5th of July in the year of Christ 1664. which is of my Age the 76th of my Ministry the 48th of my Exile the 36th of the beginning of Revelations made unto me from the Lord the 26th A PRAYER Written by Command of the Lord and my God in the year 1653. April 18. and in the year 1664. June 30. commanded to be put for a close of my Revelations O Eternal God! Holy Father Incomprehensible in VVisdom Judgment Counsel Grace and Justice Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier Father Son and holy Spirit Thou Holy One of Israel who from the beginning hast founded the Earth and the Heaven of Heavens are the work of thy Hands VVho sittest on the Throne of inestable Glory in the midst of thy innumerable Hosts Cherubims and Seraphims and Men triumphing through Martyrdoms ministring to Thee day and night and singing Holy Holy Holy Jehovah Zebaoth Behold amongst them me also praising thee O God! Acknowledging thee to be the Lord with all the Earth worshipping Thee the Father everlasting For that Thou hast form'd me a frail mass or lump of Clay for a small Vessel of thy grace and hast call'd me forth by my own proper Name out of my Mothers womb and hast written my Name in the Lambs Book of Life And in these last days of the World in a Nation which hath known thy Name and heard the Voice of thy Trumpet going forth from thy Throne hast set me upon the Walls of thy Jerusalem thy beloved Church for a Witness and Watchman and for a Voice of one crying to the Nations That openly in the sight of all Nations I might declare the Day of Vengeance to the Worshippers of Idols and to all false Worships of those to do not rightly acknowledge Thee the Tri-Une God who livest eternally And again The Day of Grace to the Nations of the Earth to acknowledge in the true Light interior and exterior Thee the living God and thy pure and chaste Worship Such as the Angels perform unto thee in Heaven and thou wouldst have perform'd to thee without Idolatrous Errors on Earth out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned in Body Soul and Spirit unanimously and humbly in simplicity of Heart Behold me thy pitiful little VVorm and most inconsiderable Dust Refuse or Off-scouring at the Threshold of thy House thy beloved Church and of that small Portion which thou hast gathered to thy self under the Name of the Brethren of Bohemia Behold me in the days of its cruel Persecution and sad Exile in another Land the Hungarian burdened and hanging down my Head with the very Disease of Old Age I did hear thy voice of thee the living God speaking unto me I know not how but speaking I know what For intelligibly I did perceive thy Voices and clearly apprehended the sence yea and moreover I my self did speak unto thee the Invisible I did ask Questions and make Answers All things with the unconfused and undisturbed Powers and Forces of my Mind And my eyes saw the whole World in thy hand as a little Globe and I heard thee explaining those Mysteries how thy hand contains all things And those other things which would never have come into my mind nor were suggested by any of Mortals I did receive from thee alone my God! with fear day and night and did imprint them in my Memory or also through theâ— commanding in Tables and Papers But thy face I a man of poluted lips never saw save onely thy hand pierced through with a Nail once extended towards me and put under my left Arm-pit when thou swaredst That thou wouldst neither leave thy Cause nor me thy Servant And thou hast kept faith O faithful One In the sight of mine Enemies Domestick and Forreign And that in sleep I beheld thee my beloved Saviour in thy diffrent Age and Habit with Joy and Tears acknowledging mine indignity and with covered face throwing my self down at thy feet and kissing them and perceiving the Taste of Eternal Life with Sweetnesses unutterable by me For thou madest me to see even the Joys of the Elect in Heaven as also the Torments of the Damned in Hell and what things in the world also in respect both of Church and State should be hereafter till even thy illustrious Return to Judgement Which things I faithfully without any fraud in simplicity of heart with groans to thee whether thou hadst commanded by night or by day did refer and put down into writings Adding nothing of my own and respecting nothing of my own nor any other thing besides thy Glory And bearing many Prejudices Reproaches Cavils Twenty six whole Years and Ten Months and Three Days Till now in this Year 1664. an end being put unto thy work thou my Lord and my God hast commanded to close and shut up all these things with this Prayer Hear therefore O Heavens and perceive with your ears O Earth Behold I conclude dutifully I conclude with weeping Falling down at thy feet Lord Jesus Kissing thy Wounds and Marks and pouring out my Soul before thee I ask humbly I ask confidently First that thou wouldst leave thy Holy Spirit for a Guide Counsellor and Comforter unto me even until Death and through him wouldst pour out a plentiful shower of Benediction upon all thy Speeches which thy mouth hath brought forth in these last days of the World by me thy sorry Servant which I receiving from thy mouth have sealed up by thy Command and by a Man whom thou hast adjoyned to me for an help have made known first indeed to the Hungarian Nation then afterwards to other Nations also Grant O holy God! That all to whom the sound of thy Trumpet shall reach may acknowledge that they have come forth from thee that thou mayest be glorified in all Nations of the Earth All which sanctifie O God! in thy Truth to acknowledge thy word through all Nations and Tongues and thy Self to be the Truth the Way and the Life Cause O God! That Kings Princes Subjects and Doctors or Teachers of the Gospel with their Hearers and Parents with Children may be one in thee and the truth of thy Word and may know thee the One onely God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent by whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made in the Unity of the holy Spirit God undivided in Power Wisdom Goodness Majesty and Glory blessed for ever I ask O God! I ask That all the Islands of the Sea may now wax silent before thee that all the Ends of the Earth may be afraid and fly to thee May assume new strength may be carried with Wings as Eagles and may run and not be weary with us to thee the Fountain of Salvation who speakest Righteousness and art sufficient to save nor art delighted with the death of a Sinner O Shepherd of Men Convey over but even now in the last days all Nations under thy Pastoral Rod that they may be brought into the Bond
Law to a strange Voice that my mouth should arrogantly speak in the name of God the words of him that is not God and my hands should write my own Imaginations Let the Lord give me for a Curse and Execration in the midst of my People making my tongue to rot in my Mouth and my hand to gangrene and perish in my Body And I Behold even I to these words of God so pronounced by the Command of God say Amen! Amen! Numb 5. v. 21 22. On the contrary if my heart be clear from the wickedness which my Accuser seeks to make me guilty of let the Lord arise for the fury of mine Enemies Let the Lord judge me according to my Righteousness and according to mine integrity let him pronounce for me the just searcher of hearts and the reins And if the words which I have hitherto spoke and writ have not been my words but in truth the words of God which he has testified to be as fire Jer. 23. 29. so God cause them to be as Fire and the People adversary to God as Wood which it may consume Jer. 5. 14. But if I have hitherto kept my self clear from the crime of adulterate words of God let God cause all these Curses to be of no effect or hurt and all my labours undergone by the command of God for the Nations of the Earth to be so much the more fruitful to multiply the seed of God upon the Earth As 't is promised Numb 5. 28. Amen! Amen! Amen! The Answer of the Ministers V. D. with the Elders of the Church of Puchow and Ledna to their Superintendent viz. Comenius FIlial obedience with desire of the divine protection in such times of so sad calamities every where c. Beloved Father in Christ your Letters dated to us joyntly and signed with the subscriptions of the Reverend Fathers I. B. and N. G. and D. V. were delivered to us by the hand of our beloved Brother S. I. safely arriving here the 8 th of July Whereby understanding your pleasures Reverend Fathers we have done what you required of us according to the instruction given Of the process of which whole Action behold we inform you sincerely and with a pure conscience in such sort as the things were transacted 1. First I the Pastor of the People of Puchow presently the same day that I received yours calling together the Elders of my Church and my fellow Labourer unsealed in their presence your letters that concern'd us jointly and perceiving the contents I wrote the next day early to the Brethren of Ledna and informed them that our fellow Brother sent to us was come and had brought singular commands to us all and entreated them to come unto us which they did the same 9 th of July at evening Where I delivered into Drabricious's hands those that concerned him and invited him to lodge with me all night and the rest should understand what the business was to morrow 2. The next day after publick prayers in the Holy Congregation we entered into mine the Pastor's House Where after a general salutation of Drabricius which could not be done conveniently in the Temple I said that we had an hard business before us and therefore need again begin with Invocation of mercy from God to obtain the Grace of the Holy Spirit When Drabricius said Do you pray here I will go aside into my Chamber and perform my prayers also And so went out 3. We therefore first singing that Psalm Come Holy Ghost c. we all prostrated our selves on our knees and powred forth our Groans to the Lord in a prayer appointed for this very purpose 4. After prayer we sate together in Assembly and the Pastor of the place giving thanks that they had appeared at his desire informed them what was to be done Then the Common Epistle to all was read Next the Oath prescribed for Drabricius at the horrour of which almost all of us stood astonished and terrified And Fr. Samuel gave his Instructions to be read 5. After some deliberation had upon these things Drabricius was called and being asked by the Pastor of the place whether he would hear the Letters from the Reverend Superintendents dated to this Assembly and understand the contents He assented adding I was not ignorant for some weeks what was about to be done concerning me For the Lord shew'd it to me If I had known before I would have took you along with me to see I reply'd let that alone in its own place Let us come to the business 6. First therefore was read unto him the common Epistle Then the form of the Oath but before this was read I did admonish and beseech him that he would weigh all things seriously For therein were terrible things and the matter here in agitation concerned the Salvation of his Soul And lastly the instructions given to Sam. Jun. To all which when he thereupon answered nothing He was again asked Whether he was willing to be dealt with according to these prescripts here He answered directly Yes I will 7. Whereupon the third Question was proposed Whether therefore he did account and would have accounted all his Revelations for truly Divine And whether he did yet assert all those things to be spoken to him and written of him by the Command of the Omnipotent God Jehova who is not only Merciful but is Just also without any additions He answered I do assert so Yea and I take it upon my Soul that nothing has been added by me and that nothing has been spoken by me for any lucre sake or in favour or hatred of any person 8. Proceeding further we asked Whether he would confirm it by such an Oath as was prescribed And again we exhorted him not to act precipitantly but to deliberate yea and to take time for deliberation that we would indulge him therein He answered There 's no need of deliberation And rising up and lifting up both his hands to Heaven He thus speak I take upon my soul whatever there is contained in these Revelations written by me has not at all been devised by me nor any thing of mine own added but only those very things which the Lord the Doinator has commanded to be written And I firmly believe the Holy Blessed Trinity will own all these for his as for those which are commanded to be written by the Eternal Wisdom it self 9. Entring forth therefore unto the Table and taking the form of the Oath into his hand he pronounced in order clearly distinctly all things omitting nothing rather here and there superadding some things for more vehement asseveration sakes with so great zeal that all we present seeing and hearing these things stood astonished Some of us also trembled and wept But in the very midst of the Oath he looked forth out of the Window which was open towards Heaven crying out Do you not see friends do you not see But we asked not what he saw which in conference with
of JESUS AFTER the Faith first carried by St. Thomas the Apostle and after the same by the Syrians in the time of the Empire I am again further propagated Thirdly again under the Empire Mim after the same St. Francis Xaverius and Fa. Mattheus Riccius being Leaders By men of the Society of Jesus both by Word and Books in the China Language divulged indeed with very great study and labour but by reason of the Inconstancy of the Nation scarce sufficient the Empire being now devolved to the Tartars the same Society for a Crown of the labours in restoring by Theirs the Calender called Hien Lie A Temple to God the Best and greatest publickly at Pekin the Court of the Kings of China HATH ERECTED AND DEDICATED IN THE YEAR MDCL Xun Chi. VII FATHER John Adam Schall à Zell a German profess'd of the Society of Jesus and Author of the foresaid Calendar out of the labours of his hands bequeaths this House and Patience to Posterity And moreover he was so delighted with Globes Spheres and Astronomick Instruments sent for out of Europe that he would permit them no where but in the Closet of his own Chamber and would be instructed in the use of them by the Jesuites whom he bore out against all the envy and opposition of the proud Chineses who thought They should give the Laws of Arts and Sciences to all the World and not receive them from obscure Barbarians and unknown Sons of the Earth as they thought Indeed 't is pity the Christian Faith should be conveyed thither by no better hands and that it should be so mix'd and marr'd with their Jesuitism which yet they were so cunning as pritty well to hide and conceal and like the Serpent first to get in their head that afterwards they might winde and wriggle in their whole body As appears by their Catechism which we shall insert at the end of this Table by way of Appendix that you may have the sight thereof herewith And because it is a very good one for the most ignorant sort of people to apprehend else how could they think to win others from Idolatry that are such gross Idolaters themselves Also great pitty 't is that they that are so merciless and cruel to all other Religions and Christians themselves at home should finde such favour for their own abroad But however that which is Good and Laudable every where is to be approved of And 't is to be wish'd that all zealous and sincere Protestants would rather be more ready to imitate than envy their proceedings And if we compare latter times with former we shall sind the Arts and Sciences never more flourishing And though many rare ones it must be confessed have been lost yet amends has been made for that in more and better and more universally useful found out All Antiquity cannot shew the like to PRINTING the Chard and Compass Powder and Cannon Circulation of the Blood and perhaps hereafter may be added the Universal Character and Language PRINTING it self is so rare an Art that Bodin sayes That alone may contend for prize with all the Inventions of the Ancients whereby may be dispatched in a day and with greater fairness and much more neatness and elegancy by far as much as by the swiftest Pen in some years By the Loadstone Magelane Drake and Candish have sail'd round the Earth and prov'd Antipodes to be neither a Romance nor Heresie and have found out greater Worlds than all the other known and enlarged Commerce to the utmost East and West Indies So that We 're not to Ceres so much bound for Bread Nor yet to Bachus for his Clusters red As Segnior Flavio to thy witty Tryal For first inventing of the Seamans Dial. The use of th' Needle turning in the same Divine Device O admirable Frame Whereby through th' Ocean in the darkest Night Our hugest Carracks are conducted right Whereby we 're stor'd with Truce-man Guide and Lamp To search all corners of the Watry Camp Whereby a Ship that stormy Heav'ns have hurld Near in one Night into another World Knows where she is and in the Chard descries What degrees thence the Aequinoctial lies DUBARTAS And as by the Chard and Compass new Worlds have been discovered so by Powder and Cannon they have been conquered And wicked Mortals seem now to imitate the dread Thunderer and his Thunderbolts by those terrible Instruments of death and execution which Liphus therefore calls the Invention of Spirits and not of Men and yet they sooner put an end to fight and perfect victory than all the lingring tools of death among the Ancients The Turks imployed a Peece of Ordnance against Constantinople that required seventy yoke of Oxen and two thousand Men to hale it along The Circulation of the Bloud is such an invention for which the Ancients would certainly have deified the Author no less than Ceres or Bachus Aesculapius and Apollo The Universal Character and Language almost equals that of Letters in the Invention as it is far beyond it in the Thing They have no less also transcended the Ancients in Chymistry and Destillation of Inorganick and as it were Mechanick Motion and Fermentation of Nature To wit of the Principles Particle Ferments and Archeus's or Vital movers of Nature and all natural Bodies specially as to the Bloud and Feavers and all preternatural Effervescencies of this Microcosm or little World of Man And indeed in all the New Modern Mechanick Philosophy or as it were Mechanism and Magnatism of Universal Nature Viz. In all the Atomick Chymick Magnetick Magick and whole Mechanick or Corpuscular Philosophy both the rational and the experimental or in another sense the indeed Mechanick i. e. Operative Philosophy In all the Mathematicks and Mechanicks their Subtilties Rarities Curiosities and Wonders If Archytas had his Dove Regiomontanus had no less his Wooden Eagle and Iron Fly animated as it were with artificial life and soul Why should I not the Wooden Eagle mention A Learned German's late admir'd Invention Which mounting from his fist that framed her Flew far to meet an Almain Emperor And having met him with her nimble train And weary wings turning about again Follow'd him close unto the Castle Gate Of Norimberg whom all their Shews of State Streets hang'd with Arras Arches curious built And Pageants with their rich devices guilt Gray-headed Senate and Youths gallantize Grac'd not so much as only this Device DUBARTAS He goes on and describes the Fly Once as this Artist more with mirth their meat Feasted some Friends whom he esteemed Great From under 's hand an Iron Fly flew out Which having flown a perfect round about With weary wings return'd unto her Master And as Judicious on his Arms he plac'd her O Divine Wit that in the narrow Womb Of a small Fly could find sufficient room For all those Springs Wheels Counterpoise and Chains Which stood instead of Life and Spurs and Reigns DUBART And if the Persian
Fr. Sam. J. three days after he said he saw the Angels present with him When he was come to the last words about his Adversary there he wept having pronounced all things concerning himself with great boldness and courage 10. Having ended the Oath he sat down and laying his face upon the Table he put that Paper out of which he had recited the Oath after thrice kissing it under his face And then All of us being astonished and silent suddenly with drew himself away and sung the hundred twenty third Psalm To thee have I lift up mine eyes who dwellest in the Heavens As the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters so our eyes look up unto the Lord our God till he have mercy on us Lord be merciful to us Lord be merciful to us for we are exceedingly filled with shame Our soul is exceedingly laden with scoffings and reproaches and with the contempt of the proud which when we all sung together and it was ended He falling upon his knees and we with him poured forth most fervent Prayers unto God that God would deliver his Name from Reproach c. All which things to be performed after this manner all we under-written do testifie both on our Consciences and with our hands At Puchow July 16 th 1663. Paul Laurine P. T. Pastor of the Church of Puchow of the Helvet Confession Ezechiel Alfeus Paul Vetterin his advarsary Nicholas Pilsin Paul Horatschek Luke Cales of the Church of Lednick Pastor Tobias Jeffon Preacher of Gods Word Wenceslaus Godfry Bielsky de Karissow A Noble man Samuel Junius Hence therefore all should acquiesce without further a-do and leave all both him and his adversary to the divine judgement and determination Yet Vetterin his Adversary though present himself and amazed thereat seemed to give glory to God and by his hand given promised silence and subscribed the Testimony given together with the others yet not satisfied and relapsing into new thoughts has writ his dissatisfaction not only to his Adjunct Comenius but has been also more bitter and violent against Drabricius then ever for several reasons here omited And caused the new Pastor Laurin also to waver and suspect evil of him and to invocate God for judgement against Drabricius c. who at last answered in a writing called his Confession which he was commanded by God should be put as a close to the new edition of his Revelations where you have it also After these things so transacted Paul Laurine the new Pastor of the Exiles and now become a new Adversary of Drabricius a young healthful and lusty man was taken ill the Physicians said of an Hectick which in vain they laboured to cure and dyed soon after Veterinus still living c. There is added also the Judgement of two Godly English Divines with divers forcible Arguments for the divine Authority of these Revelations too long for this preface To the Objection of things not coming to pass accordingly c. Comenius amongst many other things at large replyes thus 1. That what ever is denounced of God and is not done to day may be done to morrow as with Nineveh c. 2. That which is not fulfilled acording to the Letter in our sence is fulfilled according to the Spirit in Gods sense and meaning as of the eternal Kingdom fothwith of the Messiah the Son of David 3. What is not done the condition being altered was yet to be done the condition not altered As Nineveh if it had persisted without Repentance c. see Jer. 18. 6 0. Add hereto that 't is certain the divine Prophecies were neither heretofore fulfilled in the letter nor are at this day Whence so many wild ravings of phrenzy as it were of the Jews about the letter c. That Prophetick predictions are conditional That there is possibility of fulfilling most still That where there is not such a possibility it may be then thought that the Prophet has ventured to add something of his own according to his own sense and apprehensions For Prophets are subject to Error Passions Affections c. which the spirit of Prophecy does not always take away And that in such a case the precious is to be separated from the vile as God commands Jer. 15. 19. That all Prophecy is a Riddle and obscure And therein God is a God that hideth himself Isaiah 45. 15. c. with many other things more at large From all things therefore thus objected we are to leave the Judgement and Execution to God who in due time will manifest the truth or the falsehood hereof c. Besides Comenius some years before namely in 1658. finding all things go contrary rather to his Prophecyes wrote severely to him and with great rebukes c. who thus replyed lamenting I received yours full of Zeal full of Lamentations full of Interrogations to which you require me a worm contemn'd of men condemned half put to death to answer Which after I had read over and weighed I had resolved to answer with silence to commend the matter to God the searcher of hearts yet crying aloud Come expostulate with me But the Lord suffer'd me not to hold my peace c. But as for me I must say with Jeremy Wo unto me my Mother that thou borest me whom all do curse I besprinkle these with tears with Jeremy saying In truth the Lord hath commanded me to write these things Yet behold the word of the Lord is made unto me for a reproach c. Is it not the voice of God which saith The Lord doth not any thing unless he revealeth his secret to his Servants And by Joel he promises that it should come to pass in the last times That their young men should see Visions and their old men dream dreams And why as yet ye illuminated men I beseech you do you expect the last times But because the Lord hath said unto me also Jan. 14. 1651. a man of polluted lips That I should be his last Trumphet Behold I behold with full confidence and assurance in the sight of God Angels and men do boldly speak that they are the words of God which I have wrote And except it were so I know that though I deceived men yet I could not deceive God nor my own conscience but should undoubtedly procure confusion and destruction to my self But behold as I live or dye that I have written what I have heard from the Mouth of God let men take it as they please To God be praise that now the world shall no longer be ignorant of those things which the Lord would have denounced and declared by me unto it Let who so will dispute against those things but not against me For the Lord hath said unto me his worm Thou art not of thus much to defend thy self much less me my words I will defend my self when I shall fulfil my words The Sons of men understand not the hight of my Councels as
Name of the living God tell me She I live you see And goes on to wash again Comenius again For Gods sake what is the matter may we believe our own Eyes She I live And your hand and foot whole and perfect Perfectly said she But what has been done She I was now with my Lord but am commanded to return to injoy his goodness in the Land of the Living Ask no more now to morrow I will note down the whole business So they sat down to supper and she with them very chearful and well But eat nothing Many Friends and Neighbours came in c. Afterwards she sung Psalms c. and next day wrote down all for a close of her Revelations which you have afterwards Of the whole Comenius sayes this is certain that it seemed a true and real death in our eyes and that she could not in a moment be restored to life health and full strength without the special and immediate Power of God intervening All other Divines also after various and different apprehensions of the thing yet were all at length inclined to think it a true Miracle c. And not long after there was a strict and solemn examination of her Visions and all these things in an Assembly of Divines where they could not consent to give their Judgment absolutly But only decreed silence to avoid all offence and scandal to the Church till God and time should discover further c. Also some years after another assembly met when events seemed not answerable to predictions where yet they could not condemn the thing but commit it yet unto God She lived after this fifteen years married twelve had two Sons and three Daughters one Son and one Daughter yet alive The brief Series of the remarkable Vicissitudes of her life added to her Funeral Sermon was this Christina Poniatovia was born of Noble Parents at Lescina in Prussia An. 1610. And with the same Parents suffering Persecution in their Country for the Gospel came into Bohemia An. 1615. Whence being again driven away with them by the storm of Persecutions and going into Moravia she was commited to some Noble Matrons to be bred up in Services and the exercises of virtue and at length the last time removed with others into Banishment She lost her Mother An. 1626. her Father 1628. She began to be admitted to that extraordary and miraculous work of God An. 1627. which ceased in the recalling of her dead in the Eyes of men into life An. 1626. at Lesna in Poland where three years after by the will of God and her Tutors she was married c. She underwent several examinations first of her Father a solid Divine and most violent opposer of Neoterick Revelations who endeavoured both by Letters dehortations obtestations and severe threatnings to stop her till by all her answers and his own Eyes he apprehended the error to be in himself and gave glory to God The next was of Divines Politicians Physitians inquiring most curiously into all things but could find nothing but the Finger of God c. Then by the Pastors and Elders of the Church at the hour of her death as before And the worst of all was of the Devil both at the beginning and afterwards several times undergoing horrible temptations c. Besides all the Divine Tryals and Testimonies c. Very remarkable also was the Devils Mock-Games that he played about this time by raising other false extasies in some Whereof Comenius mentions two First of a Virgin undergoing Extasies in a Village which Christina's Father passed through with a throng of people about her An. 1628. Speaking wonderful things in her Fits foretelling Persecutions of the Church exhorting to repentance and perswading to constancy in the Faith c. Hereby it was thought that God had raised up others in like manner to confirm the same things But after strict inquiry all appeared to be nothing but a few frivolous Dreams of one sick or at least slight Mockings of Satan But more cunningly the Devil plaid his part at Geneva the same year whereby the Learned there were for a time prejudiced against these Revelations when as before both Diodat Vedelius and others by letters approved them But the Devil at last smelt of Hell and the truth of these thereby more appeared The story in short this The Son of a Senator twelve years old was seized with a Disease by and by began to speak unusual things at length asserts that he was that very Spirit which had shewn Lions Men and other wonderful Visions that should certainly come to pass to Christina a Virgin of Poland c. which things at first though they seemed to hang together well enough and further confirmed the Divines so that they wrote letters thereof Yet when by degrees he at length swarved unto frivolous matters and at last things manifestly absurd in the presence of two Divines one of them said I see the finger of Satan c. Which mockages continuing for some dayes made all suspected So that after solemn prayers and fasting of the Senate Pastors and the Church during which the unclean Juglar began strange postures and to be troublesome c. amongst other things saying They will not beleive that I am a good Angel sent of God But I will prove it by a Miracle And snatching some way or other a Knife thrust it into his Breast and drew it out again unhurt and fell upon the ground crying Behold a Miracle At last the unclean spirit seeing he must be gone out wreath divers wayes the youths body belching out of his mouth Blasphemous and obscene words till he was forced to give place to the prayers of the Church and the Power of God But the youth was conscious of nothing c. More cunning yet was that to invalidate Drabricius's Visions of a Souldier in 1659. who falling sick got leave to return home and languishing away seemed to dye and was ready to be buried but when the Neighbors came to his burial they felt his Breast to be something warm and defer'd it till the Morrow and then the next day for eight dayes no other sign of life appearing But he the Night before Burtal rises up declares that he had special Commands to Prince Ragotzi under whom he had served requires admission into his Castle two miles off Is admitted the Chancellor and Master of the Hall and others present relates his Commands from God That the Prince take Arms Couragiously against the Turk that God would raise up the Emperor of Mosco to help him who should come and besiege Constantinople with an huge Army At the same time that the Prince go against Buda the Metropolis of Hungary at Whitsontide to take it Rehearsing these things on his bended knees he arose praysing God that he had granted him to fulfil his Commands These things could not but seem contrary to Drabricius's The Prince it should seem believed him for he acted according to these things
these things Let it suffice I say and serve for a caution I if it shall please the Lord to call me hence will seal it with my Death that I have forwarned that the Church no more offend in this kind And that not one or two or three usurp power to determine of such matters which regard the judgement to the whole Church and so of Posterity it self also Yea and if any one dare commit this Book to the fire such a one as he I cite to the Tribunal of Christ there to give an account of his inordinate passion and affection I wrote these things with mine owne hand so dictating an Heart full of the fear of God J. A. Comenius And yet further before we end this long preface which so mainly concerns the validity of all that follows and is for an Apology Those that do not must know that our Authour Comenius is the only surviving Superintendent or Bishop of the Bohemian Church now in Exile fourty years and over A man of universal knowledge and learning of a large and delusive spirit and of a sincere and single heart as all Christendom can bear witness of A true Virtuoso of all Divine and Humane Science and Experiance A man given to no fancies and whimsies nor self-ends and designs But of vast and universal Aims and desires for the universal good of Mankind the World and the Church and one that hath sore travalled for the promoting of universal Knowledge Literature Art Sience and Virtue both Humane and Divine as appears by the Janua Linguarum and his other labours and more particularly his late Treatise for the spreading of Light Knowledg universally dedicated to the Royal Society of Englands Virtuoso's And lastly one that most severely rebuked Drabricius for still persisting in his wild Fancies and Dreams as he then thought till he was at length convinced of the Finger of God therein as appears by the concertation he had with him as follows Drabricius in his Visions had promised him an Associate called his Adjunct to help carry on this work of God in the World which was this Comenius And indeed who so sit And first he was commanded by the Lord to inform Comenius of his first Visions and to send them to him which accordingly he did about An. 1644. And this was all that ever Comenius had to do concerning them till 1650. when after that the General Peace of Munster seemed to defeat all their hopes and expectations Comenius was by Providence unexpectedly brought into those Parts again about Affairs of the Church There Drabricius was urgent with him to go to the Prince He replyed What do you hear my Brother Are not you awake yet out of your Dreams Condemning as well as others all of Vanity Because they did not reach the prophetick gravity of Stile like Cotterus's and Christina's and the events seemed to answer much less You first offer'd the Crown to the Father and now deluded of that Hope you would go to the Son In the name of God see what you do and desist to delude your self and others The man shed Tears and lifting up his Eyes and Hands I could twice wash my self with my Tears sayes he As much as has already been powred forth of them that God would spare me miserable man But I cannot obtain Have you then Visions yet said Comenius It is a bove a year said he that I have had none yet I know that there is not an end of them How do you know The Lord told me sayes he and commanded that they should be sealed and kept for your coming and delivered to you For that you should come into this Land Behold Here I deliver them and besought him to read them Do not you faigne this I pray said Comenius He calls God to witness Comenius asked when did you hear that concerning my coming hither Three years since said he presently after the Princes death when through impatience of these mockeries I would have burnt those But the Lord forbad you will find it there written Comenius upon Meditation Prayer and Conference with Friends found his mind changed So many causes offering themselves for taking a Journey to the Prince which before he had not observed And calling his Brethren to pray together he did accordingly c. And so afterwards the Visions returned to Drabricius again more solemn then before and ever since to this time In which at diveres times Comenius was commanded from the Lord to write them to translate them into the Latin Tongue to divulge them speedily through all publick places and streets of the World to translate the Bible into the Turkish Language to communicate them to Kings and Princes and all Orders of men and being backward and wavering was still commanded pressed and threatned to go on to write and publish them and to invocate and to cry aloud upon all Nations of the Earth in order to the accomplishment and execution of these things c. All which this Adjunct of the Lords Prophet not daring to tergiversate or be disobedient to Gods call has done as well as he could or is about to do and durst not but do Accordingly therefore this excellent Man begins with the dedication and consecration of the whole to Christ Jesus himself and an appeal to him The Eternal Word Wisdom and Truth c. Hear us King of Glory now crying unto thee for thy Glory sake and thou who art our Sun shew us clearly to all under the Sun as the clear Sun doth all things visible at noon day what there is in these leaves whether it be thy Light and Truth or the frauds of thy black Enemy Amen! Amen! Amen! O Light of the World we appeal in exposing this thy Cause to the publick view of men against the Prince of Darkness we appeal from the Darkness to the Light from the prejudice of fools to the judgement of the wise from the rashness of the prophane to the reverence of the Godly from the ill informed to the better informed finally from every humane Tribunal to thy Tribunal it self Thou King of Kings in whose hands are the hearts of King as Rivers of Water to turn them which way thou wilt give unto all that shall go about to judge of these things a teachable heart like Solomons to judge rightly of things and to discern between good and evil He that reads let him understand The next Dedication is to all Kings and Powers all Crowned Heads and Vice-Gods of the Christian World c. If any thing yet remain to be done seriously about these things this one thing is it By an accurate and solemn Inquisition to examine whether these things be truly so or no or whether humane figments only cover'd with the Cloak of divine Revelations and that then if any fraud be detected the false witnesses to be punished according to the Laws of God and man We fly therefore to your Tribunal O Kings for such a scruting
false prophets and fainers of dreams may be put to death and iniquity be taken away from the midst of the people Deut. 13. And because the Eclesiasticks are ordinarily inclined to slay the Prophets behold we solemnly appeal from all Universities and Consistories to your tribunal O Kings and secular Powers Like Jeremiah from the Priests to the Princes and to the King himself and Paul the Apostle from the Council of the Priests to the Political Judges Felix Festus Agrippa and lastly to Caesar himself We beseech you undertake 1st the Patronage of this Book Permitting none to rage against it till plenary examination and delusion of the cause For what have these papers offended in receiving these Lamentations Mournings and Woes especially denouncing no sad things to the people of God But to Sodom Egypt Babylon the World Hell and the Devils afflicting the people of God Nor perswade any Nation or any Man any Rebellion against their Kings but all Loyalty that all things may return from all manner of confusions into all manner of order and peace Lastly because This Book is one of them by which God Convocates the Kings of the Earth from the four Corners of the World to reverence him it is your part therefore O Kings not to hinder but promote this Trumpet of God if you would be Ministers of his Kingdom Next The publishers themselves of this Book commend themselves to your Patronage O Gods Protectors of the Earth That you permit no unjust violence against them As the Princes and the King himself did not against Jeremiah and Baruch nor the Tribune of the Band and Felix Governor of Judea against Paul For it would be most unjust by force to act any thing against him who appealing to Justice sets himself before the Judgement As the Jewish Priests with their flatterers did against the Lord himself and against Paul c. 3. We commend to you O Powers of the Earth the very cause it self pleaded in these Books to be throughly examined for in the name of one more powerful these Oracles do come fulminating your People your Priests and your Selves with your Princes and citing all the inhabitants of the Modern World to a certain supreme invisible yet terrible Tribunal For if the words which these Books denounce be truly the words of God it is more Glorious then any thing yet in the Church since the Apostles time If Satanical Impostures they are more terrible and fearful ones then ever any have yet been If figments of humane craft nothing like hath ever yet come forth in any Nation by any humane wit But whether this or that or the other It is a matter most worthy of the care of Kings that at length what it is may appear whereunto serious Judgement is needful not neglect not contempt not fury Hasten O Kings to know and examine what matter of things these are before all the Plagues here denounced be powred forth upon your Kingdoms Deliver these things to wise men and fearing God and of publick spirits seriously to be weighed If you hear humane counsels why not also these which many wayes may appear to come by men indeed yet not from men If any one say Dare you broach and vend these things for Prophesies undoutedly Divine I will answer with Philip to Nathaniel Come and see For the offices and marks of true Prophets are here to declare to the people of God fallen into abominations their sins To denounce wrath and punishment to the impenitent and again Mercy and Grace to the penitent this and not another thing for the main scope and end you shall see is done here Only be sure to see that you make your selves certain which you may from the adjoyned history 1st That there have been really and indeed persons in this our Age who have written these things greater then any human wit 2ly And that they were simple Idiots not able to fain such things Act. 4. 13. 3ly And Godly fearing God not willing to deceive 4ly Incompassed with a cloud of Witnesses that there could be no place for Impostures 5ly Lastly that many Godly and solid Divines not in one Nation only do give testimony that greater wisedom shines forth in these things then that they can be attributed to men and that the whole work is more sanctions and holy then that it can be attributed to Satan Yet lest we may seem to obtrude any private Authority on the Publick we earnestly intreat a publick and solemn examination of these things under your Auspicions beginnings O Kings And that as soon as may be while witnesses are alive who can give it on their Faith that they have seen the fingers writing viz. Things flowing forth or droping from the pen of the Seers not what they themselves would but what by themselves for the most part not understood some certain invisible dictatour instilled into them which also their own hand writing viz. The originals themselves kept in a certain place further testifie The last thing we desire of you O most serene Princes is that if these be Counsels divine you would seriously purpose and resolve to obey and execute the divine Will saying All that the Lord hath said we will do Why may not these things be thus recommended c. seeing no man brings them forth of his own daring but they are offered in the name of God who is the God of all and takes care of all It is the Law of Arms and custom of the Nations that Trumpeters pass freely amongst the most deadly enemies even ready to give Battel bringing the command of their Principals Why may not he therefore be safe between the safeguards of your Majesty O Christian Kings who is your Interpreter from the King of Kings But they who would perswade you that this Book is hurtful stirring up to War and Arms betray their folly malice and impiety Because it does not make but after the manner of all the Prophets forewarn denounce and threaten Wars and Desolations without Repentence and Amendment And because none has ever drawn his Sword for the sake of this Book when yet all people draw their Swords one against another who is so blind yet and besotted as not to see his Arm stretched forth out of whose mouth are denounced these things beforehand Was Rome unwise in permitting it to be cry'd through all the City Hannibal s before the Gates Cease Mortals to be mad and quite out of your wits The voice of God and Angels forewarning you from destruction sound even in these Books The World is full of the Judgements of God The present commotion of the World and so many unlooked for Mutations do not signifie nothing Lest therefore the Christian people be still so grosly ignorant as they are of the terrible Judgements of God now in the world viz. of their Causes Manner End and Issue do ye who preside over the people in the place of God command that among other helps ministred from
Saint John which hath distracted so many Commentators differing among themselves Therefore this Book is a new Commentary upon the old Revelations of St. John not a Humane but Divine The former Edition was exposed to light with doubting and trembling and for censure only This freely and confidently not now so much to judge whether these things be Divine as to execute them as Divine for warning to the World Now therefore we lift up our voice as a Trumpet That they may hear who had not heard and they may believe who had not believ'd and may see with their eyes and handle with their hands who had not as yet foresaw by Faith That God is in the midst of humane affairs and does sometimes speak to men doing nothing but he reveals his secrets to his servants the Prophets There is need now of no vails no secret muttering Now all must needs hear both far and near even to the utmost ends of the Earth Be admonished therefore O all ye into whose hands this Book shall come that ye do not read it without St. John's Revelations and without divers reflexion to those things which are now a doing in the World And then the very blind cannot but see that it is God that here speaks not man And that it is God who stirs up the Nations of the World one against another not this or that man predicting such things or not one another themselves And that it is God who comes to chastize the Christians in his Indignation not the Turks and the Tartars And lastly that God himself is about to reform his Church not the King of France or any other Cry unto God O Christian People Shew pitty O God! Prevent blindness prevent stupidity We are thy People Permit not that all Visions be unto us as a sealed Book which cannot be read Do as thou hast promised that the day is coming in which the Deaf shall hear the Word of the Book and the eyes of the Blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness In thy Light beholding light And whosoever thou art that readest these things say with blind Bartimeus Lord that I may see Take this Book into your hands O Christians of all parties and know that these things here offered are like to those Ancient ones the burden of Babylon the burden of Moab the burden of Damascus the burden of Egypt Whoever art wise despise not to be forewarned and lay aside vain wrath against these things If these threatnings came from man they might be contemned or the Plot counterplotted But if from the terrible God who cannot be resisted take heed But whether it be himself that speaks here he will undoubtedly know whoever reading all these things together with the premised Informations and the conjoyned History thereof attentively with the fear of God and comparing all things with the events to which they dispose themselves shall purpose not to strive with the Fates and the President of the Fates If any one be resolved the contrary namely to think Antient and new Prophecies an antiquated thing no longer to be heeded and the World now to be governed either by Fortune or Chance or humane Counsels only let him go on to stop his ears shut his eyes and harden his heart past all remedy And lastly he gives a large sober and judicious Apology for the whole Book and Publication Let them favourably hear me All who fear God As for me if for fear of men I do not what God and Conscience command I expose my self to his wrath into whose hands it is intolerable to fall If new hatreds calumnies persecutions attend me for this new Edition let the will of God be done I commit my self into his hands either to protect me or to deliver me up into their hands who seek my soul I am full of dayes beyond Davids age of man and full of the miseries of life so that it is pleasure to say It suffices Lord take away my soul Away let us not be wise above God! And While he commands to speak let us speak whether any one will hear us or not Wo unto the soul if seeing the sword for fear of men he blow not the Trumpet I come unto thee O Queen of Churches the Roman do not I beseech ye suspect this Trumpet of God through any private grudge towards you to sound as it were a charge either to stir up peoples hatred towards you or warrs against you for it does not sound to war but a retreat Men Catholicks and all that fear God hear Let any one of you reade this Prophetick Volumn a thousand times he shall find it hath no other scope than what hath in past Ages been expressed by the mouth of David and all the holy Prophets namely that God will not alwayes endure our Babylonish confusions and mutual Cain-like hatreds and slaughters but sometime totally make an end thereof in the last dayes c. Isa 2. Mich. 4. Zech. 9. and a thousand other places aswell in the antient Prophets and Apocalyptical writings of the Apostles as in these revealed in our ages I protest therefore before God and his Angels and Heaven and Earth that this Book is not published with an intent to injure any one and that it is not to be taken for a scandalous Libel but an Historical Book and Monitory to all Christians without difference That all may desist from mutual hatreds persecutions slaughters butcherings c. They are not dehortations Humane but of God himself immoveably founded in the antient Oracles reiterated only upon new occasions The sum of which is that all things must be reformed among Christians or all must perish Mother of the Churches throughout the West Why dost thou rage so against thy Sons admonishing and exhorting thee to repentance and amendment When this Book was quite ready and nothing of this Apology thought on some Friends yet solliciting its suppression my Conscience did then dictate that it was better to obey God rather then Men and I cryed unto the Lord But he taught me to take unto me this Buckler and to lay open my heart before the eyes of Men as it is known in the sight of the Heart-knower But I now ceasing here to speak unto you O Christian People Invocate thee who art God for witness that I have done what thou hast commanded and nothing else Nor for any other end then that thy last Will might become known to them to whom thou hast commanded it should Nor have prefaced these things on any other hopes then that men rational Creatures might learn to discern and judge of things Perform O God! what thou hast promised Shew that thou hast spoken these things and we compelled to write And if any one would hurt us be thou a Wall of Fire unto us as thou wast to Eliah as Dabricius speaks Rev. 416. Give into the Hearts of Kings to do what thou hast commanded by giving these things to Arbitrators to weigh
that himself judged him a good Spirit December the 5th Commanded by the Spirit he went to Breslaw to the King And on the 10th being by means of the Lord Wilpret Governor of the Kings Treasury through the Dukedom of Glocovia admitted unto Audience of the King viz. Frederick in the presence of three Princes he declared all those things which were commanded him c. In the Year 1621. On the 9 th of January going to Sagan a little Youth as it were of six or seven years old appeared unto him yet not in that form of countenance nor the same sound of voice as the former Spirit had and wearing a three coloured habit White Skie and Flame-colour This Spirit he conjured by the living God who he was And on bended knees adored Jesus the Son of God That seeing he was that Saviour who hath bruised the head of the Serpent and came into the World to destroy the works of the Devil that through his Mercy and Merit he would vouchsafe him this Grace That if this Vision was any Spectre or Ghost or any Inchantment of Satan that he might be delivered from it That he would grant him to know it and would make his Conscience quiet Having poured out this Prayer unto Christ on a sudden he felt in his heart so great solace and joy that he could not express in words But the Youth calling him by name spake to him in these words I do not draw thee away from God but draw thee unto God as hath been before signified unto thee And in the first place I shew unto thee Christ and his Merit in which alone only consists Salvation Remember therefore Christ crucified But that thou desirest to be made more certain who I am Know that I am sent from God one of the seven Angels standing before the Face of God c. March 20. He went a Journey accompanied with a Friend but his Angel appearing unto him led him out of his way into the Field and asked him If he had done his Errand to the King Who said He had but few gave heed That he did expose himself to laughter The Angel comforts him That he would not regard though none at all believed And as the Prophet Elisha answered the unbelieving Captain of Samaria Thou shalt see but shalt not injoy So it shall be with them that will not believe They shall see but receive no benefit c. And after several Visions and Discourses the Angel also informed him what he should answer Mockers If any one say unto thee How darest thou utter such things too high for thee nor ever likely to come to pass Answer thou Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we expect our Saviour Jesus Christ They will say How thou a mortal man art not afraid to speak of Heavenly Things Say thou I am indeed mortal but I believe Christ will reform this mortal body and fashion it like his glorious Body They will urge That thy Predictions are against reason Thou shalt answer That God hath made all things subject to himself nor is his hand shortned that he cannot save nor is any thing at length impossible to him Then the Angel inlarged this Discourse with an excellent Passion Sermon c. Innumerable Instances of this kind might be collected out of his Prophesies but these may suffice onely one thing must not be omitted to be left to the prudent Readers consideration And it is this In one of his Prophesies the Burning of a great City is given as a Character of the time for fulfilling of these things The words run thus But what the great Lion said he was forbidden to reveal For it was said unto him Let that day pass away first wherein a certain great City shall be burnt down with the flame of Fire For then shall be fulfilled what the Lion hath spoken These words seal thou up but i' th mean while keep them to thy self The Speech or Sermon of the great Lion was uttered twice first in a Lions secondly in a Humane shape in the year 1623. And which he was commanded to seal up 'till when he was delivered out of Prison in the year 1628. and then he had liberty to declare it c. Note The Burning of a great City is given as a Character and Mark of the accomplishment of these things Which the Northern Deluge which presently followed pouring it self over all Germany made us understand of the famour City of Magdeburg In the Year one thousand six hundred thirty one But because there was then a return back of things and a greater City afterwards more terribly laid waste namely Constantinople wherein in the year 1660. July 24 25 26. above 70000 Houses were consumed the eighth part of the City and that the worser scarce remaining It is to be considered Whether this Character do not square to this rather Certainly weighing well the words of the great Lion in the Prophesies and considering the course of Modern Affairs it will appear that things are greatly changed by the approach of the Oriental Locusts For presently in the Year following 1661. the Turks possessed Waradin the Key of Hungary and Poland and thence marching onward subdued Transylvania Walachia and Moldavia now knocking at the Gates of Hungary and what hereafter may be done God knows These Divine Predictions deservedly teach us not to sleep certainly but to attend to the Judgments of God Comenius Annotat. But what and if the Great London the most considerable City in the World for the Protestant Interest and the most envyed by the Papistical and whose Burning was so remarkable and in the most Ominous Year too in all the Worlds account 1666. and not without suspicion of their finger in the Fire and which by most serious Christians is judged a notorious Omen to the great City Babylon the Mother of Harlots to be burnt with Fire should be here meant Certainly it deserves some consideration at least and not to be wholly slighted and passed over not so much as taking the least notice thereof at all An Account of Christina's raising from the Dead as it were and return to Life writ with her own hand and sealed up on the Monday following that being on the Saturday and which she annexed for a close to her Revelations IN the year 1627. December 30. when being afflicted with an heavy disease I wished for death it was said unto me from the Lord That yet was not the time but that I should remain in this Mortality till the Term come which he himself had put But when I besought that that Term also might be shewn unto me to prepare my self so much the more vigilently for death He answered There shall be yet a year added to thy life in which I will use thee for my works He added But dost thou not desire to supervive when Jehovah shall put on strength and his glorious Majesty And when he shall destroy his Enemies And when the mighty shall be
scattered by him and so those things come to pass which have been foretold thee I answered thereunto Lord thou knowest that thy Eternal Delights are sweeter to me then all those things which thou revealest unto me But he rebuked my impatience dehorting me from weariness so he went away from me Now all the following year 1628 He made no mention of my life or death except in the last Vision Moreover that I was to undergoe also one disease Then in 1629. January the 9 th It was declared unto me by an Angel that I should be visited from the Lord in a Dream with a Disease by name the Apoplexy which also came the same day in the evening I therefore because the year was now gone the Visions had now ceased believed that the very time was now approaching which the Lord had spoke concerning And that I should not now escape this Disease I therefore prepared my self in mind and conscience and my desire was to be dissolved and to be with Christ Which hope certain antecedent signs also did strengthen As were certain knocking 's or beatings under my Bed and under the next Table four several evenings many that visited me being present and hearing so iterated that each day the number was less by one stroak At length on the 26 th of January it sounded one and afterwards five which having heard I believed as also the rest That one only day of my life was now remaining and an end to be to morrow evening at five a clock Therefore watching all that night and praying and meditating on eternal life and this blessed departure I decreed to pass hence But hearing by night a certain voice as it were of a man three times Come come come Unusual Joy being shed abroad through my Soul I slept a little But Saturday morning at break of day when more vehement pains oppressed me I could not but interpret that Voice to have been a Divine Call I bad farewel therefore to my beloved Friends visiting me all that day And I was alwayes worse and worse till evening approaching my Sight Hearing Memory Speech and at length my Spirit failed me And I felt my self to go forth with my Spirit and to be carried into Heaven where surrounded with a great shining I saw an huge company cloathed in White And the Lord stepping forth took me in his imbrace saying The Lord hath done whatsoever he would in Heaven and in Earth For the Majesty of his Power is exalted and there is no counsel of his Will nor does it admit any For who hath known the mind of the Lord and who hath been his Counsellor Return therefore unto the place from whence thou art come forth and the breath of the most High shall vivify thee Arise walk farewel to thy Disease and behold the goodness of Jehovah in the Land of the Living exulting in his virtue For the dead shall not praise Jehovah nor admire his Works when they go down into the place of Silence but the living the living shall bless thee from this time and for ever God Jehovah dwells on high and hath exalted his Right Hand over all Nations And does wonderful things as it pleases him at all times He is the God of the living who also draws forth out of death and who gives life even for ever Therefore sadded with these things I begged that he would signifie unto me How many the dayes of my life should be But he said Thy times are in the hand of the Lord. He has measured thy years and hid thy term from thee Live therefore and injoy the goodness of God upon the Earth amongst his Saints But sanctifie thy years to God thy Creator and live righteously But thy reward and thy portion shall not wither away nor perish but thou shalt find it and shalt rejoyce concerning it and in it unto eternity That also which the most High does with thee accept gratefully and go not contrary to thy Creator by thy impatience Go thy wayes now and return for it is Jehovah who doth good to thee and hath a care of thee Therefore offer unto him the sacrifice of praise and render thy Vows to the most High giving thanks also unto him that he works the Work of Salvation in thee and will still work even until he shall blessedly finish it unto the praise of his Grace but unto thy Honour I wish use thee no more unto my works neither will I come unto thee Now therefore glorifie God in thy Body and Spirit which he hath given thee Acquiesce now in Heart and Conscience and give honour to God who doth all these things to the praise of his glorious Grace My Peace be with thee After he had said these things I falling down worshipped him And together also returned into life Sad indeed yet restored that very moment to full vigor and health and strength To this great God be Honour Praise and Empire unto Ages of Ages for ever Amen Come we next to Drabricius's Dedication of all to Christ which he was commanded to prefix before his Prophesies together with his last Protestation and Prayer c. To the most Serene most Invincible King of Kings and Lord of Lords JESUS CHRIST the Eternal and only begotten Son of God and the Virgin Mary who is the Alpha and Omega the first Born from the Dead whose Name is Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father who hath loved us and given us good hope through Grace To whom only is due all Kingdom Power and Empire unto all everlasting Ages Amen! Hallelujah ALL Nations of the Earth hear All Inhabitants of the World attend Small and Great Rich and Poor I Nicholas Drabricius by Countrey a Strasnian by Nation a Moravian by the destinate Counsel of God chosen and called to the Ministry of the Church of God and to Preach the Gospel of Christ and lawfully ordained in the year 1616. But then afterwards in the year 1628 with many other Godly Persons keeping Faith to God to Conscience and to the Church driven into Exile by Ferdinand the 2 d Roman Emperor for the Verity of the same Gospel and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ So that leaving my Countrey and the Inheritance of my Parents and plundred moreover by the Spanish Souldery onely my Wife and Children escaping and wandring in exile unto the Land of Hungary in the territories of the most Illustrious Lord the Lord George Ragotzi Prince of Transylvania the first of this Name I took up my Seat under the Castle of the Town Ledvitz And there with many other Families of pious fellow-exiles amidst extream miseries and sorrows of poverty yet humbly and patiently I served my Christ for fifteen years But here in the year I say 1643. Jan. 23. it pleased God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit of God according to the chosen good-pleasure of his Counsel to admit me his little Worm so far and to
that end That in the day of this last Age might be made known by me as his last Trumpet to Nations and Peoples and Tongues of the whole Earth the last Will of God By which his Divine Majesty Wills and Commands that Kings Princes Counts and all Potentates of the Eastern and the Western of the Northern and the Southern Lands do unto the Roman Pope as unto the Babylonish Whore That all Idolaters Hereticks Atheists and false Christians adhering to her perish And that to the Turks Tartars Jews and other Nations inhabiting under the Sun Light shine forth For these ungodly long since fore-ordain'd to this damnation as who turn the Grace of our god into wantonness and deny the alone Heir God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jud. v. 4. are even they who have segregated themselves from God and his Holy Law sensual not having the Spirit v. 19. All whom God destinates to destruction by the force and right of his Law and by the force of the secular Power into whose heart he hath given and in these last dayes doth give and will give to conceive hatred against the Whore and make her deserted and naked and eat her flesh but burn her her self with Fire Revellations 17. 16 17. For to save others with fear and snatch them as it were out of the flames and to hate the Cassock Cap and Hood spotted with the touching and defilement of the flesh with which the Guardians of the Whore being indued do with a ridiculous haughtiness and opinion of sanctity besot themselves and others stalking up and down shaven like fools girt with Cords like Hangmen and with naked Feet and Thighs like Whores designing to be seen of men and to be extolled with praises Wo unto them for they have gone into the way of Cain and running greedily after the error of Balaam for reward feed themselves Clouds without Water unfruitful Trees wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Jude v. 11 12 13. The Wisdom of God hath also by me lamented over the Political consusions of Kings and Princes of Lords and Subjects by denouncing his Will That there be made a Renovation of good Order after the Rule of his Law in Church and State By prescribing what manner of Persons Kings ought to be and others placed in Power And what the Ministers of the Church and Pastors of Souls with their Revenues on both hands and what Schools and all Orders universally And how in every Nation under Heaven a Monument is to be erected to oblige themselves and their Posterity after them to serve the one God The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken concerning this to me and by me unto all in the year 1651. March 26. Determining the Inscription of the Pillars in these words Our God Jehovah is one God in Essence but three in Persons Whom alone we will serve for ever through all our Generations Amen therefore So be it That it may be fulfilled what was foretold Zeph. chap. 3. v. 9. That it should come to pass that a pure Language be restored to the people that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one shoulder And as in Rev. 15. v. 4. That all Nations come and worship before God because his judgments are manifest That all under Heaven may profess the Doctrine of Faith delivered by Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and to the Faithful their successors to these very last times of the World in which the Wisdom of God by me also cries and sounds as with a Trumpet by declaring his Will That errors of all kinds cease But the Verity of the Words and Life of the Lord Jesus to shine forth after the ruine of Mystical Babylin and the going forth of the People of God therefrom as it is written in the Revelations which who so reads let him understand being certain that no Prophesie of Scripture is of any private Interpretation For that the Prophesies came not of old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake and do speak as they were or are moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. Know therefore know all Nations and Tongues of the universal World high and low rich and poor learned and simple in whom soever the fear of God and the use of sound reason is That the Speeches written by me and often watered with tears now with sear now with joy have not been nor are my Speeches proceeding forth from my will or Wit and my Judgement which is plain and simple in me and too dull for such and so great things as these but from the mouth of God the Creator God the Redeemer and God the Sanctifier and represented unto me intelligibly and to my mind and memory as a man perceptibly To which I give and do give wholly give belief by many now and various Experiments undoubtedly made certain and secure that the Holy and Blessed Trinity will own them for theirs and in very deed and fact demonstrate their verity Not then or so when and how I or thou whosoever thou art will or will'st but then when the time and hour of the Judgement determined by the Will of his Majesty shall come Because it is necessary that that remain true once pronounced A thousand years are with the Lord as one day and one day as a thousand years I therefore every way weighing and pondering the matter I denounce to every one contradicting me in these things and condemning them for something not yet approved by the event Behold I denounce That I cite him to day and will cite to morrow and so long as I or thou be alive and in the point of mine and thy death and in the day of that last tremendous Judgement in the illustrioous coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I cite him I say into the presence of the Clarity of the most High and most True God with whom is no acceptation of persons who alone is Judge of Quick and Dead judging not according to the sight of the Eyes nor reproving according to the hearing of the Ears but judging the Poor in righteousuess and reproving for the Meek of the Earth in equity Isa 11. 4. And I cite him into the presence of Seraphims and Cherubims and the whole coelestial Hierarchy I cite him into the presence of the Patriarks Moses and the Prophets and Apostles I cite him into the presence of the boly Doctors or Teachers of the Church Cyprian Ambrose Augustine Bernard c. And of the Martyrs Wickliff Hus Jerome c. And into the presence of the holy Reformers Luther Melancthon Calvin and their Successors faithful Lights of the Church c. Full of hope and confidence towards God and the Father of the Lord Jesus that if any one of you O men whosoever he be shall condemn me the least of all the Servants of Jesus Christ with this my Work perform'd dutifully yet laboriously to his