stage but if thou strivest so as to get the victory in the way I have instructed thee I will translate thee to that Heavenly Kingdome most naturally and properly so called where thou shalt sit down and drink of the fruit of the Vine in the Kingdome of my Father As I after I had overcome ascended up to Heaven into those glorious mansions and there sate down at the right hand of God so him that overcometh the Temptations and Incumbrances the Pleasures and Enticements of this lower world will I cause to sit down with me in the Heavenly places at the last Day Which Monition is the more seasonable by how much more near the approach of that great Day is For I shall come visibly to Judgement in the very next Thunder to the Siege of Gog and Magog when I will transform your vile bodies into the similitude of my glorious body that ye may be fit companions for me in Heaven for ever Behold I shew you a mystery Ye shall not all sleep yet ye shall all be changed that mortality may be swallowed up of life This is a great and stupendious Promise but thou art to consider that it is spoken by him that is the Amen the true and faithfull witnesse and the beginning of the Creation of God and therefore both will and can carry on all his design to the very end Amen 13. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches From the Epiphonema coming here last as in all these four last Epistles one may haply raise this Objection as if this sense of the Promise immediately preceding it were not Politicall or Propheticall enough but merely Theologicall the Promise being to be performed in the other world and therefore not the proper object of Prophecy which concerns the affairs of the stage of this Earth And that this therefore is against our professed Rule But I answer that though the Promise of obtaining Heaven after this life upon the death of the body be merely a Theogicall Promise and of a thing more spiritual and invisible and not to be seen upon the face of this Earth yet this promise of obtaining Heaven at the Resurrection and general Day of Judgement it being the day of that great and visible Assizes wherein the Souls of the Saints shall appear in glorify'd bodies may well be ranged in the same order with the rest of the Promises immediately preceding the Epiphonemata of each Epistle and to be accomplished visibly in this life For the sense of the Promise in brief is this That as Christ after his Sufferings his Death and Passion ascended visibly into Heaven for Heaven is said to be the throne of God in the Scripture and so Heaven became also Christ's throne so those of Laodicea who upon the Mortification of their Lusts should attain to the state of life in the New birth should ascend visibly into Christ's throne that is into Heaven in the open view of them that should be left here on the Earth and in the inferiour Regions of the Air sentenced to that everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This is a plain and obvious sense of this Promise and such as the placing of the Epiphonema requires and is in my judgement no mean Ratification of the true and Literal sense of that Article of our Faith touching the visible Resurrection and Glorification of our bodies and their ascension into the Heavenly Regions against such as would whiffle away all these Truths by resolving them into a mere moral Allegorie Thus consonant every way are the Interpretations of these Epistles both to themselves and to the Apostolick Truth CHAP. X. A Recapitulation of the main Evidences of the truth of this Mysticall or Propheticall Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia by way of Solution of Difficulties touching the said Epistles and their Circumstances otherwise hardly or not at all to be solved 1. AS in natural Hypotheses those are accounted truest that solve the Phaenomena of Nature the most naturally and easily and especially if such as are no otherwise solvible then upon the proposed Hypothesis so that meaning of Scripture I mean especially of any considerable portion thereof ought to be esteemed truest that can solve the most Difficulties that may be raised concerning the same or the Contexts precedent or subsequent thereto and if all still the more certain and if unsolvible otherwise there is still the more assurance of undeniable Demonstration Now how near this Mysticall or Propheticall Exposition of these Epistles approches to the clearnesse of this case I will leave to the Reader to judge after he has considered the Solutions of the Questions easily raised out of the Epistles themselves or the precedent Chapter and not easily answered nor at all satisfactorily at least most of them but upon the Hypothesis we have gone 2. As first If a man enquire why the Spirit of Prophecy after he has so expresly given notice that this Book of the Apocalypse is to shew unto his servants things that are to come and called it plainly a Book of Prophecies should start so unexpectedly from the Title and intended subject as to write no lesse then seven Epistles to certain Churches that have nothing considerable of Prophecy in them before he deliver any Prophecies properly so called but onely Promises and Comminations and that he should doe this with as great Pomp and as high a Preamble as he does when he begins so famous Prophecies as those of the seven Seals and the opened Book But according to our Hypothesis the Answer is easie viz. That though these seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia have a Literal sense yet they are also a Parable or Prophecy and of as high concern for both matter and extent of time they reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as the Prophecy of the Seals and opened Book and that they are ushered in with this great Pomp on purpose to give us notice thereof Secondly A man would be prone to enquire why the Spirit dictates Letters unto the Churches in Asia and not rather to the Churches in Europe Asia and Africk For certainly the Church had disspred it self into all these Quarters of the world by that time As if the Spirit of Truth were a respecter of persons For these are not the Letters of John but of the Holy Ghost But our Answer is ready at hand That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the names of the Seven Churches Asia alone was pitched upon But according to the Propheticall sense the true Catholick Church is writ unto under such distinct Conditions as she was to vary into unto the end of the world So that there is no Partiality nor Acception of Persons in this Thirdly If a man demand touching the order or precedency of these Seven
Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Propheticall sense with the Intervalls of the Church Catholick lying in that order that these Churches are ranged This is a satisfactory reason and worthy the Spirit that wrote these Epistles But whether they are ranged in this order because that a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus and then to Smyrna and so in order till he come to Laodicea whether the holy Spirit of Prophecy regarded that in the dictating of his Letters though Alcazar the Jesuite be for it I cannot but suspend my judgement and that not without a smile But of this Ataxie more particularly anon 3. Fourthly If it be demanded why just Seven Churches in Asia are writ to neither more nor lesse especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgement of Epiphanius being then not founded but after the writing of these Epistles it is hard to give a satisfactory answer in the Literal sense For to say this Book of the Apocalypse affects the number Seven and that because it runs upon the number Seven altogether in the insuing part of the book which is Propheticall it therefore for Conformity sake chuses this number in writing to the Churches though literally understood seems but a meagre mean and trifling account a design unworthy the Holy Spirit that dictated this Book But the using this number Seven all over is rather an intimation that the Book is Propheticall all over and that these Epistles are also a Prophecy accordingly as we have explained them And taking them so the Answer is plain and obvious viz. The number Seven is here chosen out as Symbolicall it being the note of Universality whence the Pythagoreans as I above noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more then Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervalls of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather then any others which in all likelihood may have the same Vertues and Vices that these are commended and taxed for The reason of this is writ in the very Notation of their Names every Name being significative of the Condition of the Church Catholick in that successive Intervall of time that this or that Church so named standeth for and in such order as they are repeated Sixthly If one require a Reason why Christ is described by holding the seven Stars in his right hand in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus and of Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to finde any peculiar Reason but in the Propheticall sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signifie all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the beginning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodicall to represent the first Founder Sustainer and Continuer thereof by this Emblem Lo I am with you to the end of the world And that this again is hinted at in the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is with evident Proportion and Analogy to the Affairs of the Church there represented For the Church of Sardis is as it were the beginning again or the emerging of the true Church or Kingdome of Christ out of the Power and Kingdome of Antichrist 4. Seventhly Why the Church of Ephesus of all other Churches should be commended for their trying false Apostles Why might not other Churches be attaqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Probleme is easie in this Mysticall sense of the Epistles that places the Ephesine Intervall within the Apostles times but the rest on this side of them Eighthly If any one demand why it is said to the Church of Smyrna more then to any other Church Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and again He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to finde any peculiar Reason why this might not as well be said to the Church in Pergamus where there was killing for Religion it seems by the mention of the Martyr Antipas I but there was no obtaining the Crown of life there in any peculiar sense but the Crown of life that is the Imperial Crown was given to the Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs under the Ten Persecutions to whom also according to the opinion of the ancient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptick style that loves to hint things by Ellipses in that Promise He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death implying thereby that he shall be made partaker of the first Resurrection Ninthly If any one will again object more particularly against the Ataxie of the Churches that they are ranged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible Churches together Smyrna and Philadelphia against whom there is no complaint at all and then Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea against whom there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols and afterwards Pergamus and Thyatira in which Churches alone there is If any one I say contend that this method had been more exact truly in the Literal sense it will be hard to frame an handsome and satisfactory answer especially if he urge that God is the Authour of Method as well as the God of Order But in this Mysticall or Propheticall sense the Answer is solid and exquisite and much-what the same that was given to the like Difficulty more generally propounded before namely That the Churches of Asia are named in that order the successive Intervalls of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervalls of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False prophet viz. the Intervalls of the Church of Pergamus and of Thyatira must come after Ephesus and Smyrna because till the expiration of those two Intervalls Idolatry had not again re-entred the Apostatizing Church And the three following Intervalls of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea are the Intervalls of the true Church elapsed out of the hands of domineering Idolatry and therefore we hear no more in them of things sacrificed unto Idols nor of any Jezabel And Philadelphia which is the most holy and the most glorious Intervall of the Church that is to appear on the face of the earth is not to be named according to her Dignity but according to her Succession in time toward the latter end of the world as she is here ranged But of this more then enough because we had
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
unlesse of Apostolicall Institution if they stand in competition with that Royal Law of Love did not drown the voice thereof that it cannot so easily be heard But assuredly my Lord the letting this Philadelphian Dispensation in or the approaching as near unto it as we can will prove the most effectuall healing and consolidating the Interest of Reformed Christendome as well in the whole as in the parts thereof as we can desire or expect Which therefore I humbly conceive that all persons the more Power they are intrusted with in any of the Protestant Dominions are the more obliged to consider by how much more they are obliged to endeavour to promote the Interest of their Prince and Countrey whose Affairs they administer And therefore the right understanding of the Vision of the Seven Churches so manifestly giving this aim for the prosperous steering of Affairs I thought this my Exposition of the said Churches no unsutable Present in these Circumstances to be made unto your Lordship Of the Usefulnesse whereof I having spoken more particularly in my Preface I leave the whole to your Lordship's judicious and favourable perusall and wishing you all good Successe in the great Charge his Majesty has intrusted you with I cease to give you any farther trouble then in subscribing my self My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and affectionate Servant HENRY MORE The PREFACE to the Reader declaring the Occasion Solidity and Usefulnesse of the ensuing Exposition Reader HOW unexpected this of mine may prove to thee I know not but sure I am it cannot be more then to my self who as I have never yet affected to bestow my pains on these kind of Subjects so I thought my self secure since the edition of the late Dialogues touching the Kingdome of God from ever being engaged in them any more For I made account that what was contained in Mr. Mede's Writings and in Synopsis Prophetica and the above-said Dialogues might afford all usefull satisfaction to any sober Enquirer into these Mysteries And I find neither my will nor my abilities to reach to the service of men in needlesse Curiosities And therefore thou maist be sure I did not deem the Propheticall Exposition of these Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia to be such but rather that there was no such Exposition that belonged unto them and therefore rested in the Literal sense and an usefull Moral Application of them as they might sute any particular Church in any Age of the world placed in like Circumstances with any of these Seven Churches And these things methought were so obvious that it would have been a needlesse labour to have attempted any thing in so facil a matter where others have done sufficiently well before 2. But having sent the above-said Dialogues to a Gentleman in the Countrey to whom they were not unacceptable as being curious of Subjects of this nature after his civil acknowledgements for my sending him the Book and some pertinent Reflexions on the main matter at last he falls upon this business of the Seven Churches in these words I find not saith he any late Writer apply the Seven Churches mystically Revel 2. and 3. Chapters Mr. BRIGHTMAN having failed in his Application But I suppose the farther enquiry into that point may be worth your pains I shall now onely hint that the Seven Churches may represent the State of the whole visible Church from Christ's time to the Day of Judgement viz. Ephesus till Anno Christi 110 Smyrna till 306 Pergamus declining towards Popery till the WALDENSIAN Separation about Anno 1160 Thyatira emerging from Popery till the Pacification at Passaw in Germany 1552. and King EDWARD the Sixth's Reformation in England Sardis the state of Reformed Christendome the Kingdome of God since whole Nations fell from Rome and untill Rome shall be totally subdued Philadelphia when Truth Peace and Holinesse shall universally prevail and the name of the New Jerusalem shall be written upon the Church as is expresly promised Chap. 3. 12. Interims too august for such a poor Church as that was literally taken And this may be a Key for all the rest And lastly Laodicea when towards the end of the Thousand years Satan shall be again let loose a little space and Gog and Magog shall trouble the Church then luke-warm as in the days of Noah This was the whole verbatim of what that Gentleman writ touching this matter And this Reader was the Occasion of my undertaking and the advantage I had for the more easily performing this Task of expounding these Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches For the Intervalls here suggested though they are most-what different from what upon due deliberation with my self I thought fittest to pitch upon yet it is manifest that they could not but give aim toward a more speedy hitting the intended Mark and a more quick dispatch of this Exposition which I present thee with Indeed upon my endeavouring to frame out the same and my searching into Commentatours I found that P. Galatinus interprets these Seven Churches of seven Intervalls of the Church from the beginning to the end thereof This Cornelius à Lapide notes but not a word of the Limits of these Intervalls And since my compleating this Exposition a learned Friend of mine shew'd me a passage in Mr. Mede Lib. 5. c. 10. where he argues for a mysticall sense of these Seven Churches and seems to insinuate that they should Prophetically sample unto us a seven-fold successive Temper and Condition of the whole visible Church according to the severall Ages thereof answering to the Pattern of the Seven Churches here and that à principio ad finem and takes notice of the fitly placing of PHILADELPHIA partly about the time the Beast is falling and partly after his Destruction accordingly as we had already set down in our Exposition But the bounds of these successive Intervalls he has not attempted to define That Advantage therefore I had onely from the party I above mentioned as well as the first Invitation to undertake this present Design 3. But now as to the Solidity of the Performance although I must confess the clearnesse of the matter appeared so great to me at last as that it infinitely exceeded my first expectations of it and proved satisfactory to my self beyond what I thought possible yet I will not here pre-ingage thy judgement or belief but freely remit thee to the Exposition it self the Preparations to it in the first and second Chapters and the brief Recapitulation of the strength of it in the last Onely that thou maist have nothing to stumble at I will endeavour to prevent thee in some Exceptions the greatest I am aware of and yet in my own judgement not considerable 4. As first I would not have thee according to the manner of some let thy minde dwell upon any thing that may seem less strong alone As that Chap. 2. Sect. 11. where I intimate that because in the interpreting the Seven
better and therefore very few there are that will either attempt the amending of their own Lives or the encouraging others so to doe When notwithstanding it is plain according to the Propheticall sense of the Epistle to the Church of Philadelphia that there will be a time when Righteousnesse and true Holinesse will have a most glorious reign upon earth But those that are averse from this belief are usually averse also from believing any certitude in the Expositions of Prophecies They will not forsooth be so presumptuous as to pretend they can understand them especially such as either chastise the abominable Wickednesses of the Roman Church or such as promise Times transcendently better Which is a piece of Hypocrisie much like that of Ahaz when the Prophet bid him ask a Sign of the Lord his God but he good modest Hypocrite would not ask a Sign neither would he tempt the Lord. The meaning whereof was that he would not amuze nor distract his thoughts nor render himself more obnoxious by taking notice of a supernatural Evidence against the natural Sentiments and persuasions of his own carnal minde under whose Government he was resolved to be and not be dissettled by the Inlets of any higher Light The application is very easie and obvious 17. And lastly Admitting the Propheticall meaning of the Epistle to the Church of Laodicea it is of great use for the establishing our Faith in that grand Point That this Terrestriall Scene will have an end and that at the close of all Christ will visibly come in Judgement to reward all men according to their works That he will judge both the quick and the dead according to the Orthodox sense of the Apostolick Doctrine To all which we may adde that as the Expositions of these Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia are in a manner as convincing as any other Visions in the whole Apocalypse so they are far more easie and reach the main Design in a lesse compasse of words and have not that operosenesse of Synchronisms necessarily hanging on them as the other have for the clearing of the sense but are onely seven Intervalls manifestly succeeding one another whose Bounds so far as things are past are easily determinable And we know that the Intervall of Sardis ends where that of Philadelphia begins and Laodicea is the close of all Which Facility and Comprehensiblenesse must needs improve the Usefulnesse of these Expositions very considerably And there wanting nothing but the Significations of the Names to be added for the easie Applicability of the Events to each Intervall I will for the satisfaction of the Reader briefly furnish them that have no skill in the original Languages with the sense and meaning of the Names of all the Seven Churches aforehand 18. Ephesus therefore with an Allusion to the Greek word Ephesis signifies Desire the first moving Principle that drives on an Activity for the attaining the main Scope we aim at But with an Allusion to Aphesis it signisies Remissnesse for which this Church of Ephesus is blamed or else alluding again to Aphesis it signifies the starting or letting loose the Racers at the beginning of the Race Which agrees very fitly with this Ephesine Intervall which is the beginning of the Church and of the whole course of Providence concerning the same to the end of the world Smyrna signifies Myrrh intimating the bitter Affliction of the Primitive Church under the Ten Pagan Persecutions Pergamus signifies Sublimity or Exaltation intimating the raising of the Church out of her former dejected and afflicted condition under the aforesaid Persecutions into a glorious Triumph over Paganism as it fell out upon the Conquest of Constantine the great It signifies also or prefigures the enormous Haughtinesse of the Church of Rome in that Intervall Thyatira in Allusion to Thygatira a Daughter intimates the more-then-ordinary Womanishness of the Church of Rome in that Intervall But in Allusion to Thyateria Altars of Incense or sweet Odours it signifies the more-then-ordinary frequentness of burning the blessed Protestant Martyrs with fire and faggot in this Period Which Cruelty though it was abominable in respect of that bloudy and barbarous Church that committed it yet the suffering of those holy Martyrs in this manner out of Fidelity to Christ and his Truth was a Sacrifice of sweet Odours to him and very gratefully accepted of him Sardis in Allusion to Sarda or lapis Sardius the same that Carnalina signifies the imperfect and carnal Condition of that Intervall of the Reformed Church that is called Sardian Philadelphia which signifies Charity in general and particularly a more special love to them of the true Houshold of Faith intimates the Reign of the Spirit which is the Spirit of Love For God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him This is that illustrious Reign of Christ in his Millenniall Empire of Love when the Christian life shall take place and Opinions and Persecutions shall be done away And lastly Laodicea signifies a popular Politicall or externally-Legal Righteousnesse the outward form of the former Philadelphian state but as in old age the spirit much decay'd though the outward figure of the body much-what the same It signifies also the arraigning and judgeing of the people that is the Nations of the world when Christ shall come to judge both the quick and the dead because this is to be performed at the close of this Laodicean Intervall 19. The significancy of the Names of these Seven Churches reckoned always in such an order as that seven Intervalls of the Church from the beginning to the end of all answer exactly in the Affairs of the Church both to these Names in this order they are reckoned and to the Conditions of the Seven Churches as they are orderly described in the Seven Epistles to them is a plain Demonstration to them that are not extremely refractory especially if you adde the Certainty that there must be a Propheticall meaning of these Epistles as is made good in the first and second Chapters of the ensuing Book I say it is a plain Demonstration that our Exposition is true as well as so easie and comprehensible and therefore of an universal Usefulnesse as well to the Illiterate as the Learned Which I hope Reader will be a sufficient Excuse for the Authour that he has either invited thee to the pains of reading or given himself the trouble of compiling this present Treatise Farewell A Propheticall EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES Sent to THE SEVEN CHURCHES IN ASIA From Him THAT IS AND WAS AND IS TO COME SIRACIDES Ch. 59. He that giveth his minde to the Law of the most High and is occupied in the meditation thereof will seek out the wisedome of all the Ancient and be occupied in Prophecies A Propheticall EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES Sent to THE SEVEN CHURCHES in Asia CHAP. I. A Preparation toward the Mysticall or Propheticall Interpretation of the Seven
Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia 1. WE shall first premise That as those two following Prophecies of the Seven Seals and of the opened Book reach from the beginning to the end of the Church so this of the Seven Churches reaches also from the beginning of the Church to the end of all Which seems congruous both from the nature of the Vision it self and from the following Examples of the Prophecies of the Seven Seals and the opened Book We shall premise in the second place That as it is conspicuous that four of the names of these seven Churches are directly significant of some State and Condition they are in viz. Smyrna Pergamus Philadelphia and Laodicea so it is exceeding credible that the other three names may allude to some thing that may set out their Nature and Condition also viz. Ephesus Thyatira and Sardis as we shall take more express notice in the process of our Exposition Lastly which might as well if not better have been noted at first This more mysticall sense which we are now a-rendring of the Seven Churches doth not at all clash with the Literal sense of the same nor exclude that usefull Applicability of them for the Reproof or Praise of any Churches particular in any time or Age of the Christian world that are for the like things obnoxious or commendable But the distinct Providence of God and his watchfulness and foresight of the Affairs of his Church may haply be more illustrated and display'd by this mystical way of Exposition then by that Literal or Moral 2. We will therefore distinguish the whole Duration of the Church of Christ especially so far forth as it is within the limits of the Roman Empire which also the other Prophecies in the Apocalyps seem chiefly to regard into Seven Intervalls and will suppose the first Intervall to end where the second begins viz. in the tenth year of Nero or Anno Christi 63. 3. Which Period therefore of the Ephesine Church ending so early even about thirty years before St. John's writing the Apocalypse agrees excellently well with that passage Ch. 1. v. 18 19. where after Christ's declaring himself the first and the last as before in the same Chapter he is called He that was and is and is to come and his mentioning his own Death and Resurrection and how that he will be alive to the end of the world to carry on the Affairs of his Church he presently inferrs Write therefore what things thou hast seen what things are and what things shall be hereafter which he expresly and immediately calls the Mystery of the seven Stars and the seven golden Candlesticks ver 20. which is worth the noting What things thou hast seen already in the times of thy life past namely the state of the Ephesine Church what things are now present viz. the Smyrnian state of the Church in which thou art and tastest of the bitterness of it in this thy Exile here in Patmos for the Ten Persecutions were then already begun and John was in the Second of them and what things shall be hereafter namely to the end of the world in the residue of the period of the Smyrnian Church and in the periods of the Remainder of the Seven Churches succeeding And questionless the Vision of the Rider of the white Horse respects what was then past namely Christ's first Warfare upon his conquest of Death and his being mounted into his glorify'd Body who after from on high sent down Succours to his Apostles and Disciples and assisted and and managed that illustrious Battel in the beginning of the Apostolick Times so successfully and gloriously that infinite numbers of men were brought under the obedience of the Gospel even within the space of the Ephesine Period 4. So that there can be no scruple of the Church of Ephesus representing a State of the Church past but onely that it seems improper to direct an Epistle to a Church then out of being But this can be no argument with them that hold the Seven Churches to be seven successive Conditions of the Church to the worlds end For make the Exitus of the Ephesine Church reach beyond S. John's time suppose to Anno Christi 100 or thereabout the rest of the Epistles will be writ to Churches not yet in being and some many hundreds nay thousands of years ere they shall be which yet they must not count absurd 5. The briefest account therefore of this matter is this That the Spirit of God seems to drive on two main designs in the Vision of these Seven Churches at once The one most effectually to animate and encourage the Church to doe well to stick to Truth and Holiness through all the Trials and Calamities of this present life as also to deterre them from all kind of Sin and wickedness of what nature soever whether Apostasie from the Faith Idolatry Sensuality or what-ever Remissness in Manners For which design this Epistolar way is exceeding accommodate it bearing the form of personally speaking to people and so the more forcibly makes them take notice in a manner whether they will or no of what is said unto them The other design and that so laid as not to foregoe the former advantage is to instruct the Church in the Providence of God and his Foresight to shew how all things lie bare before his eyes in such order and succession as they are in time to come to pass In the Literal sense of these Epistles to the Seven Churches that former design is plainly pursued and attained understanding them directed to these Seven Churches in Asia then in being and in a very great measure in the Moral sense These Epistles I say being so applicable to any part of the Catholick Church in any Age thereof placed in the same or like circumstances of Condition with these Asiatick Churches this Epistolar way will have a considerable efficacy and influence upon them for either Animation or Reproof 6. But now the great Question is Why the Prophetical design discoverable in the mystical Interpretation should have been couched in this Epistolar way especially the Epistle to Ephesus being writ after the Ephesine Period was expired To which I answer that this Propheticall design was not intended for the Ephesine Church in this mysticall sense but for future Ages and therefore it is taken in onely to make up the entireness of the whole Succession of the Church in its several distinct states from the beginning to the end of all But this Epistolar way is still retained in this mysticall sense for the same usefulnesse it had in the Literal to the Seven Churches in Asia then really in being For so soon as any of these Letters by this mysticall sense is understood to be directed to any successive part of the Church as now for example as will appear anon the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is directed to the Protestant Church or Reformed Christendome this Succession of the Church
ought to be as much concerned as that particular Church of Sardis was in Asia minor And this intention of the Holy Ghost being once understood it will be of the like usefulness to the Philadelphian Church especially and also to the Laodicean Wherefore the Objections were but small considering the Usefulness of this Epistolar way though there were no other sense of these seven Epistles and the seven Churches but the mysticall For as in an entire Vision where the beginning is touching something past or present all goes under the Title of Propheticall though that part that respects things past is but Historicall Representation so in this entire Epistolar Vision though the first part be Epistolar yet it is but Historicall Representation exhibiting times and persons past as if they were present to be writ to and that for uniformity sake in the form of an Epistle as what is past in History under the form of Propheticall Vision as the Rider of the white Horse which is the first in the Vision of the Seals though the Representation was of what was partly past and partly present But what is to come is the proper object of all Vision Propheticall But now besides all this in the Literal sense there being then a Church in Ephesus when that Epistle was wrote to it and in a Moral sense it being applicable to any Church that does Ephesize in any part of Christendome and at any time the Objection in my judgment has melted into less then nothing And therefore notwithstanding this exception we will not stick to place the end of the Interval of the Ephesine Succession in the tenth of Nero's Reign and in the year of Christ 63. Till then let the Church of Christ be represented under the Title of Ephesus from that time till about three hundred and odd years after Christ under the name of Smyrna from thence to the latter end of the Persecution of the Albigenses and Waldenses let her be the Church dwelling in Pergamus from that time till whole Nations fell off from the Pope let the same Church bear the name of Thyatira from that time Protestantisme became the Religion of Nations till the last Vial let this Church bear the Title of the Church in Sardis from that time till the fourth Thunder let it wear the name of Philadelphia from the fourth Thunder till Christ come visibly to Judgement in the clouds let the Church bear the name of Laodicea These are the seven Intervals which how well they will fit with the Titles of these distinct successive States of the Church and the things spoken of them in the Vision I will anon endeavour to unfold CHAP. II. A farther Preparation out of the first Chapter of the Apocalypse whereby this Propheticall meaning of the Vision of the Seven Churches is more clearly assured BUT in the mean time for the greater assurance of this Propheticall or Mysticall sense we will first make some farther Remarks upon the first Chapter of the Apocalypso Where we will make onely this one modest Supposition that the Spirit of God sets down nothing immethodically nor in vain or at least nothing vainly immethodicall Wherefore upon the very first Verse which bears the Title of the whole Book The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass that is things to come to pass some shortly and other some in succession of time as all Interpreters agree I cannot but note this That if the Spirit of God do but respicere Titulum as most certainly he will he will set down no entire Visions as this of the Seven Churches is but they must in the main be of things to come to pass not of things present merely and not hid but obvious to the eyes of men as the State of the Churches here mentioned was to the world at that time And therefore something farther must be meant by them then can be contained in the Literal sense which is not of things to come as the Title requires but onely of things present or some Promises or Threatnings that do not properly amount to the nature of Prophetical prediction no more then the Law of Moses to which they are annexed 2. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the word of this Prophecy for the time is at hand This again plainly shews that this Book is all of it I mean all the entire Visions thereof a Book of Prophecies which as I intimated before mere Promises and Threatnings cannot make it no more then they do those Laws of Moses to which they are adjoyned And though the several States of the Seven Churches may be applicable to several states of particular Churches of after-Ages in Christendome l yet it cannot properly be in this Literal sense by way of Prediction but of Example of Vertue or Vice of pious or impious Actions which repeatedly happen in all History Whence if there be no more in it then thus these Epistles to the Seven Churches cannot be deemed any Prophecy and therefore are heterogeneous to the Scope and Title of the Book 3. But upon the so expresly calling this a Book of Prophecies for John to salute the Seven Churches in Asia with this Salutation Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come methinks it does even forcibly drive a man to conceive that the Vision of the Seven Churches which he so immediately falls upon is a Prophecy according to the title immediately mentioned in the foregoing Verse Besides that the description of the party in whose name he salutes them which is and which was and which is to come does very naturally insinuate that he is treating of what reaches from the beginning of the Church to the latest Ages thereof Which he insists more upon in the seventh Verse after he has spoken of the person of Christ Behold he cometh with the clouds this reaches the last Period of Laodicea when God will judge all people and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him for the Earth shall then be burnt up with the works thereof Even so Amen This will certainly come to pass about the seventh Thunder in that dark hollow Dungeon where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth let the sons of Infidelity or Unbelief conceit what they will to the contrary Wherefore the minde and scope of the spirit of Prophecy seems here to be carried out even to the utmost Ages of the world 4. According as he declares in the next Verse I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty That Wisedome and Power that reaches from one end to another mightily and sweetly orders all things This methinks strongly insinuates that the Vision of the Seven
Churches as well as the Vision of the Seven Seals and of the opened Book reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of all things Which consideration is so repeated to us that certainly it must not stand for nought but is to give infallible aim at a higher meaning of the Seven Churches then we are at first aware of For the summary of the Vision before he descends to the particular Churches begins and ends with this v. 11. and 18. I am the First and the Last and have the keyes of Hell and of Death Which undoubtedly respects the execution of the final Sentence under the seventh Thunder 5. But there is first this not able to be observed in the Tenth verse I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a Trumpet This pompous entrance with the sound of the Trumpet into this Vision of the Seven Churches and the glorious appearance of the Son of man walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks with seven Stars in his right hand comes up so near to that splendid Preamble to the Vision of the Seven Seals that any sagacious man cannot but suspect that both the Visions be of like extent and importance and not of such private concern as merely to respect those Seven Churches in Asia For at the beginning of both these Visions there is the glorious appearance of Christ in the midst of the Church in the first standing or walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks in the latter sitting in the midst of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders and both these Preambles to the future Visions ushered in with the sound of the Trumpet Wherefore the Pomp being equal the concern of each Vision in all likelihood is equal Nor can it be pretended that the Pomp before the Vision of the seven Churches was designed as a fair Frontispice to the whole Book of Prophecies because at least as splendid a Frontispice is again erected before the Vision of the Seven Seals Wherefore that former was entirely intended for the Visions of the Seven Churches and therefore portends some mighty concerning Mysterie therein and such as the present Affairs of those seven particular Churches in Asia could not reach nor exhaust But we proceed 6. Saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven Churches which be in Asia Here again immediately before his sending to the seven Churches of Asia he displays those Titles of himself that least of all suit with the small continuance of those particular Churches But the holy Catholick Church endures from the beginning to the end of all Upon which therefore I cannot doubt but the Spirit of Prophecy had his eye at this time and in the Mystery understood by the seven Churches in Asia the holy Catholick Church divided into seven successive Intervalls according to the opinion of Petrus Galatinus For indeed in all reason if there was not some grand Mysterie underneath why should onely seven Churches in Asia be writ to when there were others many others either there or at least in other parts of the Empire in all likelihood as notorious for either the Faults the Vertues or the Sufferings that are noted in these 7. You 'll say haply that Asia minor was the special Diocese as it were of S. John But they that answer thus forget that John was merely passive in these Visions and wrote no otherwise then he was moved by the Holy Ghost which is no respecter of persons Besides that there were certainly other Churches in Asia besides these seven Why therefore just Seven and why these But that seven signifies Universality is obvious in the Prophetick style Therefore to the seven Churches in Asia is as much as to all the Churches in Asia But it 's much that all the Churches in Asia minor should be thus carefully saluted by the Holy Ghost and the rest of the Churches in the Christian world be taken no notice of As if it were according to the Proverb that kissing goes by favour whenas yet it is expresly said in the Scripture that God is no respecter of persons as I intimated before 8. But you will farther urge that we cannot possibly make it any more then all the Churches in Asia unlesse Asia were turned into an Appellative Which consideration will put a bar to all attempts for any Mysticall Interpretation so that we must necessarily rest in the Literal But Hugo Grotius who interpreteth all the Churches also Mystically from the reason of their Names yet takes no notice of any Allusive signification in the word Asia So that in this learned man's judgement that sequel is not so firm But besides though I do not love to play with words more then needs must I think it not hard to finde out an Allusive signification apposite enough in the name of Asia to the Mysticall sense intended For both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former signifying Fundamentum the latter Actio or Effectio as to their paronomasticall sound are as near Asia as the nicest criticall ear can require in these cases And for the sense of them both it is extremely accommodate to the present purpose For then will this Superscription To the Seven Churches in Asia either signifie To all the Churches in the foundation that is that keep to the Apostolick Foundation in matter of Doctrine and Profession or else To all the Churches in Action that is to say these Epistles are writ to them with an intended censure of their Actions And it is said expresly by the Logician touching the Topick of Effects and Actions Hujus loci sunt Laudes Vituperationes upon which all these Epistles altogether run And I know thy works begins every Epistle Besides that they are directed to none but such as profess the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and nothing repugnant thereunto as will appear in our Interpretation of them Nor is it strange that S. John though writing in Greek should himself being a Jew make an Allusion to Hebrew words nor is it without example For the Son of Sirach does plainly in that passage in the Greek Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allude to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. These verbal Allusions are so frequent in the Prophetick Style that there is no need farther to take notice thereof nor any doubt I think but the Spirit of God would not in this Book of Prophecies where all things are so comprehensive and majestick salute onely seven particular Churches of all the Churches of the World and that with such pompous Circumstances nor when he had begun so magnificently a Book of Prophecies and so expresly intitled it so that he would immediately afterwards as if he
had forgot what he was about bring in a large Vision consisting of seven parts wherein there is nothing at all Propheticall but onely the Reproof or Praises the Comminations or Promises to a few particular Churches This is not according to the steddy order and method of Divine Wisedome especially in this Book then which there never was nor ever will be any thing more accurately written 10. And he had in his right hand seven Stars Methinks it is extremely harsh to conceit that these seven Stars are merely the seven Bishops of any seven particular Churches of Asia as if the rest were not supported nor guided by the hand of Christ or as if there were but seven in his right hand but all the rest in his left Such high Representations cannot be appropriated to any seven particular Churches whatsoever But seven must signifie all in both Coexistence and in Succession to the end of the world Which is a sense worthy so sublime a Book as this of the Apocalypse and correspondent to the meaning of the rest of the Septenaries that occur in this Book of Prophecy they signifying an entire Succession of some seven things or other which they are brought in to represent 11. The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches and the seven Candlesticks which thou samest are the seven Churches Though according to the Literal sense these seven Churches and the seven Angels are easily applicable to those particular seven Churches of Asia above specify'd yet I cannot but conceive that he not calling them here the seven Churches of Asia but seven Churches in general it is an invitation to the searching out some more large Propheticall sense such as we drive at as also in that he says the Angels of the seven Churches at large and not of Asia nor names the Churches by name but especially in that he calls them Angels in stead of Bishops or Pastours For he continuing so in the Propheticall style proper to this Book that ascribes all to the Ministry of Angels it is a sign that the Letters to the seven Angels of the Churches have also a Propheticall sense as well as a Literal or rather that that is the sense that is most chiefly of all intended 12. All these Intimations put togegether out of this first Chapter toward the Assurance of a Propheticall meaning of the Seven Churches of Asia have that force with me that though I could not my self produce such a continued Mysticall or Propheticall sense which would be all along easie and natural yet I could not but vehemently suspect that there is some such sense though it were not in my power to reach it But if I have through the Divine Assistence light on such a sense as is both continually coherent important and according to the Analogie of the Propheticall style I hope this Preparation will even extort the belief thereof from the Reader But such as it is I shall now present to his view CHAP. III. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesine Church 1. IT was intimated out of the last verse of the foregoing Chapter that the Omission of the appropriating the seven Churches to Asia by name was a fair invitation to us to suspect a more large and released sense of this Vision of the Seven Churches And indeed this Releasement is more free in the Greek Copy then in our English Translation For the Original runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the seven Candlesticks which thou sawest are seven Churches not the seven Churches which in the Literal sense one might be prone to imagine to be none other then those situate in Asia minor but this Division of the Churches into Seven in the Mysticall sense is rather distributio ex adjunctis then è subjectis the whole Catholick Church in its Succession from the beginning to the end being cast into seven Intervalls according to seven notorious Qualifications or Conditions thereof For so we say the Primitive Church the Apostatized Church the Reformed Church c. denoting not their Place but rather their Time and Quality which the Genius of the Prophetick style if it were to express them would exhibite as so many Churches distinctly situate 2. But besides this it is farther to be noted that the omission of the appropriating these Seven Churches to Asia does also fairly quit the Mysticall Interpreter of giving any account of the signification of that name it being omitted in the Interpretation of the seven golden Candlesticks Which I thought worth the noting tâ—â—â— all pretense of Cavill might be taken from them that may haply prove lesse satisfy'd with our giving an account of that Greek name from an Hebrew Allusion though their Cavill to the more judicious I hope will seem altogether groundless 3. Nor lastly does the returning of the Spirit of Prophecy to the Seven Churches by name in these Epistles written to them determine the Vision solely and adequately to those seven Churches of Asia topically understood forasmuch as the names of all those Churches at least by an easie Allusion have an Appellative signification and manifestly denote their Quality and Condition as we shall see in the process of our Exposition 4. First therefore of the Church of Ephesus which Christ salutes after this manner Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write These things saith he that holdeth the seven Stars in his right hand and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks That by Angels according to the Apocalyptick style all the Agents under their Presidency are represented or insinuated I have already noted and it is so frequent and obvious in the Apocalypse that none that is versed therein can any ways doubt of it Wherefore Christ his writing to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus in this Mysticall sense is his writing to all Bishops Pastours and Christians in this first Apostolicall Intervall of the Church And that particularly in this Epistle to this Church I mean in the Mysticall sense thereof he recommends himself to them under the character of him that holds the seven Stars in his right hand and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks the sense stripp'd of this Propheticall Pomp is that I am he that supports all my Bishops and Pastours and all that labour for the Interest of my Kingdome from this time for ever I am present with them and uphold them As he said at the first founding of the Church Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world He is in the midst of his Church where-ever two or three are gathered together in his Name He walks through in the midst of the Successions of the seven Intervalls of the Church the seven golden
Candlesticks till the end of all This is to encourage the beginning of his Church and is methodically put in the first place as being general and running through all the Intervalls thereof till the end of the world But that the Frontispice as I before called it to this Vision of the Seven Churches which was the glorious Character of our blessed Saviour is made use of by piece-meal for an entrance into the parts of this Vision as it is in them all I cannot but take notice how fitly it answers to the Vision of the Seals where the parts of the Frontispice are also made use of to usher in four of the Seals for the four Beasts one after another and that with apposite significancy as here at the opening of the four first Seals are introduced uttering this voice Come and see Wherefore there being the like contrivance in both Visions it is a shrewd intimation that they are Visions of like importance that is very reachingly and comprehensively Propheticall as I endeavoured to evince out of the first Chapter 5. And how accommodate that part of the Character of our blessed Saviour is to this part of the Vision that concerns the Ephesine Church is already declared We shall now confider the fitnesse of the paronomasticall Allusion in the Name For that the Propheticall style does affect such Allusions both Grotius and Mr. Mede and all Interpreters that I know are agreed upon And Grotius does particularly give the reason of the names of all these Churches in his Commentary on the Apocalypse So that there is nothing of Levity or Indiscretion in the attempting of the same In Ephesus therefore for ought I know there may be a double Allusion both to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being one of the three matres Lectionis as they are called contained in it both E and A it does plainly intimate that the sound of E and A are not so extremely different one from another But as for the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is hugely well and peculiarly accommodate to this Church it being the first Intervall of the Seven as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the same the Careeres or Lists from whence the Race begins of the Succession of all the Seven Churches which ends in the end of the world And S. Paul compares the calling of Christians to a Race 6. But as for the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius also expresly takes notice of and pitches upon the Allusion thereto is unexceptionable both as to sound and signification For it denotes that great servour and zealous desire the Church in those first Primitive and Apostolick Times had to the Affairs of Christ and to the Interest of his Kingdome that they did sincerely and earnestly under the conduct of that Heros on the white Horse with his bow and arrow in his right hand aim at and press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus they were inflamed with the desire of enlarging the Kingdome of Christ here and of obtaining that immarcescible Crown hereafter and of eating the fruit of eternall life in the celestiall Paradise of God This was the first love of this Church this was their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their vehement and sincere desire and onely scope of their Actions that they might serve Christ here and enjoy him afterwards in his heavenly Kingdome And therefore out of this fervent love to Christ and sense of their own happinesse they did at first easily devour all Difficulties 7. As it is noted in the two following verses I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear with such as are evil For those that are sincerely and fervently good it cannot but make them have an Antipathy against what is evil and discern them that bear themselves never so Apostolically and yet are not right at the bottome to be but Hypocrites and Liers And thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles and are not That there were false Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ in the Apostles time within which the Period of this Church is the Apostle Paul takes notice 2 Cor. 11. 13. which therefore is very agreeable to the Intervall of this first Church For when should any pretend to be Apostles sent from God but in that Age there were Apostles sent into the world by him And hast born and hast patience and for my Name 's sake hast laboured and hast not fainted What is here is much-what the same sense and words as were in the foregoing verse but it is not repeated in vain For these words I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have a special correspondence to the reward promised in the 7. verse He that will not labour shall not eat but he that labours very much and breaks not off by reason of any lazy fainting or culpable lassitude is worthy to be fed with the bread of life But besides this labour and patience in the highest circumstances is here repeated the better to set off the present remissness of some in this Ephesine Church as it is in the next Verse 8. Neverthelesse I have something against thee because thou hast left thy first love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius and Dr. Hammond expound it because thou hast remitted of thy first love and so allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie relaxation and remission in a contrary sense to intension of degrees whence there may be another ground of Allusion in Ephesus to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in counter distinction to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that this Ephesine Church may have its name from its first intense Love and its after Remission thereof by this double Allusion But as the Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more perfect then that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so questionless this first Intervall of the Church was more famous for their sincere and real Love to Christ then for their Remissnesse therein Which serves something for the countenancing of the term of this Intervall Because thou hast left thy first love that is to say because thou hast ceased to be so fervent in spirit as at the first Which first Love being according to the measure of Christ's own Prescript was certainly such as made the Ephesine Church love Christ more then Father or Mother or Wife or Children or any worldly Interest whatsoever accordingly as he requires But towards the end of the Intervall of this first Succession of the Church this Love and Courage it seems began to abate and too many began to Gnosticize as it is called in that point and think it a small thing to deny the Faith in the time of Persecution even those that yet professed themselves of the Church and were Believers That this was
whose Intervall is from the tenth of Nero or Anno Christi 63. till Anno Christi 324. when Constantine the Great a zealous Professour of Christianity had subdued the most potent enemies of it and himself For then the Church was raised out of the dust or rather out of the mire and bloud that she was troden down into by the Ten cruel Persecutions and began to be the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church in sublimity and exaltation according to the signification of that word But in this Intervall of their Afflictions and Martyrdome she was the Church in Smyrna Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one and signifie Myrrh which whether you respect the Plant it self which grows in sandy dry and uncultivated places and is it self rough and thorny with sharp pricking leaves or else the gumme of the Tree which is biting and bitter to the taste and has its very name from thence in the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia amara as Martinius notes it is very significative of this Intervall of the Church that succeeds wherein those horrible Pagan Persecutions raised against the Christians are comprehended So that Smyrna signifies the bitter Affliction and Persecution of the Church as that Lamp named Wormwood does the sad Calamity of the Western Caesareate 2. To which you may add that Smyrna that is to say Myrrh was a main Ingredient in the embalming of the bodies of the dead which again reflects upon the many Funerals or rather Deaths and Martyrdoms of the Members of the Church which would be caused by the Persecutions of those times Besides that as Myrrh keeps the body from Corruption it may be a Symbol of the eternizing of the memory of the Martyrs to all Posterities Not to take notice of their conserving of their very Bodies themselves which they call Reliques though this Allusion can be no countenance to the abuses in those things And lastly this Allusion to Myrrh is still the more emphaticall in that the body of our Saviour that faithfull Witness as he styles himself after his martyrdome on the Cross is said to be embalmed with Myrrh John 19. 3. These things saith the First and the Last who was dead and is alive The Titles that Christ adorns himself with when he speaks to the Church of Ephesus are He that holds the seven Stars in his right hand and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks namely through all the Successions of them like that Promise Behold I am with you to the end of the World intimating thereby the presence of his Spirit through which he would in all Difficulties sustain the Bishops and Pastours of his Church Which general signification seems well enough proportioned or fitted to the Condition of the Church of Ephesus he expresly requiring of them no more then Zeal and Courage in the general But now he speaks to the Church in Smyrna and there enters a more bloudy Scene and terrible he seems to encourage them with higher and more palpable and particular Animations in the very entrance of his discourse These things saith the First and the Last the same that began the War for this Kingdome we strive for and will be the last in the field to assist my friends and discomfit mine enemies as well as I was the first And be not afraid of dying for the Truth for though I was crucify'd my self yet behold I am now alive And I tell you it for a pledge unto you of the same Happinesse if you lay down your lives as the Times will shortly require it for me and for my Gospel This is very particular and apposite to the Condition of the Church in this Smyrnian Intervall wherein there were to be so many and so bloudy Persecutions 4. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty that is to say I know the great Affliction and misery thou art oppressed withall being destitute of all the Comforts of this present life and in danger of death every moment Which is a right Smyrnian Condition indeed according to the Title of the Church in Smyrna But thou art rich namely with those spiritual Graces of Meeknesse of Patience of Christian Courage and Fortitude and of sincere and invincible Love of the Lord Jesus even to the death it self And I know the Blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan That is I take notice of the reproach that those men cast upon Christianity who call themselves Christians and yet make nothing of dissembling and denying the Faith upon the arising of any Persecutions for my Name 's sake as if a Christian could be such a vile false and abject Hypocrite This is to blaspheme them that are called by my Name The right Christian is the true Jew whose heart is circumcised and therefore he will not lie with his tongue and whose Faith is so strong in me and hopes so firm of a better life that he can if the cause of my Gospel so require willingly part with this for the Love of me and for the Interest of my Kingdome These are the true Members of my Church who are for suffering the other the Synagogue of Satan as I told Peter when he would have disswaded me from undergoing the death of the Cross Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things of God That the Jews signifie the Christian Church there is nothing more frequent in the Apocalyptick style then that And this mention of these false Christians in opposition to these Smyrnian Sufferers does plainly insinuate that sense which I have given 5. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer Do not imitate the base Cowardise of this Synagogue of Satan these Hypocrites and Dissemblers After that sharp reprehension of Flinchers from the Faith he returns to encourage and corroborate the Church in Smyrna Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten days The red Dragon that old Serpent in his fight with Michael for the things of that Vision are co-incident with this Smyrnian Intervall of the Church I say the Pagans incensed by the old Serpent will cast several of you into prison that your Faith may be tried and God may receive the glory of your Fortitude and Constancy This you shall have for ten days that is till the time of consummation that Victory and Redemption be wrought for you or that you die Or rather thus You shall have tribulation for ten days There will be ten Seasons of bloudy Persecutions which you must run through those ten Persecutions so famous in Church-History and so frequent in the mouths of all men Which consideration among others does not a little ratifie this our Exposition of the Church of Smyrna and consequently gives strength to the whole Hypothesis of the seven successive Intervalls Be ye faithfull unto death
and I will give you the Crown of Life That is to say Stand out till the consummation of the Ten Persecutions wherewith ye will be tried and ye shall have the Crown of Life I will crown you with the Imperial Crown which shall prove a Crown of Life unto you Christianity shall become at length the Religion of the Empire which will save you for the future from the deadly Persecutions of the red Dragon You shall be no longer subject to the Cruelty of Roman Paganism for the profession of your Religion This therefore will be a Crown of Life unto you This is according to that Apoc. 21. 4. And there shall be no more death that is there shall be no more Persecution and killing for Conscience sake Which was the sad case of this Smyrnian Church under the Pagan Cruelty in an eminent manner Wherefore when they had wone their Freedome it was a Crown of Life to them by the Law of Contraries That this is the genuine sense will farther appear from what follows 6. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches This being an usual Epiphonema to Parables plainly intimates that what hitherto has been said is a parabolicall Prophecy And the nature of a Prophecy is to foretell such things as are to be transacted here on earth And therefore where the Promise is not Divine or concerning the state after this life the Epiphonema follows as is very conspicuous in the Promise to the Church of Thyatira which is the first example of the Epiphonema coming last of all which is a sign that the whole Epistle there is Propheticall Verse 26. And he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations c. Which therefore concerns the stage of this Earth And therefore this Promise here of the Crown of Life before the Epiphonema I would interpret of a Reward in this life on this earth according as I have expounded the passage But now that which follows this Epiphonema is a Promise of another sort viz. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death for it is the securing of a blessed Immortality after this life and seems farther to correspond with that passage in the Apocalypse Ch. 20. v. 6. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Wherefore though not according to the inference of rigid Syllogism yet according to those nice and delicate hints in Propheticall Intimations I would conclude that the promise of their Portion in the first Resurrection is here proposed to those afflicted Smyrnians which was the proper Portion of Martyrs and Confessours according to the opinion of the Primitive Church as Mr. Mede has learnedly and judiciously observed Which granted does hugely corroborate this Application of the Epistle to the Church in Smyrna to this Intervall which contains the times of all the Sufferings in a manner of the primitive Martyrs The promise of a blessed Immortality had been very proper and accommodate to this Smyrnian state of the Church that were so frequently to lose their lives for profession of the Gospel but for it to be intimated to them that these shall have their portion in the first Resurrection which is proper to Martyrs as appears by the place above quoted is so characteristicall of this Intervall wherein all the primitive Martyrs suffered viz. in those Ten Persecutions that it does marvellously confirm the truth of the Exposition of this present Epistle in this Mysticall way we have gone And thus much of the Church in Smyrna that is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bitternesse of Oppression and Affliction as the Allusion to that Syriack word imports We proceed to the Church in Pergamus CHAP. V. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus 1. AND to the Angel of the Church in Pergamus write The Intervall of this Church is from the year of Christ 324 when Constantine utterly defeated the Army of Licinius not above thirty thousand of one hundred and thirty thousand escaping and so with his own Victories made the Church also triumphant out of her long and unsupportable Miseries raising her aloft from her sad Oppressions and Persecutions From this year I say to the year 1242 when the Pope's Legate Amelin made an end of the Albigensian War with Trancavel Bastard of the Earl of Beziers let this be the Intervall of the Church in Pergamus 2. Of the beginning of this Intervall there can be no doubt And for the termination of it there are these two Considerations to countenance it The first in that the latter of those numbers in the last of Daniel viz. the number 1335 does point to the beginning of the Affairs of the Waldenses and Albigenses who are both one Sect and from one Authour Waldo of Lyons an holy and good man whose Preaching and his own and his Followers Sufferings were about the term of that Number whose Epoche is the Prophanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes So considerable a passage of Providence is the appearing of the Waldenses in those times betwixt the year of Christ 1160 and 1170. For they were condemned for Hereticks by Pope Alexander in the Laterane Council in the year 1162 upon which you may be sure Persecutions would immediately follow And Mr. Mede with great judgement will have this latter Number in Daniel to point at these Times Nor does that expression of Daniel at all weaken his Opinion in that he saith Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days because it is said in the Apocalypse also Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord that is that die for the cause of our Lord Jesus And of the Church of Smyrna it is said I know thy tribulation and poverty but thou art rich The judgement of the Spirit of God and the judgement of carnal men are quite opposite in these things What they call Poverty the Spirit calls Riches what they Misery the Spirit Blessednesse Wherefore the Affairs of the Waldenses or Albigenses is a notable distinct and conspicuous joint of time even according to the judgement of the Spirit of Prophecy But then in the second place I terminate the Intervall of this Church in Pergamus not in the beginning but the conclusion of these Waldensian or Albigensian Affairs because they being all in a manner one and so plainly concluded in the year I have mentioned their Sufferings may the more punctually answer to the Sufferings of that one Martyr Antipas who is here said to be slain in Pergamus But the Concinnity of these things we shall better understand after we have descanted upon the name Pergamus 3. That by Pergamus is intimated a state of Exaltation or Sublimity I intimated before Sublimia omnia dicta Asiaticis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notat Hesychius Suidas
Servius saith Grotius upon Apoc. 1. 11. whence he would have the Church in Pergamus to re-mind us of high and heavenly things But this is a Moral not a Propheticall sense But with him howsoever I acknowledge that the signification of Sublimity is alluded to in the general but here most elegantly and seasonably in reference to the precedent state of the Church in Smyrna which was a state of Humiliation and bitter Affliction But at the very beginning of this present Intervall she so conspicuously emerging out of this low sad affictive state into the state of glory peace and prosperity what can be more significant then to salute her with the Title of the Church in Pergamus accordingly as she is here saluted which is a kind of Congratulation to her fresh emergency out of her late Miseries And this sense will hold good for a time in this Intervall namely till tho days of her Apostasy but then the Apostolick Church will be the Church in Pergamus still but in another kind of meaning 4. According therefore to the richnesse of the Prophetick style Pergamus has also another sense such as the City Babylon and the City Tyrus which are put for the City of Rome But then not in such a sense as to mean the Walls or Stones of the Roman City but the Roman Church and her Power and Jurisdiction And in such a sense is Pergamus also here put for Rome So that this Epistle written to the Church of Christ in Pergamus the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church is directed to this Church dwelling under the Roman Church or within the Roman Churche's Jurisdiction understanding old Rome especially as all such Apocalyptick Visions perstringe her most Now that Rome in this sense is perstringed by this Pergamus is very evident First in the easie Allusion of Pergamus to Rome from the signification of the words For as Pergamus signifies Sublimity so as Martinius notes Rome is from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exaltari Besides that her Situation is high and Buildings lofty according to that of the Poet Collibus è septem totum circumspicit orbem And the highest of all is the Bishop of Rome himself who exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped Is not this therefore a fit Bishop of Pergamus that perks thus above all Kings and Emperours and Princes of the earth And our Intervall of the Church of Pergamus reaches the highest times of her Exaltation it taking in both Gregory the seventh who first excommunicated the Emperour and took upon him the power of making Emperours himself and Alexander the third who trode upon the neck of the Emperour Frederick as also Caelestine the third that crowned Henry the sixth and his Empress with his feet and in scorn kick'd the Emperour's Crown off with his foot when he had crowned him Certainly the Popes of Rome were then the Bishops of Pergamus with a witnesse Nor after this Intervall could they ever hold their Crests so high Boniface the eighth indeed was a Blusterer and excommunicated Philip the Fair of France but he called him fool for his pains and handled him in such sort that surprized at Anagnia he was disgracefully mounted on a poor Jade and so carried prisoner to Rome where Pride and Regret broke his heart and so he there dy'd ingloriously But secondly It is said of this Pergamus that it was the most given to Idolatry of all the Cities of Asia so Andreas Cesariensis reports of it which is the notorious Character of Rome above all Cities and therefore elsewhere in the Apocalypse she is called the Whore of Babylon for her insatiable spiritual Fornications Thirdly These Pergamenians were very fierce and diligent Accusers of the Apostolick Christians to bring them to Martyrdome as Dr. Hammond upon the place notes out of ancient History For which also Rome is taxed elsewhere in the Apocalypse who is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Fourthly It is recorded of the Prefect of this City Pergamus that he would persuade the Christians to forsake the Apostolick Faith and return to Heathenism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the elder Religion was the more precious and to be preferred As Antiquity is the great Pretense of the Papal Church That Prefect said of Christianity that it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it began but the other day And so you may be sure the Church of Rome said of the Religion of the Waldenses and Albigenses See Dr. Hammond upon the place And lastly That it should be the Martyr Antipas that was slain in Pergamus can any name more directly and assuredly point at the Church of Rome or the Papal Church then this For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Father and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Papa â—â— but a Reduplication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eustathius has noted and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as against And therefore who can be so blind as not to discern how fit a Type this Antipas is of them that within this Intervall of the Church should suffer for being against that holy Father the Pope as he is called Nothing can sound more congruously or harmoniously whatever any man by way of cavill can say against it The main Interpretation therefore of this present Epistle to the Church in Pergamus will respect the pure Apostolick Church abiding within the Jurisdiction of the Roman as this sense plainly implies the Woman in the wildernesse as the Holy Ghost elsewhere expresses it These things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges Christ is set out thus in this Epistle to the Church in Pergamns because this Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God understood and rellished by the Divine Spirit in us was the main Weapon whereby the Church in Pergamus defended her self from the Pergamenian Corruptions and so kept her self pure from the false Glosses and unsound Traditions of either Superstitious men or crafty Deceivers 5. I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth That is to say I know thou doest well for the main and to thy greater commendation I consider where thou dwellest even where the first-born of Lucifer has his throne he that exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So Christ compares Satan to Lucifer or the King of Babylon of whom the Prophet says How art thou fallen Lucifer thou son of the Morning Luke 10. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven And yet neither the awe nor glory of that Church could cause thee to forsake my Name and in stead of being a true Christian to become a Member of Antichrist and so relinquish the pure Apostolick Faith no not
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
Vineyard under pretence that men giving up their will and understanding to the supreme Power Government might be the more secure And all that wondred after the Beast gave up their Vineyards into the hand of the secular Power and professed no otherwise then according to the faith of the Empire and so had their Vineyards sown with divers seeds nay indeed with what was repugnant to the Apostolick Plantation Their minds were filled with gross lies foul-Idolatries of all sorts and murderous enmities against the true Children of God 12. But as for the Vineyard of Naboth that is the Vineyard of the true Prophets or Prophetesses as the word Naboth seems to intimate they were not given up that is those that were not Christians for fashion-sake and believed new invented lies and Apostolick truth alike but with a true and living faith acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ these would rather lose their lives then quit their Vineyards that yielded them that noble Wine that perpetual feast of a good Conscience and of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Whence it was that this Whore and Sorceresse Jezebel contrived their death or persecution and oppression as the two Prophets are said to both mourn in sackcloath and also to be slain The Vineyard therefore of Naboth is that sense and knowledge and conscience and life of the Spirit in the new birth whereby a man discerning plainly livingly betwixt the wayes of Christ and of Antichrist does as necessarily loath the one as adhere to the other 13. For the true and firm belief in Christ is from the new birth as S. John also witnesses Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And therefore this Spirit of life must needs have an Antipathy against what is contrary to it self And is also the Spirit of Prophecy in the most concerning sense As John likewise intimates in his general Epistle where upon his mentioning many false Prophets gone out into the World he presently adds In this ye know the Spirit of God Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh is of God Which agrees exactly with that in the Apocalypse where the Angel says to John I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus that is to say of such as whose hearts do witnesse to them firmly and lively that Jesus is the Christ and accordingly professe it which none can do unlesse he be born of God and so have the Spirit of God Which is implyed in the following words For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy that is to say the being able in such sort to witnesse that Jesus is the Christ is from the spirit and life of God in us which inspireth all holy truth From whence the Angel argues a kind of Parity betwixt John and himself and indeed all such as have the testimony of Jesus according to the sense declared and therefore would not be worshipped by them 14. But this is something a Digression saving that it may illustrate that passage in the Apocalypse where the two Witnesses are also called the two Prophets not so much from predicting things to come as from witnessing to the Truth from the spirit of life in the new birth and being so firm in this faith as to suffer for it even to the death and may also facilitate the belief of this Mystical sense of the story of Naboths Vineyard or this Vineyard of Prophecy it not implying any miraculous predictions but the being inspired with a right Sentiment of things from the Spirit of Life and having the confidence to speak the truth as it is in Jesus This is all that need to be understood thereby 15. To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols This Woman of Thyatira whether the wife of the Bishop of Thyatira or some other Person of quality for Interpreters of the letter vary in that according to the Literal sense is described from her acts as onely guilty of pretending her self to be a Prophetesse and that thereby she seduced the servants of Christ to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols which is a chief point of that which was called Gnosticisme And the truth of the supposed History here we do in no wise deny But we also adde that it is hugely improbable that the spirit of Prophecy would take notice so particularly of any one Woman in so majestick a Writing which Alcazar also very seriously and vehemently urges if there were not some greater matter aimed at Wherefore I say the Spirit of God taking the advantage of the significancy of the miscarriages of this Woman in Thyatira which would set out part of the enormities of the Church of Rome here perstringed added there to the name of Jezebel that the Prophetick Prefiguration might be the more complete the Church of Rome in this Intervall being lively adumbrated by this Allusion to Jezebel joyned to what is reported of this woman in Thyatira viz. That she pretends to be a Prophetess as the Church of Rome to be infallible that she drew the servants of Christ to Idolatry and uncleannesse as the Church of Rome does by engaging them in the Masse and other superficial modes of serving God that leave the minde sensual and besides necessarily intangle them in Idolatrous practices Thus much from the practice of this Woman 16. Now in that she has this name given her of Jezebel assuredly the spirit of God points us to her story to make up this Parallel betwixt this woman Rome viz. as she is also a murderer of the Prophets and servants of God and a contriver of false Accusations against them as if by the keeping of the Inheritance of their Fathers a pure conscience according to the ancient and Apostolick faith and innate notions of Truth that God has implanted in the minds of all men they were blasphemers of God and the King and obnoxious to both the Civil and Spiritual Magistrate And lastly which is to be taken special notice of the Church of Rome in this Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Christ is called Jezebel because for all her paintings and fine meretricious pranking her self up she was to be thrown out at the window and her flesh to be devoured by dogs which the just wrath of God and the zeal of Jehu the noble Reformers stirred up by the Spirit of God brought to passe at the end of this Intervall of the Church as it is threatned also in the following parts of this Epistle 17. And I gave her space to repent her of her fornication and she repented not She had a fair time to consider of her grosse Apostasies from the purity of my worship since the witnesse of the Waldenses and Albigenses against her and yet she remains still obdurate and impenitent and continues her old
belief of them against their own false sense and opinion of themselves The beginning of the Creation of God This hath a more high meaning like that in the beginning of S. John's Gospel and respects the Divinity of Christ by whom all things were made and in whom all things are But I believe also that is more particularly insinuated here which is expresly declared of him according to the Seventy by the Prophet Esay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginner of that world or Age under the Messias wherein he having as I intimated before carried on all things so completely according to promise and prediction this seems an advantageous repetition of what was intimated before in that Attribute of Amen As if he should say I was the beginner of this marvellous Scene of things from the time of my living on this Earth in the flesh to this very day and you see how steddily all things have been carried on according to Predictions and Prophecies wherefore believe me in the rest whether Comminations or Promises which I shall now declare unto you This seems to be the genuine sense of this Preface to the Epistle 5. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I see thee to be in a tepid formal remisse Dispensation Thou holdest still the outside of the Philadelphian Church for Doctrine and Worship But thou art destitute of that Spirit of life in the new Birth which was the proper Character of thy deceased Sister of Philadelphia I would thou wert cold or hot Though it be not better in it self yet it were better for thee thou wert not so externally good as thou art that thou mightest the sooner be convinced of thine own wants and get into the state of Repentance of Mortification and finally of Regeneration that so thou mightest partake of my Spirit But now thou art but an externall Image of warm flesh out of which life and soul did lately depart even then when thy Sister Philadelphia departed out of this world Thou art the external frame of that Philadelphia but the spirit has left thee 6. So then because thou art luke-warm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth That is I will declare in a torrent of words against thee how nauseous and distastfull thou art to me and how my stomack rises against thee Which is done in the following verse where he pours out those just Reproaches against her that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Or it may be there may be a more profound and yet not less solid meaning in this Commination and that it may be predictive of her utter Extermination that the continuance of the Church of Christ upon Earth shall cease in her For the immenseness of Christ's Divinity incompassing all things that are he can vomit nothing out from him but it must therewith be cast into Non-entity And the Laodicean Church is the last Scene of Providence and this Church and indeed the whole Scene of affairs on this Earth for her sake is shortly to have an end For in the next Thunder to this Laodicean Intervall Christ comes to Judgement and presently after is the Conflagration And Satan is to be let loose but a little time so that the time of the Laodicean Church cannot be long Wherefore the Commination I will spew thee out of my mouth may well be a prediction of the utter Extermination of the Church out of being that is as to the state of a Church upon Earth For as before the coming of the Floud God is said to repent him that he had made man upon the earth and that it grieved him at his heart so Christ here expresseth how nauseous and stomack-sick he is against his Church under this Intervall and Title of Laodicea how his choler and indignation rises against her Luke-warmnesse and that therefore he will vomit her out in a floud of Fire and overwhelm her in a deluge of hot scalding sulphureous flames which will come to passe at the Conflagration The state of the Church now in its old age naturally growing worse Christ will think fit to put an end to the Scene of things and carry his to his Celestial Kingdome 7. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing And this is one reason of the Spiritlesnesse and Inactivity of the Laodicean Church that she thinks she has all things desirable already Peace Plenty Power and Dominion Security from enemies Profession of the Truth Purity in externall Worship rid of Superstition and Idolatry abundance of Knowledge as well Natural as Theological the understanding of all Prophecies by reason of their clear Completion and the faithfull and judicious Interpretations of her Predecessours no Oppression no Persecution for Conscience sake every man lives at quiet and injoys himself under his own Vine under his own Fig-tree What want we therefore are we not still the true Philadelphian Church and the new Jerusalem descended from Heaven in all the riches and glories thereof One would think so indeed according to the judgement of any carnal eye But let us hear what the Amen says the true and faithfull Witnesse And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Christ saith to the Church in Smyrna I know thy works and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich The Primitive Church while the Spirit of life was in them though in the midst of the want of all externall Comforts and under most dreadfull Persecutions in the judgement of Christ are accounted rich but the Laodiceans in the affluence of all external Blessings because they want that Spirit of life are deemed poor and miserable and naked as if they had not a rag to hang on their backs nay blind also for all their abundance of Knowledge because they are devoid of the knowledge and experience of the Mysteries of the Spirit of life in the new Birth and the Renovation of the Soul into inward living Righteousnesse but take up with the externall Laodicean state or condition 8. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou may est be rich I advise thee sincerely to endeavour for that is the price thou must pay for this Gold after the Recovery of thy self into the state of the new Jerusalem descended from Heaven which City was of pure Gold so purify'd in the fire that it was as clear as transparent Glasse This is the new Creature in thee the Transformation of thy nature into the Image of the Heavenly Adam This is solid and durable Riches indeed and such as will go along with thee into the highest Heavens when this Earth and the metalls therein shall melt with fire Labour therefore after such a solid Treasure as will abide those fatal flames and will not perish with thee in the general Conflagration And the Symbol of this Treasure is this
touched of it in the general before 5. Tenthly Why is Christ in his Description before the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus set out by a two-edged sword coming suppose out of his mouth according to the Ellipticalnesse of the Apocalyptick style what reason in the letter can be given of that for especially if this Supplement be made it cannot respect the slaying of Antipas with the sword What peculiar thing then in this Church of Pergamus is there to require this Description Truly nothing at all appears in the Letter But in the Propheticall sense it is very proper The Waldenses and Albigenses in this Intervall assaulting the Church of Rome or at least defending themselves and their pure Faith so signally by this weapon I mean by the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God though themselves died so many thousands of them in the field by the sword for the Faith they thus defended And in the eleventh place The Description of Christ before the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira And his feet like fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace for that Supplement is to be understood out of his Description in the first Chapter as before But now what peculiar significancy has this Description or what congruity to any thing in the Church of Thyatira Literally understood surely none But in the Propheticall sense it is very expressive of those lower members of Christ's body his Church here on earth of their invincible Zeal and Patience and Sincerity of Affection such as did abide the most fiery Trialls that could be put upon them and made them stand at the Stake amongst burning Faggots with the flames about their ears and never flinch for it As has been noted in the interpretation of that Epistle This was the state of that Intervall of the Church Twelfthly In a Book that is so full of AEnigmaticall Involutions and Coverings upon Coverings where he calls the Churches Golden Candle-sticks and the Bishops or Pastours Stars and Angels even then when he interprets and offers to be more plain that the same Authour should so openly and plainly mention any one by name as he does the Martyr Antipas if there were not some farther Mysterie in it would be a great difficulty and hardly to be digested by the more sagacious and curious I must confesse I have often wondred at this naming Antipas by name till I understood a farther sense thereof such as we have rendred in the exposition of that Epistle 6. In the thirteenth place One might well demand why Christ expresses a greater disgust against the Church of Laodicea then that of Sardis For though the former is said to be luke-warm yet the other making a great show of life is notwithstanding declared to be dead That Christ should be more enraged against Luke warmnesse then Hypocrisy and threaten it more deeply then the other I will spew thee out of my mouth which is quite to cast a thing away never to be resumed again must seem marvellous to the considerate Certainly if there were not some greater matter in it the Spirit of Christ would not speak so severely onely to follow a Metaphor But in the Propheticall sense the Solution is easie that passage being predictive of the Extermination of the Church from the face of the earth at the close of the world as I have expounded it In the fourteenth place It may be demanded why so affectedly and repeatedly in every Epistle that phrase is used I know thy works without any variation or omission Which seems a thing but of small importance in the Literal sense of these Epistles but in the Propheticall it seems on purpose so repeated to intimate an Allusion in Asia to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was intended on purpose to answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Asia may also be significant as well as the names of the Seven Churches which they all being it is a shrewd presumption this repetition was for some such design as has been declared Whereas the Literal sense can give no account thereof Fifteenthly Alcazar himself is much stumbled that the Spirit of God should be thought to take notice of any one particular Woman in the Church of Thyatira and so call her by the name of Jezabel as is ordinarily supposed And indeed these things are too little for the majesty of this writing of the Apocalypse But how can we help it in the Literal sense if we will interpret with constancy and coherency But in the Propheticall sense there is no such incongruity The Object is worth the Spirit 's taking notice of in this kinde this Jezabel being that painted Woman of Rome intoxicating the Kings of the earth with the Cup of her spiritual Fornications as has been shewn upon the Text. 7. Sixteenthly It seems very strange that that Promise of ruling over the Nations and receiving the Morning-star which doubtlesse are Politicall Promises should be made to the Church in Thyatira more then to that in Pergamus or Ephesus and others What Victories or Dominion did the Church in Thyatira in Asia get over the Nations more then other Churches This is an hard knot in the Literal sense But in the Propheticall it is loosned at the first sight For the Closure of the Intervall of the Church of Thyatira brings in the time wherein whole Nations revolted from the Pope and his idolatrous Church and professed the Reformed Religion and so in these parts got the Pontifician party under them Seventeenthly In the Epistle to the Church in Philadelphia there is mention made of a mighty Temptation that is to come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth touching which he saith Behold I come quickly Why should this be said to the Church of Philadelphia more then to any other of the Churches here specified There are not the least footsteps of reason to be found in the Literal sense But in the Propheticall sense the thing is plain For the Intervall of Philadelphia beginning in the last Vial wherein that mighty and terrible Earthquake is to happen the great Temptation what it is is plainly thence understood and how in respect of this Philadelphian Church it will come quickly she commencing but in the very same Vial that this is to happen under Eighteenthly Why upon this Philadelphia a private Asiatick Church should the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God the very same that is expressed Apoc. 21. be said to be written This title were too big and turgent for any private Church were it not a Type or Symbol of some greater matter But by the Propheticall interpretation this difficulty is quite removed For the Intervall of the Philadelphian Church is co-incident with the times of the new Jerusalem mentioned at the end of the Apocalypse and of the Millenniall Empire of Christ upon earth 8.
excuse and therefore become obnoxious to God's eternall wrath and Damnation if they relinquish not that false Prophetesse Jezebel as she is called in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira who by her corrupt Doctrines deceives the people and inveigles them into gross Idolatrous Practices 9. Thus little is conceded by those of our Reformed Churches that speak most favourably of those in the Church of Rome And yet this little must be retracted unless we can make it out that any of that Church are capable of sincere and unfeigned Repentance while they are of it For to repent as a Thief because he is afraid to be hanged is not that saving Repentance But to repent as a true Christian none can doe unlesse he has the Spirit of God and be in the state of Regeneration For true Repentance arises out of the detestation of the uglinesse of Sin it self and out of the love to the pulchritude and amiablenesse of the Divine Life and of true Vertue which none can be touched with but those that are Regenerate or born of God Now those holy and Divine Sentiments of the new Birth are so contrary to the Frauds and Impostures to the grosse Idolatries and bloudy Murthers of the Church of Rome which they from time to time have perpetrated upon the dear Servants of Christ that it is impossible for any one that has this holy sense but that he should incontinently fly from that Church with as much horrour and affrightment as any Countrey-man would from some evil Spectre or at the approach of the Devil 10. He that is born of God sinneth not saith S. John How then can they be so born whose very Religion is a Trade of sin and that of the highest nature they ever and anon exercising grosse acts of Idolatry besides that they are consenting by giving up their belief and suffrage to the murtherous Conclusions of that Church to all the barbarous and bloudy Persecutions of the Saints that either have happened or may happen in their own times or ever shall happen by that Church they become I say guilty thereof by adjoyning themselves to this bloud-thirsty Body of men with whom the Murther of those that will not commit Idolatry with them and so rebell against God is become an holy Papal Law and Statute And therefore I say how can any man conceive that those men are born of God who are thus deeply defiled with Murtherous and Idolatrous Impurities but rather that they are in a mere blinde carnal condition and uncapable while they are thus of any true and sincere Repentance and consequently of repenting of their daily Idolatries which they commit and ordinarily to make all sure in ipso articulo mortis and therefore are out of all capacity of Salvation while they are members of that Church As plainly appears both by this present Reason fetch'd from the nature of Regeneration as also from the judgement of the Romanists themselves touching the state of Idolaters after this life and chiefly from the expresse sentence of the Spirit of God in Scripture as I intimated before 11. And therefore in the fifth and last place it is exceeding manifest how stupid and regardless those Souls are of their own Salvation that continue in the Communion of the Church of Rome and how desperately wilde and extravagant they are who never having been of it but having had the advantage of better Principles yet can finde in their hearts to be reconciled to it This must be a sign of some great defect in Judgement or else in their Sincerity that they ever can be allured to a Religion that is so far removed from God and Heaven 12. But this Church as the woman in the Proverbs is I must confess both very fair of speech and subtil of heart and knows how to tamper with the simple ones right skilfully She knows how to overcome all their carnal senses by her luxurious Enticements She has deck'd her bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved works with fine linens of AEgypt She has perfumed her bed with Myrrh Aloes and Cinnamon She entertains her Paramours with the most delicious strains of Musick and chants out the most sweet and pleasing Rhymes to lull them secure in her lap Such as those Idolatrous forms of the Invocation of the Virgin Marie and of other Saints which I have produced of which she has a numerous store Unto which I conceive the Prophet Isay to allude in that passage touching the City of Tyre representing there mystically the relapsing Church of Rome Take an harp goe about the City thou harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet Melody sing many Songs that thou mayst be remembred See Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. 13. She gilds her self over also with the goodly and specious Titles of Unity Antiquity Universality the power of working Miracles of Sanctity likewise and of Infallibility and boasts highly of her self that she has the power of the Keys and can give safe conduct to Heaven by Sacerdotal Absolution and if need be out of the Treasury of the Merits of Holy men of their Church which she has the keeping and disposing of can adde Oyl to the Lamps of the unprovided Virgins and so piece out their Deficiency in the works of Righteousnesse Such fair speeches and fine glozing words she has to befool the judgements of the simple 14. But as to the first it is plain that that Unity that is by Force is no fruit of the Spirit and therefore no Sign of the true Church nor that which is from free Agreement if it be not to good Ends. For Salomon describes an Agreement of Thieves or Robbers heartening one another to spoil and bloudshed and to enter so strict a society as to have but one purse And therefore for a company of men under the pretense of Spirituality to agree in the inventing or upholding such Doctrines or Fictions as are most serviceable for a worldly design and for the more easily riding and abusing the credulous and carnal-minded thereby to be masters of their Persons and Wealth this is no holy Unity but an horrid and unrighteous Conspiracy against the deluded sons of Adam 15. And for Antiquity and Universality they are both plainly on the Protestants side who make no Fundamentals of Faith but such as are manifestly contained in the Scripture which is much more ancient and more universally received then any of those things upon whose account we separate from the Church of Rome which are but the fruits of that Apostasie which after four Hundred years or thereabout the Church was to fall into according to Divine Prediction So that we are as ancient and universal as the Apostolick Church it self nor do we desire to appear to be the members of any Church that is not Apostolicall And for their boast of Miracles which are produced to ratifie their crafty Figments they are but Fictions themselves framed by their Priests or Delusions of
golden Candlesticks they are not apply'd nominatim to the seven particular Churches in Asia that are said to be writ to it is an Invitation to the thinking of a more released sense and that some other seven Churches in another kinde of meaning as well as they if not rather then they may be aimed at this ought to be no prejudice to the other Arguments in the same Chapter that are so cogent but rather those other to afford strength to this which is added as an easy Probability not a convictive Demonstration and therefore is not considerable but in conjunction with the rest as is intimated in the very place And I will onely adde here That if there were no other sense then the Literal to be look'd after that in all likelihood for sureness to keep men from Errour and from doing wrong to any Church by a false Interpretation the Spirit of God would have expresly said that the seven Candlesticks were the seven Churches of Asia that were there writ to and that the seven Stars were the seven Bishops of those very Churches I must confess in my own judgement I think there is some such thing hinted at as I have declared which made me not omit it But I am also as sensible that it can signifie little to those that are averse and are given to cavill who are prone to dwell on what seems weak that they may ease their minds of what is more strong and stringent Which is a fault that is punishment enough to him that commits it he usually losing Truth by thus indulging to his own ill humour 5. I know not whether thou mayst mistake me also in the Allusion I memtion of Ephesus to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it sounded like Aphesus which I would warrant from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Matres lectionis before the use of Points standing for both A and E whence I would argue the affinity of those two sounds when as thou maist object that Martinius expresly speaking of these three Matres lectionis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that the first stands for A the second for E and I and the third for O and U. But in Hebrew Writings without Points there is nothing more familiar then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing for E as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like And in the Greek tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are frequently changed into one another according to diversity of Dialect so that there can be no difficulty touching this thing 6. Thirdly It may haply be objected against our interpreting the Ten days of Affliction predicted to the Church in Smyrna of the Ten famous Persecutions that some reckon more then ten adding an eleventh under Constantius the Arian a twelfth under Julian the Apostate and a thirteenth under the Arian Emperour Valens But Prophecy being an anticipatorie History it is sufficient that it speak according to the usual language of Historians whose reports run up on these Ten so famously and distinctly taken notice of And there are no more then ten in the Intervall we set for the Church of Smyrna After which conspicuously comes in the Scene of Pergamus Christianity having got the conquest over the old persecuting Paganism And Julian reigned not two years and his Attempts were most-what of another kinde and none considerable so as to break this number Besides that it happened in an Intervall notoriously of another nature and denomination and therefore is not to be taken notice of it bearing no proportion at all to the contrary Affairs of that Period Indeed the Arrian Persecutions are very considerable but they are of another nature from these Ten. The Church being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became proud as well as exalted out of the dust and contentious as well as proud according to that of the wise man Prov. 13. 10. Onely by pride cometh contention but with the well-advised is wisedome Christ was therefore faithfull in his promise to the Church in Smyrna and procured them the Crown of life and Safety from the Pagan Cruelty and Persecution But that the Church afterwards in Pergamus fell out amongst themselves was their own fault none of his that taught them expresly That by this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if ye love one another 7. Fourthly It may perhaps seem hard to thee that I interpret the eating of things offered to Idols of communicating with the Church of Rome in their Idolatrous Masse For how can that consecrated Bread be said to be offered to an Idol It is true he that they pretend to offer it to is no Idol but the true God But by their Idolatrous practices communicating Divine Worship to what is not God they debase the nature of the true God so far as that they seem to lose the true Notion of him and in stead of him to worship an Idol of their own brain For the true God is not so mean a Being that any others can partake in his Worship And therefore according to the cutting and searching strain of the Prophetick style those that mingle Idolatry with the Worship of the true God are represented as having no true Knowledge of him and therefore whatever religious Worship they doe they being devoid of the knowledge of the true God they must necessarily be conceived to doe it to some Idol According to which sense is that of Amos O ye house of Israel have ye offered to me victimes and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wildernesse yea ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch c. Where the true God by reason of their Idolatry in worshipping other Objects denies they at any time worshipped him though questionless they thought they did offer Victimes and Sacrifices unto him This is express and direct to the Scruple propounded But in our Exposition it is onely insinuated that there is a Propheticall Diorism or a Synecdoche whereby Idolatry in the general is signify'd by that particular species thereof the eating things offered unto Idols Which is used here with the greater fitness and elegancy because that the Idolatry is committed in that part of their Religion that is performed in the eating of what is consecrated And if we do but consider that the Lord's Supper is a Feast upon a Sacrifice according to that of S. Paul Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast which Notion is made out with abundant evidence by a late learned and judicious Writer on that Subject we once supposing the eating of this Sacrifice contaminated with Idolatry what can be a more natural and apposite reproach to it then to parallel it to the Feasts upon the Pagan Idolothyta the eating of things offered unto Idols Wherefore there is not the least harshnesse imaginable in this Interpretation 8. Fifthly That it may be no
able accession to the Womanishnesse or Daughterlinesse if I may so speak of the Church of Rome which is here perstringed in this Period by an Allusion to Thygatira which signifies a Daughter 11. And although upon search after those places cited out of Strabo and Pliny I could not find what I sought for yet I found no reason to recede from this part of my Interpretation First Because this passage Cornelius cites may haply be found in some other place in those Authours though it be not in these Secondly because there need be no such account of the Notation of the word sith paronomasticall Allusion is sufficient and Thyatira of it self sounds near enough to Thygatira as must be generally allowed by all those that give their suffrage for the derivation therefrom And it is not hard to prove it from the easie Elision is made of the letter G out of sundry words Those in the English Tongue are obvious It is more pertinent to instance in the Greek where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Poets is srequently for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And also in the middle of words the Boeotians pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andfrom the Latine magis is the French word mais and from Magister Maister And Caninius in general pronounces Alia sunt innumerabilia quae deperdunt G which implies it to be but a weak melting Consonant and such as easily degenerates into Y and as it may be placed is easily quite lost Which argues that the sound of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are near enough for paronomasticall Allusion in any indifferent man's judgement whatsoever And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides that common Analogie of making nomina parasyllaba as they are called from the fifth Declension as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is an example exquisitely answering this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the word is unexceptionable And lastly though we should give it for granted that neither Pliny nor Strabo has any such Passage as Cornelius pretends yet Stephanus Byzantius expresly has in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose very words I will transcribe for thy better satisfaction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say THYATIRA a City of LYDIA was first called PELOPEA and SEMIRAMIS but SELEUCUS the son of Nicanor waging war with Lysimachus and hearing that he had a Daughter born to him called the City THYGATIRA And it ought to be spoken in the feminine gender though now they make it of the neuter All this surely will abundantly warrant and secure a paronomasticall Allusion in Thygatira which signifies a Daughter 12. And this may suffice for the making good the Solidity of our Exposition And I say Solidity rather then Perfection affirming onely all to be right so far as we have gone but not denying but that others better versed in History may more fully verifie what we have attempted Nor did all things occurr that my self had read and should have noted if they had come to my minde As those notorious ten years of the most bloudy Persecution of all under Diocletian which I think may in special be alluded to by the ten days mentioned in the Church of Smyrna as well as the ten Persecutions in general by a Propheticall Henopoeia The Notation also of the names of Balaam and Balac are very accommodate to Pergamus Pergamus signifying what is high and Balaam the Lord of the People Which Balaam being also the false Prophet and set here for the Pope and his Clergy agrees excellently well with the Lordlinesse of him in this Pergamenian Period wherein he trode upon the Necks of Emperours and kicked their Crowns off with his feet And Balac which is here the Secular Sovereignty whether it signifie Destruction or Emptinesse sutes very well with the state of that time when the power of the Pope had so overmastered all that the Secular Magistrate was either but the bloudy Executioner of his Edicts or else stood for a mere Cypher the Temporal Power being quite in a manner evacuated by the Rampancy of the Spiritual And seeing all the names in this Prophecy are so significant I leave to the enquiry of the learned whether there may not be some proper significancy in the name of Jezebel also for it seems not uncapable of a fitting Etymologie and that according to the Pattern of a severe Critick in the Hebrew Tongue who in his account of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is just such another Composition as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says that it may be compounded of either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vae or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gloria So therefore say I may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be compounded of either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Habitaculum or else of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Chaldee which is but a Dialect of the Hebrew signifies Stercus or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insula and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stercus Which last is lesse accommodate to our purpose unlesse Insula here signifie symbolically as Mr. Mede sometimes interprets it of a Church as a place separate as Islands are by the Sea and holy in that it is separate And then the Reproach will be upon the holy Church of Rome in this Thyatirian Intervall as if it had become an Island of Filth and Dung Which was too true of them for all their outward Gildings and Paintings But the other Notations methinks are more simple and easie and fitly accord with both the History of Jezebel and the Fate of the Roman Church at the end of the Thyatirian Intervall For if we derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitaculum it will plainly glance at Jezebel's being slung out at the window from her habitation but most fitly prefigure the dispossession of the Roman Priests and Friers at the beginning of the Reformation that they would be cast out of their Habitations and that their places should know them no more So that the very Name of Jezebel bears in it the Fate of that Church at the close of that time But if we derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vae or heu and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stercus both the Fault and the Punishment of the Roman Church will be found written in this Name her Filth and Corruptions being compared to Dung and her Punishment intimated not unlike that of Jezebel's as it is written And the carcasse of Jezebel shall
be as the dung on the face of the earth So that the Notation of the name denotes with what foul Reproach the Papal Power and Superstition would be put down in those places out of which it was to be exterminated that it should be troden down into the very Dirt. So that upon him that was in the Pergamenian Intervall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of the People the Papal Hierarchy domineering over all at the close of this Thyatirian Intervall this insulting Lamentation might be taken up with a paronomasticall Allusion not much unlike the foregoing Etymologie in the sense thereof and near enough to the sound of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alas the Dung or Dirt of the Papal Lordlinesse How is it troden down as the Mire in the streets Which was notoriously performed in the actings of Martin Luther against the Pope and Roman Clergy But whether this or what else may be alluded to by the sound of the Name I am not very solicitous the Story of the Person being sufficient to warrant the meaning I have given of the Text as any one may see by perusing the Expolition And our Performance I hope will appear solid enough without descending to such curious Niceties We will therefore now onely adde something briefly touching the Usesulnesse thereof and so conclude 13. And certainly our Exposition of these seven Epistles to the seven Churches has an equal Usefulnesse with any other Exposition of the Apocalyptick Visions and the more considerable in that it is a more compendious comprehension of the main drift of them all First then it serves for the confirmation of our faith in the particular Providence and Watchfulnesse of Christ over his Church it being so manifest from this Exposition with what care and steddiness he hath carried on things hitherto in the first five Intervalls and that they have been no otherwise then He himself has predicted in these Propheticall Epistles But then again in the second place here is an ample and timely Testimony in the behalf of the Protestants I mean such as have declared against and forsaken the Communion of the Church of Rome from the time of the Waldenses to the first Reformers usually so called the Waldenses being acknowledged the faithfull Martyrs of Christ and those other that lived within the Intervall of the Church in Thyatira carrying away no lesse Encomium as being thus described in the Epistle to that Church I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first So that they approved themselves more and more even till they broke out at last into a National Reformation And shall not our first Reformers then be thought worthy of having the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses applied to them who have so ample a testimony from Christ himself whom the Father has constituted the Judge of the whole World And shall not they rightly be said to have ascended into Heaven in a Politicall sense to whom was made good that Promise to the Church in Thyatira To him that overcomes will I give power over the Nations c This therefore of the Church in Thyatira does farther ratifie what we have elsewhere delivered touching the Rising of the Witnesses that the Completion of that Prophecy was in that wonderfull Reformation God unexpectedly brought about by Luther and others Whence it will follow that the sound of the sixth Trumpet is over and that the Forty two months the One thousand two hundred and sixty days or the Time and Times and Half a time are expired as to the fulfilling of Prophecy and consequently that it is in vain for any to compute any Futurities upon the supposall of their Expiration to come and that those that doe so will finde themselves confuted by the unsutablenesse of Events and thereby expose the endeavour of interpreting Prophecies to reproach and scorn and weaken mens belief even of those Expositions that are true and give great advantage to the common Adversary But as it is most true in it self so it is most for the Interest of Reformed Christendome to take notice that the Protestant Reformation is the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses and of their Ascending into Heaven that men may have that value for the Reformation that is due thereto it having thereby so plain a Ratification from Divine Testimony of the rightfulnesse thereof against the Tyrannies and Idolatries of the Church of Rome and that both Magistrate and People may every-where be the better sodered together upon this consideration and that all Sects that keep the Foundation may have the better esteem for one another and not vilifie and hate one another in such sort as usually they do but be in a readinesse for Christian Unity and Love For it is this Dispensation of Spirit that must give Antichrist that most deadly Blow that is to come and not a flaming Sword out of the mouth of the Rider of the white Horse literally understood or large streams of fire spouted out of Heaven upon him or any such miraculous assistence as some ignorantly expect at the finishing of the 1260 days Which groundlesse Supposition is fit for nothing but to engender vain Heats and presumptuous Conceits to which no answer will be given but Shame and Frustration But the plain Truth understood as it is naturally tends to the begetting in all Reformed Christendome a mutuall esteem of one another and the suppressing that vain Presumption in Parties as if they were the sole people that the Vision of the Witnesses belonged to and so ought to expect marvellous things for themselves conjoined with the destruction or suppression of all the rest that are not of their own Party Which fond or rather unchristian Conceits are quite expunged by the true and faithfull Interpretation I have published to the world of the Rising of the Witnesses which puts them in a way rather of duly prizing one another and of jointly endeavouring in the spirit of Sobriety to advance the common Interest of whole Reformed Christendome then for any one Party so vainly to presume of themselves above all the rest And finally this groundlesse expectation of any such wonderfull events upon the expiration of the 1260 days being thus wiped away that time as to any fulfilling of Prophecies being already expired and no set time being defined for the future but onely the order of things in the Vision of the Vials it is left for the Protestants to compute the approach of the final Ruine of Antichrist and the blessed Millennium according to their own progresse in the Mysterie of real Regeneration and indispensable Duties of Christianity By how much more holy by how much more harmlesse by how much more humble by how much more Heavenly-affected they finde one another by how much more discreet by how much more faithfull and obedient to the publick
Magistrate by how much more kinde and loving to one another and by how much more seriously affected for the advancing the publick good and the endeavouring the common welfare of all mankind which will introduce the Philadelphian Intervall by so much more near they may reckon the approach of the downfall of Antichrist and the glorious Reign of Christ in his Saints at the happy Millennium But what other Indications there be besides these in the Visions of the Prophets whereby we may compute the nearnesse of those Times I must ingenuously confesse I know not But this was a sudden Excursion We will return again into the way 14. But thirdly In that it is said Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols c. this is a perfect clearing of the Protestant Reformers from that hainous Crime of Schism that the Church of Rome so magisterially lays to their charge it plainly implying that their Separation from the Church of Rome was not onely no Fault but a Vertue and an indispensable point of Obedience to the command of Christ and that it had been Disobedience and Rebellion against Christ not to have separated and therefore was impossible to be any Schism Which is a thing worthy of our notice and consideration As is also this contrary to the opinion of some otherwise learned That to depart from the Church of Rome upon the very account of Idolatry is not Schism before God but onely in the sight of men and those it is to be feared of none of the purest minds but rather such as have a greater sense of the carnal Interest of the Church then of the Glory of God and the purity of his Worship For Christ who is God blessed for ever does here blame the Church in Thyatira that she suffers the Woman Jezebel any longer and does not cast her off as the Eunuchs cast her out of the window in the Type and that for this very cause because she is a Teacher of Idolatry and an Abettour and Countenancer of spiritual Fornication as is manifest in the Text. So that before God or in the sight of God both the Church of Rome stands guilty of Idolatry and also the Protestants leaving her Communion upon that account are acquitted from any the least taint or suspicion of Schism And that the Spirit of God does but witnesse with our spirits in the truth of this matter if thou hast not lost the free use of thy Reason that brief Treatise of Idolatry added to this present Exposition will I hope abundantly satisfie thee which therefore I have adjoined as a sutable Appendage thereunto 15. Fourthly In that Reformed Christendom especially after their Remissnesse in Life and Manners and Contentionsnesse about Trifles is represented under the Type of the Church in Sardis to be in such an imperfect Condition though emerged out of the grossnesse of the Popish Idolatry for there is no farther complaint of either the Doctrine of Balaam or of Jezebel here this should teach us to be humble and not over-fierce and confident in our Opinions and Doctrines but meekly to bear one with another and be ready to be instructed by one another for the clearing up the Truth But in the mean time things being no better then they are sith they are no worse then they were predicted we are hence to learn that it is our Duty never to suffer our mindes to relapse towards the Flesh-pots of AEgypt or think we had as good goe back again to Rome as to be no better then we are For this Sardian state is like the wandring in the Wildernesse betwixt AEgypt and the promised Land which is the Philadelphian state into which there is no entrance till after the seven Vials that is till the last of them be poured out or at least a-pouring As it is said in the fifteenth of the Apocalypse And the Temple was filled with smoak from the glory of God and from his power and no man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Where no man according to the Apocalyptick style signifies that that company of men that were to enter into and make up that state of the Church which is here styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Temple of God would not appear in that eminent condition till after the Vials the last either current or complete Which agrees admirably with that passage in the Epistle to Philadelphia Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God So that these Philadelphians shall not onely enter into the Temple after the smoak of the Vials but never goe out of it again according to the sense we have explained it in Wherefore because we are in a kinde of Wildernesse-condition we ought with Faith and Meeknesse and Patience to abide till God shall bring us into that good Land and not to murmur against him and reproach his Providence who hath thought fit to carry on things with such leisurely steps nor peevishly and falsly to say that we had as good return to Rome again and that it is a question whether the Reformation has done more good or hurt For such thoughts or speeches are false injudicious and ingratefull Reproaches against the sacred Providence of God whose ways these bitter shallow and unsanctify'd spirits understand not because the spirit of the world has blinded their eyes And forasmuch as there is no complaint of Idolatry in the Epistle to this Sardian Church nor the least hint to make any Separation as before all the Churches of Reformed Christendom and all the particular Sects and Members thereof ought to have a tender regard how they divide from one another or break Communion for difference of Ceremony or Opinion but holding all the indispensable Foundation and bearing joint Testimony against the grosse Idolatries and wilde Enormities of the Church of Rome to study Peace and mutuall Compliance that the Body of Reformed Christendome may be more strong and compact to stand against the common Enemie But above all we are with might and main to endeavour to perfect Holinesse in the fear of God and to purge our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit that we may prevent the extremity of that Judgement which is threatned as suddenly and unexpectedly to come upon the Church of Sardis And these I think are main Usefulnesses discoverable in the Interpretation of the Epistle to the Sardian Church 16. And fifthly As for the Exposition of the Church of Philadelphia it is of main Importance for the making of the world good For it is the ordinary excuse for the reigning of Impiety and Immorality in the world that men will be men as long as the world lasts and that things are more likely ever to grow worse and worse then
within the Intervall of the Ephesine Church in our sense several Reproofs and Exhortations in the Epistles of the Apostles do plainly evince See Dr. Hammond's Notes on this Church which fully reach our design And the Epistles of Paul and the first of Peter and that to the Hebrews were all writ within that Intervall we have set for the Ephesine Church and their Faults committed before Which Defaults this Vision rebukes and threatens them for by way of instruction for future Ages as it is in the following Verse 9. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe the first works He bids them return to their first Love which was more strong then death And it was fit to give this command and encouragement to the Church because of greater Trials to come in her Smyrnian Condition For before the Ten Persecutions Martyrdome was more rare Or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent That is by an Hypallage I will remove thee from thy Candlestick which therefore is directed more especially to the Bishops or Pastours of the Church at that time as threatning them for falling into such a remiss degree of Love themselves or suffering their Charges so to fall For the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches Ch. 1. v. 20. and the seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches that is to say the Bishops and Pastours of the Church Wherefore this Commination to them may by an Hypallage signifie their being removed from the Church by some Judgement or other that is as many of them as were thus carelesse and remisse But to any Members of the Church the removing of the Candlestick from them may be their amission of their Church-membership as eripere alicui or adimere alicui Civitatem is to make him cease to be a Citizen any longer Which sense is also competible to the Bishops or Pastours Christ may cut them off in foro Divino from being any longer Members of his Church and consequently from Salvation But there is yet another sense which pleaseth me best of all in which Victorinus Andreas Lyranus and Alcazar do all agree who interpret the removing of the Candlestick out of its place of the commination of some Commotion or Storm that should overtake this Church not that this Church should be carried quite away but moved or agitated as in a Storm or Earthquake This they understand of the Ephesine Church in Asia literally which is an argument that the Interpretation seemed very easie and genuine unto them And it is as easily applicable to our Mysticall sense But I would raise the Storm a little higher and make it signifie the storm of that dreadfull Persecution that was to befall the Church in the Smyrnian Intervall thereof For it is look'd upon still as the Apostolick Church from the beginning to the end though distinguished into these several Intervalls And it is observable that there is in every Epistle to the respective Church some Prediction to be fulfilled in the Intervall of the following Church Which I thought fit here to note at once and shall particularly as we proceed take notice thereof in their proper places The sense therefore seems to be this That unless the Church in this Ephesine Intervall would be raised to an higher pitch of Zeal and Love and Activity for the propagating of his Kingdome Christ would excite their Courage and exercise it with such hot Persecutions sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae as would be more effectual for the bringing to pass his design And it sell out accordingly in the Ten Persecutions within the Smyrnian Period of the Church 10. But this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate The Church by this time had grown so soft and remisse that there was not that zealous painfulnesse as heretofore in several of them nor that resolved Courage in suffering all things for Christ's sake yet they were not grown so corrupt and beastly as to be given up to the impurity of the Nicolaitans which in after-times some exercised from a mistake of an indiscreet act of one Nicolas a Deacon in these very times of the Apostles And from him were these beastly fellows called Nicolaitans But little or nothing of this Impurity appeared within the Period of this Ephesine Church which yet the Spirit of God foresaw would become detestably frequent and notorious in such Wretches as though they called themselves Christians the Apostolick Church would not own This is allowed the Ephesine Church for their comfort and credit that they are free from Nicolaitism and that they may adde to their Purity invincible Patience and Fortitude he adds To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God For their works and labour and pains-taking here is eating and refreshing promised them for their Patience and hardship a Paradise of Pleasure for their laying down their lives for the Gospel the enjoyment of eternal Life in the Kingdome of Christ. Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Verily I say unto thee This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But we had almost forgot the former part of the seventh Verse He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Which being a common Epiphonema to all these seven Epistles repeated in them from the first to the last certainly must bear no small importance with it Two things therefore I conceive driven at by the affixing this Epiphonema to each Epistle The one to give us notice that though there be a Literal sense of these Epistles yet that they are every one of them also a Parable which is intimated from this repeated form of speech which Christ in his life-time usually added at the end of Parables He that has ears to hear let him hear Besides that the very sense of the Epiphonema implies so much which is He that has an understanding to reach the depth of the meaning of these Epistles let him reach it For it is not within the reach of every man's wit to find out the drift of them The other thing driven at is to intimate to us that there is a meaning lodged under these seven Parabolicall Epistles of exceeding great moment and concernment to the Church From whence I would inferre that that Interpretation of them that is of the greatest consequence is the most likely to prove true And such I conceive this will approve it self to the judicious which we are now a-framing And thus much of the first Succession of the Church under the Title of Ephesus CHAP. IV. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Smyrna 1. AND unto the Angel of the Church in Smyrna write We come now to the second Succession of the state of the Church whose Title is the Church in Smyrna and
many Waters that insinuates that this Description respects also his Body Mysticall which are a multitude 7. I know thy works and charity and service and faith The true Church then in Thyatira being in Oppression and Affliction stood close to one another and encouraged and comforted one another and supported one another as well as they could and endeavoured after an Exemplarity of Godlinesse and due proficiency in the Power of Religion as being Candidates for that Deliverance which they by Faith saw was not far off And thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first That is I see the works of thy Patience in suffering Imprisonment Tortures and Death and particularly in giving up your selves as an Oblation of Incense to the Fire and faggot in such numbers for the testimony of my Truth Which being toward the latter end of this Intervall it is fitly said and the last to be more then the first This is according to what is found in History 8. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess c. viz. the Papal Hierarchy that pretends to be infallible and under colour of this brings in Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication and detains men in the Communion of their idolatrous Mass which the Spirit of God here parallels to the eating of things sacrificed unto Idols The Prophetesse Jezebel here therefore answers to the false Prophet after mentioned in the Revelations and this exprobration to the Church in Thyatira of permitting Jezebel thus to practice her deceits to that voice of the Angel Come out of her my people lest ye be partakers of her sins and of her plagues It is a kind of solicitation of the Princes and people in Christendome such as discerned the Frauds and Idolatries of the Roman Church to make a Defection from her and suffer her Trumperies no longer For the time of that Defection now drew near and things were ripe for it and it was in the power of them that disliked the condition of Affairs to amend it and therefore he saith Because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel For it is no fault in us to suffer those things which it is not in our power to help or redresse 9. This Jezebel is very expressive of the Roman Hierarchy if we recurr to the story of the book of the Kings not onely for her painting of her self which is notorious in the Roman Church and especially in this Intervall and such as the Homilies of our Church in England take especial notice of comparing all those rich and gorgeous Adornings of the Church of Rome to the painting of the wrinkled face of an Harlot but also for her Whoredomes and Witchcraft as it is noted 1 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy Mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many Which is exactly parallel to the Description of the Whore of Babylon who is said to be the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the earth described also by that Cup of Sorcery in her hand whereby she intoxicates the Kings of the Earth and makes them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication And whereas she is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Jezebel also in her History is famous for murthering the Prophets of God 10. And those grosse Wickednesses committed by Ahab who did very abominably in following Idols and in persecuting the Servants of the true God who is said to have sold himself to work Wickednesse are imputed to this subtil murtherous Whore and Witch as the Text plainly declares But there was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up That is to say the Roman Hierarchy according as both the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and of the two-horned Beast do plainly signifie was the Authour Contriver and Instigatour unto all those murtherous and idolatrous practices that the Secular Magistrate has been guilty of during their Force and Tyranny over the true Servants of Christ. The Beast with two Horns exercised all this Power before the Beast with ten Horns or rather made use of the Secular Power to effect all their devillish Designs against the Children of God as Jezebel wrote Letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal The Church got the stamp of the Imperial Authority upon all the wicked Dogmata of their Religion and Idolatrous practices which they contrived for their own carnal advantages and then if any Naboth would not part with the Inheritance of his Fathers the possession of an holy righteous and rational Conscience nor profess nor act against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those native Truths and Notions which God of his infinite mercy and faithfulnesse has implanted in the minds of all men that have not done violence to that innate Light the Candle of the Lord searching all the parts of the belly he was through the murtherous contrivances of this Strumpet Jezebel falsely accused as a Blasphemer of God and the King as an enemy to both the Catholick Faith and secular Magistrate and so was sentenced to death And death came by these wicked Accusations in this Intervall as in the former Intervall wherein Antipas was slain by openly fighting in the Field Thus apposite is the Allusion to the History of Jezebel for the setting out the state of this Intervall of the Church under the Tyranny of the Church of Rome 11. Nor is it all harsh thus to interpret a Vineyard to so spiritual a sense as to make it something within us whenas both Philo and other ancient Interpreters have interpreted Paradise to that sense or the Garden of Eden And others also cannot but acknowledge that that Law of Moses Deut. 22. 9. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers seeds has also a Moral or Mysticall meaning and is a Precept of Simplicity or Sincerity of heart Wherefore the Vineyard of Naboth may very well signifie the Humane Will and Understanding that is sown onely or planted with such Notions or notices of things as are from God whether they be those innate Idea's of the Soul or what is communicated farther by the Spirit of God in the Holy Writings of inspired men or are more immediately inspired into us by the abode of that Spirit in us All these Plants are of our Heavenly Father 's own planting and no other seed is to be sown among them repugnant thereunto And this Vineyard is the Inheritance of all true Christians descending upon them from the Apostles times to this very day But the Roman Empire being perverted by the doctrines of the whore or two-horned Beast or by the eorruptions also of their own nature had a mind to invade this ancient right as Ahab had to get into his possession Naboth's
trade of whoring still Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds Unlesse she repent I will certainly cast her into a bed of sicknesse and languishment for that bed of Adultery wherein she has entertained the Kings of the earth Her strength and glory shall be much diminished and her Paramours shall bewail the Calamity I shall bring upon her For there shall be of the Kings that shall hate the Whore shall make her desolate in their dominions and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire As it fell out in the late defection of whole Nations from her And I will kill her children with death That is either slay them with the sword of the Spirit and so make them dead as to her by their conversion to the truth or else kill them with a natural death such I mean as come against my true Church whether whole Armies or seditious Emissaries as has often happened since the Reformation And all the Churches shall know that I am he that searches the reins and hearts and will give unto every one of you according to his works That is it will be notoriously taken notice of in all Christendome how just my judgements are and that I deal not with Jezebel according to her fair pretenses and Titles who calls her self Holy Church and pretends all her cruelties and imposturous and Idolatrous Trumperies to be for my glory whenas they have run into all this degeneracy for their worldly Interest But mine eyes which are a flaming fire searching into the hearts and reins clearly see their abominable Hypocrisie and my feet like fine brasse that never goe out of the way of purity and justice will be sure to overtake them and doe due vengeance upon them I will reward every one according to his works 18. But unto you I say and unto the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine To you Pastours of my true Church in Thyatira and the rest which are your charge that hold not the Idolatrous doctrine or faith of the Thyatirian that is of the Roman Church And which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak that is which have not approved the deep mysteries as they speak of reason of State or of the Roman Religion such as murdering innocent men for the Interest of Holy Church Infallibility Transubstantiation and the like but I who search the heart and reins do apertly declare to be the depths of Satan they tending to nothing but to Luciferian Pride barbarous Persecutions and Murders and grosse imposture and Idolatry I will put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already hold fast untill I come I have already shew'd you my approbation of your wayes ver 19. and in that ye do not communicate with the Idolatrous Jezebel keep to where you are and stand out to the last let no Persecutions dismay you till I come in judgement against this Jezebel the same with the little Horn in Daniel which in the expiring of the time and times and half a time will certainly be judged 19. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations That company of men those people that keep my works to the end to the last semi-time of the Seven they shall have power over the Pagan Christians they shall get them under and be no more domineered over by them And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron that is with sufficient power and strictnesse to keep them in subjection As the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers The stone shall smite the Image on the feet and break them to pieces That shall be at the long-run Even as I received of my father I in you and you in me you in me by vertue of the Power of my Spirit shall thus reign and I in you according as it is written I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces as a Potters vessel But this is something further off 20. And I will give him the morning star In the mean time and which is next to succeed I will give them the morning star that is a considerable dawning towards that greater Day of the illustrious reign of Christ upon earth in his Saints by his Spirit The Phosphorus to the glorious Sun-rise of the happy Millennium properly so called This intervall will be the same with that of the Vials which are accompanied with such a smoake As here the Promise which is to be performed in the next Succession of the Church and there continued is not expressed with that vigour as elsewhere where Christ in reference to his Kingdome is said to be the bright morning star here onely the morning star without the ornament of that Epithet The Kingdome of Christ therefore under the first Thunder may be said to be the morning star but under the second the bright morning star And it is observable that whereas in that other place he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may also have the signification of more early then was expected which exquisitely answers to the evert it falling out toward the fore-part of the last semi-time But these things are onely by the by He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches There is nothing new remarkable in this Epiphonema but the placing of it here after the whole Epistle which is a sign that all the Epistle is a Parable and is not onely meant of the Church in Thyatira in the Literal sense but that the condition and affairs of some other Church the truely Catholick and Apostolick Church in the Intervall defined are here prefigured and described Prophetically And that therefore the Promises are to be performed on this stage of the Earth as of their own nature they appear to be such that have a Political sense Which therefore therewithall assures us that such a tenour of Interpretation belongs to the three following Epistles because the Epiphonema is the close of every one of them And therefore we shall steer the course of our Interpretation accordingly CHAP. VII The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Sardis 1. AND unto the Angel in the Church of Sardis write That Sardis was a City in Asia is manifest Ch. 1. And considered no otherwise then so does not at all illustrate the condition of this fifth Succession of the state of the Church But acknowledging here again a Paronomastical Allusion to Sarda the precious Stone as Grotius does or taking notice with Pliny that that Stone is so called for its first being found about
Sardis it may prove very significative of the condition of Reformed Christendome within that Intervall beginning from the rising of the Witnesses and ending in the last Viall in part of it I mean After which the Intervall of Phyladelphia comes in and takes up also the second and third Thunder Some special qualities therefore of the Church of Sardis are to be read in this Stone Sarda and some to her praise others to her diminution The virtue of this Stone is that carried about one it makes a man chearfull and couragious and drives away Witchcraft and Enchantment and expells poison rightly administred which adumbrate some peculiar Privileges in this Sardian Church Their chearfull security in justification by faith in Christ's bloud and their being rid of the poisonous idolatrous doctrines and bewitching Enchantments of the Cup of the Whore Here 's nothing of Jezebel in this Church nor any mention of the eating of things offered to Idols nor in the two following Epistles which is no small ratification of the truth of these Successions Both they and she are well and sound touching these points 2. But this Stone Sarda which is also called Carnalina and in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odem as representing humane flesh and bloud so lively seems also to insinuate something to the Derogation of the Sardian Church as if they were flesh and not spirit which is the special Dispensation of the Church of Philadelphia And whereas Christ's Conquest over Edom is by letting out or squeezing out the corrupt bloud of old Adam this Odem or Carnalina is said to be of that virtue as to stanch bloud and stop it from running out and therefore seems to be significative of whatever Doctrines in the Sardian Church that hinder the due and requisite Mortification of the old man as loth to weaken him too much and let too much of his bloud and life run out 3. The meaning therefore is that though the Sardian Church be well rid of the foul Idolatries and grosse Trumperies of the Papal Church yet her state as yet is but carnal most-what It is not the Dispensation of the spirit of life but the main stir is about external Opinion Ceremony they seem to know Christ onely according to the flesh not according to the power of his Spirit whereby he is able to subdue all things under him Whereas Christ after he had said that his flesh was meat indeed and his bloud was drink indeed clearly explains himself in declaring expresly that the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life yet a great part of this Sardian Church I mean the Lutherans rack their own Wits and disturb the rest of Reformed Christendome to maintain that odd Paradox of Consubstantiation that so men may eat and drink that grosse Flesh and Bloud of Christ that was crucify'd upon the Crosse in the Celebration of their Eucharists What can be more Carnaline-like then this Besides that there are over-many that do as grosly and carnally erre touching the nature of the Resurrection-Body they phansying it as terrestrially modify'd though it be called a celestial or spiritual Body in the Scriptures as that Body is that we put into the Grave or is capable of the imbraces of the Nuptial Bed To say nothing of other such like grosse carnal Conceits that this Sardian Church has not yet expunged out of her mind But as mischievous a mark as any of her Carnality is her Dissension and Schismaticalnesse even to mutuall Persecution as also the unnatural and unchristian Wars of one part of Reformed Christendome against the other These things rankly savour of the Flesh and are infinitely contrary to the due Dispensation of the Spirit which when it shall appear will bring in the Church of Philadelphia the Church of unfeigned Love and Charity wherein according to the prediction of the Prophets there shall not be the noise of this unchristian War any more These Touches may suffice to shew why the Spirit of God has denoted this Succession of his Church by the Title of the Church in Sardis 4. These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God The number Seven signifies Universality sometimes whence the Pythagoreans call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense therefore is that hath in readinesse to bestow all the spiritual or Divine Graces to make the man of God perfect to every good word and work And the seven Stars That is to say that holds the seven Stars in his right hand so it is in the Description before his speech to the Ephesine Church which is repeated here for encouragement Christ hereby declaring his Power and promising his Assistence to the renewing of Christendome through the Reformation as well as he did to the forming of it at first and rooting out Paganism in the first beginning of the Church which is the Ephesine Intervall I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead I discern plainly thy state and condition Thou hast indeed a semblance of life because thou hast a great deal of Heat and Zeal and dost with an externall fervour doe many performances that may raise a fame of thee of being more then ordinarily religious And many hot disputes there may be for this or that Ceremony for this or that Opinion and against them much and very vehement discourse about Faith and Justification and the like Which Heat and activity bears a semblance of Life in thee But assure thy self unlesse thou hast that Faith that worketh by Love all this stir is but the noise of tinkling Brasse or of sounding Cymbals And being thus alive thou art notwithstanding in my sight little better then dead And although thou dost thus imitate warm flesh and bloud yet thou art but a cold Sardius Stone to my touch and discernment As she that liveth wantonly is dead while she liveth though she thinks she is then most of all alive so it is with him that devoid of Christian Love and Charity is enlivened with an hot bitter ignorant and preposterous Zeal This is not the life of God but of mere Nature and Carnality 5. Be watchfull and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die Take heed that want of Love and Life hazard not Faith too and Remissnesse in Manners bring not in Atheism and Infidelity over all For I have not found thy works perfect before me Those things that have Life in them goe on to Perfection Wherefore if they stop before and make no progresse it is a sign there is some deadly distemper at the very heart or root and such a Plant must wither and die Thy Works are neither perfect nor dost thou easily admit of such Doctrines as lead most effectually to Perfection Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent That is to say You that are my true Apostolick Church remember what ye have
received from me my self or my Apostles stand fast to the infallible Word which will impartially instruct and excite you to all the due measures of Godlinesse And believe not the rotten and corrupt Glosses ofdeceitful men that would sew Pillows under mens Arm-holes and frame Opinions and Precepts to favour the Lusts of the flesh To dote upon men is a piece of Carnality but to dote on them for their carnal Opinions and fleshfavouring Documents is Sardian or Carnaline of a double Dye Repent therefore for the Kingdome of God is at hand and he that has the seven Spirits of God stands ready to assist and succour with his Divine Graces all that sincerely endeavour after Righteousnesse So that the fault lies at your own doors If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I come upon thee If thou wilt not return to true Sobriety and Sincerity of Manners I shall bring some signal mischief upon thee before thou beest aware I shall suddenly come in Judgment against thee when thou least dreamest thereof God of his infinite mercy avert the ill Omen and change our hearts that we may amend our lives and he may be reconciled to us 6. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments Notwithstanding the Dispensation of the Sardian Church be so generally carnal in the very hew of that Carnaline-stone that looks so like mere flesh and bloud yet there are some few that have not defiled their garments with that colour but are as it were the Primitiae of the Dispensation of the Spirit whose inward Man is renewed day by day into the Image of my self and are made partakers of the Divine Nature and are the Children of Light And they shall walk with me in white These shall not onely enjoy glorious Converses with me and I communicate my spiritual Graces abundantly to them but they shall be very successfull and prosperous in their Affairs For to be cloathed in white signifies so in the Onirocriticks accordingly as you may see in Achmetes For they are worthy For I doe to every one according to his work 7. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment He that overcometh all the Lusts of this terrestrial Body to him will I communicate the Celestial or Divine This is a more Theologicall sense But the Political is most proper the Epiphonema concluding the whole Epistle Wherefore to be clothed in white Raiment it being here the promise to him that overcomes signifies and that rather then in the fore-going Verse Successe and Prosperity in external affairs and exemption from Grief and Affliction as the Onirocriticks do expresly interpret it See Achmetes And I will not blot his name out of the book of Life The more proper and Politicall sense may be that when the Church by overcoming has emerged into the Philadelphian condition it shall never change at least as to the externall frame but keep up to the end and God will avowedly acknowledge it to be his even to the last even then when it is passed into the Laodicean state and the state of Persecution shall never overwhelm it any more So the Book of life may signifie here as the Crown of life before in the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna But I will confess his name before my Father and before his Angels That is to say I will acknowledge his nature to have become in a manner Divine and Angelical and therefore to be a meet Associate for their companies in my Heavenly Kingdome for ever This may be a Moral or Theologicall sense But the Politicall is chiefly aimed at as is intimated by the placing of the Epiphonema last of all The confessing therefore of the Names of these few in Sardis that are right as they should be and as many as make up to the measure of their Sanctity which therefore are the seed of the Philadelphian Church Christ his confessing of their Names before his Father and before his holy Angels is the mentioning of their Names as of a People more peculiarly his and extraordinarily dear unto him that by thus owning them in such an endearing manner before God and his holy Angels they may be in a more special manner recommended to the favour and Protection of God and to the faithfull and watchfull Ministry of his holy Angels which will be the efficient causes of their being cloathed in white and of their Name never being blotted out of the Book of Life that is to say of the Permanency of their outward Prosperity and security from Misery and Oppression that thus Innocency and outward Felicity may goe hand in hand in the blessed Millennium which is in a manner the same with the Philadelphian Intervall of the Church These few Names in Sardis will amount to this at last For Salvation is to spring out of Sardis not out of Babylon Nor is it any wonder that the Ministry of the holy Angels will be so extraordinarily exercised about a Church which will then have become so Angelicall as is more fully noted in the Divine Dialogues 8. These are the rousing Motives which Christ useth to excite the carnal Church of Sardis to more hearty endeavours after the Dispensation of the Spirit that they may bring on the beginning of those most happy Times the conduct of which Affair is represented by that illustrious Heros on his white Horse Chap. 19. where his Armies follow him on white Horses clothed in fine Linnen white and clean Which appertains to the last end of the Intervall of this Church of Sardis a great part of whom by this time it 's likely may have turned their Carnaline-colour into pure white and be ready to march with him there to that spiritual Warfare as some are said here to walk with him in white and that with marvellous success and prosperity as their white Cloathing does intimate He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Reformed Christendome especially she is so much concerned therein For she as I said at first is this Sardian Church the beginning of whose Intervall being adorned with more true Holinesse and sincerity of Zeal the better deserved the Title of the Rising of the Witnesses And though they be here much reproved for their Faults yet they are acknowledged to be one of the Seven Churches in Asia Chap. 1. 11. that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Fundamento and are the true and Apostolical Church still and justly witnesse against the Idolatries and grosse Antichristian practices of the Church of Rome such I mean as with them have become a Law and thereby are properly Antichristian This I thought fit to adde to stop the preposterous pronenesse of some toward the Roman Church from the Consideration that all things are not so perfect in the Reformed Churches as might be desired For though they be
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
cannot appear till the Church emerge out of the Sardian or Carnaline state into the Philadelphian Against which Church Christ exhibits no complaint at all but loves her and likes her entirely even as he is cordially loved of her And without question the state of that Church is so lovely that she will charm even her enemies to a liking of her and unto a submission to her all things being so irreprehensible in her But commonly wicked men are very domineering and ferocient against good men that have any blot or infirmity on them unless they be of their own faction And therefore this Philadelphian Church if any must be the Church that can mollifie the hearts of the Papists and bring over as many as God pleaseth to the belief of the Truth But for the Cities of the Nations their Conquests will be unspeakable amongst them For these are those powerfull Thunderers by whose thundering and lightening the Cities of the Nations are to fall as I intimated before And to know that I have loved thee The Papists themselves shall discern by the stupendious successe of the Philadelphian Church what a value Christ puts upon her and how far he prefers her Integrity Simplicity Brotherly-kindnesse Humility Meeknesse and Purity of Worship before the Roman Frauds and Impostures their barbarous Persecutions and Cruelties their Luciferian Pride and superstitious and Idolatrous practices 4. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience that is Because thou art both meek-hearted and hast been faithful and not flitting in the time of trial but endurest all things for my names sake I will keep thee from the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world Namely at what time all the world will be in an hurly-burly and cast into manifold streights and calamities Which is in the last Vial when the three unclean spirits goe forth unto the Kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battel of that great Day of God Almighty and when there shall be so great an Earthquake as has not been since men were upon earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great In this mighty tempest and hurry of things will I preserve thee from danger and thou shalt carry it safe through all Thou shalt escape better then any party of men by reason of thy conspicuous Innocency sincerity and exemplarity of life and unexceptionable Apostolicalnesse of doctrine and singular love to me and all mankind Because thou art milde and courteous and benign and beneficent to all because thou art a lover of unity un-self-interessed a foe to no body and onely an enemy to the vices and miseries of men This with my singular favour to thee shall protect thee in that great confusion and high fermentation of mens spirits under the last Vial. Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good 5. Behold I come quickly Thou art already in that Period of time wherein this great Judgement will come upon the earth namely under the first Thunder Or rather because the Philadelphian Church is not supposed to be in distinct being or appearance till the last Vial the last Vial must be this Period And then this coming in respect of that time will be quickly indeed Hold thou fast what thou hast that no man take thy Crown Thou art a Church after my own heart O Philadelphia and I blame thee for nothing thou walkest uprightly with me and art perfect Wherefore hold that ground which thou hast got in truth and integrity that thou mayst not be deprived of that Crown I intend thee for in thee will I accomplish all the glorious Promises touching my Kingdome upon earth 6. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall goe no more out ' O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that overcomes that is in the Apocalyptick style All or the whole Company that overcomes which is here meant of the Philadelphians They shall be as a pillar in the Temple of God that is they shall be a steddy and standing Holy people a true holy Catholick Church that shall never fail but shall last till I come in the clouds to Judgment in the last Day All other forms and denominations shall fail but this shall keep the sovereignty to the last And I will write upon him the name of my God This is in pursuance of the former Metaphor of a Pillar with a farther Allusion to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Ancients These Philadelphians shall have the name of God written upon them that is their Conversation and manners will be so holy and divine that it will be as conspicuous to all as if it were writ upon their foreheads that they are the holy Church and chosen people of God Or more briefly and in a more Political sense The name of my God may allude to Jehovah Shammah intimating that these Philadelphians shall be that Church which is represented by the City Jerusalem described by Ezekiel which is called Jehovah Shammah Of which the following words seem to be a more expresse signification And the name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God The name of the City the new Jerusalem as well as Jehovah Shammah will be written upon them The City where God dwelleth and ruleth by his Spirit that is to say they will be that City of Jerusalem formally and actually under the second Thunder For to be called and to be are all one in the Hebrew Idiom And his name is called the Word of God Apo. 19. 3. is as much as He is the Word of God Wherefore this Philadelphia under the second Thunder passes into the same with the new Jerusalem but the Title of Philadelphia begins sooner and reaches farther to the fourth Thunder This Inscription of the Philadelphians that they are called the new Jerusalem c. in the very words in which it is described afterwards Apoc. 21. is a notable Indication that by the Church of Philadelphia is meant that Succession of the Church that is under the second and third Thunder but was emerging in the last Vial. For it is the new Jerusalem which cometh out of Heaven from God Which therefore having this manifest Political sense would be very hardly attributed to that City of Philadelphia in Asia literally understood but with an eye to this successive Intervall of the Church which we here speak of And the Promise was not performed to the Literal Church of Philadelphia which has perished that was no such lasting Pillar And therefore there is a necessity of a farther sense Mysticall or Propheticall 7. And I will write upon him my new name It is expresly said Apoc. 10. 16. that Christ has a name written upon his Vesture and upon his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords This name Grotius would have understood here And there is no
small reason for it that name being so particularly and pompously set out for a special name of his And though he has ever had a right unto it yet because the getting into possession of this right will be new and fresh in this Philadelphian Intervall after the battel of the Heros on the white Horse it is rightly termed a new Name and very fittingly writ upon these Philadelphians because they are so instrumental in his Atchievements These are the Boanergesses thundering over the great City divided into three parts and also those Horsemen on white Horses as I intimated before Christ therefore through these becomes King of Kings and Lord of Lords or rather he has made them the greatest Kingdome upon earth The mountain of the Lord's house is exalted upon the top of the mountains and all Nations flow unto it as it is to come to passe under the third Thunder Through which third and second Thunder and seventh Vial is drawn the Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Philadelphia as I have hinted above He that hath an ear to hear let him hear c. We need not here urge the intimation of this Political sense of things from the putting of the Epiphonema last the very nature of the expressions calling for it though we had no such guide But we may rather argue that the things themselves being of so manifest Political sense not moral or spiritual that it confirms our Rule touching the position of this Epiphonema But this by the bye We proceed to the Church of Laodicea CHAP. IX The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church of Laodicea 1. AND to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write The Intervall of the Succession of the Church of Laodicea is the fourth and fifth Thunders that is from the loosing of Satan to the appearing of Christ coming to Judgement under the sixth Thunder In this Intervall the Scene of Philadelphia is past and Laodicea takes place which is acknowledged a true Church as to Worship and Doctrine but is represented as a lazy lethargical Church in which that former Philadelphian zeal is extinguished as to the generality of the Church though it 's likely this degeneracy comes on by degrees in this Intervall 2. Thus therefore it is foreseen in the series of Divine Providence that after that glorious estate of the Church which is synchronal to the second and third Thunder during which space and a little before the Scene of Philadelphia adorned the Stage had well purged the Christian World from all foolish opinions and superstitions and of that accursed custome of persecuting one another for them and that the truth of the Gospel had clearly shined in the simplicity thereof and so convictively against all the follies and impostures of the former Ages that the Church had no great hazard of being again cheated with them and that they had seen all Prophecies in a manner fulfilled before their eyes so that there could be no doubt to them but that the Philadelphian Church was the true Church nor be in any capacity of any change in faith or worship after this I say as all things are in some sort or other variable under the Sun so it seems this Philadelphian Church was at last to degenerate into this Laodicean state and that which was before the Reign of the Spirit and the living Righteousnesse of God would now become the Church of Laodicea which signifies a more popular or external Politicall righteousnesse or the righteousness of the people An external profession and performance of that Mode that was used by the Philadelphians in a living way and with the power of the Spirit the same will this Church of Laodicea hold on spiritlesly and lazily with little life or zeal and yet applaud themselves by reason of the abundance of knowledge she has because of the completion of the Prophecies and by reason of the purity of the external Worship she still retains as if all was still well with her and as if she wanted nothing 3. This in brief is the condition of this Church as it is significantly intimated in the very name For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as the righteousnesse of the people And the people are any multitude of mankind gathered into a body politick as is manifest in that notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then again in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the people being a body politick are ruled by such and such laws which if they observe it is not regarded quo animo or out of what Principle they observe them The new nature Regeneration and the Spirit are quite out of this rode And a National or Oecumenical Religion Doctrine or Worship as they are ab extrà are but as a political law and the Righteousnesse therein but a Laodicean Righteousnesse as has been abundantly inculcated already But besides this meaning of the name Laodicea which I doubt not but is particularly intended there may according to the multifarious Allusivenesse of the Propheticall style another notable meaning be also intimated and that very appropriate to this Church For the ratio nominis in Laodicea may be likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in the Intervall of this Church God will in that most notorious and terrible manner come to judge the people Because the Closure of this Church brings in the last Judgement properly so called therefore this last Intervall of the Church is called Laodicea The judging of the people all the Nations of the world at the last Day And there is nothing more frequent in the Scripture then the giving of names from some notable externall Accident that respects the thing or person so named 4. These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witnesse Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians says That all the promises of God in Christ are Yea and Amen that is to say they are so sure and certain that no man need doubt but they will be performed Wherefore this Attribute of Christ is seasonably brought in as respecting both the completion of the Promises already performed in bringing his Church to that admirable glorious condition in the Succession of Philadelphia as also the performance of that material Promise at the end of this Epistle touching eternal Life or a blessed Immortality in Christ's Heavenly Kingdome which these Laodiceans or degenerated Philadelphians like our modern Familists that pretend to the Philadelphian Dispensation may some of them it 's likely be prone to distrust But Christ is here also called the faithfull and true witnesse because he does so impartially witnesse concerning the truth of the condition of the Laodiceans and so faithfully discover to them the danger thereof And the declaration seeming so paradoxicall to them it was the more requisite to inculcate into them his own truth and faithfulnesse that he might gain
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
world with infinite bold examples of the grossest Idolatry and therefore all our practices upon this Principle must be Idolatrous and Treasonable against the Divine Majesty Consider well the fifteenth Conclusion 12. The last Conclusion That this pretended Consideration that where Christ is corporeally present Divine Worship is not done to his Humanity but to his Divinity and that therefore though the Bread should not prove transubstantiated the Divine Worship will still be done to the same Object as before viz. to the Divinity which is every-where and therefore in the Bread this will not excuse the Adoration of the Host from palpable Idolatry For first That part of the Pretense that supposes Divine Worship in no sense due or to be done to Christ's Humanity is false For it is no greater presumption to say that in some sense Divine Worship is communicable to the Humanity of Christ then that the Divinity is communicated thereto In such sense then as the Divinity is communicated to the Humanity which are one by hypostaticall Union may Divine Worship also be communicated to it namely as an acknowledgement that the Divinity with all its adorable Attributes is hypostatically vitally and transplendently residing in this Humanity of Christ. Which is a kinde of Divine Worship of Christ's Humanity and peculiar to him alone and due to him I mean to his Humanity though it be not God essentially but onely hypostatically united with him that is and does as naturally partake of Religious or Divine Worship in our Addresses to the Divinity as the body of an eminently-vertuous holy and wise man does of that great Reverence and civil Honour done to him for those Excellencies that are more immediately lodged in his Soul Which Honour indistinctly passes upon the whole man And as the very bodily Presence of this vertuous person receives the civil Honour so in an easie Analogy doth the Humanity of Christ receive the Divine but both as partial Objects of what they do receive and with signification of the state of the whole case viz. that they are united the one with the Divinity the other with so vertuous a Soul Hence they both become due Objects of that entire externall Worship done towards them to the one civil to the other Divine And therefore in the second place it is plain that there is not one and the same due Object capable of Religious Worship in either Supposition as well in that which supposes the Bread transubstantiated as in that which supposes it not transubstantiated For in the former it is the true and living corporeall Presence of Christ whose whole Suppositum is as has been declared capable of Divine Honour but in the latter there is onely at the most but his symbolicall Presence whose Adoration is Idolatry by the nineteenth twentieth and twenty-first Conclusions And lastly The pretending that though the Bread be not transubstantiated yet the Divinity of Christ is there and so we do not misse of the due Object of our Worship this is so laxe an Excuse that it will plead for the warrantableness of the Laplanders worshipping their Red cloth or the Americans the Devil let them but pretend they worship God in them For God is also in that Red cloth and in the Devil in that Notion that he is said to be every-where Nay there is not any Object in which the ancient Pagans were mistaken in taking the Divine Attributes to be lodged there whether Sun Heaven or any other Creature but by this Sophistry the worshipping thereof may be excused from Idolatry For the Divine Attributes as God himself are every-where To direct our Adoration toward a supernatural and unimitable Transplendency of the Divine Presence or to any visible corporeall nature that is hypostatically united with the Divinity most assuredly is not that sunk and sottish that dull and dotardly sin of Idolatry For as touching this latter to what-ever the Divinity is hypostatically united or to avoid all cavill about terms so specially and mysteriously communicated as it is to Christ the Right of Divine Worship is proportionably communicated therewith as I have already intimated And as for the former That through which the Divine Transplendency appears is no more the Object of our Adoration then the diaphanous Air is through which the visible Humanity of Christ appears when he is worshipped But the Eucharistick Bread being neither hypostatically united with the Divinity nor being the Medium through which any such supernatural Transplendency of the Divine Presence appears to us Adoration directed toward it cannot fail of being palpable Idolatry For the Eucharistick Bread will receive this Adoration as the Object thereof by Conclusion the nineteenth and twentieth But the Adoration or any Divine Worship of an Object in which the Divine Attributes do not personally reside in such a sense as is intimated in those words of S. John And the Word was made flesh but onely locally as I may so speak this according to sound reason and the sense of the Christian Church must be downright Idolatry CHAP. III. That the Romanists worship the Host with the highest kinde of Worship even that of Latria according to the Injunction of the Council of Trent and that it is most grosse Idolatry so to doe 1. AND having thus clearly and distinctly evinced and declared what is or ought to be held Idolatry amongst Christians let us at length take more full notice of some Particulars wherein according to these Determinations the Church of Rome will be manifestly found guilty of Idolatry and that according to the very Definitions of their own Council of Trent As first in the Point of the Adoration of the Host touching which the very words of the Council are Latriae cultum qui vero Deo debetur huic sanctissimo Sacramento in veneratione esse adhibendum and again Siquis dixerit in sancto Eucharistiae Sacramento Christum non esse cultu Latriae etiam externo adorandum soleâ—â—iter circumgestandum populâ—que proponendum publicè ut adoretur Anathema sit 2. This confident Injunction of grosse Idolatry as it is certainly such is built upon their confidence of the truth of their Doctrine of Transubstantiation For the Chapter of the Adoration of the Host succeeds that of Transubstantiation as a natural or rather necessary Inference therefrom Nullus itaque dubitandi locus relinquitur c. That is to say The Doctrine of Transubstantiation being established there is no Scruple left touching the Adoration of the Host or giving Divine Worship to the Sacrament or Christ as it is there called when it is carried about and exposed publickly in Prócessions to the view of the people But the Doctrine of Transubstantiation being false it must needs follow that the giving of Divine Worship to the Host is as grosse a piece of Idolatry as ever was committed by any of the Heathens For then their Divine Worship even their Cultus Latriae which is onely due to the onely-true God is exhibited to
undeniable Principles of common Sense and Reason and of all the Arts and Sciences God has illuminated the Mind of man withall Consider the twelfth Conclusion of the above-named Treatise together with the other ten before cited Wherefore any one that is not a mere Bigott may be as assured that Transubstantiation is a mere Figment or enormous Falsehood as of any thing else in the whole world 8. From whence it will unavoidably follow and themselves cannot deny it that they are most grosse and palpable Idolaters and consequently most barbarous Murtherers in killing the innocent Servants of God for not submitting to the same Idolatries with themselves Costerus the Jesuite speaks expresly to this Point and consonantly I think to the Suppositions of the Council viz. That if their Church be mistaken in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation they ipso facto stand guilty of such a piece of Idolatry as never was before seen or known of in the world For the errours of those saith he were more tolerable who worship some golden or silver Statue or some Image of any other Materials for their God as the Heathen worshipped their Gods or a red Cloth hung upon the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live Animal as of old the AEgyptians did then of these that worship a bit of Bread as hitherto the Christians have done all over the world for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be not true What can be a more full and expresse acknowledgement of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome then this if Transubstantiation prove an Errour Then which notwithstanding there is nothing in the world more certain to all the Faculties of a man as is manifest out of what has been here said And therefore the Romanists must be grosse Idolaters from the second third fourth seventh and ninth Conclusions of the first Chapter and from the fourth fifth eighth ninth twenty-first twenty-second and twenty-fifth of the second Chapter All these Conclusions will give evidence against them that they are very notorious Idolaters 9. And therefore this being so high and so palpable a strain of Idolatry in them touching the Eucharist or the eating the Body and drinking the Bloud of Christ wherein Christ is offered by the Priest as an Oblation and the People feed upon him as in a Feast upon a Sacrifice which is not done without Divine Adoration done to the Host according to the precept of their Church This does hugely confirm our sense of the eating of things offered unto Idols in the Epistles to the Churches in Pergamus and in Thyatira this worshipping of the Host being so expresly acknowledged by the Pope and his Clergy and in that high sense of Cultus Latriae which is due to God alone And therefore it is very choicely and judiciously perstringed by the Spirit of Prophecy above any other Modes of their Idolatry it being such a grosse and confessed Specimen thereof and such as there is no Evasion for or Excuse Hoc teneas vultus mutantem Protea â—odo CHAP. IV. The grosse Idolatry of the Romanists in the Invocation of the Saints even according to the allowance of the Council of Trent and the authorized practice of that Church 1. BUT we will fall also upon those Modes of Idolatry wherein the Church of Rome may seem less bold though indeed this one that is so grosse is so often and so universally repeated every-where in the Roman Church that by this alone though we should take notice of nothing farther Idolatry may seem quite to have overspred her like a noisome Leprosy But how-ever we shall proceed and first to their Invocation of Saints Touching which the Council of Trent declares this Doctrine expresly Sanctos utique unà cum Christo regnantes Orationes suas pro hominibus offerre bonúmque atque utile esse suppliciter eos invocare ob beneficia impetranda à Deo per Filium ejus Jesum Christum ad eorum orationes operam auxiliúmque confugere Where Invocation of Saints is plainly allow'd and recommended and besides their praying for us or offering up our Prayers to God it is plainly imply'd that there are other Aids and Succours they can afford if they be supplicated that is invoked with most humble and prostrate Devotion And the pretending that this is all but the way of procuring those good things we want from God the first Fountain and that through his Son Christ that makes the Saints the more exactly like the Pagans Dii medioxumi and the Daemons that negotiated the affairs of men with the highest Deity 2. I say then that though they went no farther then thus even this is down-right Idolatry which the Council of Trent thus openly owns and consequently the whole Church of Rome as appears from the third fourth fifth sixth and eighth Conclusions of the first Chapter as also by the fifth seventh eighth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth and twenty-fourth of the second But if we examine those Prayers that are put up to the Saints their Invocation is still the more unexcusable 3. Wherefore looking to the publick Practice of the Church of Rome authorized by the Popes themselves the Invocation of a Saint does not consist in a mere Ora pro nobis as people are too forward to phansy that the state of the Question though the mere invoking of them to pray for us would be Idolatry as is already proved but which is insinuated in the Council it self there are other more particular Aids and Succours that they implore of them and some such as it is proper for none but God or Christ to give Such as Protection from the Devil Divine Graces and the Joys of Paradise But as the things they ask of the Saints are too big for them to be the Disposers of so the Compellations of the Virgin Mary especially are above the nature of any Creature Whence this Invocation of Saints will appear a most grosse and palpable Mode of Idolatry in that Church As I shall make manifest out of the following Examples taken out of such pieces of Devotion as are not mutter'd in the corners of their Closets but are publickly read or sung with Stentorian Voices in their very Churches I will onely give the Reader a tast of this kinde of their Idolatry for it were infinite to produce all we might 4. And first to begin with the smaller Saints as indeed they are all to be reckoned in comparison of the blessed Virgin to whom therefore they give that Worship which they call Hyperdulia as they give Dulia to the rest of the Saints and Latria to God alone and to Christ as being God That Prayer to S. Cosmas and S. Damian is plainly a Petition to them to keep us from all Diseases as well of Soul as of Body that we may attain to the life of the Spirit and live in Grace here and be made partakers of Heaven hereafter O Medici
Cor meum illumina fulgens Stella Maris Et ab hostis machina semper tuearis O gloriosa Virgo Maria mater Regis aeterni Libera nos ab omni malo à poenis Inferni Which is a Petition for Illumination of heart for Security from the Devil and from eternall Death which is onely the Privilege of the Son of God the eternall Wisedome of the Father to grant who is said also to have the Keys of Hell and of Death 4. But the thing which is very observable and which I mainly drive at is this That the Roman Church toward the latter end before the Reformation broke out had run so mad after the Patronage of the Virgin that they had almost forgot the Son of God and spent all their Devotions on her whom they do at least equallize to Christ and so really make her as well as some love to call her the Daughter of God in as high a sense as Christ is his Son as will farther appear in the process of our Quotations As in that Prayer to the blessed Virgin that follows in Chemnitius Te mater illuminationis cordis mei te nutrix salutis meae mentis te obsecrant quantum possunt cuncta praecordia mea Exaudi Domina adesto propitia adjuva potentissima ut mundentur sordes mentis meae ut illuminentur tenebrae meae O gloriosa Domina Porta vitae Janua salutis Via reconciliationis Aditus recuperationis obsecro te per salvatricem tuam foecunditatem fac ut peccatorum meorum venia vivendi gratia concedatur usque in finem hic servus tuus sub tua protectione custodiatur Which Petition and Compellations saving what belongs to the Sex are most proper and natural to be used towards Christ. But the Virgin is here made our Saviour and Mediatour in the feminine gender 5. As she is again most expresly in that Prayer to her in her Feast of Visitation Veni praecelsa Domina Maria tu nos visita AEgras mentes illumina Per sacrae vitae munera Veni Salvatrix seculi Sordes aufer piaculi In visitando populum Poenae tollas periculum Veni Regina gentium Dele flammas reatuum Dele quodcunque devium Da vitam innocentium In which Invocation the Virgin Mary is plainly called the Saviour of the World and pray'd unto for spiritual Illumination of the Soul and for the purgation thereof from the filth both of Sin and Guilt whereby she is plainly equallized to the Son of God and made as it were a She-Christ or Daughter of God To this sense also are those Prayers put up to her in her Feast of the Conception and of the Annunciation But it were infinite to produce all Reade that Prayer in Chemnitius sung to her by the Council of Constance It is a perfect Imitation of the ancient Prayer of the Church to the Holy Ghost CHAP. VI. More Forms of Invocation of the blessed Virgin out of the Mary-Psalter so called extremely Idolatrous and Blasphemous 1. WE will now onely note some passages in the Mary-Psalter as it is called wherein how much at that time the Church of Rome had thrust themselves under the Protection and Patronage of the Virgin and made her the Daughter of God in stead of approving themselves faithfull touching the Rights and Prerogatives of the Son and his Worship will be most notoriously evident I will begin with the thirtieth Psalm In te Domina speravi non confundar in aeternum In gratiam tuam suscipe me inclina ad me aurem tuam in moerore meolaetifica me Tu es fortitudo mea refugium meum consolatio mea protectio mea ad te clamavi cùm tribularetur cor meum exaudîsti de vertice collium aeternorum In manus tuas Domina commendo spiritum meum meam totam vitam diem ultimum This is that whole Psalm to the Virgin jusr in such a form and with such a repose of spirit as David prays in to God himself 2. But we will content our selves with transcribing onely some select pieces As Psalm 71. Resperge Domina cor meum dulcedine tuâ Fac me oblivisci miserias hujus vitae Concupiscentias aeternas excita in anima mea de gaudio Paradiss inebria mentem meam And again Psalm 104. Salus sempiterna in manu tua est Domina qui te dignè honoraverint suscipient illam Clementia tua non deficiet à seculis aeternis misericordia tua à generatione in generationem And Psalm 117. Dispositione tuâ mundus perseverat quem tu Domina cum Deo fundâsti ab initio Tuus totus ego sum Domina salvum me fac quoniam desiderabiles sunt laudes tuae in tempore peregrinationis meae No man can say more to or expect more from the eternall God himself Whence they make the eternall Godhead as hypostatically united with the Virgin as with Christ himself and carry themselves to her as if she were as properly the Daughter of God as he the Son For else how could she be said to have everlasting Salvation in her power and to have laid the Foundations of the world from the beginning with the eternall Deity 3. There are also other passages in this Psalter whereby they make the Virgin Mary a She-Christ the Daughter of God as he is the Son of God and that is by the applying of the very Phrases spoken of him in the Scripture unto her As in Psalm 2. Venite ad eam omnes qui laboratis tribulati estis refrigerium solatium dabit animabus vestris And Psalm 81. Terge foeditatem me am Domina quae semper rutilas puritate Fons vitae influe in os meum ex quo viventes aquae profluunt emanant Omnes sitientes venite ad illam de fonte suo gratanter vos potabit This is the gift of the Spirit belonging onely to Christ to give to them that believe on him And he is also said to be the ease and rest of all them that are weary and heavy laden And again Psalm 46. Omnes gentes plaudite manibus psallite in jubilo Virgini gloriosae Quoniam ipsa est porta vitae janua salutis via nostrae reconciliationis spes poenitentium solamen lugentium pax beata cordium atque salus This is attributed to the Virgin whenas it is Christ alone that is the way of Salvation and Reconciliation with God 4. This is a foul and tedious Subject and therefore to make an end at length let us consider the Blasphemy of the 41. Psalm Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum ità ad amorem tuum anhelat anima mea Virgo sancta Quia tu es genitrix vitae meae altrix reparationis carnis meae Quia tu lactatrix Salvationis animae meae initium finis totius salutis meae Here is that attributed to the Virgin which is said of Christ that he is the Authour
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
the Images of the Virgin and of other Saints as in the worshipping of the Image of Christ. So that all is religious Worship and consequently grosse Idolatry it being done to Stocks and Stones and such like senslesse Objects For the drift of all Idolatry is when it is questioned and craftily defended that through the Worship of Daemons and Images they reach at the Worship of and the joyning their Devotion to the first and highest Godhead Wherefore the Council of Trent declaring with the second Council of Nice that is to say the blinde leading the blinde they have both fallen into this dreadfull Pit of Idolatry CHAP. IX The meaning of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent touching the Worship of Images more determinately illustrated from the general Practice of the Roman Church and Suffrage of their Popes whereby it is deprehended to be still more coursly and Paganically Idolatrous 1. BUT it may be it may give more satisfaction to some to know what is the Church of Rome's own sense of this Honor debitus she declares ought to be done to the Images of Christ and the Saints Putting off a man's Hat and lying prostrate before them the Council does not stick to instance in by the bye But because the Council calls this neither Dulia nor Hyperdulia nor Latria some will it may be be ready to shuffle it off with the interpretation of but a civil Complement to these Images or their Prototypes But since the Council of Trent has declared nothing farther what can be a more certain Interpreter of their meaning then the continued Custome of their Church and the sense of such Doctours as have been even sainted for their Eminency as Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure who both of them have declared that the Image of Christ is to be worshipped with the Worship of Latria the same that Christ is worshipped with 2. And Azorius the Jesuite affirms that it is the constant Opinion of the Theologers their own he means you may be sure that the Image is to be honoured and worshipped with the same Honour and Worship that he is whose Image it is Which is not unlike that in the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the foregoing Citation But that they are all capable of religious Worship the Council of Trent it self as well as Bellarmine and others if not all the Theologers of that Church does plainly acknowledge in that it determines for their Invocation which is competible to no invisible Power but the Godhead it self Wherefore it is manifest that their Images are worshipped with religious Worship also 3. But we shall make still the clearer judgement thereof if we consider the Consecration of these Images which the Council of Trent declares are to be worshipped For the Consecration and Worshipping of them makes them perfectly as the Idol-Gods of the Heathen as Octavius jearingly speaks of the Heathen Gods that is their Idols in Minucius Felix Ecce funditur fabricatur scalpitur nondum Deus est Ecce plumbatur construitur erigitur nec adhuc Deus est Ecce ornatur consecratur oratur tunc postremò Deus est Behold it is clothed or adorned it is consecrated and prayed unto then at length it becomes a God And if this will doe it the Church of Rome's Images will prove as good Idol-Gods as any of them all 4. Chemnitius recites some forms of Consecration I will cull out onely those of the Images of the blessed Virgin and of S. John That of the Virgin is this Sanctify O God this Image of the blessed Virgin that it may aid and keep safe thy faithfull people that Thundrings and Lightnings if they grow too terrible and dangerous may be quickly expelled thereby and that the Inundations of Rain the Commotions of civil War and Devastations by Pagans may be suppressed by the presence thereof Which is most effectual to make all men come and hurcle under the protection of the Virgin 's Image in such dangers as under the Wings of the great Jehovah This is hugely like the consecrated Telesms of the Pagans But let us hear the form of the Consecration of the Image of S. John also Grant O God that all those that behold this Image with Reverence and pray before it may be heard in whatsoever Streights they are Let this Image be the holy Expulsion of Devils the conciliating the presence and assistence of Angels the protection of the faithfull and that the Intercession of this Saint may be very powerfull and effectuall in this place What a mighty Charm is this to make the Souls of the feeble to hang about these Images as if their Presence were the Divine Protection it self 5. These Chemnitius recites out of the Pontificall he perused But the Rituale Romanum published first by the command of Paulus Quintus and again authorized by Pope Urban the eighth will doe our businesse sufficiently they being both since the Council of Trent and therefore by the Exposition of these Popes we may know what that debitus Honor is which the Tridentine Fathers mention as that which ought to be done to the Images of Christ the blessed Virgin or any other Saint For the Consecration of their Images runs thus Grant O God that whosoever before this Image shall diligently and humbly upon his knees worship and honour thy onely-begotten Son or the blessed Virgin according as the Image is that is a-consecrating or this glorious Apostle or Martyr or Confessor or Virgin that he may obtain by his or her Merits and Intercession Grace in this present life and eternall Glory hereafter So that the Virgin and other Saints are fellow-distributers of Grace and Glory with Christ himself to their Supplicants before their Images and that upon their own Merits and for this Service done to them in kneeling and pouring out their Prayers before their Statues or symbolicall Presences What greater Blasphemy and Idolatry can be imagined Ornatur consecratur oratur tunc postremò fit Deus that is to say The Image is pray'd before but the Daemon pray'd unto There is no more in Paganism it self And yet by the Pope's own Exposition this is the debitus Honor that is owing to the Images of the Saints Consider the latter end of the last Conclusion of the first Chapter and the forms of Invocation in the fourth and fifth as also the eighteenth Conclusion of the second Chapter 6. This is all plain and expresse according to the Authority of their Church And that besides their Adoration and Praying before thâ—se Images which considering the Postures of the Supplicant and the Image is as much praying to them as the Heathens will acknowledge done to theirs there are also Wax-candles burning before them and the Oblation of Incense or perfuming them Feasts likewise Temples and Altars to the same Saints and the carrying them in Procession which was the guize of ancient Paganism is so well known that I need not quote any Authours And that this is the
the fit and easie congruity of the names of the Seven Churches and of the Events of the seven Intervalls denoted by them to the Prefigurations in the Visions there can be no doubt but that by Balaam mentioned in the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus wherein Antipas that is the Opposers of the Pope are murthered the Papal Hierarchy is understood as it is also by the Prophetesse Jezebel in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira who was also a Murtheresse of the Prophets of God and both of them expresly Patrons of Idolatry as is manifest in the very Text. Nor is it at all wonderfull that Balaam and Jezebel the one a man the other a woman should signifie the same thing For the false Prophet and the Whore of Babylon in the following Visions of the Apocalypse signifie both one and the same thing viz. The Hierarchy of Rome from the Pope to the rest of their Ecclesiastick Body 4. And what I have said of the Vision of those Seven Churches the same I say of all those Expositions of the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of the Apocalypse and that of the little Horn in Daniel namely The words of the Prophecies being so naturally applicable to the Affairs of that Church besides the demonstration of Synchronism that the weight of those two foregoing Conclusions being added thereto there cannot be the least doubt or scruple left but that those Interpretations are true and that the Church of Rome is that Body of Antichrist that Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth that is of multifarious Modes of grosse Idolatries or that scarlet Whore on the seven Hills that is also drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus 5. And that therefore in the fourth place in the Church of Rome the Poison exceeding the Antidote there can be no reason that Salvation should be hoped for there It is a sad and lamentable Truth but being a Truth and of such huge moment it is by no means to be concealed What God may doe in his more hidden ways of Providence he alone knows And therefore we cannot say that every Idolatrous Heathen must perish eternally But to speak no farther then we have commission and according to the easy tenour of the Holy Scriptures we must pronounce though with great sadnesse of heart that we have no warrant therefrom to think or declare any of the Popish Religion so long as they continue so to be in the state of Salvation and especially since that voice of the Angel which sounded in the Intervall of Thyatira saying expresly Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues and the Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God And those of the Church of Rome are bound to continue Idolaters as long as they live or else to renounce their Church and therefore they are bound to be damned by adhering to the Roman Church unless they could live in it for ever For he that dies in such a capital sin as Idolatry without Repentance nay in a blinde obstinate perseverance in it how can he escape eternal Damnation 6. But though we had kept our selves to the Apocalypse the thing is clear in that Book alone ch 22. ver 14 15. where all Idolaters are expresly excluded from the Tree of Life Blessed are they that doe his Commandments and one of them though expunged by Rome is Thou shalt not worship any graven Image that they may have right to the tree of life c. For without are dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers and Idolaters and whoso loveth and maketh a Lie All these are excluded the Heavenly Jerusalem and from eating the Tree of Life Of which who eateth not is most assuredly detain'd in eternall death As it is written in the foregoing Chapter that Murtherers and Whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death What sentence can be more expresse then this 7. But besides this Divine sentence against them they are also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are self-condemned or at least give sentence against themselves while they so freely pronounce that no Idolaters are to be saved which they frequently doe to save their own Church from the reproach of Idolatry For because some Protestants have declared for the Possibility of Salvation in the Romish Church they farther improve the favour to the quitting themselves of the guilt from others hopefull presages that by an hearty implicit Repentance of all their sins even of those that are the proper Crimes of that Church they may through God's mercy in Christ be delivered from the punishment This piece of Charity in some of our Party they turn to the fencing off all imputation of Idolatry from themselves arguing thus That no Idolaters can be saved But those in the Romish Church may be saved according to those Protestants opinion Therefore those in the Romish Church are no Idolaters But most assuredly while they thus abuse the Charity of some even by their own Proposition they must bring the sentence of Condemnation from all the rest upon their own heads as they have herein given it against themselves in saying that all Idolaters are damned or that no Idolater can be saved For it is demonstrated as clear as the Noon-light in this present Discourse that the Church of Rome are Idolaters 8. And in that of those of our Church that say they may be saved upon a sincere and hearty implicit Repentance of all their sins wherein they include the Idolatries and all other Miscarriages which they know not themselves guilty of by reason of the blinde Mis-instructions of their Church no more is given them by this then thus viz. That they are saved by disowning of and dismembring themselves from the Roman Church as much as it is in their power so to doe and by bitterly repenting them that they were ever of that Church as such and by being so minded that if they did know what a corrupt Church it is they would forthwith separate from it So that in effect those of the Roman Church that some of ours conceit may be saved are no otherwise saved if at all then by an implicit renouncing Communion with it which in Foro Divino must goe for an actual and formal Separation from it In which Position if there were any Truth it will reach the honest-minded Pagans as well but it can shelter neither unless in such Circumstances that they had not the opportunity to learn the Truth which since the Reformation and especially this last Age by the mercy of God is abundantly revealed to the world So that all men especially those that live in Protestant Nations or Kingdoms are without all
do thou humble her the more by shewing her her ugly hue in the glasse of the Holy Scriptures If she boast that she is that holy Jerusalem a City at Unity within it self whenas the rest of the World are so full of Sects and Factions tell her that she is that carnal Jerusalem wherein Christ in his true Members hath been so barbarously persecuted and murthered and that the Stones of her buildings are no living stones but held together by a mere iron violence and the Cement of her walls tempered with the large effusion of innocent bloud forasmuch as she is that two-horned Beast that gave life to the Image of the Beast and caused him to decree that as many as would not obey his Idolatrous Edicts should be slain This is the power of your Unity which is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning But the Division of us Protestants is both a sign of our sincere search after the Truth and a more strong Testimony against you of Rome in that we being so divided amongst our selves yet we so unanimously give sentence against you your Miscarriages and Crimes being so exceeding grosse that no free eye but must needs discern them 21. If she vaunts of her Antiquity give her enough of it and tell her she derives her pedigree from that great Dragon the old Serpent that is called the Devil and Satan that Murtherer of mankinde Ye are of your father the Devil saith our Saviour and the works of your father will ye doe We grant that the Visage and Lineage of your Church reaches even beyond the times of the Apostles the two-horned Beast reviving the Image of the Pagan Beast the great red Dragon by bringing up again his old bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries It suffices us that our Church began with the Apostles If she glories in her Universality and in her large Territories tell her she is that GREAT City which spiritually is called Sodom and AEgypt where our Lord was crucified And that she is Babylon the GREAT the mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth If she boast of the power of the Keys and of Sacerdotal Absolution tell her that he that is holy he that is true he that has the Key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth that is to say our Lord Jesus Christ will never part with these Keys to his inveterate Enemy that notorious Man of Sin or Antichrist If she spread before thee her goodly wares of mercenary Masses of Pardons and Indulgences of the mutuatitious Good works of their pretended Holy men and women or the Wealth and externall Glories of their Church and varieties of rich Preferments and Dignities say unto her that she is that City of Trade of whom it is written that no man buieth her merchandise any more and again Alas alas that great City that was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls For in one hour so great riches are come to nought For her Merchants were the great men of the Earth and by her Sorceries were all Nations deceived And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth 22. If she would amaze thee with the stories of the wonderfull Miracles done by her tell her that she is that two-horned Beast that doth great wonders and that deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to doe in the sight of the ten-horn'd Beast or that false Prophet working Miracles and deceiving them that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image who together with the Beast is to be taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone or lastly that Man of Sin and Son of perdition whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders If she would inveagle thee with her pretenses of Infallibility tell her that she is that Woman Jezebel that calleth her self a Prophetesse or the Prophet Balaam that insnared the Israelites in Idolatry and that very false Prophet that together with the Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of burning brimstone 23. And lastly if she would gull thee with that specious and much-affected Title of Holy Church tell her that the Spirit of Truth in the Divine Oracles let her commend her self as much as she pleases gives no such Character of her but quite contrary declaring the See of Rome to be the Seat of Satan and their Church his Synagogue the Pope and his Clergy to be Balaam the son of Bozor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse and who was the Murtherer of Christ's faithfull Martyr Antipas to be that Woman Jezebel who calls her self a Prophetesse but was indeed a Sorceresse and a murtherer of the true Prophets of the Lord to be also that false Prophet that is to be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be that great City that spiritually is called Sodom and AEgypt where our Lord was crucified to be the Beast that has the horns of a Lamb but the voice of the Dragon decreeing Idolatries and cruel Persecutions against God's people to be that Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth the Woman on the seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and lastly to be that Man of Sin that notorious Antichrist that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved For which cause God sends them strong delusion that they believe a lie That they all might be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousnesse As well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well all they that love the Romish Lies and Impostures as all they that invent them are here plainly declared in the state of Damnation With this Nosegay of Rue and Wormwood antidote thy self against the Idolatrous infection of that strange Woman 's breath whose lips yet drop as an hony-comb and her mouth is more smooth then oyl And be assured that that cannot be the true Holy Church wherein Salvation is to be expected which the Spirit of God has marked with such unholy and hellish Characters let her boast of her own Holiness as much as she will 24. And if she return this Answer to thee That this is not to argue but to rail in phrases of Scripture do thou make this short Reply That whiles she accuses thee of railing against sinfull