Militum simply so styled, as appears out of that of Livy: Disciplinâ enim militari, miles Centurionis, Centurio Liv. lib. 8. Tribuni, Tribunus Legati, Legatus Consulis paret imperio. But the Tribuni Militum Consulari potestate are those Tribuni Consulares which I have already named. Of which Fenestella, Penes quem sanè Magistratum De Magistr. Roman. c. 16. (ut ipsum nomen indicat) eadem quae apud Consules potestas erat collata est, nominibus tantùm immutatis, ac Plebis ratione haberi ●…oeptâ. 5. That the Decemviri was a Supreme Power, is plain out of Livy. Anno trecentesimo altero quàm condita Roma erat, iterum mutatur forma Liv. lib. 3. Civitatis ab Consulibus ad Decemviros, quemadmodum ab Regibus antè ad Consules venerat, translato imperio. As also out of Sextus Rufus. Quadraginta enim novem annis Romae Consules defuerunt: sub Decemviris, duobus; sub Tribunis militum, quadraginta tribus; sine Magistratibus Roma fuit annis quatuor. So Rufus in his Breviarium, where a late Edition has most grossly corrupted the Text, reading for Quadraginta enim novem annis, Novem enim annis, and after, tribus, for quadraginta tribus; forgetting that the Historian had said a little before, that the People of Rome were under Consuls four hundred sixty seven years, namely, from Brutus and Poplicola to Pansa and Hirtius, but that he reckons within this space but four hundred and seventeen Consuls. How then can nine years make up the difference? But this only by the buy. From hence it plainly appears that the Supremacy of these Tribuni militum as well as of the Decemviri is avowed by this Author; the Consular Power ceasing in their time. And as for the shortness of the reign of the Decemviri, who continued but two years, it can no more put them out of the Catalogue of these Forms of Government then Otho's reigning but three months can put him out of the Catalogue of the Roman Emperors. 6. And lastly, that the Dictator's were a Supreme Power is not doubted, De Mag. Rom. c●…. 8. but is plainly affirmed by Fenestella. Ea summa quidem apud Romanos potest as fuit, à qua nec provocandi jus fuisse, & animadversionem in capite cujuscunque civis Romani, totiúsque Reipublicae summam ditionem penes ipsam habuisse, veterum scripta testantur. Nor does the Consuls remaining while the Dictator is in power make any thing against us; for there were Consuls also during the reign of the Emperors. But while the Dictator was in being, the Consuls were not the Supreme Head of the Roman State, nay had less to do then under the Emperors. And though this Power was not to continue long, yet upon the exigencies of affairs it was often repeated. Sylla continued in the Office three years together, and Julius Caesar ten: But straight after was committed to him a perpetual Dictatorship joined with the Title of Emperor, in which Augustus and the rest of the Emperors succeeded him. 7. Thus are we assured that there were Five sorts of Supreme Governors before S. John's time in the Roman State or Empire. And that there were no more than Five, I think we may be easily persuaded, when they can bring no other into competition but the Interreges and Triumvirs Reipublicae constituendae, which Grotius urges. For it is evident that the Interreges are necessarily reducible to the Regal Power, being but a vicarious Appendage thereto, and not a distinct Species of Supreme Power itself, nor so reckoned by Historians. For Messala Corvinus in his Book De Augusti Progeny mentions only Reges, consuls, Dictatores, Tribunos militares, Tribunos Plebis, till the time of the Caesars, omitting the Interreges and those Triumvirs which Grotius puts in for: only he is mistaken in making the Tribuni Plebis a Supreme Magistrate, as appears from what has been above said thereof. Livy also leaves out the Interreges in his Enumeration of the Roman Forms of Government. Quae Liv. lib. 6. ab condita urbe Roma ad captam eandem urbem Romani sub Regibus primùm, Consulibus deinde, ac Dictatoribus, Decemvirisque ac Tribunis Consularibus gessere, foris bella, domi seditiones, quinque libris exposui. Where the Five Forms we contend for are distinctly enumerated, but no mention of any Interreges, (no more then of the Proconsul's) they being but as it were Viceroys, and a sudden and transitory supply of Vacancy destined to be fitted up by a timely choice of a perfect and permanent King. But while they were, they are said praefuisse cum Regia potestate & insignibus. So plain is it that the Reges and Interreges are but one Regia Potestas, and therefore rightly typified by one Head of the Beast, not by two. 8. And for the Triumvirs Reipublicae constituendae, Tacitus, who of set purpose in the beginning of his Annals reckons up all the Forms of Supreme Power in the Roman State, declines the mentioning of any such Triumvirate: Urbem Romam à principio Reges habuere, (no mention of Interreges;) Libertatem & Consulatum L. Brutus instituit; Dictaturae ad tempus sumebantur; neque Decemviralis potestas ultra Biennium, neque Tribunorum militum Consulare jus diu valuit. Which manner of speech implies that he would not leave out any of the Forms of Supreme Government, though of never so short a continuance, if sufficiently distinct from others. But now when he falls upon those times wherein this Triumviratus Reipublicae constituendae was to be noted, he runs over it as not to be taken notice of, going on only in this manner, Non Cinnae, non Sullae long a Dominatio, & Pompeii Crassique potentia citò in Caesarem, (which Cinna was only Consul, Silvius first Consul and then Dictator, and Pompey and Crassus Consuls or Proconsul's and no more.) But now where is the very nick of naming this Triumviratus Reipublicae constituendae, he only adds, Lepidi atque Antonii arma in Augustum cessere, qui cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa nomine Principis sub imperium cepit. Wherefore according to this description of things, this pretended Triumvirate is no Supreme Magistracy, but a Political Scuffle or Scamble or transient Shuffle betwixt these three men, Octavius, Antony and Lepidus. And though they called themselves Triumviros Reipublicae constituendae, it was but for a blind to the people; nor had they any legitimate creation to that Office, unless Octavius be supposed to be Emperor, and they to be appointed or admitted by him into a participation of his Imperial Power. And then it is plain that this is only a part of the Sixth Head which was in being in S. John's time. Otherwise it is but a momentany Usurpation and Confusion in the Commonwealth, no legitimate Magistracy at all. And therefore Fenestella, though he first speaks doubtfully of this De Magistr. Rom. cap. 22. Triumvirate, Utrùm Potestatibus annumerandum censuerim haud satis scio; yet presently he recovers himself, and speaks more definitively, Quip quòd eas Potestates quas injussu praetérque Senatûs authoritatem quisque, non dicam sortitus fuerit, sed per libidinem dominandi arripuerit, Tyrannides potiùs quàm Potestates seu Magistratus appellandos duxerim. And at the end of the same Chapter, he again smartly taxes the pretence of this Power, and makes it no legitimate Magistracy: Igitur Tyrannidem praetextu Magistratûs palliare pergentes, sese Triumviros Reipublicae constituendae appellavere; quorum nutu & auspiciis omnis Respublica niteretur. Caeterùm eorum animos, quorsum inclinarent, mox ipse eventus rerum ostendit, omnes res simul divinas humanásque commiscens. Wherefore things being thus understood, such a transient Scamble as this can be no legitimate Form of Government, but the present Confusion of the Roman State, let these Usurpers call themselves what they will, or whatever others out of fear or Courtship might call them. 9 But if we take this Affair by the other ear, and will look upon Octavius Augustus as he was Heir to Julius Caesar, in whom was the Supreme Power of the Empire, and also as upon one to whom the Senate had given a Precedency before the Consuls themselves, and a Power unbounded by Law, insomuch that he might rationally be deemed the Prince of the Commonwealth; and that only upon design he invited and permitted Antony and Lepidus to partake of his Principate, for the better suppressing of Brutus and Cassius, and then of his Partners one by the other: these Triumvirs will be found really three Emperors, (as there have been two, and three, and four at a time in other occurrences of affairs of the Empire, as is well known to any one that knows any thing in History) and not any Species of Government distinct from the Sixth kind, which is that of the Emperors. For they being three Generals of the Imperial Forces, Antony of the Eastern, Octavius of the Western, and Lepidus of the African, and of power unaccountable or unsubordinate to any other Magistracy, what were they indeed but Three Emperors at once, in that Notion that the Roman Monarches were after called Emperors? And accordingly in History Augustus is reckoned to have reigned as Emperor from the decease of his Father Julius. To which sense Suetonius speaks, Atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis, primùm cum Marco Antonio Marcóque Lepido, dein tantùm cum Antonio per duodecim ferè annos, novissime per quatuor & quadraginta solus Rempublicam tenuit. Upon which Nauclerus thus comments, Regnavit annis quinquaginta sex, duodecim cum Antonio & Lepido, solus verò quadraginta quatuor. And Chronologers as well of the Pontifician as Protestant Party fix the beginning of his Reign ab U. C. Anno 710. 10. Wherefore these Triumvirs Reipublicae constituendae being either no Magistracy at all of the Roman State, or coincident with that of their Emperors; and being also declined in the enumeration of the Forms of Government by the Roman Historians, or else acknowledged of the Line of the Sixth Head, that is to say, of the Order of Emperors; it is plain that there was sufficient, if not a necessary, ground of not reckoning this Triumvirate amongst the Heads that had passed in S. John's time, and that therefore the truth of History agrees exactly with the Vision that saith, Five are fallen, not Six, nor Seven. For no Historians reckon otherwise; and what can be more satisfactory, than that Prophecy speaks in the very language of History? Or what Harshness or Indecorum is it to conceive the Vision to number only so many distinct Heads as are plainly and confessedly both Heads and distinct, and are taken notice of up and down in History for the remarkable Governments of the Roman State, whenas those that are omitted in the Vision are also pretermitted in Historical Narrations, as either not agreed upon for distinct Heads, or disclaimed to be so? 11. And truly if there had been any other Forms of Government that might have seemed to disturb this solemn Number of Seven, provided they had had a very near affinity with some or other of the chief Seven, they might have been reckoned as one with such as they had so near agreement to, and so the Beast be still Seven-headed, as Nilus Seven mouthed, those distinct Rivulets that flow near the main Streams of this Septemfluous River being reckoned as one with those principal ones, and Nilus never the less celebrated by the Epithets of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up and down in Authentic Writers. Which liberty had been very tolerable, nay indeed unexceptionable, in those Five Heads that already had passed, the account for the future, on which all the weight lies, being so certainly fixed in the Sixth, whose course was in the Apostle's time, that it could breed no disorder nor confusion. 12. And yet we find a greater exactness than so. Whence it is manifest that we have the greatest assurance we can desire of the true sense of this Vision as to this point: forasmuch as we have above demonstrated that the Seven Heads of the Beast must be so understood as may reach through the whole Succession of Heads from the beginning to the end, and therefore must be the several Successions of so many Sorts of Supreme Governors, not Seven single Persons; and then find also de facto that. Five of these Successions do so tightly fit the number of those Five Forms of Government which according to History were passed in S. John's time, and that the Sixth Government in succession, which is that of the Pagan Emperors, was that very Head then in Being. Which things fall out so accurately, that a man would think that Scepticism itself could scarce refrain giving assent to so plain a Truth. 13. We have therefore made good that there are just Six sorts of Supreme Powers from the beginning of the Roman Kingdom to the Apostle's time, namely, Regal, Consular, Tribunitial, Decemviral, Dictatorial and Imperatorial. For that of the Interreges was a Regal Power, (if considerable at all) and therefore does naturally fall under the Type of one single Head; as that also of the Triumvirs of constituting the Commonwealth (if it was not a state of war and confusion) was also an Imperatorial Power, though disguised under that other name, and therefore falls under the Sixth Head: as must needs seem very easy and natural to him that considers how Collective and Henopoetical, as I may so speak, the Prophetic Types are. The consideration of the Collectiveness and Unitiveness of which Types on the one side, and of the express and explicit enumeration, in History, of Five distinct sorts of Government before the Emperors, on the other side, must necessarily cast a man into an unshaken security that the Spirit of Prophecy would reckon neither more nor fewer kinds of Governors before the Emperors then Five. Which point being cleared, I pass to the second; which is, the more fully declaring how fitly and rightly that degenerate estate of the Empire which is prefigured by the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, is also styled the Image of the Beast. CHAP. XVII. 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire, and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular. 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating. 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars, and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate. 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities; as also of adoring of what they eat. 5. The minute multiplication of the Pagan Deities compared with and found to be outgone by this Pagano-Christian Church in the Precedents of Physic and Rural Affairs; 6. As also in the Precedents of Trades or Courses of Living. 7. The Saints and Heathen Deities compared in their Offices; and how punctually they have surrogated the Blessed Virgin into the place of Venus and the Moon. 8. Most lively Lineaments of Restored Paganism in dedicating the Pantheon to the Virgin and all the Saints; as also the Seven Hills to seven several Saints: in erecting Altars and Images thereon; in adorning these Images; in appointing Festivals; in Adoration and Prayers; in Oblations of Wax-candles and Incense; in carrying their Images in Procession, and hiding them in Lent. 9 In Vows, Oaths, Deifying deadmen, Pilgrimages, Miraculous Cures, with the Monuments of them hung up in the Temples. 10. In Aspersions and Purifications by Holy Water. 11. In the driving away the Devil by the jangling of baptised Bells. 12. In their Jubilees and general manner of celebrating their Festivals. 13. In fetching in May; in running about the fields with light Torches in their hands; in sprinkling their Beasts with Holy Water by the Friars of S. Antony; in leaping over S. John's Fires; in Baptismal Spittle; in their Master of Misrule at Christmas; in their Carnavals and other Festivals. 14. That the Image of the Beast is also in some sort revived in their Funerals. 15. But more considerably in their Religious Fraternities under this or that Saint: 16. As also in their shorn Crowns, in their Vows of Virginity, and in their Ninevites or Flagellants. 17. In their pretence of bringing down Christ bodily and personally at the Mass: 18, 19 As also in their more pompous Processions. 20. The great Usefulness of the Observation of the punctual correspondency of the Events hitherto to the Predictions touching the state of the Church. 21. His amazement and astonishment at Grotius, that he should decline so clear and easy a meaning of the Image of the Beast, and take up with one so impossible and so unprofitable. 1. I Must confess that the mere changing of the Empire into a Superstitious and Idolatrous condition again, though there were not either any study of, or heedless coincidence with, the particular Modes of that Idolatry and Superstition that was before, yet for the general Agreement therein the Empire thus relapsed might be rightly said to be the Image of the former state thereof. But since there is a more particular Resemblance even to Affectation, or else by a strange Fatality, it will not be amiss to note some few of those many Instances that occur, for the greater light and fuller assurance that by the Image of the Beast is understood this Idolatrous and Paganly-Superstitious Relapse. 2. And truly that this Image was not made by chance, but by imitation, has been already observed even by them that lived in the Roman Church, and who in some sort justified it: as Polydore Virgil in his Prooeme to his five last Books De Rerum Inventoribus; where he says that the Fathers did receive their Rites and Ceremonies from the Pagans; said in bona illorum parte recipienda piè ac cum causa fecisse, quip qui gentes etiam barbaras ad verae pietatis cultum ducere aventes, arbitrati sunt humanitatis condimentis tractandas, cùm earum instituta haud prorsus horruerint nec sustulerint, sed meliora fecerint, quò nè ullum religionis periculum crearetur, etc. Where he seems to speak the sense of Gregory the Great in his Epistle to Mellitus; where he would have the Offerings Lib. 9 Epist. 71. to Daemons rather changed then abolished, and that the Feasts of the Gods should be turned into the celebration of the Festivals of the Saints; the Repository of whose Relics he would (after the manner of the Pagans) have adorned with leaves and boughs of Trees at the Days dedicated to their Name. And Theodoret bluntly confesses, That the Festivals of De Curaendis Grac. Affect. Sermon. 8. S. Peter, S. Paul, S. Marcellus, S. Thomas, etc. succeed in the room of the Dionysia, Diasia, Pandia, and other Solemnities of the Pagans. Which shows a timely affectation of reviving the slain Beast, in every limb and proportion. And, lastly, Durandus takes so little shame at the imitation of the Heathenish Customs, that he is not content to compare their Dedication of Churches with the Temple of the Jews, but immediately adds the Example of the Dedication of that Babylonish Image in Daniel, Nabuchodonosor etiam Rex vocavit omnes Satrap & Optimates ad Dedicationem Statuae aureae quam fecerat. Which had been more fit to mention in the Consecration of Images. But not to trouble ourselves with their professions, the effect will declare their propension to the ancient Heathenish Rites and Customs; as I shall make plain by several brief Instances. 3. As, first, in those Divine Honours which I have above intimated that the Pope does affect and accept, as also the kissing of his Feet; What are these but an imitation of the Pagan Caesars, who received Divine Honours even before they were dead? And how much less Idolatrously does Dominus Deus noster Papa sound concerning the Bishop of Rome, then Edictum Domini Deique nostri of the Roman Emperor Domitian? Of whom also Lampridius and Aurelius Victor testify that affectation, Passus est adorari se appellarique uti Deum: whom therefore the Pope does very lively imitate; who also from Diocletian and other Emperors did learn the holding out his Foot to kiss. And as Numa constituted Martius the son of Marcus (whom he made Pontifex Maximus) judicem ac arbitrum rerum aequè divinarum ut humanarum, as Festus relates; so the Pope, upon the pretence of his Universal Pontificate, claims a right to both Swords, and will be Caesar as well as Bishop, as the Roman Caesars before him were as well Pontifices Maximi as Emperors. Which are lively strokes in the Revival of the Image of the Beast. To which you may farther add his Senate of purpurate Cardinals, answering to the purpurate Senators which the Emperors had in their Government; and the power of Canonising Saints residing in these Cardinals with the Pope, answering to that of the Senate of Rome, in whom was the right of Apotheosis, or of enrolling deceased men in the number of the Gods, appointing them Temples, Altars, Statues, Festivals, as the Pope and Cardinals do to the deceased Saints that have deserved well of the Church of Rome. See Polydore Virgil de Rerum Inventoribus, where 〈◊〉. lib. 6. cap. 8. he affirms that this was an imitation of the old Roman Custom with all imaginable assurance. Hujus rei rationem nostri Pontifices secuti non duhitanter videri possunt. 4. Again, as the old Pagans had their Tutelar Deities of Kingdoms and Provinces and Cities, Dii quibus imperium hoc steterat— (And I have already noted how they used to call out those Tutelar Gods Chap. 12. Ver. 5. Sect. 5. of Cities by a certain Charm) so the Roman Church has her Tutelar Saints, exactly answering to those Pagan Deities; S. George for England, S. Andrew for Scotland, S. Patrick for Ireland, S. James for Spain, S. Michael for France, S. Mark for Venice, S. Ambrose for Milan, S. Dionys for Paris, S. Rombout for Mechlin, S. Peter and S. Paul, instead of Romulus and Remus, for Rome. Besides, the appropriating of these Saints to peculiar Offices is tightly Pagan, like their dividing of that one Object of Divine worship into many; concerning which Pliny would thus apologise, Fragilis & laboriosa mortalitas in parts ista digessit infirmitatis suae memor, ut portionibus Hist. Natur. lib. 1. cap. 7. quisque polleret quo maximè indigeret. And therefore upon this account the Pagan Deities are in a manner innumerable, Onions and Garlic being not excluded from a kind of Divinity. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Of these Egyptian Idolaters is that smart rebuke of Tully, * Cum Fruges Cererem, Vinum Liberum dicimus, genere nos quid●…m scrmonis utimar usitato; sed ecquem tam amentem, etc. De Natura Deorum, lib 3. Ecquem tam amentem esse putas, qui illud quo vescatur Deum esse credat? Of which Pagan madness notwithstanding the Romanists seem guilty, while they profess that to be God which they cast into their bellies. 5. How minute the Romans were in their Deities he may easily observe that reads but these Names, Victua, Potua, Pomona, Flora, Cinxia, Vnxia, Carna, Cloacina, Febris, Fortuna, Tempestas, etc. It were endless to enter into a reckoning up so great a variety, and needless, it being so well known to all. And truly the now Roman Church falls little short of this copious particularity; for what is it that they have not a Saint for, as well as the ancient Pagans a God or a Goddess, nay it may be more particularly than they? For one general God of Physic will not serve their turns, not one Apollo, or rather one Aesculapius, but as many peculiar Saints as there are Diseases: S. Roch for the Pestilence, S. Cosmus and Damian for Biles and Tumours, S. Job for the Pox, S. Apollonia for the Toothache, S. Clare to clear the eyes, S. Agatha for sore Breasts, S. Margaret for Midwifery, S. Petronella for Agues, S. John and S. Valentine for the Falling-sickness, S. Benedict for Poison, S. Genoa for the Gout, S. Main for Scabs, S. Phiacre for the Emerods', S. Sigismond for the Fever, and S. Eutrope for the Dropsy; with several others which were too tedious to rehearse. As the Pagans also had several Rural Deities, so has the Church of Rome several Rural Saints: as S. Wendelin for Shepherds, S. Pelage for Neat-herds, S. Anthony for Swineherds, S. Loy for Horses and Kine, S. Feriol for Geese, S. John for Lambs, S. Hubert for Huntsmen and their Dogs; S. Gertrude also has a special power over Rats and Mice. 6. The old Roman Paganism had Mercury for the God of Tradesmen, as his name also intimates, and he was likewise the God of popular Eloquence; but the Church of Rome seems more accurate that has assigned a Saint to almost every Trade: S. Honorius for Bakers, S. Eloy for smith's, S. Luke for Painters, S. Nicolas for Mariners, S. Ive for Lawyers, S. Crispin for Shoemakers, S. Arnold for Millers, S. Stephen for Weavers, S. Euloge for Carpenters, S. Goodman for Tailors, S. Gore for Pot-makers, and S. Urban for Ale-Knights or Pot-Companions, as well as S. Magdalen for Courtesans. It were an infinite task to make such long Inductions as the matter is capable of; this is enough to show how fully that ancient Pagan Theology is revived in these appropriated Offices of the Saints, and how requisite the knowledge may be pretended thereof; as Varro of old defined concerning the Heathenish Gods, how advantageous it were si sciatur quam quisque Deus vim & potestatem habeat cujusque rei, that accordingly he might be invoked. 7. It were an easy thing also, but superfluous, to parallel these Saints to the Pagan Divi in their Offices: for thus S. Nicolas would be Divus Neptunus; S. Margaret, Diva Lucina; S. Magdalen, Diva Flora; and S. Martin, Divus Bacchus; S. Hubert, Diva Diana; and S. Maturin, Divus Apollo: For the God of Wisdom should be the best Physician for Fools. But the Blessed Virgin, as they call her Regina Coeli, so she will have as many Offices and Titles as the Moon. For they make her Juno Lucina, by invoking her so constantly in childbirth; and than Hecate or Proserpina, by feigning her so frequently to descend into the lower shades to deliver Souls out of Purgatory. And the Mariners, by calling on her so frequently in storms, thrust her also into the place of Venus, as is plain in that rhyming Supplication they put up to her in their Sea-voiages: Salve, splendour Firmamenti, Tu caliginosae menti Desuper irradia. Placa mare, maris stella, Nè involvat nos procella Et tempestas obvia. And, lastly, men's lavish devotion to her on land, in building her so many Temples and Altars, has made her go under as many Names or more than that Pagan Goddess. For as Venus is called Idalia, Cytherea, Cnidia, Paphia, and many more such like Names, from the places where she is worshipped; so the Virgin Mary is called Our Lady of Loretto, Our Lady of Bononia, of Aix, of Montferrat, Our Lady of Carmel, Our Lady of the Woods, of the Fields, and of the Fountains, with innumerable other Appellations. But these things are less considerable. 8. This revived Image of the old Paganism of Rome is still more eminent in building of Temples to these several kinds of new Gods, (for so every thing is made that has religious worship done to it) or in doing religious worship to them in the Temples of the old ones, as is notorious in their consecrating the Pantheon to the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints, which was by the Pagans dedicated to Cybele and all the Gods. Which is a trim stroke of this Revived Image of the Beast. And that comes little short of it which Cornelius à Lapide also has noted, That as under the Roman Kings the Seven Hills were consecrated singuli singulis Diis, ità nunc singuli singulis Sanctis. Which is another lively lineament of this portraiture predicted by S. John. But I go on. It is particularly also revived in the erecting of Altars and 〈◊〉 the Statues of the Saints upon those Altars, in the clothing them See Book 2. Chap. 21. Sect. 5, 6. 〈◊〉 garments, and the adorning them with the most precious ma●…, Gold, Ivory and Gems; besides setting of Crowns and Garlands 〈◊〉 ●…wers upon their Heads, the appointing of Festivals to the honour of their Name, and bowing themselves before them, and putting up their prayers and supplications with hands and eyes devoutly lifted up towards them. Can there be a more lively Image of ancient. Paganism then this? And yet this does the Church of Rome do to their Saints and their Images, and more than this, for the reviving of the Image of the Beast, and for the fulfilling of the Prophecy. For as the Heathens brought Oblations to their Idols and Gods, so do these to the Images of their Saints, as is notoriously known. As the Heathens set up lights before their Images, as for example before the Altars of Saturn, upon a more humane Exposition made by Hercules of that Oracle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and placed a great deal of Religion in the Vestal Fire; Apud nos itidem (saith Polydore) nullo magis honore quàm cereis candelis decorantur extrinsecùs Coelicolae. The ancient Heathen burnt incense to their Gods, ——— (ubi Templum illi centúmque Sabaeo Aeneid. lib. 〈◊〉. Thure calent arae)—— which is a consumptive Sacrifice, and the very notation of Thus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, à sacrificando: so does the Church of Rome burn Incense before the Images of her Saints, and make this kind of Sacrifice to them. The Pagans sometimes carried their Idols in Procession: so does the Church of Rome; as namely the Images of S. Roche that Apollo Apotropaeus, and S. Genevefve that Jupiter pluvius, or rather Juno pluvia, if you will. The Roman Church hid their Images in Lent by drawing a veil before them. How little does this fall short of the Pagans concealing for a time their Idols, by shutting them up from the sight of the people, to make them more eager of them afterwards? Dii quoque Templorum foribus celentur opertis, Ovid. Fast. lib. 2. Thure vacent arae, sténtque sine igne foci. 9 The mouths of the Pagans were filled with diversity of Oaths by the names of their Gods: so are the mouths of the Paganochristians by the names of their Saints: and their making of Vows is alike in them both. The Fathers of the Primitive times reproached the Heathen for their giving Divine Honour to mere men, whose dead Bodies or Relics were in their very Temples: and does not the Church of Rome do this Honour to their Saints, and profess their Relics to be in their Churches? The ancient Heathen made toilsome journeys, suppose to the Oracles of Delphos, or Jupiter Hammon, to the Temple of Aesculapius, or other such like places, for Instruction or Help: and do not the Romanists make as tedious Pilgrimages to the Shrines of their Saints? Whether by the juggle of their Priests or the assistence of some officious Daemons, there were several Miracles and strange Cures conceived to be done in the Temples and at the Images of the Pagan Gods, and certain Monuments thereof hung up for the honour of their Deities, and the profit of the Priests, to increase Offerings. Polydore out of Strabo, Mos fuit in Templo ejus Dei qui auxiliatus esset, & praesertim Aesculapii, quod Epidauri insigne erat, tabellas appendere in quibus morbi sanati erant inscripti. According to the sense of which custom is that Distich of Tibullus, Nunc, Dea, nunc succurre mihi; nam posse mederi Picta docet templis multa tabella tuis. Eleg. lib. 1. 3. The same thing Polydore acknowledges to be done in the Church of De Invent. rerum, lib. 5. c. 1. Rome; and for a memorial of having their leg, their arm, their ear, their pap, or any other part cured by this or that Saint, they hang the effigies of these parts openly near the Shrines, or at least in their Chapels or Temples. 10. Their Superstition in Holy-Water is also not unworthy our noting. This Aqua lustralis was usual amongst the Ancients, (Spargit aquâ captos lustrali Graia Sacerdos:) but the virtue thereof is most justly and judiciously derided by Ovid. Ah nimiùm faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis Faster. lib. 2. Flumineâ tolli posse putatis aquâ. But Aeneas was not of that mind in Virgil, who speaking to his Father Anchises, when he was about to offer Sacrifice, argues thus: Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu patriósque Penates; Me bello à tanto digressum & caede recenti Aeneid. lib. 2. Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo Abluero. And again in another place, Occupat Aeneas aditum, corpúsque recenti Spargit aquâ. And at the burial of Misenus, Idem ter socios purâ circumtulit undâ, Aeneid. 6. Spargens rore levi, & ramo felicis olivae, Lustravitque viros. Tibullus also in his second Book of Elegies, Cast a placent Superis; pura cum veste venite, Et manibus puram sumite fontis aquam. There was a Water near Porta Capena holy to Mercury, wherewith the ancient Romans used with a Laurel-bough to besprinkle themselves, the Merchants especially, for the purifying them from their sins, especially that of cozenage and lying. Ovid has described the Ceremony so lively and pleasantly, and with so judicious a note of the ill effect of such pretended Purifications for the corrupting men's manners, that I cannot abstain from the transcribing the narration, though it be something long. Est aqua Mercurii portae vicina Capenae: Faster. lib. 5. Si juvat expertis credere, Numen habet. Huc venit incinctus tunicâ Mercator, & urnâ Purus suffusâ, quam ferat, haurit aquam. Uda fit hinc Laurus; Lauro sparguntur ab uda Omnia quae dominos sunt habitura novos. Spargit & ipse suos laurororante capillos, Et peragit solitâ fallere voce preces. Ablue praeteriti perjuria temporis, inquit; Ablue praeteritâ perfida verba fide. Sive ego te feci testem, falsòve citavi Non audituri numina vana Jovis; Sive Deum prudens alium Diuámve fefelli, Abstulerint celeres improba verba Noti. Da modò lucra mihi, da facto gaudia lucro, Et face ut emptori verba dedisse juvet. That is, he desires of Mercury that in virtue of this superstitious Devotion, and of besprinkling himself with water sacred to his Deity, he may cheat and grow rich with a cheerful conscience, and without the fear of the displeasure of the Gods. The examples of Lustral Water are infinite, as also the imitation of this Superstition exceeding frequent in the Church of Rome, in their washings and aspersions with Holy-Water; and it is to be feared with as much Hypocrisy and secure trading in sin upon a vain presumption of the virtue of such Superstitious and imaginary Purifications, as the Poet has here described. 11. The Tubilustria or Hallowing of Trumpets has some considerable affinity with the Popish Christening of Bells. But this Agreement would be still more exact, if, as these consecrated Bells are conceived to have a power to drive away evil Spirits by their ringing, so those Trumpets to chase away Ghosts and Spectres by being sounded. But whether these Trumpets be understood or not to have such a special virtue, the ringing of brass Instruments with the assistence of Holy-Water is plainly declared to have it in Ovid's Fasti, Rursus aquam tangit, Temesaeáque concrepat aera, Faster. lib. 5. Et rogat ut tectis exeat umbrasuis. And that the sound of Brass, Pan's or Cymbals, or be they what they will, was superstitiously thought by the Heathen to have a power against Witchcraft and Enchantment, which are the effects of that evil Fiend, Tibullus seems to intimate in that Distich, Cantus & à curru Lunam deduceretenta; Lib. 1. Eleg. 8. Et faceret, si non aera repulsa sonent. How near this comes to the Popish Superstition of driving away evil Spirits by the jangling of baptised Bells, I leave to any to judge. 12. And now for their Festivals. What was Pope Boniface the Eighth's instituting a Jubilee every hundredth year but an imitation of the Romans Ludi Seculares? For otherwise if he had imitated Moses, fifty years had been the Periodical distance of that Festival. But to note what is more general, singing and dancing and drinking and reeling were usual concomitants of all the Pagan holidays. Immemores nostri festas duxere choreas. And again in the same Poet, Pars pedibus terram pulsant, & carmina dicunt. Tibullus also describes their Festivals from idleness and drinking till they stagger, Vina diem celebrent, non festâ luce madere Lib. 2. Eleg. 〈◊〉▪ Est pudor, errantes & malè ferre pedes. Which Erasmus in his Colloquies sadly complains to be the mode of the celebrating of the Feasts of the Saints in the Church of Rome in his time. It was a custom among the Pagans in the solemnisation of the Feasts of their Gods, Deos endure, as Tertullian's phrase is, for some one or other to sustain the person or act the part of that God whose Feast they celebrated. That this custom also obtained in the Church of Rome, in the Festivals of their Saints, I have been particularly informed, some one acting the part of the Saint, to entertain the people with Pass-time, or a kind of superstitious Merriment. See Polydore Virgil de Rerum Inventoribus, lib. 5. c. 2. 13. But to descend to and lightly pass over some few particular Festivals of the Heathens. The fetching in of May, as they call it, by the game, some youth of both Sexes, what is it but an imitation of the Romans Floralia, (as Polydore has also observed) apud quos (saith he) sic Flora, cunctorum De rerum Invent. lib. 5. ca 2. fructuum Dea, mense Maio lasciuè colebatur? The Cerealias of the Pagans were celebrated in the night, the Priests running up and down with Torches in their hands. In imitation of this Superstition, Polydore saith that in Umbria and other parts of Italy, on the evening before the Lib. 5. cap. 2. Calends of March, boys kindle fires in the field, and run up and down upon the lands with Torches of dry Reeds, ut precantes foecunditatem agrorum tum terrâ jam foetum parturiente. In their Palilia Ovid's precept is in his Fasti, Faster. lib. 4. Pastor oves saturas ad prima crepuscula lustret: Unda priùs spargat, virgáque verrat humum. But this is but a Preparation to the Lustration of the Sheep; the chief Ceremony is behind: Caerulei fiant puro de sulphure fumi, Tactáque fumanti sulphure balet ovis. Which Lustration by Fumigation the Friars of S. Antony have changed into the sprinkling of Holy-Water, not upon Sheep only, but Horses and Oxen, at a set time of the year. But they both agree in the superstitious expiation or lustration of dumb Creatures. The leaping over certain Fires they make on S. John Baptist's day is a more exact imitation of the old Pagans leaping over their Fires at the abovenamed Palilia or Festival of Pales. Móxque per ardentes stipulae crepitantis acervos Trajicias celeri strenua membra pede. . And this Roman Hierophanta, Ovid, tells the reason of it presently after; Omnia purgat edax ignis— So that it is plain that such customs as these that have been retained in the Church of Rome are but the footsteps of the Heathenish Superstitions and Purifications. Of which Baptismal Spittle itself seems to be a clear instance, as may appear from that passage in Persius, Ecce avia, aut metuens Diuûm matertera, cunis Exemit puerum, frontémque atque uda labella Infami digito & lustralibus antè salivis Expiate, urentes oculos inhibere perita: Tunc manibus quatit, etc. Such marvellous virtue did the old Women of Rome deem to be in Spittle against Witchery and the approach of the Devil; which Ceremony they performed in the Dies Lustricus of the child, which is also called Dies Nominalis, they giving the child his Name that day; that this Saliva lustralis may the more completely answer to the Baptismal Spittle in the Roman Church. But this by the buy. In the ancient Saturnalia the Masters waited on their Servants, entertaining them with good cheer, as L. Accius records in his Verses: — per agros urbésque ferè omnes Exercent epulis laeti, famulósque procurant Quisque suos.— From which Polydore notes that the custom at Christmas of making De rerum Invent. lib. 5. ca 2. some one Servant a Master of Misrule, to whom both his Master and his Servants should obey, took its Original. In the Quinquatria minora or Ludi Megalenses, men ran up and down in Vizards madly and lasciviently, Polydor. de Invent. rerum, lib. 5. cap. 2. committing many immodesties. This wildness continued but a day or two in that ancient Roman Festival; but it is not only imitated but outstripped in the Romish Church, in their Carnaval; that madness of committing outrages in Vizards (as if they could hid themselves under them from the sight of God) not lasting two days, but two continual months in some places. At which time also they indulge excessively to themselves the intemperance of eating and drinking, as if they intended to make their body's Cellars and Storehouses against the approaching Fast of Lent, that they might the better hold out against that Siege. Whence this Carnaval seems a conjoining of those two lewd Pagan Solemnities together, I mean their Ludi Megalenses and Bacchanalia. The foul and abominable miscarriages of which Festivals in unclean and impudent gestures, and all manner of obscenities of words or actions, though they be so great and so various, as it is above imagination to conceive to an ordinary man without the reading of the story of these Pagan Enormities, yet, as History from Eie-witnesses of the Pagano-Christian Bacchanalia does assure us, this New Romanism has outgone Old Rome in all manner of impudent vileness in this Festival. So that the Beast is not only restored, but grown stronger in this Joint. I might go on and observe what is answerable in the Church of Rome to the Vinalia, Robigalia, Terminalia, Parentalia, Proserpinalia, and other Feasts of the Gentiles; but this wood is so wide, that I may easilier lose myself in it then get through it. 14. But I will not omit that the Beast has some kind of Revival even in their Funerals of the Dead. Hinc tuba, candelae, tandémque beatulus alto Pers. satire. 3. Compositus lecto— That this Solemnity had also Funeral Songs, and that there were hired Praeficae to move grief by their doleful modulations, is a thing that every one has taken notice of: but that pomp of carrying Torches is also lively set out by Virgil; Aeneid. 11. Arcades ad portas ruere, &, de more vetusto, Funereas rapuere faces: lucet via longo Ordine flammarum, & latè discriminat agros. How near an imitation of this no●…urnal Pomp the modern Funerals of the Papists are, the slowest fancy can discern. But I lay no great stress on such things. 15. It were too voluminous a business and needless to enter into an account of the several Religious Orders in the Old and New Romanism. It is enough to take notice that as there were several sorts of Sodalities of Priests, Male and Female, in the old Pagan Religion, devoted and dedicated some to Mars, some to Venus, some to Vesta, some to one Deity, others to another; so there are in the Church of Rome several Orders of Priests and Religious persons, some devoted to the service of one Saint, others to another, some to the service of the blessed Virgin, others of S. Francis, and so of the rest. 16. Only we cannot omit the taking notice that shorn Crowns is no modern invention, but a Ceremony of the ancient Priests of Isis or Diana: nor the Vow of Virginity so late as to be appropriate to the Nuns of the now Roman Religion, since Vesta, Apollo, Juno Argiva, Diana and Minerva's Priests were condemned to perpetual Virginity; and the Priests of Cybele the Mother of the Gods made sure of a constant Coelibate by execting their virilities. This I must confess is not imitated to that exactness in New Rome, but Chastity is vowed with so much confidence as if they had either made themselves Eunuches in Origen's literal sense, or else had been born Eunuches for the Kingdom of God. But as they fall short of the Galli, so have they outdone the Luperci in their Ninevites and Flagellants, whose stripes are not laid upon them they meet, but upon themselves. This harsh self-severity therefore is rather to be fetched from Egypt then Old Rome; the Sacrificers to Isis beating themselves while their Holocaust is burning; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Herodotus: or else from the self-cruelty of the Priests of Dea Syria; or from the rigid discipline of Diana at Lacedaemon, who was not to be propitiated Mystery of Godliness, Book 3 Ch. 13. but by bloody whip, as I have elsewhere noted. 17. There are so many Coincidencies of the Superstitions of the Roman Church with ancient Paganism, that it were a very tiresome task to endeavour the enumeration of the least part of them, and therefore I do here willingly break off the account. Only I will not let slip one main Parallel that offers itself to my mind. The Pagan Priests pretended to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be able to exhibit a presential sight of their Gods in the Adyta of their Temples. To which that of Claudian seems to have regard, I am mihi cernuntur trepidis delubra moveri Claudian. de ●…aptu Proserpinae, lib. 1. Sedibus, & clarum dispergere culmina lumen, Adventum testata Dei. Now I appeal to any indifferent judge whether the Papal Transubstantiation and pretence of exhibiting a presential appearance of the very Person of Christ by virtue of their Quinqueverbal Charm, (as they make it) be not a very exquisite Imitation of this Pagan Epoptia. Christ, indeed, according to his Divinity is everywhere, and by a special operation thereof may be said truly to be in some places and upon some occasions more than in an ordinary manner present: But to pretend to bring down the Humane and Bodily presence of Christ from Heaven into a Church or Chapel by a certain form of words, is to revive the Beast in that remarkable part of Pagan Imposture and Superstition which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the calling down their Gods to exhibit their visible Presence to men. 18. I will conclude with one single comparison more, and that is of the Sacrifical Pomp of the Pagans with the Supplications or Processions of the Church of Rome, according as Polydore Virgil has described them both. The Pagans in their superstitious and idolatrous Processionary pomps De rerum Invent. lib. 6. c 11. carried the Images of their Gods, but for the better entertaining of the rude people there went also in this Procession a certain ludicrous Image which the Latins call Citeria: they ordinarily derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, alluding therein to the loquacity of the Magpie; for this Image was made to snapper and chatter something like that Bird. Quid ego cum illo dissertem ampliùs, quem ego denique credo in pompa vectitatum ire ludis pro Citeria? They are the words of Cato against M. Caecilius. Plautus makes mention of another formidable Idol that was carried in these superstitious shows, which he calls Manducus; Quid si ad ludos me pro Manduco locem, quapropter clarè crepito dentibus? For it was an huge ugly Image with a wide mouth riven up to the ears, and gaping horribly, and making a gnashing and snapping with its teeth to the great terror of the simple. Of this Mormo is that of Juvenal, who saith that it scares the children of the Rustics in their Mother's bosom, by its wide gapings: — Cùm personae pallentis hiatum In gremio matris formidat rusticus Infans. But afterwards there is a more continued Description of this Pagan superstitious pomp out of Apuleius. Behold, saith he, the Anteludia of this great Procession leisurely marching on. Here one playing the Soldier with his sword and belt about him, there another acting the Huntsman with his short Coat girt close, with a woodknife or falchion at his side, and hunting-pole in his hand. Another clad in purple acts the Supreme Magistrate, and has the Fasces carried before him. I have seen also, saith he, a tame Bear dressed up like a Lady, carried in an Horselitter, and an Ape with a woven cap on his head. But after these come on with a slow pace the peculiar pomp of the Goddess herself, (suppose Diana or the Moon) women dressed up in white clothing attending her in various gestures of pleasantry and mirth, with crowns of flowers upon their heads, strewing the ground along as they went with odoriferous herbs and flowers out of their laps, for the Processionary pomp of the Goddess to pass over. And another great company of either Sex followed with light Torches, Lamps, and Wax-candles. After whom march on the Musicians sweetly playing on Flutes and Pipes; and next to these a company of Dancers youthfully clothed in white Apparel bright and shining like snow. There were also Heralds, who by Proclamation spoke to the people to give way, that the Pomp might not be impeded by any rudeness or crowding, nor any look down out of their windows upon them. Such were the Religious Pomps and Processions of the ancient Pagans. 19 Let us now transcribe the manner of certain Processions or Supplications of the Church of Rome out of the same Polydore, who could not be ignorant of those Rites. In the Pomp, saith he, of our Supplications or Processions there uses some ludicrous show to precede, as Ranks of Soldiers, Horse and Foot, or some snapping and chattering Image, ridiculous and loquacious, or else gaping with wide chaps, and making a gnashing noise with its teeth, very formidable to behold; with other sportful sights, amongst which the ancient Prophets are personated, and Boys with wings go singing as if they were of the Heavenly Choir of Angels: whom immediately follows a company of men and women dancing after their Music. Here one acts David, there another Solomon: Some play the parts of Queens and Princesses, others of Huntsmen. Beasts also are brought into the Pomp, and there an Ape or Monkey, with a Munmouth Cap. buttoned up on one side, bestrides some big Mastiff or bedwarsed Nag. There are also men carrying Torches in their hands, and Boys and Girls are forbid to look out of the Windows. Besides, the Priests or some others sustain the persons or act the parts of this or that Saint, they carrying also their Images or Relics along with them in the Procession. The air also is filled with odours as they go, and the ground they pass over strewed with flowers. And lastly, to some is appointed the office of speaking to the people to give way that the Pomp may march on without any impediment. Can there be one Egg more like to another than this Romish Procession is to the ancient superstitious Pomp of the Pagans? Wherefore Polydore's inference is very solid and unexceptionable, Ità Romani factitabant & aliae pleraeque gentes, à quibus ad nos ritus ejusmodi dubio procul manavit. 20. Thus fully has this ancient Pagan Empire, the slain Beast, recovered into life again, and so completely is his Image made up by the counsel and direction of the Two-horned Beast or the False Prophet. Nor can I, while I consider it, but with bended knee adore that Divine Providence that watches so punctually over humane Affairs, and with all possible thanks and humility acknowledge the tender care and faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ our great Pastor, that has so tightly prefigured the state of the Church, and told us aforehand how things would be with her for a time; that the truth of these Events may give us a more sure pledge of the certainty of her Restauration to her pristine Apostolical Purity, according as he has predicted in the same Prophetic Visions. 21. Truly this exact Symbolising of the Roman Church in Idolatry and Superstition with the Pagan Empire, jointly considered with the abominable Cruelty against the true Members of Christ practised by them both, their Interdiction of all civil Commerce and the necessary supplies of life without joining with them in Idolatrous Profession and Practice; Non illis emendi quicquam Aut vendendi copia, Nec ipsam haurire aquam Dabatur licentia, Antequam thurificarent Detestandis Idolis; which, as Bede complains, was the condition of the Primitive Christians, that would not submit to the Idolatries of Paganism, and which is the real fate of them under the Church of Rome that declare against their Paganochristianism; nay, they make Inquisition to take away the lives of poor harmless men, and hunt after the blood of the innocent, and torture, rack, and burn with fire and faggot those that refuse to commit Idolatry with them: I say, the likeness and similitude that the state of the Roman Church bears to ancient Paganism in Idolatry, Superstition and Cruelty, (to say nothing of their lying Miracles and Impostures,) is so complete, and the Pagano-Christian Empire so lively an Image every way of that which was once purely Pagan, that I cannot but devoutly admire the exact veracity of these Divine Visions in so material a Prediction; but withal wonder excessively, and am even amazed, at Grotius, when the event of things is so full and adequate, so fit and tightly accommodate to this Interpretation of the Image of the Beast, that a man of his Wit and Learning should content himself with one so petty, so forced, so impossible, so unprofitable, as that which he has made choice of, and which I will now more fully confute, after I have showed the weakness of Ribera's Interpretation. BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The great Usefulness of showing the folly of Riberas and Grotius his Expositions of these two Chapters of the Apocalypse. 2. That, according to Ribera, the Beast is the Devil. 3. The seven Kings the wicked Kings of the seven Ages of the world. 4. That five of these Ages were gone over in S. John's time, and that the Reign of Antichrist is the seventh, and Rome Heathen the Whore. 5. The general Usefulness of our Joint-Exposition. 6. That the Beast is not the Devil, proved therefrom by several circumstances: Nor the seven Heads seven such Ages, by the deadly wound in the sixth Head. 7. Nor the Whore Rome Heathen more than the Two-horned Beast. 8. That the Devil cannot be the Beast that was, and is not, etc. proved by arguments not leaning on our Joint-Exposition. 9 Farther proof from that part of his Name [and yet is,] with a Vindication of that reading. 10. A confutation of Ribera's Exposition of the seven Heads from the groundlesness and exceptionableness of his division of the duration of the world into seven Ages. 11. From the Ununitableness of the Kings of the Age into one Head. 12. From the Devil's eminency and superiority over these Heads. 13. From the leaving neither room nor time for an eighth King. 14. From the disproportionableness of the seventh Age of the world to the rest, and especially to the strange Feats they say Antichrist is then to achieve. 15. And, lastly, from the seven Hills necessarily appropriating those seven Heads to the Roman Empire. 16. That these Expositions of Ribera, as also of the rest of the Roman Interpreters, were very weak even in Grotius his own judgement, which set him upon minting new ones. 1. HItherto we have laid out our pains in the fully demonstrating what is the true and genuine sense of these two chief Chapters of the Apocalypse. But because the Hypocrisy and Unwillingness of those whose Interest biasses them another way will be ready to shuffle off the weight and evidence of so plain a Demonstration, in pretending that Learned men have given quite different Expositions of these Prophecies, and that therefore it is uncertain what they signify, I will bring in the two chiefest Expositors, and which the Church of Rome does most of all stick to and applaud herself in, I mean Ribera and Grotius; and show plainly how fond, how forced, and indeed how impossible their Expositions are; that even prejudiced men themselves may be ashamed hereafter to take shelter in such wretched subterfuges. 2. Ribera's Exposition of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, that was, and is not, and yet is, and of the Whore of Babylon that rides on him, is briefly this. The Beast is the Devil, considered in reference to his condition of reigning or not reigning in the world. In Bestia non Diabolus intelligitur, sed Diabolus regnans. Wherefore whereas it is said, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, he interprets it thus: The Devil in the foregoing Ages before Christ was Diabolus regnans, but in S. John's time he was not Diabolus regnans, because then the Prince of this world was cast out. And therefore in this sense he is said to be the Beast that was, and is not, but will be Diabolus regnans again in Antichrist, which is the Seventh Head, in whose reign he comes up again out of the bottomless pit. 3. The Seven Kings are the wicked Kings of the Seven Ages of the world, from Adam to the last Judgement. The first Age is from Adam to No, in which Cain and the Giants are particularly taxed. The second from No to Abraham, wherein Nimrod is perstringed. The third from Abraham to David, wherein the Kings of Egypt and other people are noted for Persecutors and Opposers of the People of God. The fourth from David to the Captivity of Babylon, wherein the people of the Jews were much afflicted by the Kings of Assyria. The fifth from the Captivity of Babylon to the coming of Christ, wherein they were much afflicted by the Chaldeans and Greeks. The sixth from the coming of Christ to the coming of Antichrist, wherein the Church has been much persecuted by the Roman Emperors and by the Turks and Saracens, and may be still more by such as may arise hereafter. The seventh from the coming of Antichrist to the last Judgement, wherein Antichrist with his ten Horns, that is ten Kings, shall persecute the Church worse than ever. 4. Five of these Heads, that is, of these Ages with their wicked Kings, were gone over in S. John's time: one Age was then and still continues: the other, that is the Seventh and Last, is not yet come, but when it is once come, it must continue but a little while, that is to say, three years and an half, or forty two months; Antichrist being that Beast in the thirteenth Chapter, according as he interprets it. And lastly, for the Whore that rides this Beast that was, and is not, he says it is Rome Heathen. This is a clear and faithful Proposal of Ribera's Exposition, as any one may see that will have recourse to him upon the place. Let us now see how much or rather how little truth there is in it. 5. In the Examination whereof, as also of the following Exposition, we may discern the Usefulness of our demonstrating so plainly That one and the same thing absolutely is understood by the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter and by the Seven-headed Beast in the Seventeenth, as also by the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast. For this even of itself will easily detect the Trivialities and Faultering of these Expositions. 6. That the Beast that was, and is not, cannot be Regnum Diaboli (as Ribera speaks) vel Diabolus regnans in mundo per sua membra, qui ab initio fere mundi regnare capit in hominibus, is demonstrable from the Beast with seven Heads in the thirteenth Chapter, which is the same Beast, and whose time of continuance is but forty two months. Which is a sign that Ribera is quite out of the story. For the same numerical Beast must have the same duration of time. Again, he makes the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter to be Antichrist, but this the Devil: which is another faltering in his narration. But further, whenas the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter is said to come out of the Sea, it is plain, according to the usual meaning of that Type in the Prophetic style, that it is a Body Politic consisting of Men: But how can the Devil be such with his dark Legions? they are not Men, but Devils, nor to be led captive, nor to be killed with the sword, as it is said of the Beast there mentioned. Moreover, the Dragon, that is, the Devil, is said to deliver his forces to the Seven-headed Beast in that Chapter; how then can the Beast be the Devil? To all which you may add, That the Sixth Head of the Beast in that Chapter is wounded to death, not to be healed till the Revival of the Beast and the Recovery of him in the Seventh Head. But how can the wicked Kings of the Sixth Age be said to be wounded to death, or the Beast not to revive till the Seventh Head, when the Church of Christ has been so dreadfully persecuted in the Primitive Times, and is to this very day so cruelly infested by the Turks, as heretofore by the Saracens? These actions are no signs of the Sixth Head being wounded to death more than the foregoing Heads, nor so much neither. Lastly, how can the Devil in this Seventeenth Chapter be the Image of the restored Beast that had received the deadly wound? For the Devil when he is again regnant will not Pagano-christianize, as I may so speak, but grossly Paganize, or Judaize, as our Adversaries confess; and therefore will not be an Image, but either the Thing itself, or not so much as an Image, but a Thing quite different. 7. And for the Whore that rides on the Beast, I might demand in what sense Rome Heathen has two Horns like a Lamb; with other such inquiries, which for brevity sake I omit. I will rather take notice how indecorous it is to fancy Rome Heathen to ride the Devil, whenas it is more proper to conceive her rid, that is to say, guided and acted and instigated by him. 8. But that the Beast that was, and is not, is not the Devil, we shall now evince by other arguments without relation to the Thirteenth Chapter. As, first, If the Devil be a Beast, that which makes him so is the wickedness of his nature, his persecutiveness of the Church of God, and his endeavour of erecting against him a Kingdom of Idolaters. Now the Devil has never ceased to be such from the beginning of the world to this very day. This is the very nature of the Beast, and his nature is not yet slain in him, nor ever was, nor ever will be. Wherefore it never was nor ever will be true of him, That he is the Beast that was, and is not. For to be regnant and then cease to be regnant, does not make him to be a Beast and then no Beast, but only no regnant Beast. But that also is false, that he has yet at any time ceased to be a regnant Beast. For till Christ came he reigned over all the World, excepting the Jews. After Christ came, he tyrannised over the Christians for about three hundred years. And after the Empire in a manner wholly turned Christian, yet the Kingdom of the Devil was no less than all the Habitable world besides, in comparison whereof the other is but a small spot of ground; and yet what great slices have been pared off therefrom? Besides his Rule in Christendom itself by superinducing so universal a spirit of Antichristianism into it, consisting of gross Idolatries and bloody Persecutions of the dear Servants of God. Now let any one consider and say whether the Devil be Bestia non regnans, or regnans in the world from Christ's time to this day: and how groundless an Interpretation this of Ribera's is, that understands the Beast that was, and is not, of the Devil at large, and not of the Roman Empire in such a sense as we have expounded it. For that it is the Fourth Empire which is the Roman, the ten Horns do plainly indicate, which are the Ensigns of the Fourth Beast in Daniel, which I think no man has been yet so grossly extravagant as to interpret of the Devil. 9 Besides, this Beast is not only styled The Beast that was, and is not, but there is also added to his Title [and yet is.] Which whole Title cannot be true of the Devil regnant in Antichrist's time according to Ribera's sense. For he being then regnant, he is the very same Devil in every respect, and a man cannot say he is not regnant, though it be then true that he is. So that part of the Title only will agree to him, namely that he was, and is. Which is another plain detection of the falseness of Ribera's Exposition. Nor is there any Evasion in the various readings. For Copies generally have it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Which seems such a contradiction, that it has made some leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and others turn it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither reaching the meaning of the Apostle. But seeing this reading we follow so generally obtains, notwithstanding its seeming harshness and contradictiousness, it is an unexceptionable argument that it is the true and genuine reading indeed, and that merely the undubitable authenticness of Copies has made it bear down the other two readings which the overmuch boldness and unskilfulness of some had ventured to cast into the place of the true one. 10. Again, concerning his Exposition of the Seven Heads, many things are to be objected. As first, That his dividing the whole duration of the World into Seven Ages is a thing groundless and merely arbitrarious, there being nothing either in Tradition or Scripture to countenance it. There is indeed an ancient Tradition of Elias, that divides the duration of the World into four parts, Two thousand years' Vacuity, Two thousand the Law, and Two thousand the Messiah, and then the great Sabbatism. But of such a division as Ribera has made here there is no News nor Example in Antiquity. And in the steps he takes, he has very unmannerly trodden over the head of Moses, as if he was not a man great enough to be taken notice of amongst the Joints of this Division; whenas certainly he is one of the most eminent Epocha's of time, as appears by that Tradition of Elias, and therefore aught to have been mentioned before he came to David: As also Enoch, so famous for his Assumption into Heaven, his Birth ought to have been noted before he came to Noe. Besides other as justifiable Divisions which were easy to observe. But these short intimations may suffice to show how lubricous and fictitious a Comment, Ribera's Exposition is in this regard. 11. But, secondly, How can the Kings in each one of these Ages, having no subordination to one another, but being absolute and absolutely disjoined in their respective Kingdoms, or rather having no political Co-ordination or Correspondence as Heads of one Body Politic, how can they make up but one Head for an Age? There is no warrant nor example of any such thing in the Prophetic style. But if you will say they are one Head, because they belong to one Body, the Devil, all the whole Succession of wicked and persecutive Kings throughout all these Ages will be but one Head upon this account, and so the Beast will have but One Head, not Seven. For distance of time and Succession makes no difference of Heads nor Beasts in the Prophetic style, but some distinction of nature in them. 12. Thirdly, It is very harsh and incongruous to make these wicked Kings the Heads of the Devil, whenas the Devil is their Prince and Head; he being above them both in his preeminency of Nature, as being an Angel, though but a wicked one, and they but wicked Men; as also by right of Jurisdiction, all those that are Rebels to the Kingdom of God making an Accession to the Kingdom of the Devil. So that the Exposition in this respect is as harsh and preposterous as the painting of an Horse with his Head on his Coccyx, and his Tail hanging down before his Breast. Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici? 13. Fourthly, If the Seven Kings be the wicked Kings of the Seven Ages of the world even to the very day of Judgement, what is that Eighth King? and what Age of the world will he be in? For there seems neither room nor time left for him. Why, truly Ribera has pitched upon a very subtle Merchant, who will insinuate into all times and places (if it be possible) for his own advantage. This Eighth King, saith he, is the Devil. But the Devil, say I, is the Beast, according to his own Hypothesis, and this Eighth is said to be one of the Seven Heads. But how can one and the same be both the whole Beast, and yet but one of the Heads thereof? Wherefore it is plain that his Exposition in this regard is against common sense and the very first Notions of humane Understanding. 14. Fifthly, The Seventh Age of the world, which is the measure of the Reign of Antichrist, is most ridiculously disproportioned to the rest, it being but three years and an half, as Ribera has computed it. Which yet were more tolerable, if it were well proportionated to those great Exploits that Antichrist is to do in that short space. For he is to subdue all the World, or, if you will, the Ten Kings which they feign will be the Rulers over the whole World when Antichrist gins to lay about him. For having first made an Expedition against Three Kings, namely, the King of Egypt, the King of Libya and the King of Aethiopia, & overcome them and slain them, the other Seven shall submit to him, and become the Seven Heads of Antichrist, the first of which being mortally wounded in his service, he shall miraculously raise him from the dead. Thus by a wonderful Metamorphosis have they changed the Ten Horns into Seven Heads, and made the Horns of Antichrist to grow before the Heads. So pitifully are they put to it in their prevaricatory Expositions of the Oracles of God. And not content to adorn this great Potentate with that one single Miracle of raising the slain from the dead, they also allow him a power of literally bringing down fire from Heaven, and of making his own Statue to speak. His Royal Palace they place in Judaea, and derive his Pedigree from the Tribe of Dan, and make his Throne the very Temple of God at Jerusalem, and proclaim him the expected Messiah of the Jews, to whom they are all to gather themselves. He must besiege Rome, and burn it, and call to himself the Nations from all the Quarters of the Earth, to conspire the utter Extirpation of the Christian Name from under the Cope of Heaven; and, as it seems, notwithstanding all the vigilancy of the Pope and his whole Conclave of Cardinals and their active Emissaries and all the Forces of Christendom, will in a manner wholly effect it: and all this, which is the Miracle of Miracles, within the space of three years and an half. Nay, which is still more miraculous, This quadrimular Antichrist shall not only overrun Christendom, but subdue the Grand Signior, overrun the Persian, make the Tartarian Cham submit to him in the North, and extort Homage from the remotest Kingdoms of Africa. Which is such a piece of Prophetic Fabulosity as no man would ever vent in the most Romantic History. So incredible therefore is this Exposition of Ribera in this regard also concerning the Seven Heads of the Beast. 15. Sixthly and lastly, To that Beast only to whom the Seven Hills belong some way or other, can the Seven Kings appertain; for both are said to be signified by the Seven Heads of the Beast, and therefore both have a proper and peculiar reference to him: for they being his Typical Heads, to him must needs appertain what they are said to typify. But it is plain that the Seven Hills appertain to the Roman Beast, that is, to the Roman Empire: Therefore it is necessary that the Seven Kings likewise appertain thereunto. From whence it will follow, that these Kings cannot be the Kings of the Seven Ages of the world. For Rome was not built till about Anno Mundi 3200, when even the Fourth Age of the World, according to Riberas own reckoning, was almost expired. So impossible every way is this Exposition of his, and against all sense and reason. And yet it is the very best the Romanists have, and in which they think they have the safest shelter, as appears in Cornelius à Lapide and Lessius his adhering thereto rather then any other they have hitherto lighted upon. 16. The weakness of all which Expositions Grotius, as it seems, friendly commiserating, has minted one of anew at his own Forge; which though we have elsewhere in some sort examined already and found light and adulterate, yet it being a matter of so great moment, we will give it a second Trial; wherein if it be again found manifestly false, and more fully detected to abound with gross Incongruities and Impossibilities, I cannot imagine any thing omitted, for the giving us the greatest assurance that any one can desire of the truth of that Exposition we have made of these Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters of the Apocalypse. CHAP. II. 1. What the meaning of the Scarlet Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, and of the Woman riding him, is according to Grotius. 2. A Confutation of Grotius his Interpretation, out of our Joint-Exposition. 3. Two main Grounds or necessary Supporters of Grotius his Interpretation: The one, That S. John reckons the Seven Heads beginning at Claudius; with the Confutation thereof. 4. The other, That this Vision was wrote in Vespasian's time; with a Discovery of the weakness and falseness of that Opinion. 5. That Claudius his banishing the Jews from Rome falls many degrees short of a proof, that John was then exiled into Patmos: And that Impulsore Christo in Suetonius does not so much as evince that any Christians were then expelled the City. 6. And if the Decree reached Christians, it does not straight follow that S. John was concerned therein. 7. An Answer to a Passage in Epiphanius alleged for S. John's Exile then. 8. An Answer to another alleged to the same purpose. 9 That Epiphanius his Testimony makes against Grotius his main Project. 10. That Epiphanius is but one single Father against the rest, and that the Testimony of Irenaeus alone is far to be preferred before his. 11. An unexceptionable clearing of the sense of Irenaeus his Testimony; and that the very detorsion of it will not serve Grotius his turn. 12. That there is not the least shadow of Probability that the Apocalypse was wrote before toward the end of Domitian's reign. 13. Proofs out of the Apocalypse itself, that it was not wrote before the Persecution under Domitian. 14. The great consequence of the clearing this Truth, it wholly subverting all Grotius his Interpretations of the Seals and Trumpets and all their Synchronals. 1. LEt us therefore more accurately examine Grotius his Interpretation; the sum whereof is this: The Scarlet Beast ridden by the Whore of Babylon is the old Roman Idolatry guided and dispensed by the ancient Ethnic Roman State or Domination, as he calls it. The Seven Heads of the Beast are seven Roman Emperors, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius; which five were fallen when S. John had this Vision, or at the least wrote it, as Grotius supposes. But Vespasian was then reigning: Titus, the seventh, was not yet come; and when he was come, he was to continue but a while. But the Beast that was, and is not, and is the Eighth King, and consequently an Eighth Head, that's Domitian, who, as Grotius pretends, reigned first in his Father Vespasian's absence, but receding from the government of the Empire at Vespasian's return, was then the Beast that was, but is not, but was after to emerge and resume the Empire again after Vespasian and Titus his reign, and to die a violent death. The Ten Horns, he saith, are Ten Kings which were not as yet (that is, in S. John's time) in side & reverentia Imperii Romani, but should be for a time: And those, saith he, were the Ostrogotthi, Wisigotthi, Vandali, Gepidae, Longobardi, Heruli, Burgundiones, Hunni, Franci, Angli sive saxons. 2. These are the main strokes of Grotius his Interpretation of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse: the general lineaments of which not answering to those of the Thirteenth, may make it upon that very account suspicable to those that duly consider what great presumption there is, or rather demonstration, that these two Chapters handle the very selfsame things, but are so contrived, that the one may give light to the other. Wherefore the Dragon in the Twelfth Chapter, with seven Heads bearing seven Crowns, (which plainly show that the signification of Kings, not Hills, is there to be understood) being wounded to death in one of his Heads in that fight, and healed so that all wondered after him, I would demand of Grotius, which of these Emperors was wounded to death in a fight with Michael, and was then revived again to the wonder of the world. Again, there are but seven Kings in the Thirteenth Chapter; how come there to be eight in the Seventeenth? Thirdly, The eight Kings in the Seventeenth Chapter are all Idolatrous according to him, but the Inscription of Idolatry is only upon seven Heads in the Thirteenth, which implies the Beast had no more than so. Of which things there can be no sense, unless according to such an Explication as I have already exhibited. Furthermore, If the Beast in the Seventeenth Chapter be the Roman Pagan Idolatry, how comes it to continue but forty two months in Grotius his sense? for that is the continuance of the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth. Himself also acknowledges the Ten Horns of one Beast not to be the same with the Ten Horns of the other. I omit to note that Dominatio Romana, which he says is the Babylonish Whore in the Seventeenth Chapter, is not the same with Magia in the other Chapter; whenas notwithstanding I think it clear enough that the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast are the Types of one and the same thing. But this I confess may well seem too Magisterial to make my own Exposition, though never so true, a Rule for others. Wherefore I shall wholly release Grotius from any such unequal terms, and examine his Interpretations of these two Chapters of the Apocalypse upon free and common Principles, such as all men do appeal to. 3. And that, first, in a more general way, searching into the solidity of two main Grounds which he supposes: The one, That S. John gins the reckoning of the seven Heads of the Beast from Claudius; the other, That this Vision of the Whore of Babylon and the Beast that was, and is not, was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time. Which Grounds are so necessary for his Interpretation, that without them it is not only incongruous, but impossible; forasmuch as Five are said to be fallen, and one to be, etc. which therefore this Interpretation necessarily requires and implies to be Vespasian, and that he then was when this Vision was either seen or wrote. Wherefore his Reasons for these Grounds deserve a more diligent Examination. For the first of which he alleges these two. First, That Claudius was the first persecuting Emperor, I mean that persecuted the Christians. Which yet is contrary to the whole stream of Antiquity, who fix the first Persecution upon Nero, omitting that expulsion of the Jews from Rome as a thing either inconsiderable, or as not properly appertaining to the Christians as such, but as they were Jews. But so far as I see, Caius, the Predecessor of Claudius, afflicted both Jew and Christian more by his enormous Extravagancies then ever Claudius did, concerning which Grotius himself has wrote in his Notes upon 2 Thess. 2. Moeror metúsque maximus & Judaeorum & Christianorum plenum habuit effectum. So that the Epoch might have begun at Caligula as well as Claudius according to this rate, which shows the Exposition to be but arbitrarious. Besides, if the Epoch begin at Claudius because a Persecutor, why did not the account break off where Persecution ceased? For Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Titus and Vespasian are none of them infamous for any persecution. The other reason why this Epoch is fixed on Claudius is, because S. John himself was banished into Patmos in Claudius his time, and therefore S. John accounts from the time of his Banishment, as Ezekiel from the Epoch of his Captivity. But this is a very weak Allegation. For Ezekiel did not compute the time from his particular Captivity, but from the Captivity of Jeconiah, as you may see again and again in Gaspar Sanctius upon Ezekiel. Besides that it is one thing for a man to compute what happened to himself, as Ezekiel did, from the time of his private Captivity, and another to reckon the succession of Kings or Emperors from so private an Epoch. And then, which is still worse, it is not at all probable that S. John was banished into Patmos in the reign of Claudius: not only because he suffered not as a Jew, but as he was a witness of Jesus; but also because he has not set down that Epoch, which had been very necessary, and but ill omitted, if there were any such great stress lay upon it, as to assure us of the truth of the main Visions of the Apocalypse. Add to this, that S. John was not at Rome, and therefore unconcerned in this Edict of Claudius; and if he had been there, or wherever else he was, there is no mention made of any confinement to places in these Expulsions. And we see that Act. 18. Aquila and Priscilla, that were expelled from Rome, abode securely enough in Corinth, to whom S. Paul joined himself, and wrought on his Trade with them. And, lastly, it is against the whole current of Antiquity, Irenaeus, Origen, Tertullian, Eusebius, Hieronymus, Nicephorus, Victorinus, Primasius, Andreas and Aretas, and against the universal suffrage of both Papists and Protestants, who with one voice declare that S. John's Exile into Patmos was under Domitian. But I need not insist on these things so much for the present, sigh the confutation of his second Ground will make this vanish also. 4. Which second Ground is, That the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time. But unless it was seen then, it will not serve the turn; forasmuch as it is not the voice of S. John, but of the Angel, that says, Five are fallen, and one is, and therefore the Vision, as well as the writing thereof, must be in Vespasian's time: And also in the Island Patmos, because once and for all at the beginning of this Book of Visions he saith, they happened to him in the Isle of Patmos, and never gives any other intimation throughout the whole Book: whence it is incredible but that they all befell him in that Retirement. Which things I note to meet with Grotius his supposition in his De Antichristo, That though S. John was banished into Patmos under Claudius, yet he was out of the Island in Vespasian's time. From whence I would infer, that the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was not seen by John in Vespasian's time. Which is the utter destruction of Grotius his Exposition, as I noted before. 5. And this alone of his own concession were enough to put an end to this Debate: but it being a matter of such great consequence, I shall insist a little larger upon it, and no less then demonstrate the utter insufficiency and weakness of this Ground of Grotius. Wherefore sticking close to the Catholic suffrage of Antiquity and of all Writers as well Protestants as Papists, let us again consider what reason Grotius has to exile S. John into Patmos in Claudius his time: for Claudius his expelling the Jews from Rome falls short of banishing John into Patmos by many degrees. For, first, Grotius was to prove that by Jews are meant Christians in that place. For there are no contemptible reasons to induce one to believe that the Jews, not the Christians, are meant there. First, Because the Christians sought a Kingdom above, not on the Earth: but the Jews ran mad after such a Christ or Messiah as would make them Masters of the World; and therefore they only could seem dangerous in Rome, as whose Tumults tended to an Earthly Booty. Secondly, In the Acts this Edict of Claudius is mentioned as touching the Jews only, and Aquila and Priscilla, as being Jews, (for there is not the least intimation of their being Christians) are said to departed from Rome to Corinth. Thirdly, The fresh remembrance of Tiberius his Edict against the Accusers of Christians might have still that influence upon the mind of his Successors, that so suddenly no such harsh Sentence should pass against them; especially they being a people, as I said, whose thoughts were on Heaven, did not lie at catch for things on Earth. And, lastly, None of the Ancients ever taxed Claudius for any injury done to the Christians; whenas if they had been banished, and S. John himself confined to Patmos, (which had been a very severe punishment, and to flesh and blood little less tolerable than death) undoubtedly the Infamy of so great a Cruelty would have been transmitted to Posterity by the Church, and Claudius not escaped the brand of a Persecutor. Nor do those words of Suetonius prove the Edict to belong to the Christians, Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto tumultuantes Româ expulit; but only that there was an Edict against the Jews. For who can believe any weight in his asserting that they tumultuated impulsore Chresto, whenas Christ was not then alive on Earth, much less at Rome, to incense the Jews into Tumults? unless it was that the Jews were occasionally vexed at the Christians in Rome, and made a great deal ado at their acknowledging such a Messiah as was crucified, and therefore of whom there was no hope of serving their turn for the regaining of their liberty and making them great men in this world. Wherefore there being such a stir with the Jews concerning their Chrestus or Messiah against the Christians, uncertain Fame might make Suetonius phrase it so as he has: but this Inspection into the Genius of the Jews might cause Claudius to expel them out of the City, it may be, in favour of the Christians, as well as for his own security. This passage in Suetonius is so far from determining this Edict to the Christians, that Orosius gives this judgement of it: Utrùm Oros. lib. 7. cap. 6. contra Christum tumultuantes Judaeos coërceri & comprimi jusserit, an etiam Christianos simul, velut cognatae religionis homines, voluerit expelli, nequaquam discernitur. So little assurance is there that Claudius did any evil at all to the Christians by that Edict mentioned in Suetonius. 6. But suppose that Decree reached the Christians also at Rome; it is but an arbitrarious surmise to think it reached to other parts of the Empire: and if to other parts of the Empire, it is not a Confinement, as I have above hinted, but a Banishment at large from some one certain place; and then only of such, it is most likely, as were in Tumults, or at least from such Towns where they might have caused Tumults; which was most unlikely in the place where S. John resided, the sweetness and peaceableness of whose spirit would tempt any discreet Governor to retain him, for the better keeping things in peace. And yet so extravagant is this supposition, that he is the only man that is thus sharply dealt with, nor can they produce an example of any one else thus banished in Claudius his time; and yet all the Apostles certainly were busy enough in doing their duties to propagate Christianity in the Empire. 7. I but you will say, this Record of Claudius his expelling the Jews from Rome, being seconded with the Testimony of Epiphanius, who affirms him banished into Patmos under the same Emperor, is such a double cord as will not easily be broken: Which I would the easilier grant, if they had any strength at all single; as I have showed the first has none, and shall do the like for the second. There are two places alleged out of Epiphanius: The one Haeres. 51. Sect. 33. where speaking of S. John, he writes thus; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. But these words are not spoken definitively of S. John's being in Patmos in Claudius Caesar's reign, but only that he was in Patmos and did prophesy there: but for the time he says it was at the farthest in Claudius his reign; for that is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that it was the soon that he could be thought to prophesy in Patmos, as an Exul there; but he does not say absolutely he prophesied then. So that it is a more lax and conjectural Affirmation concerning the time, and only says that it is the utmost distance within which he may be thought to have prophesied; not denying but that the time of his Prophesying might be later, suppose in Domitian's time. Of which Petavius is so confident, that he writes over against Imperante Claudio in the Text, this short Marginal Note, Mendosè, pro Domitiano; he taking it for granted that Epiphanius speaks more definitively than I think he does. And I believe both Grotius, and others that cite the place to the same purpose with him, were ware of such a sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have hinted, which made them leave it out of their Citation, as weakening the force thereof. Nor is it any Argument that Epiphanius does dogmatically define that S. John prophesied in Claudius his time, because if he was not persuaded of that opinion, he would have followed the ordinary one, as being fit to use against the Montanists, that would derogate from the truth of the Apocalypse, by reason of the Epistle to the Church of Thyatira, which they pretend to be wrote before there was any Church there: for then the later written the better. But supposing the Father uncertain which was true, and not assured but that the Montanists would prove that there was no Church as yet at Thyatira in Domitian's time neither; were there any likelihood that ●…e would peremptorily pitch upon Domitian's reign rather than of the other, or rather not decline both, and betake himself to some other Answer, as indeed he does? For he seems to be in love with the Objection thus circumstantiated, he gaining so much (as he conceives) upon the Objectors as by their own Supposition to make them acknowledge S. John, or the Author of this Book of Visions, to be really endued with the Spirit of Prophecy. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if they say there was not a Church at Thyatira in being at that instant when S. John wrote, they plainly declare that S. John did prophesy and intimated aforehand that there would be one. Wherefore Epiphanius found little reason why he should, from the state of the present Controversy, choose the ordinary opinion rather than that which is accounted his own. 8. The other place of Epiphanius is Haeres. 51. Sect. 12. where he tells us how S. John was impelled and constrained to write the Gospel by the instigation of the Holy Ghost; though he very much declined it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet he was forced by that impulse, and that in his old age, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he was more than ninety years old, after his return out of Patmos, which happened in Claudius his time. Where there is this adjection of the mention of his return from Patmos as a confirmation of the grandevity of the Apostle at that time. Now let us see what service this Magnus testis & Historiarum diligentissimus Inquisitor (as Grotius calls him, as well as he does Petavius who so plainly contradicts him in this very point) can do this learned Interpreter in the present case. For this passage, if there had been any force in the former, does quite obtund it, it showing Epiphanius not at all diligent in Chronologie, (as Alcazar has also well observed) in making S. John above ninety years old in Claudius his time, whenas the common Tradition of the Church is, that he was very young when he entered upon his Apostleship. S. Jerom saith that Christ chose him when he was but a youth or child. Baronius makes him just twenty five years old at the Passion of our Saviour. The Scripture itself implies also that he was but young, in that Christ says to his Mother concerning John, Woman, behold thy son; which should imply that he was at least as young as our Saviour Christ, he being himself born of the Virgin when she was but of the age of fifteen, as Nicephorus relates out of an Epistle of Euodius Bishop of Antioch. But by Epiphanius his Chronologie S. John would be at least twenty years older than the Blessed Virgin, concerning whom notwithstanding Christ says to John, Behold thy Mother. And which is still worse, if S. John was ninety years old when he came out of Patmos under the reign of Claudius, it will run the Nativity of Christ near forty years back, and place it long before Cyrenius was Governor of Syria; forasmuch as all men conceive S. John to be at least as young as our Saviour, if not much younger. Which Absurdities detect Epiphanius not to be so great and unexceptionable a Witness in History as Grotius would make him. And therefore Petavius again peremptorily sets down in the Margin over against Epiphanius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sub Cocceio Nerva Joannes revocatur ab exilio: Which certainly is the truth, and agrees with that time of S. John's age which Epiphanius allots to him, when he wrote the Gospel. For supposing him to be born about the same time our Saviour was, or a little later, this writing of the Gospel will fall into the years of Nerva, or at least some few years after Domitian, according as you shall find it set down in Chronologies. 9 But supposing Epiphanius his Testimony of value in this case, the same Epiphanius that witnesss John in Patmos under the reign of Claudius, witnesss him out again in the same reign; which, as I have * Sect. 4. already noted, spoils Grotius his Project, who would have S. John prophecy in Vespasian's time, else all the fat is in the fire as touching the Interpretation of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse. But I think I have plainly proved that there can be nothing gained out of Epiphanius for establishing Grotius his conceit, these Passages of the Father being either but Conjectures or Inadvertencies, or else some lapses of the Scribe, who wrote, it seems, more glibly the name of Claudius then of the other two Emperors; as it might appear in that second Citation, S. John being indeed about that age when he came out of Patmos in Cocceius Nerva his time, but not in Claudius'. 10. So that Grotius has not so much as one Witness to countenance his new Invention; and if he had had this one, what is one to the whole stream of Antiquity and of the Churches? Nay, what is Epiphanius his Testimony compared with the Testimony of that one single Father Irenaeus, he living two hundred years nearer S. John's time than Epiphanius, and who expressly asserts, in Eusebius, that the Apocalypse was imparted to S. John at the end of Domitian's reign? For speaking of the Name of the Beast, he writes thus; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, If the name of the Beast had been openly to be divulged at this time, it would have been told by him that saw those Visions which under one collective Title are called The Apocalyps: For they were seen not long since at the end of Domitian 's reign. 11. This I doubt not but is the genuine sense of these words, and that he speaks not of the Vision of the Beast alone under that name of the Apocalypse, but of the whole body of Visions so called: Otherwise for distinctness sake he would have said, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, especially considering Apocalypsis had then passed into a known Title of this volume of Visions. Besides that the Name of the Beast was not seen by S. John, but the Number of his Name: And therefore whereas the Latin has it, Antichristi nomen per ipsum utique editum fuisset qui Apocalypsin videret, neque enim ante multum temporis visum est; I should easily believe that visum got in for visa, by the oscitancy of the Scribe. For unless the Interpreter of Irenaeus had understood [qui Apocalypsin videret] of the whole Collection of Visions, and not of the Beast only and his Name, he would have rather said Revelationem, and for sureness have added ejus, to make the sense more distinct and determinate; qui Revelationem ejus videret. And lastly, suppose this Testimony proved only that the Vision of the Thirteenth Chapter of the Revelation was seen at the end of Domitian's reign, (which I have not the least conceit of) it will not serve Grotius his turn, since this of the Seventeenth Chapter is later, both by order of situation in the Apocalypse, and also by nature. For it being the plainest Vision concerning the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns that was exhibited to S. John, and containing in it a Key for the right understanding the other, it ought to come last, the Comment being naturally later than the Text, according to common sense and reason. 12. Wherefore seeing there is no proof at all that Claudius persecuted the Christians, much less that he exiled John into Patmos, but that Domitian was a notorious Persecuter, and universal Antiquity attesting that S. John was banished into Patmos under him, and that there he received the Apocalyps; there is nothing to give a stop to the Conclusion, but that we may infer that the whole Volume of those Visions was there wrote by him towards the latter end of Domitian's reign, as Irenaeus has affirmed, (the Second Persecution beginning not till the tenth year of Domitian) I mean the latter end of his real and uncontrovertible reign, when he succeeded his Brother Titus, not that imaginary one in his Father's absence, for he was not then truly Emperor. And though we should admit he had two reigns; if the end of his reign be mentioned at large, as it is here in Irenaeus, it must either signify the end of all that time he reigned, or the end of his more notorious and confessed reign, which is here all one, and therefore most certainly understood. So that there is no avoiding the Authority of Irenaeus by this sleight. Not to add that there is no Persecution taken notice of in all Vespasian's reign, and therefore no Patmos for S. John, and consequently no Prophecy, as I have noted above. So that there is not the least shadow of probability that the Apocalypse was wrote at any other time then in what Irenaeus has declared it to be. 13. The Apocalypse itself also witnesses against this dream of S. John's being in Patmos under Claudius his reign, in that general Preface to all the Visions, I John, who am also your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ, etc. Which shows it was a time of great distress amongst the Christians and of smart Persecution. Which was so to none but John, if this was in Claudius his time; at least not in Asia, to which Churches he writes. But there is yet another more apposite place for our purpose, I mean, the Martyrdom of Antipas Bishop of the Church of Pergamus, who suffered under Domitian about the tenth year of his reign. That which I note as most remarkable in his story is, That he was solicited by the Governor of the place to renounce Christianity, because it was but a Novelty, urging upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same argument which the Papists use to seduce our modern Antipae or Antipapists. But that which I drive at is this; That the mention of Antipas his Martyrdom as past in the very beginning of this Book of Visions does plainly detect that they were all seen after the beginning of the second Persecution, which was under Domitian, and above twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. For that the Record of Antipas his Martyrdom is true, there can be no doubt, his mention in the Apocalypse engaging the Church to take more than ordinary notice of that Martyr. Nor can any Afterfigments concerning his suffering, I mean the manner of it, make the faith of the Church at all suspected concerning the time. So solid assurance is there every way that this Volume of Apocalyptick Visions was delivered to John in Patmos at the latter end of Domitian's reign, and so convincing evidence on every side, that he must be Sceptical even to dotage that after due consideration can at all doubt of it. 14. The eviction of which truth I have thus copiously and industriously wrought out, because it does not only lay flat to the ground all the Interpretations of Grotius in these Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters, but also all his Expositions of the Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets, and consequently of the whole Book of the Apocalypse. For he interprets the Seals and Trumpets of things that happened many years before this Prophecy: which makes the Apocalypse as good sense as if it were a Foretelling of things that were passed; whenas the Preface to the whole Book runs expressly thus, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such things as are shortly to come to pass. But according to Grotius his Interpretation of the Seals and Trumpets, which are a chief part of the Prophecy, and also of the Battle betwixt Michael and the Dragon, and several other Visions, the Preface should have run thus, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants what things came to pass some while ago. Which things being also set down so Enigmatically, as if he had a mind to hid what was plainly brought to light in actual Events, the Title might have been more properly the Obvelation or Obscuration then the Revelation. So fruitful is one Absurdity once admitted for the increase and multiplying many others. CHAP. III. 1. That as Grotius has mistimed these Visions, so his Interpretations are accordingly absurd and incongruous. 2. The groundlesness of his beginning the Compute of the Seven Heads at Claudius, and ending it in Domitian. 3. The dimsightedness of the ancient Fathers that could not discern Domitian to be the Beast that was, and is not, though they stood so exceeding much nearer him than Grotius. 4. The trivialness and falsity of this Conceit of his. 5. The second, third and fourth Absurdities of Grotius his Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter. 6. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Absurdities. 7. The ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. 8. The thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth Absurdities of his Exposition. 1. WHerefore the Foundation of Grotius his Expositions being so false and flitting; and such as cannot but shrink if it be hard pressed upon, the structure cannot be sound, nor well shapen, but forced, distorted, and difform. For if Prophecy will fit as well those times they aim not at as those they do, they will be clouded with such invincible obscurity, that they will lose both their usefulness and authenticness. We shall show therefore that Grotius, as he has gone upon a false Ground, so his Expositions of these Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters are answerably harsh and unapplicable, and that he has left the plain road, and rushed through hedge and ditch, and pulled up all fences, to gather a Nosegay of Flowers that both smell ill, and immediately whither in his hand in the very gathering of them. 2. Supposing then that the Visions of the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters were imparted to S. John in Vespasian's time, (which yet to me is undoubtedly false) let us take this brief view of the Harshnesses and Incongruities of his Interpretation. As first, Whereas he makes the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Emperors, five whereof were gone in Vespasian's time, namely Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius; I have shown already that there is no reason at all for his beginning his compute at Claudius, John neither being banished in his reign, nor he being so ill an Emperor as his Predecessor Caius Caligula, and the Church reckoning not their Persecutions before Nero, nor any complaint made of Nero's successors till Domitian, that these should be such Heads of Blasphemy above the rest of the Emperors. Whence it is a very groundless and fictitious thing to make but five Heads to have preceded Vespasian, whenas he was the tenth from Julius Caesar; and then to take in but two of his successors, Titus and Domitian, whenas at least thirty succeeded him, in whose time were eight of the Persecutions of the Christians. 3. For which curt reckoning Grotius has no excuse but that it falls so luckily to Domitian's share to be the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is; forasmuch as he had been Emperor in his Father's absence, was not when this Vision was given, and yet was, to wit, in being, and should ascend out of the bottomless pit again, that is, be Emperor again, after his Father and Brother Titus his decease. This is the matter in which Grotius so much applauds himself, to the great reproach of the ancient Fathers, who being so exceeding much more near to the time of Domitian then Grotius, could not for all that discern the fulfilling of this Prophecy in him: which therefore was, it should seem, ever useless to the Church, being no premonition to them of any thing. 4. But to profess my own judgement freely concerning this Conceit, it seems to me to make the Spirit of Prophecy to affect the foretelling of pretty things rather than useful and weighty. But as I have already demonstrated out of Chronology that this supposition of the time of the Vision is false, (whereby the peculiar support and recommendableness of the interpretation is quite taken away) so are there also several Inconcinnities in it, and even Historical Defects, and nothing but what is hard and suspicable. For, in the first place, I will deny that Domitian was ever really and truly Emperor in his Father's time, but that he was only a pragmatical and active young man, and did, as his Father Vespasian complains, terminos aetatis & concessa filio egredi, that he went something beyond his tether; which he might do without being Emperor, as also be saluted by that Title in Courtship by Flatterers. But a civil salutation is no Instalment into the Imperial Power; otherwise Titus had been also Emperor in his Father's time, whom the Soldiery, at his taking Jerusalem, did with an universal gratulatory Acclamation salute Emperor. Nay he wore a Diadem also at Memphis at the Consecration of the Egyptian Apis, and great rumours and suspicions there were that he had seized on the Eastern part of the Empire against his Father. It were too voluminous a business to enter into History; but I doubt not but, laying all passages together, Titus will be found as much Emperor in his Father's time as Domitian, and rather much more, and therefore a fit person to be the Beast that was, and is not, than Domitian in that regard. But neither of them fit, because neither of them were truly and really Emperors before their Father's decease. Besides this, it is quite out of the road of the Prophetic style to call a Single Person a Beast, which in that style always signifies a Body Politic. And then to say he is not, because not Emperor, is hardly true; and that elegant contradiction, [that he is not, and yet is] so expounded, that he is a Man, though he be not an Emperor, is but a flat and dilute Opposition in comparison of that in the Exposition I have given thereof, in showing that the Image of the Beast is the Beast and is not the Beast. But they could not say in Vespasian's time, nor in Domitian's own time, that Domitian was Emperor and yet not Emperor at once. And, lastly, his ascending out of the bottomless pit is a Prophetic phrase, the same that to ascend out of the Sea, o●… the multitude of Waters, which is proper to Bodies Politic, they consisting of multitudes of men, but not fit to be said of a Single Person, no more than Beast in the Prophetic style is. 5. Secondly, The Angel's Interpretation of the Heads of the Beast is, that they are so many Kings, of which, saith Grotius, Domitian is the Eighth; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He is the eighth King. Wherefore Domitian is plainly and unavoidably the eighth Head, according to Grotius his Interpretation, and the foregoing Exposition of the Angel, which cannot be rejected. Whence it will follow that the Beast has eight Heads, which is point-blank against all the Visions of the Beast which exhibit him ever Seven-headed. Thirdly, Grotius notwithstanding makes Domitian the Beast himself. Which is a thing impossible, that one and the same Being should be both the whole Beast and the Head of the Beast. Besides, how hard and vexed a sense, or rather how palpable a piece of Nonsense, will that be that shall pretend to make Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian and Titus the Heads of Domitian, they being all of one equal Supremacy, I mean Domitian with those other seven foregoing Caesar's, and not in being when he was the Beast, and therefore impossible to be his Seven Heads? Fourthly, How wild a conceit again is it, to clap Ten Horns on this one Man or Beast Domitian his head some Ages after his ceasing to be, as I have elsewhere noted Grotius to do, who makes these Ten Horns to be the Ostrogotthi, Wisigotthi, Vandali, Gepidae, & c? Certainly it were requisite that Domitian were raised out of Hell again to live upon Earth, (as a late Essayer upon the Apocalypse imagines) to make this part of the Prophecy any thing at all applicable unto him. Whence the madness of Grotius his Exposition is more fully detected, that cannot be made out without the help of such incredible Extravagancies. 6. Fifthly, The Beast that was, and is not, is the very Beast which the Whore is said to ride upon, as is plain out of the Text: The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not; and the Whore road upon the Beast which he saw. Did therefore the Whore (which Grotius interprets Dominatio Romana) ride only in Domitian's time, and go on foot in the former and following Ages. Sixthly, The Beast which John saw, Grotius first interprets the Roman Pagan Idolatry. But was this Beast so short-lived as to be included within the space of the reign of seven Emperors? or did this Beast live so long time without any Heads, then with seven successive Heads, and then for a long time without Heads again, that it should be called the Beast with seven Heads and no more? Seventhly, To call Idolatry in the Abstract a Beast, is quite out of the Prophetic style; and to make one and the same Beast one while Idolatry and another while Domitian, is to change Substances into Accidents and Accidents into Substances ●…and to speak contradictiously to the express Interpretation of the Angel himself, who says, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, which in Grotius his way can be none but Domitian. Nor is there any subterfuge to be sought in a second Henopoeia in this case: for that Figure is no shelter for bungles and shifts from Abstracts to Concretes in the same kind, but a handsome Repository for different matters signifiable by one Type; as is easy to be understood from what is declared concerning that Scheme. Eighthly, If Domitian be the Beast and the Whore the Roman Power, than the Roman Power rides on Domitian's back, as if Domitian were not the Head but the Body of the Empire, or, if you will, metamorphozed by this marvellous Interpretation into Apuleius his Ass for the Roman Power to ride on. But then again Domitian being chief of the Roman Power himself, he must by this account ride also upon himself, and make a wonderful Centaur, such as the deepest-witted Poets never so much as dreamed of. 7. Ninthly, If the Whore be the Roman Pagan Power, how can she be said to be the Mother of Fornications, and out of her Cup to intoxicate the Kings of the Earth with that kind of wickedness, whenas all the Earth, before the Empire was Christian, were Idolaters of themselves, and stored Rome herself with multifarious kinds of Idolatry? Which Objection neither Grotius nor any one else, with all the fetches they have, will be ever able to assoil. Tenthly, This Inscription on the Whore of Babylon, Babylon the Great, Apoc. 17. 〈◊〉. the Mother of Fornications, cannot be understood of Rome Heathen, as Grotius would have it, because there is prefixed [Mystery] before it; which would be a sorry Mystery indeed, if it were only a bare Synecdoche, and should intimate no more than that Rome Pagan was another Babylon, that is to say, an Idolatrous City. O the depth of the Mystery! In the eleventh place, Those ten Kingdoms which Grotius would insinuate to be the ten Horns, were not Kingdoms intra fines Imperii Romani, as he speaks, before the Conversion of the Empire to Christianity, nay indeed before the subversion of it, or discerption into many Kingdoms: how then could these Kings give their Power to the Beast; I mean not Apocal. 17. 13. only to Domitian, who is farther removed from them, but to the Roman Pagan Idolatry, which by this time of Discerption had ceased to be the Religion of the Empire? Or how can they be said to eat the flesh of the Whore and burn her with fire, whenas the City of Rome had ceased to be Vers. 16. the Pagan Whore before these Kings were in being, much more before she was assaulted and sacked by Totilas, which was Anno 547. whenas Gentilism was cast out and the Temples of their Idols demolished all over the Empire about the year 399. the very next to that wherein (according to the Devil's mistake upon his survey of the proportion betwixt the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple) Christianity was expected by the Heathens to expire? And again in the twelfth place, How can those Ten Kings which Grotius assigns be said to fight against the Lamb in his sense, that is against Christianity Apoc. 17. 14. in the behalf of the Roman Pagan Idolatry, whenas the Empire had then become Christian, and was not that Pagan Beast to whom they should lend their aid and power against the preaching of the Gospel? Was it a likely thing that such ten Kings that were foes to Christianity should, as Grotius speaks, intra fines Imperii Romani Romanis ipsis concedentibus regnare? So impossible is Grotius his Interpretation concerning the ten Horns every way. 8. In the thirteenth place, This destruction of Babylon is a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a full and final destruction, set out by the casting a Millstone into the midst of the Sea. But none of Grotius his Ten Kings ever destroyed Rome in such a manner. In the fourteenth, That exhortation to the People of God to go out of Apoc. 18. 4. Babylon, lest they partake of her sins, can make no good sense in Totilas his time. For would the Angel have all the Christians leave the City of Rome in the year 546. and for several years upwards toward Constantine's time, because there might be some Pagan Idolaters still amongst them, and not rather keep the City, for the better suppressing Idolatry and quite extinguishing it, and not let it spread more by the receding of the hearty Christians out of it? Truly this gloss of Grotius is very ridiculous and incredible, that makes the Angel utter such an irrational Exhortation. Fifteenthly, If [Come out of her, my people, lest ye partake of her sins] be, as Grotius interprets, Tu popule mi, ubi apparuerit Totilae exercitus, exite ad Basilicas Apostolorum extra Urbem, it will follow, that to have returned again into the City after Totilas was gone, had been to return into Babylon and partake of her sins again. Which is a very vain and fond conceit. 9 Lastly, His interpreting that Instigation [Reward her as she has rewarded you] to be made to Totilas and the Goths, is harsh and groundless. For what injury had Rome done to the Goths? but rather the Empire was injured by them. And therefore Grotius is sensible of the ill service that Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does his Interpretation, and upon that account applauds a certain Manuscript that has left it out, but not very loudly, it being so generally contradicted by other Copies. Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abest in MS. non malé. CHAP. IU. 1. That this Mis-timing of Visions must needs cast Grotius into the like Absurdities in interpreting the Thirteenth Chapter, and that his Exposition of the first verse thereof is guilty of at least nine or ten. 2. Four gross Contradictions in the second. 3. As many Incongruities or Weaknesses in the third. 4. As also in the fourth and fifth. 5. Two Absurdities in the sixth and seventh. 6. As many in the eighth. 7. Three Difficulties in the exposition of the tenth verse. 8. Five Incongruities in the eleventh. 9 His gross Interpretation of the twelfth verse. 10. Four Absurdities in the thirteenth. 11. Eight Incongruities or Weaknesses in his expositions on the fourteenth verse. 12. Three in the fifteenth. 13. Three or four more in the sixteenth and seventeenth. 14. And nine more in the eighteenth verse. 15. The astonishing consideration of the Absurdness of Grotius his Expositions compared with his Parts and Learning. 16. An useful Illation from this weak performance of his, That all the Expositions of the Romanists upon these two Chapters are superlatively frivolous and incredible. 1. THus many Incongruities and Inconsistencies, that I may not say Impossibilities and Contradictions, are there in 〈◊〉 Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter. Let us now see how successful he is in the Thirteenth: where he taking the same liberty of applying the Prophecy to times it was never meant of, it will be a wonder if we find not the Interpretation alike harsh and incongruous. Let us pass therefore through the whole Chapter from verse to verse. Where In the first, he makes the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns to be the Roman Idolatry, whose Heads are seven Hills, and whose Horns are ten Kings, namely, of Armenia, Thracia, Galatia, Pontus, Judaea, Arabia, Adiabena, Suevia, Alps Cottiae, and Alps Idionni. From which account notwithstanding he varies in his second Notations: And concerning which I will omit to note any thing farther, then that such ¹ petty Kings as some of them are, in comparison of the Roman Empire especially, could not well deserve the name of the Horns thereof, and that in reference to Idolatry, ² as if they were so peculiar Defenders of it. For there is no History that mentions their goring any one so particularly and considerably in the behalf thereof; and Judaea is an unsuitable Horn for an Idolatrous Head to wear. Besides that their ³ wearing of Crowns seems too magnificent an ornament for them that are acknowledged (besides the scantness of the Territories of some of them) to be Tributaries to the Roman State. So that the Invention seems something faint touching these Ten Kings, and the Prophecy useless, they tending to no notice of any thing to the Church that might at any time be useful for them. But now concerning the Beast itself. Besides that it is ⁴ not according to the Prophetic style to interpret a Beast to be a Vice but a Body Politic, how can the ⁵ Roman Idolatry be represented thereby, sigh it is said to ascend out of the Sea, which Grotius confesses to signify ortum habere? But the Roman Idolatry could not be prefigured to S. John as a thing to arise hereafter, since it had been in the world so many Ages ago, and did still continue. Wherefore it was not to ⁶ begin with the forty two months to come, nor was to end with them in Grotius his sense. Nor did the Deifying of their Caesars make a new Idolatry, no more than taking other Deities into their worship. Nor did that Idolatry ⁷ continue but forty two months, as Grotius expounds months in this place; I say, neither the Roman Idolatry nor Cruelty continued but forty two months: and therefore the Beast here described cannot be Idololatria ferino more saeviens in that meaning Grotius would have it. Add to all this, That the making the Seven Heads to be the Seven Hills of Rome is a very unlikely Exposition here, both because in the foregoing Chapter these Heads are said to be ⁸ crowned, which is not proper for Hills, and one of them in this Chapter to be ⁹ wounded and healed again, which is as little proper to these dead Heaps of Earth; as also it is very harsh to ¹⁰ clap on seven Heads and ten Horns in a Concrete sense upon a Beast that is an Abstract. Which is as harsh as to make the body of a Bull Redness in the Abstract, and then to set a solid Head and Horns upon him of hard bone and flesh, etc. If a man will be so curious as to count, he will find Grotius his Interpretation guilty of at least nine or ten Weaknesses or Incongruities in this very first verse. But we proceed. 2. In the second, he makes Claudius the Body of this Beast which is Panther-like, and Domitian the Mouth thereof; than which nothing can be more extravagant. For this Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns he acknowledges to be the Roman Idolatry in the 17th Chapter also. Whence it will follow, ¹ That Claudius is both the Body of the Beast and one of the Heads; and ² Domitian both Body, Head and Mouth, as may appear from what was noted in the foregoing Chapter. And also, which is as harsh as any thing, Claudius being the Body of the Beast and Domitian the Mouth, ³ the Body will be without a Mouth for as many years as there are betwixt Claudius and Domitian's reign, which was about forty years. The ⁴ Dragon also giving his power to the Beast and his Throne, can be no Prophecy of the Roman Idolatrie's receiving of it, because that was done many Ages before. 3. In the third, he makes the Head of the Beast wounded to death to be the Capitol, and the healing thereof the building of it up again by Vespasian; upon whose Coin was stamped Roma resurges. ¹ Now, first, I say that it is an hard Metaphor to say an Edifice of wood or stone is wounded to death, and then healed. But suppose the Capitol wounded, ² the Hill was not hurt, at least not wounded to death; so that unless there were seven Capitols as well as seven Hills, the Conceit will come off very hardly: but if you leave the Capitol, and take to the Hill, the Hill can no more be said to be wounded then a man's Head whose Hat is only cut. Again, the main thing aimed at by Grotius in interpreting this wounded Head of the fall of the Capitol is not true. ³ For Idolatry was not at all lessened by the fall of the Capitol, nor the fear of the Romans that the worship of Idols would fall after it, but that the Empire would be ruined by the incursion of the Northern Nations; and upon this account is that Omen inscribed upon Vespasian's Coin, Roma resurges. And, lastly, whereas it is said that all the world wondered after the Beast upon the healing of his deadly wound; it is manifest that some ⁴ stranger thing than the building up the Capitol must be understood thereby. For was it any wonder to strike all the world, that the Capitol should be built up again by so rich a City and the Lady of the world? Truly the great wonder had been if they had not rebuilt it. 4. In the fourth, he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Idololatriae inservierunt: which is as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ¹ they worshipped Idolatry. Which is a very hard phrase. In the fifth, here Domitian is made the Mouth of the Beast, as was said before, and by attributing the reign of the Beast to him, ² the whole Beast: and this because Domitian's Persecution is supposed to be but three years & an half; for he began to persecute, saith Grotius, in the thirteenth year of his Reign, and was slain in the sixteenth. ³ But this does not prove that his Persecution was just three years and an half; and Baronius and other Chronologers place the beginning of that Persecution in the tenth year of his Reign. Besides, ⁴ the Text does not say, He shall persecute three years and an half, but continue so long. But Domitian continued above three years and an half, for he reigned sixteen years according to Grotius his own confession. 5. In the sixth and seventh, he makes Domitian still the Beast, and expounds [And there was power given him over every Tribe, and People, and Language] of the power of his Example to a more impudent exercise of Idolatry. That's one shift. Another is this, That in his reign the Dacae, Catti and Sarmatae were overcome, and the Roman Idolatry propagated thereby: as if it were a worse Idolatry then that of those Barbarians. But let any one judge if such a lank and improper sense as this can fill out the meaning of the Prophecy, which speaks of a ¹ Political, not Moral, Power over the Nations, and of a thing as ² new. But that the Roman Empire had such a large Dominion, was true in the reigns of the foregoing Emperors as well as in his. 6. In the eighth, here he makes the Beast, whom all (whose names are not in the Book of Life) do worship, to be in one Exposition Domitian, and that to ¹ worship him is to imitate him in Idolatry and Cruelty; which is a very insipid sense, and without example in this case, and such as himself seems out of conceit with: And therefore in his after-Exposition Domitian is not the Beast, but Idolatry, as if to ² worship Idolatry were a more tolerable phrase. But there must needs be this shifting and fridging when an Interpretation sits so uneasy on a Text as this does. 7. In the tenth, If any one strike with the sword, he shall perish by the sword; This he applies to Domitian who was stabbed by Stephanus. But it seems to be ¹ most natural to conceive the menaces of leading into captivity and perishing by the sword spoke concerning the same party. And therefore Captivity being not understood of Domitian, that being smitten by the sword is not understood of him; but that the Prophecy concerns a Body Politic, and not a Single Person. For the ² Patience and Faith of the Saints seems also to imply a larger exercise of these virtues than the term of three years and an half would urge them to: as also there seems to be an Intimation of being ³ freed from their troubles after this Beast is vanquished; but if Domitian be he, not the smallest part of them are over by his death, there being no fewer than eight grievous Persecutions behind. Not to suggest that there was a greater affliction upon the Christians in Nero's time then in Domitian's, whom Tertullian calls only Portionem Neronis. And therefore the Faith and Patience of the Saints were most exercised then. Which further betrays the groundlesness and arbitrariousness of Grotius his Exposition. 8. In the eleventh, here he makes the Beast with two Horns like a Lamb to be Art Magic, and the Two Horns themselves to be Abstinence from Meats, and Chastity or Abstinence from Women. Which he would have to be an imitation of Christianity, and therefore to be called the Horns of a Lamb. But in that this Beast is said to speak like a Dragon, that it is employed that what he utters is for the honour of the Devil. In which Interpretation there are these flaws. 1. That the Beast is an Art, and not a Body Politic; which is against the Laws of the Prophetic style. 2. That the Horns are simulated Virtues, not Political powers seated in some men or other; which is the genuine meaning of Horns in the phrase of the Prophets, and which is to be found first before we adjoin any other secondary sense to the Type. 3. Vowed Coelibate and Abstinence from Meats are so far from being the characteristical Virtues of Christianity, that they are disavowed by her, as being either Parts or Signs of the Great Apostasy that was to seize the Church. 4. There seems plainly intimated a strange contradiction and opposition in the Property of this Beast, That it looking so Christianlike, should speak for the Devil: but if this Beast were Magic, it were strange if it did not speak the language of the Dragon. Lastly, The times which Grotius fixes this Prophecy to, namely of Domitian and Trajan, do not agree with his conceit, these Emperor's being no favourers of Magic, but the former rather a persecutor of it, and of that very Apollonius whom he conceives to be especially pointed at in this Prophecy. 9 In the twelfth, he makes the Two-horned Beast's exercising all the power of the former Beast before him, to signify, that Magic also had her Sacrifices as well as Idolatry. But truly Magic though it had Sacrifices, yet they were clancular ones, as being so horrid and execrable. And Philostratus makes it his business several times to clear Apollonius from that suspicion. Which is a sign that Magic had not so open an exercise of its abhorred Sacrifices as this Text would import, if Grotius his Interpretation were true. Pliny calls them Sacra Prodigiosa, and tells us that this sacrificing of men was taken away by a Decree of the Senate, bestowing this Epiphonema upon the Roman State for so doing, Non satis aestimari Histor. Natur. lib. 30. cap. 1. potest quantum Romanis debeatur qui sustulere monstra, in quibus hominem occidere religiosum erat, mandi verò etiam saluberrimum. And this certainly is properly that Magic which was distinguishable from Pagan Idolatry simply so called, (which worshipped and invoked the Devil as well as the Magicians;) but such, as the Roman Idolatry would not suffer her to exercise her power in her sight upon any pretence. Nor did Apollonius exercise any such power, who being a Pythagorean abhorred all bloody Sacrifices whatsoever. 10. In the thirteenth, he interprets the bringing down fire from Heaven of that Lightning which happened at Apollonius his birth, and of that glimpse of Light that Achilles' Ghost gave at his departure after Apollonius his conference with him by night at his Sepulchre. Which is a very frigid Exposition. For why should that Lightning which happened at Apollonius his birth be imputed to him as an effect of his Magic, ¹ who was neither capable then of being a Magician nor any thing else? Besides that he was born before this Prophecy, as Grotius himself must needs according to his own account acknowledge and admit; and therefore upon ² that ground the Interpretation is impossible. That glimpse of Light also which Achilles Ghost gave at his parting, that it should be the causing fire to fall from Heaven, is altogether incredible; ³ for this glimpse of Light was upon Earth where the Ghost was, did not fall from the Sky; besides, it was in ⁴ private, as the story in Philostratus will prove, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not in the face or view of the world. 11. In the fourteenth, he interprets the making of an Image to the Beast, of Apollonius his boasting that he had raised up the Ghost of Achilles in favour of Idolatry. But who ever expounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (which is to make an Image, Picture, or Statue) to raise a Ghost? For supposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would signify so as Umbrae in Latin, (of which notwithstanding I dare say there is no example) yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would not be good sense; forasmuch as these Umbrae are not made by Magical Evocations, but made only to appear. 2. He would not have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which ordinarily signifies no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if it were a boast of something done already, and not a precept or command to do something. 3. If the sense were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it would have been said also, to continue the sense in the following verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as any one will acknowledge that does but observe the contexture of the whole sentence. Lastly, whereas this conjuring up the Ghost of Achilles was to revive the Beast who had the deadly wound, as Grotius intimates, this clashes with what was acknowledged before, that this wound was healed in re-edifying the Capitol. Nor can this healing be naturally understood of any more than the first-mentioned wound which the Beast received in the Battle with Michael. But Grotius distrusting the fitness of this Exposition, upon second thoughts forges another to add to it, namely, That the Disciples of Apollonius caused a Statue to be erected to him. But if this be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Apollonius will prove the Seven-headed Beast, because the Image is erected to him. 2. Grotius produces no History that attests that certain Magicians, Disciples of Apollonius, gave any such order. 3. That expression [Saying to them that dwell upon Earth] is too big for the private Instructions of any Disciples of Apollonius to one single Town or some few persons therein. Lastly, it is but a lank business to take notice of one single Statue for Idolatry, when there were already innumerable numbers of them in the Empire. 12. In the fifteenth, he interprets the Two-horned Beast's giving life or breath to the Image, so that it would speak, of Apollonius his Confabulation with Achilles' Ghost, or of his Statue's speaking. But suppose his Statue did speak, (which yet Philostratus, who made it his business by travel and enquiry to know where Apollonius was buried, does not mention) it is not presently to be imputed to Magic, since that Idol-garrulity is often noted in History without any such reflection. 2. That Image that is here said to speak, is said to give in charge that they that would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed; but there is no record of any such Edict from either the Ghost of Achilles or the Statue of Apollonius, that they that would not worship their Images should be killed. 3. But if the worshipping of the Image of the Beast be understood of the Universality of Images or Idols; besides that it is exceeding hard and extravagant to change that settled sense of this word in which it had been used thrice before, that also will want proof, that either the Statue of Apollonius or Spectre of Achilles ever gave any command that they that would not worship Images should be killed. 13. In the sixteenth and seventeenth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems most naturally to be spoken of the Image of the Beast in the foregoing verse, of whom it was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which was either the Ghost of Achilles or the Statue of Apollonius: here of a sudden Magia is understood; which is but an harsh shift. But this Magia it is that makes all ranks of men to enter into some Religious Society or other, and in token thereof to receive either the mark of this or that God, as of a Thunderbolt for Jupiter, an Ivy-leaf for Bacchus, an Helmet for Mars, a Trident for Neptune; or the Names of such Gods, or the Number comprised in their names, or else not to be permitted to buy or sell. But against this I urge, That the Mark of the Sealed is not a visible puncture or stigmatism, and therefore it's likely that, in a Book so Symbolical as the Apocalypse is, the Mark of the Beast does not signify so grossly and literally. 2. These Fraternities or Societies were not the procurement of Apollonius his Magic in Trajan's time, they being in use long before. Lastly, it is not credible, nor is there any History to make it good, that no Pagan could buy nor sell, unless he had some such sacred Stigmatism upon his body. So inadequate and groundless is this part of Grotius his Interpretation. 14. In the eighteenth, he makes Ulpius Trajanus to be him to whom the Number 666 belongs; but very groundlessly, nay against all reason. For it is a mere mistake in him to think that the Number is understood of the number of any man's name whatsoever, because it is expressly said that it is the Name of the Beast: And Ribera takes away all occasion of any such error, interpreting [For it is the Number of a man] according to the mind of Aretas, (or at least according to what he thought should have been his mind as well as his own) in quite another sense, Numerus enim proprius hominis est, & intellectum habentis ac ratiocinantis est numerare. 2. If it were the Number of a man, it being intended for the note of one most signally wicked and mischievous to the Church, why must it fall to Trajan's share, when there were Emperors far worse than he, or rather when he was so very good an Emperor, and not so cruel a Persecutor of the Christians as several others were, but one that easily desisted being once rightly informed of things; who gained so much on the Christians themselves, that they thought he got to Heaven, and amongst the Heathens made up part of that auspicious Acclamation of the Senate to their Caesars, Felicior Augusto, Melior Trajano? 3. What a leap is this to leave all the Seven Heads of the Beast, and pitch upon one that has not been in play all this while? 4. That also is very weak and suspicable, to find this number in his Praenomen or Fore-name, and not in his Name. 5. But far worse to fall short, or rather to misreckon, in the account; for assuredly in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, writ the final Sigma as you will, it being still a Sigma, it will have no other valour than 200: whence the whole sum of the Name will not be 666, but 860, as any one may see that will reckon: For that Sigma even in the end signifies 200, is plain in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and several other examples. This is most certainly true, and there is no subterfuge at all to avoid it, as Maresius, Grotius his Antagonist, has fully made good against him; as he has indeed every where, in a manner, worsted him, though Grotius so unseemly contemns him, trampling him down into the dirt under that uncivil Nickname of Borborita. 6. The Mark, the Name and the Number belong all to one; wherefore if the Number be Trajan's, the Mark must be his also. But might no body buy nor sell who had not his mark on their hand or forehead? 7. Here is wisdom, let him that has understanding count the Number of the Beast, is such a Preface as implies another sort of numbering then the mere summing up the Numeral Letters of a Name into one sum. 8. To what purpose was this setting down the number 666 for the denoting of the Emperor Ulpius Trajanus, it never entering into any one's head that this number reflected upon him till Grotius hit upon it and missed it both at once? 9 And, lastly, if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did contain in it just 666, (as it does most certainly 860) it would follow indeed that this would be no let but that Trajan might be that former Beast in the Vision, according to Grotius his Exposition. But we are withal to remember that he had before made Domitian to be that Beast, and Claudius; so that a Triumvirate of Beasts is but One Beast. And not only these three Varieties, but it must be Idolatry in the Abstract besides: which is grossly against our second Rule of rightly interpreting of Prophecies. Thus infinitely forced and distorted, nay, groundless, contradictious and inconsistent, is Grotius his Exposition of these two Chapters of the Apocalypse all along. 15. The consideration whereof has even cast me into an astonishment, that a Person of those admirable Parts and Learning, and, as I have been always prone to think, of great ingenuity, should ever please himself in any such performance as this; and I am more puzzled to find out the cause of this strange Misadventure ofhi, then of any Phaenomenon of nature that ever solicited my thoughts. For to think he was in good earnest in this Exposition, and sincerely delivered his judgement, his known skill and sharpness of sight in other things will not permit: Nor will that Ingenuity and Integrity I presumed always to be in him suffer me to suspect he would willingly and wittingly, in favour of a party, forge false glosses and adulterate the true meaning of the Oracles of God; there being, in my apprehension, nothing more abominable, then for a man whom God has blest with Parts and Learning and an honest Reputation amongst men, to make use of all these against him that gave them, and for the serving of an Interest to do so great a disservice to the Kingdom of Christ, as to hid the most concerning Truths thereof, by blinding the eyes of men by the interposing of the Idolized lustre of his own Name betwixt those Truths and them. 16. But I will not be too inquisitive into what I cannot fathom. That which is more useful for us to consider is this, That Grotius, a man of those excellent Parts and Learning, and so throughly read in History, and having also so great a zeal and resolution to make good sense of these Visions in the behalf of the Church of Rome, and for that end taken to himself the liberty (even against the whole stream of Antiquity) to chop into such Times as he thought made most for his turn; yet for all this having made so pitiful and impossible a piece of work of it, though certainly in his own judgement considerably better than any thing the Church of Rome had invented for herself before; it is plain partly from hence, I mean, from Grotius his own judgement, who has by this new Invention antiquated and condemned all their precedent Expositions, and partly from our observation of the multifarious Incongruities and Impossibilities of his, that there is no Interpretation extant, against the main sense of the Protestants, that is not superlatively weak and frivolous, nay incredible and impossible. CHAP. V. 1. The first Consectary from our Joint-Exposition, with a Demonstration of the truth thereof. 2. The great Usefulness of the second Consectary for the peace and security of the Church. 3. The settled Notion of Long and Short. 4. A Demonstration of the truth of this Consectary. 5. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth Consectaries, together with their Proofs. 6. The Demonstration of the seventh Consectary, with an intimation of the special usefulness thereof for the Peace of Christendom. 7. The eighth Consectary, with the Proof thereof. 8. The ninth Consectary, with a copious Demonstration of the truth thereof. 9 The truth of the tenth Consectary, clearing the Protestants from Schism, plainly demonstrated. 10. The eleventh Consectary, with its Proof. 11. The Proof and notable Usefulness of the twelfth Consectary. 12. Ho●… clearly and plainly that part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatry is prefigured and foretold in these Visions, we have explained in our Joint-Exposition. 1. WHerefore having cleared the coast of all Opposers, and made sure of the right sense of these two Chapters of the Revelation, there being nothing strained nor forced in our Exposition of them, but all according to the acknowledged Laws of Prophetic Interpretation in those four Rules I have laid down, and the usual meaning of the Symbols noted in my Prophetic Alphabet; let us now take notice of some few, but weighty, Consectaries, partly contained in, but necessarily flowing from, the continued and perpetual Firmness of our Joint-Exposition of the said Chapters. As first, Consect. I. That the Forty two months, by which the Continuance of the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns, after the healing of his wounded Head, is prefigured, are not months of Days, but 1260 Years. This does necessarily follow from our Joint-Exposition, wherein we have clearly demonstrated, That the Beast whose deadly wound was healed, and the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, are one and the same Beast absolutely and adequately, and therefore must of necessity have one and the same duration. But the Duration of the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, cannot be 42 months literally understood: wherefore they must signify Symbolically, and be interpreted of months of years, as there are weeks of years in Daniel. Now that the duration of 42 months cannot be literally understood of the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, is plain from hence, in that it is said of the Seventh King that he should * Apocal. 17. 10. stay but a short space. Which must be a peculiar Property of him, and distinct both from the immediately preceding and immediately succeeding King. Which implies that both they should stay longer than he. And yet that short-lived King did continue about an hundred years at least, as may appear by History, and will be farther demonstrated in the following Consectary. Whence the Beast that was, and is not, must needs continue above three years and an See Mystery of Godliness, Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 2. half, nay above an hundred years. Which forty two months having no fitness to typify, it is manifest that by these months are meant 1260 years. Which was the thing to be demonstrated. Consect. II. That the Church was free from Idolatry and Antichristianism till about four hundred years after Christ. 2. This is a main Truth, and a mighty Bulwark against the rampant fury of many Fanatical Sects that would reform even to utter Confusion, Deformity and Destruction, under pretence of calling any thing Idolatrous and Antichristian that does not stand with their own fancy. But this Consectary is a Protection to the greatest and most considerable Truths of Christianity; there being a Subscription, as it were, by the Finger of God to the general sense of the Church concerning such things as were then universally held or concluded in Councils, that they were neither Idolatrous nor Antichristian. 3. Now the truth of the Consectary appears thus: The Seventh King, which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (and which I have proved to be the Emperors purely Christian) it is said of him that he must * Apoc. 17. 10. continue a short space; which, unless the Prophecy speaks altogether undeterminately and defines nothing thereby, must in reason be thought to be about a third part of that space which this Expression intimates to be long. For Short and Long are not absolute terms, but relative or comparative, and are two Extremes which imply a Middle. Wherefore we cannot better settle the determinate Idea of them then by supposing a Line divided into three equal parts, and to look upon the whole Line as the Subject of Longness, two thirds of the Line as the Subject of Mediocrity, and one third of Shortness. From whence we may gather universally what proportion (to speak accurately and Mathematically) Short and Long must bear the one to the other: That in strictness of Notion, that which is just the third part of the other, is short in comparison of it; but in common use of speech, though it be something more or less, it will break no squares. There must either be some such way as this to settle this Notion, or else Short and Long will signify nothing, but be words spoke at random, unless it be in such cases as there is a known measure of Mediocrity; as when we say a tall man or a low man, where it is taken for granted that a middle stature is so many foot and no more. Having seriously considered the necessity of some determinate Notion of these two terms, and how naturally they fall into this proportion, I could not but consent to so plain a Conviction, though I might justly seem prejudiced against it by what I have wrote elsewhere concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but I had not then so accurately Mystery of Godliness, Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 9 weighed the matter. 4. Admitting therefore that to be the genuine sense of these terms of Short and Long which I have propounded, and comparing the continuance of the Seventh King with the continuance of the Sixth, that is to say, of the Pagan Caesars, which from Julius to Constantine is about 360 years; it is plain that the continuance of the Seventh King, that is, of the Christian Caesars, must be 120 years or thereabout: which added to Ann. Christi 312, when Constantine was converted to Christianity, make 432 years. Which I would not pronounce to be so defined as to understand a Mathematical accuracy in the proportion of Short and Long, but with some latitude, such as befits the use of common speech in such Expressions; though it be necessary to have recourse to this Mathematical Idea, that we may judge whether the use of these terms be tolerable or extravagant. But what I leave more lax here will be more particularly bounded in the Proportion of the Inward and Outward Court of the Temple; which will gird in this time a little within 400 years, but so as this present way of Compute will be very flexible and obedient to it. For supposing the Short term, viz. 120, subdivided into three degrees or parts, any thing above two thirds thereof may rationally be deemed Short in the first degree of Comparison. And we are to remember that the Duration of the Beast restored is computed by Months of years, which, as I have above noted, intimates a latitude no less than any thing within thirty in the computation of these Epocha's; the pinching of things to a year's coincidence being of no usefulness in these long Periods, nor in the nature of the things that are predicted, and therefore not affected nor intended by that Spirit that dictated these Prophecies. Which I doubt not but is a very solid and true Observation. Wherefore it is plain enough that the Church's lapse into Antichristianism was not till about four hundred years after Christ, the reign of the Seventh King not expiring till then. Consect. III. That the Reign of Antichrist is comprised within the compass of 1260 years or thereabout. 5. For thus long is the Empire to continue Idolatrous, as is evident out of our Joint-Exposition and the first Consectary thereof. But it is in a manner impossible for the Empire to continue Idolatrous any longer than the Idolatrous Clergy thereof rides it and guides it, which is the Whore or the Two-horned Beast, and these Types the Types or Symbols of Antichrist: Which we shall farther prove to synchronize with the Ten-horned Beast, that is, with the Pagano-Christian Empire, in the following Chapter. Consect. iv That Antichrist is long since entered into the World, and has reigned about twelve hundred years already. The truth of this Consectary is evident from the second, wherein is shown that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the succession of the purely Christian Caesars, was not above 120 years or thereabout. Which added to the year of Constantine's Conversion, 312, make up 432. From about that time Antichrist began his reign, and therefore has reigned at least twelve hundred years already. Consect. V That according to Prophetical Compute the Ruin of Antichrist is near, and that nothing can retard it but the Sinfulness, Hypocrisy and Factiousness of the Reformed Churches; and that therefore that voice of Him that cried in the Wilderness, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand, is again very seasonable in this our Age. This Consectary is exceeding plain from the three Consectaries immediately going before, nor is it needful to add any thing to the farther clearing it. Only see, if you will, my Mystery of Godliness, Book 5. Chap. 17. Sect. 10. Consect. VI That the Roman Empire divided into Ten Kingdoms is the Seat of Antichrist. This is directly contained in our Joint-Exposition; the Beast with ten Horns being there proved to be the Roman Empire thus divided. And the Whore, which is Antichrist, is said to sit upon this Beast, and the Two-horned Beast to be the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire under those two Imperial Patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople; as also the Whore and the Two-horned Beast are proved to be all one. Which fully make good this sixth Consectary. Consect. VII. That the Ruin of the Fourth Monarchy, and the Introducing of the Fifth, which is the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High, as Daniel calls it, does not imply wars and spoil and the invading of the rights of any Prince or People, according to the tenor of the Prophetic style, but merely the renewing of the Empire into an Evangelical Purity in Doctrine and Worship and in Christian Life. 6. This plainly appears out of our Joint-Exposition, where it is manifest that the Beast, which is the Roman Monarchy, is said to be slain and not to be in rerum natura, merely because the Pagan Idolatry was expelled out of it, or ceased to be the Religion of the Empire; and that the Beast was revived from the dead and brought into Being again, merely by re-introducing Idolatry again into the Empire, and by Paganizing upon the Objects of Christianity. Which may be also farther confirmed from the sixth Seal, where Heaven and Earth seem to fall together, and the whole Political Universe to be dissolved, and yet the Roman Empire itself stood still in Being, only there was a change from Paganism to the Christian Faith. Of which sixth Seal Mr. Mede himself notes thus: I am verò Mutationis hujusce Objectum est Imperium Romanum; at non quà politicè à Caesaribus gubernatum, sed quà Satanae principi ejúsque Angelis Daemonibus religioso nomine subditum. Wherefore it is evident that according to the Prophetic style this Fourth Idolatrous Monarchy may be destroyed by the mere extermination of Idolatry out of it again and whatsoever is Antichristian, and that thereupon ipso facto the true Kingdom of the Saints of the most High gins, though not an hair of any man's head falls to the ground, nor any Prince or Subject be injured in any of their Rights or Possessions. This Consectary is exceeding plain, and as highly useful for the asswaging that furious heat in some kind of fanatics that expect such a Kingdom of the Saints as the Jews did a Messiah, one that would serve their temporal Advantage. But the love of the world has blinded both their judgements alike. Consect. VIII. That no Exposition of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse, that makes not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Seventh King, purely Christian, can be true and perfect. 7. This will easily appear if we consider that wonderful Harmony which is found, upon this supposition, betwixt the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters; where the Beast is said to be slain, in one of them, and to cease to be, in the other; to be the revived Image of the Beast, in one, and the Beast that was, is not, and yet is, in the other. That though there be eight Kings, yet there are but seven Heads of the Beast, which nothing can salve but this Hypothesis. For while the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reigned, the Beast was not. But if that Head was not purely Christian but Idolatrous, the Beast was still in Being, and had eight Heads in the computation of the Angel himself. But it is plain that there is supposed in the Beast a ceasing to be, from those words, Was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless Pit; which that excellent Interpreter Mr. Mede has failed to give their genuine sense for want of this supposition. For he saith, it may be said of this Beast, and that in S. John's time, & jam olim eam fuisse, necdum See Preface Sect. 7, 8, 9 tamen natam esse: which to an unprejudiced mind must needs sound very harshly applied to the words of the Text. For no man will say of a thing still in Being, It was, much less add, and is not. Such an harshness as this grates so hard upon my senses, that if I could not understand the Prophecy without such violence against the ordinary meaning of words, I should be much dis-heartened from giving my assent. But Mr. Mede has done so singularly well in other things, that we may well excuse him in this. Consect. IX. That the Whore of Babylon sits not now at Constantinople, but that Old Rome is, if we may so speak, her Seat Imperial. 8. The truth of this Consectary appears from several Conclusions in our Joint-Exposition. 1. That the Whore of Babylon rides upon the Roman Empire, and guides and governs it in matters of Religion; which is not true of the Turk at Constantinople. 2. The Whore sits upon that Seven-hilled City that was, as it were, the Lady of the World in Saint John's time, (that is given as the surest character of her Seat,) which we know Constantinople then was not. 3. The Name of the Beast is found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Beast with two Horns being the same with the Whore, it is plain that this Whore is seated in Italy. And though Bishop Montague has showed his wit and pleasantry in finding the number 666 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet I think he did it only to sport with his despised Opposers, and to play upon their ignorance. For how can 666 be supposed to be meant for the Name of Mahomet, whose Name is wrote so variously in Greek Historians? For in Nicetas he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Chalcocondylas' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Joannes Cantacuzenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Ducas Michael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and lastly in Joannes Cananus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is no where called that I can meet with, nor is it likely that his name would end in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So that I suspect that it is only a witty Commentum of the Bishop's to make himself merry withal. 4. The famousness of the Seven Hills at Rome does so drown the notice of the other, that it is not likely but they are, though not only, yet chief aimed at in the description of the Seat of the Whore. But if one of the Cities only were aimed at, it were intolerable to conceit that the Prophecy is so lubricous and defective, as, when there were two Cities, the one exceeding famous for her Seven Hills, the other so little famous, that it is frequently questioned whether she has Seven Hills or no, that it should understand this latter by the Seven-hilled City and not the former, there being no intimation in the Text given to understand it of the latter, or any way to determine it thereto. 5. The Whore or Antichrist that sits on the Seven Hills was many hundred years, as appears by the fourth Consectary, before the Turk was Master of Constantinople, which happened not passing two hundred years ago; so that Antichrist it should seem sat a thousand years besides the cushion. 6. Upon the forehead of the Whore of Babylon is written Mystery; but the Turk is an open and professed Enemy of Christians. 7. And lastly, The Whore or Antichrist is the debaucher of the Empire with Idolatry and the worshipping of Idols; the Turk a destroyer of them. So fond is their conceit that can imagine the Turk to be the Antichrist prefigured in the Apocalypse. Consect. X. That the Church of England or any other Protestant Church's departing from the Church of Rome, is no Schism. 9 This is plain at first sight out of our Joint-Exposition. Nor can it be Schism to do that which it were a sin to omit the doing of; or, if that will not serve, which we are exhorted to do by the voice of God in the Apocalypse, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Which is a Monition worth the Apoc. 18. 4. listening to for as many as tender their safety and salvation, their security from sin and the punishments thereof. Consect. XI. That the Authority of neither Fathers nor Councils after 400 years from Christ, or thereabout, is of any validity to determine Controversies against the Protestant Churches touching those things which the Church of Rome and they disagree in. 10. This naturally follows from the Epocha of Antichristianism falling about that time we mention: After which the Church being supposed in some measure lapsed into that great Apostasy, neither the Father's Doctrines nor her Councils can have right to decide the Controversies betwixt the Papists and us so as authoritatively to testify against us. But it is observable that their Testimony will hold good against the Papists in such Points as they contradict them in, because they are in that witnesses of the successive mind of the Church as yet unaltered by this growing Corruption; or at least testify matter of fact against the false Pretences of the Popish Traditions. Consect. XII. That all Visions that are Synchronal to this of the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, which is said to continue forty two months, have necessarily the extent of one thousand two hundred and sixty years. 11. To be Synchronal is as much as to begin, continue and end together. Whence it is plain that that which is Synchronal to what continueth 1260 years, must itself continue so many years. But the 42 months of the Beast are 1260 years by the first Consectary: Which is a plain Demonstration of the truth of this last. The use of which Consectary is of very great moment for the detection of the falsehood of such petty Expositions as some put upon those Visions which are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast. For extend them but upon this measure of time, and they will all crack and break into fitters, and thereby (which I would have thus timely taken notice of) excuse me from any farther Confutation of them. Wherefore it will be worth the while to take notice of all those Visions that are Synchronal to this of the restored Beast, it being so necessary a Method to be assured of the right sense of them, and to discern more certainly in what Prophecies of the Apocalypse those Lineaments of Antichristianism, which I have noted in my foregoing Treatise, are prefigured. 12. In the mean time I need not, I think, remind my Reader, that the Visions of these two Chapters, which I have thus carefully interpreted, do plainly foretell that grand part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatrous worship, how it should overrun the Empire by the seduction and activity of an Imposturous Clergy, figured out in the Type of the Beast with two Lamblike Horns, but that would speak like the Dragon, and re-introduce the Image of old Paganism again, under the colour of a more heightened Devotion and Affection toward Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the rest of the Saints and Martyrs: As also in the Type of the Whore of Babylon, who is called the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth, that is, of Idolatry and Pagan-like Worship; who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kings of the Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof with the Cup of the filthiness of her Fornications, that is, seduces them to Idolatry. Hoc enim est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idololatriae calicem, as Grotius himself has interpreted it. Wherefore these are two notable Predictions of the Apostasy of the Church into Heathenish and Idolatrous worship. But I shall also produce others out of the same Book, after I have prepared the way by making good certain Synchronisms thereunto appertaining. CHAP. VI 1. The Synchronism of the Whore, the Two-horned Beast, the restored Beast, or the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, demonstrated out of our Joint-Exposition. 2. To which the False-Prophet is also proved Synchronal; the Virgin-Company, the Two Witnesses, the Woman in the Wilderness and the Outward Court, as being either the fame, Antistoechal, or necessarily connected all along with them. 3. Again, in a more abstract way, That the restored Beast, the Woman in the Wilderness, the Outward Court, the Two Witnesses are of equal time. 4. That the Woman in the Wilderness and the restored Beast begin together, and therefore are Synchronal. 5. That the restored Beast and Two Witnesses are Synchronal, as ending together. 6. That the Two Witnesses and Outward Court are Synchronal, as both beginning and ending together; And all these four Synchronal to the Whore and Two-horned Beast, because the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are Synchronal to the restored Beast, to which the other three are Synchronal. 7. That the Virgin-Company and the Sealed out of the twelve Tribes are all one Company, and therefore both Synchronal to the Whore by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and consequently with the rest of the fix with whom She is Synchronal. 8. That the said Sealed Virgin-Company is Synchronal to the Series of the first six Trumpets, as being sealed immediately before the blast of the first Trumpet, and as being Synchronal to the Mourning of the Witnesses, which ceases at the end of the sixth Trumpet. 9 The six first Seals, the Fight of Michael and the Dragon, and the Inward Court, proved Synchronal. 10. That the Vision of * Apocal. 11. measuring the Temple gins from the first Epocha, indicated from the quality of the Person that holds in his hand the opened Book. 11. From his supplying the place of the seventh Angel, and the space of the seventh Trumpet with seven Thunders. 12. From the suspending of the sound of the seventh Trumpet to make a Regression. 13. From the newness or new condition of the Book in the Angel's hand. 14. From the voice communing or talking with John from Heaven, as in the beginning of the Prophecies of the Seals. 15. From the bitterness of the Book in his belly; From his being bid again to prophecy, and that before many Kings, and Peoples, and Nations. 16. From the Epocha of the Vision of the * Apocal. 12. ensuing Chapter. 17. The Synchronism of the first six Seals with the Inward Court, of weighty concernment. 18. The Millennial Empire of Christ, the Palm-bearing Company, the New Jerusalem and the Ligation of Satan, that they are all in some sense Synchronal to the Seventh Trumpet. 1. THat the Beast with seven Heads in the Thirteenth Chapter is Synchronal with the Beast that carries the Whore in the Seventeenth, is plain, in that they are the very selfsame Beast in every Respect, as appears out of my Joint-Exposition. That the Whore of Babylon also and the Two-horned Beast are the selfsame Thing, is made evident in the same Exposition; and therefore they must be Synchronal, unless one and the same thing can begin to be after it has continued in Being, and continue after it ceases to be. That the Whore or the Two-horned Beast is Synchronal to the Seven-headed with ten Horns in these two Chapters, is evident, in that the Two-horned Beast is the Reviver and Healer of this Seven-headed Beast, or Restorer of him into Being; that is, An Idolatrous Clergy makes again an Idolatrous Empire; one of them cannot be without another, nor continue longer one than another, from the very nature of the things themselves. So that it is manifest that the perpetual connexion of the nature of the things signified by those Visions assures them to us to be Synchronal, to begin, continue, and end together. And thus by the plain and palpably-demonstrable sense of the Visions of the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters do we gather infallibly, That the Two-horned Beast, the Whore of Babylon, the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, or the Beast Healed or Revived, which is said to have seven Heads and ten crowned Horns, are Synchronal one to another. 2. But there are four Visions more, Synchronal to these three, which may after the same manner be demonstrated to be so; I mean from the natural and necessary connexion betwixt the things themselves prefigured, or by their perfect Identity under several Schemes and Types, the things that they naturally signify being already contained in the three first Synchronalls, or else by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or continued Opposition to them. As, by way of Identity, the False-Prophet, that is, the whole Body of false Prophets, must needs be Synchronal to the Two-horned Beast or the Whore, they being but the same things under several Types or Terms. By way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or opposite Correspondency; as the Mournful Witnesses, and the Virgin-Company. For supposing the true Church never failed to be, (as all are agreed upon) there must needs run along with the times of the Whore or Two-horned Beast the Virgin-Company and these Mournful Witnesses in correspondent Opposition to them, and the latter by a causal Connexion with them, and therefore may be an example of the first way mentioned, though not instanced in before. The Subject also of those two mixed Visions is necessarily implied in the same time with the three first Synchronals, upon this granted Hypothesis, That the true Church never fails. For then the Woman in the Wilderness what is it but this pure Virgin-Church hid in the Paganizing Empire, which is the Image of the Beast? and what the Exterior Court of the Temple trodden down by the Gentiles, but the Christian Empire dedicated to Christ and the true worship of God, overrun again with a new kind of Gentilism or Idolatrous worship, which so overflows, that the true and Virgin-Church is hid in a manner in this deluge of Idolaters, at least trodden down and debased and made the Abjects o●… Christendom? Wherefore, I say, from the very nature of the things themselves and close connexion they have one with another there is a very palpable Evidence that the Whore, the Two-horned Beast, the restored Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, the False-Prophet, the Virgin-Company, the Woman in the Wilderness, the two Witnesses, the Exterior Court of the Temple trodden down by the Gentiles, are all Synchronal one to another. 3. But we will not altogether omit that more abstract way Mr. Mede has gone to prove these Synchronals. First, then, it is plain that the Woman in the Wilderness, the Ten-horned Beast restored, the Exterior Court trodden down by the Gentiles, the Mourning of the two Witnesses are all of equal time. For the Woman's stay in the Wilderness is noted by a time, and times, and half a time, as also by 1260 days; both which expressions signify Three years and an half literally. The Ten-horned Beast restored, his continuance is set down by 42 months, as also the Conculcation of the Outward Court; and the days of the Mourning Witnesses are 1260. All which terms of time are equal to those of the Woman in the Wilderness, and are literally Three years and an half. Of all which if any one signify Symbolically, I think there is no body that can be so Sceptical or perverse as to deny that the other do so too. Now that these four are not only Equal, but Synchronal, will appear briefly thus. 4. The Woman in the Wilderness and the Ten-horned Beast restored begin together. For while the Woman hastens into the Wilderness, the Dragon casts a flood out of his mouth to carry her away, if he could, before Apocal. 12. 15. she came thither: But he missing his aim, and driven on with Fury, betakes himself to another course immediately, restoring the Ten-horned Beast, and endowing him with his forces, his Throne and his Apocal. 13. 2, 3. mighty Power. Wherefore the Woman could no sooner get into the Wilderness, but the Dragon had furnished out an Enemy against her. But it is evident that equal Time's beginning at one and the same Epocha, are Synchronal. 5. The Ten-horned Beast restored and the Mourning of the two Witnesses end together. For at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Witnesses Apoc. 11. 12, 14, 15. ascend into Heaven, and at the beginning of the seventh, which is conterminous to the end of the sixth, this Acclamation is from Heaven, All the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Whence it is plain, in some sense or other, that the 42 months, which is the time of the Reign of the Ten-horned Beast restored, do then expire. But Times that are equal and expire together are also Synchronal. 6. The Mourning of the two Witnesses and the Conculcation of the Holy City or Exterior Court by the Gentiles begin together; as appears Apocalypse 11. where it is plainly implied that they commence at one and the same time, I mean the Mourning of the two Witnesses, and the Vers. 2, 3. Object of their Sorrow, the Holy City trodden down by the Gentiles. And besides, at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Witnesses ascend into Heaven, ●…d at the beginning of the seventh the Gentiles are said to be wroth by reason of the judgements of God upon them: So that this Synchronism (though, considering the Synchronals were before found equal, Vers. 18. it be needless) is made fast at both ends. But the Woman in the Wilderness being Synchronal to the Ten-horned Beast restored, this Ten-horned Beast to the two Witnesses, these two Witnesses to the Treading under foot the outward Court or Holy City; it is manifest that all four are Synchronal one to another. But in virtue of our Joint-Exposition it is demonstrable also that the Whore, the Two-horned Beast, and the Ten-horned Beast restored, which is plainly the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, are Synchronal one to another. For the Whore and the Two-horned Beast are all one Company or Condition of men, by whose persuasions and directions the Pagan Empire, which had been wounded to death by the pure Preaching of the Gospel, was again made to Paganize, and so was healed of that wholesome wound, and revived again into that former Idolatrous state, and became the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. From whence it is plain that the Authors of this Restauration of the Beast, or these Makers of the Image of the Beast, as such, began with the Beast: And they are, I mean this Beast and the Pseudo-prophet, (who is typified by the Whore and the Two-horned Beast) both of them at once taken and cast alive into the lake of fire burning with Brimstone, Apocalyps 19 20. Wherefore this Ten-horned Beast restored being, as was above proved, Synchronal to the Woman in the Wilderness, to the two Witnesses, and to the Treading under foot the Holy City or Outward Court; it is manifest that the Whore of Babylon also and the Two-horned Beast are Synchronal to them, they being all Synchronal to the Ten-horned Beast restored. And that in sum, the Woman in the Wilderness, the Ten-horned Beast restored, (which is the same with the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, or the Image of the Beast) the Holy City or Outward Court trodden under foot by the Gentiles, the Mourning Witnesses, the Two-horned Beast, the Whore of Babylon, that all these six are Synchronal one to another. 7. Of the Synchronism of the Virgin-Company with the Whore, (and consequently with the other five of these six) see Mr. Mede. It is not a thing that can be stuck upon, by reason of the necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the great congruity that Christ should have his marked Soldiers, which are the Regiments of the Lamb on Mount Zion, as soon and as long as there were such as bore the Mark of the Beast, which is supposed all along his reign, seeing the receiving this Mark is nothing but an open profession of what party one is, or at least an appropriation to that party. Of those true Members and marked or sealed Soldiers of Christ there is mention in the Seventh and Fourteenth Chapters of the Apocalypse, in both which places the Number is the same, namely 144 Chiliads, or Regiments; and they are said to be sealed or marked upon the forehead: Affliction and Patience, and at last a joyful Victory over their Enemies, is the fate of them both: They are both an Apostolic Company, and abhorring from Idolatry, in that they are called Virgins in the fourteenth Chapter, and in that there is such caution in the ranging of the twelve Tribes in the seventh, that they have the precedence that are most notorious for their zeal against Idolatry, and Dan and Ephraim quite excluded the number for their special obnoxiousness in that crime, as you may see more at large in Mr. Mede. For that these twelve Tribes are understood of Christians, and not of Jews, no man will doubt that considers how full of Israelisms the Apocalypse is everywhere, insomuch as that false Christians are called counterfeit Jews, Revel. 2. 9 I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not, but are the Synagogue of Satan. It is manifest therefore that the 144 thousand sealed Servants of God in the seventh Chapter, and the 144 thousand in the fourteenth Chapter, are the same Apostolic or Virgin-Company. Which is of marvellous great use to take notice of, forasmuch as it will hence be evident, that the six first Trumpets are Synchronal to our first six Synchronals, they being all Synchronal to these 144 thousand sealed Soldiers or Virgin-Regiments of Christ. 8. That our first six Synchronals are Synchronal to these 144 Regiments has been already proved, in that they and five of the six synchronize with the Whore. That the Series of the first six Trumpets is Synchronal to them is thus demonstrated; For they begin with the first Trumpet, and continue to the end of the sixth. That they begin with the first Trumpet appears from Chap. 7. For after the effect of the sixth Seal, whenas the Procedure should have been to the seventh, which is the Seal of the Trumpets, there is a suspension awhile till these 144 thousand be sealed, and so fore-armed against the evils of the Trumpets; but they being once sealed, the seventh Seal is opened, and the seven Angels appear with their Trumpets, etc. That the 144 Regiments in their condition of warfare and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their opposites that war under the mark of the Beast, terminate at the expiring of the sixth Trumpet, is plain, in that the mournful condition of the Witnesses, which synchronizes with this warfaring condition of the Virgin-Company, ends at the ending of the sixth Trumpet: Chap. 11. 14. The second Woe is past, that is to say, the sixth Trumpet is past; which is spoken immediately upon the ascending up of the Witnesses to Heaven, and the great Commotion of things that befell at the same hour. Wherefore the 144 Virgin-Regiments that were sealed at the beginning of the first Trumpet terminate, as to their conflicting condition, at the end of the sixth. And thus you see that, according as it is in Mr. Mede's Scheme of Synchronisms, the Company of the 144 thousand out of the twelve Tribes of Israel, sealed with the Seal of God in their forehead, is as it were the communis Terminus of all those Synchronals on this side and that side thereof, as namely of the Series of the six first Trumpets on one side, and then of our six first Synchronals on the other; namely, the Ten-horned Beast restored, the Whore, the Two-horned Beast, the two mournful Witnesses, the treading under foot the outward Court or Holy City, and the Woman in the Wilderness. 9 So that we have a safe and fast grasp of the whole succession of things in these Prophetic Visions, having laid hold on this middle part so strongly that they cannot wriggle from us, but it will be easy for us to discover the necessary order of the rest. For the six first Seals must needs go before the seventh; and the Battle betwixt Michael and the Dragon before the Wounding or slaying of the Beast and the Restoring of him. Whence it will follow partly from the Nature of the things, and partly from their Order, that they are Synchronal; I mean the Series of the first six Seals, and the Battle of Michael with the Dragon. And that the Inward Court of the Temple, wh●…h the Angel found Symmetral or Commensurable to his Reed, is also Synchronal to the six first Seals, may appear from hence, in that the Symbol is so significative of the condition of those times: For in that bloody war of the Dragon the Saints of God willingly sacrificed their own lives for his cause: which is most fitly set out by the Altar of Holocausts placed in the Inward Court of the Temple, and answers very plainly and palpably to the Vision of the fifth Seal, where the Souls of the slain are said to cry for vengeance from under the Altar. Apoc. 6. 9 10. But besides this, Chap. 11. the Visions begin again from the first Epocha of time that the Seals do; whence the Inward Court must be tightly Synchronal to the first six Seals, being the Outward Court began with the seventh. Now that there gins a new Series of Prophecies from the first Epocha, there be several remarkable Indications, Chap. 10. and sufficient to convince any one that has any measure of sagacity. As, first, The Magnificency of that Angel, as he is called, that has the opened Book in his hand, is so great, that it is highly probable that it is no meaner person than Christ himself: the description of those bright gleams of Glory be like those in the first Chapter which are attributed unto him. And that he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what is that but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? And his being pictured out with a Rainbow about his head, and his face as the Sun, what can this signify less than the Sun of Righteousness, which is the Eternal Word, and whose Attire is the World which himself has made? His speech also betrays him, his roaring like a Lion intimating that he is the Lion of the Tribe of Juda. It should seem therefore that he that under the shape of a * Apoc. 5. Lamb had opened the Book with seven Seals even to the very last Seal, appears here under another shape, beginning a new Series of Prophecies from the same Epocha in this opened Book. 11. Which we may be the better assured of, if we consider that he steps into the place of the seventh Angel, and fills up the space of the seventh Trumpet with seven Thunders. Which is an evident sign that the whole course of the seven Seals is run through to the last Thunderclap of the Day of Judgement, so far, or rather in such a manner, as he thought good at this time, till he began afresh again. 12. Thirdly, In that he swears that there shall be Time no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall sound, and the Mystery of God be finished, as he had declared to his servants the Prophets, (in which certainly there is a regard to Dan. 12. 7.) it is plain that there is a forbearing to proceed explicitly to the very end of the seventh Seal, that is, to the special and determinate effect of the seventh Trumpet. Which suspension does not a little assure us that there is a Regression; and whither, I pray, if not to the very first Epocha of a new Series of Prophecies? Nay a Regression is necessarily implied from the Angel's swearing there shall be no more time than what is taken up in the seventh Trumpet, which sounds not till the Resurrection of the Witnesses, as you may see in the following Chapter, ver. 14, 15. 13. Fourthly, This either new Book (which yet I do not now think so probable, but rather that it is the former Book, all whose Seals are opened by the Lamb, and is still in his hand, though he be now under another shape) or new condition of the Book (it being an opened Book now, whenas before it was a sealed one; the first a Book to be looked upon with the eyes, this to be swallowed down into the belly) does imply a new Series of Prophecies to be begun, and of another nature from the former; the one, suppose, respecting the Fate of the Empire, the other of the Church, as Mr. Mede would have it. But to have all this new preparation for no new design, were strange and incredible. 14. Fifthly, That which Mr. Mede urges of a voice from Heaven as of a Trumpet talking with S. John, is not altogether devoid of force. For, as I have noted elsewhere, the mention of the Trumpet, which is in this third place suppressed, and which Mr. Mede would have understood, may be omitted, that the meaning of the Prophecies may not lie too bare. But it is observable that there is a considerable Affinity betwixt the entrance into the first Series of those Prophecies of the Seals, and these of the opened Book. For it is plain chap. 4. 1. that he says there was a door opened in Heaven, and that the first voice, which was as of a Trumpet, communed with him. So here, chap. 10. he saith, that a voice from Heaven communed with him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whereby is intimated a vocal discourse or conference, and instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though it may seem referrible to the voice from Heaven, v. 4. yet the less need there is of that intimation, in respect of the thing so freshly done, the more probable it is that it refers to that voice from Heaven that communed with him, chap. 4. 1. And the rather because that voice only is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this vers. 4. of this Chapter only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and therefore it cannot so well be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whenas it is not at all said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before. Whence vers. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is most naturally referred to Chap. 4. 1. and therefore indicateth a new beginning of Prophecies from that very Epocha. 15. But, sixthly and lastly, Upon John's swallowing down the Book, we may observe such circumstances as do strongly intimate a new Series of Prophecies, wherein the Fate of the Church may seem chief concerned. First, in that it is said to be bitter in his stomach, though sweet in his mouth. Of which bitterness of these Prophecies more than of the former no reason can be given if they respect the same Subject, and one does not concern the Empire, the other the Church of God. Wherefore the Fate of the Church is contained in these, and consequently from as high an Epocha as those of the Empire. Secondly, in that the Angel saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which, unless it were to begin again to prophesy from the first Epocha of the times he has hitherto prophesied of, would be a very unaccountable passage. For he had prophesied in another sense again and again already, in seeing and declaring so many Visions as he had. Thirdly, in that it is added, Before many People's and Nations and Tongues and Kings, it is a sign that he does not proceed to some few particular things behind, but is to act more rousingly, must altiùs rem repetere; and having taken his repast in devouring the little Book, begin his race afresh from the first Epocha, and with as general concernment to the world as the Prophecies of the Seals were. 16. These considerations, I think, may induce any one to believe that the Eleventh Chapter gins from the first Epocha of the Apocalyptick Visions. But add to all this, that the Twelfth Chapter does, as has been already demonstrated: for there is no Vision in the Seals higher than the fight of Michael with the Dragon. Which is a Demonstration that S. John in this second bout of Prophesying returns to the highest Epocha, and that he gins a new Series of Prophecies, namely, concerning the Church. Which being thus plainly evinced, I appeal to any one if it be at all likely or possible that he should begin with such an headless Vision as would fall short of the first Epocha three or four hundred years. 17. Wherefore assuredly, as the Outward Court trodden down by the Gentiles is Synchronal to the first six Trumpets in the seventh Seal, so the Inward Court is Synchronal to the first six Seals; which was the thing to be demonstrated, and which is a Conclusion of excellent use and weighty consideration, as may appear in its due place. 18. Finally, as our Middle Synchronals have thus necessarily detected those that precede, so they will with like facility and certainty discover them that succeed. For the Thousand years wherein the Saints reign, Satan is bound, the Palmiferous Company triumphs, and the Heavenly Jerusalem is seen upon Earth, all these must in some sense plainly Synchronize with the seventh Trumpet. And the seventh Angel sounded, and Apoc. 11. 15. there were great voices in Heaven, saying, The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. So that it is plain that the Millennial Empire of Christ and of his Saints is under the seventh Trumpet. The Palmiferous Company Apoc. 7. 9 also immediately succeed the 144 Virgin Regiments which are Synchronal to the first six Trumpets, whence necessarily this company of Palm-bearers are under the seventh. The Fall of Babylon also conterminates with the sixth Trumpet, and therefore the New Jerusalem, which succeeds it, must needs be found in the seventh. And, lastly, Satan, who fought with Michael all along the first six Seals, and bore such sway in the Kingdom of Antichrist in the first six Trumpets, cannot be said to be bound, cast into the bottomless Pit and sealed up there for a thousand years, till the Millennial Empire of Christ, till the glory and brightness of the Heavenly Jerusalem upon Earth, till the Victory and Triumph of the Palm-bearing Company, that is, till the sounding of the last Trumpet; not only the Series of the Synchronals, but the very nature of the things themselves, forcing the Ligation of Satan into this last Period of times. This is very easy and plain. But if any one be unsatisfied, he may read Mr. Mede, Part 2. Synchronism 4, 5, 6, 7. where he shall have a more full and copious demonstration of these Synchronals contemporizing with the seventh Trumpet. But how this contemporizing is to be understood, will better appear out of this following Chapter. CHAP. VII. 1. Mr. Mede's Account of placing the first six Vials within the sixth Trumpet. 2. That the truth of this Account depends upon an unlikely sense of the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast, as if immediately after 42 months' it should entirely and universally expire. 3. A caution touching the Interpreting of the Prophetic style. 4. That the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast upon the Exit of the sixth Trumpet is but partial or speciminal, argued from the seventh Trumpet's being also called a Woe-Trumpet. 5. As likewise from the seven Thunders. 6. Two more Arguments to the same purpose. 7. Lastly, from the fixed Epocha's of the Middle Synchronals compared with the affairs of Europe. 8. That it follows hence that all the seven Vials are naturally to take their places in the seventh Trumpet, as being the seven last Plagues. 9 The same further proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast. 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials; as also from the appearing of the Temple (out of which the Angels come) after the sixth Trumpet, and before any of the Vials be poured out. 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet. 12. A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together, in what sense or degree soever they do expire. 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals, and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled. 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his further search into the Prophecies that foretell the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism. 1. I Had almost omitted the placing of the Vials; the first six whereof Mr. Mede ranges within the sixth Trumpet, briefly upon this account: Because they being the seven last Plagues of the Beast, they are to begin with the inclining of the Beast to ruin. But it was proved above, that the 42 months of the Beast's domineering over the Saints and overcoming them expired with the last breath of the sixth Trumpet, as all those middle Synchronals do. And it is as true that the Throne of the Beast does not wax dark before the fifth Vial. Wherefore he concludes, that at the least five Vials, if not six, precede the seventh Trumpet. 2. Which Ratiocination of Mr. Mede's were very firm, if we could be sure that the meaning of the Continuance of the Beast for 42 months were such as he supposes it, namely, That this Duration or Reign of his is to be understood absolutely, That he shall reign so long and no longer, and not comparatively, That after 42 months he shall not reign with that full power and victory over the Saints, so keeping them under that they cannot appear a distinct Polity able to defend themselves from his Tyrannies and Cruelties. Which latter may be a warrantable meaning of the Prophecy as well as the other, namely, That as soon as there appears a Kingdom or Polity of truly Evangelical or Apostolical Christians, not Superstitious, nor Idolatrous, nor Persecutive and Bloody, but such as join hearty with one another in the plain Points of Christian Religion, and make no other Fundamentals than the undoubted meaning of the Word of God requires, and leave men free in the rest; That as soon, I say, as such a Polity as this is in being, the 42 months of the Beast may be said to expire as to the entireness of his Reign; and also for that there is that set on foot which will certainly be his ruin, and therefore in the Prophetic style he is accounted as ruined already. According to which tenor Mr. Mede has interpreted that of Esay, * Chap. 21. 9 Babylon is fallen, is fallen: whenas in the time of Esay there was only the first Groundwork laid for her ruin by the Medes, who casting off the Assyrian yoke and rescuing themselves into liberty, and building Ecbatana under their new King Deioces, laid the foundations of a Kingdom fatal to the City of Babylon. Nor can we well understand that in the Apocalypse upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet, to that height it seems to be spoken, The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Chap. 11. 15. Of which I must confess I cannot but surmise the most sober meaning to be something parallel to that saying of our Saviour, Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out; and yet he kept Joh. 12. 31. possession till Constantine's time. But in such a sense as the Kingdoms of the world at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet are become the Kingdoms of Christ, the Beast has lost his Kingdom and his 42 months are expired. 3. Wherefore there is great caution to be used in understanding the Prophetic Expressions, which always sound very high and lofty, and express things so as most fills the mind and strikes the fancy, whenas if they were set down strictly and restrainedly to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it would flat the Height and Majesty of the Style, and make it lose its rapturous power with the Reader; besides that considerable usefulness which such courageous and triumphant Expressions may carry along with them. 4. Nor is this only a possible meaning of the Expiration of the 42 months of the Beast with the sixth Trumpet, but also very probable. First, because the Seventh Trumpet is one of the Woe-Trumpets, and therefore signifies ruin and destruction in some sense or other. The second Woe is past, (that is to say, the prefiguration of it, in such a sense as Ovid says, Janus habet finem. But it is plain that the effect of the sixth Trumpet may continue after the seventh is begun, as the effects of the first Seal and first Trumpet do after the second are begun, the succession, in the effects, of these parts of the Visions lying not always as the quarries of a Pavement, but as the scales of Fishes, one reaching over part of the other. But this by the buy.) and behold, the third Woe cometh quickly; which is this seventh Trumpet, which therefore is a blast of Destruction upon all the Powers that oppose the Kingdom of Christ: Which supposes therefore that he is going on conquering and to conquer, and that all the work is not done at the entrance of the seventh Trumpet, but so much is behind that in all likelihood the 42 months of the Beast are not expired in any other sense then such as I have already defined. 5. Which will appear more reasonable, if in the second place we consider the seven Thunders, which I doubt not but are the contents of the seventh Trumpet; and the * Apoc. 10. 3. 4. Text says, That that mighty Angel (which Expositors ordinarily interpret to be Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Juda) cried with a loud voice, as when a Lion roareth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, and while he cried, the seven Thunders uttered their voices. Wherefore this roaring of the Lion of the Tribe of Juda all along those seven Thunders, and the Distinction of the space of the seventh Trumpet into seven portions, wherein certainly a state of War and of seven notable Battles and Victories, or Judgements and Triumphs, in some sense or other is understood, does imply a vast Continent that de jure belongs to the Kingdom of Christ, unsubdued at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet. And therefore it is very reasonable that a very great share of the Roman Empire may be under the jurisdiction and guidance of the Two-horned Beast, even at the first blast of the last Trumpet or within the sound of the first Thunder. 6. Thirdly, It is said of the Whore of Babylon, who is adjudged to be burned, that her smoke ascends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, to the remotest and utmost Ages of the world. But there is no smoke but there must be some fire, nor any fire but there will be matter combustible. Wherefore that passage insinuates that something of this Whore will be left to be burning to the utmost Ages of the world, even to the Ages of the last Trumpet. And it is plain that while some Kings burn her, others pity her, such as had committed fornication with her, and lament over her Apoc. 18. while they see the smoke of her burning. Fourthly, It seems more consonant to the Wisdom of God to continue these Antichristian Canaanites for a time, partly for a foil to set off the purity and unspottedness, the beauty and loveliness of the Apostolic Church, and partly to be an excitement and exercise of their Zeal, Vigilancy, and all other Graces and Virtues. 7. Fifthly and lastly, The Epocha of the Middle Synchronals is so firmly fastened to the time of about 400 years from Christ, both by the proportion of the short space of the seventh King's continuance in respect of the sixth, and of the Inward Court in respect of the Outward, as also of the exquisite fitness of Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the first Trumpet; that there is no likelihood that the Remains of the 42 months or the 1260 years of the Reign of the Beast should suffice for such a Mutation of the Empire, as will amount to any higher a sense of finishing his Continuance than I have given: and Interpreters (though Prophets writ in Rapture and Ecstasy) are bound to expound their Visions with caution and sobriety. Unless the Affairs of Europe should break of a sudden, as Olaus says the Frozen Ocean does, and roars along like thunder with the crack of the Ice, and then immediately sinks, (which is a miracle above belief) I see no probability at all of any other sense of the stinting the Reign of the Beast to 42 months then I have already declared. 8. The Consequence of which Conclusion will be, that there is no ground left for placing the seven Vials before the seventh Trumpet; and therefore it may justly be suspected a kind of Luxation to the Chronological Scheme of Prophecies, which Mr. Mede has otherwise ingeniously and judiciously disposed. Wherefore let every member take its right place, and let the seven Vials either run parallel to the seven Thunders, (which then its likely were the rather suppressed, because they were to be supplied by these) let them run within the seventh Trumpet, as the seven Trumpets within the seventh Seal: for this appears the most easy, natural and proportional disposing of them. And they seem to claim the right of this posture in that they are called the * Apoc. 15. 1. seven last plagues wherein the wrath of God is finished or ended; which would not be if they were not the Plagues of the last Trumpet: Or else at least let them Synchronize with the first Thunder, as the seven Thunders do with the last Trumpet. Which I shall more determinately discourse of in its proper place. 9 To all which you may add what we find Apoc. 15. where there is mention made of those that have already got the victory over the Beast, and like the Israelites escaped out of Egypt, and therefore having the Harps of God in their hands, sing the Song of Moses the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Apoc. 15. 3, 4. Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy Name? For thou only art holy: for all Nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgements are made manifest. Which answers exactly to our supposition, That there is only at first some particular Victory and restrained Reign of Christ to some Nations or Kingdoms; which being a pledge of future successes, that Acclamation was in Heaven, The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ Of which this Song of the Harpers may be the truest Comment, All Nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgements are made manifest. Not that they are come already, but will assuredly fall under his subjection. Here is the first espial of the * Vers. 5. Temple of the Tabernacle in Heaven, whither also the Witnesses did ascend. 10. But after this is the effusion of the seven Vials, as is plain out of the order of things in the Text; whether you take notice of those Middle Synchronals which are set out by the time of their continuance (as * Apoc. 13. 5. that of the restored Beast, to which is added presently the * Chap. 14. Virgin-Company, as running in a parallel opposition thereto) after which this Song of Moses follows, as a Thanksgiving for those first Victories over the Beast; or consider the Temple opened in Heaven, which in order follows after this Song, and out of which the Angels come that have the seven Vials. For from both it is intimated that the Vials run all up into the seventh Trumpet. Which is farther still to be confirmed from Chap. 11. where the Temple of God is also opened in Heaven, and the Ark of the Covenant mentioned as here, and a compendious Symbolical Periphrasis of wrath and vengeance; so that it is hugely reasonable to conceive they mean the same thing. But that appearance (Chap. 11.) of the Temple and Ark is after the seventh Trumpet began to sound. Therefore the seven Vials are within the blast of the seventh Trumpet. 11. In short, (and yet to reach to the bottom of this present business) it is of exceeding great moment to take notice that the seven Middle Synchronals of the Prophecies of the opened Book have their fulfilling either quoad speciem or quoad gradus, as to the kind or as to the degrees in the same kind, one degree being sufficient for the fulfilling of the Prophecies quoad speciem; and that one of these Synchronals cannot be fulfilled quoad speciem or quoad gradus, but ipso facto they are all fulfilled, they being so intimately united one with another. As for example, Suppose that but in one State or Kingdom in Christendom the Church has become purely Apostolical in Doctrine and Discipline, in Life and Conversation, it follows from hence that quoad speciem the Reign of the Beast is expired, that is, that there is one Specimen or Instance of this specific Event, namely, of such an Expiration of the Rule of the Beast as brings along with it the Resurrection of the Witnesses and the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ in the place. Which if it fall out at or towards the expiration of the 42 months and from a fit Epocha, the Prophecy is truly fulfilled in all circumstances quoad speciem, in this first Example, but may proceed farther and farther afterwards in Degrees or Latitude. But the thing that I contend for is this, That this first way of fulfilling is only aimed at in these Middle Synchronals of the Prophecies of the opened Book, and that the Degrees are reserved for the Vials in the last Trumpet. 12. And what I instanced in the Reign of the Beast must be true of all the rest, That their fulfilling that contemporizes with the first six Trumpets, and terminates upon the first blast of the seventh, is a fulfilling only quoad speciem or quoad esse, not quoad gradus, which are reserved for the seventh Trumpet. And my reason is, Because all these seven Synchronals are so nearly united or signify so much one and the same, that they must necessarily advance or be retarded together. As for example, We cannot conceive the Whore of Babylon burnt in any one Kingdom, that is, the Clergy to cease to be Idolatrous and Antichristian, and to become purely Apostolic in Doctrine and Discipline, but we may be sure that the Civil Magistrate ceases there to be Antichristian too, and that the Ten-horned Beast in this place has finished his forty two months; the Two-horned Beast also vanishes, as being one and the same with the Whore; the Witnesses break off their mournful Prophecy, as having here nothing to complain of; the Outward Court is in this part cleansed of the Pollution of the Gentiles that trod it under foot; the Woman is here no longer hid in the Wilderness amongst brutish Idolaters, but appears as a glorious City upon an Hill to attract the eyes of the Nations unto it; and, lastly, the Marked or Sealed Virgin-Regiments lose their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place, and instead of fight Soldiers become a College of peaceful Priests clothed in white, and are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple. Thus jointly will these Middle Synchronals ever be fulfilled, be it more or less, whether barely quoad speciem, or repeatedly quoad gradus; the first fulfilling conterminating with the Entrance of the seventh Trumpet, the other advancing in it to the effusion of the last Vial. 13. And what is worthy our observation, those last Synchronals we have above noted, namely, The Millennial Reign of Christ, The Palm-bearing Company, The new Jerusalem, and The binding of Satan, do commence in such a way and proportion as these Middle Synchronals expire. But that special and most eminent Epocha of the Ligation of Satan, as also of the Millennial Empire, I conceive commenceth not till after the seventh Vial; and the * Apoc. 20. 3. Devil's being let lose again for a little time is to be placed somewhat before the voice of the seventh Thunder, wherewith the whole Earth is to be set on fire, and Death and Hell to be all of a flame thereby. But the intermediate space is the Millennium eminently so styled. 14. This I believe is the truest and safest apprehension we can have of the Series of things in the Apocalyptick Visions. Which having thus competently cleared, I shall with the greater satisfaction to myself, and to others, I hope, proceed to the producing such passages out of this Prophetic Volume as predict the several kinds of Lapses of the Church into Antichristianism: for we now know whereabout to seek for them, namely, among the Middle Synchronals of either Prophecy, which reach from about the four hundredth year after Christ to these very Ages. CHAP. VIII. 1. That there are Three more Middle Synchronals that foretell the Church's Lapse into Idolatry: As the Vision of the Outward Court trodden down by the Gentiles. 2. The Woman in the Wilderness: What meant by Wilderness. 3. A brief account of the sense of the whole Vision. 4. That there is an Hypallage in her being said to fly into the Desert, like that of Hades being cast into the Fire, and of the Kingdom being given to the Saints, in Daniel. 5. That our Interpretation of the Woman in the Wilderness does not clash with Mr. Mede's, though different from it. 6. The third synchronal, the Virgin-Companie: The meaning of the Number of their Regiments, and of the new Song which none could learn besides them. 7. How the Vision of these Virgin-souldiers implies the Lapse of the Church into Idolatry. 1. BEsides those notable and leading Prophecies of the Idolatry of the Church in the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Chapters of the Revelation, there are farther Intimations of the same Lapse in other places. Indeed no less than six of the seven Middle Synchronals of the Prophecies of the opened Book are Predictions of this Idolatrous state of the Church. Three of which we have done withal, namely, the Whore of Babylon, the Two-horned Beast, and the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns. The first of those three behind is the Outward Court or Holy City trodden under foot by the Gentiles for the space of 42 months. Which Apoc. 11. Outward Court or Holy City, that it is to be understood of those that make a visible profession of Christianity in the world, appears from the evidence of the Synchronisms, that of the Temple or Inward Court reaching from the beginning of the Church to the time of its Lapse into such a Condition as was not commensurable to the Reed of the Angel, and therefore rejected. The Court that is without the Temple, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cast it out: so the words signify. But the Outward Court belongs to the Inward; and the Jews having been cast off long before, it is plain from hence that all this is understood of Christendom. Nor is it any more wonder that the Jewish Temple or Courts thereof should typify the Christian Church, then that their Tribes did, Chap. 7. For this is but an usual Israelism. Wherefore Christendom being the Scene of these Transactions, and it being presently after added concerning this Outward Court, that it is given to the Gentiles, and that they shall tread under foot the Holy City forty two months; (which Holy City and Outward Court is in a ma●…ner the same thing, the very Camp of Israel being the Outward Court in the Wilderness, and this Outward Court the Receptacle of the People of Israel at their solemn times of worship when the Temple was built, as Mr. Mede has well observed) it is evident, Christendom was to be overrun with Gentilism, that is, with Paganism, the life and soul whereof is Idolatry, so long a time; forasmuch as the Holy City or Outward Court is supposed here in being, that is to say, a people that do profess Christianity and are externally dedicated to God, but in the interim are overgrown with an Heathenish kind of Superstition and Idolatry. And in that this Outward Court is said to be given to the Gentiles, that is answerable to what is wrote in Ch. 17. For God has put it into their hearts Ver. 17. to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. So fatal, as I may so speak, does this Apostasy of the Church seem to be, and so little reason have those great Politicians of Italy to sacrifice to their own Nets, as I have above noted, and impute all to their own wit, when they have apparently hitherto rowed with the stream. But the times are coming wherein they will find the course of things turned, and their Resistance of a due Reformation a fight against God. Which is worth their observing, that they may take up in due time. 2. The next of those latter Synchronalls is The Woman in the Wilderness, namely, That Woman that * Apocal. 12. 1. wears upon her head a Crown of twelve Stars, whose glory it is to be that pure and Apostolic Church, uncontaminated with after-Superstitions and Idolatries; that Woman that is said * Vers. 2. to travail in birth and was pained to be delivered, and after long throes and pangs, that is to say, sharp persecutions, at last * Vers. 5. brought forth a Male-child that should rule the Nations. This Woman not changing place herself, is notwithstanding said * Vers. 14. to have the wings of an Eagle given her, whereby she fled into the Wilderness, there to be secured from the persecution of the old red Dragon, which is the bloody Pagan Powers of the Roman Empire as yet unconverted to Christianity: And indeed by being thus escaped, though but into a Wilderness, she was sheltered from them. But in that she is said to be in a Wilderness, it is an intimation that she is hid and blended amongst them that under the outward profession of Christianity did again Paganize in their Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship; as you may understand out of the acknowledged meaning of Wilderness in the Prophetick-Alphabet. For that Men, not a mere Solitude of Trees and Beasts, is understood by Wilderness, is plain also out of that in the Evangelist, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths strait. Which he spoke not to Beasts Matt. 3. 3. and Trees, but to Men, whom these resemble when they are wholly taken up in the functions and delights of the mere Vegetal and Animal nature, of which Superstition and Idolatry is one part, as I have above intimated. 3. The sense therefore of this Prophecy is this, That the pure and Apostolic Church, though sheltered therewithal for a time from the red Dragon, was overrun with a kind of Christiano-Paganism from one side to the other, from the East wing to the West wing of the Eagle or Roman Empire; which, because it had its Eastern and Western Caesars, is figured with two wings, and that with greater facility than the Leopard in * Chap. 7. 6. Daniel with four, which signified the quadripartition of the Greek Empire into four parts. This therefore intimates the Greek Church as well as the Latin to be culpable in this matter of Idolatrous worship, correspondently to what I have said of the two Horns of the Beast, that they intimate the two Imperial Patriarchates, that of Rome, and the other of Constantinople, the two chief Summities of the Idolatrizing Clergy. This I doubt not but is the meaning of the Woman in the Wilderness, though it seems something hard that she is said to fly into this Desert, this Desert rather coming upon or overrunning her in the thing signified. 4. But it is an Hypallage, of which this is no solitary Example, but like that of casting Hades into the lake of fire and brimstone, whenas that fire is rather cast into Hades at the Conflagration of the world by Thunder and Lightning; 2 Figure even needlessly affected for Elegancy sake by Poets. Brutium ponto feriente Corum. Such an Hypallage as this I suspect also to be in Daniel ch. 7. where he speaks of the Kingdoms under the whole Heaven being given to the Saints of the most High. The meaning whereof may be nothing else but that they that are possessed of these Kingdoms may turn Saints, that is, Professors and Abettors of the pure and Apostolic Religion, unsophisticated with the Idolatrous Inventions and Injunctions of Antichrist. But however it were desirable that those that are over-ready to fancy themselves Saints, if this Hypallage does not please them, that at least they would imitate the modesty of the Expression of the Text, and would not take Kingdoms before they be given them. 5. Mr. Mede interprets this Vision of the Woman in the Wilderness in something a different sense from us; paralleling the Israelites flight from Pharaoh into the Wilderness to the Woman's flight from the red Dragon, and their liberty of serving Jehovah there after the Rites appointed by Moses to the liberty the Christians had to exercise their Religion, their lapses also into Idolatry to the Idolatrous Apostasy of the Church of Christ in this condition, and finally their 42 Journeys in the Wilderness mentioned Numb. 33. to the 42 months the Woman is said to be in the Desert. Which if they had been expressly set down in those terms, and not only equivalently in 1260 days, or a time and times and half a time, it had been the more pat and convincing. But however his Interpretation is very plausible and handsome, and may be one sense of the Type, though not the only sense. For it is the property of these Prophetic Types to abound with Allusions. But the state of the Church in the Wilderness being the same with that of her bondage in Egypt, as appears from Apocal. 11. in that respect I account that Interpretation I have given more passable, or rather more Authentic. Ver. 8. But I see no need that they should one exclude another, the Reign of the Dragon being truly the Reign of Pharaoh over these new Israelites, (saving that this of the Dragon was more bloody;) and the state of the Wilderness in which the Woman is hid being not only a Revival of that bondage of Egypt again, but the restoring again also of the Dragon as Idolatrous, in fabricating so lively an Image of him in this new Paganochristianism, which the Apocalyptick Visions do so copiously predict. 6. The third and last of these latter Synchronalls of the Book-Prophecy is the * Apocal. 14. 1. Virgin-Company, the sealed Soldiers of the Lamb upon Mount Zion, whose Description is admirable and mysterious. For in that they are said to be 144 Chiliads or Regiments, it is not the defining of their number, but their nature or quality, according to the use of the ancient Cabbala that describes the property of things by Numbers. The Root therefore of 144, which is twelve, plainly detects them to be the true disciples and successors of that Church that Christ founded in his twelve Apostles, and that they had not adulterated the Christian Religion by any Idolatrous worship or unwarrantable Institutes of men, but that they were faithful to him whose name they bore on their foreheads, as the marked servants of God and of the Lamb, and being bought with the price of his most precious blood would not become the servants of men in any thing that was to the dishonour or disinterest of him that bought them. That * Vers. 3. new Song also that the Harper's play upon their Harps before the Throne, which none can learn but those 144 thousand, what is it but the Joy of a pure Conscience before God and all his Holy ones, and that ineffable pleasure of the Divine Spirit dwelling in them, which none can be partakers of but the Sons of the new Birth, who are redeemed from the Earth, and set free in mind and affection from all the entanglements of this present World; who have a simple and sincere heart, and in whose mouth there is no guile, but are upright and irreprehensible before the Throne of God? Which is so transporting a condition and so unexpressible, I mean this Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the holy Ghost, that it is no wonder that it is said that none but those 144 thousand know what belongs to this Melody. * Prov. 14. 10. The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy. But this is an Excursion not so close to our present purpose. 7. That which we are chief to observe is this, That this Virgin-Company is a Synchronall that runs along in parallel Opposition to those that receive the Mark of the Beast, and are professed Idolaters, as this Expression of their Virginity in the sense of the Prophetic style plainly implies; according to which, These are they that have not defiled Apocal. 14. 4. themselves with women, may fitly be understood. Nor do they only abstain from Idolatry themselves, but also exhort others to make choice of a due Object of their Adoration, to worship Him that made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and the Fountains of waters. They denounce judgement Ver. 7, 8, 9 also against Babylon, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great City; because she made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her Fornications. And, lastly, a third Angel out of the same Company denounces most direful and ever-durable torments to those that worship the Beast and his Image, that is to say, that submit themselves to that revived and enjoined Idolatry which I have already so fully described. Which commination I would have them seriously to consider that think it so indifferent a thing to be Papist or Protestant: as if such Tragical Menaces as these were mere Scare-crows and idle Mockeries. CHAP. IX. 1. Three more Prophecies predicting the Church's Lapse into Idolatry. As the Vision of the sixth Trumpet, which is proved to respect the Roman Empire long after it became Christian. 2. That in this Vision the Greek and Latin Church are both apparently taxed of Idolatry, and with Aggravations common to Pagans and them. 3. That it appears from the same Vision of what great consequence it would be for Christendom to reform from this gross sin, and that they are their best friends that plainly and freely rebuke them for it, and for those other crimes reflected upon in this Vision. 4. The Prophecy of Paul to Timothy proposed, and the first part thereof expounded out of Epiphanius touching the Inspirers of this predicted Error. 5. As also that part that contains the Error itself, namely the worship of Daemons: From whence it is plain the Prophecy concerns this notorious Lapse of the Church into Idolatry. 6. As also from the Instruments of the Broaching this Error. 7. And from the mentioning of the Mystery of Godliness immediately before, to which this Mystery of Iniquity is opposed. 8. And lastly from the Times of the Lapse, which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 Which is proved to be a proper Term of the Prophetic style denoting that Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter section of the continuance of the Fourth Monarchy. 10. That the course of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Reign of Antichrist is indigitated by those Numbers of Days in the last of Daniel. 1. TO these Middle Synchronalls of the Book-Prophecy we will only add the Vision of the Sixth Trumpet, the Prediction of S. Paul concerning the Apostasy of the Latter times, and that Prophecy in Daniel from whence he seems to have drawn that Prediction; and then we shall have done. And truly the Vision of the Sixth Trumpet is very signal and notorious. That it is meant concerning the Turks invading Christendom, according as Mr. Mede has interpreted, I have abundantly made good against Grotius in my * Book 5. Ch. 16. Sect. 5. Mystery of Godliness. To which we add briefly, That it is plain that the Invasion of these Euphratean Horsemen is long after the Empire became Christian, nay indeed Pagano-Christian; forasmuch as it is the Sixth Trumpet, the last of those that taken together in order Synchronize with the reign of the Pagano-Christian Power, The Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And for the place as well as the time, that it was the Empire to which this Vision belongs, appears from that often-repeated Character whereby it uses to be denoted, the proportion of a third part; For the * Apocal. 9 15. third part of men are here said to be killed. But that the Roman Empire was looked upon by S. John as the third part of the known World in his Age, is evident in that Description of the red Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns, in that he is said to have struck down the third part of the Stars with his tail to the ground, Apocal. 12. 4. Moreover the posture of these Horsemen was such, as Mr. Mede has also noted, in respect of S. John in Patmos his seeing them coming as from Euphrates, that they must needs march upon the Territories of the Roman Empire: Which also the consideration of our third Rule of interpreting Prophecies does more fully assure us of. For what had S. John to do with any Visions but such as concerned the Church of Christ? Wherefore there is no reason to doubt but that Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Sixth Trumpet is very true. 2. From whence it will evidently appear, that there is a Prevision of that gross Idolatry which would be in both the Greek and Latin Church. For after the description of that numerous Army of the Turks under the Type of the Euphratean Horsemen, and the great Execution they did, the third part of men being killed by the fire, smoke and brimstone that issued out of their Horses mouths that roared like Lions against their Enemies, to which you may add the preceding Plague of the Saracens, those tormenting Locusts; it is said, that The rest of the men which were not Apoc. 9 20, 21. killed by these Plagues repent not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship Devils, and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone and of Wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk; Neither repent they of their Murders, nor of their Sorceries, nor of their Fornication, nor of their Thefts. Can there be a more express and plain Prophecy of the Idolatry of the Christian Empire then this? For the sense plainly is this, That though the Turks and Saracens had overrun the Eastern Churches, and laid all waist with fire and sword, yet the Western Part of the Empire did not lay it to heart, (nor indeed the Greek Church as they should do) but that the Church of Rome did notwithstanding persist in their Idolatrous worship, in the worshipping of their Daemonia or Daemons, the Souls of men departed, (our English Translation reads it Devils, and none certainly (whenas they are not God) would receive Divine honour after their deaths, unless they were become Devils; so great a * See Book 1. Ch. 12. Ver. 3. Sect. 4. Reproach is that pretended honour the Romanists give to the Saints) in the worshipping of Idols of Gold and of Silver and of Brass, etc. which neither can hear nor see nor walk. This is added as an Aggravation and more palpable detection of the madness or sottishness of this Sin. And is it not the same in the Images of the Saints as in the Images of the Heathen Gods? Can the Images of the Saints see more clearly, hear more quickly, or walk more nimbly than the Idols of the Heathen? Wherefore we see such a ground of the reprehension of this sin of Idolatry is alleged as is common to that of the Pagans with this of those that call themselves Christians. So that there is no hole for them to escape out at. But there are other Crimes also which the Roman Church, notwithstanding the severe judgement of God against the Greek Church, has not repent of: as namely of her Murders, in shedding of innocent blood, or cruelly and hatefully persecuting men under pretence of Heresy; of Sorcery, in such a sense as I have expounded it in my * Book 1. Chap. 18. Idea of Antichristianism; of Fornication, in the unnatural Constitution of their unclean Clergy; and of Thefts, in their frauds and impostures to emunge the simple people of their money. But these things belong not to this present Head. 3. In the mean time it is exceedingly worth our Observation, of what infinite consequence it would be to the safety and prosperity of Christendom, if they would reform from this gross sin of Idolatry, the worshipping of Daemons and Images of Gold and Silver and other Materials. For who knows, or rather who knows not, but that God, who brought that exceeding great scourge of the Turk upon the Christian world for their gross Idolatries, may make him flow back again into his own Channel, if we would once return to that ancient, pure and Apostolic Christianity? For the Cause of this great evil once removed, the Evil itself will be removed also. Whence it is plain that they are the truest Friends to Christendom, even to Rome herself, that do not soothe them up in their sins, by mitigating and hiding their foul miscarriages, but deal apertly and plainly with them for their own safety; that neither admit nor invent subterfuges to countenance or palliate their Idolatrous and Superstitious practices, but tell them plainly how much they are apostatised from the true worship of God and Christ into Paganism and Idolatry. Better are the Rebukes of a faithful Friend than the hired flatteries of a glozing Mercenary. 4. Wherefore persisting in the same liberty of speech, I shall adventure to pronounce that that Prediction of S. Paul, 1 Tim. 4. respects the Apostasy of the Empire into Idolatrous worship, by means of the seducing and seduced Clergy thereof, who taught them to give religious worship to mere men departed this life, and so turned the deceased Saints of God, as much as in them lay, into Pagan Daemons. The words of the Prediction are these: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils; speaking lies in Hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with an hot-iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, etc. It should be rendered, Through the Hypocrisy of them that speak lies, having their conscience seared with an hot-iron, etc. as any one that understands Syntax must needs acknowledge: for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot agree in Grammar; nor Devils and Seared consciences in usual phrase or sense. There cannot be a better Gloss upon the first part of this Prediction then what Epiphanius has occasionally wrote upon it in his sharp reproof of the Collyridians', who gave Divine worship to the Virgin Mary, offering up a Cake or Cracknell to her. They did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as that Father speaks; from whence they were called Collyridians'. Of which Idolatry he says certain women in Arabia were the first Inventours, who came out of Thrace thither, and there practised this nefarious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (which I the more willingly take notice of, because Idolatry is so often styled by that name in the Apocalypse) and at last concludes thus fully and roundly upon the whole matter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which last words do plainly import that this Apostasy here is understood of giving religious worship to Daemons, that is to say, to the Souls of men deceased: And it is observable that Chrysostom and Theophylact read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Erasmus has noted upon the place, if any one like that word better than the other. But Epiphanius seems to understand the same thing by both, that is, the Souls of dead men religiously worshipped, which he compares with the Baalim worshipped by the Israelites, as the Psalmist complains, They joined themselves to Baal-Peor, and eaten the offerings of the dead. Wherefore in brief, according to the mind of Epiphanius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Psal. 106. 2●…. which we render seducing spirits; are erroneous and fallacious Doctrines or Prophecies (as Grotius also ordinarily interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) inspired into men's minds by the Devil. For so he calls it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Diabolical Inspiration and Doctrine taught by the unclean Spirit to pollute the worship of God. This respects those words in the Text, Giving heed to seducing spirits, whereby he would have the Original of these wicked Doctrines noted. 5. But then the Matter or Object of them to be couched in that more definitive expression, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, not Doctrines of Devils as taught and suggested by them, (for that he had touched before) but Doctrines of Damon's, that is to say, concerning Damon's, or the worshipping of the Dead, answerably to the Israelites worshipping the Baalim, which the Psalmist intimates to be the Souls of men deceased. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Epiphanius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For that Prophecy is fulfilled in these Collyridians', viz. Some shall departed from sound doctrine, giving head to fabulous stories and doctrines concerning Daemons. For that this Genitive may be a Genitive of the Object as well as of the Agent, any one will grant. And that Epiphanius understands it in that former sense, is plain both from his prefixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (which fabulous stories are not conceived to be told by the Daemons, but of them) and also from what immediately follows, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. For, he saith, there will be those that will worship the dead, etc. Which yet the Apostle does not say, unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Doctrines concerning Daemons, which are the Souls of men deceased, as I have elsewhere sufficiently intimated. Wherefore it is plain from the Exposition of Epiphanius that this Prediction of S. Paul is very applicable to the Apostasy of the Church of Rome for their giving Divine honour unto the Saints, which is apparently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to worship the dead. 6. Which will still be found more tightly to fit them of Rome, if we consider by what external means this Daemon-worship is promoted. For these that are said to departed from the faith, that is, from the sound doctrine of it, as Epiphanius has interpreted it, and to Apostatise into the Idolatrous worship of Daemons, are said to do this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, through the Hypocrisy of tellers of lies, (the Apocalypse calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that make lies) that is to say, that feign Legends of the Miracles of their Saints or Daemons: and in deed do it so impudently, as if they made no conscience of those pious frauds and fables, whence it is said that they have their consciences seared with an hot-iron. What can be more expressive of the Greek and Roman Legendaries then this? and yet there is still a more particular character added, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats. Whom can this Character fit so well as the Orders of Monks, into whose Societies no man could be admitted but upon strict observation of these laws? They prohibited any one that would be of their Fraternity to marry, and enjoined them also to abstain from certain meats. These things are so solidly and copiously made out in Mr. Mede's Apostasy of the Latter times, that I need add nothing more but a Recommendation of that Treatise to the Reader. There is scarce any Prophecy falls more fitly upon any Event than this does upon the Church in those times when she had lapsed into this Daemon-worship by the seduction of a fraudulent and superstitious Clergy. 7. Thirdly, The summary Description of the whole Mystery of Godliness preceding so immediately before in the very last Verse of the foregoing Chapter, methinks there is a congruity that this immediate Digression into the mention of a Lapse from the purity of this Mystery should be of no petty concernment, the perstringing of a few Pythagorizing Christians, or such as might leave Christianity to follow Apollonius, of which notwithstanding I do not remember any particular stories; but a more solemn and notorious Apostasy of the Church of Christ, and the converting of that great Mystery of Godliness immediately before mentioned into a Mystery of Iniquity, as it is elsewhere called. For that expression of [Some shall departed from the Faith] is no bar●…e at all to this meaning, as Mr. Mede has demonstratively made good by many and sufficient Examples, where [some] is said of the greatest part, and in a manner of the whole people, as you may see in the abovenamed Treatise. 8. Fourthly and lastly, The Preface to this Prediction, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, etc. seems not only too big, but too determinate another way, then to comply with what Grotius would put us off with, namely, a glance at Apollonius and his followers. For it is too dilute and frigid a Gloss to make no more of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to turn it off with a Posthac or Hereafter; as if the term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had not passed into a phrase of Art already, and had not been defined long since by the Angel in Daniel, or at least was not a necessary Consectary from Chap. 12. his Definition, who being asked how long to the end of these wonders, he held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time and times and half a time: And being again asked by Daniel to declare more plainly when the end of those things should be, he gives this Answer, That the words are sealed till the time of the End, (which is so called, as being that notable section of time that lies next to the end of the Fourth or Last Monarchy:) but presently after adds this hint to point him to this time of the End, That from the time that the daily Sacrifice should be taken away, and the Abomination that makes desolate set up, should be 1290 days, but that blessed he should be that came to the 1335 days. 9 Now the end of those things Daniel enquired after reached, as appears from the Text and general consent of Expositors, even to the Day of Judgement, however that phrase is to be understood. Whence it is rational to conceive that Daniel's Prophecies reach through those four famous Monarchies or Kingdoms, the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman, and that the Roman Kingdom conterminates or synchronizes with the fullness of time, or the end of Times and Ages, and being the Fourth and last division of this Sacred Calendar of Prophecies, as Mr. Mede calls it, may rightly be termed the last times or last days, in which the Messiah was expected and came. But after Christ's coming, seeing there would be a very marvellous and notorious reign of Antichrist during this Fourth Monarchy or last time, who is figured out in the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon, which are of the Middle Synchronals of the Book-prophecie, and which I have already demonstrated to begin about 400 years after Christ, and that the time of their continuance is the same with a Time and Times and half a Time, and that this is 1260 years; it is evident that this share of time is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the latter times of these last, or the time of the End, as lying next thereto, and the very times the Angel speaks of in this Chapter, where he asserts with an Oath that those Wonders (that is, that prodigious Reign of Antichrist) should continue for a time and times and half a time; but that when he shall have accomplished to scatter Dan. 12. 7. the power of the holy people, namely, the Jews, than all things spoken of shall be finished. Which is the very same with that in the Apocalypse, where the Angel swears by him that lives for ever, that there should be no more time, saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, Apoc. 10. 7. when he shall sound, and the Mystery of God be finished, as he has declared to his servants the Prophets, alluding particularly to this of Daniel. This is the right meaning of this passage of the Revelation according to common sense and Grammatical construction. Which plainly shows that the Time and Times and half a Time end with the sixth Trumpet. From which considerations it is evident to any one that is unprejudiced, that this term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a term of the Prophetic style, the same with the Time of the End, with an allusion to that Sacred Calendar of Daniel consisting of the four Monarchies, as being the latter section of the continuance of the last, running on along with the Reign of Antichrist. For so does the Church generally interpret that Time and Times and half a Time in Daniel. 10. And that they do belong to the Reign of Antichrist even in our sense, Mr. Mede has, in my judgement, most convincingly made good even from those numbers of 1290 days and 1335, days in his little Treatise of those Numbers, which he calls Revelatio Antichristi. Which were certainly given as a Key to open the truth of Daniel's Prophecies concerning the reign of that Man of sin, and the time of his Discovery. The words Dan. 12. 9 are closed up and sealed till the time of the End, that is, till these latter times; but the wicked shall not then understand them, but the wise shall, and may be assured of them by this Key of Numbers of years from the Epocha of Antiochus his profaning the Temple compared with the Event, the first notable Instances of Revealing of this Man of sin. The first of these Numbers from that Epocha ends in the year of our Lord 1120, the latter in the year 1165. (For I have already so undeniably demonstrated that Days, stylo Prophetico, do signify Years, both in this Treatise and in my * Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 2. Mystery of Godliness, that I think no man will doubt of it; and that they cannot signify Days here, Mr. Mede has with no less evidence evinced.) Now the Event is exact to Admiration. For in the year 1120 a true and perfect detection or description of Antichrist came forth, and not till then, as you may see by that compendious account which Mr. Mede has given thereof. The ending of the other Period is also notable for the Waldenses and Albigenses, in whose times the Mystery of Iniquity was more fully detected, and by more numerous Companies protested against. Whence they are said to be blessed that reach to those times, by reason of the great clearness of the Light of the Gospel that shined forth: nor less happy they that then also suffered for witnessing to it; but certainly much more blessed by reason that their Reward should be greater and more singular. For the Prophecy declares how things are in truth and reality, and not according to the judgement or sentiments of the soft and false carnal mind. See that judicious Author Mr. Mede, for I cannot dwell upon these things. I will only add, for a farther assurance of Mr. Mede's Exposition, that no other will hold water. For it is not likely that these Numbers of Days should be any Interpretation of the Extent of the abovementioned Time and Times and half a Time; they both of them varying from the just measure of that Period, and the sense also of that Enigmatical expression being not so hard but that all hit on it and agree in it. To which you may add, that the Epocha from Antiochus will not comply with this design, (and it is hard to make that Epocha signify otherwise then literally with any credibility of meaning:) As also, that this way the main difficulty about which Daniel was so solicitous will not be satisfied, which was, When this time of the End would be, not of what extent it was. Unto the course of which, I mean of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the time of the End, (which is that Time and Times and half a Time) these Numbers of 1290 and 1335 do in a special manner direct from the abovesaid Epocha, as you may see at large if you consult that excellent Interpreter I referred to before. The Angel tells Daniel, The words shall be sealed till the time of the End: and Mr. Mede shows plainly how the matter is revealed in this time of the End, and even in those very points of this Time which these Numbers direct to; which is worth our consideration and admiration. CHAP. X. 1. Epiphanius his Exposition of the Prophecy of Paul to Timothy confirmed from the reference it has to that in Daniel. 2. Grotius his miss-timing this Prophecy of Daniel, and applying it to Antiochus, how rash and groundless. 3. A Confutation of his Application. 4. The right timing this Prophecy by Calvin and Mr. Mede, who both interpret it of the Roman State and Empire. 5. A more particular account of the two first verses of the Prophecy Mr. Mede's way; 6. As also of the third, 7. And fourth. 8. That the sense of this Prophecy so clearly accord●… with that of S. Paul, that it is manifest he refers to it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 That though this Interpretation of Mr. Mede be unexceptionable throughout, yet the two first verses of the Prophecy may be otherwise expounded, and more suitably to S. Paul's Prophecy in his Epistle to the Thessalonians. 1. WE see therefore what small reason Grotius has to turn off these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a frigid and undeterminate Posthac, when they signify, in this place at least, so punctually and determinately. Which is yet implied still more plainly in that the Apostle says that the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which intimates some Record where this Prophecy is written in a manner totidem verbis. For if there be any force in reasoning from words and phrases, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signify some such thing, not simply Inspiration, but verbal description of what is inspired. Which advantage neither Grotius nor any one else, I think, can allege for their Interpretation, if it agree not with this which Epiphanius first so happily lighted upon, and Mr. Mede has so marvellously well improved, and is found most exactly to agree with that Prophecy of Daniel; which shall be the last Prediction of the Church's lapsing into Idolatry which I intent to produce. The words are these: Then shall a King do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself, Dan. ch. 11. v. 36, 37, 38, 39 and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods, and shall prosper till the Indignation be accomplished; for that that is determined shall be done. Then he shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God; for he shall magnify himself above all. For together with God in his seat he shall honour Mahuzzim; yea together with a God his Ancestors knew not, shall he honour them with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. And he shall make the Holds of the Mahuzzim jointly to the foreign God, whom acknowledging he shall increase with honour, and shall cause them to rule over many, and shall distribute the Earth for a reward. 2. This is Mr. Mede's Translation of the Text; which is very easy and natural as to rules of Grammar and Criticism, as I shall take notice afterwards. In the mean time I cannot but observe how groundless and irrational Grotius his Interpretation is, who expounds all this of Antiochus, both against the stream of Antiquity, who always suspected Antichrist to be here prefigured, and against all probability of things. For to pass by the direction of those Numbers above mentioned, that fall into that Time and Times and half a Time that comprise the continuance of the Wonders Daniel inquires after, (which Wonders are intimated in this present Prophecy as well as in that of the little Horn) as also the necessary determination of this Time and Times and half a Time by the Middle Synchronals of the Apocalypse; who can imagine that the Series of Daniel's Visions, Chap. 11 and 12. that reach to the day of Judgement, as certainly they do, should admit of so vast an Hiatus or gap as from the Gests of Antiochus to the end of all things, neglecting that long tract of time betwixt in which the Church is so much concerned? Wherefore Calvin has judiciously adventured to interpret these verses of the Roman Empire, which immediately succeeded the Greek, (in the last times whereof Antiochus is said to reign, according to the Prophecy of Daniel) though he has over-rashly on the other side rejected the opinion of the Ancients, who suspected Antichrist concerned in these verses. Mr. Mede therefore has most happily joined them both together, as we shall see anon. 3. Now accordingly as Grotius has miss-timed the Prophecy, so his Applications are alike cold and incongruous. For he cannot make good that Antiochus was a Rejecter of the Gods of his Fathers, nor of the love of Women; against which the Roman Writers themselves expressly witness. For à Lapide upon the place affirms that he both worshipped the Gods of his Fathers, and made the Jews do so too; and both G●…sper Sanctius and he tax Antiochus for his Mulierosity and excess in Luxury. And as touching Mauzzim, besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number is not so likely to be the proper Name of any one God, he does not make it out by any History, that Antiochus was such a zealous worshipper of this Modin, as he would have him called, or that he had a Temple built to him in Modin; which is a City in Judea cut out in a Rock, and in all likelihood was a strong Hold, and therefore was called Modin, but without any reference to this imaginary Modin of Grotius, the strange God of whom Antiochus should be so zealous a worshipper. For which conceit he brings no proof but 1 Mac. 2. 15. where the Officers of Antiochus are said to make the Jews to sacrifice in Modin, but not to the God Modin. So that Grotius his whole Interpretation is but a mere precarious fancy. Let us now cast our eyes upon Mr. Mede's. 4. Mr. Mede therefore, accordingly as Calvin before him, supposes that at the thirty sixth verse of this eleventh Chapter the Prophecy of Antiochus breaks off, and that the Roman Kingdom comes into consideration: Which is not doubtful and conjectural, but necessary from the reasons already intimated. Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rightly rendered, Then shall a King do according to his will. For that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of such a lax sense, that there is no injury done in putting upon it this determinate meaning. Accordingly as Pareus renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Tum flebunt, Apoc. 18. 9 And by King is here meant, as elsewhere in Daniel, a State or Kingdom. And that the Roman is here meant, the order of Succession implies, it following the Greek according to all Chronologie, and according to the sense of Historians is conceived to succeed the Greek upon the Romans Conquest of Macedonia, which was in the latter times of Antiochus. So fitly do things fall in for matter of time in our Hypothesis, which does promise an easy flowing of the sense all along; which is this. 5. In the first of these verses, That the Roman State or Kingdom towards the end of Antiochus his reign shall carry all before them and domineer as they list, they shall exalt themselves and make themselves greater than any Kingdom. For to conquer a Nation is to conquer their Gods, whom the Romans vocally called out of those Cities they took by a certain Charm I spoke of above, and so led away the Gods of the Nations as it were captive as well as the people. Nay the Officers of this State spoke marvellous things and blasphemous against the God of Gods, that is against Christ Jesus himself, when he was so mocked and despitefully used by his Persecutors and Crucifiers; and yet they prospered and were successful in the Empire, notwithstanding all this their villainy towards Christ, and bloody persecution of his Members, wherein he was again reproached and blasphemed, till the determinate time of this Rage ran out, and that the Empire became Christian. For, as it follows in the next verse, the time was next to succeed wherein the Roman Empire should contemn, neglect, and cast off the Gods of their Ancestors, that is, the Pagan Gods, and turn Christians; but that withal Marriage (which was in so high esteem with the Romans before, as it appears by those Laws which were called Julia and Papia, which Constantine abrogated) should be much slighted at first, but in process of time be superstitiously forbidden as well to Priests as Monks, that Man of sin then getting the rains of the Empire into his hands, who respected not any God, but for his nulling the Laws of Christ and trampling on the necks of Princes is justly said to magnify himself above all: according as it is written of him in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. 6. And suitably to this lawlessness and contempt of God it follows in the next Verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, For together with, or besides, (for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signify so) God will he honour Mauzzim, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in sua ditione, Grotius renders it, referring it to Antiochus. The Latin reads, in loco suo, referring it to the Idol. Mr. Mede, in his Seat, referring it to Christ the true God. There may be also another sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, viz. super basin ejus; as if that honour done to the Mauzzim was grounded in the honour intended therein to Christ: which is the plea of the Pontificians. The sense therefore briefly is this, That it is plain that this Roman Power, as was said in the foregoing verse, has cast away the true fear of God from them, and exalt themselves above every thing that is called God, even Christ himself, in that against the express Law of God they do Divine honour to the Mauzzim (though in pretence of worshipping thereby the true God) with gold and silver and wooden Statues, and with whatsoever is costly and precious, as it immediately follows, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Even together with a God whom their fathers knew not, that is Christ, (who was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a very stranger amongst the Roman Deities, and such as the ancient Romans never sacrificed to) will he worship them, viz. the Mauzzim, with gold, etc. Whence it is plain that the Daemons spoke of by S. Paul are here prophesied of: For these Mauzzim are they, namely, the Saints by this Idolatrizing Empire turned into Daemons; which are here called Mauzzim by a wonderful strange prevision of God, this Hebrew word being for sense the very language of those that by too superstitious a zeal and affection towards the Saints brought in this Daemon-worship, placing a more sensible trust and repose in their Relics and Protection then in the Omnipresent God himself. These therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Towers, Fortresses, Walls, Bulwarks, Guards, Protectors, and what not? All which Mauzzim does naturally and properly signify, as you may see more at large in Mr. Mede. So easily does the sense flow concerning the abuse of Saint-worship, who, though Christ be pretended in all that Divine honour done to them, yet it is plain they go partners with him in the Dedication of Temples and other Religious worship. 7. Which this last verse seems to aim at also in those words so artificially couched, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The holds of the Mauzzim with the strange God, (as if they were Joint-Tenants) which Holds are the Holy Houses, Churches, Chapels, Monasteries dedicated to the honour of Christ and the Saints. For these Holy Places are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strong Holds in allusion to Mauzzim, which has a warlike sense in it, and signifies military Protectors and Champions, whose Houses therefore may well be called Strong Holds. The sense of the whole verse is this: And this Roman Power shall erect Temples and other Religious Houses to Christ and the Saints: where Christ is indigitated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange God, he being both according to his Humanity born of a stock distinct from all the Heathen Nations, so that he is more strange than any other could be in that respect; and also being perfect God and perfect Man, which is such a Deity as never the Nations had any thought of before: so singularly significant is this Description of Christ in this Prophecy, by this name of a strange God: But that he being once known to them, they should give him condign honour, saving that they should share part thereof amongst the Mauzzim, and make them also Rulers over the Empire, dividing the world amongst them as a Reward of their Sufferings, (as is pretended) one Saint being constituted Patron or Protector of one City or Country, another of another; accordingly as I have above more fully Book 1. Ch. 17. Sect. 4. declared. 8. This is so clear and easy a sense, th●… it is no wonder that S. Paul says that the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, expressly, that in the latter times, that is to say, in Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time, which is the latter part of the continuance of the Roman Empire, men should Apostatise from the Faith, and embrace the Doctrine of Daemon-worship or the worship of the Mauzzim. To which Prophecy the Event is so exactly answerable, that a man must be strangely blinded with prejudice that cannot see it: as also a strange contemner of Concinnity and Proportion, if he be not pleased to observe how handsomely and naturally that hideous and unproportionate Chasma betwixt the Predictions in the eleventh Chapter of Daniel and the twelfth is in this way filled up with matters of weighty concernment, and the Series of times continuedly carried on to the Day of Judgement. 9 Thus unexceptionable in itself is Mr. Mede's Interpretation of these four Verses in Daniel, and for aught I know may be one continued sense really aimed at throughout. But I must confess when I look upon those words of the Apostle, 2 Thess. 2. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, which seems a plain Allusion to these words of Daniel, He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God; I cannot but suspect that, in an after-Completion of the Prophecy, the Pontifician Power, which is a kind of revived Image of the Pagan Imperial Power of Rome so soon as the Pope had once out-topped the Emperor, is also here perstringed; and that therefore the two first verses of these four may be also interpreted of the Pope and of his Luciferian Pride, as I shall more distinctly show in its proper place. CHAP. XI. 1. The Reasons of his Prolixity hitherto in the Predictions of the Idolatry of the Church, and of his future Brevity in the rest of the parts of Antichristianism. 2. The Second member of Antichristianism prefigured in the * Apocal. 11 8. Witnesses lying slain in the Streets of the great City called Egypt. 3. A short Paraphrase and Exposition upon that verse of the Apocalypse. 4. That the same thing seems to be prefigured in the Whore of Babylon her riding of the Beast. 5. What Predictions concern the Opposition to the Priestly Office of Christ. 6. That the Two-horned Beast and the False-Prophet are all one, and that both prefigure the Antichristian Opposition against his Prophetic Office. 7. That the Affliction of the true Prophets of Christ is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses, as also the Antichristian Opposition against the Kingly Office. 1. IN the mean time we have, I hope, with sufficient copiousness vindicated Divine Providence from the least suspicion of so remarkable a neglect or defect, as not to have as well predicted as fore-seen this general Lapse of the Church in this first and chiefest point of Antichristianism, Daemon-worship or Idolatry. Wherein I have been the more copious, it being the chief Characteristick of the Apostatised state of the Church, and indeed the Root of most of the rest of those Antichristian Enormities that have crept upon Christendom, I am sure of that which is at lest next in heinousness, the Bloody Persecution of the dear Children of God and faithful Members of Christ Jesus, who cannot submit to such Idolatrous practices. But I shall return into my first Method, and search out the Predictions of each part of Antichristianism in that order I have spoken of them already. Which I shall be able to do with greater brevity by far, having already made good my main design, and having nothing else to do but to refer to many of those Prophecies which I have expounded already. Not to add also how most of those parts of Antichristianism which are behind are nothing so fully and frequently predicted as this of Idolatry. 2. As it fares with the very next Member we are to consider, which is that Spiritual Bondage and Slavery men are brought under by that burden of Superstitious Opinions and of tedious and fruitless Observances, and a false persuasion of Penances to be done, not for emendation of life only, but for satisfaction; as if the Blood of the Son of God were of no price nor value: whenas such Fictions are forged for no other end then to uphold the Tyrannical power, or to advance the unjust gains of the Priest. At which condition of the Church I do not doubt but the Spirit of God points, Apocal. 11. where the dead bodies of the Two Witnesses are said to lie in the streets of the great City, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a Mystery, or Typically, as Grotius himself acknowledges. I say therefore that this Great City, which is this Mystical Egypt, that House of Bondage to the ancient Church of God in the Type, and to the modern in the Antitype, is the pretended Catholic Church of Rome; and that this Spiritual Slavery under the superstitious Impositions of the Pope, and of whatsoever other Clergy of the same stamp, is glanced at in this passage of the Vision. For the Two Witnesses being Synchronal to the restored Beast, it is in vain to dream of any thing at Jerusalem that should be the fulfilling of this Prophecy. It is therefore, I say, the Church of Rome that is this Mystical Egypt, and the Pope the Pharaoh of this Egypt, with his hard Taskmasters, that make the deluded people drudge and toil under the burdens of their Superstition. And the overthrow of this Spiritual Pharaoh and his Ecclesiastic Host is manifestly typified by that of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, which answers to the Blood of Christ, which is a wall on the left hand and on the right to the simple-hearted Israelites in their flight from these Tyrants of Egypt, but overwhelms Pharaoh and his Host, and puts this Song of Thanksgiving into the mouths of those who, through serious meditation upon the proper virtue and intent of the bloody Passion of Christ, have escaped this Egyptian Vassalage; I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has he thrown into the Sea: Or, which is the same, that Song of Moses and of the Lamb, Apoc. 15. Great and marvellous are thy Works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O King of Saints, etc. But of these things I have spoken already, and therefore this brief intimation Book 1. Changed 4. Sect. 5. shall suffice. Only for a corroboration of this Typical sense of Egypt, I cannot omit to take notice how this Song of Moses and of the Lamb is said to be sung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which is a notorious Indication Apocal. 15. 2. that the escape of the Israelites from Pharaoh through the Red Sea is alluded to in this Song; both in that the Sea upon whose shore it is sung is called a Sea of Glass, which represents the hard consistency which the Sea then seemed to have, being as a thick glassy wall on this side and that side of the Israelites, (nay indeed it is said in the Song of Moses, (Exod. 15. 8.) The floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea;) and also in that it is said to be mixed with fire, which intimates how these two massy walls of glass were penetrated by the sight of the Angel that went along with the Israelites through the Red Sea by Night. The Name or Colour also of the Sea may not unlikely be alluded to in this Description, Red being not an improper Epithet of Fire. There may be also still a more Mystical meaning of this Sea mingled with fire, (the Spirit with the Blood of Christ) which for brevity sake I pass over, and will only add a short Paraphrase upon the verse I first cited. 3. In the street of the great City, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is ordinarily rendered, where also our Lord was crucified: which is very good and easy sense if we refer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great City, and read [which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt] Parenthetically; but if we refer it to, or rather join it with, Sodom and Egypt, the sense seems more harsh, unless we understand an Ellipsis, the supply whereof would be, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, In the street of the great City, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and the City where our Lord was crucified, that is, the Prophet-murthering Jerusalem, which certainly is alluded to, be this Ellipsis how it will: And the meaning of the Text I conceive to be this. That that great Body Politic which pretends to be the Catholic Church, though so grossly Apostatised from the Apostolic Doctrine and Practice, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Grotius speaks, Spiritually or Mystically called Sodom, Egypt, and the City where Christ was crucified, with just reproach to their contrary Pretences. As if the Spirit of God should speak thus; Whereas this degenerate Church of Rome, by boasting of their Profession of vowed Coelibate and perpetual Virginity, would make show of being that true Virgin-Company, and the holy and chaste Spouse of Christ and of the Lamb; I do pronounce them a Nest of unclean Birds, as foul as Sodom and as polluted as Gomorra: And whereas they would pretend to be the only Church of my Son Christ, who hath declared that if the Son make you free, then are you free indeed, and to be that Jerusalem that is free, and is the Mother of all true Believers; I do proclaim to all the World, that they are, Spiritually or Mystically, that very Land of Egypt and House of Bondage wherein my People are oppressed and tired out with tedious, Superstitious and burdensome Observances, that serve for nothing but to uphold the Pomp and Pride of that Spiritual Pharaoh and his unmerciful Taskmasters, a Tyrannical and Idolatrous Clergy: And, lastly, whereas they would make men believe that they are that Holy City, which is a Refuge and Protection to the Saints of God and a Shelter from Persecution, where all tears shall be wiped from their eyes, that New Jerusalem that descended from Heaven, (which they were if they were what they boasted, the true visible Church of Christ;) they are indeed a succession of that old Jerusalem, the superstitious and burdensome Scribes and Pharisees, who were the Crucifiers of my Son Jesus, as these are to this very day of his true Members, who himself, accordingly as he has told them, is persecuted so often as they are persecuted. And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect as well the Members of Christ as himself, notwithstanding it is the first Aorist. For that is a good Note of Grotius his and a true one, Aoristi sine designatione tempor is designant quod fieri solet. And therefore here is intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the often-Persecution of Christ in his true Members under this power of Antichrist. For Crucifixion by a Diorism signifies any kind of Persecution. Jerusalem therefore literally is not here understood under the disguise of Sodom and Egypt, (which would not be any such mystical or spiritual meaning, but a mere Synecdoche, such as every Schoolboy understands) but that Great City, which is a Polity of men that pretend to be the only true Catholic Church, though so miserably Apostatised from the Faith: This City, in such a mystical sense as I have declared, is called Sodom, Egypt, and that Jerusalem that kills the Prophets, and crucifies our Lord in persecuting his Members. But the thing that we note now especially is their being called Egypt for keeping the People of God in such Spiritual Slavery and Bondage. 4. Which Slavery and Vassalage we may conceive also to be glanced at in the figure of the Whore of Babylon that rides upon the Beast. For that this Imperious Clergy of Rome is so called, seems not only for that Babylon looks like the first Precedent of Idolatry in worshipping Belus, but for their Tyrannical Pride and holding the people in such a forcible Captivity, from under which no man might withdraw himself and make back toward Jerusalem and the true Temple of God, but he exposed himself to the Cruelty of this bloody Whore, that sits as a Queen and says she shall never see sorrow. The Beast also being said to be rid by the Whore insinuates a kind of beastly droyling and slavery the Christian Empire has groaned under for so many Ages. Which, that it might be more like a Beast, (an Horse or Mule that has no understanding) they endeavoured to keep as ignorant as they could, that the People might be the more patiently Priest-rid, as the phrase is, and carry their Riders with more ease and safety. 5. These are the chiefest strictures that do occur to my mind in the Prophetic Visions that are applicable to this second member of Antichristianism, and that only in this general way. That of S. Paul is more particular, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats; but so easy to be understood, that the naming thereof is sufficient. And therefore I shall pass to the next branches of Antichristianism, those Oppositions that would run down the Sacred Offices of Christ, as he is King, Prophet and Priest. The grand Injury against the last of which is this, The making other Mediators besides Christ, and giving them Religious worship, (which is predicted in S. Paul and Daniel in those places we have already produced and expounded, touching the Daemons or Mauzzim;) or else the suppressing or slighting the chief use of the Death of Christ, which is a comfortable ease of Conscience from all suspicion of God's displeasure, or fear of punishment in the other world for want of satisfaction for our misdeeds here, so long as we have repent of them sincerely, and have amended our lives according to the word of Christ. Which abuse is one grand piece of that Slavery and Bondage that the People of God are held under in this Spiritual Egypt; and therefore is generally prefigured in that Type we have already explamed, and also in the Whore of Babylon, according to what we have above intimated. So that we may pass over this Office of Christ, and proceed to his Kingly and Prophetic Office. 6. The Opposition to the latter whereof is plainly predicted in the mention of the False-Prophet in the Apocalypse, which is the same with the Two-horned Beast, who is the Restorer of the wounded Beast, (that is, of the Pagan Empire become Christian) into a new kind of Paganism, and is said to work Miracles in the sight of the Beast, wherewith he deceived them that dwell on the Earth, and made them worship the Image of the Beast and receive the Mark of the Beast, etc. Chap. 13. Which things are so plainly said of the False-Prophet, Chap. 19 20. that there can be no doubt but the Two-horned Beast and the False-Prophet are the same. And the Beast was taken, and with him the False-Prophet that wrought Miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the Mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image. Wherefore it is plain that the False-Prophet and the Two-horned Beast, and consequently the Whore of Babylon, are all one, as I have above noted; and that therefore the Roman Idolatrous Clergy, that pretend to be such an infallible Church, as if God did unfailingly inspire them in whatever is concluded upon by their Pope, or at least by him together with what they will call a General Council, are figured out here, by way of reproach to this boast of infallible Inspiration, in this Title or Style of Prophet. But for that they delude the world by false Doctrines, and either Diabolical Miracles or cunning Cheats and Forgeries of Miraculous Effects, the same Company of men is more ignominiously and openly branded for this Impiety by the prefixing that deserved Epithet of False, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The False-Prophet. What can be more plain than this? Or what a more wicked Opposition to the Prophetic Office of Christ, then for one to take upon him to be his infallible Vicar-General of Christendom, and yet to fill the world with Idolatry and Lies? Which this Body of Pseudo-prophets have done in some measure, more or less, for about these 1200 years, as is manifest from the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition. 7. Whence we may be sure that the true Prophets, who speak according to the tenor of Apostolic Doctrine, would have but a sad time of it, and the Prophetic Office of Christ, as he illuminates these by his Word and Spirit, be opposed and resisted, nay these Instruments of his contradicted and oppressed with all imaginable injury and violence, accordingly as this Mystery of Iniquity should grow up in the Church; which seems to have commenced about 400 years after Christ. Which Condition of the Church I conceive is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses, whose mournful Prophecy in Sackcloth is Synchronal to the Reign of the False-Prophet, as has been above demonstrated. But the Description of things is such as comprises the Opposition to the Kingly Office of Christ as well as Prophetical, as shall appear in our Explication of the Vision. For for any one to take upon him to be the infallible Interpreter of the Law of a King, is to give Laws for him, and to despoil him of his Throne and Sceptre. Or by whatever other Device his Laws may be suppressed and kept from the People and other Laws put in their room, this Kingly Office is plainly made nothing by it. But that the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testament is thus dealt withal by this False-Prophet, I have in my Idea of Antichristianism sufficiently declared. CHAP. XII. 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses. Ver. III. The reason why they are Two. Ver. IV, V. Why Two Olive-trees and Candlesticks, and what meant by their kill men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths. Ver. VI That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them only by a Metalepsis. 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort. 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Egypt; And what the meaning of these Plagues may be. Ver. VII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The War and Death of the Witnesses, what they mean. Ver. VIII. Egypt and the foregoing Plagues fitly mentioned together. Ver. IX. The meaning of Three days and an half, and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied. Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth. Ver. XI. What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses. Ver. XII. That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven, but ascend thither when they are called. Ver. XIII. The Earthquake, City, Fall of the City, and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men, what they mean. 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses. 1. LET us now inquire what news of these Injuries in this Vision of the Two mournful Witnesses; who complain not without a cause, as well the Regal as Prophetic Office of Christ being so palpably opposed by that Man of sin. We shall give a brief Explication of the Vision, proceeding orderly from verse to verse, beginning at the third, and holding on till the fourteenth, where the story of the Witnesses endeth. Ver. III. And I will give unto my two Witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and three score days in Sackcloth. That these Days are so many Years, appears from the last Consectary of my Joint-Exposition. That these Witnesses are Two, is partly from the Types they allude to in the Old Testament, and partly from the nature of the things they signify. The Types they allude to are Moses and Aaron, Elias and Elisha, Zerobabel and Jesua, three several Pairs of holy men that are famous for their conduct of the People in such times as bear also analogy to these of the Two Witnesses, whose Prophecy is during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles, that is, while it is polluted with Idolatry, as Moses and Aaron were over the Israelites in the Wilderness, where they often lapsed into Idolatry, (to which the Woman in the Wilderness may haply allude,) Elias and Elisha in their Baalitical Apostasy, and Zerobabel and Jesua when they were yet in the Captivity of Babylon. There are also three Pair of things that may be fitly signified by these Two Witnesses. Either the suppressed Magistracy and Ministry, (such I mean as answer in opposition to the Ten-borned Beast and False-Prophet, and bear a resemblance with Moses and Aaron, Zerobabel and Jesua;) or else the People of the Jews, (I mean such of them as are so sincere, that, were it not for the sway of Antichristianism in the world, would be converted to Christ) together with the Virgin-company of Christians; or lastly, (which answers to these two last Witnesses) the Old Testament and the New, which may be added by an Henopoeia to the other. Ver. IU. These are the two Olive-trees, and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth. It is a plain Israelism, alluding to that in Zachary, Chap. 4. 11. What are these two Olive-trees upon the right sight of the Candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And then ver. 14. These are the two Anointed ones, that stood by the Lord of the whole Earth. Which Interpreters universally understand of Zerobabel and Jesua. Ver. V And if any one will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. It is an Allusion to the story of Moses and Elias their bringing down fire upon their Opposers. But here it is to be understood more Mystically of the Fire of the Spirit, or of the Law of God proceeding out of their mouths, whereby they convince the world. Jer. 23. Is not my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like an hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Ver. 19 Like that of the man out of the Sea, 2 Esdras 13. whose voice whensoever it went out of his mouth, all they burnt that heard it. And again in Ver. 4. the same Chapter, And lo, as he saw the violence of the multitude that Ver. 9▪ etc. came, he neither lift up his hand, nor held sword nor any instrument of war: But only I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire, and out of his lips a flaming breath, and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests. And they were all mixed together, the blast of fire, the flaming breath and the great tempest, and fell with violence on the great multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them up every one; so that of a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived but only dust and smell of smoke. Which is afterwards interpreted, ver. 38. And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto Fire. By this we may know what is meant by [If any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.] And it was the word of the Lord to Zerobabel, who is alluded to in these Witnesses, Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. So plain is it that the weapons Zechar. 4. 6. of the Two Witnesses in the time of their mournful Prophecy are only Spiritual. Which is a thing worthy the noting and seriously considering. Ver. VI These have power to shut Heaven, that it rain not in the days of their Prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they please. In the days of their Prophecy, that is to say, of their mournful Prophecy, or in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth; as is plainly to be understood out of the third verse. It is a manifest Allusion to Elias his hindering it from raining in Ahab's time for three years and six months, which is exactly the time of the Prophecy of these Witnesses, namely, 1260 days. But the meaning must needs be more mystical, these days signifying years. Wherefore by Rain is meant the distilling of that pure refreshing Doctrine of the Gospel unadulterated by the false Glosses of men; which Heavenly drops descend not during the mournful Prophecy of the Witnesses. But this shutting up Heaven thus is ascribed to them, not that they positively hinder the descent of this celestial dew, but by a Metalepsis, such as I have already observed in the Rider of the red Horse, to whom power is said to be given to take peace from the Earth, and that Apocal. 6. 4. there was given unto him a great sword, whenas yet there is no more understood by it, then that in his time there would be much killing one another. So that the Effect is put upon the Sign, when such a thing should be: as in that vulgar verse, Pallida Luna pluit, rubicunda flat, alba serenat. 2. This is one warrantable sense; and yet there is still a better, If this shutting up of Heaven be attributed unto these two mournful Witnesses not by a bare Metalepsis only, but by a Zoopoeia of the second sort, such as I have above described; wherein, though the party to whom the Effects be attributed does not use any activity to produce them, yet in some sense he has a causal Influence upon them; as the absent Sun may be said to be the cause of Night and of all the Villainies committed under her shelter. So the suppression and putting out of place these Witnesses is the cause of the shutting up of Heaven, and of the scarcity of the pure Word amongst the people; but cannot be attributed to the Witnesses themselves, but only by a Metalepsis, or rather a Zoopoeia. 3. According to which the turning water into blood and the smiting the Earth with all plagues as often as they please, is attributed to them, namely by a Zoopoeia, though they have no positive activity therein, no more than the Sun in all the Murders and Adulteries that are committed by his absence in the covert and concealment of the shady Night. And therefore whereas it is added, as often as they will, it is but the height and sublimity of this Scheme, and signifies no more then, as often as opportunities are offered for such effects, upon which the mournful condition of these Witnesses have a consequential Influence, though not an active. And Will is attributed to them with as much reason and elegancy as the Activity itself; and indeed according to necessary Analogy, those occasional Consequences answering exactly to the occasional exertions of the Acts of the Will in him that is said properly to act, and not by a Zoopoeia. The Allusion is to Moses his smiting the Land of Egypt with those ten Plagues: The inflicting of which, in a Mystery, is ascribed to these two Witnesses while they are in this debased and dejected plight. The sense therefore in brief is this: That the Roman Empire, in which is this Spiritual Egypt that holds the people of God in bondage, whether the Waters thereof be turned into Blood by intestine wars and broils; or whether it no somely abound with Frogs, that is, with slimy, salacious, and venereous persons; or be full of lazy and Lousy beggars, a sordid and squalid poverty overrunning the generality of men by reason of either the Oppression or ill Discipline of them that are in Power; or men be infested and disquieted with the importunate Incursions of swarms of Gnats and Flies, that is to say, with the Numerosity of Superstitious Scrupulosities and vexatious Controversies of Polemical Theology, that sting and by't and disturb the minds and consciences of men to no purpose but for affliction and inquietude; or the Beasts, which the Platonists call our Bodies, be plagued with Murrain, that is, be charged with foulness and corruption and with the noisome poison of the deadly sins; or that the Multitude be unquiet, as if enraged with angry Boils and Ulcers; or the barbarous Nations from the North invade the Empire like a violent storm of Hailstones, or the Turk and Saracen from the South, as a numerous army of Locusts; or that palpable Darkness in Divine matters seize the minds of men; or that the Firstborn in every Family be found dead, that is (saith Alcazar) the Soul of every man obnoxious to eternal Death, (as if he would not have the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, born later than the Body, but to be the first born in man; or rather because she has the right of Primogeniture, the right of Ruling over the Body:) That all these Plagues of the Mystical Egypt, whatever they be, (as certainly they cannot signify well) are attributed to the two mournful Witnesses by a Zoopoeia, they being the necessary Consequence of the Witnesses Disgrace, Affliction, and Deprivation of Power and Office, as Darkness, Thefts, Murders and Adulteries are of the Absence of the Sun. Ver. VII. And when they shall have finished their Testimony, the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies no more then, when they shall perform their Witnessings. And [out of the bottomless pit] is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is either, Out of a deep pit in the Earth, or Out of the Sea, and so may intimate either the Two-horned Beast, or the Ten-horned. The making war against them, by a Diorismus, signifies any manner of opposing them, and endeavour to suppress them, not excluding war and bloodshed; as it happens to them toward the latter end of their Prophecy, among the Waldenses and Albigenses and others. And as War signifies any Opposition, so Death or Killing any changing their condition into worse, so that they cease to be what they were before. And that this is a Political Death or putting out of Power is plain, in that their Resurrection is such. See Death and Resurrection in my Prophetic Alphabet. So that the sense is this, That no sooner shall they begin to perform their office of witnessing to the Truth, but they shall be assaulted, suppressed, and politically killed, that is, kept out of power. Ver. VIII. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City that Spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. This verse I have expounded already; only you may here take notice how well this Appellation of Egypt agrees with the mention of the Egyptian Plagues before alluded to, which abode upon the Land because they still kept the People of God in bondage, and would not suffer them to serve God according to his own will and precept. Ver. IX. And they of the People and Kindred's and Tongue's and Nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in the grave. This not being buried has a double sense, as you may see in the Prophetic Alphabet. But I must confess I take the more favourable to be the truer, and that their not being buried is a pledge of their Resurrection at last, that is, after three days and an half, which I have in my Mystery of Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 4. Godliness shown to be Three Times and an half, or 1260 years; the very same with the time of their mournful Prophecy. For they being only Politically dead, it is not at all inconsistent in the verity of the thing signified that they should prophecy in a mournful condition, nay indeed it is necessary to be so. And the Spirit of God designing the setting out these two parts of their condition, namely their Prophetical Witnessings and their Devestment of all Political Power, (which the Scripture calls the Death of a people, and their Recovery again into a Polity their Resurrection,) he has (partly because it were very incongruous to make them prophecy while they were dead, and partly because so long a time as their Prophecy is said to last, viz. 1260 years, was not so suitable for a dead body to lie unburied in the streets and then to revive) so contrived the Cortex of this Vision with such admirable artifice, as that these harshnesses are avoided in that Homonymia of Three days and an half, and all the parts of the Prophetic Figurations made to keep due proportion and symmetry, as well as the inward signification of the things meant; and yet without any prejudice to the finding out of the true meaning to him that is sagacious, the Three days and an half so easily casting him upon Three times and an half, which is the very same time with 1260 days. But whether in a secondary Intention these Three days and an half may have some such meaning as Mr. Mede has given them, Event will best define. For my own part, I see very little or no ground in the Text for any such meaning. See my Mystery of Godliness, and what I have above intimated in this Treatise. Ver. X. And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two Prophets tormented them that dwell on the Earth. The dwellers upon Earth, Ribera in another place, out of Andrea's, interprets Habentes in terra perpetuam cordis habitationem, whose minds dwell upon worldly things. These must needs rejoice when the Two Witnesses are slain, their free Rebukes out of the Oracles of God being very disquieting and tormenting to these worldly and carnally-minded men. See my Mystery of Godliness. Book 5. Ch. 17. Sect. 8. Ver. XI. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them that saw them. That the Spirit of life from God en●…red into them is correspondent to what we have already cited out of Zacharie, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. That this Resurrection of them has a Political meaning, you may be farther satisfied in my Prophetic Alphabet, from what I have there said upon that Term. Ver. 12. And they heard a voice from Heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to Heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. I had rather render, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For they heard, etc. this voice from Heaven raising them from the dead, as the voice of Christ did Lazarus. By which Heaven is here understood the higher places in the Political Universe, unto which the slain Witnesses are called by a voice from thence, saying, Come up hither. Whence it will not be unseasonable to note, That those that are the true Witnesses will not come before they be called, nor, like the ancient Giants, invade this Heaven against their wills that reside there; but stay till they have a lawful call to Political Offices and Dignities. For it is not true of this Political Heaven, but of the Spiritual, The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it Matt. 11. 12. by force. And that these Witnesses are said to ascend up to Heaven in a cloud, it seems an Allusion to Christ's Ascension after his Crucifixion, which is also alluded to here in the eighth verse. And the time of Christ's mournful Prophecy before his Resurrection was about Three years and an half, (if we may believe Chronologers) to make the Allusion still more perfect. Ver. XIII. And the same time there was a great Earthquake, and the tenth part of the City fell; and in the Earthquake were slain seven thousand Names of men: and the Remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven. That an Earthquake signifies Political Commotions and change of affairs, is obvious to any one to note. But that the City here mentioned should be understood not of a City of brick or stone, but a Polity, has not been so easy for every one to hit on. But I conceive it is plain enough that this City is the very City mentioned in the eighth verse, which is called the great City, and this great City is the Whore of Babylon, and the Whore of Babylon is nothing but the body of the Idolatrous Clergy in the Empire, who appertain to the seventh or last Head of the Beast, which is an Head of Blasphemy as well as the six first, that is to say, an Idolatrous Head. Whence we may understand what is meant by these Seven thousand Names of men: For neither seven nor thousand signify any determinate number, (though by a pleasant Diorismus they seem to do so) but only the nature or property of those Names of men that are said to be slain, namely, That they are Titles, Dignities, Offices or Orders of men belonging to the State of Christendom as under the Seventh Head that is become Idolatrous and Antichristian. And in that this Number Seven is multiplied into a Thousand, it signifies a perfect and durable nulling all such Offices and Orders of men. Which if Mr. Mede had taken notice of, it would have saved him the labour of making out the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and also the solicitude touching the proportionableness of the Number of the slain. For no men at all here are necessarily implied to be slain, but only all Antichristian Offices and Fraternities to be dissolved and abrogated, and things to be reduced to the purity of the first four hundred years. For to slay, by a Diorismus, signifies nothing else but a causing a thing to cease to be. This I little question but is the true meaning of this place. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have a sense marvellous coincident therewith. But that there is any design upon the brick and stone, the walls and buildings of Rome, either in this present Vision or any other in the Apocalypse, I do profess myself for the present so dim-sighted as not to discover; the Papal Polity, by an Hylasmus, not the material City, being understood in all the denunciations against her, so far as I see yet. So that if she be to be burnt, or sacked, or sunk by Earthquakes, it may be but a By-Accident, and not directly pointed at nor prefigured in the Apocalyptick Visions. But if such a thing should happen in such circumstances as should in a special and peculiar way fit with some of these Prophecies, it will be therein comprised by an Henopoeia of the second sort, as I have intimated in my Prophetic Schemes. But be this how it will, I make no question but this thirteenth verse of the Chapter we are upon concerns mainly, if not only, the Idolatrous Clergy itself. But it is said of the rest, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (not the remnant) that they were indeed affrighted and amazed, but gave glory to the God of Heaven, as being just in his judgements. 2. Out of what I have written here and in my Mystery of Godliness, I think it is evident enough that that Antichristian Opposition that is made Book 5. Ch. 17. Sect. 8. against the Prophetic and Regal Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses, who are said to lie slain in the street of the great City during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles. And truly though some please themselves in conceiting this Vision such an invincible puzzle, I cannot but profess that the fence thereof seems to me as clear as the Meridian Sun. And for that special Knot therein, imagined to lie in the eighth verse, how these Witnesses can be understood of Christendom, their bodies being said to lie dead in the City where our Lord was crucified, which must be Jerusalem; I have already intimated that this City is called the old Jerusalem spiritually or mystically, as well as Sodom and Egypt. And if any one have an heart to hear, (for it requires no great labour of the head to understand it) the brief and plain sense of this verse is this: That these Two Witnesses shall lie despoiled of all Respect and Power in the Precincts of the Jurisdiction of that Church which hitherto has always been the greatest, and is now very large indeed, consisting of mere formal, carnal, and Hypocritical Professors of the worship of the true God, in which Church our Lord also was crucified. What can be more easy and plain then this? For it only supposes that this carnal, Hypocritical, Witness-slaying Church of the Christians is one succeeding City, Synagogue or false Church with the formal, Hypocritical, Prophet-murthering Church of the Jews. Which is a plain truth, whether this Prophecy suppose it or no. But we proceed. CHAP. XIII. 1. That the little Horn in Daniel is a Type of that Power which should oppose the Regal Office of Christ. 2. That the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, but the Roman, proved from the universal Consent of Ecclesiastic Writers. 3. From the eminency and greatness of the Fourth Kingdom. 4. From the distance of time betwixt the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and the Kingdom of the Stone cut out without hands, or the Kingdom of the Son of man, which is also the Kingdom of Heaven or of God. 5. Grotius his fond and profane Interpretation of the Son of man, as if thereby were meant the People of Rome. 6. The like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands, of the same People. 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered. 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom, from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type. 9 From their vastly-differing Periods, the one ending, according to Daniel, presently after Antiochus, the other not before the Day of Judgement. 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom, and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head. 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard, which are the four Successors of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom, and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of this Succession. 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom, become Ten-horned and Pagane-Christian at once. 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast, and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored. 14. From which Equality and Coincidence he is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast. 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type. 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch. 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 1. THat Prophecy also in Daniel of the little Horn that is said to change times and laws is an express Prediction of that Antichristian Opposition which is against the Regal Office of Christ. For that this little Horn is the same with the Two-horned Beast or the Whore in the Apocalypse, I think no man will scruple that considers that this Horn is part of the Roman Kingdom which is deciphered by Ten Horns, and that it belongs to that time when the Kingdom is actually Ten-horned; which is not in succession, but together; as the Ten toes of the Statue, which answer to these Ten horns, do not signify the succession of Ten Kings, but Ten Kings ranked in the same time, as the Toes of the feet of the Image, which have not properly a precedency, but rather a co-ordination in Site. 2. Now that the Fourth Kingdom which is prefigured by the iron legs, feet and ten toes of the Image, and by the Beast with Iron teeth and ten Dan. 2. Horns, is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, as Grotius would have it, but the Kingdom of the Romans, there are these weighty Reasons to convince us. First, It is the universal sense of all Ecclesiastic Writers, That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire; as both Cornelius à Lapide and Caspar Sanctius, both of them Jesuits, yet do roundly assort. The words of the latter are these: Est ergò omnium sententiâ innominata has atque ●…rribilis bellu a Romanum Imperium; neque necesse est quonquam nominare, cùm nemo non dicat. 3. Secondly, That it cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, as Grotius would bear us in hand, (in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgement of the whole Church of Christ, to follow Porphyrius his, who was a sworn Enemy to the Christian Religion) appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Quod majus erit omnibus regnis, Which shall be greater than all Kingdoms; so the vulgar Latin and Vatablus. The Seventy also render it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And it agrees best with what follows, and shall devour the whole Earth, (which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before) and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. Which it could not be said to do, unless it were so great a Kingdom as is here intimated. Now it is manifest that the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae was neither greater, more excellent, nor a more victorious Kingdom than any of the three preceding, namely, the Babylonian, Persian, and that of Alexander the Great, from whose Kingdom they would make this of the Seleucidae and Lagidae distinct. Wherefore their Kingdom cannot be this Fourth. This Inference is so plain to Gaspar Sanctius, that he does, though but justly, yet very severely, chastise Porphyrius for this error which Grotius has so unluckily taken up. For he breaks out into these words upon this Text, Vide Porphyrii stuporem & oscitantiam, in cujus mentem venire potuit ut▪ existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum, quódque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque, cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius, & ab omnibus concisum aut malè vexatum. Nay, the very Prophecy itself makes the Kingdom of the Successors of Alexander less than his in power and greatness, Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that four Kingdoms shall stand up, but not in the power of Alexander: Which is, they shall be inferior to him. Which questionless is meant of them jointly, it being a needless intimation of them single. 4. Thirdly, The Kingdom of the Iron legs and toes and of the Ten-horned Beast with iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom, according to Grotius his own acknowledgement, which he makes that of the Seleucidae and Lagidae. Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these legs and toes, Dan. 2. nay the whole Image of iron, brass, silver, and gold, and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense of the Vision. And Chap. 7. One like the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom, namely, upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing, of whom it is said, at the 21. verse, I beheld, and the same Horn made war with the Saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgement was given to the Saints of the most High. Which is the same with the Son of man his coming in the clouds of Heaven, to receive the Kingdom of the Ancient of days, ver. 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands, to show it is not the work of man, but of the Ancient of days, God himself; and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ, as Interpreters ever have expounded it. Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his dream, That the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the iron legs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, and that Antiochus is this little Horn. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdom, or had any Disciples to follow him; and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in the days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed. (From which passage I doubt not but that phrase [The Kingdom of God,] as also from that above [The Kingdom of Heaven] does so often occur in the Gospel; as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man. And Grotius himself upon Matthew Ch. 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messiah.) Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the Fourth Kingdom. 5. But here Grotius, contrary to his judgement when he wrote upon Matthew, has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horror and astonishment. So that I am infinitely amazed, that a man otherwise so learned and laudable, (as he speaks of Porphyrius) should be miss-led into so bad an adventure. The Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven, according to him, is, Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens regem. When our Saviour Christ intimated to the high Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the clouds of Heaven, it seemed so high an Arrogation, that he rend his clothes and said he had spoken blasphemy. And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime, who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messiah to a Profane and Pagan people, and that forsooth because they had no King; as if they were ever the better for that. But they had Kings at first; and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and imperial, as may excuse them from the least show of Contempt. They had always over them a Sovereignty, so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition. For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever, and of the same real grandeur. Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time. So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the phrase of the Son of man to them, for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity: For they were not so in the times of Antiochus. 6. Again, the Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one, both in truth and according to Grotius his own Concession. But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdom, as being Heavenly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a thing erected not by humane power, but by the power and Spirit of God. That this is the meaning of [without hands] is the general vote of Interpreters, S. Jerom, Irenaus, Justin, Epiphanius, S. Augustin, Theodoret, and several others. Where think you does Grotius take shelter now? Why, This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ, and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament, This Stone must be cast away, as if it were neither precious nor a Cornerstone, and be bestowed again on a Pagan people, the Romans. For so Grotius does not stick to profess, Idem Lapis & Filius hominis; and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome. But can a man believe that the Original or Success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God, and not more humano, according to the usual course of the World, and that not of the best kind, their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers? 7. No, but that is not Grotius his gloss, you will say. Let us therefore hear what it is; Lapis abscissus de monte sine manibus, according to him, is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique regi pareret; cujus populi origo à monte, nempe Palatino. In which there is nothing sound nor solid. For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome? That Supreme Power of Consuls and Senators was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal. So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this. Again, The Stone cut from the mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain, when it is said to be cut thence: But when the Romans first issued from mount Palatine, yea so soon as they were populus Romanus, Regal Government was amongst them, it being the first Government of this People, and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis, according to Grotius his Conceit, so that he cannot bring both ends together. And, lastly, To interpret Mountain here in a literal sense, is unskilfully done, and not according to the analogy of the Prophetic style, nor the very intimation of the present Text, which says the Little stone became a great Mountain itself, and filled the whole Earth. Wherefore this Mountain signifying not literally but politically, there is no question but the other does so too, and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneal to this rocky Mountain. Whence the sense is plainly this: That out of the great Mountain, that is, the Roman Empire, there should be a People raised, not by humane power or policy, but by the Spirit of God, and the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, which should be a peculiar people to him, and become the Subjects of his Kingdom; that is to say, That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without humane help. This is a most easy and undistorted sense, and against which there cannot be made the least Exception. 8. Fourthly, which I have already intimated above, The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with iron teeth, and the Ten toes of the iron legs of the Statue, signify the same thing. Wherefore it is plain, sigh the Ten toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns, by reason of the coordination of their Site, that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdom. But in the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once. Therefore that Kingdom is not the Fourth. 9 Fifthly, Antiochus Epiphanes, part of this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, is said to rise up in the latter time of the Kingdom of the Successors of Alexander, Dan. 8. 22, 23. Wherefore this Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago. But the Kingdom of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the Day of Judgement. Dan. 7. 9, 10. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit— His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the Judgement was set, and the Books were opened, etc. That this is the Description of the Day of Judgement, is the general Opinion of both Christians and Jews, and answers exactly to the Lake of fire and the opening of the Books, Apocal. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the Last Day. Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdom, as having ceased so long before that time, though we understood the Day of Judgement in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. According to which the meaning of [I beheld till the thrones were set— and the Books were opened] is this, That the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great Day. But he gins more particularly at the beginning of that Day in the eleventh verse. But this I have only noted by the buy. 10. Sixthly and lastly, Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successors is all one Kingdom: But that of Alexander's is the Third according to Grotius his own Concession. Now that that of his Successors (of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae) is one Kingdom with that of Alexander's, is evident out of Daniel, Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia, and the great Horn that is betwixt his eyes is the first King. Now that being broken, whereas Four stood up for it, Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation, but not in his power. This is one plain proof that the Kingdom of Alexander and his Successors is all one Kingdom. For he calls Alexander the first King, which necessarily implies that his Successors are the second, and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdom. Nay he says plainly, that these four Horns stand up for that great one, that is, in his stead. What is this but to succeed in place of him, as the Heads of one and the same Empire? For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast, but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying, but not in his power, farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line, and that he does not speak of the Heads of two different Kingdoms. Which appears farther from vers. 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great, and when he was strong, the great Horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven. But where should these come up, but on that Head that had lost this great Horn, which is compensated with four lesser ones, though in their kind notable? For it is very incongruous and extravagant to fancy them to come up in any other. And surely, if they had belonged to any other Beast, that Beast would not fail to have been named. Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head, or no where, unless out of the ground; which is ridiculous. And therefore it is plain, that Alexander's Kingdom and that of his Successors is but one Kingdom. For that Goat is but one and the same Goat under the Succession of this variety of Horns. 11. And yet there is still greater evidence of this truth from Ch. 7. 6. After which I beheld, and lo, another like a Leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the Beast had also four Heads, and Dominion was given unto it. That the four Heads of this Beast are the four Successors of Alexander, namely, Perdicca, Seleucus, Ptolemaens, Meleager, Grotius himself does frankly confess. The Wings therefore denote the four Kingdoms Alexander's Empire was divided into after his decease; which is still looked upon as one Beast notwithstanding, as the Roman is with its division into Ten Kingdoms, noted by ten Horns, or into Oriental and Occidental, figured by the two Wings of an Eagle. Here Grotius, if he would speak out, would make Alexander the Beast, as he has Domitian and others in the Apocalypse against all the Laws of Prophetic Interpretation, nay indeed against all rhyme and reason. For he glosses thus, Pardus varium Animal, sic Alexander moribus variis. But how grossly incongruous it is, let any one consider. For than would Alexander be inferior to his four chief Officers, and they would be the Head of him, which is a Political Absurdity; nay the Head of him when he ceased to be, which is an Absurdity Metaphysical. Wherefore Alexander is the first Head or great Horn of this Beast, not the Body of it, that he may be superior to his four grand Officers; and not be the Beast to bear these four Horns or Heads when he has quite ceased to be on this stage of things. For these were not Heads, nor Horns, before he was dead. Alexander therefore is the first of the Succession of the Heads or Horns of this Beast, not the Beast itself. But to come up closer to our business: I say, it is very manifest from these four Heads and four Wings that this Leopard is said to have, that the Third Kingdom takes into it the four first Successors of Alexander. Nothing can be more plain than this from the very Text. For the Leopard is described in the third place, and immediately after him the Fourth Beast is mentioned, and called the Fourth, v. 7. Wherefore this four-headed Leopard is plainly the Third Beast. But now that the succession of these four Heads even to Antiochus Epiphanes is the succession of one and the same Kingdom, is plain from Ch. 8. 22. Now that being broken, (namely, the great Horn) where as Four stood up for it, Four Kingdoms shall stand up out of the Nation, but not in his power. And in the latter time of their Kingdom (the Original has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is the very same with our English, and there is no doubt of the Translation) a King of fierce countenance— shall stand up. Which Grotius and every one acknowledges to be Antiochus Epiphanes. Whence it is evident that the whole Succession of Alexander's Captains from the first four inclusively even to Antiochus his time is one Succession and one Kingdom. For he calls the times of Antiochus the last times of their Kingdom. Wherefore it is plain, seeing that the Kingdom of Alexander is one and the same with the Kingdom of the four Captains, (for that is the Third Kingdom) and the Kingdom of the four Captains the same with their Succession even to Antiochus his time; that the whole Succession from Alexander to Antiochus is one Succession and one Kingdom. If this be not demonstratively true, there is no demonstration in Mathematics. But if this be true, the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae are not the Fourth Kingdom, but the Kingdom of the Romans, according as all sober men have hitherto held. 12. Which we being so firmly assured of, we shall easily know where to seek for this little Horn that is said to change times and laws. For where can we find it but amongst those many Horns in the Roman Kingdom or Empire? not in the Greek, to which Antiochus Epiphanes appertains. And we have already plainly shown that the Apocalyptick Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns is this Roman Kingdom; and that this Beast once healed, or in such a condition that it may be said of him that he is the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, (which is when he is become Pagano-Christian) is this Empire actually divided into Ten Kingdoms, and that together with this Division the Empire began to relapse gradually into Idolatry by the Agency and Guidance of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore, whom I have also showed to be Synchronal to the healed Beast, or the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 13. But the Beast restored or healed his duration is 42 months, which is 1260 days, or a Time and Times and half a Time. For the abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is indifferently expressed by either of these latter; and the first and the second are joined together in the Vision of the Outward Court and the Two Witnesses. Wherefore 42 months and a Time and Times and half a Time being the same with 1260 days, they are the same one with another. But this little Horn in Daniel we speak of, his reign is also set out by a Time and Times and half a Time: Therefore it is of the same duration with the Whore or Two-horned Beast, which is Synchronal to the Beast restored, whose continuance is 42 months. Wherefore it is a strong suspicion that there is a Coincidence at least of time, if not of affairs, or complication of natures (if not Identity of some) betwixt this little Horn in Daniel and those three Synchronals, the restored Beast, the Whore, and the Two-horned Beast. For that expression, Dan. 7. 24. And another shall rise after them, does not at all hinder, since the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, behind them, it signifying order of situation as well as of time. And this being placed behind is the most convenient posture for such an exploit as is attributed to this Horn, which is said to throw down or humble three Kings: which is more by treachery and craft then open force. 14. Now from this equality of time it will also follow that the duration of this little Horn is 1260 years, by the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition. Which again shows how impossible it is this Horn should be Antiochus Epiphanes. To which you may add that it is said to be different from the rest of the Horns, in the explication of them. * Dan. 7. 24. And the ten Horns out of this Kingdom (that is, the Roman Kingdom, as has been demonstrated) are ten Kings that shall arise; and another shall rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, behind them, and he shall be divers from the rest, and he shall subdue three Kings. Now I demand what one of the ten Kings or Kingdoms is so different from all the rest, unless it be an Ecclesiastical Kingdom. Wherefore the Coincidence of time with the Pagano-Christian Empire, and the long continuance, as also the difference of this Kingdom from the other ten, is more than a strong suspicion that it is part of the succession of a Kingdom Ecclesiastic, which is necessarily to run along with the Empire professing Christianity. But if the question be whether this part of this Ecclesiastic Kingdom be the uncorrupted Kingdom of Christ or the Reign of Antichrist, the solution is not difficult. For that it is not the Kingdom of Christ, is plain, in that Christ is said to come to burn and consume it. Whence it is manifest that the Church has not been out in their Conjecture in deeming this little Horn to be Antichrist; and therefore, say I, the same with the Two-horned Beast and the Whore, who is plainly Isochronal, and, I doubt not but, Synchronal to this little Horn, and is adjudged to be burnt in the Apocalypse, as this little Horn is here in Daniel. 15. To speak briefly therefore, This little Horn is the Idolatrizing Clergy of the Empire, but more chief and particularly that great and notorious part thereof under the Bishop of Rome, who has been a more than ordinary stickler for both the obtaining this degenerate Ecclesiastic Empire in the Roman Empire, and in lapsing and keeping down the Empire in Superstition and Idolatry; and therefore is rightly said to be an Horn growing out of this Beast, the Symbol (Beast) itself, according to Grotius his own Confession, intimating Idolatry. 16. And if exquisite fitness of Application will assure us of the right sense of a Prophecy, we cannot fail in this, examining every character of this little Horn. For as it is little, so is the Original of the Pope's mean and obscure, and their Secular Principality small in comparison of those Princes they have contested with. Again, As this Horn had the Eyes of a man, so it is well known that for politic quicksightedness there has not been any Body of men comparable to the Roman Hierarchy; insomuch that it is Proverbial to say, That the Roman Religion is nothing else but a mere trick of Policy to increase and keep up the honour, power and wealth of the Pope and his Clergy. See Sir Edwin Sandys his Speculum Europae, and you shall find this part of the Prophecy fulfilled to admiration, and that it is not for nothing that this little Horn is said to have the Eyes of a man in it, which is said of no Horn in all the Prophecies besides this. Thirdly, As this Horn is said to have a mouth speaking great things, whether you mean thereby boasting of its own Sovereignty or Blaspheming, it is well known that from this Horn are uttered such words as imply the Pope greater than all Princes and Emperors, nay, that he is not only said to be Infallible, but styled God, and declared worthy of divine worship. Fourthly, For the humbling and subduing three Kings, which this Horn is foretold to do, is it not long since performed by the Pope of Rome, in his usage of Leo Isaurus, in ruining the Kingdom of the Lombard's to get to himself the Exarchate of Ravenna, and in tormenting and disquieting Henry the Fourth and his Successors with his Thunderclaps and mischievous Political Plots, till he wrested from them all their Right and Jurisdiction in Italy? 17. Fifthly, and to come nearer to our purpose in hand; Whereas it is said that he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the most High, and think to change Times and Laws; and they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time: I say, this Idolatrous Clergy has bid fair toward the fulfilling this Period of times already; the Degeneracy of the Church beginning about four hundred years after Christ, and (which is more considerable) they having received so notorious a Check in the Decursion of this Half-Time, which is elsewhere called a Half-Day, in which his swaggering is pretty well diminished and chastised. Sixthly, And for his wearing out and consuming the Saints of the most High, he has done it even more bloodily and cruelly then the very Pagans on the Primitive Christians; which is the most furious Opposition against the Regality of Christ that can be imagined, thus to waste and destroy his true Subjects. Seventhly, And for his speaking great words against the most High, that is, against the Divine Sovereignty, is it not plainly done in the Pope's pretences of having power to dispense with or lay aside the Laws and Injunctions of Christ, of which we have given several Instances in our Idea of Antichristianism, and such as are notoriously well known to appertain to that Church? Besides that he is Reus laesae Majestatis Divinae, in appointing Religious worship to his canonised Saints, which is an Honour due to God alone. Lastly, In that he is said to change Times and Laws; what innumerable Institutes are there of the Pope's enjoining, of which may be truly said what our Saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, From the Mat. 19 8. beginning it was not so? And what is this therefore but to change Times and Laws, and in many of them in a most perfect Opposition to the Laws of God and Christ, as I have already noted in its place? Whence we see plainly, that this Antichristian Opposition against the Regal Office of Christ is very expressly foretold in this Vision of the little Horn, which risen up with the Ten Horns in the Roman Empire, and did fabricate Imperium in Imperio, as some phrase it, and became a Two-horned Beast in the Ten-horned Beast, erecting an Ecclesiastic Antichristian Empire within the Civil, in opposition to the true Empire or Kingdom of Christ, and in defeatment of his Power and Laws in the Church; nay, in opposition to those Immutable Laws of the Eternal Logos that enlightens every man that comes into the world. CHAP. XIV. 1. The Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apocal. 19 proposed. 2. A general account of that Vision. 3. What meant by the white Horse, what by the flammeous eyes of his Rider. 4. What by his Name known only to himself. 5. What by his garment dipped in blood, and that this as also the precedent Characters are applicable to Christ's Body the Church. 6. The meaning of the Sword coming out of his mouth: 7. And of the treading the Wine-press of God's wrath. 8. The meaning of the Inscription upon his thigh, in reference to himself; 9 As also in respect of his Church to which it is applicable: As also the treading of the Wine-press, and the Sword coming out of his mouth. 1. THE latter of which two Oppositions, I mean that against the Eternal Logos, seems to me to be very lively prefigured Apocal. 19 beginning at the eleventh verse. Where we may see what has been held under in the reign of the Whore of Babylon, (which I have intimated to be the same with that little Horn in Daniel) by the Description of his Triumph after her Fall. For this Triumphal Pomp is upon her ruin, as it appears from the precedent Chapter that describes it. But the Pomp is described thus: 11. And I saw Heaven open, and behold, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a Name written which no man knew but himself. 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his Name was called THE WORD OF GOD. 14. And the Armies which were in Heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp Sword, that with it he should smite the Nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the Wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a Name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 2. In this Vision you see that the Eternal Word of God, of which the holy Bible is in some sense and some part a Transcript, is at last upon his triumph adorned with many Crowns, and has got into possession of his just Title exposed visibly to the view of all the world in a writing upon the thigh of this great Heros, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Which power the Lady of Babylon had usurped before, and under the pretence of her Infallibility had silenced not only the express Law of the written Word of God, but most coarsely and barbarously had trodden down those Innate Principles of Morality and Reason that the Eternal Word had implanted in the Souls of men, and by terror and cruel forcibleness did what she could to smother, stifle and extinguish them. But here the Scene of things is changed, and the pure Word of God has got the victory over the corrupt, Superstitious, Idolatrous and contradictious Opinions, and fond Institutes of that Antichristian Body of men over whom the Pope has a special Headship and Sovereignty. 3. There is no great difficulty in the understanding this Prophecy, if we have recourse to my Prophetic Alphabet, where I have set down what Horse, and what the Colour of White, signify. That the Eyes of this Heros are said to be as a flaming fire, intimates his sharpsightedness, as it is said in the Hebrews, That the Word of God is a discerner Heb. 4. 12. of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and that there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight, but that all things lie naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do: Where the Written Word and the Eternal Word are jointly spoken of, as here they seem to be in this Vision, by an Henopoeia. Again, in that his Eyes are said to be a flaming fire, we may note also how Fire is a Symbol of Intellectuality, especially a flaming fire, that implies light, as is easily understood out of the Philosophic Cabbala of the first Day's Creation. Igneus est illis vigour & coelestis origo Seminibus.— And we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Magic Oracles, and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributed to the Soul as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Plethon speaks. Wherefore the Logos here is rightly said to have Eyes like a flaming fire, because he is not only Intellectual, but that Great and Eternal Intellect from whence all Intellectual Being's are; as also all their Operations exercised by virtue of the more pure, aethereal and igneous Spirits. 4. That also of having a Name written that no man knew but himself seems to be agreeable to the Cabbalistical Doctrine, who make Aaron a Symbol of the Eternal Word that fills the Universe, as also of Christ who is this Word Incarnate. The Allusion therefore may be to Aaron's having the Tetragrammaton written upon his Mitre, that Name which is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and could be read only by the High Priest that had it written upon the golden Plate on his Mitre, as Alcazar has observed. But in brief, it signifies the Incomprehensibleness and Imperscrutableness of the Divinity of our Saviour; he alone who is it, being able to comprise it. 5. And in that his vesture is said to be dipped in blood, it is a Symbol of his Passion: so that we may know that it is the Messiah that is here meant; of whom S. John in his Gospel has said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Word was made flesh. And here he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Word of God, and yet in a bloody garment, that indicateth his Humanity or Terrestrial body, (for this Body is but a Vestment of the Soul, no part of the Man, according to the Platonists) which made him capable of suffering death. This is all spoken of our Head and Captain; and yet it may be not without some reflection upon his Body the Church. To whom also the riding upon white Horses belongs, as appears in the fourteenth verse. They have also flammeous and fiery eyes, because of their Intellectual Graces, and it is said that the Spiritual man discerneth all things, 1 Cor. 2. They have also a name that no man knows besides themselves, which is their New birth, or the participation of the Divine Nature. Their garments also are died in blood, in that so many have suffered Martyrdom for the testimony of the Gospel against the Idolatry and Tyranny of Antichrist; and all have been martyred, that is, slain and mortified as to the life of sin, and besprinkled also with the blood of the Lamb in the pardon of whatever Transgressions are past. And, lastly, they are to be crowned and reign as Kings upon earth, for the Kingdom is given to the Saints of the most High, Dan. 7. 6. But to return to the Description of this Heavenly Heros: A sharp-edged Sword is said to go out of his mouth. Which is analogical to that in the Hebrews, The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged Heb. 4. sword. And in that he is said to rule the Nations with a rod of iron, it is an allusion to the second Psalm, which is a Prophecy of the Messiah, Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Which is a Prophetic Symbol of that wonderful contrition of heart that the powerful Word of God makes when sincerely and seasonably evibrated against the enemies of his Kingdom; as in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to divide asunder and cut betwixt soul and spirit, and hue down into the very joints and marrow. Such is the Militia of this Heavenly Host. He shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked, Esa. 11. 4. 7. And in that he is said to tread the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, it looks as if it referred to that of Esay 63. Who is this that comes from Edom, with his died garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Which answers to that in this present Vision, Whose name is Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. But it follows in Esay, Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will slain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the day of my redeemed is come. This answers to what is said of the Rider of the white Horse in this Vision, that he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: Which in both these Prophecies refers both to the Passion of Christ, and his Spiritual Victories over his Enemies. The Wine-presses also answer to one another in each Vision. And being that the Harvest is, as our Saviour says, the end of the world, the Vintage, which is something later than it, must be a later part of the end of the world. So that this Vision of Edom and Bozrah will very well suit in that respect also to this of the Apocalypse. And it is farther considerable that Bozrah signifies Vintage, and Edom the carnal persecutive Church, real enemies to the true Jerusalem, as the Edomites were to Israel. And I need not add that Edom and Ishmael are Types of one and the same thing. So that the warfare seems plainly to be spiritual, as it may be I shall take occasion to clear up more fully in another place. 8. Lastly, in that it is written upon his thigh, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, it shows the Royal Descent of Christ even according to the flesh, as if he had laid claim to this Sovereignty by descent from David the King, accordingly as it is said, Chap. 22. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright morningstar. The root of David, as to his Divinity; and the offspring of David, as to his Humanity. But the meaning of this part of the Vision is, That the Word of God, that is to say, the Law of Christ, inward and outward, is at last in conspicuous Triumph, though it had been kept under and plainly trodden into the dirt for so long a time in the Reign of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore. 9 But that the Church of Christ, which is his Body, has also a share in this part of the Vision, is easily discoverable. For in that this Title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is written upon his thigh, it signifies also the Dominion of his posterity the Church, as Ribera and Alcazar have rightly noted, and accordingly as it is said elsewhere in the Apocalypse. He has made us Kings and Priests, etc. And for the treading of the Wine-press of the wrath of God, or the subduing of Edom, does not Christ do it by the powerful and convictive zeal of his Saints and faithful Ministers of his Word, who seriously and weightily laying the Law, and the heavy wrath of God against Sinners, to the hearts and consciences of these carnally-complexionated Edomites, squeeze out, if I may so speak, their corrupt blood, that is, the principle of that ungodly life in them, (for in the blood thereof is the life thereof) and so making them dead as to sin, after revive them into righteousness unto everlasting Salvation? And so for that sharp-edged sword which is here said to come out of the mouth of Christ; it is in effect the very same that comes out of the mouths of his Saints, who rule the world by convincing them of their wickedness, and causing them to return to God. This sharp, piercing and vehement Reproof out of the mouths of the people of God against the Beast and the False Prophet is here said to be a Sword coming out of the mouth of Christ, because their mouths are his mouth by right use and possession, and he inspires by his Spirit, and they are only his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that transmit this fiery Law, this blast of fire and flaming breath, as it is called in Esdras, whereby the wicked are consumed; They are, I say, but as a seized Gate or Passage through which or in which this sharp-edged Sword, wherewith the Nations are smitten, is so powerfully brandished by our victorious Saviour. For this Flame and this Sword I take to be clear Truth, and sound and searching Reason inspired from the Eternal Word, which whetted with an holy, sincere and unaffected kind of Enthusiastic Zeal, and backed with an unexceptionable Life and conversation, will be like a sharp-edged sword with the weight of running Quicksilver in the back of it, whose stroke will fall with such a sway, that it will even chine the enemy at one blow, will divide asunder soul and spirit, and pierce through the joints and marrow, as the Apostle speaks. But this is more than our present Scope intended, which was only to show that that Antichristian Opposition which is particularly made against the Kingly and Prophetic Office of Christ is prefigured in the Prophets; which I hope I have sufficiently done in the Visions of the Two Witnesses, of the little Horn with Eyes, and in this present Vision of the Rider of the white Horse. CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of. 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general, saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises. 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruins of Babylon, Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth verses. Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth. Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth. Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter. 1. AS for those other Attributes of Christ's Person, as where he is called The everlasting Father, and styled God, Light, Truth, The Prince of Peace; the Oppositions to them are referrible to those Prophecies we have already treated of. The first to those that concern the first members of Antichristianism. For there is no greater enemy against the Second Birth or Holy Regeneration than that rabble of Idolatrous and Superstitious practices comprised in the two first members of Antichristianism. Those Prophecies also of the Mauzzim or Daemons to be worshipped are Prophecies of the Opposition against Christ's Divinity; and the Darkness of Egypt, of that against the Light of the Gospel: The False-Prophet and makers of Lies, against the Truth; and the warring against the Saints a contradiction to the Prince of Peace. These hints may suffice for those remaining Attributes of Christ's Person. We shall now proceed to the Predictions of the Antichristian Oppositions to the Divine Life. 2. And the first were such as opposed the Divine Life in general▪ Which are indeed all those Oppositions hitherto, gross Idolatry, burdensome Superstition, the Oppositions against Christ as King, Priest and Prophet. To which those particular Oppositions against the Divine Life in general which I noted are also referrible, and therefore treated of already. There is only one thing behind; which is the turning of the Church of God into a Mart or Fair by those religious Nundinations and Collations of Ecclesiastic Preferments for mere Secular Interest, the turning the exercise of Christian Offices into a mere Trade of gain for the Priests of what Dignity soever. This is known to be a gross miscarriage in the Church of Rome, and is in my mind most lively and graphically prefigured and depainted in that Lamentation upon the Ruin of Babylon, Apoc. 18. beginning at the ninth verse. 3. Which I shall endeavour briefly to give some light to in my rehearsing the Prophecy. 9 And the Kings of the Earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great City Babylon, that mighty City! for in one hour is thy judgement come. That this City Babylon is not a City of brick and stone, but a Polity, and particularly the Roman Hierarchy, I have evidently proved in my Joint-Exposition. And truly it seems improbable to me, that the Spirit of God should put the Apostle upon composing so long and copious a Threnodia upon her ruin and desolation, if it signified no more than the burning of the City of Rome in a literal sense, and so slightly as did Totilas, and with so little design or effect. Wherefore in that sense which we have already given, and do not at all doubt but is true, let us hold on briefly to illustrate the Text. In these two first verses comes in the Lamentation of the Kings of the Earth, such as committed fornication with her, that is to say, such as were of her Idolatrous profession, but, seeing how things went, durst not assist her for fear, but let her burn till the end. Which again shows that Babylon's fall is not at once, but by degrees, as I have already noted. For though her judgement be come in one hour, yet the execution of it may take up a considerable time. Ver. 11. And the Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth her Merchandise any more. 12. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all Thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of Ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious stones, and of brass, and of iron, and of marble, 13. And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flower, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and the Souls of men. The first sort of Mourners or Lamenters seem to be those of the Secular Power; but by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to be understood Ecclesiastic persons, that traffic in the Church, where all is supposed to pass or be disposed of for Money or Earthly Interest: and therefore in reproach they are called the Merchants of the Earth, though otherwise their Titles and Professions point to nothing but to Christ, and God, and Heaven; Divine, Holy, Sacred or Religious being the external badge of them all. The varieties of the Commodities they deal in are so numerous, that it were too great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek a Mystery in them all, when it may possibly be nothing else but an Hylasmus or dwelling upon Material Objects in a redundant manner for the adorning of the outward Cortex of the Prophecy. But the ground in general of the Lamentation of these Merchants is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Fair is violently broke up, or else quite unfrequented; that there is no buying and selling of such Commodities in Babylon as was wont, sigh Babylon herself is unaccessible, as lying, burning and smoking in the wrath of God: no sale of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, the rich attire of those higher parts of the Whore, (as you may see in the foregoing Chapter) fit for Popes, Cardinals, and other great Personages of that Babylonish Body, and their Officers: no Thyine wood for the roof of their Temples, or for carved Idols to whom sacrifice is done; (for I suspect some such allusion in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) no Incense for burnt-offerings for their adored Images; no Images of Ivory, precious stone, brass, iron, or marble, nor any other sacred Utensils; for of this latitude of signification is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the use of the word occurs in the Byzantine History, where Images of silver and gold are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Achmetes, Chap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But to proceed; No trafficking any longer in Aromatic odours, oils, or ointments for sacred Unctions. No man will participate any longer of her Panis benedictus, nor taste of her idolised Wafer made of the finest flour, nor sip of the wine of her Chalice, though they would offer it to the Laiety. The tithe Calf and Lamb also with his consecrated wool shall fail; nor shall there be any more Redemption of Souls out of Purgatory by Masses hired for money. The Merchandise also of Horses, Chariots and Slaves shall cease in that day. The Greek has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which three words being in the Genitive Case alone amongst all the rest, nor yet in regimine, intimates that they must go together, and make up one thing. Which I conceive to be the Equippage of some of those greater Dignities in this Mystical Babylon, and to be a Key to the meaning of the rest of these Commodities, that they are to be understood some such way as I have interpreted them, and would interpret these, not Horses, Chariots and Slaves, but Horses, Coaches, and Lacquays to run by them in querpo; which is uncouth to be set to sale thus jointly, if it were literally meant. Wherefore the sense is, That the Merchandise of such Dignities in their Church, as whose Equippage is to go with their Coach and Horses and Lacquays to run by them, that this Merchandise will fail also amongst the rest, in the ruin and desolation of Babylon. Ver. 14. And the fruits that thy soul lusteth after are departed from thee; and all things that were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. That is to say, Those great and opime Preferments and Dignities which thy ambitious and worldly mind so longingly hankers after. For these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Poma desiderii, as the Vulgar Latin has it, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those fat and fair Objects that make their mouths run a-water so in this full Babylonish Market, where every thing is to be had for Money, and nothing without it. 15. The Merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off, for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 16. And saying, Alas, alas, that great City that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls! for in one hour so great riches are come to nought. The sense is, As well the Buyers as Sellers of Spiritual Preferments, who had thriven on the trade, shall be very sorry to see the ruin of that Polity that sustained them, but not be able to help it; and shall magnify the great Pomp and Splendour of the Whore amidst their lamentations over their own losses. For it is observable, that this sixteenth verse is the very same in a manner with the fourth of the preceding Chapter, where the Raiment of the Whore is described. Which is understood of the Pope, the Cardinals, and other Grandees of that Idolatrous Church. Ver. 17. And every Shipmaster, and all the company in Ships, and Sailors, and as many as trade by Sea, stood afar off, 18. And cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What City is like unto this great City? 19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great City, wherein were made rich all that had Ships in the Sea, by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. If we consider what Sea signifies stylo prophetico, the multitudes of men upon Earth; Analogy will easily lead us to the understanding of what may be intimated by Ships, namely consecrated Houses disjoined from the rest, as Ships are usually separate in the Sea. It seems therefore to give a glance at the Babylonish Churches abused to gainful Idolatries and Superstitions, where they sell the use, the sight or possession of several consecrated things, exchange Souls out of Purgatory for money, and do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, turn the very Word of God into an adulterate piece of Ware or Merchandise. It might haply seem something too phanciful to imagine that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these Naves Mercatoriae, have any allusion to that known term of Church-Architecture, the Nave of the Church; and yet Mr. Mede thought that in the Vision of the Goat, which stood for the Greek Empire, there is an Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from whence the Aegeadae, which are the Macedonians, are named. Nor is there any Improbability (to anticipate the Objections of those who deservedly have a great respect and reverence for places consecrate to Divine worship) that Christ, who complained that the Jews had made the Temple at Jerusalem a Den of thiefs, should in this Vision, being as highly provoked, rebuke as severely, in saying these men of Babylon have turned his Churches, which stand for better uses, into so many Ships of deceitful and cunning Merchants. See the Prophetic Alphabet. And they cast dust on their heads, etc. These three verses do plainly allude to, and are in a manner a Transcript of, the Vision of the Destruction of Tyre in * Ch. 27. 29, etc. Ezekiel. And all that handle the ear, the Mariners and all the Pilots of the Sea, shall come down from their Ships, they shall stand upon the land; And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall try bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wall●… themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gir●… themselves with s●…ck-cloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What City is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the Sea? Which is like this concerning Babylon, Alas, alas, the great City, etc. What City is like to this great City? And so like passages there are both in this Vision of Ezekiel and in Esay Ch. 23. that I must confess I suspect these also to be Prophecies of the same thing, especially considering that the Whoredom of Tyrus is so much upbraided to her in those Prophecies, as it is here to Babylon in this. For in one hour is she made desolate; that is to say, Suddenly and unexpectedly is she a-making desolate. For she may be a long while a-burning, and not set on fire on all places at once, as I have intimated above. But that these Seamen should set up so piteous a note and lamentation, the cause is plain, their trade and livelihood is gone. For they were made rich by reason of her costliness; so the English Translation, and accommodately enough to the literal sense. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well signify out of that treasure of honours, dignities, preferments and offices, wherewith she was able to enrich these Merchants. 20. Rejoice over her, thou Heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. That is to say, Rejoice ye heavenly-minded over these Merchants of the Earth, and ye that are Teachers of the pure and Apostolic doctrine, and declare the naked truth of things unto the world, be ye glad that the Lord has avenged the blood of your Predecessors upon her, the blood of the Waldenses and Albigenses, and of those that suffered in Queen Mary's time, with the rest of the holy Martyrs of Jesus. Ver. 21. And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Millstone, and cast it into the Sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. The sense is, That at last there will be an utter ruin and dissipation of this Idolatrous City or Polity, namely, at the pouring out of the seventh Vial. But in the mean time I cannot omit to note how unlikely a thing it is that this great Triumph and rejoicing, and that so perfect and final destruction figured out by the plunging of a Millstone by a mighty Angel to the bottom of the Sea, should signify nothing else but Totilas his sacking of Rome, (which presently recovered again) and the spirits of the Apostles and Prophets their looking down through the windows of Heaven, and making merry at that Spectacle, which could not but be very sad and Tragical to many a good Christian. 22. And the voice of Harpers and Musicians, and of Pipers and Trumpeters shall be heard no ●…re at all in thee; and no Crafts-man, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee, and the sound of a Millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee. 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: For thy Merchants were the great men of the Earth; for by thy Sorceries were all Nations deceived. 24. And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the Earth. The twenty second and part of the twenty third verse comprise the sad silence and desolation of this City; the rest the reason of her destruction. And the voice of Harpers and Musicians, etc. All this first part may be either nothing else but a Prophetic Hylasmus, setting out one single thing, the destruction, silence and vast solitude of this Idolatrous Hierarchy, by the privation or absence of such gross and palpable Objects as occur in a City inhabited, as the noise of Musicians, the hammering and knocking of Artificers, the grinding of Mills, the light of Candles in the night, and the singing and dancing at Weddings, and the like: Or else there may be a more particularly contrived Allegory in reference to this Mystical City here meant; As if we should understand rather the Music at their Idolatrous worship, by these here specified, which were only a Diorismus; & by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as do technas consuere sophisticas & politicas in Theology and Church-Administration, for the Interest of their Hierarchy, these Artifices Imperii in Imperio, and those also that work curious work in the Scholastic Divinity; by the sound of the Millstones, their fraudulent Profit, for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as you may see in Achmetes; by the light of a Candle, Honour and Prosperity, as you may read in the same Author; and, lastly, by the Bridegroom and the Bride, not the spiritual Marriages betwixt Christ and a Nun, or the Virgin Mary and a Monk in the Monasteries, but the propagation of this Pseudo-Catholick Religion, that it shall be no longer propagated; for the end of Marriage is Propagation. For thy Merchants were the great men, etc. Now follows the reason of this great Desolation, which is threefold. The first, The Riot and Lordliness of these Mystical Merchants; they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Great men of the world, and greatly worldly, ambitious, covetous and sensual, which is the very essence of an Earthly mind. Which how much it has been amongst the Popes, Cardinals, Abbots, and other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Primates or Maximates, if you will, of the Roman Church, History and the mouths of all men are full of it. The second is, The debauching the world with Idolatry, accompanied and countenanced with the pretence of a power plainly Magical of changing the Elements in such a sort as all the Magicians of Pharaoh could never do, nor had the face to attempt the like, it being so beyond all credibility; besides other Magical feats of an inseriour Rank, and Necromantic Stories of the Apparitions of dead Saints. Whence Idolatry is indigitated here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as also that Cup in the hand of the Whore is looked upon as a Philtrum; and likewise their being said to be deceived by these Sorceries implies their being seduced to Idolatry, to which they tend, as appears plainly from what is written of the Miracles of the Two-horned Beast, ch. 13. 13, 14. The third and last Reason is, The bloody Cruelty of this Roman Hierarchy; In her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, etc. namely, of such as out of conscience to the Law of God and Christ could not submit to their Idolatrous Profession and Practice, but witness against them. And not their blood only is laid to her charge, but the common bloodshed in Christendom by wars and tumults, which they, for the better rooting themselves in Countries and Kingdoms, engage the world in, and abet and assist when begun by the Secular Powers; whenas if they were the true Successors of the Apostles, as they boast themselves to be, they would make it their business that Christians should not spill one another's blood, nor conscientious men lose their liberties or lives for being the faithful Professors of the pure Apostolic doctrine, nor suffer the Turk to overrun Christendom rather then they will forsake their Idols and Daemon-worship, or Apoc. 9 20, 21. repent of their Prophet-murthering Fornications, Sorceries, and thievish Impostures. CHAP. XVI. 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition, and from Alcazar's Interpretation, and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre. 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre. 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet. 4. A third Vision in Esay, concerning Tyre typifying Rome Pagan, Christian, and then Esay 23. Pagano-Christian. Ver. 18. That Tyre (that is, Rome) will be reform from her Paganochristianism, and become purely Christian again and Apostolic, according to this Vision. 6. That these Visions of Tyre must needs have a further meaning than what literally concerns that City. 7. An Exposition of the eighteenth verse of the last Vision comprising the Prediction of the Reformation of Rome Pagano-Christian. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with a general reflection upon the appositeness of these four last Prophecies for the setting out the Merchandising of the Church of Rome in the management of her Ecclesiastic Affairs. 1. THat there must be some such Mystical sense as this in the general of the Burning of Babylon and of this Lamentation over her, my Joint-Exposition does make good, it being manifest there that the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast are all one, and that consequently not a City, but a Polity is understood thereby. And Alcazar himself interprets this desolation not in a literal sense, but mystical, understanding thereby the Conversion of Rome Pagan to Christianity, as I do of Rome Pagano-Christian to the pure and Apostolic Christianity again. Which seems to be intimated in the Vision of Tyre, which in the Mystery is the same with the burning of Babylon. And the Spirit of God seems of set purpose to point us thereto, by the transplanting so entirely the Phrases of the Visions of Tyre in Ezekiel and Esay into this Apocalyptick Vision of Babylon; as if he had a mind that we should take notice of a fourth Appellation of this Mystical City, that it is as well Tyre, as Sodom, Egypt and Babylon. But whereas Alcazar would have Rome Pagan understood by Tyre, I conceive that in Ezekiel Rome Pagano-Christian, in Esay both Rome Pagan, Christian and Pagano-Christian is typified; as we shall briefly see, and it is not out of our way, these Mystical Merchandises being still concerned therein. 2. Behold then how lively that High Priest at Rome is set out first in Ezekiel, under the Type of the King of Tyre, Chap. 28. Ver. 2. Son of man, say unto the Prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord God, Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the Seas; yet thou art man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Is not this plainly he that sits betwixt the Seas in Italy, and exalts himself above every thing that is called God? But this belongs more properly to that part of Antichristianism that is opposite to the Divine Grace of Humility. 3. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hid from thee. This is only a Diorismus, but sets out the pretended Infallibility and unerring Inspiration of that grand Pseudo-prophet at Rome; as it may also glance at their exquisite cunning and sagacity, and general Intelligence for the management of their Affairs. And some interpret the Text of Political Wisdom, wherein Daniel was also eximious. And indeed the very pretence of Infallibility in Divine things is in this False Prophet only a Trick of Policy, and the direction of their whole frame of Policy entirely carried to the getting of Power and Riches. In pursuance whereof they will not stick to alter, null or abrogate the Laws, Institutes and Decrees of God himself. Which some would fancy to be alluded to in the name of Daniel, which signifies the judgement of God, as if they could make Laws and Decrees more judiciously than He; whenas they are nothing but politic Contrivances for getting of Wealth, as I said, and is plainly intimated in the following verse. 4. With thy wisdom and with thy understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. 5. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches. This is that Mystical trade which we have already taken notice of in the foregoing Vision of the Ruin of Babylon. The following verses to the tenth are a Commination of his destruction; at the end whereof it being added, Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised, etc. it implies, that this King of Tyre in the Prophetic style is a Jew, which in the Apocalyptick Visions sounds as much as Christian, whether in profession or in truth. Which is a farther Intimation of the Mystical meaning of this Prophecy. 3. But these things are still farther cleared in the following Vision, in the same Chapter. Vers. 12. Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the King of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the full sum of wisdom and perfect in beauty. That is to say, There is no policy nor splendour of Empire to be compared with that of the Bishop of Rome. 13. Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the Sardius, Topaz, and the Diamond, the beryl, etc. Adorned like the Whore of Babylon for precious Stones and Jewels, as well he may, the Whore and He being in signification one and the same thing. But in that he is said to be in the Garden of Eden, what can be more suitable to the pleasantness and deliciousness of Italy, which is accounted the Garden or Eden of Europe? 14. Thou art the anointed Cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. The sense is, Thou art looked upon as the Infallible Oracle of Christendom, (for from the Cherubims did God speak) and thou art also that High Priest walking in his Sacerdotal Vestments, upon which were those glistering stones that shone like fire, and were an Emblem of the * See the Appendix to the Defence of my Philosophic Cabbala, Chap. 5. Sect. 3. Sun according to the ancient Cabbala. Which height of Dignity though thou mayest be forward to ascribe to thyself and thy own activity and policy, yet thou art to know that all power is from me, and that it is by my strength that thou standest. 15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. That is to say, There was no evil nor defect in thee from thy being created Bishop of Rome, (for Episcopacy is of my Institution) until thou didst degenerate into Superstition and Idolatry, and forsookest the first Apostolic laws of thy Creation, and broughtest that sad Apostasy upon Christendom. 16. By the multitude of thy Merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: Therefore will I cast thee as profane out of the Mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. By the multiplying of thy merchandises (such as I have described in the foregoing Vision of Babylon) thou committest injustice, (these are thy * Apocal. 9 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) and hast laid violent hands on those that speak against these ungodly trade, and hast slain the Witnesses of the Truth. Wherefore thou shalt sit no longer on Seven-hilled Rome, which is holy for the profession of the name of my Son Christ; but I will bring thee down, who pretendest to be universal Oracle and High Priest over Christendom, and strip thee out of thy Sacerdotal Raiments that glister with precious Stones like Fire, and thus I will destroy thee. 17. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before Kings, that they may behold thee. 18. Thou hast defiled thy Sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the Earth in the sight of all them that beheld thee. The sum hereof is this: The greatness and splendour of the See of Rome, the pursuit and affectation thereof in her and proportionally in the rest of the Grandees of that Clergy, made them corrupt their Policy with wicked Principles, so that they defiled their Sanctuaries, that is to say, the Christian Churches, with such Idolatrous and Superstitious worship as made most for their own gain; I mean with such like iniquity of their traffic as I have already intimated in the Vision of Babylon, Mass-money, Oblations to Saints and their Images, and the like. Wherefore this King of Tyre is (as the Whore of Babylon, which is a Type of the same thing) condemned to be burnt to ashes by a fire which shall break forth from the midst of him; as it is said of the Whore, that the ten Horns, which were Principalities of her own Jurisdiction, should hate her, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 4. The Vision is so naturally applicable to the same that the Whore of Babylon is, and so hardly applicable in some passages to the King of Tyre, that it is no small assurance but that the chief Scope of the Prophecy respects rather the Bishop of Rome then the Tyrian Prince. Of which we may be farther assured by that other Prophecy to the same sense in * Esay 23. Esay; where Forerius conceives not only Rome Pagan to be spoken of, as Alcazar, but says expressly that John seems to understand Civitatem Antichristianorum by this City of Tyre in Apocal. 18. though he names not the City: ver. 19 Alas, alas, that great City, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the Sea! And with Forerius and Alcazar joined together, I conceive by Tyre to be understood Rome become Antichristian, the Antichristian Hierarchy thereof being pointed at as it is in Babylon. For S. John, as I have above intimated, has plainly directed us to this sense, by transplanting the very selfsame phrases into the Vision of Babylon: As appears, besides what we have already noted, from the eighth verse of this Chapter; Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the Crowning City, whose Merchants are Princes, whose Traffickers are the Honourable of the Earth? I omit to take notice how patly the Crowning City fits that Polity that in ordine ad spiritualia pretends to a right of taking off and putting on the Crowns of Kings and Emperors, and have done it with the greatest insultation imaginable: I only note that the rest answers exactly to Apocal. 18. 23. Thy Merchants are the great men of the Earth; as here, Princes and the Honourable of the Earth. How well these terms agree to the grandeur of the Pope and Cardinals, and such great persons of that Church, is obvious to every one to conceive. But there is something more pleasant that follows and of a good Omen. Verse 15. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one King; after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an Harlot. Here is both good news and bad news in this verse. For by Tyre is here meant, as has been already suggested, Idolatrous Rome, who must be forgotten seventy years according to the days of One King; which, say I, is one of the eight Kings in the Apocalypse, Chap. 17. And by the Cabbalistical sense of the number 70, it is easily discovered who he is; namely, the Seventh King, which is the Succession of the Christian Caesars, as I have there noted; the space of whose reign is not here intimated, but their property, by multiplying 10 into 7. Of which the Cabbalistical meaning is▪ That during the whole reign of those Caesars (for Ten is a Symbol of Totality) Tyre should be forgotten, that is, the Polity of Rome should not be professedly Idolatrous; but after this term, than Tyre shall again sing as an Harlot, as it follows, Verse 16. Take an harp, go about the City, thou Harlot that hast been forgotten, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. That is to say, That the Roman Hierarchy after that time of the abrogation of Idolatry expired, by fair pretences and bewitching speeches, accommodating their harangues and exhortations with much harmony and agreeableness to the corrupt inclinations of the people, shall, by these plausible persuasions and other meretricious Ceremonies and sense-striking Invitations, bring Idolatrous worship again into the Empire; the will of God, so far as I see, being that it should be so, as it follows Verse 17. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth. And it shall come to pass: The more determinate sense is, For it shall come to pass, otherwise it looks like a Tautology. Her Apostasy into Idolatry is here described, like that of the Whore of Babylon with whom the Kings of the Earth are said to commit Fornication. And whereas it is said, For the Lord will visit Tyre, that is answerable to that Apocal. 17. 17. For God has put in their hearts to fulfil his will. Which Apostasy also gins, as here after seventy years, so there in the Apocalypse after the Seventh King. But that which follows is most welcome; Ver. 18. And her Merchandise and her hire shall be Holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her Merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing. Here the Scene of things is again changed, and that for the best. For Interpreters generally agree that here is a Conversion to Christ. But S. Jerom and some of the Hebrew Writers understand it of the Conversion of the City Tyrus herself; Alcazar of Rome Pagan. But I conceive this Conversion to be of Rome Pagano-Christian to the ancient, pure and Apostolic Christianity; which the fitness of things as well in this Vision of Esay as those of Ezekiel seems sufficiently to assure us of. Nor can it well but be expected, when it is so evident that the People of the Jews was one great Sacrament or Type of the Church of Christ to come, as is inculcated over and over again in the Apocalypse abounding so everywhere with that Figure we have ventured to term Israelismus, I say, it cannot but be expected, that those Nations that were Enemies to the Jews should also bear the Type of such as should be found the Enemies of the true Church of Christ; and that the Prophets predicting things of them in reference to the first Completion which is Literal, should in the exaltedness of their spirit be raised into such expressions as were more suitable to those whose Types they were, then to them themselves: in such sort as several Prophecies concerning Christ are framed, and noted accordingly by Interpreters; which are either purely Allegorical, or Mixed; of which I Book 7. Ch. 7. Sect. 2, 3, 4. have spoken in my Mystery of Godliness. 6. And truly I think these two Visions of Tyre so perfect Predictions of Antichrist and his Fall, that they deserve to be received into the number of the second kind, there being that in them which will not suit with the first Completion of them. Amongst which is Tyre's being called Whore, and her being said to commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth. Which is no tolerable sense understood literally of Tyrus, but easily and naturally understood of Rome Antichristian. What à Lapide says of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it signifies Caupona as well as Meretrix, is but a poor subterfuge; as if the Prophet for a verbal Jest sake would reproach a City so highly for useful trades and negotiations. Besides, though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify as well Caupona as Meretrix, yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies only scortari. And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must determine the sense of the other. Esay 23. 17. Also the seventy years' silence and ollivion is so unapplicable to Tyre literally, as that Grotius (though I cannot approve of his boldness) is fain change the seventy years into seven, as if the Text were corrupt: which is an odd way of interpreting Scripture, something like the cure of the Headache by decollation. And when he has reduced these years to seven; neither the life nor the reign of Salmanassar was seven years, nor he King of that City: Which yet according to common sense seems necessary to be understood. Again, The Prince of Tyre being threatened with the death of the Uncircumcised implies him a pretended member of the Church of God, and more especially his being called the anointed Cherub, and set out by the adorn of the High Priest, and menaced to be cast out of the Mountain of God as profane, and lastly reproved for defiling the Sanctuaries. All these are more than Intimations that the King of Tyre is a Type of some great person who is Priest in the Church of God, to whom this Vision chief does belong, and will hardly be sense in some things if not understood of him. 7. But I will not dwell any longer on this subject. Let me only give a brief Account of the sense of this last verse. And her Merchandise, that is to say, Then, or After this her Merchandise, (for of so lax a sense is●…, as we noted upon Dan. 11. 36.) her Merchandise and Hire shall be Holiness to the Lord. The meaning is, Those Revenues and Preferments which Simony and other obliqne and unjust administration of the affairs of the Church had made mere Merchandise, as also that which had been the Hire of an Whore, that is to say, that had accrued to the Church of Rome by her Idolatrous and Meretricious Artifices, shall be taken and made good use of, laid out in the true and substantial service of God, and be dedicated to him, that is, be appropriated to his real service. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, that is, It shall not be raked together into a few men's hands to make them and their Families a Fortune, they shall not seize upon it and possess it as their own, (for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may seem to intimate) to satisfy their own either Luxury or Covetousness. For her Merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, that is, They shall be for the Household of Faith, such as walk as ever being in the sight and eye of God, and have a reverential sense of his presence in all their Conversation; for such as be of the Christian Faith, not of the Antichristian Faction, be they Laiety or Clergy. To eat sufficiently; That men may have sufficient sustenance, that good Hospitality may be kept, and that the poor and hungry may be satisfied. 8. And for durable clothing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It may signify either durable clothing, or comely grave clothing, such as becomes aged men. Ut vestiantur veste honestâ & decorâ, qualis decet senes & Presbyteros; It is à Lapide's own gloss upon Vatablus his Interpretation: Ad Operimentum senum. By which I conceive this Prophecy perstringes the Luciferian Pride and splendid Pomp of the Pope and Cardinals and other Grandees of that Church; predicting, that that Revenue which is misspent upon this Antichristian vanity, the times will come when it shall be better bestowed in Christian Hospitality, and a common care of the whole Body of Christ, that no man want due Food and honest Raiment, neither Clergy nor Laiety. But these are Excursions farther than I intended. In the mean time, I think I have made it exceeding plain, as well out of the Apocalypse as out of these Visions of Ezekiel and Esay, that that lewd Trafficking and Merchandising in the Church of Rome, as if she were a mere City of Trade, is very lively and graphically prefigured in Tyre and Babylon. CHAP. XVII. 1. Their lying Legends perstringed in S. Paul's Prophecy of the Latter Times. 2. A more full Prefiguration of that Antichristian Opposition that is against Faith, in part of his Prophecy of the Man of Sin. 3. A clear Exposition of that part of the Prophecy. 4. Strictures in the Apocalyptick Visions to the same purpose. 5. The Pride of the Bishop of Rome prefigured in the King of Tyre, as also his Downfall, and how. 6. His gorgeous splendour set out both in the King of Tyre and in the Whore of Babylon. 7. The Pride and Downfall of this Patriarch typified in the King of Babylon. The meaning of the twelfth and thirteenth verses. Ver. 14. The meaning of the Prophecy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth verse. Ver. 20. An Explication of the twentieth verse. 10. Farther Prefigurations of the Papal Pride in the Whore and the little Horn. 11. An easy and genuine Exposition or Paraphrase of the thirty sixth and the thirty seventh verses of the eleventh Chapter of Daniel, wherein the Impious Self-elation of the Bishop of Rome is clearly foretold. 12. That the sense of the two following verses of this Prediction may be still the same with Mr. Mede's. 1. WE come now to the parts of the Divine life, the Root and the Branches. Upon the former whereof we shall not long insist, the Predictions being not so ample nor so frequent. But Prophecy is not altogether silent concerning those things which do so grossly oppose or undermine our Belief of Christian Religion. As, namely, concerning those Legendary Stories we have taken notice of; are they not plainly foretold in that Prophecy of the Apostasy of the Latter times, That Doctrines of Daemons should be brought in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, through the Hypocrisy of those that tell lies, who by their Hypocritical show in their professed Abstinence from meats and marriage, as if they were such Saintlike and Angelical men themselves, gain by this disguise the opinion of Sanctity with the people, and therefore the more easily recommend to them the worshipping of Saints by feigning of lying Legends that contain their Miracles, which they are very ready to believe, by reason of the reverence they bear to these vizards of Holiness? What can be more plain than this? 2. Again, 2 Thess. 2. there is a more full Prefiguration of the state of the lapsed Church in this point. Verse 8. And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; 9 Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 3. The description seems to consist of those two parts that are briefly expressed in the Apocalypse by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He that makes, and he that loves a Lie. This wicked one, that is, the Pope with his Clergy, is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lie-maker, whose coming is after the working of Satan the Father of Lies; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he should say, In all manner of false and counterfeit shows of power, signs and miracles. For he seems to add by way of farther explanation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in all unjust or injurious deceivableness. The same accusation that seems to lie against them in the Apocalypse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that they repent them not of their thefts. Chap. 9 21. But now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follows, viz. the Description of the lovers of these Lies. They are those that perish for want of a sincere love of the Truth that they might be saved. For Hypocrisy is ordinarily at the bottom of those that can be gulled by these Impostors: They not seeking sincerely the Kingdom of God and his righteousness are made a prey to these deceitful men. As is farther hinted, v. 12. where they are said to take pleasure in unrighteousness. For this cause God sends them strong delusion, that they may believe lies, that is, all the fabulous Impossibilities of Transubstantiation, Legendary Miracles, and affrightful stories of Purgatory. Thus one part of their Church becomes Sots and Bigots; and the other that behold this Scene of things, though they profess themselves of their Church, become a company of profane Atheists and clancular Deriders of all Religion. So miserably does the Christian Faith go to rack by these Impostures. Nay it is a question whether those that do more superstitiously cleave to them, do it not rather in a kind of confusion and obstupefaction of mind out of fear and suspicion, than any determinate assurance or firm belief of the things they outwardly profess. Nor does this Interpretation at all clash with their supposition that admit that there are sometimes things that happen extraordinarily in that Church. For it is enough that they do so abound with and glory of their Miracles, and that so very few of those numerous stories of them are true at all, and that none of them are true Miracles, but prestigious Juggles of the Devil, that egregious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Theodoret calls him. 4. To these you may add Apocal. 13. where the Two-horned Beast, (which is the same with the Pseudo-Prophet and this Man of Sin) is said to do great miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, In conspectu hominum, & In conspectu Bestiae; that is, saith Aretas, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Oculos hominum praestringens, and accordingly Bellarmine also interprets those words. Which juggle notwithstanding concerns the eyes of the Mind as well as those of the Body. For Transubstantiation does not make the Bread look to the outward eyes otherwise then usual, but to the eyes of Faith and Reason; to which their being able to make a consecrated Wafer appear to be the very Body and Person of Christ is such a piece of Prestigiousness as has no parallel. The apparent affectedness of accurate humane Policy, if not worse, in the frame of their Religion, is perstringed in the Vision of the little Horn with eyes: And their Atheism and Infidelity in the general, in those passages of the Revelation, Chap. 21. 8. But the fearful and unbelieving, etc. and Chap. 22. 15. For without are dogs. Which places in what sense they make to the present Theme, I have already declared in my Idea of Antichristianism, and therefore hold it needless to repeat. 5. We come now to the Oppositions to the Branches of the Divine life, Humility, Purity, and Charity. And that against the first of them is plainly that unmatchable Loftiness and Haughtiness, which we have described in the afore-named Idea, and which History does everywhere complain of in the Bishop of Rome. Which I conceive is very lively set out in that Vision of Ezekiel touching the King of Tyre. For that Tyre is a Type of Rome Antichristian, I have above, I think, made very rational. The words which I had occasion to recite before were these: Son of man, say unto the Prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord God, Because thine heart Ezekiel Chap. 28. 2. is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the Seas. Is not this the very language which the Pope accepts of, Dominus Deus noster Papa? And that the Seat and Tribunal of the Pope is the very Seat and Tribunal of God? Again, ver. 6. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, behold I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the Nations, etc. To set his heart as the heart of God is to have his will in all things. Who has resisted his Will? And do they not make the Will of the Pope a Law? Supremum Numen in terris, at whose beck and nod all things are to be done, right or wrong; nay, they cannot be wrong if he will have them. Which is to make him have an heart like God indeed, not only an irresistible, but infallible one. Thus high has he climbed in the confidence of his own subtlety and policy. But the terrible of the Nations shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom, and they shall defile his brightness, saith the Prophet. Which what it is in the literal sense, is easy to understand, and accordingly is applicable to the King of Tyre; and may ex accidenti be also applicable to the destruction of Rome. But it may also have a more Mystical sense; And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which they render robustos gentium, may signify nothing else but the zealous and resolute Assertors and Abettors of Truth, than which nothing is more robustious and strong. (Great is Truth and mighty above all things, Esdras 4.) These stout Champions therefore shall draw their swords against the beauty of his wisdom; that is to say, They shall use the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, even that Sword that comes out of his mouth that rides on the white Horse, which is unsophisticated Reason and Scripture, against the finely-wrought subtleties whether Scholastic or Politic, and all the plausible and goodly fair pretences of the Pontifician wisdom; and the Glory of the Gospel shall darken the Seat of the Beast, as the Sunshine obscures or puts out the light of every artificial Fire. Thus shall the Pontifician Power perish from the midst of the Nations. 6. And then as for that more than Imperial Majesty and Splendour in the Pope's Habiliments, it is said of this King of Tyre, Every precious stone was thy Covering, the Sardius, the Topaz and the Diamond: so as it is said of the Whore of Babylon, that she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. Which Pontifician Power though it be prefigured by the image of a Woman in the Apocalypse, the better to set out the Meretricious Mysteries of that Church; yet the Haughtiness thereof, and more particularly that of the Pope, seems also to be typified in the King of Babylon. For is it possible that any one should doubt but that Babylon being such an acknowledged Type of the Antichristian Church, the Head of this Antichristian Church is likewise typified in the King of Babylon? 7. Let us hear therefore what Esay saith of this exalted Potentate in the fourteenth Chapter. Verse 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the Morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the Nations! 13. For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God, I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. How every Nation is weakened by the power of the Pope, we have adumbrated in our Idea of Antichristianism. His ascending into Heaven, stylo Prophetico, and his exalting himself above the Stars of God, which is, the Stars of the greatest magnitude in this Heaven, is as much as his clambering into Imperial Power, and his advancing himself above all the Kings and Princes of the Roman Empire. His sitting upon the Mount of the Congregation, is his sitting in the Temple of God. So that there seems to be a double Allusion, both to the Mount of the Temple of God at Jerusalem, and to the Mountains, or, if you will, some one peculiar Mountain, at Rome, which is the chief City of the Church of Christ. This sitting upon this Mount of the Congregation, or the Church of God, is marvellously coincident with that Prophecy of his sitting in the Temple of God. Nor is [In the sides of the North] put in for nothing, though a thing of little moment in the letter; for it seems to foretell that the Dominion of the Pope was to spread more notoriously Northward, and we know he could never make any great business of the Southern Churches, the African ever resisting him very stoutly. Besides other considerations, which for brevity I omit. Ver. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most High. That is to say, I will be above all Rule and Dominion, I will be absolute, uncontrollable, infallible, as God. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit. 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble, that did shake the Kingdoms? The meaning is, Is this the man that did terrify the world with his dreadful Thunderclaps of Excommunication, and by the great Interest he had in the Princes of the Empire, and by the power of his Clergy, could unhindge and dissettle Principalities and Kingdoms, by reason of the blindness and Superstition of the People? 17. That made the world as a Wilderness, and destroyed the Cities thereof, that opened not the house of his Prisoners? That is to say, That filled the Empire with intestine Wars by his wicked Incendiaries, and so brought great depopulations and destructions upon Cities, rather than he would let go those that he held captive in this Babylonish or Egyptian Slavery. Many of whom were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition, and treated with such Cruelty as exceeds all the Tragic stories of the bloody and persecutive Infidels. 18. All the Kings of the Nations, even all of them lie in glory, every one in his own house. That is, The Dynasties or Polities of the Nations, the Secular Kingdoms and Powers have and shall expire with glory in comparison of thee, and have an honourable Burial and Memorial. 19 But thou art cast out of thy grave, like an abominable branch— as a carcase trodden under foot. The meaning is, That the Pontifician Power shall not expire with any honour at all, but the very Memorial thereof shall be abominable and execrable: it shall not have that Kingly Burial, whose dead Bodies were embalmed with Aromatic odours, and Sepulchers adorned with goodly and splendid Artifice; but shall be as a stinking Carcase cast into the highway, that offends the eyes and nostrils of every one that passes by. So unsavoury a stench shall arise from the Records of this bloody and Idolatrous Antichristian Polity, as is intimated in this last verse. Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in Burial, because thou hast destroyed thy Land, and slain thy People. See Homily against Rebellion, part 〈◊〉 & 6. That is to say, As thou art a Power distinct from that of the Secular Powers and Potentates of the Earth, so thy Fate shall be distinct and singular; for thy Memorial shall be accursed, and thy Name an hissing to Posterity. And the reason is also singular, Because thou hast destroyed thy Land, and slain thy People: that is, Because, whereas thou pretendest to be the Vicar of Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church, the Father of Christendom, Universal Pastor of the Flock; thou hast played the bloody Butcher, the Thief and Robber, to forage in the Empire, to eat and grow fat, accordingly as it is written, The Thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: which thou hast enormously done since thy usurpation in the House of God, filling the Empire with intestine Broils, Massacres, Martyrdoms with Fire and Faggot, with Racks and Tortures and all manner of Cruelties; and this upon thine own Land and People, that is to say, upon Christians, over whom thou pretendest to be Head, nay, the ghostly Father and tender Protector of them. Wherefore, as thine Outrages have been singular, thy Destruction shall be proportionable, and thine End execrable, and the stench of thy Memory shall fume up into the nostrils of all Posterities for ever and ever. The reason of this dreadful End of the King of Babylon is the very same with that of the burning of the Queen of Babylon or the Whore, (for they are Types of one and the same thing) And in her was found the blood of Apoc. 18. 24. Prophets, and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the Earth. And truly that last Clause of the Prophecy of the King of Babylon is so proper to the Papal Power, that it belongs to it only, and not to the King of Babylon. Which is a special pledge and assurance of this higher and more concerning sense of this Prophecy. 10. The height of the Papal power above that of the Emperor is also prefigured in the Whore's riding of the Beast: For certainly the Rider is superior to the Beast that is ridden. And it is expressly said of the Two-horned Beast, the same with the Whore, That he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him. To these you may add that Prediction in Daniel, Ch. 7. 24. And another King shall arise after them; (which I have above shown to be the Pope) and he shall be divers from the first, and he shall subdue three Kings: And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws. Which words plainly imply that extravagant Power that the Pope was to assume to himself, as is easily understood out of what we have already said upon this Text. 11. And lastly, It seems to me also to be very clear, that this enormous Pride of the Pope is prefigured again in Daniel, Ch. 11. 36, 37. Of which two verses I would make this brief Paraphrase. 36. After the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, that Type of Antichrist and notorious Enemy of the People of God in the Greek Empire, shall there arise a Rex Sacrorum, or rather a Regal Pontifex, if you will, who with his form Body Politic, or Ecclesiastical Power, shall prove the very Antichrist indeed, answering in the Roman Empire to that wicked Antiochus in the Greek that immediately preceded it. Which Ecclesiastic Prince or Pontifex, finding the stream of Affairs and good Fortune to carry him along, shall at last exalt himself above every God, that is, every Supreme Magistrate, the Emperor himself not excepted; nay, shall speak stupendious words against the Sovereignty of God himself, as if he had power to abrogate or dispense with the Laws of God and Christ, and were himself Supremum Numen in terris. Which Impieties he will prosperously carry on for such a time as Divine Providence will permit, that is to say, till the time and times and half a time be expired or at the last gasp. 37. But yet he shall not be a pure Pagan for all this, nor regard the Gods of his Ancestors or Predecessors, (that is, of the Supreme Magistrates of Rome who reigned there a long time before him) such Deities as Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, Venus, and the like. But this shall be notable in him, that he shall be outwardly a strict Processor of Coelibate himself, and it shall be against his Pontifical Office to marry, and likewife his Clergy shall be tied to the same Laws, that he might thereby the better promote the Designs of his rampant and insatiable Ambition; which spirit of Pride and Worldliness shall grow so rank in him, that he shall in time cast off the real and sincere sense of all Religion, and care for no God at all, but magnify himself above all. 12. In the two following verses there is no need of varying from Mr. Mede's Interpretation. For the sense as it respects these foregoing verses is only this, That by reason of this great Impiety and Irrligiousness of him, or at least of his haughtiness and presumption against the known Laws of God, he will for his own advantage set up the religious worship of Demons, accordingly as we have above expounded it out of Mr. Mede. CHAP. XVIII. 1. That the truth of the foregoing Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin. The three first verses thereof interpreted. Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God, and what it is to show himself to be God. Ver. 5. The meaning of [to be revealed in his time,] and what that is that withstandeth. Ver. 7. [The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work] how to be understood, and who th●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and what the meaning and manner of his destruction; with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophecy to the Papal Power and Imposture. 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition. 1. THat this is one assured sense of these two verses of Daniel, that Prophecy in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians will more fully evidence: which has so great affinity with this, that I do not doubt but it points at the same enormous power of this Roman Patriarch and his Clergy with it, and is in a manner a Transcript from it. 1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thess 2. and by our gathering together to him, which I mentioned in my * 1 Thess. 4. 17. former Epistle. 2. That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as from us, as if we had prophesied, spoke, or wrote any thing by letter, no not in that former to you, that could be rightly interpreted to any such sense, as that the Day of Christ is at hand. 3. Let no man deceive you by any means, either by pretence of Inspiration, or by Scripture, or by misinterpreting any Letter of mine; For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, before that eminent Apostasy come, (for so Alcazar interprets the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place) that Lapse into Idolatrous worship which is Rebellion against God and Christ; and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition. That this is to be understood of that signal Antichrist, is the current Opinion of Antiquity, yea of Alcazar, Ribera, and Bellarmine himself. But we say that this Antichrist will prove the Pope with his Clergy. For it is a ridiculous Defence to excuse it by saying that the Man of Sin must imply one single person; whenas a Man as well as a Woman in the Prophetic style does easily signify not only a Succession of single men but of a Body Politic by an Henopoeia, and so does here the succession of lapsed Popes with their Clergy, who are called the Son of Perdition, because they are to be destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Christ, and the power and Light of the Gospel. Not by worldly power nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Ver. 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or what is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God. That the Bishop of Rome fulfilleth every tittle of this Prediction, any one will see that does but cast back his eyes upon what we have wrote in our Idea of Antichristianism, and what is generally known to all that have sipped but never so little of the History of the affairs of Christendom. For it is plain from thence that he opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, in some eminent way or other. For he opposeth and exalteth himself above Christ, who is very God, in all his Offices, Regal, Sacerdotal and Prophetical, as I have abundantly shown, and therefore consequently above all the Saints. Nay particularly he is set above the Saints and Angels, as Bishop Dounham proves at large in his Treatise De Antichristo, lib. 4. c. 4. And as for the Emperors, he treads on their very necks and makes them his vassals, kicks off their Crowns with his feet, and with his feet sets them on again. So plain is it that this Prince of the Crowning City does exalt himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, above all Powers whatsoever, whether celestial or terrestrial, amongst the latter of which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Augusti, the Roman Emperors. An Hint is sufficient; a more full Amplification of his enormous Pride is set down in the abovenamed Idea, which yet is no more than what is obvious Idea of Antichristianism, Book 2. Ch. 11. and notorious as well in common Fame as in History. This passage in this verse does so expressly answer to that in Daniel, ch. 11. 36. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, that I doubt not but that the Apostle had a respect to that King of Pride there described, and means here the same thing by the Man of Sin. So that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Doing and accepting such things as, if they did rightly belong to him, would demonstrate that he were God; but by so doing he does ostentare se Deum esse, makes a show as if he were God. The Temple of God is here either materially to be understood; and than it is plain how well it fits with the Pope's receiving honour sitting on the high Altar in S. Peter's Church at Rome after his Election, and his being there adored: or if it be understood Figuratively for the People that bear the Name of Christ and are dedicated to him, here he sits too and rules as God infallibly, uncontrollably, antiquating or dispensing even with the Laws of God himself. Ver. 5. Remember ye not that, when I was with you, I told you these things? 6. And now you know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time. That is to say, what hindereth his revealing and showing of himself to be in the world. For all things are in the confused Potentiality of the Universe, but hid, as a Rose in winter, but appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in their season. But that which hindered this appearing of Antichrist was, according to the general opinion of Antiquity, the Entireness of the Roman Empire. Till the breaking of the Empire into ten Kingdoms, Antichrist was not to be, and, it may be, not to appear, in another sense, till afterwards. That this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Roman Empire, Alcazar brings in plenty of witnesses out of Malvenda, Tertullian, chrysostom, Ambrose, Jer●…e, Austin, Theophylact, Oecumenius. To which he adds Anselmus, Hay●…, Strabus, Thomas, Lyranus, Cajetan, Bellarmine, Suarez and Pamelius. Ver. 7. For the Mystery of Iniquity does already work; only he that now letteth, will let, until he be taken away. Tertullian and chrysostom, and most of the Expofitors, as Alcazar does avouch, understand this working of Iniquity in the Apostles time to be only as a Type and Figure of that which should be under Antichrist; That there was then something either actually in being or a-brewing, that was a previous Representation of the state of the Church under Antichrist. Alcazar would have it the Roman Paganism or worship of Idols. But that was no Mystery of Iniquity. But it may be he will say, it may be a Type of that which, when it came, would be a Mystery, and that a wonderful one, that is, the living Image of Paganism revived in Christianity; and that therefore the future Mystery did work in its Type as well as was in its Type. For the Empire revived into Idolatry is called the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. The conceit is not altogether extravagant. But I am more inclinable to think that the Apostle might speak of something in Christianity already (I mean in the Professors of it) that bore some similitude with that of the great Antichrist that was to appear in his season; that he might intent by this present working of the Mystery of Iniquity some miscarriage in some of the Christians, or some propensions thereto in them, as having got a great smack of the Antichristian Spirit, and particularly of the spirit of contention for Rule and Priority. Whether Simon Magus may not be here hinted at, I shall consider in its due place. But this Antichristian heat of Ambition must play at lesser games till the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, till the Roman Emperor most properly so called, namely, he that has his Imperial Seat at Rome, be removed or destroyed; which Series of Caesar's ended in Augustulus. After which the Pope played his pranks in these Western parts of the Empire, and gleaned much wealth and power to himself in the ruins thereof; and at last grew visibly to the full pitch and stature of this Man of Sin or Antichrist. Then he was big enough to be seen by them that were not blind, as it follows in the next verse. Ver. 8. And then shall that Wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of bis coming. That Wicked one, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that Lawless one who exalts himself above the Laws of God and Christ, and can dispense with them as he pleases: whose destruction is by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the victorious evidence of Truth; by clear and convictive Reason divulged to the world by such as speak by the Spirit of God, and by a Principle of Life within them. For their mouth is the mouth of God, and their breath as a flaming Torrent to consume the ungodly Deceiver. The remainder of this Prophecy we have expounded already, and therefore need not renew our Exposition in this place. No Prophecy can be more expressly applicable to any Event than this is to the Papal Power and Imposture. The Effect therefore being already in the world, who can doubt but that this is the Prediction of it, especially we having the common suffrage of Antiquity, that it is to be understood of one that is to appear after the breaking of the Roman Empire into pieces? If any one ask Tertullian who this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he that hindered the revealing of Antichrist, is, he shall have this round answer from him, Quis nisi Romanus Status? cujus in decem reges abscessio dispersa Antichristum superinducet, & tune revelabitur Iniquus: Accordingly as the faithful Servants of Christ have found to their great sorrow and affliction. 2. This Man of Sin therefore is that little Horn with the eyes of a man in it, (both expressions intimating the humane Policy of the Papal Power) that King divers from the ten, as being an Ecclesiastic Prince, and rising up behind them, to overgrow them and over-top them by his policy: Whom S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lawless man, as Daniel makes him a changer of Times and Laws, as not being content to be kept in and bounded by those that were already, though they were the Sanctions of God and of his Christ. In that Horn also is a mouth speaking great things, and that against the most High, that is, treasonable words against the Sovereignty of God and Christ; as this Man of Sin does, this Papal Body, exalting their Head, the Pope, above every thing that is called God or is worshipped. And, lastly, as the little Horn in Daniel is to be burnt by the fiery stream issuing from before that dreadful Judge; so is this Man of Sin to be consumed by the Spirit of the mouth of the Lord, and by the fiery brightness of his coming. Which considerations may assure us, that one and the same Person is aimed at in the little Horn in the seventh of Daniel, and that prosperous King in the eleventh that exalts and magnifies himself above every God; they both agreeing in this present Prophecy of the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition. So plain is it that this Prophecy is not to be understood of either cain's or Simon Magus, as Grotius groundlessly conceits; whose Opinion I will now examine, because the name of that Author bears so much sway with some men, otherwise it were scarce worth the pains of perusing. CHAP. XIX. 1. A summary Proposal of Grotius his Exposition of the foregoing Prophecy. 2. That the coming of Christ in this Prophecy cannot be understood of the Destruction of Jerusalem: 3. Nor Apostasy attributed to Caius, nor he said to sit in the Temple of God, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fit so well with Vitellius. 4. That Caius his purpose of placing his Scat●…e in the Temple was no Mystery of Iniquity, but g●…oss Profaneness. 5. Grotius his ridiculous luxation of the sense of the Prophecy in making Caius the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, concealed by Vitellius his standing in the way, and yet upon Vitellius his removal, not Caius, but Simon Magus to be the man revealed and destroyed. 6. That in all likelihood the Story of Simon Magus is a Fiction, and from what Occasion. 7. That if it were true, it is not so applicable, this wicked man Simon being not consumed by the Spirit of Christis mouth, but only his Coach and Horses. 8. That Grotius makes Paul prophecy of things past, his Epistle being written ten years after Caius his death, with a f●…ll Answer to Grotius his first Argument to the contrary. 9 An Answer to the second. 10. A Demonstration out of Scripture and Grotius his own Concessions that this Second Epistle was wrote ten years after Caius his death, as also that the fall of Simon Magus from his fiery Chariot was eight years before this Prophecy. 1. THE sum of Grotius his Exposition of this Second Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians is this: First, He interprets the coming of Christ of the destruction of Jerusalem. Secondly, The Apostasy or Falling away and the Revealing of the Man of Sin he understands of Caius Caligula, who indeed was a very impious Emperor, and would have had his own Statue set in the Temple of Jerusalem. Thirdly, The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he will have to be Lucius Vitellius Precedent of Syria, and consequently of Judaea, who was a friend to the Jews, and therefore in his time not so seasonable for Caius to make the motion of setting his own Statue in the holy Temple. Fourthly, By the working of the Mystery of Iniquity he understands the persuasions of Helicon and other Egyptian. Impostors who were great with Caius, and were preparing the way to this grand piece of Impiety. Fifthly, But when he that letteth is taken out of the way, that is, Lucius Vitellius, who as yet hindered Caius from this impious purpose of placing his Statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, then shall that Wicked one be revealed, (who has dealt underboard hitherto with his Conspirators Helicon and the rest) Caius, certainly you will say; no, Simon Magus, saith Grotius. Was there ever such a ridiculous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any serious interpretation of Authors, much less of Holy Scripture? Sixthly and lastly, But this is because the rest of the Prophecy seems to speak of a Conjurer or Magician, such as Simon Magus was famed to be, whom at Rome, riding in the air with his fiery Chariot and Horses, Peter by his prayers to Christ made fall to the ground. And thus was Simon consumed by the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, and by the brightness of his coming, as Grotius would have it. 2. This is a brief account of his Exposition, in which there is scarce one sound Joint. For as for the first, which understands the coming of Christ of the destruction of Jerusalem; Whosoever considers that this Epistle is really the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, (as I shall hereafter prove) and that in the * Ch. 4. v. 15, 16, 17. foregoing Epistle he speaks of the final coming of Christ, which is joined with the Resurrection of the dead and our being gathered together and meeting the Lord in the Air, he cannot, without great violence to the sense of things, but understand this coming of Christ and our gathering together unto him, in this Epistle, of the same time and thing with the other. And still the rather, because of that serious Obtestation of the Apostle by this coming of the Lord, and also, that they should not be shaken in mind nor troubled, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that signify so high, as if they were at their wits ends at the apprehension of the matter, whenas the sacking of Jerusalem could not so much concern them that lived at Thessalonica. And, lastly, [nor by word, nor by letter, as from us] seems to refer to the foregoing Epistle, where the Apostle speaking by an ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if he and the rest then alive should meet the Lord in the air, gave the Thessalonians occasion to apprehend that the day of Judgement would be very shortly: Which mistake therefore he rectifies in this present Epistle. Whence it is plain that the coming of Christ is not here understood of the destruction of Jerusalem, but of the last Judgement. 3. And for the second Joint, it is but weak also, in that Caius could not properly be said to be an Apostate from the God of Israel, sith he was never in Covenant with him. Nor did he set his Statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, which is the chief thing that Grotius aims at; much less did he sit there himself, which the words do plainly import. Nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify to place himself in the Temple of God, but to sit there. So strained is every thing in this Joint of the Exposition. The third were sense good enough, if the things were agreeable. And yet there seems some little flaw in this too. For if Vitellius were meant and nothing more, it would have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both places, as being most fit to express a Person by. 4. And for the fourth, It is very improper to call that private and concealed purpose of caius his setting his Statue in the Temple of God at Jerusalem a Mystery of Iniquity. For mere Privacy and Concealment does not make a thing presently a Mystery; otherwise every clancular attempt of Theft, Murder or Adultery would be a Mystery of Iniquity. But that is a Mystery which, though it be spoke out in words, is still mysterious in its own nature, and has some depth with it, be it a bad Mystery or good. But this purpose of Caius his placing his Statue in the Temple at Jerusalem is no such thing, but only a plain and conspicuous piece of Impiety, such as every one would understand at first sight. And therefore those places alleged by Grotius, namely, Rom. 11. 25. 1. Cor. 15. 51. are nothing to this purpose. For those are arduous and profound Mysteries there mentioned, even after they are divulged. 5. What an exorbitant luxation there is in the fifth Joint, I have already taken notice, and indeed I think it cannot be concealed from any. For who would expect, according to the common tenor of speech, but that when the Apostle had begun his Prophecy concerning the Man of Sin, whom he calls also the Son of Perdition, farther adding that he is to be revealed, and that there are underhand Preparations making for it, and that only Lucius Vitellius hinders the revealing of him in his time, which hindrance will be till the said Vitellius be taken away; I say, who would not but expect that the eighth verse, And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming, (accordingly as he was said before to be as well the Son of Perdition as the Man of Sin) is to be understood of the same person the Apostle began withal? And yet the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition is Caius, and the wicked Man whom the Lord here destroys (and so is plainly the Son of Perdition in an eminent sense) is Simon Magus. Upon so violent a rack has Grotius set the Text to extort false answers from it, and to make it accuse Caius and Simon Magus, that the Pope may escape the suspicion of being taken for Antichrist. Wherein Grotius his either judgement or conscience does very hazardously lie at the stake. 6. And in the last place, now he has gotten to Simon; Though I confess the story is not impossible of his fiery Horses and Chariot, much less his fall to the ground by the prayer of Peter; yet long before I knew this use of it, the Narration ever seemed to me very incredible, though, I think, I believe the being of Spirits and Apparitions as firmly as most do. For it looked always to me so like a gambal trick, that I could not but place it among the earlier Legends or pious Fictions of the Church, invented by some idle Monastic to entertain the credulous and superstitious. So notorious a passage as this happening in the City of Rome could not have been kept out of the Lives of the Caesars, and particularly of Nero; in whose life Suetonius only has this short indigitation amongst those Theatrick shows, Ch. 12. Icarus primo statim conatu juxta cubiculum Neronis decidit, ipsúmque cruore respersit. Out of which luckless Representation of a Poetical Fiction this Monastic Legend seems to be framed: in which Relators add & alter what they please; which does derogate much to the credibility of the Story. 7. The most punctual and plausible Narrative Dr Hammond has chosen out of Arnobius. Viderant currum Simonis Magi & quadrigas igneas Petri ore difflatas, & nominato Christo evanuisse: viderant pondere praecipitatum su●…, cruribus jacuisse praefractis: post deinde perlatum Brundam, cruciatibus & pudore defessum, ex altissimi culminis se rursum praecipitâsse fastigi●…. Now these words [Quadrigas igneas Petri ore difflatas evannisse] agree well with [Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth,] (for, as Grotius excellently well & truly, Apostoli sunt os Christi; according to which analogy I have expounded the Vision of the Rider of the white Horse:) But when I see the Horses and Chariot dissipated and consumed, but Simon Magus fall entire, excepting the breaking of his shins, which, it seems, were afterwards at Brunda so well again, that he could stand on his legs to cast himself headlong from some precipice, nay, go up to the higher Stories of an House, (for who would have carried him so high, when a lower room would better have fitted a lame man?) I do not understand how the Prophecy is fulfilled in the wicked man himself, which is the proper subject of this Prediction, but only in his Horses. If this Accident had been aimed at in this Prophecy, doubtless Simon himself had been consumed, not his Coach and Horses only. 8. Wherefore admitting Grotius his Chronology, who, for his advantage, pretends that this Second Epistle was wrote before the First, and in Caius his reign; you see how distorted, forced, and incompliable his Exposition is to the Text, the same falling out here that has in his other mistiming of Prophecy. But to sweep all away at once, I say that both these Epistles were wrote about the ninth or tenth year of the reign of Claudius, that is, so many years after Caius his death; and that therefore Grotius makes Paul prophecy of things past. That this is the constant tradition of the Church cannot be denied. But this is not the first time that Grotius has broke all the bounds of modesty, to reach at that which vanishes in his hand in the very grasping of it. I know he has some pretences to prove the Second Epistle written before the First, that he might fancy it written as early as he pleases: but the arguments he draws out do cut his own fingers. The first is from the Conclusion of this Second Epistle, The Salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every Epistle: So I writ, viz. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen. This written with Paul's own hand is his Mark or Token in every Epistle. And yet Grotius would from hence infer, that this Epistle was wrote first, because there is no such mark in the foregoing Epistle, there being those alive amongst the Thessalonians that knew his hand already. But I answer, First, That the foregoing Epistle has this Mark. For does not it end with The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen? And this, he said before, is written with his own hand in every Epistle. Wherefore the Mark is equal in both these Epistles. Secondly, Unless he had sent them some former Epistle with this Mark, they could not argue that this was his by it. Thirdly, He did send an Epistle before this to them, as appears from Ch. 2. 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions you have been taught, whether by word or our Epistle. Wherefore this Mark can be no demonstration of priority, for so it had been before that other that really precedes it; which is a contradiction. And Grotius himself does not deny but the Epistle here mentioned was before this, but humoursomly and groundlessly pretends it to be lost, rather than to be the First Epistle according to Canon. Fourthly, This first according to the Canon of the Church is this very Epistle mentioned ch. 2. 15. as appears from the subject of this second Chapter, which plainly is nothing else but a clearing up his meaning concerning the coming of Christ, of which he had wrote in the foregoing Epistle, ch. 4. 13. to the end; and ch. 5. 1, 2, 3. where there are such expressions as if the Resurrection and the last Judgement were near at hand, even hanging over their heads. And therefore, fifthly and lastly, Paul does so solicitously give them notice that this Second Epistle is his, and that they may be sure of it from his known Mark written, as in every of his Epistles, with his own hand, that they might by his authority be quieted, by whose, through the mistake of his meaning, they were so perplexed and troubled. So plainly does this Allegation of Grotius make against himself. 9 His second argument for the priority of this Second Epistle is this: That the Christians at Thessalonica were so few when S. Paul wrote, that they did not make a Church or Presbytery, could not make a number sufficient to constitute an Authoritative Church. And his reason is, Quòd homines non ex regula viventes Apostolus hîc non excommunicari praecepit, quod justi coetûs fuerit; sed vitari, quod jus singulorum est. For answer to which I shall only set down the words of the Apostle, ch. 3. 14, 15. And if any man obey not our word, by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed: Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. The words in the Original are, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The former occurrs 1 Cor. 5. 11. But now I writ unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not to keep company, if any that is called a brother be a fornicator, etc. with such an one not to eat. Which is an explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Where Grotius his own Note is, Hebraeis mos erat cibum communem non sumere cum eo qui erat in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with him that was excommunicated. So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies Excommunication, and shows that the Christians in Thessalonica were a Church, as Paul also styled them, when he wrote this Second Epistle to them. And for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is there not in the first to the Thessalonians, ch. 5. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; and yet Grotius acknowledges that there was then a Church in Thessalonica properly so called. Whence it is plain that he has no reason at all to change the order of these Epistles; and that therefore constant Tradition and the Authority of the Church must take place, and that the Second must be the Second Epistle in the Church's sense, that is to say, written after the First: As appears also from those innate Arguments I produced in answer to the first Reason of Grotius. 10. But the First Epistle according to Grotius his own acknowledgement was written after Paul had been at Thessalonica; and Paul had not been at Thessalonica before that Synod which was held at Jerusalem by the Apostles, as appears from Acts, ch. 15 & 16. and the whole Series of the History of the Apostles. Nor was this Synod of the Apostles at Jerusalem held till fourteen years after the Conversion of S. Paul, as appears Galat. 2. 2. where Grotius himself acknowledges that Paul then went up to that meeting. Nihil credibilius reperio quàm notari hîc illud ipsum Pauli iter cujus mentio Act. 15. 2. But after this journey to Jerusalem, Paul chose Silas (that is, Sylvanus) and Timotheus; (as appears Act. 15. 40. & 16. 1.) to be his Companions; whose names are prefixed to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians as well as to the First. Wherefore both the Second and the First were written fourteen years' 〈◊〉 Paul's Conversion, and consequently about the tenth year of Claudius his Reign, that is to say, about ten years after Caius his death, and about eight years after Peter had broke Simon Magus his legs by making him fall from his fiery Chariot. For Grotius, out of Jerome and others, places that miraculous feat in the second year of Claudius. So that he makes Paul prophecy of things past, as well by the Application of Simon Magus his story as the story of Caius to this Prediction touching the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition. CHAP. XX. 1. The Preeminence of this latter Interpretation above that of Grotius. 2. A summary Proposal of the same. 3. The first part of this Exposition the same with Grotius his, and therefore confuted already; The second enervated. 4. The third confuted, from a further discovery of the improbability of Simon Magus his Story; from his being sufficiently revealed before, and from his not being found to sit in any Temple to receive Divine honours. 5. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so good Syntax in the present case, nor the wickedness of the Gnostics a Mystery, but open Impiety and Hostility against the Church. 6. The harshness of interpreting whom, in [whom the Lord shall consume, etc.] of two several Subjects, the one to be destroyed by the breath of Christ's mouth, the other by the brightness of his coming, and that in distinct places and times. 7. That if the History of Simon Magus had been true, and the Application fit to this Prophecy, the most ancient Fathers would not have failed to have hit upon it; And that it might then have been a preludious Type to the great Antichrist to come. 8. Brief Prophetic Strictures touching Antichristian Impurity. 9 The Antichristian Cruelty predicted in the Vision of the King of Babylon and of the little Horn. 10. Also in the slain Witnesses, and in the Two-horned Beast's causing the Ten-horned to kill as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast nor receive his Mark. 11. In the Vision of the Angel with the third Vial; and in the Declaration of the cause of the Whore's Ruin. 12. And, lastly, in the Description of the Whore as drunk with the blood of the Saints. 13. That all the Members of Antichristianism in our Idea are prefigured in the Prophecies of the Holy Writ so expressly, that so clear an evidence cannot be withstood for ever. 14. That that ample Testimony of the Apocalypse cannot be evaded by the novel Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1. WHerefore a late Learned Interpreter has with far better judgement pitched upon the Reign of Nero for this exploit of Simon, I mean his riding in the air in a Chariot and horses of fire, that he might apply the story to this Prophecy. Wherein he, making Simon the sole party concerned, has much the advantage of Grotius, and does thereby avoid that violent luxation of the Text in the eighth verse, which we noted in Grotius his Interpretation. But this varying of the story of Simon, as concerning the time adds further incredibility to the fact: A●… though the Application be ingenious, yet it has so great difficulties as cannot but hinder belief in the cautious. But such as it is, I shall first briefly set down, and then examine, that it may more fully appear that there is no Interpretation that can stand in competition with that which the ordinary current of Protestants does agree in; which is usually toward that sense which I have declared. 2. First then, he, as Grotius, interprets the coming of Christ of the destruction of Jerusalem. Secondly, The Apostasy or Falling away he understands of a Defection from the Faith to the Heresy of the Gnostics; or else of the Apostles leaving of the Jews, and no longer complying with them. Thirdly, The revealing of the Man of Sin is Simon his appearing at Rome at what time he road in his fiery Chariot, together with the Gnostics persecution of the Christians. Fourthly, That which withholdeth is the Apostles not giving over to preach to the Jews, nor as yet leaving them as refractory and hopeless. Fifthly, The Mystery of Iniquity which doth already work is a smothered Opposition against Christ and Christians; and an express renouncing of Christianity, in this Sect of Gnostics under Simon and Carpo●…rates, ready to break out so soon as the Apostles bad adieu to the Jews their Countrymen. Sixthly and lastly, The Spirit of God's mouth is the prayer of Peter whereby Simon Magus was cast to the ground; and the brightness of his coming is the destruction of Jerusalem, whereby the persecuting Jews and Gnostics were overthrown. 3. This is the sum of his Interpretation, which we will briefly run over. Against the first part whereof the same is to be said which was against Grotius his, nor need I repeat it. It alone is enough quite to overthrow both their Interpretations, in the judgement of any unprejudiced Reader. Touching the second, Grotius averring so confidently that Simon Magus his unhappy Pomp was in the beginning of Claudius his time, which yet this Apostasy must precede, and this latter Interpretation nameing no time when this Apostasy happened, makes the Application altogether uncertain, but if Grotius prove in the truth, impossible. And as for that other sense of Apostasy, I suspect it is unwarrantable. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed will signify as well a Departure simply as a Defection, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Defection only. 4. The third is the grand Basis of the whole Exposition; but I have already intimated the Incredibility of the Story. Which will be farther suspected by any one that is not over-credulous, if he consider what, in Baronius, is adjoined thereto, namely, that Peter, by that extraordinary Miracle he did, in bringing down Simon Magus headlong out of the air by his prayers, was so far from gaining any respect from Nero the Spectator of the Combat, that he was imprisoned for so stupendious an Atchieument. Certainly if the people, for that Magical power which Simon Magus vaunted of, honoured him as a God, they would have given much more honour to him whom they found more powerful than Simon, who yet called himself the great power of God. But besides this, Simon Magus could not properly be said to be the Man of Sin that was to be revealed, when this Epistle was wrote; he having even in the beginning of Claudius his time shown himself an impious Blasphemer by pretending to be a God, and receiving Divine honours at Rome. And there is nothing appears to the contrary but that he continued so wicked from that time to the end of his days. And then for his sitting in the Temple of God; What Seat or See had he any where? Or what Temple was ever built to him? A Statue indeed is said to have been erected to him, but this is in the beginning of Claudius his reign, and therefore before this Prophecy was written. But this Statue is no Temple, and it may be but a fictitious Statue, if Petrus Ciaconius his conjecture be true, that the rise of that story came from an old Pagan Inscription upon a Marble dug up Anno 1574. in the place where this Statue of Simon was said to be, which was Semoni Sango Deo Fidio sacrum, as you may see in Baronius. 5. And for the fourth point; It is not so good Syntax to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when not a person but a thing is understood. Not to omit, that it seems incredible that, if the Apostles breaking off their compliance with the Jews would bring so vast a mischief, (which they could not but foresee by a Prophetic Spirit, or S. Paul declare it to them) they would ever be drawn to be accessary thereto, by breaking off this compliance, which was so strong a bank against the inundation of Gnosticism and Persecution of the Church. And touching the fifth; There is somewhat the like exception that was against Grotius his Exposition, that seems to make any thing concealed a Mystery, which is a false notion of the word. For an open and plain Opposition or Renunciation of Christianity intended, but concealed, (which is the supposed case here) is no more a Mystery then hidden Murder and Adultery, as I said before. 6. And as for the sixth and last; It seems somewhat harsh and strained to understand that execution that is done by the Spirit of the mouth of the Lord to appertain to Simon Magus at Rome, and that destruction wrought by the brightness of his coming to belong to the Gnostics involved in the destruction at Jerusalem, especially if we consider that there was no Coalition of Simon Magus and the Gnostics into one Body Politic, but that they seemed rather to descend from the Nicolaitans, as Baronius intimates, and so have no reference one to another. Besides that the Text says continuedly, Whem the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Which is nothing else but the bright flame and fiery Spirit issuing out of his mouth, according to that description in Esdras, and upon one and the same Object, which is this Man of Sin, the same with the little Horn in Daniel, which is after this manner to be destroyed. 7. To all which you may add, That if the History of what is here applied be true, and that the coming of the Lord be to be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem, and not of the last Judgement; it is a wonderful thing that the first Fathers of the Church, who had a nearer prospect into those ●…ansactions of the world, could not discern the Completion of the Prophecy in Simon Magus and the Gnostics, but that we that stand at the farthest distance from the events should be the quickest-sighted in discerning their Applicability to the Prophecy. But I have already intimated enough to show the improbability that this should be the main meaning of this Prediction of S. Paul. But if I could believe that the condition of Simon and the Gnostics was in some sense here perstringed, (as I must confess this pious and judicious Interpreter has bid very fair towards the Credibility of it) I should look upon them as a preludious Type to the great Antichrist, and should think that passage [For the Mystery of Iniquity does already work] to be understood of them, as it may, though the rest of the Prophecy be in many things unapplicable to Simon, and belong only to the great Antichrist indeed, of whom this Magician may be only a Type or Figure, and truly not an unsignificant one. For as he is a Magician, so is that great Antichrist an egregious Sorcerer, and the Head of a numerous Society of Sorcerers and Enchanters. Again, As Simon gave the name and first example of that wicked fin of Simony; so these pretended Successors of Peter, both they and their Body Ecclesiastic, have notoriously imitated that example of Simon in buying and selling Spiritualities. Thirdly, Part of Simon's and the Gnostics Apostasy was Judaizing while they made a show of Christianity: And how much Antichrist with his Adherents do Judaize in Ceremonies and in boasting of Works and dead Formalities, is conspicuous to all the world. Fourthly, Simon and the Gnostics were notorious for filthiness and uncleanness: And so has been the great Antichristian Synagogue, Head and Members. Fifthly, Though Simon and the Gnostics were thus grossly obnoxious in life and conversation, yet they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, extraordinary pretenders to and boasters of the certainty of their Knowledge in the Divinest matters, and great esteemers thereof. And is not this the special Character of the Pope and his Church, that they pretend to be even infallibly wise and accurately orthodox in knowledge and opinion, but are as foully negligent and as scandalonsly conniving at all debaucheries of life? Sixthly, Simon and the Gnostics were opposers and persecuters of the true Church: So is the Papal Hierarchy with the Instruments thereof. Seventhly, The Followers of Simon polluted themselves with Idols: And so do the Adherers to the Headship of Rome. Eighthly and lastly, Simon exalted himself above every thing that is called God, and received Divine Honours in his own Person upon Earth: Which is also notorious in the Roman Bishop. So that while such things as these were acting in the world, and by such as made some show of Christianity, S. Paul might well say of that great Mystery of Iniquity. That it is already on foot, that it is in some sense acting already, namely in Simon and his Followers, as a Type and Prelude to the strange pranks of the great Antichrist, and that there wants nothing but the removing of that great Obstacle at Rome, the Western Caesareate, and then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself, that great Antichrist indeed, will show himself, of whom Simon is but the Figure. See Ch. 18. Ver. 7. This Exposition is something more plausible than that there of Alcazar, (who understands the Mystery of Iniquity already working of pure Paganism) but whether it may be the chiefest of all, I leave to the judicious to consider. In the mean time I think I have sufficiently cleared the truth of those main Prophecies in Scripture that concern the enormous Haughtiness and Pride of Antichrist, which is so apparently opposite to the first branch of the Divine life, Humility and Lowliness of Spirit. 8. The next is Purity, whose Opposite is Uncleanness. The Predictions of the Causes that carry to that Vice I have touched already. But as for the Vice itself, it being so inseparable a Concomitant of Idolatry, which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication, I conceive the Spirit of Prophecy for that very reason was the more sparing in particular Prefigurations or Predictions thereof. But I do not doubt but that it is concerned in that description of the great City, Apocal. 11. And their bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom, etc. And how unclean a City Sodom was, no man can be ignorant of. Again, those that are excluded out of the Holy City, which is so perfectly opposite to this City called Sodom, they are called Dogs, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Abominable, by which, as I have above noted out of Grotius, are understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, abusers of themselves with Mankind. Whoremongers also are named in the same Catalogue. But of these Texts I have spoke sufficiently in my Idea of Antichristianism. In that the Church is said to become a * Apocal. 12. Wilderness, it may be also an Intimation of the excess of those Actions of the Animal life that proceed from Cruelty and Lust. But these Intimations shall suffice concerning this second Opposition to the Divine Life in the branches thereof. 9 The third and last is that which is so conspicuously opposite to that last and best of the three Christian Graces, Divine Love or Charity; and that is the bloody Antichristian Cruelty against the sincere Servants of Christ. Which is noted in several of those Visions we have already explained, and therefore we need only produce them. As first, that concerning the King of Babylon, who was a Type of the Pope. The reason of his Ruin in that Vision is declared to be his barbarous and Antichristian Cruelty. Esay 14. Because thou hast destroyed thy Land, and slain thy People, that is to say, the people of Christendom, the Land over which thou challengest an Ecclesiastic Sovereignty, as being the Vicar of Christ, and yet dost most bloodily murder and martyr his truest and most faithful Servants. Again, Dan. 7. The little Horn there, which is a Figure of the same Pontifician Power, is said to make war with and to wear out the Saints of the most High, that is, to consume them and destroy them with perpetual persecutions. 10. A third Presignification is Apocal. 11. concerning the Witnesses. The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless p●… shall make war against them, and shall evercome them and kill them. And their dead body's 〈◊〉 lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Which is a description of perpetual Opposition and Persecution, taking away from the true Servants of God either their Honours, Offices, Goods, or Lives. So that the real and sincere Church of Christ, which is his Body, lieth (during the treading under foot the Outward Court) like a dead corpse without Political life or power, and also dreadfully wounded, all over gore blood, by the cruel Murders, Martyrdoms and Massacres of the faithful Members thereof. Fourthly, Apocal. 13. the Two-horned Beast is said to animate the Ten-horned, (when he had revived into the ancient Idolatrous form of Paganism) to destroy as many as would not yield obedience to him even in his Idolatrous Commands. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed; And that no man might buy nor sell, save he that had the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the Number of his Name: that is, As many as would not profess themselves Roman Catholics, and thereby Paganize in Christianity, should be famished and starved, and not suffered to live. So great is the Charity of this Tyramical and Antichristian Power towards the true members of Christ. But blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, as it is said in the following Chapter concerning the Martyrdom of those that are murdered by this Pontifician Power. 11. Fifthly, That also is a Record of the Antichristian Roman Cruelty, (for the Vials are poured upon the Beast, the Egyptian Plagues upon the Antichristian Egypt) Revel. 16. where the Angel of the third Vial which turns the Rivers into blood speaks thus; Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and waste, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. Sixthly, As the Ruin of the King of Babylon in Esay, so the Ruin of the Whore of Babylon in S. John is imputed to this savage and barbarous Antichristian Cruelty, the murdering of the Saints of God. The voice of Harpers and Musicians is heard no more in her, no Crafts-man of any Craft is found any more in h●…, the light of a Candle shines no more in her, but she is left to utter darkness and desolation; because in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the Earth. Murderers also are particularly noted in both those Catalogues of them that are without the Holy City. 12. Seventhly and lastly, In the description of the Whore of Babylon, which I have above plainly showed to signify the Church (the Roman especially) apostatised into Idolatry, there is express and significant mention made of this odious branch of Antichristianism, this bloody Persecution of the true members of Christ. And the woman was ar●…ied in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cap in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her For●…▪ And upon her forehead was a Name written▪ Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth. And I saw the 〈◊〉 drun●…n with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and when I saw her, I wondered with great 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the gorgeous Pomp of the Pope and his Ecclesiastic 〈◊〉▪ the Cardinals and other great men, as also on the co●…ly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 Altars and Temples, how this Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Ornaments, Carpets, and Laces of Egypt, how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfum●…d her bed with Myrrh, Aloes and Cinnamon, with Incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odours; if he have any skill in the Prophetic style, he cannot say but this Prefiguration of the state of the Roman Church is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and richness of it. For thus is Idolatry begun to the world in this golden Cup and costly outside of things. But this is not the only miscarrlage of this Church, she is also drunk with the blood of the 〈◊〉 and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. Grotius his gloss upon this part of the Text is very expressive and significant: 〈◊〉 ●…am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despum a●…te & evoment sanguinem, ut ebrii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saw the 〈◊〉 or enraged Woman foaming at mouth with stained froth, and vomiting blood as drunk dr●…s do wine. Which must needs be a wonder to all her Spectators, that a woman so richly and so gloriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be o●… 〈◊〉 ●…erine and savage a nature. Which admiration certainly ●…ust be ●…doubled upon them, while they consider how this illustrious. Queen professes herself to be the Catholic Church of Christ and Mother of Christendom, and yet thus to froth at the mouth, nay, to foul her raiment by impotently easing of her stomach overcharged with the blood of her own children. But by being thus lavish of the life of her Infants she demonstrates herself not to be that Catholic Mother, but a bloody and treacherous Harlot, accordingly as the Holy Ghost has inscribed upon her Forehead, The Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. 13. Thus have we seen every member of Antichristianism comprised in our Idea, as they are easily found in the Church of Rome, so likewise expressly prefigured in the Writings of the holy Prophets, as appertaining to her, and that there is no eludng o●… evacuating so clear and perspicuous Testimonies by any fetches of wit whatsoever; her abominable Enormities comprehended under those main Heads of Imposture, Idolatry and Bloodshed being as determinately and legibly set down in these Prophecies, as the transaction of things passed in any History. And therefore the truth can be hid from none but such as either have not the leisure to understand the Prophetic style, or are blinded with Prejudice and Interest: Which I believe is so powerful with some, that it would make them hesitant and Sceptical even in Mathematical Demonstration. But so manifest Eviction in so concerning a Truth as we have here cleared up, I dare confidently pronounce, will not be rooled off for ever. 14. Sure I am, that main Subterfuge that some so usually fortify themselves in, wall fail them, I mean, those words in the very beginning of the Apocalypse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. From which they would infer that no Events but such as were to come to pass within a short time after the Communication of these Prophecies are to be applied to them. But this Scruple I have, I think, sufficiently answered in my Mystery of Godliness, by intimating that the Inference is as unreasonable as if one upon the report that such a Comedy or Tragedy was to be acted within less than this half-quarter of an hour, should conclude that all the Acts and Scenes thereof would not reach beyond that time: whenas the sense is only, that the Comedy or Tragedy will begin to be acted within that time. And therefore Cornelius à Lapide, upon these words [Quae oportet fierei citò,] apertly and judiciously glosses thus, Hoc est, quae citò incipient fieri, licèt non citò finientur. And Alcazar upon the same words, Quasi diceret, In hac Revelatione continentur quaedam quae citò oportet fieri, & alia quae non adeò citò implebuntur. And it is Grotius his own note upon them, Alia citiùs, alia seriús. But forasmuch as some of these Series of Visions which reach even unto the end of all things were suddenly to be fulfilled, it is said at large touching the Subject of them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. As I suppose one would say of an Army that reached a quarter of a mile in length, that this Army is at the very gates of the City, whenas only they that march first in rank are there. Again, Unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify, which will be shortly adoing, not finished, it is a perfect contradiction to the nature of some of the things that are foretold; as the Reign of the Saints, and the Ligation Apocal. 20. of Satan. For the Continuance of these Events is predicted to be a thousand years. Wherefore unless a thousand years be but a short space of time, the Events foretold contradict the very Title of this Prophetic Volume, were that the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contended for. Whence it is manifest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not, touching every Event, signify, which shall be finished, but which shall be adoing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Thirdly, For the signification of this Phrase, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, how sudden, how short a time must it denote? who will define it? For the Prophet Haggai, when he says, Yet a little while and I will shake the Heaven Ch. 2. ver. 6. and the Earth, etc. his Prediction pitches on a time about five hundred years distant from the time of the Prophecy. Whence there is no necessity of seeking the completion of the Seals and Trumpets in the Destruction of Jerusalem. It is therefore to be understood comparatively, a little time, as Grotius also interprets that of Haggai. In which sense I would likewise understand that so-often-repeated saying in the Apocalypse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Behold, I come quickly: Which I believe has an especial eye to the Sixth Seal; which is described like Apoc. 6 1●…, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. the Day of Judgement, but is indeed the Overthrow of the Dragon by Christ, and his taking the Roman Empire into his own hands, upon the Conversion of Constantine to the Christian Religion; which was in a good deal less time than five hundred years, and but a very little time indeed in comparison of the great achievement which was compassed in it. Fourthly, The first Six Seals, the Fight of Michael and the Dragon, the Inward Court of the Temple; all these Visions, their Events I mean, are finished within a less while than what Haggai calls little. Fifthly, The Outward Court of the Temple, the Whore of Babylon, the Two-horned Beast, the Ten-horned Beast, the two Witnesses, the Virgin-Company, the Woman in the Wilderness; the Events also of all these Visions are in fieri within less than that time which the Prophet Haggai calls little. The Trumpets also had begun to sound within that time. But the Affairs of the Seven Churches might be of a far earlier Accomplishment, and it may be accomplishable over and over again, they being flying Prophecies, and not so affixed to time and place as they seem, and as the rest of the Visions are. Which Grotius also has observed. And this I think is sufficient to make good the Title of the Subject of these Prophecies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And no more than this is supposed or rather demonstrated in Mr. Mede's way of interpreting the Apocalyps. Sixthly, They themselves are fain to interpret some Prophecies of Events that fell out or are to fall out above twice five hundred years from the Prediction. As the * Apocal. 20. losing of Satan, the Army of Gog and Magog, the Siege of the beloved City, the falling of fire from Heaven upon the Besiegers, the General Judgement, and the like. Which are the more contradictious to their own Hypothesis, because they make no such order or concatenation of Visions as Mr. Mede does. And therefore it will be the harder to make them compliable with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But for the way that I am for, where one thing so handsomely or necessarily hooks in another, the first Thunder the seven Vials, the last Trumpet the seven Thunders, the last Seal the seven Trumpets, and the first Six of these Trumpets their Synchronalls, as the first Six of the Seals theirs; the whole Volume of Visions in a manner is so of one piece, and one thing follows another so continuedly, that when the first Events begin to appear, the whole Series may well be said to begin or to be adoing, and if quickly, quickly. So little Repugnancy has Mr. Mede's way with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And lastly, Forasmuch as I have so plainly demonstrated that the Apocalypse was not communicated to S. John before Domitian's time, and See Chap. 2. that therefore this Application of the Seals and Trumpets to the Destruction of Jerusalem is not only harsh (as any one may see in examining them) but also impossible, the Visions being since that Event; and that therefore those Affairs cannot be of the number of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, since they were then past, not future; and that this straining of this phrase is merely for this Exposition's sake, which, if it were seriously stuck to, would make the Apocalypse utterly unintelligible, and consequently unprofitable to the Church, nay, bring an unspeakable detriment thereto, by depriving us of so illustrious a pledge of Divine Providence: I think these things put together are of infinitely more moment to us for to adhere to that ordinary and ancient Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I nominated at first, then to this novel one, that has been but newly started merely for the countenancing such Expositions of the Apocalypse as are not only extremely harsh and forced, but utterly impossible. This I hope is even more then enough to remove all prejudice to Truth, that may lie upon any one's mind by reason of the mistaken sense of these words, and enable him without any farther hesitancy to acknowledge the unexceptionable Perspicuity of those Expositions of the Apocalypse I have exhibited to his view. CHAP. XXI. 1. The marvellous Completeness of the Reformation of the Church of England in her Doctrines and Institutes. 2. That she plainly condemns the Invocation of Saints for Idolatry. 3. As also the Adoration of the Host; where our Kneeling at the Communion is vindicated. 4. Her condemning the Worshipping of Images. 5. Her concluding the manner of the Papists worshipping Saints and Images to be plainly the same with that of Pagans. 6. Her free and just censure touching the decking of their Images, and making them laymen's Books. 7. How perfectly she has freed us from that Egyptian yoke we lay under in the time of Popery. 8. The Celebration of holidays, the keeping of Lent, and the use of the Surplice in the sense of the Church of England, fully vindicated from all imputation of Superstition or Antichristianism. 9 That the use of the Surplice is not from any grounds at all of Policy in the Church, but pure Charity: with a vindication of the use of the Cross in Baptism. 1. HAving thus clearly set out the true nature or Idea of Antichristianism, as also plainly made good that such an Antichristianism or Antichrist as is delineated in that Idea is that very Antichrist which the Prophecies in the Holy Scriptures do prefigure or foretell, we should now proceed to a more punctual Application of the said Idea and Prophecies to the State of the Church, from such times as it fell into this Antichristian Lapse till this very day. But that being something a more voluminous Design, and less grateful to my disposition, who take far greater pleasure in the Vindication of an injured Friend then in raking into the unsavoury miscarriages of either a Stranger or professed Enemy, I shall satisfy myself, at least at this bout, with that part of Application only which concerns our Reformed Church of England: whereby I do not doubt but to free her from all imputations or suspicions of being guilty of any point of true and real Antichristianism, in any of her Doctrines or Institutes. Whence it will appear how little she is concerned in this free and faithful delineation thereof, unless it be to give Almighty God most humble and hearty thanks, who did so graciously assist those noble Hero's with resolution and judgement for the achieving of so happy and marvellous a Reformation, wherein nothing is left, no member nor the least joint or article of that odious and hateful Image or Idea of Antichrist which we have described, no frauds or falsifications of the Gospel of Christ for the Interest of a worldly Church, and the feeding of the Priesthood by a trade of Lies and Impostures, which would have made any ingenuous man ashamed to be found of the Order or Profession; whenas how, if no Profaneness lurk in his soul, he may well deem the Calling an ornament to his person. And that this is not a boast, but a real truth, I s●…all briefly make good by running through all those limbs of Antichristianism (whether opposing the Privative, or Positive Ends of the Gospel) which I proposed in my Idea. 2. The first of the first kind whereof was Idolatry, in the Invocation of Saints and Angels, in the Worshipping of the Host, and in the Adoration of Images. Wherein though the Universal Practice of the Church of England does sufficiently clear her from such gross imputations, yet I think it not amiss, for her greater honour, to bring into light her avowed and declared judgement concerning these matters, that all the world may take notice how sound she is at the Core in these weighty points of Religion. Touching therefore the Invocation of Saints, That she does apertly condemn it, appears in the Book of Articles, where she calls it a fond thing, Article 21. vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrants of Scripture, but that it is repugnant to the Word of God; so far is it from being grounded thereupon. And the second part of the Homily concerning Prayer is wholly spent in proving, That we are to address our Prayers to none but to God himself: Where there are excellent Arguments to that purpose, and where she does plainly declare that Christ is our only Mediator and Advocate; as also she does in the Liturgy, for the cutting away all pretence for the praying to Saints, and does smartly and at once conclude, That Invocation is a thing proper to God, which if we attribute unto the Saints, it soundeth to their Reproach, neither can they well bear it at our hands. Which is equipollent to the judging of it Idolatry. For what is Idolatry but the doing that worship to a creature which is proper to God? And therefore she compares it with the Pagan's offering sacrifice to Paul at Lystra. And how the receiving of Divine honour must redound to the reproach of whatever Creature receives it, I have abundantly Book 1. Ch. 12. Ver. 3. Sect. 4. noted elsewhere. I shall only urge one place more, which is very explicit and of great weight. The argument runs thus: Invocation or Prayer may not be made without faith in him on whom we call, but we must first believe in him before we can make our prayer unto him; whereupon we must only and solely pray unto God. For to say we should believe in either Angel or Saint or in any other living Creature, were mere horrible Blasphemy against God. This is a very remarkable passage, and a Demonstration that the Invocation of Saints and Angels is flat Idolatry, it so plainly implying the acknowledgement of that Excellency which is proper only to God. Nor can our holy Mother the Church be thought to deem it less Idolatry for calling it Blasphemy, since all Idolatry is so, and is several times called so in Scripture, Book 1. Ch. 5. Sect. 11. as I have noted in his due place. 3. Now for the second, The worshipping of the Host, which supposes the Bread transsubstantiated, she is most declaredly against both the Opinion and Practice. As in the Book of Articles; Trans substantiation cannot be proved Article 28. by Holy Writ, but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many Superstitions. Whence she rightly and demonstratively concludes that the Sacrament is not to be carried about, lifted up, nor worshipped. For there is none that can worship the Host, upon presumption that it is Christ to whom Divine worship is due, but he is ipso facto an Idolater, as I have proved elsewhere more at large. And again in the same Book she does expressly declare, That the Sacrifices of Masses, in the which it is commonly Article 31. said that the Priest does offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, are blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits. The truth of which is easy to be understood out of what we have written in our Idea of Antichristianism touching Idolatry and the Abuse of Christ's Person and Office in this enormous Error. And in the Homily concerning the Sacrament she expressly taxes the Popish Masses with Idolatry, imputing it to the ignorance of the nature of the Lord's Supper. What hath been the cause of this gross Idolatry but the Ignorance thereof? what has been the cause of this mummish Massing but the Ignorance thereof? And a little after; Let us therefore so travail to understand the Lord's Supper, that we be no cause of the decay of God's worship, of no Idolatry, of no dumb Massing, of no hate and malice, etc. To all which you may add what is annexed, in our Liturgy, at the end of the Communion, viz. That the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored, (for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians:) And the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one. Which Rubric is interserted in our Liturgy with unexceptionable Judgement and Fidelity, and does fully reach the end of its Intersertion. For no man, I think, can be so grossly ignorant or so openly malicious as to pretend that, after this so plain Declaration of our Church, either himself or any one else can become guilty of Idolatry by that humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the Sacrament. 4. And lastly, touching the Adoration of Images, there can be nothing more seriously protested against by any Church than this enormous wickedness is by ours. To omit how she has perstringed them in the Book of Articles, she does expressly bind the worshippers of them under a curse in her Liturgy, in the Form of Commination, Cursed is the man that maketh any carved or molten Image to worship it. And in her Homily against the Peril of Idolatry, with a passionate, but unexceptionable and judicious, zeal she does copiously inveigh against the very having of Images in Churches, I mean such as are in any capacity of being worshipped; nay against the very making of the Image of God or any of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, yea of Christ himself, forasmuch as he is truly God, contending that no Image can be made of Christ but a lying Image, (as the Scripture peculiarly Homily against the Peril of Idolatry, Part 3. calls Images Lies;) for Christ is God and Man. Seeing therefore for the Godhead, which is the most excellent part, no Image can be made, it is falsely called the Image of Christ. Wherefore Images of Christ be not only Defects, but also Lies. Nor does she stick here, but urges the argument, and truly not without judgement, against the Images of Saints, whose Souls, the most excellent part of them, can (saith she) by no Images be represented and expressed. But concerning the having such Images in Temples, she doth with an holy Jealousy peremptorily contend and inculcate that it is plainly against the Second Commandment, adding this reason, For they being set up, have been, be, and ever will be worshipped, and thereupon become abominable Idols, nothing different from those of the Heathen; they being made of the same matter with them, and men having the same conceits of the Saints they are made to, and of their offices, as the Heathen had of their Deities, they worshipping them also with the same Rites and Ceremonies. And to show they have the same opinion of their Saints that the Pagans had of their several Gods, she compares such Saints as are made Guardians of Kingdoms to their Dii Tutelares, such as Belus was to the Babylonians, Osiris and Isis to the Egyptians, Vulcan to the Lemnians; the Guardian Saints of Cities to their Dii Praesides, such as Apollo was to Delphos, Minerva to Athens, Juno to Carthage, and Quirinus to Rome; and, lastly, their Templed Saints to Jupiter in the Capitol, and Diana in the famous Temple of Ephesus. And touching one and the same Saints having Images in several places, she parallels our Lady of Walsingham, our Lady of Ipswich, and our Lady of Wilsdon, to Venus Cypria, Venus Paphia, and Venus Gnidia; to their Sea-Gods, Neptune, Triton, Nereus and Venus, S. Christopher, S. Clement and the Blessed Virgin; to Vulcan and Vesta, Gods of the Fire, S. Agatha. And then intimating that, as in ancient Paganism the Affairs of Love, of War, of Diseases in men and beasts were assigned to several Deities, so to several Saints in the Popish Religion, she at last breaks out into this zealous Exclamation, Where is God's Providence and due honour in the mean time? who saith, The Heavens be mine, and the Earth is mine, the whole world and all that in it is. I give victory, and I put to flight. Except I keep the City, the Watchman waketh but in vain that keepeth it. Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast. But we have left him neither Heaven, nor Earth, nor Water, nor Country, nor City, Peace nor War to rule and govern; neither men, nor beasts, nor their diseases to cure: That a godly man might justly for zealous Indignation cry out, O Heaven and Earth and Seas, what madness and wickedness against God are men fallen into! What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker! namely, in reposing a religious trust in those Saints they invoke to these purposes, which can belong to none other but God himself. 5. And as touching the manner of their worshipping these Images and Saints; What meaneth it (saith she) that they, after the manner of the Gentile Idolaters, burn Incense, offer up gold to Images, hang up crutches, chains and ships, legs, arms, and whole men and women of wax before Images, as though by them or Saints (as they say) they were delivered from Lameness, Sickness, Captivity or Shipwreck? Is not this COLERE IMAGINES, to worship Images, so earnestly forbidden in God's Word? And a little after, more fully and vehemently, Wherefore when we see men and women on heaps to go on Pilgrimages to Images, kneel before them, hold up their hands before them, set up Candles, burn Incense before them, offer up gold and silver unto them, hang up ships, crutches, chains, men and women of wax before them; attributing health and safeguard, the gifts of God, to them or the Saints whom they represent, as they rather would have it; who, I say, can doubt but that our Image-maintainers, agreeing in all Idolatrous Opinions, outward Rites and Ceremonies with the Gentile Idolaters, agree also with them in committing most abominable Idolatry? Truly, for my part, I must confess I do not at all doubt of it; and therefore from such passages as these and several other of the like nature scattered up and down in this excellent Homily of our Church concerning Idolatry and Images, do think it an easy Task to prove such a state of the Church as is here described to be the very Image of the Beast foretold in Apoc. 13. 14. the Apocalypse, as any man may discern out of my foregoing Discourse. But I will give myself the trouble of transcribing one or two more passages: as that upon that famous Act of the good King Hezekias in breaking apieces the Brazen Serpent, (when once abused to Idolatry) though set up by the special commandment of God, and so mysterious a Figure of our Saviour himself. How think you (saith she) would that godly Prince, if he were now living, handle our Idols set up against God's commandment directly, and being Figures of nothing but folly, and for Fools to gaze on, till they become as wise as the blocks themselves they stare on, and so fall down like dared Larks in that gaze; and being themselves alive worship a dead stock and stone, gold or silver, and so become Idolaters abominable and cursed before the living God? 6. And again, Now concerning excessive decking of Images and Idols with painting, gild, adorning with precious vestures, pearl and stone; what is it else but for the farther provocation and enticement to spiritual Fornication, to deck spiritual Harlots most costly and wantonly? Which the Idolatrous Church understands well enough. For she being indeed not only an Harlot, (as the Scripture calleth her) but also a foul, filthy and withered Harlot, (for she is indeed of ancient years) and understanding her lack of nature and true beauty, and great loathsomeness which of herself she hath, doth, after the custom of such Harlots, paint herself, and deck and tyre herself with gold, pearl, stone, and all kind of precious Jewels, that she shining with the outward beauty and glory of them may please the foolish fantasy of fond Lovers, and so entice them to spiritual Fornication with her. Where it is most manifest that the Church of England doth (and that with truth and judgement) intimate, that that apostatised Church of Rome is prefigured in the Type of the Whore of Babylon, accordingly as I have above demonstrated in this present Treatise. And answerable to this just Censure is that which we may read in the following Page: Surely, the Prophet Daniel in the eleventh Chapter declareth such sumptuous decking of Images with gold, silver and precious stones; to be a token of Antichrist's Kingdom. Wherein undoubtedly allusion is made to those words of the Prophet, And a God whom his Fathers knew not shall he Dan. 11. 3●…. honour with gold and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things: which is consonant to that sense we have * Ch. 10. above delivered of that Prophecy. And as touching that ordinary pretence for Images, that they are the laymen's Books; she doth roundly rebuke the Sophistry of so fond a Plea. But away for shame with those coloured Cloaks of Idolatry, of the Books and Scriptures of Images and Pictures to teach Idiots, nay, to make Idiots and stark Fools and Beasts of Christians. Do men, I pray you, when they have the same Books at home with them, run on Pilgrimage to seek like Books at Rome, Compostella, or Jerusalem, to be taught by them? Do men light Candles at Noonday to their Books? Do they burn incense, offer up gold and silver and other gifts to them? And a little after; Wherefore call them what they list, it is most evident by their deeds that they make of them no other Books nor Scriptures then such as teach most filthy and horrible Idolatry, as the Users of such Books daily prove by continually practising the same. O Books and Scriptures in the which the devilish Schoolmaster Satan hath penned the lewd Lessons of wicked Idolatry for his dastardly Disciples (the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalypse) and Scholars, to behold, read and learn, to God's most high dishonour, and their most horrible damnation! And at last she, winding up towards a Conclusion, determines thus: True Religion then and pleasing to God standeth not in making, setting up, painting, gild, clothing and decking of dumb and dead Images, (which be but great Puppets and Babies for old fools in dotage and wicked Idolatry to dally and play with) nor in kissing of them, capping, kneeling, offering to them, incensing of them, setting up candles, hanging up legs, arms, or whole bodies of wax before them, or praying and ask of them or the Saints things belonging only to God to give. But all these things be vain and abominable and most damnable before God: all such not only bestowing their money and labour in vain, but with their pains and cost purchasing to themselves God's wrath and utter indignation, and everlasting damnation both of body and Soul. And a little after; Wherefore God's horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolishing of Images and Idols out of the Church and Temple of God: Which to accomplish, God put in the minds of all Christian Princes. Amen. Thus freely, zealously and judiciously does our Church of England condemn the Roman Religion of gross Idolatry in all those Points which I have nominated in my Idea; nor has she left or appointed any Usage or Ceremony that bears any similitude, or has any affinity with that heinous Crime. So clear is she from this First part of Antichristianism, which is the polluting of the Church of Christ with a Pagan-like Idolatry. 7. And now concerning that Second part of Antichristianism, opposite to the Second Privative end of the Gospel, which was the Removal of that Yoke of Judaical Institutes and Ceremonies, in lieu whereof Antichrist brings in an heap and lurry of Superstitious Opinions, Rites and Ordinances, which prove a load more intolerable not only then the Law of Moses but the Tyranny of Egypt itself; I demand, has not the Church of England, by the appointment of the Royal Power of the Nation, freed us from this miserable bondage? Whose patience is now set on the tenterhooks by attending of dumb shows or ●…ish Masses, (as they are rightly called in our Book of Homilies) wherein the Unintelligibleness of the Tongue administers no life nor devotion to the hearer? Whose limbs are now tired out with long Superstitious Pilgrimages, exiled from Wife and Children, to salute a dead Statue or Image at Rome, Compastella or Jerusalem? Whose Soul or Body injured by rash and foolish Vows of either Sacerdotal or Monastic Coelibate? or whose Wives or Daughters abused by the Hypocritical Professors of the same? Whose bosom broke open and rifled by extorted auricular Confessions, to the sport of a Profane or Hypocritical Priest, and to the clandestine prejudice of the Penitent? Whose mind besotted or distracted by the secure belief or unavoidable dissettledness in incredible and even impossible Opinions? Is any modest Matron now dismayed with that Melancholic conceit, that she is big with a Child and Devil at once, and that that soul Fiend (whose proper place is Hell) as often as she is pregnant, must kennel in her womb? Is any man made such a Sot as to creep into a Monk's Coul to shelter himself from the wrathful presence of God; or to kiss the Tail of an Ass, to be reconciled to his triumphant Rider? For in some place (says that Homily) is the Tail of the Ass which our Lord Jesus Christ sa●…e on, to be kissed and offered unto, for a Relic; breaking out thereupon into this just and zealous Exclamation, O wicked, impudent and most shameless men, the devisers of these things! O silly, foolish and dastardly Daws, and more beastly than the Ass whose tail they kissed, that believe such things! Where I cannot but again note how fitly these Idolatries and Superstitions are resolved into a dastardliness and cowardliness of Mind, and how correspondently to the description of those who are excluded the Holy City in the Apocalypse; whose first character is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fearful, (not in regard of that fear which seizes the faint-hearted in war, but of those affrightments that befool men in Religion) and is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, men whose spirits are cowed and intimidated by the power of Superstition. But to proceed, or rather to break off, for it were both tedious and unnecessary to repeat all those Particulars I have insisted on in the Description of this limb of Antichristianism. Their crouching to exorcized Crosses; Their having the light of Reason extinct or drowned in Holy-Water or enchanted Oils; their eyes dimmed or dazzled with the Histrionical Pomp of the masking Vestments of their Priests, and their Faith abused to the imagining a wonder-working virtue in them by their being enchanted or consecrated, as also in several other exorcized Materials; The unseasonable trouble of Extreme Unction, and the nasty besmearing the tender Nose and Ears of the Infant in Baptism; The vexatious colluctations betwixt the injured Body and illaqueated Conscience about abstaining from meats; The Numerousness and Superstition of the Observations of Saints-days; The stripping of the Souls of men of the most comfortable fruits of Christ's Suffering, making them believe that his Satisfaction reaches not to the sheltering them from the Punishment of sin, but from the Gild only; and lastly, The affrighting them out of their wits by that hideous Figment of an Hellish Purgatory, and excoriating their Bodies by barbarous and Pagan-like Processionary Flagellations: I demand concerning these, and whatever else looks any thing like either an Antichristian Imposition or Imposture, (belonging to this Second limb of Antichristianism) whether the Care and Fidelity, whether the unbiased Judgement and Piety of our Royal and Reverend Reformers have not quite cast them out as the dirt and dung of Superstition. 8. I but you will say, we do still celebrate Saints-days, and do still keep Lent; Surplices are still worn, and the Cross in Baptism still in use. But to these I easily and briefly answer: For the charge is slight and trivial, and cannot reach to the least touch of Antichristianism. For as for the Saints-days in our Church, they are neither many, whereby the Observation of them may become burdensome, nor are they Idolatrously or Superstitiously observed; there being no Religious worship done to the Saints, no Temple nor Altar dedicated to them, nor Prayers directed to them, but only an honourable mention made of their Virtues for our Christian Imitation. In which thing our Church is very explicit, joining authority with S. Austin, and declaring, That neither Temples nor Churches ought to be builded or made for Martyrs or Saints, but to God alone; and that there ought not Priests to be appointed for Martyr or Saint, but to God alone: as you may see in the second part of the Homily against Peril of Idolatry. And he that reads what order she gives for the keeping of these Festivals, in her Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, will but betray his Impiety in gainsaying so Religious a Purpose. For her Injunction is that these Days be kept in hearing the Canon 13. Word of God read and taught, in private and public Prayer, in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same, and in reconciling themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasures have been, in oftentimes receiving the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, in visiting the poor and sick, using all godly and sober Conversation. And now concerning Lent; that our Church puts a snare upon no man's Conscience in difference of Meats, is plain out of what we meet with in that eminent Prelate Bishop Jewel, in The Defence of his Apology, (a Part 2. Changed 14. divis. 1. Book appointed for every Church by public Authority) where he citys that excellent saying out of Tertullian, Deus ventre non colitur, nec cibis quos Dominus dicit perire, & in secessu, naturali lege, purgari. Nam qui per escas Dominum colit, prope est ut Dominum habeat ventrem suum. He whose Religion is so carnal, is but a degree above them that make their Belly their God. And in the same Page he speaks from himself and in plain English, We weigh not the choice of Fish or Flesh, but the burden of the Mind, and the snare of the Conscience. The Church herself also doth declare in the Homily of Fasting, That there is no Holiness at all in Meats, and that it is in itself indifferent whether Lent be kept by eating of Fish, or by abstaining from all manner of food till night, and then to eat without any choice or difference of meats; and that keeping of Lent by abstinence from Flesh is grounded merely upon Policy, and thereupon appointed by the Magistrate for the increasing of Victuals, Beefs and Sheep, for the greater plenty, and better provision for the Poor, and furnishing out our Navies, and for the enriching the Sea-coast-Towns by Fishing, and making them more populous, and better provided for to repulse the Enemy at any Invasion. Which is a very honest and solid account for our celebrating Lent by abstinence from Flesh-meats and feedding on Fish, and devoid of all Popery and Superstition. And thirdly, touching the Pompous Histrionical Vestments of Priests, no man can condemn them more hearty or deride them more wittily than our Church hath done in the third part of that never-sufficiently-commended Homily against the Peril of Idolatry: where, having noted how Lactantius compared the Idols of the Heathen to the little Puppets that little Girls used to play with, and that the said Idols were but great Puppets for old Fools to play with; Our Churches (saith she) stand full of such great Puppets wondrously decked and adorned, garlands and coronets be set on their heads, precious pearls hung about their necks, their fingers shine with rings set with precious stones, their dead and stiff bodies are clothed with garments stiff with gold. You would believe that the Images of Men-Saints were some Princes of Persia- land with their proud Apparel; and the Idols of our Women-Saints were nice well-trimmed Harlots tempting their Paramours to wantonness. Whereby the Saints of God are not honoured, but most dishonoured, and their godliness, soberness, chastity, contempt of riches and of the vanity of the world, defaced and brought in doubt by such monstrous decking most differing from their godly and sober lives. And then comes in what concerns the Priest; And because the whole Pageant must throughly be played, it is not enough thus to deck Idols, but at the last come in the Priests themselves likewise decked with gold and pearl, (that they may be meet servants for such Lords and Ladies, and fit worshippers of such Gods and Goddesses,) and with solemn pace they pass forth before these golden Puppets, and fall down to the ground on their marrowbones before these honourable Idols; and then rising up again offer up odours and incense unto them, to give the people an example of double Idolatry, by worshipping not only the Idol, but the gold also and riches wherewith it is garnished. What can be more expressly against these Histrionical Ornaments than this? I but you will say, what is this to the Surplice? Truly, it is a thing of so little moment, that I had almost forgot it. Why? what Antichristianism do you espy in that, provided it be white and clean? Is not the very Wife of the Lamb in the Apocalypse said to be * Chap. 19 arrayed in fine linen clean and white? And do you think that the Prophetic style would adorn the Spouse of Christ with such an Habit as in the letter were a special badge of Antichrist? Wherefore it is evident that there is neither Superstition nor Antichristianism simply in wearing a white garment, though there be no garment but may be superstitiously used, and as superstitiously rejected. To consecrate, exorcise or enchant Vestments for the Priests to wear, as is practised in the Apostatised Church, were indeed a palpable piece of Superstition; or to place any Holiness in them: But this is a thing openly protested against in our Church, who plainly declares in her Constitutions Ecclesiastical concerning prescribed Apparel, That her meaning is Canon 74. not to attribute any holiness or special worthiness to the said garments, but that they are enjoined only for decency, gravity and order. 9 And truly for to suspect this kind of Ornament in our English Clergy to serve for either gratifying their Pride, or for an outside recommendation of them to the People, that they may the more securely want those more requisite and essential Ornaments of the Mind, is a very weak and groundless surmise. For how can they be thought to pride themselves in such a Garment, or fancy themselves recommendable to the people by such an Ornament as they generally imagine foul and soiled by having been so many Ages worn by that Woman of Apostasies? Wherefore look as narrowly as you will, you cannot espy those Antichristian sins of Pride and Hypocrisy lurking in any the closest fold of this snowy Vestment. Which did it not look so bright as to the blinding of your eyes, you might instead of Antichristianism discover the choicest Christian Graces wrapped up in the use of it, I mean those of Charity and Humility. For undoubtedly our Heroical Reformers did not, as is the use of some, act out of peevishness and spite, and please their own humour and impetuosity of spirit; but as being part of the chaste Spouse of Christ, the true Apostolic Church, the Mother of us all, deals as a Mother with all those that profess themselves in any sense Children of Christ's Church, and therefore would not have them divided more than needs. Whence it is that, out of a spirit of Charity and tender kindness, she has in some things in themselves indifferent humbly condescended to symbolise with that lapsed Lady of Rome, to bring off her abused Paramours to the pure Worship of God. Which Condescension, as is well known, took good effect for some space of years, and the Catholics joined in public Prayers and Service with us; till that Woman sitting on the Seven Hills (who at every turn discovers herself not to be the Mother, but the Harlot that makes nothing of having the Child divided) forcibly rend off the English Roman Catholics from so reasonable and Christian a Communion. And yet for all this does not our Church cease to use this charitable Courtship and sweet Condescension toward them still, to win them off to such a Worship as is every way as graceful as their own, but without the Poison of either Superstition or Idolatry. Which while I consider how long it has been, without the least effect upon the Catholics of this Nation, I must needs think him either dull-sighted or unjust that will not acknowledge also a third Christian Virtue in our Mother the Church of England, superadded to the former, I mean an impregnable and invincible Patience; she having not all this time fallen either into that Complaint in the Prophet, All day long have I stretched Rom. 10. 21. forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying People; or into that Resolution of the Apostles, wearied out by the Refractariness of the Jews, Seeing you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn Act. 13. 46. unto the Gentiles. Lastly, as touching the Cross in Baptism, there is much-what the same reason as of this last, saving that the use thereof was more early in the Church, whence it becomes more venerable for its Antiquity, and is therefore retained upon that account, as also for the significancy of the Ceremony: but without the least reproach to the Sacrament itself, it being acknowledged perfect and complete without it. I will also add that it is now as seasonable as ever, the Passion of our Saviour being so much undervalved and trodden under foot by a new generation of men that Paganize in their Hearts, though they cant in the language of Christians. But we need not be over-solicitous in this point, there being so ample satisfaction offered to the scrupulous in the Book of Ecclesiastical Constitutions. Canon 30. And therefore we will now proceed to those parts of Antichristianism that oppose the Positive Ends of the Gospel. Wherein there is so little Difficulty, that it will be no hard task to dispatch with like brevity as in these former. CHAP. XXII. 1. The diametrical Opposition of our Church to that part of Antichristianism which would subvert the Regal and Prophetic Offices of Christ. 2. As also to that which strikes at his Sacerdotal Office. 3. That she holds nothing against those other sacred Titles of Christ, the Truth, Life, Light, etc. 4. A demonstrative Vindication of Episcopacy from the Imputation of Antichristianism, out of the Apocalypse. 5. What an Establishment that Book is, if rightly understood, to the Crown and Church of England. 6. That no Papal nor Presbyterian Power is of right above the King, no not in causes Ecclesiastical. 7. The judgement of our Church thereupon. 8. The peculiar glory of our Church that she is so perfectly free from all Frauds and Impostures. 9 Her freeness from Pride; 10. From Antichristian Impurity, 11. And from Cruelty. 12. Her Reformation an eminent Speciminal Completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Two Witnesses. 13. The usefulness of this Vindication of her for the suppressing of Popery and Schism. 1. I Demand therefore concerning those three known Offices of Christ, Regal, Sacerdotal, and Prophetical, is not our Church very faithful and sincere in this point, and not at all guilty of such opposings and undermine of them as I have specified in my Idea of Antichristianism? Does our Church pretend to be Infallible herself, or so much as connive or consent to the pretended Infallibility of others? Nay, has she not plainly declared, That general Councils (for as much as they be an Assembly Article 2●…. of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God) may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining to God: and that therefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scripture? And in the foregoing Article she does affirm, That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary Article 20. to God's Word written, and that she may not so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another; and finally concludes, That although the Church be a Witness and a Keeper of Holy Writ, yet as she ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought she not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation. To which effect she also speaks in another Article touching the Sufficiency of Article 6. Holy Scriptures. Holy Scripture (saith she) containeth all things necessary to Salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation. And again to the same purpose doth she speak in that excellent Exhortation to the reading and knowledge of Holy Scripture: where with all earnestness she invites every one to the diligent perusing thereof, declaring, That in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew, what to believe, and what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at the length; and tells us the best way for understanding of them, in a Paragraph worthy to be written in letters of Gold, toward the end of the first part of the Homily. And in reading of God's Word (saith she) he profiteth not most always that is most ready in turning of the Book, or in saying of it without-book, but he that is most turned into it, that is, most inspired with the Holy Ghost, most in his heart and life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth; he that is daily less and less proud, less wrathful, less covetous and less desirous of worldly and vain pleasures; he that daily (forsaking his old vicious life) increaseth in Virtue more and more. And in the second part of the said Homily she heartens her Sons against those discouragements and stumbling-blocks, which that false and treacherous Church casts in their way, of pretended difficulty and obscurity; exhorting them to pray to God for Assistence in reading the Scriptures; assuring them that if they be sedulous and serious, what they are at a loss in, God will either send some pious and knowing person (as he did Philip to the Eunuch reading the Prophets) to instruct them, or that Himself from above will give light into our minds, and teach us those things that be necessary for us, and wherein we be ignorant: farther adding out of S. Chrysostom, That humane and worldly wisdom or science is not so needful for the understanding of Scripture, but the revelation of the Holy Ghost, who inspireth the true meaning into them who with humility and diligence do search therefore. And lastly, she concludes, That none be enemies to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant, that they know not how wholesome a thing it is; or else be so sick, that they hate the most comfortable medicine that should heal them; or so ungodly, that they would wish the people still to continue in blindness and ignorance of God. How diametrically opposite this Genius of our Church is to that Antichristian Spirit I have described in his opposings and undermine of the Regal and Prophetical Offices of Christ, is obvious for any man to discern who listeth but to compare them. 2. And now for his Sacerdotal Office, which is injured and affronted in multiplying Mediators, in pretending to offer up the very Body of Christ in the Mass, and in derogating from the virtue of that Sacrifice himself made for the sins of the world, as if it reached not to the Punishment, but to the Gild only, and that every man must satisfy for himself in imposed mulcts and penances, either here or in Purgatory. As for the first, we have already proved it to be contrary to the Doctrine of our Church. And that one Article, part whereof I have cited already against Transubstantiation, will assure us of her rejection of the two latter. The offering of Christ once made (saith she) is that perfect Redemption, Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original Article 31. and actual; and there is no other Satisfaction for sin but that alone. And then it follows, Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer up Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits. See also the Article of the Justification of Man, and the Homily of Salvation and Good Works. But this is so notorious a Doctrine in our Church, that I need not insist any further upon the proof of her avowing of it. 3. As for the Oppositions against the other Titles of Christ specified in the sixth Chapter of the second Book of my Idea of Antichristianism, it is manifest that our Church is not concerned therein. For we traffic not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles, against the Sacred Title of Truth; nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures, and to hold them in darkness, against the Sacred Title of Light; nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life, by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies; nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ, by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels; nor offend against his Paternity, by making his Children a company of stocks and stones, and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them, and forcing them to believe as the Church believes, right or wrong, with Scripture or against it; and are so fare from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction, that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture, as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church. Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdom. And for absolving Princes from their Oaths, what Church, unless that of Rome, ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power? 4. The next Antichristian Opposition, and which occurrs in the next Chapter, is that against the Divine Life in general. Such as Idolatry, and all manner of Superstition, dumb Shows, speaking in an unknown Tongue, substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life; all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies everywhere, and so acknowledgedly, that I will not give myself the trouble of Citation. Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter than any indifferent man can possibly judge. For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendom that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated: which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters. For, for my own part, though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishoprics of this Nation, yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burden as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function, truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down everywhere the value of the Revenue, and we read in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the workman is worthy of his hire. And concerning the Office and Dignity itself, it cannot sink into my mind, that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral, can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian. And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ, is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition, and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident, that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more. 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shy of the Apocalypse, or so fearful of it, that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making, for fear it should by't them, that is to say, unless it be unfolded, or rather folded up, in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications. For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalypse, if rightly and solidly understood. A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince, King James of blessed memory, had discovered betimes, and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome. And truly I find nothing in the Apocalypse, though the style seems Mysterious and Enigmatical, but what is very rational, and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned. A taste whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City; wherein bloody and inhuman Zeal, as also vain and imposturous Superstition, is so plainly perstringed. The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Murderers; the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Sorcerers, Exorcists or Enchanters; and lying Legendists; and in fearful intimidated spirits, that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers. These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls, who deals bonâ fide with Mankind, to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burden of Superstition, note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation. So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity, to Equity, to Truth and Reason. 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it, (which are more than one or two either) there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign, over Clergy as well as Laiety, in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil; and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him, as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him. For why should any Clergymen expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves, to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian? Which is as unjust, as it were ridiculous to fancy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him go lower than the Priest that baptised him. For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power, but rightly employs it. Can any of the Pagan Emperors, think you, have been brought over to the Christian Faith, if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so fare as it became the Church of Christ? or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdom of Heaven a trick of the Priests, to make themselves Lords of the Earth? No certainly, a Prince once become Christian, that is, a Believer and Professor of the Apostolic Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion, is a Person so Sacred, that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions. For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy than any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever. Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church? Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints? Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews, the Kings or High-Priests of Israel? And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ? The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable, and it ought to be so; no man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof. But for authorising Interpretations, Opinions, and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship, either this is in a Christian Prince's power, and not in the Priest's, or else his Kingdom and safe administration thereof is not in his power. For all these things, according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason, are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governor, and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so. For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons; and the strongest rains are those of Religion. And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther than his allowance and liking, that Power is really the King, and the King himself a precarious Power, to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church, as often and as violently as they please. Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable; so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation, change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince, who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace, composure and prosperity of his Kingdom. Nor have the Ecclesiastic Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expressly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures. For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal, to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical; or that the Errors and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clearsighted Posterity; or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency, that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church, or any parts thereof, should not be able to conjure it down again, for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified. 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting, That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man, but that it may lawfully for just causes alter, change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders, yea recede wholly from them and break them, when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety, when they draw the people from God rather than work any edification in them. And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts, That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries, Times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. And lastly, in the close of that Article, Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain, change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying. Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature, if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation, and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own, what wild commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State, while they gore and spur up the Ass to go that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back? Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion, the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them; and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees, but by his Authority; that the Priesthood may not be able (as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing) to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are, or against the Safety, Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part, and therefore aught to have no power to do any thing independently of the Prince, who is the Common Father of his whole Country, and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all: Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, (as our Church does plainly acknowledge,) that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions. But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferred till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life, which is Humility, and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront. But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself, I have already abundantly evinced. 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith, the Root of the Divine Life, our Church is so plainly free from: them (as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them) that it is enough merely to intimate so much. Only I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf, in that she is so throughly reform from that notorious, though subtle and slim, piece of Antichristianism, I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable, and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all. The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye, who cannot but bless God for that due judgement and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers; and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church, that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies, after the manner of the Roman Priesthood, nor puts one morsel of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture, and that as he labours in the Gospel, so he lives by the Gospel, and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables. 9 Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility, which are specified in the ninth, tenth and eleventh Chapters, that our Church is cleared from them, it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give myself the trouble of particularly making it out. The Pope's Supremacy is not only declared against but sworn against, as is very just and right. And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergymen, yet, as I have noted above, our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things, but that they are for decency and distinction. And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as ancient as Christianity itself, and runs through not only part but all those Symmetral Ages of the Church. So manifest is it that there is not left in the frame of our English Church any thing of its own nature Antichristianly opposing that Heavenly and Christian Grace of Humility. But if we come to take view of Persons, who can help it but that a Layman may be proud as well as a Clergyman, and a Presbyter as soon as a Bishop? So that all would be Antichristian upon this score. 10. And it is as evident that there are none of those Oppositions against that celestial Grace of Purity (noted in the twelfth Chapter) to be found in our Church. And not so only, but I think we may without vanity (provided it be done with humble thankfulness to Almighty God, who inspired our Heroical Reformers with such exquisite prudence and judgement) glory in that excellent and fit constitution of things in our Universities: Where none are tied up to the Vows of Coelibate, nor confined to separate and solitary cells, to be shown disguised in some uncouth habit, with circumcised crowns and moped or bloated looks, as they are wont to show strange Animals through their several grates at the Tower; but live under more free and manly Laws and ingenuous Exercises, without either the lash or hypocrisy of Superstition, and are appointed to spend their time in such things as may adorn their Souls with real Knowledge and Virtue: where also there is an honest and frugal Provision made for them that list to lay their Bodies as well as bury their Minds in the dust of an Academy. Which, if either Nature or some Diviner power has fitted them for it, they may do with honour; and if they be weary of a single life, they may leave the University when they will, without the least reproach. Which ingenuous and Christian freedom, in my judgement, is infinitely to be preferred before the Superstitious Slavery and Hypocrisy of the Roman Monasteries, where people are caged up and imprisoned like so many Captives of the King of Babylon, or so many Bondmen or Bondwomen of that Mystical Pharaoh, to work out imaginary stuff to fill the Church's Treasury of Merits, which are vended for ready money to increase the Revenue and to support the Pomp of this magnificent Tyrant of Egypt. 11. Lastly, Concerning those most Antichristian Oppositions against that transcendent Grace of Charity; Our English Church is so far from opposing it, that she is exemplary in it, condemning the Doctrines and Practices of that worst of Churches no more than needs must, and courting the adverse party to her Communion by all lawful accommodations and compliances in her public Service, if by any means she may gain some of them over to the Truth. Whereas, on the other side, that imperious Woman on the Seven Hills sits like a Queen, to whom every one must bow, but she neither bend nor condescend to any thing, but stands as stiff as a Marpesian Rock for the maintaining her own Humour and Interest, though never so point-blank against the Eternal Laws of God and Right Reason. Then for that bloody and butcherly Decree of killing of Heretics, namely, such as hold against the Tenants of that Church, though those Tenants of this Church be plainly repugnant to express Scripture; How contrary to this Antichristian and Diabolical Spirit is the Doctrine of our Church of England, who, as I have above noted, has declared, That no Article 20. Church has authority to decree any thing against Holy Writ, nor to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation besides it, as you may see in the Book of Articles. Nor can they justly frame any excuse for their abominable Cruelty from the Sanguinary Laws of this Realm against Priests and Jesuits. For what a vast difference is there, when the one suffer as Traitors to their Liege Sovereign, the other because they will not be Traitors and Rebels to God and the Lord Jesus Christ? for every Idolater is so. And no man can submit to the Church of Rome but he must ipso facto submit to Idolatry. 12. Verily while I consider what an honest and faithful Spirit breathes in the Book of Homilies and other Writings of our Church, and how tightly and perfectly we are set free from all that Imposture and Wickedness that can properly be styled Antichristian, by the wise management and solid and sound judgement of our renowned Reformers, and how that men of this Integrity of mind and soundness in the Faith were then advanced into Power in Church and State by the Sovereign Authority; I cannot withhold from declaring that I do not at all doubt but that the Reformation of our English Church into such a condition as I have briefly represented, was one eminent Speciminall Completion of the Prophecy of the rising of the Two Witnesses, and of that Voice from Heaven (that is to say, of the Sovereign Power) saying unto them, Come up hither. For every tittle of the Prophecy is exactly applicable to the Event, as any one may find that will try. Besides that so notable a providence as the Protestant Reformation is nowhere prophesied of, if not in that Vision. For the Vials are none of them within the Sixth Trumpet, as the Vision of the Witnesses is, but all within the Seventh, as I have above plainly enough proved: nor they expressive of the first Reformation in the chief Circumstances thereof, nor any Vision else save this of the Resurrection of the Witnesses. Nor know I any thing that should make a man hesitate, unless it be that the Witnesses are said to be raised up after three Days and an half, that is to say, three Times and an half, whenas our Reformation fell within these Times, namely, in the last Half of a Time. But no Observation can be more trivial than this; That the designation of Time divided into parts, unless some intimation determinate it to one sense, may signify either such a space of time fully finished, or else expiring in the last division thereof. As if one should say, Post triduum mortis resurrexit Christus, no man can understand that of Christ's being dead three entire days. And so, Aliquot post menses, may as well be rendered Within some months after, as After some months. And the Seventy do expressly translate that in Genesis, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ch. 38. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whenas the genuine sense is, within three months, cùm tertius mensis ageretur, as the Marginal Exposition has it in Vatablus. Whence it is evident that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not imply the time fully run out, but that the last part thereof must then be current. And so it is in this Prophecy, our Reformation happening in the last Half-Time or Half-Day. So easily is this Scruple removed: And therefore the Application so fit to the Event, that I doubt not but this Vision was a Prediction of it. Which therefore should make our Reformation the more Sacred, and awe men off from either violently tearing it in pieces, or more hiddenly and obliquely corrupting it by foisting in any old out-cast ware disallowed and rejected by our Pious and Judicious Reformers. 13. But this is a Mantissa cast in over and above the bargain. I had before finished my task, which was briefly to prove (and, if I mistake not myself, I have done it clearly and convincingly) That the Heaven-inspired Prudence and Judgement of the Royal, Heroical and Reverend Reformers of our Church of England have purged her and cleansed her from whatever Doctrine or professed Practice may rightly and properly be deemed Antichristian, and that she holds nor enjoins any thing that is contrary to the truly Catholic and Apostolic Faith. Which just and seasonable Vindication of her jointly considered with our free and faithful Description of the true Nature and Idea of Antichristianism, such as we have demonstrated to be predicted in the Prophecies of Holy Scripture, will not fail, I hope, to prove for ever a Sovereign Remedy or safe Preservative of her against those two hateful and destructive diseases of the Church of Christ, Popery and Schism. Which good effect of our labours God of his infinite mercy grant, for the only Merits of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The End of the Second Part. THE CONTENTS Of the First Part OF The Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity. BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. THAT the Mystery of Iniquity or Antichristianism implies the secret undermining of the ends of Christianity by such a Power as pretends to be Christian. 2. The inconvenience of describing Antichrist from Circumstantial characters, and leaving out the Essential parts of the Description. 3. The two general Principles of which Antichristianism does consist 4. The right Artifice of drawing the true Idea of Antichristianism, with a distribution of the Draught into the two most general strokes thereof. Fol. 1 CHAP. II. 1. The rooting out of Idolatry by the Messiah prophesied of by Jeremy, That all the Gods that made not Heaven and Earth, should perish. 2. An explication of that Prophecy, and an assertion of our Saviour's right of being worshipped for ever as the Eternal Logos who made Heaven and Earth. 3. Proofs out of the Psalms, that the Messiah was to root out Idolatry. 4. Several places in the New Testament witnessing against Idolatry and Image-worship. 5. That the Spirituality of Christian Religion indigitated by our Saviour does abundantly evidence the unlawfulness of Image-worship or of what Idolatry else soever. 3 CHAP. III. 1. What is meant by Grace and Truth coming by Christ 2. Farther testimonies of Scripture to evince that Christ came to ease men of the Judaïcal burden of Ceremonies. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross was the solution of the Ceremonial Law of Moses. 4. Farther proofs to the same purpose. 6 CHAP. IV. 1. The Positive End of the Gospel summarily proposed. 2. The several grounds of honour due to Christ, and particularly of his Paternal Title. 3. Both God the Father and Christ the Authors of our Regeneration; and how the First Hypostasis being called Father does not exclude the Second from that Title in respect of his Church. 4. The other Titles of Christ plain of themselves. 5. The Divine life with its Root and Branches, the Second part of the Positive scope of the Gospel. 6. That such a Mystery as upon Religious pretences does really supplant all the grand Ends of the Gospel, whether Privative or Positive, is Mathematically manifest to be that notorious Mystery of Iniquity. 7. The method of pursuing the particulars of this Mystery more largely. 8. The Falseness, Fraud and Mischief of every member of Antichristianism to be inquired into. 9 The Author's serious desire that the Truth of the Description may be perused without Prejudice, and acknowledged without Tergiversation by them that are convinced. 8 CHAP. V 1. Instances of several specious pieces of Idolatry introducible into Christian Religion. 2. The overmuch straightening, or widening the Notion of Idolatry, taxed. 3. The usefulness of giving a true Notion thereof. 4, 5. That it is not restrained to the worshipping of Idols properly so called. 6. That any thing worshipped that is not God, becomes ipso facto an Idol; and of the Seventy's rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 7. That they likewise render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they do also Baalim, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; which farther argues that more general sense of Idol. 8. That an Idol and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Non-Deus, is all one in the estimate of God. 11 CHAP. VI 1. That the Israelites worshipped Jehovah in the Golden Calf, proved out of Exodus. 2. That Elohim, though joined with a verb of the plural number, is understood of the true God; with farther testimony out of the 106 Psalms, that God was worshipped in that Calf, and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies. 3. That the Golden Calf was no figure of the Egyptian Apis, but a Cherub. 4. Aaron's case of making the Golden Calf compendiously opened, as also the ground of Tacitus his ridiculous error discovered. 5. That the Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel were two Cherubin set up for the worship of the God of Israel, proved from Jeroboam's Politics. 6. Also from Jehu, and Elias his zeal, and the instruction of the Assyrian Colonies by an Israelitish Priest. 7. That Micah's Ephod and Teraphim were also meant to the true God. 8. And yet both he and the Israelites in the Wilderness Idolaters, in their use of the Teraphim and Cherub in Divine worship. 9 That Jeroboam was also an Idolater in setting up the Calves in Dan and Bethel, proved out of Scripture. 10. Other Testimonies to the same purpose; and of the Idolatry committed in the Brazen Serpent. 15 CHAP. VII. 1. The worshipping that which is not God by an Image, a third mode of Idolatry. 2. Of the worshipping of an Image as such. 3. How the vulgar sort of the Heathen came to take the very Idols themselves for Gods. 4. What arguments used for the begetting an opinion of the residence of the Daemons near their Statues. 5. What indications of their presence there, and how awful the Images themselves became from thence. 6. The conceit of the Daemon and dedicated Image's coalition into one person. 7. And that the worshipping of this Complicate was a fourth Mode of Idolatry. 20 CHAP. VIII. 1. That the Heathen held one Supreme God the Maker of all things. 2. Proclus his conceit of so uniting the Supreme Deity with a Magical Statue, as that the Complicate becomes one visible and Supreme Godhead. 3. Whether the worshipping of this Magical Complicate by him that is persuaded it is the visible Deity, were Idolatry. 4. Wherein the sinfulness of Idolatry does consist, and that the worship of this Magical Statue was a Fifth Mode thereof. 5. The reduction of other cases to these Five Modes of Idolatry. 6. That the worshipping any thing but God, is Idolatry; and of Numa's casting away Image-worship, and of the affinity of his Religion with Pythagorism. 7. The first pollution of that Philosophy, and that the Object of Divine worship is as well One as Invisible. 23 CHAP. IX. 1. The necessity of knowing what Religious worship is, for the discovering of Idolatry. 2. The faultiness of the distribution of Worship into Latria, Dulia, and Cultus civilis. 3. That Christ only, who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, has such a middle Excellency as may admit Religious worship. 4. That the excess of Excellency in God above that in Saints and Angels is so infinitely more than the excess of excellency in Saints and Angels above that in Men, that it is extremely forced and irrational to allot worship of one denomination to the first and second, and not rather to the second and last, which, they being fellow-citizens, might rightly be called. Civil. 5. That no kind of Religious worship is due to Saints and Angels, proved by the Angel's refusing to be worshipped by S. John. 6. And also from the near affinity of our natures with theirs. 7. To whom Origen pronounces Good men equal, nor allows the glorious Stars, though they were intellectual, to be worshipped. 8. That the Religious worship of Saints and Angels is no duty of ours, as being reducible to the Precepts of neither Table. 9 That Religious worship is but One, and due to God only, proved from our Saviour's answer to the Devil. 10. As also from the Author to the Hebrews, arguing the Divinity of Christ from Religious worship due to him, with several other testimonies. 11. An Answer to an Objection. 26 CHAP. X. 1. A right distribution of Worship into its kinds. 2. The Definition of Religious worship. 3. That the exhibiting of honour to any undue Object, though forcedly or feignedly, by Signs appropriate to the acknowledgement of the Divine Excellencies, is palpable Idolatry. 4. And that therefore there are no stints, or specific degrees of Religious worship; no Dulia, nor Hyperdulia, but all Latria. 5. That Religious worship is not applied to a thing by directing it towards it as a Circumstance, but as an Object; and therefore the misapplication thereof as to an Object is requisite to Idolatry. 6. But not that this application should be made as to God himself. 7. That the Heathens themselves never committed such a piece of Idolatry, as to give Religious worship to that which they knew not to be the Supreme God, as to the Supreme. 8. That Religious worship being but One, makes every application thereof to what is not God, Idolatry. 9 That the inculcation of the Divinity of Christ proves every Creature uncapable of Religious worship. 31 CHAP. XI. 1. Sacrifices, Drink-offerings and Burning of Incense appropriate Signs of Religious worship, according to Grotius, as also what ever else consent of Nations has made so. 2. Also Vows, Oaths, Ask supernatural Gifts, Invocating Saints or Angels while they are invisible. 3. Or to ask of them, though visible, any natural boon at an Altar, or in a Temple consecrate to them. 4. Images erected, and dedicated in Temples, or on Altars, a Mode of Divine worship; with a prevention of an Objection. 5. Songs also and Incurvations may be so framed and circumstantiated as to become such Signs. 6. That every Idolatry is Blasphemy; as also to give the Name of God to any Creature, both. 7. A general Distribution of the appropriate Signs of Religious worship. 8. A prevention of a subterfuge, from the pretence of a larger signification of Religious worship than we have given, all our future convictions depending only upon the truth of our Definition of Religious worship in that sense we have declared. 34 CHAP. XII. 1. A brief enumeration of the parts of that full instruction we have to discern what is Idolatry. 2. That the Adoration of the Cross is Idolatry. 3. As also the worshipping any person of the holy Trinity by an Image or Picture. 4. That Religious worship given to Saints or Angels, though without the use of any Image or Picture, is Idolatry. 5. That the mere Invocation of any particular invisible power is also Idolatrous. 6. Certain Evasions touching the praying to Saints answered. 7. Another subterfuge answered. 8. Worshipping Saints by Images a double Idolatry. 9 That it is Idolatry to worship an Image, taking it for the Saint himself. 10. As also the Adoration of any man alive upon Earth. 11. That the worshipping of the Eucharistick Bread, taken for the real Body of Christ, is Idolatry. 12. That all the abovesaid acts are Idolatrous, let men pretend what they will to cover the guilt. 13. And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter does not imply a lawfulness in any kind of Idolatry. 38 CHAP. XIII. 1. That the professing one only true God does not necessarily quit a People from the guilt or capacity of being Idolaters. 2. That to exhibit such Modes of worship as are proper to the true God to a Creature, though we take it for a Creature, is Idolatry. 3. That the Jews were Idolaters, though they professed the only true God. 4. That the belief of the Eucharistick Bread being the real Body of Christ does not excuse the adorer thereof from Idolatry. 5. The case of the Heathen that worshipped the Sun, and this of the Bread-worshippers, compared. 6. A solution of a Sophism the Author once put upon himself in excuse of this Bread-worship. 7. That their not thinking the Bread to be in the Eucharist does not excuse the worshippers of the Host from Idolatry. 42 CHAP. XIV. 1. The fondness of distinguishing betwixt an Idol and an Image, when they are both made Objects of Religious worship. 2. That nothing but what is essentially and infinitely Excellent is a due Object thereof. 3. That the absence of the Saints from their Images does not excuse the Idolatry. 4. The unlikeliness that there is any true Image of Christ, if it were lawful to worship it. 5. But that it is unlawful to worship it, though there were. 6. That the whole Decalogue is moral. 7. That the use of Images for Memory and Devotion was also the Plea of the Heathen. 8. That external Objects in Divine worship hinder the perfection thereof. 9, 10. Other material allegations against the pretended use of Images in Churches. 11. That there are many other ways of exciting Devotion in the people, infinittly surpassing this of Images. 46 CHAP. XV. 1. That the general End of this impious and useless Idolatry and Image-worship is the Profit of the Priest. 2. Several artifices of making these Images gainful to them. 3. The gainfulness of Transubstantiation the cause of the admitting it to the making up the full Stature of Antichristianism. 4. What a wonderful and powerful intercessor the Priest seems upon this pretention. 5. Various ways of the improving this gainful persuasion. 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle. 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction, and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity. 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak, yet their Self-ends therein are palpable. 51 CHAP. XVI. 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God. 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels, is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them. 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry. 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloody Wolves and Bears: 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities. 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness, and eternal death to the Idolater. 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home; 9 And the spreading thereof hindered abroad: 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby. 55 CHAP. XVII. 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burden. 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience. 3. Though this general estimate of the burden of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice, yet he will add a more particular Draught of this Limb of Antichristianism. 4. Of Anointings, and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments. 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings. 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People. 7. A more full description of their public Service. 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine, then in any Histrionical Pomp: 9 Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious, that it may hazard their departure. 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in Religious Vestments. 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion. 12. The ill consequence thereof. 59 CHAP. XVIII. 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water, Oil, Salt, Wax-candles, etc. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof. 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax. 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments. 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians; With an Anticipation of an Objection. 5. The Falsehood, Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms. 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses. 7. Of the supposal of the Infant's being possessed, and of Baptismal Spittle. 8. Of Extreme Unction, and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man: 9 As also upon his Corpse laid out. 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices .. 65 CHAP. XIX. 1. The burden of Spiritual Cognation, and excessive Numerosity of holidays. 2. Perpetual abstinence from Flesh in some Religious Orders. The Fraud and Mischief thereof. 3. The burden of vowed Coelibate. 4. The more dangerous purposes thereof. 5. The ordinary services done by the monastics to this Antichristian power we describe. 6. That its establishment is much corroborated by the Interest of Monasteries; 7. And enriched by being Heir to all professors of Coelibate. 8. The great Mischiefs of Coelibate. 9 Of Flagellation. 10. The ineffectualness thereof, Hypocrisy of the Penitent, savage Pride of his Church, and the Mischiefs resulting therefrom. 11. Of Pilgrimages and Jubilees. 12. An enumeration of several other Antichristian Austerities. 70 CHAP. XX. 1. The Burden of afflictive Opinions. 2. The distracting puzzles of a Soul entangled with multifarious Superstitions and Conceits. 3. The illaqueations of Religious Vows. 4. Entanglements arising from a Superstitious trust in certain surmised virtues in the Mass. 5. Vexatious Scrupulosities concerning the Intention of the Priest in administering the Sacraments. 75 CHAP. XXI. 1. Of the necessity of Anniversary Confession. 2. Of Sacerdotal Absolution. 3. What is meant by Binding and Losing, and to what manner of persons Remission of sins is committed. 4. Erasmus his gloss upon that Text of S. John. 5. As also Hugo Grotius his, whence Auricular Confession and Absolution prove groundless. 6. A voluntary Confession and in general useful in the Church in some circumstances, and in order to particular Absolution from the Priest. 7. As also a more particular Confession, if voluntary. 8. The Self-ends of this Church in exacting so punctual a Confession from men. 9, 10. The slavery and Mischief of such kind of Confessions. 11. The infinite vexation to the conscientious and ingenuous from the obtruding upon them incredible and impossible Opinions. 78 CHAP. XXII. 1. The dreadful Figment of Purgatory. 2. That by this affrightful Fable the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burdensome. 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching only to the freeing us from the Gild of sin, not the Punishment. 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into. 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment. 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other. 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers. 8 The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction. 9 The conclusion of the description of this second Limb of Antichristianism. 82 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limbs of Antichristianism do oppose. 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office. 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees. 4. Several places of Scripture alleged to prove the Church Infallible. 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations, by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church, or to Part. 6. The second, by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute, or Conditional. 7. A third, That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered. 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture. 9 An Answer to the second and third. 10. Infallibility a Promise only to the first Founders of the Christian Church. 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth. 12. A farther exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy. 13. That if understood of the Universal Church, it may be meant only of it in the Apostles times. 14. And that the like may be said of the last Allegation. 87 CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolic Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility. 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge. 3. That the Scripture not pointing to any Infallible Judge nor any faithful Keeper of Traditions, does ipso facto declare herself the only sufficient Guide. 4. That there is not only no want of an Infallible Judge, but better there should be none. 5. That the want of Infallibility does not take away the Authority of the Church, it being the duty of every person in things really disputable to compromize with her. 6. That though a Visible Judge be necessary in Civil causes, yet it is nothing so in Points of Religion. 7. That every private man has not only a liberty, but a command, to judge for himself in matters of Faith. 8. The said Right or Privilege demonstrated also by Reason. 9 That the Reason or Judgement of every private man is not a private Spirit in that reproachful sense that some speak it. 10. That the claim to a right of judging for one's self in points of Faith does not make a man superior to his Church, 11. Nor yet equal; 12. Nor implies that he thinks himself wiser than his Church, but rather more careful of his own eternal Concerns. 13. That it is not his private Wisdom he sticks to, but the Wisdom of God known to all that are not wilfully blind. 14. That the Church is not Infallible, proved from the Example of the Jewish Church. 15. That there is the same reason of the Christian. 16. That the want of an Infallible Interpreter is no such loss to the common people. 17. That their assurance of the truth of the Scriptures by the Spirit, is a Tenet not so superciliously to be exploded as some make show of. 18. That this Spirit is properly the Spirit of Faith, distinguishable from that of Knowledge and Wisdom. 19 The notorious Fraud and excessive Mischief of this pretence of Infallibility. 92 CHAP. III. 1. That the keeping the Law of Christ in an unknown Tongue is an undermining or opposing of his Sovereignty. 2. As also the reproaching and vilifying his Law. 3. Their fraudulent pretence of hiding the Scriptures, with a vindication of their Usefulness and Excellency. 4. The vilifying of the Laws of Christ, by setting far less penalties upon the transgression of them then of the inconsiderable Institutes of the Church. 5. That their rigid Impositions are against the Kingdom of Christ; as also the reading of Legends instead of his Law, in Churches. 6. The dispensing also with the Divine Laws: The Fraud and Mischief thereof. 7. The treasonable pretence of this Power's being absolute by right of succession in Christ's seat. 8. The evil effect of this pretence discoverable in several Institutes contrary to the written Laws of Christ: 9 As also in nulling those Laws he has given, as he is the Eternal Word. 10. The bloody opposing the Sovereignty and Kingdom of Christ in murdering his faithful Subjects. 102 CHAP. IV. 1. Sundry particular Oppositions against the Prophetic Office of Christ, which may be the Characters of that grand Pseudo-prophet that was to come into the world. 2. That the Spirit of Prophecy is not to be monopolised by any one person, but is free. 3. An Excerpt out of Caelius Secundus Curio to that purpose. 4. The silencing the Dictates of those common Notions implanted in humane Souls, the highest affront to the Prophetic Office of Christ that can be. 5. Several Absurdities propounded as Instances of that Tyranny over the immutable Principles of humane Understanding, with the detection of that eminent False-prophet thereby. 6. That it is infinitely more likely that this pretended Prophet should be fallible, than the foregoing Absurdities true. 7. That the slaying of the Prophets, 8. Together with the abovementioned Oppositions against the Prophetical Office of Christ, make up a conspicuous Limb of Antichristianism. 106 CHAP. V 1. That the pretence of repeating the Oblation of the real Body of Christ is a derogation to the Excellency of Christ's Priesthood. 2. Fuller Aggravations of this wicked affront. 3. A prevention of a subterfuge. 4. Another more dangerous assault against the Priesthood of Christ, and the main end of his Suffering. 5, 6. The making the Blood of Christ available to take away the Gild of sin only, and not the Punishment, how salvagely Antichristian. 7. Farther Aggravations of this despightful piece of Antichristianism. 8. That there can be nothing more fundamentally Antichristian than it. 9 That the crime, considering the circumstances, seems worse than that of Judas; with the Fraud of this wickedness. 10. As also the great Mischief thereof. 11. Injuries against the Mediatorship of Christ. 12. An Answer to some slight pretences. 13. A farther confutation of such Antichristian errors and mispractices. 14. The Fraud and Mischief of multiplying Mediators. 15. A special Mischief done thereby to our growth in grace and holiness. 110 CHAP. VI 1. The opposing of Christ in his three noted Offices how heinously Antichristian. 2. An enumeration of other Titles of Christ. Opposition against him as he is the Truth; 3. As he is the Light; 4. As he is the Life. 5, 6. Opposition to his Divinity by equallizing Saints and Angels to him: 7. Yea by preferring what is but a Creature before him. 8, 9, 10. Opposition against his Paternal Title by injuries and cruelties to his children. 11. Opposition to him as he is Prince of Peace, 12. By needless Definitions in points of Opinion; 13. By taking away the obligation of Oaths; 14. By making war with the Saints. 118 CHAP. VII. 1. That any Constitution of things that naturally opposes and suppresses the Divine Life is Antichristian in the highest measure. 2. Such as Idolatry, Superstition, and all the abovementioned Oppositions to Christ's Offices and Titles. 3. The opinion of a virtue in the Sacraments ex opere operato, and of the needlessness of our attention to our Devotions. 4. Dumb shows, and the resting in the mere doing of a Religious duty, be it from what principle it will. 5. Easy Absolution, and slight Penances. 6. Plenary Indulgences purchased by money from Ecclesiastic Authority. 7. A general note prefixed touching the Mischiefs of the several Oppositions against the Divine Life. 8. The plausibility of the Supposition of an Ecclesiastic Power and Pomp more than Imperial. 9 The weakness of the grounds for the said Supposition. 10. The consequential Mischief thereof, in driving the minds of Churchmen from the study of Truth and Holiness: 11. Yea in making them oppose every thing that is true and holy, if it oppose their designs of Ambition and Avarice. 12. That such a Luciferian Power as this were the very ruin of the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth; 13. And the turning of his Church into a mere Mart or Fair. 124 CHAP. VIII. 1. That such a Frame of things as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith is highly Antichristian. 2. That A trade of Worldliness in the Spiritual Guides is one part of this Frame. 3. And a Self-ended policy in all the Doctrines and Practices of this Church, another. 4. Thirdly, The profession of uncertainty and obscurity in the Christian Faith. 5. Fourthly, The necessity of being in a Church where there is no Interruption by misordination. 6. Fifthly, The bearing men down that Dissent in any thing takes away certainty in all things. 7,— 12. Sixthly, Lying Miracles. 13,— 16. Seventhly, A rabble of incredible Relics. 17. Eighthly, Transubstantiation. 18. How naturally it superinduces Atheism. 19 What a bundle of Impossibilities it is. 20. That the pretended Infallibility of the Church is infinitely too light to weigh against it: 21. Nor can it be made credible by the countenance of feigned Miracles. 22. Several Characters of them that are excluded the Holy City, comprised in this present Limb of Antichristianism. 130 CHAP. IX. 1. Humility the proper Characteristic of the Person and Spirit of Christ. 2. The Affectation of an Ecclesiastic Sovereignty contrary to this Divine Grace. 3. The pretence for this Ambition, That the visible Church being One, requires one visible Head; with the Answer thereto. 4. Farther Reasons to prove the Church wants no visible Head besides Christ. 5. That this one Head Christ Jesus, and one Apostolic Law, does make the Church sufficiently One. 6. That there is no just pretence for any such claim of being this Universal-Head in any Bishop. 7. But that Ambition may purchase such a Title by wicked practices. 8. The method of this Universal Bishop's enslaving the Clergy to himself, and undermining the Secular Powers. 9 His Frauds against the Emperor and other Princes. 10. A farther description of the Frauds, Rapine and Pride of this Universal Pastor, and of his Usurpation in a manner of the whole Power of the Empire. 139 CHAP. X. 1. The wicked method of raising the Power of this Supreme Pastor to this height, a demonstration of the excess of Ambition. 2. His blasphemous usurpation or acceptation of the Divine Titles. 3. His barbarous insultation over Excommunicated Kings and Emperors. 4. The excess of Homage done to him by the greatest Personages. 5. His exalting himself above God in point of Jurisdiction. 6. His elation of himself above him in point of Honour or Precedency. 7. Other Instances of that kind of Pride. 8. His exaltation of himself above God even in the very House of God literally so called. 144 CHAP. XI. 1. That the Pride of this Superlative Head will diffuse itself also into its Members 2. Farther general Incentives to this Vice in this usurping Priesthood. 3. Peculiar Incentives thereto in some great Dignities. 4. The singularity of Habits, and way of living in some Religious Orders, an occasion of Pride. 5. The pretence of meriting in these Orders an high and hateful Instance of this Vice. 6. That such an elated Pseudo-Clergie as this might well go for that Man of sin that exalts himself above every thing that is worshipped; 7. And be emblematized in the description of the Leviathan, who is called the King of the children of Pride. 147 CHAP. XII. 1. An Antichristian Frame opposite to the Divine Grace of Purity described in general. 2. That the Numerousness of Festivals joined with a dead and Spiritless exercise of Worship leads to Impurity: 3. As also the Vow of Coelibate in unmortified Monks and Priests. 4. The opportunities of their Order and Function. 5. The opinion of Fornication being no sin, and Adultery a less one then the breach of the Vow of Single life. 6. Easy Rates for Pardons and Indulgences in these Vices. 7. 'Slight Penances. 8. The dedicating a considerable part of the year to wild extravagancies under Masks and Vizards. 9, 10. Concubines allowed to Priests. 11. The pompous Equippage of Courtesans, and the Supreme Pastour's receiving Tribute from their trading. 12. The example of this Highpriest and his Clergy. 13. The rifeness of Sodomy near his Palace: 14. And its spreading thence into the remotest part of his Dominion. 15. That an Ecclesiastic Polity in this condition were the Mystical City of Sodom, and characterized in those Apocalyptick Catalogues under the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 151 CHAP. XIII. 1. The excellency of Charity, and that it is the very Life and Soul of the Polity of Christ. 2. A Description of the nature of Christ's Kingdom, out of Scripture. 3. A Collection of the Properties of his Government, out of the forecited Predictions; and that they are all the Effects of Charity. 4. To which the Kingdom of Antichrist is opposite. 5. The Oppression of the poor and needy by this Antichristian Polity. 6. The defrauding men of their Estates, upon a false pretence of Heresy. 7. The imposition of barbarous Penances. 8. Their unparallelled Pride. 9 Their raising of vile Calumnies against the professors of the Truth, as the Pagans did against the Primitive Christians. 10. Several Instances of these Antichristian Calumnies. 157 CHAP. XIV. 1. The nick-naming of the true Christians by the odious Title of Heretics, with their barbarous injuries thereupon. 2. That Heresy and Schism are sins against the truly-Catholick and Apostolic Church. 3. What is meant by One Catholic and Apostolic Church. 4. What is that heinous sin of Heresy. 5. What Schism. 6. That while men are sincere members of the Apostolic Body, they can be neither Heretics nor Schismatics. 7. The Hypocritical and Schismatical Niceness of this Antichristian Church in forbearing to join in any Religious Duty with any member of the truly-Apostolick Body. 8. Their fraudulent purpose in fostering this Schismatical Niceness and Unsociableness. 161 CHAP. XV. 1. What Incendiaries to War and Plotters of abhorred Murders these falsely-pretended Successors of Christ are. 2. Their Butcherly Cruelty to the Sheep of Christ's Fold. 3. Instances of prodigious Barbarities upon them for their very faithfulness to their Saviour and Redeemer. 4. The numerousness of them that thus suffer, with some particular kinds of Cruelty. 5. More Instances of this Diabolical Barbarity. 6. All the Elements made Instruments of the wrath and fury of this Antichristian Power. 7. Most beastly and unnatural Examples of this Antichristian Salvageness. 166 CHAP. XVI. 1. A new Scene of Diabolical outrages done to the innocent Flock of Christ. 2. That they are all to be imputed to this Antichristian Synagogue, though not particularly appointed by them. 3. A description of an Infernal Tribunal coloured over with the specious Title of The Holy Inquisition. 4. The Demeanour of these Infernal Judges to the accused. 5. The savage usage of the sentenced party by the grim Executioner. 6. A new addition to the former Torture. 7. The Torment of the hollow Trough, 8. And pan of Charcoal. 9 That this exemplary Cruelty in these Spiritual Judges influencing all the Instruments and Adherents to their Church makes her guilty of all the Military outrages also. 169 CHAP. XVII. 1. That this Opposition against the Divine Grace of Charity is a most substantial Limb of Antichristianism, and the Character of them without the Holy City. 2. That that repeated Catalogue of abhorred Titles in the Apocalypse is plainly a Synopsis of the main Characters of the Antichristian Polity we describe. 3. The confirmation of the truth of our Idea of Antichristianism therefrom. 4. A summary Representation of this Idea in the Oppositions and Defeatments of the Privative Ends of the Gospel, as also of those noted Offices of Christ. 5. Of his Divinity and other holy Titles. 6. Of the Divine Life in Root and Branches. 7. A Parable to set out the savage Injustice and Cruelty of this Antichristian Synagogue. 8. The Apodosis of the Parable. 9 That we have set out the Idea of the most real and essential Antichristianism that can be; with an Answer to what may be objected to the contrary. 10. That it is that very Antichristianism that is foretold in the Prophets, the clearing whereof necessitates us to an inspection into them before we make any punctual Application of our Idea to the Apostasy of the Church. 173 The CONTENTS of the Second Part, OR SYNOPSIS PROPHETICA. BOOK I. CHAP. I. 1. THat the Antichristianism we have so punctually described in our Idea, and is for the general so notoriously known to have everrun the Church, is in truth a kind of Paganochristianism. 2. That it is incredible that there should be no Divine Predictions of so considerable a Change. 3. The ill-spent pains of those Interpreters who endeavour to obscure such Predictions by distorting them to other useless meanings. 4. Whether this Great Antichrist be prophesied of in the Epistle of S. John, under that very Name. 5. That Barchocab, if applicable at all to the Text, may be a Type of this famous Antichrist. 6. That the mention of those many Antichrists in S. John was occasioned from the fame of that Great Antichrist predicted in Daniel. 7. That there is much-what the same reason of the slowness of Christians in discovering the true Antichrist, as of the Jews in discovering the true Christ 8. That a fraudulent and Hypocritical Opposer of Christ may be as real and considerable an Antichrist as an open Enemy; as also S. John's description as easily applicable to him. 9 The inept Niceness of declining the Name of Antichrist; and that the Title was put upon this great Enemy of the Church by the ancient Fathers occasionally from this Epistle of S. John. 10. Certain Considerations proposed touching the Obscurity of the Prophetic style. 205 CHAP. II. 1. Why Prophecies are wrapped up in some considerable Obscurity. 2. An indispensable necessity of these kinds of involutions in regard of man's Free will: 3. As also in regard of the Enemies of the Church, both Men and Devils. 4. A recital of such Schemes and Figures wherein this Obscurity does most-what consist. 5. What Diorismus is, with several examples of Numeral Diorisms. 6. That it seems most safe to expound the Rev. 9 5, & 10. five months of the Locusts according to this Figure. 7. The reason of the use of Numeral Diorisms. 8. From whence also some light is offered toward the understanding the reason of the uncertain designation of Vers. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 Examples of Proportional Diorisms; 10. As also of Specifical. 211 CHAP. III. 1. Hylasmus what it is, with the kinds thereof. 2. Eximious Examples of each kind. 3. What the first and chiefest kind of Henopoeia. 4. That one single Beast signifies a Body Politic, demonstrated out of Daniel. 5. That a Succession of Individuals is represented by one Individual. 6. That one individual Beast represents a Kingdom or Body Politic from its rise to its fall. 7. That one single Man or Woman does also represent a Body Politic in the Prophetic style. 8. The second kind of Henopoeia, what it is. 9 What Zoopoeia, with Examples thereof. 10. A second kind of Zoopoeia proved and illustrated from Examples. 217 CHAP. IV. 1. Israelismus what it is. 2. That the reason of the frequent use thereof is the Sacramentalness of the Jewish Church in reference to the Christian, as appears in their Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 3. In the brazen Serpent, Manna, strucken Rock, and fiery Law; 4. In the High-priest's Robes, in his entering alone once a year into the most Holy, and in the Jews worshipping towards the Mercy-seat; 5. In their bondage in Egypt, and in their escape through the Red Sea. 6. What is properly a Prophetic Ellipsis. 7. What the meaning of the Apocalyptick Book being written within and without. 8. The difference of a Prophetic Ellipsis illustrated by example. 9 Homonymia what it is, and in what it differs from an Henopoeia of the second kind. 10. What Metalepsis, with the proof and examples thereof. 11. Antichronismus what it is, together with the rise thereof. 12. That the three days and an half of the unburied Witnesses put for three times and an half is apparently resolvible into this Figure. 13. What Icasmus is, and that the frequency of the Figure does not so obscure Prophecies but that they are as intelligible as ordinary Heraldry. 221 CHAP. V 1. The great Usefulness of an Alphabet of Prophetic Iconisms. 2. What the best way of attaining to the right sense of them. 3. What weight the Onirocriticks of the Ancients may cast in toward the determining their meaning. 4. That there is the same reason of the Signification and Interpretation of Dreams as there is of Visions, provided they be merely Typical, and not Complexional. 5. Angels; Their Ministry in all affairs of Providence a noted Supposition in the ancient Cabbala and in the Apocalypse. 6. Ascension into Heaven. 7. Air the special Region of Devils. 8. Balances. 9 Beast; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatrous Kingdoms. 10. The reason of the Lamb's signifying one single Person, and of wild Beasts noting Idolatry as well as Cruelty. 11. Blasphemy, That it signifies Idolatry made out both upon the account of Reason, use of Scripture and Authority of Interpreters. 12. Blood. 13. Bow and Arrows; Buildings; Burial. 226 CHAP. VI 1. Candle. 2. Character. 3. Clouds of Heaven. 4. Crown of precious Stones. 5. Darkness; Day; Death. 6. Desert. 7. Dragon, a figure of the Devil according to the ancient Cabbala, and then of the chief Polities that oppose the Church. 8. Drunkenness. 9 Eagle; Earthquake. 10. Eclipses. 11. Eye, an Hieroglyphic of Counsel and Prudence. 12. Fishing; Fish dead in the Sea. 13. Fire, the different significations thereof. 14. Fire from Heaven, its exact significancy of Excommunication. 15, 16. Flesh, two notable significations thereof. 17. Flood; Fornication; Frogs. 18. Gems and precious Stones; God. 232 CHAP. VII. 1. Hail; the signification thereof according to Scripture, 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks. 3. Harvest, the evil and auspicious sense thereof. 4. Head, how clearly significative of Sovereign Power, whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth. 6. Horn. 7. Horse; Islands. 8. King, and Kingdom. 9 That Kind's or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if individuals of the same Kind. 10. Leopard; Locusts. 11. Male-child; Mark; Measure; Mill; Month; Moon. 12. Mountain, the several significations thereof. 240 CHAP. VIII. 1. Nakedness; Paradise. 2. Philtre. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Virus amatorium. 3. That Magical words were used in the mixing of Philtres. 4. Pillars; Rain; Red. The seventh Head of the red Dragon what it intimates. 5. Resurrection. That to be cut off and stain signifies also Politically. 6. Rivers, what they signify in reference to the Sea. 7. What in respect of their limpidity and irrigation. 8. Saints; Scorpion; Scorched by the Sun. 9 Sea; Serpent; Slain; Slaughter. 10. Sun, Moon and Stars. The spiritual signification of Sun and Moon. 11. A secular signification of them in general. 12. A more particular signification of them in that sense. 13. In what sense the King of Babylon is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lucifer; and the Western Caesar a Star in the Apocalypse. 14. A more mystical signification of Stars, and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies. 245 CHAP. IX. 1. Tail; Temple. 2. Throes; Throne of God. 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies. 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof. 5. Time; Hours; Days. That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus. 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous, with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalypse. 7. Trees; Vintage; Water. 8. White-clothing; Wilderness; Winds. 9 Whore and Whoredom. 10. The exquisite Analogy Idolatry bears thereunto. 11. Wine-press. 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter. 13. Woman and Women. 14. Worship; World. 15. That the Prophetic style is so determinately intelligible, that the endeavour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein. 16. Certain Rules to try Interpretations of Prophecies by, which are more warrantable and genuine, which less. 253 CHAP. X. 1. The order and entrance of his Search into the Prophecies, beginning at the Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse. 2. That the Seventeenth Chapter and the Thirteenth treat adequately of the same Subject, proved by Two Parallelisms of Agreements. 3. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Two-horned Beast and the Whore of Babylon. 4. The Parallelism of Agreements betwixt the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the thirteenth Chapter, and the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns in the seventeenth. 5. That the Parallelism of the Seven-headed Beasts in those Chapters is perfectly adequate and exact: And also of the Two-horned Beast and the Whore, saving that her Original is omitted and her Destruction mentioned in the Seventeenth Chapter; of both which a sufficient account is rendered. 6. The Adequateness of these Parallelisms demonstrated by comparing the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters, so as it may appear that the one does wholly imbibe the other, saving in what is above excepted. 7. That the naturalness and unforcedness of this Imbibition shall be made good by a joint. Exposition of the two Chapters. 261 CHAP. XI. 1. The great importance of proving the Seven Heads of the Beast to be Seven Sorts of Governors. 2. That the proving of the Seven-headed Beast to signify the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire quatenus Idolatrous, will go far toward the proof of the former Position. 3. That the Seven-headed Beast is a Kingdom or Empire; 4. And particularly the Roman. 5. That it is the Idolatrous Roman Kingdom or Empire. 6. That it is this Idolatrous Empire or Kingdom through all those Ages it is Idolatrous. 7. That it represents the Roman Kingdom or Empire in those Ages only in which it is Idolatrous. Whence the true meaning of the slaying of the Beast, and a farther confirmation of the foregoing Assertion, is to be understood. 8. That this adequate Representation of the Idolatrous duration of the Empire implies that no Seven single Persons can be the Seven Heads thereof. 9 The same conclusion inferred from the Stigmatising these Seven Heads with the note of Idolatry, whenas more than Seven, nay all, of the Pagan Emperors were Idolaters. 10. Also from the ordinary form of speech in distinguishing Animals by the number of their parts. 11. And finally from the certainty of the Seventh Head's being not one single Person but a Succession. 12. That whatever Interpretation supposes these Seven Heads Seven single persons is not only false, but impossible. 13. That it follows from what has been evinced, That the Beast in the 17 chap. of the Apocalypse is the Roman Empire degenerated again into a kind of Paganism. 14. As also that the Whore of Babylon is not Rome Pagan, but Pagano-christian. 15. And that the coming of Antichrist at the very last end of the Worldis a chimerical Fiction. 16. The true Subject of the Visions of the 17 and 13 Chapters of the Revelation. 269 CHAP. XII. 1. The Scope and Order of his Joint-Exposition. Ver. I. What is meant by Whore. 2. What by her Greatness. 3. That she is not Rome Heathen, but Rome Pseudochristian. Ver. II. Who the Kings of the Earth, and what their Drunkenness. 2. The first Agreement of the first Parallelism made good. Ver. III. That the Two-horned Beast and the Whore's being in the wilderness might have made one of the Agreements of the first Parallelism. 2. The second Agreement of the first Parallelism. 3. What meant by the scarlet colour of the Beast. 4. The second Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. IU. The Woman's purple and scarlet and precious stones and pearls, what they signify. 2. And how plainly the third Agreement of the first Parallelism is evinced. 3. What is meant by the Cup of abominations in the hand of the Whore. 4. That it is a Philtrous Cup, with an inference therefrom of the truth of the fourth Agreement of the first Parallelism. 5. The chief charm used in the mingling of this Philtre. 6. Fire from Heaven Excommunication. 7. Other Miracles for the promoting Idolatry. 8. What the golden Cup signifies in respect of the Metal. Ver. V The names of Whores inscribed on their foreheads. 2. That the whole sentence is the Whore's Name; and how ridiculous it is to understand by [Mystery] a mere Synecdoche. 3. The Interpretation of these parts of her name, Mystery, and Babylon. 4. As also of, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Fornications. 5. A demonstration of the fifth Agreement of the first Parallelism. 6. The different Rise of the Two-horned Beast from Others. 276 CHAP. XIII. Ver. VI What is meant by the Martyrs of Jesus. 2. The sixth Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. VII. That the Woman is not Rome Heathen, demonstrable from the Beast that carries her. 2. That she rides the whole Empire. 3. That the Two horns of the Beast are the Two Imperial Patriarchates, but by an Henopoeia may glance also at the Power of Binding and Losing, and at the Horns of the Episcopal Mitre. 4. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism. 5. The first Agreement of the second. Ver. VIII. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the end of the Vision of the Beast in this Chapter is to represent the Empire in that Succession wherein it is Pagano-Christian. 3. That the prolixity of the Title hinders not but that it may be called the Name of the Beast. 4. The meaning of the Name. 5. That the Angel having considered the whole Successions of the Roman Kingdom or Empire, fixed his mind on that time the Empire was purely Christian, and why. And that it thence appears what succession of the Beast's time is understood. 6. As likewise from his name a little varied into, Was, is not, and yet is. Whence the fifth Agreement of the second Parallelism is also evinced. 7, 8. How the Angel came to give the Beast these Names: And that there is an Ellipsis in the Angel's saying, The Beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, etc. 9 That the Name Was, and is not, and shall ascend, etc. signifies the successive Order in being, not the actual being or not being of the Beast; with a confirmation thereof out of Alcazar. 10. A plain Eviction from the Name [Was, is not, and yet is] that [Was, and is, and is not] do not signify actual Existence or Nonexistence, but order of Existence and Similitude. 11. That [Is not, and yet is] would neither be good sense nor any elegancy, unless the Laws of a right Contradiction were closely touched on in this mysterious Assertion. 12. And yet that an absolute Sameness, in either Essence or Qualification, could not be under this affirmation and negation without falsity. Whence Similitude is necessarily intimated thereby. 13. That the certainty of the meaning of this Title [Was, is not, and yet is] confirms the sense of the former, and demonstrates a latitant Ellipsis in the Application of these Names of the Beast; which is farther argued from other considerations. 14. Why he interprets the Re-existence or Image of the Beast, of the Empire's becoming Idolatrous again, rather than of the Revival of its ancient Polity in the Pontifical Power. 15. The third Agreement of the second Parallelism. 16. The sixth Agreement. 17. The seventh. 18. The eighth Agreement. 19 The third Agreement again noted, with a Confirmation, therefrom, of the abovementioned Ellipsis. 20. That near Resemblance stands for Identity in common elegancy of speech: Whence, The Beast that was, is not, and yet is, and the Image of the Beast is again evinced to be all one, and the fifth Agreement of our second Parallelism thereby farther confirmed. 286 CHAP. XIV. Ver. IX. What is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that Siracides seems to allude to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description thereof. 2. That Constantinople is also allowed to have Seven Hills, and that it makes for the proof of the eighth Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. X. That the making the seven Heads seven sorts of Governors is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but a natural and necessary truth. 2. How naturally the different successions of the Supreme Powers of the Roman Empire fall into eight parts. 3. The only true reason why there are numbered Eight Kings, though but Seven Heads of the Beast. 4. That the dividing of the Emperors into Pagan Christian and Pagano-Christian, is aimed at or supposed in the enumeration of the Eight Kings, is an unexceptionable Truth. 5. That it is most credible that after the Sixth King no other account of distinction of the Supreme Power of the Empire was looked upon by the Angel but what respected Religion. 6. A demonstrative Inference from [One is] that there is an Ellipsis in, The Beast that thou sawest, was, and is not, etc. 7. Why Apocal. 17. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Whence the last subdivision is confirmed, and the tenth Agreement of the second Parallelism made good. 8. The fourth Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. XI. That the description of the Beast is his Name, and part thereof used for the whole, as in the Name of God; which farther confirms the abovementioned Ellipsis. 2. The easy and genuine meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 3. That the meaning of [ Verse 11. The Beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth] is, that his Head is the eighth. 4. That the Eighth King by an Henopoeia may admit of more Caesars then one reigning at a time, and why. 5. The ninth Agreement of the second Parallelism. 6. The seventh Agreement. Ver. XII. The eleventh Agreement of the second Parallelism. 2. The twelfth Agreement. 3. The meaning of Verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ver. XIII. The thirteenth Agreement, together with the meaning of Verse 13. being of one mind, and of giving their strength and power to the Beast. 2. That the Pope once emerged above the Emperor even in Secular Power may continue the succession of the seventh Head, there being nothing else intended thereby but the secular Pagano-christian Sovereignty of the Empire. Ver. XIV. The fourteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. 2. The fifteenth Agreement. 3. The sixteenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. 296 CHAP. XV. Ver. XV. The seventh Agreement of the first Parallelism. Ver. XVI. The folly of those Interpreters that understand the Burning of the Whore of the burning of the Houses of Rome by fire. Ver. XVII. The Ten Kings giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast according to the will and purpose of God, how stupendious an Arcanum. 2. In what sense God may be said to put it into their hearts. 3. That it is rather Fate than Policy that has carried on the affairs of the Whore so prosperously hitherto, with an Admonition thereupon. 4. The meaning of Until the words of God be fulfilled; with a farther Admonition to the Apostatised Church. 5. The eviction of the truth of the seventeenth Agreement of the second Parallelism. Ver. XVIII. Why the Seat of the Whore is so determinately affixed at last to Old Rome in this Prophecy. 2, 3. A clear and confessed evidence that Old Rome is here pointed at as the Seat of the Whore, with a short Paraphrase upon the sense of the Verse. 4. That the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is also fixed to Old Rome; and of the Cabbalisticalness of the Apocalypse. 5. That the Numeral Name of the Beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that it is so to be written, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, proved from the ancient Orthography of both the Greek and Latin Tongue. 6. That the ancient Latins, who usually sounded long i as a Diphthong, pronounced their Vowels nearest to the Greeks. 7. How tightly this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to Events. 8. That the finding the number 666 in other names does not at all weaken the determinate applicability of this. 9 In what sense 666 is called the number of the Beast. 10. The application of the Root thereof illustrated from the Cabbalistical application of the Root of the Tetractys. 11. The last Agreement of the first Parallelism. 12. The last Agreement of the second. 13. That the Vision of the Whore is more appropriate and peculiar to the Church of Rome. 14. Of the Inscription Mysterium on the Pope's Crown, and of a Woman-Pope. 305 CHAP. XVI. 1. What remains for the making up the fullest assurance that can be desired of the truth of our Joint-Exposition. 2. That the Roman State, from the beginning to the end, is to be looked upon as One Kingdom or Empire, appears out of Florus. 3. That there had been Five sorts of Supreme Magistrates in S. John's time in the Roman State, Reges, consuls, Tribuni Consulares, Decemviri, Dictatores: and that the Tribuni Plebis were not Supreme Power. 4. Nor the Tribuni Militum simply so styled. 5. But that the Decemviri and Tribuni Consulares were. 6. As also the Dictator's. 7. That there had been no more than Five sorts of Supreme Governors in S. John's time; and that the Interreges were not, nor were at all reckoned by Historians, a Supreme Government distinct from that of Kings. 8. That the Triumvirs Reipublicae constituendae was either a Scuffle and Confusion in the Roman State; 9 Or else a formal Caesareate exercised by Augustus, Lepidus and Antonius. 10. That there is full and sufficient ground from Reason and History not to reckon the Triumvirate of constituting the Commonwealth a Sixth Form of Government distinct from Emperors and the Five foregoing Forms. 11. That though there had been some other Forms truly distinct, but yet of a near affinity with some of the other, it had not been so harsh to have accounted them one with those they had that nearness with. 12. But that there is a greater Exactness than this in the Application of this Vision, and such as Scepticism itself can hardly doubt of. 13. The Conclusion of the whole drift of the Chapter; with a fuller enforcement of the truth thereof. 317 CHAP. XVII. 1. That a Relapse of the Empire into Idolatry in general were sufficient to make it the Image of the old Pagan Empire, and yet that the Resemblance is more exquisite and particular. 2. That there was an intended imitation of the Pagan Rites in the Church degenerating. 3. The Pope compared with the Pagan Caesars, and his Cardinals with the Roman Senate. 4. The Tutelar Saints compared with their Tutelar Deities; as also of adoring of what they eat. 5. The minute multiplication of the Pagan Deities compared with and found to be outgone by this Pagano-Christian Church in the Precedents of Physic and Rural Affairs; 6. As also in the Precedents of Trades or Courses of Living. 7. The Saints and Heathen Deities compared in their Offices, and how punctually they have surrogated the Blessed Virgin into the place of Venus and the Moon. 8. Most lively Lineaments of Restored Paganism in dedicating the Pantheon to the Virgin and all the Saints; as also the Seven Hills to seven several Saints: in erecting Altars and Images thereon; in adorning these Images; in appointing Festivals; in Adoration and Prayers; in Oblations of Wax-candles and Incense; in carrying their Images in Procession, and hiding them in Lent. 9 In Vows, Oaths, Deifying dead men, Pilgrimages, Miraculous Cures, with the Monuments of them hung up in the Temples. 10. In Aspersions and Purifications by Holy Water. 11. In the driving away the Devil by the jangling of baptised Bells. 12. In their Jubilees & general manner of celebrating their Festivals. 13. In fetching in May; in running about the fields with light Torches in their hands; in sprinkling their Beasts with Holy Water by the Friars of S. Antony; in leaping over S. John's Fires; in Baptismal Spittle; in their Master of Misrule at Christmas; in their Carnavals and other Festivals. 14. That the Image of the Beast is also in some sort revived in their Funerals. 15. But more considerably in their Religious Fraternities under this or that Saint: 16. As also in their shorn Crowns, in their Vows of Virginity, and in their Ninevites or Flagellants. 17. In their pretence of bringing down Christ bodily and personally at the Mass: 18, 19 As also in their more pompous Processions. 20. The great Usefulness of the Observation of the punctual correspondency of the Events hitherto to the Predictions touching the state of the Church. 21. His amazement and astonishment at Grotius, that he should decline so clear and easy a meaning of the Image of the Beast, and take up with one so impossible and so unprofitable. 323 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The great Usefulness of showing the folly of Riberas and Grotius his Expositions of these two Chapters of the Apocalypse. 2. That, according to Ribera, the Beast is the Devil. 3. The seven Kings the wicked Kings of the seven Ages of the world. 4. That five of these Ages were gone over in S. John's time, and that the Reign of Antichrist is the seventh, and Rome Heathen the Whore. 5. The general Usefulness of our Joint-Exposition. 6. That the Beast is not the Devil, proved therefrom by several circumstances: Nor the seven Heads seven such Ages, by the deadly wound in the sixth Head 7. Nor the Whore Rome Heathen more than the Two-horned Beast. 8. That the Devil cannot be the Beast that was, and is not, etc. proved by arguments not leaning on our Joint Exposition. 9 Farther proof from that part of his Name [and yet is,] with a Vindication of that reading. 10. A confutation of Ribera's Exposition of the seven Heads from the groundlesness and exceptionableness of his division of the duration of the world into seven Ages. 11. From the Ununitableness of the Kings of the Age into one Head. 12. From the Devil's eminency and superiority over these Heads. 13. From the leaving neither room nor time for an eighth King. 14. From the disproportionableness of the seventh Age of the world to the rest, and especially to the strange Feats they say Antichrist is then to achieve. 15. And lastly, from the seven Hills necessarily appropriating those seven Heads to the Roman Empire. 16. That these Expositions of Ribera, as also of the rest of the Roman Interpreters, were very weak even in Grotius his own judgement, which set him upon minting new ones. 336 CHAP. II. 1. What the meaning of the Scarlet Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns, and of the Woman riding him, is according to Grotius. 2. A Confutation of Grotius his Interpretation, out of our Joint-Exposition. 3. Two main Grounds or necessary Supporters of Grotius his Interpretation: The one, That S. John reckons the Seven Heads beginning at Claudius; with the Confutation thereof. 4. The other, That this Vision was wrote in Vespasian's time; with a Discovery of the weakness and falseness of that Opinion. 5. That Claudius his banishing the Jews from Rome falls many degrees short of a proof, that John was then exiled into Patmos: And that Impulsore Christo in Suetonius does not so much as evince that any Christians were then expelled the City. 6. And if the Decree reached Christians, it does not straight follow that S. John was concerned therein. 7. An Answer to a Passage in Epiphanius alleged for S. John's Exile then. 8. An Answer to another alleged to the same purpose. 9 That Epiphanius his Testimony makes against Grotius his main Project. 10. That Epiphanius is but one single Father against the rest, and that the Testimony of Irenaeus alone is far to be preferred before his. 11. An unexceptionable clearing of the sense of Irenaeus his Testimony; and that the very detorsion of it will not serve Grotius his turn. 12. That there is not the least shadow of Probability that the Apocalypse was wrote before toward the end of Domitian's reign. 13. Proofs out of the Apocalypse itself, that it was not wrote before the Persecution under Domitian. 14. The great consequence of the clearing this Truth, it wholly subverting all Grotius his Interpretations of the Seals and Trumpets and all their Synchronals. 342 CHAP. III. 1. That as Grotius has mistimed these Visions, so his Interpretations are accordingly absurd and incongruous. 2. The groundlesness of his beginning the Compute of the Seven Heads at Claudius, and ending it in Domitian. 3. The dimsightedness of the ancient Fathers that could not discern Domitian to be the Beast that was, and is not, though they stood so exceeding much nearer him than Grotius. 4. The trivialness and falsity of this Conceit of his. 5. The second, third and fourth Absurdities of Grotius his Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter. 6. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Absurdities. 7. The ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. 8. The thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth Absurdities of his Exposition. 350 CHAP. IV. 1. That this Mis-timing of Visions must needs cast Grotius into the like Absurdities in interpreting the Thirteenth Chapter, and that his Exposition of the first verse thereof is guilty of at least nine or ten. 2. Four gross Contradictions in the second. 3. As many Incongruities or Weaknesses in the third. 4. As also in the fourth and fifth. 5. Two Absurdities in the sixth and seventh. 6. As many in the eighth. 7. Three Difficulties in the exposition of the tenth verse. 8. Five Incongruities in the eleventh. 9 His gross Interpretation of the twelfth verse. 10. Four Absurdities in the thirteenth. 11. Eight Incongruities or Weaknesses in his expositions on the fourteenth verse. 12. Three in the fifteenth. 13. Three or four more in the sixteenth and seventeenth. 14. And nine more in the eighteenth verse. 15. The astonishing consideration of the Absurdness of Grotius his Expositions compared with his Parts and Learning. 16. An useful Illation from this weak performance of his, That all the Expositions of the Romanists upon these two Chapters are superlatively frivolous and incredible. 355 CHAP. V 1. The first Consectary from our Joint-Exposition, with a Demonstration of the truth thereof. 2. The great usefulness of the second Consectary for the peace and security of the Church. 3. The settled Notion of Long and Short. 4. A Demonstration of the truth of this Consectary. 5. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth Consectaries, together with their Proofs. 6. The Demonstration of the seventh Consectary, with an intimation of the special usefulness thereof for the Peace of Christendom. 7. The eighth Consectary, with the Proof thereof. 8. The ninth Consectary, with a copious Demonstration of the truth thereof. 9 The truth of the tenth Consectary, clearing the Protestants from Schism, plainly demonstrated. 10. The eleventh Consectary, with its Proof. 11. The Proof and notable Usefulness of the twelfth Consectary. 12. How clearly and plainly that part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatry is prefigured and foretold in these Visions we have explained in our Joint-Exposition. 363 CHAP. VI 1. The Synchronism of the Whore, the Two-horned Beast, the restored Beast, or the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is; demonstrated out of our Joint-Exposition. 2. To which the False-Prophet is also proved Synchronal; the Virgin-Company, the Two Witnesses, the Woman in the Wilderness and the Outward Court, as being either the same, Antistoechal, or necessarily connected all along with them. 3. Again, in a more abstract way, That the restored Beast, the Woman in the Wilderness, the Outward Court, the Two Witnesses are of equal time. 4. That the Woman in the Wilderness and the restored Beast begin together, and therefore are Synchronal. 5. That the restored Beast and Two Witnesses are Synchronal, as ending together. 6. That the Two Witnesses and Outward Court are Synchronal, as both beginning and ending together; And all these four Synchronal to the Whore and Two-horned Beast, because the Two-horned Beast and the Whore are Synchronal to the restored Beast, to which the other three are Synchronal. 7. That the Virgin-Company and the Sealed out of the twelve Tribes are all one Company, and therefore both Synchronal to the Whore by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and consequently with the rest of the six with whom She is Synchronal. 8. That the said Sealed Virgin-Company is Synchronal to the Series of the first six Trumpets, as being sealed immediately before the blast of the first Trumpet, and as being Synchronal to the Mourning of the Witnesses, which ceases at the end of the sixth Trumpet. 9 The six first Seals, the Fight of Michael and the Dragon, and the Inward Court, proved Synchronal. 10. That the Vision of Apoc. 11. measuring the Temple gins from the first Epocha, indicated from the quality of the Person that holds in his hand the opened Book. 11. From his supplying the place of the seventh Angel, and the space of the seventh Trumpet with seven Thunders. 12. From the suspending of the sound of the seventh Trumpet to make a Regression. 13. From the newness or new condition of the Book in the Angel's hand. 14. From the voice communing or talking with John from Heaven, as in the beginning of the Prophecies of the Seals. 15. From the bitterness of the Book in his belly; From his being bid again to prophesy, and that before many Kings, and Peoples, and Nations. 16. From the Epocha of the Vision of the Apoc. 12. ensuing Chapter. 17. The Synchronism of the first six Seals with the Inward Court, of weighty concernment. 18. The Millennial Empire of Christ, the Palm-bearing Company, the New Jerusalem and the Ligation of Satan, that they are all in some sense Synchronal to the Seventh Trumpet. 370 CHAP. VII. 1. Mr. Mede's Account of placing the first six Vials within the sixth Trumpet. 2. That the truth of this Account depends upon an unlikely sense of the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast, as if immediately after 42 months' it should entirely and universally expire. 3. A caution touching the Interpreting of the Prophetic style. 4. That the Expiration of the Reign of the Beast upon the Exit of the sixth Trumpet is but partial or speciminal, argued from the seventh Trumpet's being also called a Woe-Trumpet. 5. As likewise from the seven Thunders. 6. Two more Arguments to the same purpose. 7. Lastly, from the fixed Epocha's of the Middle Synchronals compared with the affairs of Europe. 8. That it follows hence that all the seven Vials are naturally to take their places in the seventh Trumpet, as being the seven last Plagues. 9 The same farther proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast. 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials; as also from the appearing of the Temple (out of which the Angels come) after the sixth Trumpet, and before any of the Vials be poured out. 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet. 12 A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together, in what sense or degree soever they do expire. 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals, and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled. 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his farther search into the Prophecies that foretell the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism. 377 CHAP. VIII. 1. That there are Three more Middle Synchronals that foretell the Church's Lapse into Idolatry: As the Vision of the Outward Court trodden down by the Gentiles. 2. The Woman in the Wilderness: What meant by Wilderness. 3. A brief account of the sense of the whole Vision. 4. That there is an Hypallage in her being said to fly into the Desert, like that of Hades being cast into the Fire, and of the Kingdom being given to the Saints, in Daniel. 5. That our Interpretation of the Woman in the Wilderness does not clash with Mr. Mede's, though different from it. 6. The third Synchronal, the Virgin-Company: The meaning of the Number of their Regiments, and of the new Song which none could learn besides them. 7. How the Vision of these Virgin-souldiers implies the Lapse of the Church into Idolatry. 383 CHAP. IX. 1. Three more Prophecies predicting the Church's Lapse into Idolatry. As the Vision of the sixth Trumpet, which is proved to respect the Roman Empire long after it became Christian. 2. That in this Vision the Greek and Latin Church are both apparently taxed of Idolatry, and with Aggravations common to Pagans and them. 3. That it appears from the same Vision of what great consequence it would be for Christendom to reform from this gross sin, and that they are their best friends that plainly and freely rebuke them for it, and for those other crimes reflected upon in this Vision. 4. The Prophecy of Paul to Timothy proposed, and the first part thereof expounded out of Epiphanius touching the Inspirers of this predicted Error. 5. As also that part that contains the Error itself, namely the worship of Daemons: From whence it is plain the Prophecy concerns this notorious Lapse of the Church into Idolatry. 6. As also from the Instruments of the Broaching this Error. 7. And from the mentioning of the Mystery of Godliness immediately before, to which this Mystery of Iniquity is opposed. 8. And lastly from the Times of the Lapse, which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 Which is proved to be a proper Term of the Prophetic style denoting that Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter section of the continuance of the Fourth Monarchy. 10. That the course of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Reign of Antichrist is indigitated by th●…se Numbers of Days in the last of Daniel. 387 CHAP. X. 1. Epiphanius his Exposition of the Prophecy of Paul to Timothy confirmed from the reference it has to that in Daniel. 2. Grotius his miss-timing this Prophecy of Daniel, and applying it to Antiochus, how rash and groundless. 3. A Confutation of his Application. 4. The right timing this Prophecy by Calvin and Mr. Mede, who both interpret it of the Roman State and Empire. 5. A more particular account of the two first verses of the Prophecy Mr. Mede's way; 6. As also of the third, 7. And fourth. 8. That the sense of this Prophecy so clearly accords with that of S. Paul, that it is manifest he refers to it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 9 That though this Interpretation of Mr. Mede be unexceptionable throughout, yet the two first verses of the Prophecy may be otherwise expounded, and more suitably to S. Paul's Prophecy in his Epistle to the Thessalonians. 393 CHAP. XI. 1. The Reasons of his Prolixity hitherto in the Predictions of the Idolatry of the Church, and of his future Brevity in the rest of the parts of Antichristianism. 2. The Second member of Antichristianism prefigured in the Apoc. 11. 8. Witnesses lying slain in the Streets of the great City called Egypt. 3. A short Paraphrase and Exposition upon that verse of the Apocalypse. 4. That the same thing seems to be prefigured in the Whore of Babylon her riding of the Beast. 5. What Predictions concern the Opposition to the Priestly Office of Christ. 6. That the Two-horned Beast and the False-prophet are all one, and that both prefigure the Antichristian Opposition against his Prophetic Office. 7. That the Affliction of the true Prophets of Christ is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses, as also the Antichristian Opposition against the Kingly Office. 398 CHAP. XII. 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses. Ver. III. The reason why they are Two. Ver. IV, V. Why Two Olive-Trees and Candlesticks, and what meant by their kill men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths. Ver. VI That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them only by a Metalepsis. 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort. 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Egypt; And what the meaning of these Plagues may be. Ver. VII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The War and Death of the Witnesses, what they mean. Ver. VIII. Egypt and the foregoing Plagues fitly mentioned together. Ver. IX. The meaning of Three days and an half, and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied. Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth. Ver. XI. What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses. Ver. XII. That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven, but ascend thither when they are called. Ver. XIII. The Earthquake, City, Fall of the City, and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men, what they mean. 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses. 403 CHAP. XIII. 1. That the little Horn in Daniel is a Type of that Power which should oppose the Regal Office of Christ. 2. That the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, but the Roman, proved from the universal Consent of Ecclesiastic Writers. 3. From the eminency and greatness of the Fourth Kingdom. 4. From the distance of time betwixt the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and the Kingdom of the Stone cut out without hands, or the Kingdom of the Son of man, which is also the Kingdom of Heaven or of God. 5 Grotius his fond and profane Interpretation of the Son of man, as if thereby were meant the People of Rome. 6 The like extravagancy in his interpreting the Stone cut out without hands, of the same People. 7. The unsoundness of that conceit more particularly discovered. 8. The Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae farther proved not to be the Fourth Kingdom, from the Coexistence of the Ten Kings according to Type. 9 From their vastly-differing Periods, the one ending, according to Daniel, presently after Antiochus, the other not before the Day of Judgement. 10. From Daniel's making the great Horn the first King in the Third Kingdom, and four lesser to grow up after him on the same Goat's Head. 11. From the four Heads of the Leopard, which are the four Successors of Alexander in this Third Beast or Kingdom, and from Daniel's reckoning Antiochus in the latter end of this Succession. 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom, become Ten-horned and Pagano-Christian at once. 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast, and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored. 14. From which Equality and Coincidence be is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast. 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type. 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch. 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 410 CHAP. XIV. 1. The Vision of the Rider of the white Horse Apocal. 19 proposed. 2. A general account of that Vision. 3. What meant by the white Horse, what by the flammeous eyes of his Rider. 4. What by his Name known only to himself. 5. What by his garment dipped in blood, and that this as also the precedent Characters are applicable to Christ's Body the Church. 6. The meaning of the Sword coming out of his mouth: 7. And of the treading the Wine-press of God's wrath. 8. The meaning of the Inscription upon his thigh, in reference to himself; 9 As also in respect of his Church to which it is applicable: As also the treading of the Wine-press, and the Sword coming out of his mouth. 419 CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of. 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general, saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises. 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruins of Babylon, Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth verses. Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth. Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth. Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter. 423 CHAP. XVI. 1. This mystical sense of the burning of Babylon confirmed out of his Joint-Exposition, and from Alcazar's Interpretation, and that the same is prefigured in the destruction of Tyre. 2. How lively the Patriarch of Rome is typified in Ezekiel by the King of Tyre. 3. Another Vision to the same purpose in the same Prophet. 4. A third Vision in Esay, concerning Esay 23. Tyre typifying Rome Pagan, Christian, and then Pagano-Christian. Ver. 18. That Tyre (that is, Rome) will be reform from her Paganochristianism, and become purely Christian again and Apostolic, according to this Vision. 6. That these Visions of Tyre must needs have a farther meaning than what literally concerns that City. 7. An Exposition of the eighteenth verse of the last Vision comprising the Prediction of the Reformation of Rome Pagano-Christian. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with a general reflection upon the appositeness of these four last Prophecies for the setting out the Merchandising of the Church of Rome in the management of her Ecclesiastic Affairs. 429 CHAP. XVII. 1. Their lying Legends perstringed in S. Paul's Prophecy of the Latter times. 2. A more full Prefiguration of that Antichristian Opposition that is against Faith, in part of his Prophecy of the Man of Sin. 3. A clear Exposition of that part of the Prophecy. 4. Strictures in the Apocalyptick Visions to the same purpose. 5. The Pride of the Bishop of Rome prefigured in the King of Tyre, as also his Downfall, and how. 6. His gorgecus splendour set out both in the King of Tyre and in the Whore of Babylon. 7. The Pride and Downfall of this Patriarch typified in the King of Babylon. The meaning of the twelfth and thirteenth verses. Ver. 14. The meaning of the Prophecy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth verse. Ver. 20. An Explication of the twentieth verse. 10. Farther Prefigurations of the Papal Pride in the Whore and the little Horn. 11. An easy and genuine Exposition or Paraphrase of the thirty sixth and the thirty seventh verses of the eleventh Chapter of Daniel, wherein the Impious Self-elation of the Bishop of Rome is clearly foretold. 12. That the sense of the two following verses of this Prediction may be still the same with Mr. Mede's. 435 CHAP. XVIII. 1. That the truth of the foregoing Paraphrase may be assured out of Saint Paul's Prophecy of the Man of Sin. The three first verses thereof interpreted. Ver. 4. Wherein this Man of Sin exalteth himself above all that is called God, and what it is to snew himself to be God. Ver. 5. The meaning of [to be revealed in his time,] and what that is that withstandeth. Ver. 7. [The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work] how to be understood, and who the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ver. 8. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and what the meaning and manner of his destruction; with an intimation of the exquisite Applicability of this Prophecy to the Papal Power and Imposture. 2. A short Parallel betwixt the little Horn in Daniel and this Son of Perdition. 441 CHAP. XIX. 1. A summary Proposal of Grotius his Exposition of the foregoing Prophecy. 2. That the coming of Christ in this Prophecy cannot be understood of the Destruction of Jerusalem: 3. Nor Apostasy attributed to Caius, nor he said to sit in the Temple of God, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fit so well with Vitellius. 4. That Caius his purpose of placing his Statue in the Temple was no Mystery of Iniquity, but gross Prophanevess. 5. Grotius his ridiculous luxation of the sense of the Prophecy in making Caius the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, concealed by Vitellius his standing in the way; and yet upon Vitellius his removal, not Caius, but Simon Magus to be the man revealed and destroyed. 6. That in all likelihood the Story of Simon Magus is a Fiction, and from what Occasion. 7. That if it were true, it is not so applicable, this wicked man Simon being not consumed by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, but only his Coach and Horses. 8. That Grotius makes Paul prophecy of things past, his Epistle being written ten years after Caius his death, with a full Answer to Grotius his first Argument to the contrary. 9 An Answer to the second. 10. A Demonstration out of Scripture and Grotius his own Concessions that this Second Epistle was wrote ten years after Caius his death; as also that the fall of Simon Magus from his fiery Chariot was eight years before this Prophecy. 445 CHAP. XX. 1. The Preeminence of this latter Interpretation above that of Grotius. 2. A summary Proposal of the same. 3. The first part of this Exposition the same with Grotius his, and therefore confuted already; The second enervated. 4. The third confuted, from a farther discovery of the improbability of Simon Magus his Story; from his being sufficiently revealed before, and from his not being found to sit in any Temple to receive Divine honours. 5. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so good Syntax in the present case, nor the wickedness of the Gnostics a Mystery, but open Impiety and Hostility against the Church. 6. The harshness of interpreting whom, in [whom the Lord shall consume, etc.] of two several Subjects, the one to be destroyed by the breath of Christ's mouth, the other by the brightness of his coming, and that in distinct places and times. 7. That if the History of Simon Magus had been true, and the Application fit to this Prophecy, the most ancient Fathers would not have failed to have hit upon it; And that it might then have been a preludious Type to the great Antichrist to come. 8. Brief Prophetic Strictures touching Antichristian Impurity. 9 The Antichristian Cruelty predicted in the Vision of the King of Babyion and of the little Horn. 10. Also in the slain Witnesses, and in the Two-horned Beast's causing the Ten-horned to kill as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast nor receive his Mark. 11. In the Vision of the Angel with the third Vial; and in the Declaration of the cause of the Whore's Ruin. 12. And, lastly, in the Description of the Whore as drunk with the blood of the Saints. 13. That all the Members of Antichristianism in our Idea are prefigured in the Prophecies of the Holy Writ so expressly, that so clear an evidence cannot be withstood for ever. 14. That that ample Testimony of the Apocalypse cannot be evaded by the novel Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 450 CHAP. XXI. 1. The marvellous Completeness of the Reformation of the Church of England in her Doctrines and Institutes. 2. That she plainly condemns the Invocation of Saints for Idolatry. 3. As also the Adoration of the Host; where our Kneeling at the Communion is vindicated. 4. Her condemning the Worshipping of Images. 5. Her concluding the manner of the Papists worshipping Saints and Images to be plainly the same with that of Pagans. 6. Her free and just censure touching the decking of their Images, and making them laymen's Books. 7. How perfectly she has freed us from that Egyptian yoke we lay under in the time of Popery. 8. The Celebration of holidays, the keeping of Lent, and the use of the Surplice in the sense of the Church of England, fully vindicated from all imputation of Superstition or Antichristianism. 9 That the use of the Surplice is not from any grounds at all of Policy in the Church, but pure Charity: with a vindication of the use of the Cross in Baptism. 459 CHAP. XXII. 1. The diametrical Opposition of our Church to that part of Antichristianism which would subvert the Regal and Prophetic Offices of Christ. 2. As also to that which strikes at his Sacerdotal Office. 3. That she holds nothing against those other sacred Titles of Christ, the Truth, Life, Light, etc. 4. A demonstrative Vindication of Episcopacy from the Imputation of Antichristianism, out of the Apocalypse. 5. What an Establishment that Book is, if rightly understood, to the Crown and Church of England. 6. That no Papal nor Presbyterian Power is of right above the King, no not in Causes Ecclesiastical. 7. The judgement of our Church thereupon. 8. The peculiar glory of our Church that she is so perfectly free from all Frauds and Impostures. 9 Her freeness from Pride; 10. From Antichristian Impurity, 11. And from Cruelty. 12. Her Reformation an eminent Speciminal Completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Two Witnesses. 13. The usefulness of this Vindication of her for the suppressing of Popery and Schism. 469 FINIS. Errata. PAG. 27. l. 45. for Contradiction, r. Counterdistinction. P. 130. l. 12. for Clergy, r. Charge. P. 132. l. 12. for more, r. mere. P. 141. l. 21. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. P. 204. l. 11. for this judgement, r. the judgement. P. 207. l. 21. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. P. 227. l. 33. for the presidency, r. their presidency. P. 241. l. 33. for Supreme be, r. Supreme power be. P. 246. l. 45. for vivet, r. vivat. P. 254. l. 28. for naturally by, r. naturally, by. and for Israelism, it, r. Israelism it. P. 284. l. 23. for Beast, r. Boast. P. 306. l. 19 for named, r. noted. P. 399. l. 37. for sight, r. light. P. 422. l. 34. for right use, r. right, use. P. 429. l. 3. for Prophet-murthering Fornication, r. Prophet-murthering, Fornication. P. 434. l. 8. for feign change, r. feign to change.