prejudice to thy judgement touching the Interpretation of Antipas and its signifying as much as one against the Pope because that learned and reverend Expositour Dr. Hammond has styled it a wanton and vain phancy in Mr. Brightman who presumed so to interpret it thou art to consider that this Censure of that Passage was not so much built upon any weakness in the Passage it self as that it was found in a farrago of Conceits that were not so well managed as to support and countenance one another And therefore for the general Mr. Brightman's Exposition of these Seven Epistles being not so convictive that judicious Doctour was the more bold to speak so slightly of this passage thereof Which if it had been accompanied with other parts of his Exposition of these Epistles that had had the like unexceptionablenesse it would never have been found fault with by so judicious a Writer as indeed there is no reason it should For no name can be so fit and significant for this purpose as this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie one and the same thing as Eustathius and others from him usually do affirm And it is most certainly true that they are both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hesychius speaks And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have exquisitely the same signification But to have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this supposed Prophecy had been quite against the laws of the Apocalyptick style that is as regardfull of due Concealment as of certainty of Revealment So that so plain a Passage would have stood out very coursly and harshly above the rest of that smooth and delicate Contexture of these Visions and occasioned a too-early intelligence of the meaning of these Prophecies Besides that Antipapas is no proper name of any man and that the very literal Story requires it should be Antipas Wherefore the Indication both for sense and for sound in this word Antipas is as exquisite as considering the nature of the Apocalyptick style it either could or ought to have been So that he that would cavill at this interpretation must of necessity deny the Hypothesis and say there is no Propheticall sense at all of these Seven Epistles 9. Nor needest thou scruple at my applying that Passage of the Martyr Antipas to the Albigenses and Waldenses that were slain in the field as if they were not rightly termed Martyrs For he that can save his Life by renouncing the Truth and yet parts with it though it be in the field is rightly deemed a Martyr Which was the case of these men And that is remarkable for this purpose which Mr. Mede takes notice of That when Simon Earl of Monfort had routed them and made a great slaughter of them and that the Bishop of Tolouse there present took thereupon the opportunity of exhorting them to return to the Roman Church they seeing so plainly that the wrath of God was kindled against them for their Separation from the Church they answered in plain terms that they were the people of God overcome by the Beast Apoc. 13. 7. and knowing this to be their fate yet would not flinch from the Truth and therefore the Army returning upon them they had all their throats cut in the field Whence it is manifest that they were Martyrs properly so called according to our Definition thereof As there were also severall Antipas's in this Intervall that suffered Martyrdome in that way that thou canst not except against that is to say such as were merely passive and made no resistence Some of them are named by Mr. Brightman who if he had done as well on the other five Churches as he has on this of Pergamus and that of Thyatira his Exposition of the Seven Churches had been considerable 10. And lastly to arm thee against the authority of the above-named Venerable person touching the reason of the name of Thyatira as if it were as much as Thygatira a young Daughter for which he perstringes Mr. Brightman condemning the Conceit for a mere groundless Phancy I say it is not evident that he so much reprehends him for the Notation of the word as for the application of it to such a sense as he there expresses which is much different from that sense we have proposed and far more dilute But as for my self I must confesse I could not but conceit that the Notation of the word Thyatira was alluded to after I had read that Passage in Cornelius à Lapide on the Text which for thy fuller satisfaction I shall transcribe Verùm Strabo lib. 13. Plinius lib. 5. cap. 9. alii passim tradunt eam that is the City Thyatira primitùs nuncupatam à Seleuco filio Nicanoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ob laetum nuncium natae sibi filiae unde nomen Thyatirae Thyatira ergò Graecè significat filiam quod aptè competit Jezebeli illici quae hîc arguitur This of Cornelius made me secure of the Authentickness of this Notation he so precisely qùoting Strabo and Pliny for the same And therefore I could not but persuade my self that the Church of Rome was here called Thyatira with some Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Had it not been for this I should have contented my self with the Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely But these Authorities made me search into the State of the Church of Rome in this Intervall and I found many things abundantly answerable to the Title in the sense of this Notation Amongst which if thou chance to think my Reflexion upon the multitude of Monks or Friers in those days to bear the least strength with it consider but what Polydore Virgil writes of that one Order of Franciscans who as some others were the peculiarly-devoted to the blessed Virgin Totum terrarum orbem saith he una haec implevit Familia ut vulgus jam tum stupefactum suspicaretur non tam Pietatem quà m Otium Ignaviam interdum multis cordi esse And to have such swarms of men that had renounced their Virility and led an idle life and went gadding and gossipping up and down telling odd Stories to the people as old Wives and Nurses do to Children having most of them Chins as smooth as Womens and their Faces mob'd in Hoods and long Coats like Petticoats as if they had a greater ambition to appear the Pedissequae or Handmaids of the Virgin Mary whom the Doctours of that Church love to call the Daughter of God then the Men-servants and Souldiers of Jesus Christ who in this Epistle to the Church in Thyatira on purpose one would think to reproach the Roman Church for this Idolatrous Corrivalry or rather Prelation of the Virgin in religious Worship before Christ expresly calls himself the Son of God This I say must assuredly be a consider
Nineteenthly The Curious may be prone to enquire why the Church of Laodicea in those times should account her self so hugely and extraordinarily rich increased in goods and to have no want of any thing And truly why this should be her estate rather then any of the Churches specify'd from the Literal ground we can fetch no reason But admitting the Propheticall sense and that this is the last Intervall of the Church of Christ it will naturally so come to passe For this Laodicea will be left Heir to all the Riches of her Sister Philadelphia to Peace Prosperity Purity in Worship abundance of natural Knowledge universal skill in the Interpretations of the Prophecies and what-ever good thing there is belonging to the Church saving the Life and Spirit which Philadelphia carried along with her into the other world How easily then and naturally or rather necessarily does this Description of the Church of Laodicea fall upon the last Intervall And lastly It is a Question extremely obvious to demand Why that phrase He that hath an ear to hear let him hear which our Saviour so often is found to adde at the end of his Parables to the people should be used here so repeatedly in every Epistle they being no Parables but Epistles sent to each of those Seven Churches in Asia respectively And then why this Epiphonema is sometimes the last close of the Epistle sometimes not To which Probleme there is no tolerable Solution in the Literal sense of these Epistles But supposing a Mysticall or Propheticall sense there was a necessity of affixing this Epiphonema to shew there was a farther sense intended then that of the Letter and also that sometimes this Epiphonema should come last of all as in the four last Epistles that the Promise to the Conquerour to him that overcomes might be more certainly understood to be of a proper Propheticall or Politicall sense not merely Theologicall Moral or Spiritual as has been abundantly declared in the Exposition 9. We might have drawn many more Questions and Solutions from the consideration of the Letter and of this Hypothesis we go upon to shew its solidity and fitnesse but that we hold it needlesse having produced so many already which jointly considered with the perpetuall easinesse and naturalnesse of the whole Exposition of all the Epistles and the exact Correspondency of the Names of the Churches to the Events of the successive Intervalls of the true Catholick Church which they represent one would think they should not fail fully to satisfie any unprejudiced Peruser of our Exposition of these Epistles touching the truth thereof But I am abundantly taught by Experience that both the finding out and receiving of Divine Truths found out by others is a special gift of God And therefore to him alone be the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE END AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IDOLATRY OR A brief Discourse containing sundry Considerations or Conclusions tending to the Discovery of what is or ought to be held to be IDOLATRY amongst Christians With Application to the Doctrine of the Council of TRENT and for the putting a stop to the Romish Infection MATTH 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve To the Reader Reader 1. I Suppose thou wilt expect something should be said of this ensuing Discourse also though it needs not be much The occasion of writing it and the fitnesse of joyning it to the foregoing Exposition of the Seven Churches will discover themselves to thee in the perusing of the Treatise it self I must confess I have treated of this Argument elsewhere namely in my Mysterie of Iniquity But it is a Subject of that great Importance that it deserves an entire Treatise apart by it self and that girt up in the most close and convictive method that may be that those that are sanable or preservable from this dreadfull sin of Idolatry may finde the efficacy of our Antidote and those whose minds it cannot alter may however be found without excuse And there is this considerable here above what I have done already on this Subject that here is such an expresse Application made of the Theorie to the grosse Errours in this point and foul Mispractices of the Church of Rome 2. Those of ours that speak the most favourably of that Church cannot but declare them guilty of Material Idolatry as they call it And questionlesse there must be something among them very like that great Sin if there be any truth or sense in the Visions of that Divine Volume of the Apocalypse For the order of things and demonstration of the Synchronisms do necessarily cast those Visions that represent the concerned as Idolatrous Chap. 13. and 17. upon the Church of Rome as also Ch. 2. v. 14 20 and they can belong to none else in the Propheticall scope of the Visions Time and Place and the Order of things having so unavoidably fixed them upon her Wherefore even according to Divine suffrage they are guilty of Idolatry in one sense or other or come so nigh it that the Spirit of God in a jealousie to exaggerate their Wantonness speaks to them as such to deterre them from those suspected ways and dangerous approches to so horrible a Crime And grant it were but thus yet both in the Vision of the Seven Churches and in that of the Whore of Babylon the people of God are expresly called unto and encouraged and commissioned to forsake the Church of Rome's Communion So that the Protestants have not the least guilt of Schism upon them for leaving her no not upon this more favourable Supposition 3. But alas alas this smooth Hypothesis is but a pleasing Dream arising from the softnesse and sleepinesse of the carnal minde and the love of those things that must passe away as a Dream or Phantasm of the night Let God be true and every man a liar as the Apostle speaks And truly the Spirit of God would scarce speak true if what is spoken of Idolatry so broadly and so expresly in those Visions insomuch that they have been understood of the Heathen Idolatry even for this very reason by learned and able Interpreters should now we are necessitated to understand them of Rome Christian in her apostatized condition not amount to the Charge of any proper and formal Idolatry at all 4. But the desperatenesse of their case is that if they were not represented by these Visions as Idolatrous that is to say if these Visions had never been writ or now they are writ though they were to be understood of some others and not of the Church of Rome yet appealing to the nature of the thing to the true Notion of Idolatry properly and formally so called and to the acknowledged Doctrine of their Church expressed in the Council of Trent and their universal Practices abetted by publick Authority this alone is sufficient to demonstrate them to be Idolaters properly so called Which is the scope of this present
resolved also farther to fight against your Adversaries the Pergamenians or Romanists with the Sword of my mouth till I cut off great branches from the body of that far-spreading Tree and dismember whole Nations from the Community of that idolatrous Church by the power of the Word and the preaching of the Gospel This is that which is predictory of some Events to happen in the following Intervall according to the Genius of these Epistles 9. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna The Promise here following the Epiphonema He that hath an ear to hear let him hear must according to the Rule signifie Theologically or Spiritually not Physically or Politically Wherefore the sense is Those of Pergamus indeed pretend that when they give that white and sweet Consecrated Wafer into the mouths of their Communicants they give them the true Manna my very Body and Bloud which was shed on the Crosse and my very Flesh that was there crucified and broken for them whenas notwithstanding they order their Eucharist so that they turn my Supper into a Feast of Idolothyta and make the partakers thereof guilty of Idolatry or spiritual Fornication forasmuch as they give Divine Worship to that which is not God So that as in the case of Balaam the Israelites were to eat things sacrificed to Idols in order to carnal Fornication so they that partake of this perverted Eucharist are necessarily ipso facto especially since the fourth Laterane Council drawn into spiritual Fornication or Idolatry But he that is courageous and abstains from this illicit Communion and through Faith overcomes all Difficulties for the quitting that outward white visible Wafer I will give him to eat of the hidden Manna of that true spiritual Manna mentioned John 6. For my flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drink indeed But the words I there speak they are spirit and they are life Or if he die in the Cause I will give him the hidden Manna even the invisible food of Angels and his Soul shall passe into the society of the blessed Genii and Holy Souls of Saints departed this life 10. And I will give him a white Stone and in the Stone a new Name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it That is to say Though he be accused and reproached for an Heretick and Schismatick in the Church of Pergamus where Satan the Accuser dwells yet I will give him a white Stone and quit him in judgement and establish the joy and peace of a good Conscience unto him Or thus I will give him a white Stone in which there is a new Name written that is his Old man shall be throughly crucified and he shall attain to the state of the New man in the purity thereof and enjoy that inestimable Jewel of the Divine Nature pure and permanent which no man knows the excellency of till he be made partaker thereof I will consummate Regeneration to him either in this life or upon his passage into the other state if he be snatched away by a sudden Martyrdome And this will more then countervail all the Injuries the lofty Church of Pergamus can doe to him in life goods or good name CHAP. VI. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira 1. AND to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write The true Church of Christ is still in the power and within the Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome and therefore as Rome has been set out by the City of Babylon Tyre and Pergamus so is it here in this Intervall necessarily to be understood by the City of Thyatira I mean in such a sense as it was by the City of Pergamus That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence both Strabo and Pliny and others that are Criticks fetch the reason of the name Thyatira is alluded to I am inclinable to think from those Authorities and that the Womanishnesse of the Church of Rome in this Period is perstringed That her Softnesse and Luxury was more then ordinarily increased in this Intervall is not to be doubted as certainly her Covetousnesse as also her prankings and adornings in the splendour of their Altars and Churches and Copes and the like Which could not be so continuedly and so high in the former Intervall But here all along she may well be looked upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filia delicatula a delicate Damosel indeed sitting like a Queen and knowing no sorrow when a little before she was like to be over-run by the Waldenses and Albigenses and was fain to enter the Field and fight manfully for her own safety A little after the beginning of this Intervall did Innocent the fourth appoint in the Council at Lyons that the Cardinals should go in their Rosie-coloured Hats and Robes and ride upon Horses with Furniture and Trappings sutable to the greatnesse of their Order and delicacy of their Condition And the Mitre of Paul the second is taken speciall notice of for the exceeding preciousnesse of the Jewels therein And no doubt there was the like encrease of the Ecclesiastick Bravery every-where A little before the beginning of this Intervall did Honorius the third appoint the Carmelites to goe in white that they might look more Maiden-like and decreed that they should be called the Family of the Virgin And the Franciscans and Dominicans are notorious all along this Intervall who had the Virgin Mary for their peculiar Patronesse And indeed within this Intervall the Roman Church ran so much in the seminine strain that they generally professed themselves more under the Government and Providence of our Lady then of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gregory the ninth a little before the beginning of this present Intervall ordained that Salve Regina an Hymn to the blessed Virgin should be sung in all Churches Boniface the eighth in the year 1293 composed that Oraison Ave Virgo gloriosa and in the year 1470 the Mary Psalter and her Rosarie were composed by Alanus de Rupe 2. And how feminine this Church was in this Intervall the observations of that excellent Person Sr. Edwyn Sandys though after the expiration thereof when one would think they should in Policy have been more castigate in their Religion will give us fully to understand The honour faith he which they doe to the Virgin Mary is double for the most part unto that which they doe unto our Saviour Where one professes himself a Devoto or peculiar Servant of our Lord whole Towns are the Devoti of our Lady The stateliest Churches are hers lightly and in Churches hers the fairest Altars Where one prayeth before the Crucifix two before her Image where one voweth to Christ ten vow to her and for one Miracle reported to be wrought by the Crucifix not so sew perhaps as an hundred are voiced upon the Images of the Virgin Their Devils in Exorcism are also taught to endure the name of God or the Trinity without trouble but at the naming
of our Lady to tosse and seem much tormented Where one fasts on Friday upon the account of the Passion of our Lord many fast on Saturday upon the account of his Mother And to their Beads they string up ten Salutations of our Lady to one of our Lord's Prayers The Bell also which is rung at Sun-rise at Noon and Sun-set is called the Ave-Mary Bell whereby all men every-where at those set times might be engaged to doe their Devotions to the Virgin Mary And lastly their chief Preachers do teach in Pulpit whatsoever is found in Scripture spoken of Christ the Son of God to apply it to our Lady also as being the Daughter of God Is not therefore the Church of Rome rightly called Thyatira as alluding to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which both Strabo and Pliny would have to be the reason of the name of that City 3. I will onely adde one thing more Alsledius calls this Intervall of time which we attribute to the Church of Thyatira Regnum Locustarum because of the variety of the Orders of Monks that started up within this time Therefore when the Church of Rome swarmed so with Monks and Friers that had abjured their Virility by an irrevocable Vow of Caelibate and went in sculking Hoods and long Coats like Women and so became Petticoat-men at the best was it not very congruous for the Spirit of Prophecy by way of just reproach to this Womanishness so to characterize the Church of Rome at this time by calling her Thyatira as if they had become rather the Daughters of men then the Sons of men by this so general Effeminacy in more then those Monkish garbs which I now mention Besides that these Petticoat-men the Dominicans especially managed their opposition against the true Church in a right feminine manner not manly as before by meeting their enemy in the Field but sneakingly by Perfidiousness and Treachery to bring them into the Inquisition and then cruelly and insultingly in the upshot as it is easie to understand by reading the History of the Holy Inquisition as they call it Therefore there being all these symptoms of Feminity in the Church of Rome in this Intervall it is not unreasonable to conceive that this corruption of hers is perstringed by calling her the City of Thyatira alluding to Thygatira which signifies not a son of Adam but a daughter 4. But were it not for the Authority of Strabo and Pliny there is another paronomastical Allusion which I should prefer before this Wherefore according to the richnesse of the Prophetick style I should also conceive Thyatira to allude to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to break or bruise Aromatick Spices which makes them give the sweeter savour or else to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altars for the burning of sweet Odours Any of which methinks is lesse forced then either Grotius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Strabo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as to the sense the Paronomasia is very expressive of the Persecutions of the true Members of Christ within this Intervall and agrees exactly with History wherein there is little talk of flaying with the Sword as is intimated in that expression in the foregoing Intervall where the Martyr Antipas is said to be slain which agrees admirably well with that great Slaughter of the Waldenses and the Albigenses which were martyred in the Field by the Pontifician Forces as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to slay suppose with the Sword or any such weapon of War 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Persecutions in the Thyatirian Intervall were usually Burnings or Rackings and wasting away their lives in miserable Imprisonments But that which was most frequent and most famous in this Period was the burning of men alive with Fire and faggot This filled Thyatira with so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where though the Cruelty of the Persecutors was most execrable yet the Faith Constancy and devout Sincerity of our blessed Protestant Martyrs went up with the flames and globes of Smoak sweeter then any Odours or Incense from the Altar into the presence of Heaven and were there accepted for his sake who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favour 5. The frequency of these Burnt-offerings in those times is noted by Sanderus a Papist Infinitos Lolhardos Sacramentarios in tota Europa nuper ignibus traditos fuisse But nothing can be so significative of the change of the Scene of the Persecution of the Church in Pergamus where Antipas was slain to this in Thyatira whereby these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are alluded to as that passage in the History of the Albigenses lib. 2. c. 9. which gave me occasion to terminate the Pergamenian Intervall in that year viz. 1242. Here you see saith he the last Attempt which we finde the Albigenses to have made and the last Expedition of Pilgrims levied against them All the pursuit against them afterwards was by the Monks the Inquisitours the Dominicans he means of whose Father Dominicus his Mother when she went with child with him dream'd she was big of a Dog that vomited fire out of his throat which Monks saith he now kindled their Fires more then ever And taking these poor people disarmed and singling them out by retail it was impossible for them any longer to subsist And so this suffering Church of Christ passed out of that state where Antipas was slain with the Sword to that of Thyatira where the holy Martyrs of our Reformed Religion were burnt at the Stake And this I think will suffice to make us understand why the Power and Jurisdiction of the Roman Church in this Intervall bears the Title of Thyatira 6. These things saith the Son of God who hath his eys like to a flame of fire and his feet are like fine brasse The Son of God is here Christ either personally or mystically understood for his Body the Church Understanding it personally of Christ his flaming Eyes denote his piercing and discerning Foresight and Providence it portends also his Wrath and Vengeance against the Persecutors of his Church with Fire and faggot but his Feet like fine brasse the peremptory Constancy amd Purity of his ways But if we understand these Feet like fine brasse of Christ's mysticall Body we are to make a supply of the Description out of the former Chapter ver 15. And his feet like fine brass as if they burned in a furnace whereby is insinuated the fiery Trial of his Church in this Intervall of Thyatira even in the grossest sense so many of his Servants standing at the Stake with their leggs in the midst of flaming Fire kindled by their barbarous Persecutors That the Son of God described in the foregoing Chapter is also representative of his Body mysticall the description of his Voice seems plainly to intimate His Voice being compared to the sound of
practice of the Roman Church jointly and coherently with their Worship of Images is manifest to all the world and that therefore it is as arrant Idolatry as Paganism it self and consequently real Idolatry by the third Conclusion of the first Chapter And lastly it is to be noted that the Council of Trent naming the debitus Honor of Images and not excepting these in known practice then amongst them must of all reason be conceived to mean these very Circumstances as Paganicall as they are of the Worshipping of them 7. And the rather because they do pretend to rectify some Miscarriages in the business of Images as any unlawfull or dishonest Gain by them all lascivious Dresses of the Images all Drunkenness and disorderly Riot at their Feasts and the like Which methinks is done with as grave caution against Idolatry as if they had decreed that all the Whores in Rome should forbear to goe in so garish apparell that they should be sure to wear clean linen to be favourable to poor younger Brothers in the price of a night's Lodging that they keep themselves wholsome and clean from the Pox and the like which were not the putting down but the establishing of Whores and Whoredome in the Papacy And so are these Cautions touching Images Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis Wherefore these Circumstances of Idolatry being not named by the Tridentine Fathers in their Exception they are thereby ratify'd Which yet are so like the old Pagan Idolatry that Ludovicus Vives one of their own Church could not abstain from professing non posse aliquid discrimen ostendi nisi quòd nomina tantùm titulos mutaverint That onely the Names and Objects were changed not the Modes of the ancient Idolatry of the Heathen 8. If the Council of Trent would have really and in good earnest rectify'd their Church in the point of Images they should have followed the Example of that skilfull and famous Physician Dr. Butler they should have imitated his Prescript touching the safe eating of a Pear viz. That we should first pare it very carefully and then be sure to cut out or scoup out all the Coar of it and after that fill the hollow with Salt and when this is done cast it forthwith into the Kennell This is the safest way of dealing with those things that have any intrinsick Poison or Danger in them See those most wholesome and judicious Homilies of our Church of England against the Perill of Idolatry 9. And thus much shall serve for the setting out the Idolatry of the Church of Rome so far as it seems to be allow'd by the Church it self But for those more grosse Extravagancies which though they have connived at yet they would be loath to own upon publick Authority I will neither weary my self nor my Reader by meddling with them Such as the making the Images to sweat their Eyes to move the making them to smile or lour and look sad to feel heavy or light or the like Which does necessarily tend to the engaging of the people to believe and have â—â—fiance in the very Images themselves as those Consecrations also imply which I cited out of Chemnitius and which that Rhyme seems to acknowledge which they say to that Face of Christ which they call the Veronica Which Rhyme runs thus Nos perduc ad patriam felix ô Figura Ad videndam Faciem quae est Christi pura Nos ab omni macula purga Vitiorum Et tandem consortio junge Beatorum And with such like blinde Devotion do they likewise speak to the Crosse O Crux spes unica Hoc Passionis tempore Auge piis Justitiam Reisque dona Veniam This must sound very wildly and extravagantly to any sensible ear And yet the invoking any Saint before his Image for Aid and Succour the Image bearing the name and representation of the Saint with Eyes and Hands lift up to it is as arrant talking with a senslesse Stock or a Stone as this and as gross a piece of Idolatry though approved of by the Authority of the Roman Church But I intended to break off before CHAP. X. Severall important Consectaries from this clear Discovery of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome with an hearty and vehement Exhortation to all men that have any serious regard to their Salvation to beware how they be drawn into the Communion of that Church 1. THus have we abundantly demonstrated that the Church of Rome stands guilty of gross Idolatry according to the Concessions and Definitions of their own Council of Trent that is to say though we charge them with no more then with what the Council it self doth own touching the Adoration of the Host the Invocation of Saints and the Worshipping of Images But we must not forget in the mean time that the Crime grows still more course and palpable looking upon the particular forms of their Invocation of the Saints and the Circumstances of their worshipping their Images and yet ratify'd by the Popes and corroborated by the uncontrolled practice of their whole Church Which therefore must in all reason be the Interpreter of the minde of the Council So that there is no evasion left for them but that they are guilty of as gross and palpable Idolatry as ever was committed by the sons of men no lesse grosse then Roman Paganism it self 2. From whence in the next place it necessarily follows that they are the most barbarous Murtherers of the Servants of God that ever appeared on the face of the Earth For indeed if they had had Truth on their side so far as that the things they required at the hands of the Dissenters had been lawfull though not at all necessary yet considering the expresse voice of Scripture which must be so exceeding effectual to raise consciencious Scruples and indeed to fix a man in the contrary Opinions besides the irrefragable Votes of common Sense and Reason and the Principles of all Arts and Sciences that can pretend any usefulnesse to Religion in any of its Theoreticall Disquisitions I say when it is so easie from hence if not necessary for some men to be born into a contrary consciencious Persuasion it had undoubtedly even in this case been notorious Murther in the Pontifician Party to have killed men for dissenting from the Doctrine and Practice of their Church But now the Murtherers themselves being in so palpable an Errour and requiring of the Dissenters to profess Blasphemies and commit gross Idolatries with them which is openly to rebell against God under pretense of obeying Holy Church as they love to be called they murthering so many hundred thousands of them for this Fidelity to their Maker and their indispensable Obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ this is Murther of a double dye and not to be parallel'd by all the barbarous Persecutions under the red Dragon the Pagan Emperours themselves 3. From which two main Considerations it follows in the third place that considering
in those days that my faithfull Martyr Antipas that is those plain-hearted and openly-professed enemies of the Pope and his adulterate and idolatrous Religion the Waldenses and Albigenses were so cruelly persecuted and murthered who were slain among you who stood out and yet escaped though in the very Synagogue of Satan that is to say in that Church which is a treacherous Adversary to all my true Members and a very bitter Censurer and Accuser of them for their not complying with the Laws of Wickednesse which she hath established and a worse Adversary then the Pagan Dragon before whom therefore my Church overcame in a few Ages This Satan I say is a more mischievous Enemy then that red Dragon by reason of his Cunning and Hypocrisie and his pretenses that he is for me when indeed he is against me and by reason of the abuse of my Authority in pretense against the Members of my true Church Wherefore I cannot but take notice where thou dwellest and how in that regard thou art in a worse condition then the Smyrnian Church her self who were onely to grapple with a professed Enemy but thou with both a malicious Enemy and a false and hypocritical Friend It is therefore well done of thee that thou holdest out in such hard and difficult Circumstances 6. This for the sense of that Verse in general But now particularly why the Waldenses and Albigenses that were persecuted in this Intervall of the Church should be called Antipas why Martyr why faithfull and why slain rather then burnt we shall briefly give this account And that a Company or successive Body of men is represented in the Prophetick style under one single person is so trivial that I need not note it Alcazar makes Jezebel mentioned in the next Epistle to be the Church of the Jewes Aretas the Sect of the Nicolaitans Dr. Hammond the Gnosticks But now that this one person should be called Antipas there is nothing more congruous to the Doctrine of the Waldenses and Albigenses who boldly preached that the Pope was Antichrist the Mass an Abomination the Host an Idol and Purgatory a Fable And Waldo the chief beginner of this Sect was of the same mind denying the Pope to be the Head of the Church or that he had any Authority over the Kings and Princes of the earth who depend immediately upon God alone Was not this an Antipas indeed then and exactly opposing the sovereign Paternity of his Holiness of Rome But they were faithfull because they did so plainly declare to the World such concerning Truths and Martyrs because they suffered death for so doing it being for the Cause of God and for the Interest of the Kingdome of Christ. And they are said to be slain suppose with the Sword or any weapon of War not burnt because Burning was more rare within this Intervall of the Church but they were slain in the field many hundred thousands of them A great number of the Waldenses that took Arms in Germany were cut in pieces in the year 1220 as Matthew Paris writes they being in such a disadvantageous place betwixt marish ground and the Sea that they could make no escape And Mr. Mede out of Petrus Perionius in his book of this Albigensian War intimates that near ten hundred thousand of them were slain in battel at times and that in France alone Wherefore slaying with the Sword is very Characteristically spoken here in this Epistle of the faithfull Martyr Antipas Burning as yet being in it self not so frequent and bearing no proportion at all to this vast number slain in the Field Whence this is a considerable note of distinction betwixt this present Intervall of the Church in Pergamus from that of her abode in Thyatira as we shall see in its due place 7. But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto Idols and to commit Fornication This is spoken to the whole Body of those that in their judgements did condemn both the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome But these may be cast into three sorts such as notwithstanding this Judgement still held Communion with her and pretended they did well in so doing those that separated from her Communion and those that not onely separated but suffered death for so doing These last were the Martyr Antipas above named the first the Balaamites here reproved that were of a more Gnostick-like temper too much leaning towards the Flesh thinking themselves wiser then the other in not exposing themselves for their judgement in Religion Ye do well indeed saith he in declaring against the Enormities of the Papal Church and in condemning them in your own thoughts and Consciences but this I take ill of you that ye permit some of you the Doctrine of Balaam to take effect that is by communicating with this Church of Rome in her idolatrous Eucharist and by eating her Deus Panaceus ye commit spiritual Fornication and become guilty of Idolatry To eat things sacrificed to Idols is one mode of Idolatry but by a Propheticall Diorism it signifies Idolatry in general That ye indulge this liberty to your selves or others is to cast a Stumbling-block before the Children of Israel and to occasion and encourage many to adhere to the Roman Communion when they ought to separate from her that there be no prejudice done to my true Church nor Dis-interest to my Kingdome 8. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate That also is a fault amongst some of you that you do not possesse your Vessels in that holinesse and sanctity ye ought to doe and though you can discover the spiritual Fornications of Pergamus and their Luciferian Pride yet ye are not so pure and clean as ye ought to be and free from the Lusts of the flesh which Vice is here noted by Nicolaitism dioristically as Idolatry in general before by eating things sacrificed to Idols Flesh and bloud is over-prone to think little ill of such things because they are so natural and pleasing but I declare a pertly unto you that it is a thing that I hate Be ye holy even as I am holy Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the Sword of my mouth Amend these faults left I come to you suddenly in Judgement Haply by the more sedulous activity of the Lords of the Inquisition whose reign was most chiefly in the following Intervall as also of other Judicatures the Pragmaticalnesse of whose Agents will be more then ordinarily ready to discover every one that dissembles his Religion and the frequent terrour of being burnt alive at the Stake will more effectually suppresse the flames of all Wantonnesse and Lust. And as I will come to you thus in Judgement unlesse ye repent so I am
not so well as they should be yet they must needs appear to any but an Humorist exceeding much better then in the Church of Rome And thus much of the Sardian Church CHAP. VIII An Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Philadelphia 1. AND to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia write The meaning of Philadelphia is plain and is no Riddle The word signifies Brotherly love which rightly understood is the fulfilling of the Law So that I understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 universal Love for we are all brothers in Adam but especially the love of those of the houshold of Faith that is to say of Christian Believers In the Sardian Church the greatest noise and stir there is about Faith but her Works were not found perfect before God But the Inscription of this Church is Love which is the fulfilling of the Law as I hinted before And his banner over me was Love This is the Ensign of the Church of Philadelphia who elsewhere is said to be beautifull and terrible as an Army with Banners Who is she that looketh forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners Why who can it be but this Church of Philadelphia as famous for feats of Arms as for Love as we shall see in the process For the Intervall of this Church begins in the last Vial and reaches to the fourth Thunder These things saith he that is Holy And speaks to that Church that loves to hear those Instructions Be ye holy for I am holy and Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect He that is true He that will make good all his Promises and glorious Predictions touching his Church in this state thereof which is figured out by the Church of Philadelphia and writes to those that believe it and have a firm Faith in the Power and Spirit of Christ and of God He that hath the Key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth What Eliakim was to Hezekias who was of the stock of David the same is Christ to God the Father whom S. John calls Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is chief Minister of State under God and carries all as he pleases by the Authority committed to him of which a Key is the Symbol See Grotius upon the place There is nothing so hard and impervious but he can make way through it and open a door to Successe and again shut it against his Enemies 2. I know thy works And that so as to approve of them because they are the fruits of the Divine Love then which there is nothing to me more precious Thou actest not out of bitter zeal and strife or vain ostentation or any secular respect but merely out of love to me and my Righteousnesse and out of love to mankinde whose both present and future Happinesse thou dost sincerely endeavour to promote Behold I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it Behold I have brought things about so by my Providence and will so effectually second what I have begun by my special assistence that maugre all the machinations of men and Devils thou shalt finde opportunities of most gloriously and successfully carrying on the Interest of my Kingdome This is performed in the last Vial in that great battel of God almighty when also the Beast and the false Prophet are said to be taken See the Divine Dialogues For thou hast a little strength Grotius himself interprets it a little Army and so indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie appositely to the present scope and answerably to the Battel I named before The sense is Because though ye be but a few in comparison of the rest of my Church and Kingdome for the Sardian Church is his Kingdome and Church too out of which the Philadelphian Church is emerging and especially in respect of the Infidel and Antichristian party those under the Dragon and the Beast and the false Prophet yet ye have kept my Word and not denied my Name that is have both kept to what is holy and true in your hearts and professed it in your words and works therefore I will be with you in this glorious manner and make you so successfull in the promoting of the Interest of my Kingdome Of this Church therefore of Philadelphia are those Armies seen in Heaven Apoc 19. following Christ upon white Horses clothed in fine linnen white and clean which implies both the justnesse of their cause and the certainty of their successe As also those Boanergesses in the last Vial synchronal to that other Vision that thunder and lighten over the City divided into three parts whereby the Cities of the Nations fell and Babylon and her daughters were utterly overthrown 3. Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews but do lie Jews as I noted before according to the style of the Apocalypse are Christians and the Jews which professe themselves such and are not but do lie are pseudo-Christians or the Antichristian party but are judged here to be of the Synagogue of Satan because of their abominable lies and bloudy murders For the Devil was a murderer from the beginning and he is also in the same place by our Saviour termed a Liar Besides the Luciferian Pride of that Church like Satans the Prince of the Devils Behold I will make them come and worship before thy feet Even those that before kissed the feet of the Pope that lofty Prelate This answers very patly to that passage in the fore-named Vision where the Beast and false Prophet are taken and put alive into a lake of fire that is to say the Bestian and Pseudoprophetical power as such is burnt and destroyed and abolished and the Philadelphian power then appears above all or rather the Lord alone will be exalted in that day for to this time especially belongs that saying Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts For indeed the struggling of the Sardian Church hitherto against the City that is called Sodom and AEgypt though it has been in its kind laudable yet it has been in a manner Edom against Edom a part something more refined against that which is more impure I mean as to Life and Godlinesse and the weapons of their warfare have not been so spiritual as they ought they have not rid upon white Horses nor have been clothed in fine linnen white and clean they have not endeavoured to be that Church which is without spot wrinkle or any such thing but the Sardian tincture has too much distained them But as it is true in the natural sense that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God so it is also in the political that those glorious times of the Kingdome of God
Treatise 5. Which therefore doth confirm and corroborate and place beyond all exception the Orthodox Protestant Interpretations of those Visions that concern the Church of Rome which in this last Age have been made so clear and every way so natural and congruous that this one thing granted of their Idolatry there cannot be the least scruple of the truth and congruity of the rest of the Applications 6. And I cannot but adore the faithfulnesse of Divine Providence that has furnished his Church with these Oracles to be the Guide of the Faithfull in these latter Ages which are as it were the dregs of those times which the Spirit of Prophecy has set no good character upon wherein there is such an Inundation of Wickednesse and Prophanenesse that there is scarce any Faith to be found upon earth But that Church which has deluded the world with so many Fictions could never forge those Prophecies that are so punctually true and so cuttingly set out all her grosse Miscarriages and as expresly foretell her Ruine unlesse she will humble her self and pluck in her horns lay aside her bold boasts of Infallibility and be content to be taught to cast away her Idols and be cured of her Dropsie and unnatural thirst after the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus 7. Nor can I on the other side sufficiently admire the stupidity of some of our own and their grosse ingratitude to Divine Providence that have so slight a regard to a Book of that mighty weight and moment as the Apocalypse is and think it such a subject as that any good Wit must needs mis-place his time if he meddle with it which is more then a Pagan irreverence to so holy and so important Oracles The Romans of old had another esteem for the Verses of the Sibylls Nihil enim ità custodiebant neque sanctum neque sacrum quemadmodum Sibyllina Oracula as Dionysius Halicarnasseus testifies And it was an high honour to be the Keepers much more the right Expounders of them But that which God of his mercy offers to all such is either the idlenesse frivolousness or profaneness of the spirits of men that it is scarce accepted of any 8. The truth is most men are loath to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be messengers of ill news to the greatest that is to say to the corruptest part of Christendome but rather affect the glory and security of being accounted of so humane of so sweet and ingratiating a temper as that they can surmize well of all mens Religions and so think to conciliate to themselves the fame of either civil and good Natures or of highly-raised and released Wits though it be indeed but a spice of the old abhorred Gnosticism that can comply with any Religion and make a fair tolerable sense of all 9. But these are such high strains of pretense to Wit or Knowledge and Gentility as I must confess I could never yet arrive to nor I hope ever shall though I am not in the mean time so stupid in my way as to think I can write thus freely without offence And yet on the contrary I can deem my self no more uncivil then I do him that wrings his friend by the nose to fetch him out of a Swound 10. I am not insensible how harsh this charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome will sound in some ears especially it being seconded with that other of Murther and that the most cruel and barbarous imaginable and finally so severely rewarded with an impossibility of Salvation to any now so long as they continue in Communion with that Church But I believed therefore I spake and have no reason to recall my words or to have concealed the truth that their fishing may become lesse successfull in these parts and that it may be with my Countrey-men according to that in Salomon Surely in vain the net is spred in the sight of any bird And therefore this is to open their eyes that they may see what snares of destruction are laid for them and how those that promise others liberty are themselves the servants of corruption and how they that take upon them to be the onely Absolvers from sin are themselves held fast in the snares of eternall death and do as necessarily illaqueate all others therein whom they proselyte to their Religion so far are they from giving them any effectual Absolution 11. I doubt not but many will be prone to cry out This is a very rude piece of Uncharitablenesse to all Romanists But I say it were a most perfidious kinde of Civility even to them themselves to say nothing of the Injury to our Church and Countrey to declare otherwise But if this be the main Odium that sticks upon so true and usefull a Conclusion that it is so far estranged from the spirit of Charity hear but this brief Parable Reader and then I will leave it to thy self to judge and conclude There was a certain Knight bravely mounted as it might seem and in goodly equippage in bright armour a rich scarf about his shoulders and a large plume of feathers in his Helmet who was bound for the Castle of Health seated on an high Hill not unlike to the Domicilium Salutis in Cebes his Table which therefore he easily kept in his eye But the way he was in being something stony and rough and leading not so directly as he thought to the desired Castle he diverted out of the way and descended into a green Plain but not knowing whether it was all passable to the Castle called to some Loyterers there in the field to enquire of them who came right willingly to the Knight scraping many legs to him and desiring him to tell his demands 12. There was an old Shepherd likewise not far off who by that time this idle people had got to the Knight had come down to him also Friends said he to those men he called Is the way passable and safe through this green Plain to yonder Castle pointing to the Castle of Health with his Warder Very safe may it please your Worship said they and shrugging their shoulders and scraping many legs asked a Largesse of the Knight pretending they had been at common work not far off Whereupon the Knight put his hand into his pocket and gave them liberally But are there no Bogs said he nor Lakes betwixt this and the Castle Some small inconsiderable Sloughs it may be said they but you will meet with the Holy Society of the Wipers every-where who will be ready to wipe you as clean as a Clock before you come at the Castle And being so excellently well mounted as we see you are namely upon that famous Steed renowned over all the world the infallible-footed Aplanedo so good an Horse as that he never stumbles your Worship need fear no disaster at all Besides the Beast God blesse him has a Nose like any Hound and by a
and Finisher of our Faith and Salvation Nay the Creation or Generation of our life and flesh as well as our Salvation is here ascribed to the Virgin Which can have no sense or truth unless she were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-woman in that sense that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man and as I said were as properly the Daughter of God as he is the Son of God 5. As she is expresly called in her Litanie Filia Dei the Daughter of God Which considering what high Titles they give her both in that Litanie and elsewhere as Illuminatrix cordium Fons misericordiae Flumen sapientiae Mater Dei Regina coeli Domina mundi Domina coeli terrae would be but a dwindling Title it belonging to all women that are believers if there was not some such raised and sublime sense of it as I have intimated And therefore their Addresses to her being as if she were as I said a She-Christ and the Daughter of God in as high a sense at least as Christ is the Son of God and she being called the Daughter of God in the Litania Mariae in her Litanie or publick Supplication to her it is plain that in that Intervall of the Church wherein this most conspicuously and notoriously happened the Church of Rome by reason also of the abundance of their Devotions then to the Virgin might be said to be rather the Worshippers of the Daughter of God then of the Son of God And that therefore the Spirit of Prophecy foreseeing these times whenas for such a space he called Rome Pergamus this succeeding Scene coming on he might very well change the title of Pergamus into that of Thyatira with a derisorious Allusion to the occasion of the name of that City from the news of a Daughter being born to Nicanor As if God Almighty had the like occasion of changing the name of Pergamus into Thyatira from the Romanists turning the Virgin Mary into the Daughter of God 6. For a stop to which Insolency Christ seems on purpose in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira to resume to himself the Title of the Son of God notwithstanding that he is called the Son of man in the Vision in the foregoing Chapter out of which he ever draws a description of himself for an Entrance before each Epistle to the Churches Which in my judgement is a thing specially well worth the marking and that this making the Virgin Mary the Daughter of God in this Intervall might alone be a sufficient occasion of changing the name of the Church of Rome from Pergamus to Thyatira But other things that are apposite are also comprehended by a Propheticall Henopoeïa 7. But this is an Overplus to our present purpose which was mainly to discover the grosse Idolatry of the Church of Rome in the Invocation of their Saints and especially of the Virgin Mary and how both the Definition of the Council of Trent is Idolatrous in this Point and much more the Practice of the Church countenanced by publick Authority 8. For this Mary-Psalter it self that has the most enormous and blasphemous Forms of Idolatrous Invocation of any is not the private Contrivance of some single obscure superstitious Monk but bears the Title of that Seraphick Doctour S. Bonaventure once Cardinal of Rome Which is no small publick countenance thereto And that nothing might be wanting to the grace and furtherance of so devotionall a piece of Idolatry there was instituted a peculiar Society entitled the Fraternity of the Many-Psalter confirmed afterward by Sixtus the fourth many Indulgences being added Anno 1470. And Innocent the eighth added to these Indulgences plenarie Remission à poena culpa once in their life and once in articulo mortis to as many as entred into that Fraternity 9. And in such case stands the Church of Rome at this very day that is to say she is still Thyatira notorious for her Idolatrous Worship of the Virgin Mary But the Intervall of the true Church in Thyatira ceased upon the Reformation when we cast off the Pope or suffered Jezebel to delude the Servants of God no longer nor to debauch them with Idolatrous Modes of Worship But this is onely by the bye In the mean time it is abundantly manifest that the Invocation of Saints in the Roman Church is not onely the praying to them that they would pray to God for us but the asking Aids of them and such frequently as are in the power of none but of God and of Christ as he is God for to give and therefore is still the grosser Idolatry CHAP. VII That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent touching the Worshipping of Images is Idolatrous and the Reason of the Doctrine weak and unsound 1. AND thus much for their Idolatry in the Invocation of Saints Let us now consider what the sense of the Council of Trent is touching the worshipping of Images Imagines porrò Christi Deiparae Virginis aliorum Sanctorum in templis praesertim habendas retinendas esse eisque debitum honorem reverentiam impertiendam Quoniam honos qui eis exhibetur refertur ad Prototypa quae illae repraesentant ità ut per Imagines quas osculamur coram quibus caput aperimus procumbimus Christum adoremus Sanctos quorum illae similitudinem gerunt veneremur Id quod Conciliorum praesertim verò secundae Nicaenae Synodi Decretis contra Imaginum oppugnatores est sancitum The meaning of which in brief is this That the Images of Christ of the blessed Virgin and other Saints are to be had and retain'd in Churches and that due honour and reverence is to be done to them For which are produced two Reasons The first In that the Honour that is done to the Images is referred to the Prototypes The second In that this Injunction is but what the second Nicene Council had of old decreed 2. To which I answer That thus much as the Council of Trent has declared touching Images is plain and open Idolatry by the seventh Conclusion of the first Chapter and expresly against the Commandment of God who forbids us to make any graven Image to bow down to or worship But the Council of Trent says Yes ye may make graven Images of the Saints and set them up in their Temples and give them their due Honour and Worship nay ye ought to doe so and instances in the very act of Bowing or Kneeling and prostrating our selves before them This Definition of the Council is so palpably against the Commandment of God that they are fain to leave the second Commandment out of the Decalogue that the people may not discern how grosly they goe against the express Precepts of God in their so frequent practices of Idolatry See the first ninth and tenth Conclusions of the first Chapter as also the third fourth fifth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth of the second 3. Nor can all their