which is the same with the Two-horned Beast who is the Restorer of the wounded Beast that is of the Pagan Empire become Christian into a new kinde of Paganism and is said to work Miracles in the sight of the Beast wherewith he deceived them that dwell on the Earth and made them worship the Image of the Beast and receive the Mark of the Beast c. Chap. 13. Which things are so plainly said of the False-Prophet Chap. 19. 20. that there can be no doubt but the Two-horned Beast and the False-Prophet are the same And the Beast was taken and with him the False-Prophet that wrought Miracles before him with which he deceived them that received the Mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image Wherefore it is plain that the False-Prophet and the Two-horned Beast and consequently the Whore of Babylon are all one as I have above noted and that therefore the Roman Idolatrous Clergy that pretend to be such an infallible Church as if God did unfailingly inspire them in what-ever is concluded upon by their Pope or at least by him together with what they will call a General Council are figured out here by way of reproach to this boast of infallible Inspiration in this Title or Style of Prophet But for that they delude the world by false Doctrines and either Diabolical Miracles or cunning Cheats and Forgeries of Miraculous Effects the same Company of men is more ignominiously and openly branded for this Impiety by the prefixing that deserved Epithet of False 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The False-Prophet What can be more plain then this Or what a more wicked Opposition to the Prophetick Office of Christ then for one to take upon him to be his infallible Vicar-General of Christendome and yet to fill the world with Idolatry and Lies Which this Body of Pseudo-prophets have done in some measure more or less for about these 1200 years as is manifest from the last Consectary of our Joint-Exposition 7. Whence we may be sure that the true Prophets who speak according to the tenour of Apostolick Doctrine would have but a sad time of it and the Prophetick Office of Christ as he illuminates these by his Word and Spirit be opposed and resisted nay these Instruments of his contradicted and oppressed with all imaginable injury and violence accordingly as this Mystery of Iniquity should grow up in the Church which seems to have commenced about 400 years after Christ. Which Condition of the Church I conceive is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses whose mournful Prophecy in Sackcloth is Synchronal to the Reign of the False-Prophet as has been above demonstrated But the Description of things is such as comprises the Opposition to the Kingly Office of Christ as well as Prophetical as shall appear in our Explication of the Vision For for any one to take upon him to be the infallible Interpreter of the Law of a King is to give Laws for him and to despoil him of his Throne and Sceptre Or by what-ever other Device his Laws may be suppressed and kept from the People and other Laws put in their room this Kingly Office is plainly made nothing by it But that the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testament is thus dealt withall by this False-Prophet I have in my Idea of Antichristianism sufficiently declared CHAP. XII 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses Ver. III. The reason why they are Two Ver. IV V. Why Two Olive-trees and Candlesticks and what meant by their killing men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths Ver. VI. That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them onely by a Metalepsis 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Aegypt And what the meaning of these Plagues may be Ver. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The War and Death of the Witnesses what they mean Ver. VIII Aegypt and the fore-going Plagues fitly mentioned together Ver. IX The meaning of Three daies and an half and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth Ver. XI What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses Ver. XII That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven but ascend thither when they are called Ver. XIII The Earth-quake City Fall of the City and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men what they mean 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses 1. LET us now enquire what news of these Injuries in this Vision of the Two mournful Witnesses who complain not without a cause as well the Regal as Prophetick Office of Christ being so palpably opposed by that Man of sin We shall give a brief Explication of the Vision proceeding orderly from verse to verse beginning at the third and holding on till the fourteenth where the story of the Witnesses endeth Ver. III. And I will give unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score daies in Sack-cloth That these Daies are so many Years appears from the last Consectary of my Joint-Exposition That these Witnesses are Two is partly from the Types they allude to in the Old Testament and partly from the nature of the things they signifie The Types they allude to are Moses and Aaron Elias and Elisha Zerobabel and Jesua three several Pairs of holy men that are famous for their conduct of the People in such times as bear also analogy to these of the Two Witnesses whose Prophecy is during the Conculcation of the Outward Court of the Temple by the Gentiles that is while it is polluted with Idolatry as Moses and Aaron were over the Israelites in the Wilderness where they often lapsed into Idolatry to which the Woman in the Wilderness may haply allude Elias and Elisha in their Baalitical Apostasy and Zerobabel and Jesua when they were yet in the Captivity of Babylon There are also three Pair of things that may be fitly signified by these Two Witnesses Either the suppressed Magistracy and Ministry such I mean as answer in opposition to the Ten-borned Beast and False-Prophet and bear a resemblance with Moses and Aaron Zerobabel and Jesua or else the People of the Jews I mean such of them as are so sincere that were it not for the sway of Antichristianism in the world would be converted to Christ together with the Virgin-company of Christians or lastly which answers to these two last Witnesses the Old Testament and the New which may be added by an Henopoeia to the other Ver. IV. These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth It is a plain Israelism alluding to that in Zachary Chap. 4. 11. What are these two Olive-trees upon the right sight of the Candlestick
as being the seven last Plagues 9. The same farther proved from the Song of the Harpers upon their victory over the Beast 10. And from the order of the Vision of the Vials as also from the appearing of the Temple out of which the Angels come after the sixth Trumpet and before any of the Vials be poured out 11. In what sense the Middle Synchronals are to be fulfilled at the Exit of the sixth Trumpet 12 A larger Declaration how all the Middle Synchronals expire together in what sense or degree soever they do expire 13. Of the commencing of the last Synchronals and what the time of the Millennium more eminently so styled 14. The serviceableness of the premising these orderly Synchronisms for his farther search into the Prophecies that foretel the Lapse of the Church into Antichristianism 377 CHAP. VIII 1. That there are Three more Middle Synchronals that foretel the Churche's Lapse into Idolatry As the Vision of the Outward Court troden down by the Gentiles 2. The Woman in the Wilderness What meant by Wilderness 3. A brief account of the sense of the whole Vision 4. That there is an Hypallage in her being said to flie into the Desart like that of Hades being cast into the Fire and of the Kingdom being given to the Saints in Daniel 5. That our Interpretation of the Woman in the Wilderness does not clash with Mr. Mede's though different from it 6. The third Synchronal the Virgin-Company The meaning of the Number of their Regiments and of the new Song which none could learn besides them 7. How the Vision of these Virgin-souldiers implies the Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 383 CHAP. IX 1. Three more Prophecies predicting the Churche's Lapse into Idolatry As the Vision of the sixth Trumpet which is proved to respect the Roman Empire long after it became Christian. 2. That in this Vision the Greek and Latin Church are both apparently taxed of Idolatry and with Aggravations common to Pagans and them 3. That it appears from the same Vision of what great consequence it would be for Christendom to reform from this gross sin and that they are their best friends that plainly and freely rebuke them for it and for those other crimes reflected upon in this Vision 4. The Prophecy of Paul to Timothy proposed and the first part thereof expounded out of Epiphanius touching the Inspirers of this predicted Errour 5. As also that part that contains the Errour it self namely the worship of Daemons From whence it is plain the Prophecie concerns this notorious Lapse of the Church into Idolatry 6. As also from the Instruments of the Broaching this Errour 7. And from the mentioning of the Mystery of Godliness immediately before to which this Mystery of Iniquity is opposed 8. And lastly from the Times of the Lapse which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Which is proved to be a proper Term of the Prophetick style denoting that Time and Times and half a Time which is the latter section of the continuance of the Fourth Monarchy 10. That the course of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Reign of Antichrist is indigitated by thâ—…se Numbers of Days in the last of Daniel 387 CHAP. X. 1. Epiphanius his Exposition of the Prophecie of Paul to Timothy confirmed from the reference it has to that in Daniel 2. Grotius his miss-timing this Prophecie of Daniel and applying it to Antiochus how rash and groundless 3. A Confutation of his Application 4. The right timing this Prophecie by Calvin and Mr. Mede who both interpret it of the Roman State and Empire 5. A more particular account of the two first verses of the Prophecie Mr. Mede's way 6. As also of the third 7. And fourth 8. That the sense of this Prophecie so clearly accords with that of S. Paul that it is manifest he refers to it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. That though this Interpretation of Mr. Mede be unexceptionable throughout yet the two first verses of the Prophecie may be otherwise expounded and more suitably to S. Paul's Prophecie in his Epistle to the Thessalonians 393 CHAP. XI 1. The Reasons of his Prolixity hitherto in the Predictions of the Idolatry of the Church and of his future Brevity in the rest of the parts of Antichristianism 2. The Second member of Antichristianism prefigured in the Apoc. 11. 8. Witnesses lying slain in the Streets of the great City called Aegypt 3. A short Paraphrase and Exposition upon that verse of the Apocalyps 4. That the same thing seems to be prefigured in the Whore of Babylon her riding of the Beast 5. What Predictions concern the Opposition to the Priestly Office of Christ. 6. That the Two-horned Beast and the False-prophet are all one and that both prefigure the Antichristian Opposition against his Prophetick Office 7. That the Affliction of the true Prophets of Christ is prefigured in the Vision of the Two Witnesses as also the Antichristian Opposition against the Kingly Office 398 CHAP. XII 1. An Explication of the Vision of the Witnesses Ver. III. The reason why they are Two Ver. IV V. Why Two Olive-Trees and Candlesticks and what meant by their killing men by the fire that proceeds out of their mouths Ver. VI. That their power of shutting up Heaven from raining may be attributed to them onely by a Metalepsis 2. Or rather by a Zoopoeia of the second sort 3. According to which Figure they are said to smite the Earth with every plague of Aegypt And what the meaning of these Plagues may be Ver. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The War and Death of the Witnesses what they mean Ver. VIII Aegypt and the foregoing Plagues fitly mentioned together Ver. IX The meaning of Three days and an half and of the Bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied Ver. X. What meant by the Dwellers upon Earth Ver. XI What by the Spirit of God coming into the Witnesses Ver. XII That the true Witnesses do not invade Heaven but ascend thither when they are called Ver. XIII The Earth-quake City Fall of the City and the Slaughter of 7000 Names of men what they mean 2. That the Antichristian Opposition to the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ is clearly prefigured in this Vision of the Two Witnesses 403 CHAP. XIII 1. That the little Horn in Daniel is a Type of that Power which should oppose the Regal Office of Christ. 2. That the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae but the Roman proved from the universal Consent of Ecclesiastick Writers 3. From the eminency and greatness of the Fourth Kingdom 4. From the distance of time betwixt the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and the Kingdom of the Stone cut out without hands or the Kingdom of the Son of man which is also the Kingdom of Heaven or of God 5 Grotius his fond and profane Interpretation of the Son of man as if thereby were meant the People of Rome 6 The
esse si quis tres Deos credit See Dr. Rainolds De Romanae Ecclesiae Idololatria So plain is it that Idolatry is not confined to the worshipping of an Image Lib. 2. cap. 9. but to the admitting of more Objects of Divine worship then that one true God For the worshipping any more is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews call it and is most frequently and most significantly termed in Scripture Fornication which looks more at the Plurality of the Objects of worship then the Kinds of them For this Spiritual Fornication is committed where we worship any thing besides him that is the Creatour and Conserver of all things CHAP. IX 1. The necessity of knowing what Religious worship is for the discovering of Idolatry 2. The faultiness of the distribution of Worship into Latria Dulia and Cultus civilis 3. That Christ only who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has such a middle Excellency as may admit Religious worship 4. That the excess of Excellency in God above that in Saints and Angels is so infinitely more then the excess of excellency in Saints and Angels above that in Men that it is extremely forced and irrational to allot worship of one denomination to the first and second and not rather to the second and last which they being fellow-citizens might rightly be called Civil 5. That no kind of Religious worship is due to Saints and Angels proved by the Angel's refusing to be worshipped by S. John 6. And also from the near affinity of our natures with theirs 7. To whom Origen pronounces Good men equal nor allows the glorious Stars though they were intellectual to be worshipped 8. That the Religious worship of Saints and Angels is no duty of ours as being reducible to the Precepts of neither Table 9. That Religious worship is but One and due to God only proved from our Saviour's answer to the Devil 10. As also from the Authour to the Hebrews arguing the Divinity of Christ from Religious worship due to him with several other testimonies 11. An Answer to an Objection 1. THus we have found out the adequate latitude of the Object of Idolatry that it is whatsoever is not truely God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks to the Galatians But unless we have also the Knowledge Chap. 4 v. 8. of what is Religious or Divine worship and when or by what we give this worship to that which is not truely God we shall be still at a loss how to discern when our selves or any one else commits Idolatry and when not 2. There are some who for the better palliating their unjustifiable practices have framed a smooth story namely That there are as many kinds of Honour or Worship as there are of Excellency and that therefore there being three kinds of Excellency Divine Humane and a middle betwixt Humane and Divine as that Supernatural grace and glory of the Saints and Angels there are also three kinds of Worship Latria Dulia and Cultus civilis But the distribution had had less fraud and better Logick in it if it had been bipartite for then would have appeared more plainly what kind of Worship they mean by Dulia For they will not have it Civil worship in that it is a distinct member therefrom It remains therefore that it must be Religious worship though they were afraid to speak out what they harbour in their breast For indeed Religion which in its prime and proper sense is nothing else but Cultus Numinis belongs de jure only to the true God and if it be transferred to any thing else it is Idolatry or Superstition But if they would have dealt above-board and like honest men and exact Logicians they should have distributed Honour or Worship first into Religious and Civil and then according to the sense that they intended subdivided Religious worship into Latria and Dulia But this being craftily aimed at and supposed though not so plainly expressed and indeed being the chief thing intended That Religious worship is due to Saints and Angels as well as to God himself I shall direct my answer only against this mistake 3. First therefore I say That that ground of allotting Religious worship to Saints and Angels is very weak namely because they have a middle excellency betwixt God and man For it is plain they have not in a due and strict sense that being a Privilege belonging to Christ alone who is the acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man and therefore may justly be worshipped with Religious worship Wherefore there being nothing that has truly a middle excellency betwixt God and Man as a Zoophyton may be rightly said to have a middle excellency betwixt an Animal and a Plant saving the Man Christ Jesus there is no Creature capable of Religious worship besides him nor is he indeed capable thereof but in virtue of that Mysterious union with the true Godhead and thereby becoming as well God as Man 4. And then again there is another fraud and indeed the more principal and original one in the distribution of these Excellencies immediately into three whenas it had been more faithfully and Logically done to have distributed Excellency first into Created and Increated and then Created Excellency into that of Saints and Angels and that of Men. But hereby the boldness and grossness of their assigning Religious worship to that which is but a Creature would have appeared at first sight the Creatour standing in contradiction to it who is infinitely more Excellent then any glorified creature whatsoever or rather whose degree of Excellency above the most glorious Creature that is is infinitely greater then the degree of Excellency of Saints and Angels above Men. Whence appears what a rash and forced thing it is to hold together two Excellencies betwixt which there is that infinite distance in one common capacity of receiving Religious worship I mean the Divine Excellency and that of Angels and Saints whenas the Humane Excellency and that of Saints and Angels are infinitely nearer one another and therefore infinitely more fit to receive worship of one common denomination to both Which may very well be termed Civil the glorified Saints and Angels and Good men being but fellow-servants and fellow-citizens of that new Jerusalem which reaches from Heaven to Earth according as it is written But you are come to the Mount Sion and to the City of the Heb. 12. living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect Which shews plainly that Saints and Angels and Good men upon Earth are all of one communialty Citizens of the same City the new Jerusalem and fellow-citizens you know do not give Religious worship one to another but only Civil 5. Nor yet fellow-servants as the Angel argues to John in the Apocalyps And I fell at his feet to worship him And he said unto me Chap. 19. See thou doe it not I am thy fellow-servant and
Church by laying claim to a Judgement of discretion I say he lays claim to no more then is of necessity given him as I have already demonstrated For if there be an appeal to the Reason and Conscience of a private man in the endeavouring to convince him he is ipso facto made Judge and if to be Judge in this sense is to be Superiour he is necessarily Superiour But I see no necessity that his being Judge thus for himself makes him Superiour to his Church Indeed if he judged for his Church he were thereby their Superiour but judging for himself onely he usurps no Superiority over the Church but onely is obedient to him that is Superiour to both that is to Jesus Christ following his plain Injunctions and Precepts whether written in the outward Word or legibly engraven upon the Table of his Heart To follow therefore the plain and inevitable dictates of his own Conscience which as the Tribunal of God is not to exalt a mans self above the Church but to submit a mans self to God and exalt him above all 11. Nor does a man herein equallize himself to his Church in that he does not define for others but for himself and professes himself in the mean time ready to obey the visible Church in such things as are not repugnant to the express Precepts of God and Christ and to those immutable Characters of Truth which he has imprinted upon the Souls of all men and which are there to be found unless gross violence and Interest has obscured or obliterated them 12. Nor in the last place does he make himself wiser then his Church which were also an odious imputation But without immodesty it may be thought that a private man may be more sollicitous of his own important Concerns and more faithfull to his own Eternal Interest then many thousand men put together and that therefore though he may not have so much wit and learning as these yet he may conduct his own affairs more safely then if they were put into their hands especially they that pretend to be guides to Heaven for others seeming to be wholy taken up with the things of this World as if they had forgot their intended journey It is not therefore a boast of Wisedom above the Church but a carefull sollicitude touching such things as the wise men of the World do not usually trouble themselves much about that may embolden some private sincere-hearted Christian to dissent from some Dictates of the Church professing himself in other things as weak and childish as they please remembring that Doxologie of our Blessed Saviour I thank thee O Father Matt. 11. Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 13. Finally This Wisedom which they adhere to is plainly and evidently not the Dictate of their own private spirit which to oppose to the Church were indeed to make a mans self wiser then the Church but the plain and perspicuous Testimonies of the Word of God and the common and indubitable Notions of universal humane Nature writ by the Finger of that Eternal Wisedom which created all things on the spirits of all men that be in their wits and therefore is a plain and legible Copy of that Wisedom So that he that adheres thereto does not prefer his own Wisedom before the Wisedom of the Church but submits himself faithfully to the Wisedom of God to which the Church also ought to submit and not to efface as much as in them lies those imprinted Characters of Truth out of the Souls of men thereby to enslave them to themselves and to the corrupt Interest of their Kingdom of darkness and gross Imposture 14. But I have been more copious then was needfull or intended in confuting this dream of Infallibility We might have made shorter work of it and suddenly evinced the folly of that pretence by actual Errours that have been in the Church of God As surely the Church of the Jews was as really the Church of God as the visible Christian Church and has as magnificent promises as it in Isaiah For what is spoke Chap. 54. rebounds upon the Church of the Jews first as Grotius has observed and there it is said That they shall all be taught of God and that with everlasting kindness God will have mercy upon them And yet this Church was in so gross a mistake that the Governours and Grandees thereof knew not their Messiah when he was come into the world but put him to a most shamefull death But even in those times when there was a more palpable Residence of God's miraculous power with them they erred very hainously as in the worshipping the Golden Calf in the wilderness as also in the ten Tribes worshipping those in Bethel nay apostatizing all to the worshipping of Baalim saving seven Thousand which were so few in respect of the rest that Elijah took himself to be left alone And Ahab consulting the Prophets found by wofull experience that four hundred of them prophesied false and onely Micaiah true And * Ch. 5. 30 31. Jeremie complains of his times A wonderfull and horrible thing saith he is committed in the Land The Prophets prophesy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you doe in the end thereof That is also a smart monition of his * Ch. 7. 4. Trust you not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord c. For all which they doe that call themselves The Temple of the Lord is not right as appears in the same Chapter where they are accused of committing Idolatry openly in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which could not be had they not fallen into the hands of blind and erroneous Guides which might cause them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths and yet in the mean time take up that presumptuous boast That the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor the Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet no not then when they were imagining mischief against the true Prophets of the Lord as you may see Jeremie 18. But * Ch. 3. 6. Micaiah says plainly That the Prophets that are onely for easie times and for good chear Night shall be upon them and they shall have no vision and it shall be dark unto them that they cannot divine That such Seers shall be ashamed and Diviners confounded as having no answer from God And * Ch. 56 10 11. Esay complains that the watch-men of the City are blind that they are ignorant shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for jollity or gain Thus clear is it that the Church of the Jews though it was in such a special manner espoused to God was
The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocritical Solutions c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet more particularly of Hail and more to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemie And further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stemms or stalks of the Corn accordingly as they are broken in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place 3. Harvest That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Corn-fields with sithes in Merchia upon which a pestilence followed But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Countrey he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people This similitude is also used in Scripture Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor it is time to thrash her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense as in that of our Saviour John 4. 35. Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 4. Head That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetick Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetick three Numbers being given For we have three terms of the Analogie here also viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof and a Beast which is the Prophetick figure of a Kingdom Wherefore we cannot miss to say As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof so is this Prophetick or figurative Beast to the Head thereof and alternately As the Kingdom to the Beast so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many For as the Power abstractedly is not considered so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power but both in concreto make up this Head Politick And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many those many are the Head and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons no more then the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons Nay if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Phancy rather then his Reason a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets such as the whole body consisted of 5. Heaven and Earth By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe that is a Kingdom or Polity there needs no further proof thereof then what is found in Esay ch 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hoasts is my Name And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people that is to say to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Aegypt before a Kingdom or Polity to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates Again chap. 65. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy Upon which Text Forerius Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth that is his Church According to which sense also he interprets For as the new Heavens and the new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain Quam diu duraret novus Orbis i. e. Regnum Dei Ecclesiae c. And Grotius also though he look a-scue and is very shie himself best knows the reason at these places that have been mentioned yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expresly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense Which notion was worth the clearing because this general Analogie will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify as to be called up into Heaven or cast down to the Earth and the like 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politick which is resembled to a Beast it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel The great Horn is the first King And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalyps For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast 7. Horse There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Prosper and ride which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper and reign But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas which is a generous Steed which goes orderly and obediently he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on And so after he descants on the largeness thickness and length of the tail declaring that his power and train shall be answerable but if bob-tailed or thin of hair it signifies defect of power The halting of
This plainly appears from the first Instance of Idolatry and from those kinds of appropriate signes of Divine worship that of their own nature are discoverable to be such 5. And truly such is the Invocation of the help of this or that Saint though it were not in those more conspicuous circumstances of putting up our Petitions in a Temple or before the Image of the Saint we pray to For the simple Invocation of a particular invisible power is of it self Idolatry without those other circumstances because it consequentially attributes that to that power which is only proper to the true God I mean Omnipresence or Ubiquity For no man can be assured that an invisible power is in such a particular place but by Supposition that he is in all places at once which is the proper Prerogative of God Wherefore simple Invocation of any particular invisible power is no such slight business as some make it but absolute Idolatry nay I think the most fundamental part of all the Idolatry committed by the Heathen if rationally and philosophically examined and the mother of the rest Or at least whatever great exception there is or convincingly rational against those usual Signes of Religious worship being given to these particular invisible powers it is found here and is allegeable against Invocation For the main is That it implies an Omnipresence of that invisible power they worship And therefore the Consecrating of a Temple and Altar and a Symbolical residence or visible representation and Offering of Sacrifices and the like cannot be competible to any but the All-present God whom they are always sure to find at home if I may so speak when they make their approaches to his House But for other particular invisible powers who knows whether they be at home or no or whether pursuing or in a journey or asleep somewhere as Elias sarcastically argues concerning Baal nay I will adde whether they be not carried away captive and confined to some other place None can have any certainty of them where they are or whether ever there where their visible and symbolical residence is erected unless they be Omnipresent and of necessity are there because every-where If not we have no faith nor assurance of their Presence or Audience But Prayer and Invocation supposes faith and assurance of being heard at least in that ordinary sense of which there being no assurance without the invisible Power invoked be Omnipresent it is plain that he that invokes an invisible Power interpretatively implies its Omnipresence and consequently if it be a particular Power and finite commits Idolatry thereby 6. Nor can the demonstrativeness of this Reason be eluded or evaded by those usuall subterfuges of the Saints seeing and knowing all things by particular revelation from God or by the exalted peculiarity of their condition in that separate glorified state they are in For those that talk at this rate rant it and speak unintelligible riddles without all ground or probability of Reason or warrant of Scripture they being mere afterfigments and precarious suppositions to excuse the madness and extravagancy of their Idolatrous actions For as for the latter surmise it is plainly a dream to think the blessed Virgin suppose merely by virtue of her glorified and separate condition from this terrestrial body can hear from Heaven at such a vast distance the devout whispers or suspirations of her affectionate Supplicants or see through the earth their humble prostrations For she is called upon by the inhabitants of this Globe in all postures or distances of Habitation even by those that are Antipodes one to another where if she assist the one she must be at least the Earth's Diameter distant from the other through which distance neither her sight nor hearing can ever penetrate And for the former Hypothesis how childish and ridiculous is it they pretending that they supplicate the Saints to speak to God in their behalf whenas the Saints cannot speak to God till he tell them their errand first who has received the message from the Supplicant already but must impart it to the Saints to say it over to him again which shews the incongruity of making any addresses to them and considering how perfectly appeasable and propitious and how freely accessible God is through the only name and mediation of Jesus Christ is such an useless patch and bungle in Divinity that it cannot seem credible to any man of common sense and therefore there is no such special revelation to the Saints of our compellation of them in our Prayers and consequently the Invocation of them which is proper to God by reason of his Omniscious Ubiquity being thus misplaced upon these particular invisible powers must be interpretatively an act of Idolatry there being done such an act of worship to them as implies in the Object such an Excellency as is found only in God 7. Nor will their profession of those diminishing apprehensions concerning Saints in other respects as That they are not the true God but only glorified Creatures and That they are Intercessours inferiour to Christ and the like excuse them from Idolatry For the acknowledgement of any one Divine Excellency and Peculiarity of the Godhead in that which is a mere Creature is undoubtedly Idolatry as the betraying any one Castle to the enemy is Treason against a Prince And the Pagans were esteemed as Idolaters in worshipping Mercury and the whole order of the Medioxumous or internuntial Deities or Daemons for all their acknowledging them inferiour to the Supreme God So that I cannot see but that the mere Invocation of Saints or Angels is a palpable nay a fundamental piece of Idolatry and in reference to which all the pomp and furniture of Idolatry was superstructed I mean the building of their Temples erecting Altars and Images Incensing and Sacrificing and the rest For all end in or are circumstances of Invocation upon faith and assurance to be heard which cannot be rationally placed in any invisible power unless it be Omnipresent which this Invocation does naturally and necessarily implie else there will be no sense of the action but it will be very incongruous and ridiculous For other suppositions are arbitrarious uncertain nay incredible surmises touching an invisible power and upon which there can be no faith not assurance of being heard 8. Fourthly And as this worship of Invocation to either Saint or Angel without the use of an Image is thus plainly Idolatry so the invoking them or any other way of worshipping them with an Image must be a double piece of Idolatry and is referrable to the third Mode thereof 9. Fifthly The worshipping of the Image suppose of the blessed Virgin or of any other Saint upon a mistake that it is the very Virgin herself or this or that Saint is also Idolatry and to be referred to the fourth Instance thereof 10. Sixthly To worship any man yet living with Religious worship whether in gesture compellation appellation or any thing else that is
them from any material blemishes as being so exceeding necessary for the continuance of those Truths that were published by such men as accordingly as I have already intimated were Divinely and Infallibly inspired And that there were such Writings sufficient for the conveyance of the knowledge of Christ written by them that were infallible Witnesses of the Truth and that we may be assured that those which commonly bear the Title of them are they I have without any recourse to the Infallibility of the Church so plainly demonstrated in my Explanation of the Book 7. chap. 10 11. Mystery of Godliness that I think it needless to say any thing further of it in this place 2. In the second place they will pretend That the Church must be Infallible or else there will want an Infallible Judge of Controversies nay there will not be so much as any Authority in the Church to order the affairs thereof But the Answer is easie and brief That there is no want of any such Infallible Judge and therefore not of the Churche's Infallibility for the Scripture is a Sufficient Rule of Faith to all that have understanding whether Learned or unlearned in things necessary to Salvation and That the belief and practice of these will carry a man to Heaven The Spirit of God therefore is the onely Infallible Judge here and has declared as plainly as any successive Judges can in those things that are necessary to Life and Salvation what is to be believed and to be done Which if we believe and practise in particular and do also in general and implicitly believe and stand in a readiness to obey the rest of the Scripture when the sense thereof appears to us we are in a safe condition and need not doubt but it will go well with us in the other State For it is manifest that what is necessary is plain in the Word of God to all men otherwise Salvation were not sufficiently revealed to the world and what we above recited out of St. Paul were not true nor the Providence of God sufficiently watchful in the laying the first Foundations of his Church 3. For if the Scripture were not a Sufficient Infallible evidence of all necessary Truths God would have afterwards raised other persons of Apostolical purity in conversation and with the like power of working Miracles to have made a Supplement to the former which yet was never done or else those other necessary Truths taught indeed by the first Apostles but not written by them had been committed to Tradition which had been a very lubricous and perillous way and unlikely to be taken by Divine Providence But if any such way had been taken certainly the Scripture it self in which all men are agreed would have pointed it out to us as also if there had been any Interpreter instituted that there might be infallibly communicated to us what remains necessary to our eternal safety But the Scripture being silent herein it openly declares it self to be Sufficient to all such as with sincerity and care apply themselves to the understanding of it as certainly every man considering that his eternal Salvation lies upon it will be enforced to doe in his own behalf whenas if others interpret for him they may doe it more remissly or more fraudulently 4. Besides that it is a very unskilfull and inept desire that there should be any such Infallible Judge that has concluded all Controversies to our hands already For that would prevent or forestall that privacy and peculiarity of converse which God has with those Souls that are more dear to him who does in a special manner assure them of such Conclusions as are not to be reached at by every hand But when the Infallible Determination of the Church has passed all mens assurances will be alike and God will have as it were given the staff out of his own hands Wherefore there being no external Infallible Judge for the Interpreting obscure places in Scripture God's right of his dispensing his special favours is preserved and men of a more devout and Intellectual spirit are divinely employed and earnestly engaged to extraordinary piety and holiness that they may win the favour of that inward Infallible Interpreter even of that Holy Spirit which the World cannot receive and by the light of his assistence be inabled to reach the true sense of those Writings which himself dictated to the Apostles and other Holy men of God 5. And lastly That the want of Infallibility will take away the Authority of the Church is a very weak Inference For her Authority is entire in the urging those Truths and Duties in Scripture that are plain to all men even to such as do not in the least dream that they are Infallible And those that are thus plain are such as are the most useful for our safe conduct to Heaven And for those Doctrines that be more obscure if they be withall useful and edifying as also Rites and Ceremonies the Church has Authority though she be not Infallible to declare them and appoint them Let all things be done decently and in order But how she is to behave her self to Dissenters having spoke of that more copiously elsewhere 2 Cor. 14. 40. I shall not here so much as touch upon it I will onely adde That in things that are really disputable I conceive it is the duty of every one whatever his private judgment and inclinations otherwise would be to compromise with the Authority of the Church and for Peace and Order sake to be concluded by their Determinations 6. Now what has been already suggested will serve to null or enervate a third Sophism For it seems a plausible Objection against the Scripture alone being sufficient to guide us and rule us without a publick Infallible Interpreter That this were as if one should contend that the Law alone in Civil matters were sufficient without a publick Judge For besides what we above insinuated That a plain Law and such we averre the Scripture to be in matters necessary to Salvation may want no Judge where the Conscience finds it self upon pain of Damnation obliged to understand it aright we further suggest That the urging or pressing of the Law of Christ by a publick Minister Interpreter or Declarer of the sentence of his Law so far as it is plainly his to all unprejudiced Understandings as well unlearned as learned is not denied by those that contend that the Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith And for my own part as I said before in places that are not thus plain if such Interpretations be made as are not repugnant to other plain Texts of Scripture but tend to the promotion of the Ends of the Gospel which I have elsewhere specified I hope no man shall offend God but doe his dutie to the Church in compromising with them in their sentiments of things in such circumstances as these For they are supposed conscienciously and in the Fear of
Monitor ad Caesar. c. King James of ever-blessed memory has smartly and justly taxed them sub larvata simulatione curae spiritualis animarum regna exhaurit orbémque Christianum caede sanguine miscet to this Power I must confess the Visions of the Apocalyps are somewhat more severe as it is most fit they should be For this Power except so much therein as agrees with the Primitive Ages of the Church comprising in it nothing but a masse of Frauds and Impostures of Superstitions and Idolatries and bloudy and Antichristian Cruelties the Visions of the Apocalyps were not the Visions of God if they predicted not ill to so ungodly and Diabolical a Polity And yet if I might profess freely my opinion were but that heap of wicked stuff cast out and abolished and all her false Merchandizes every-where interdicted as they are here in England such a purification as this would undoubtedly fulfill the prediction of the burning of the Whore of Babylon with fire according to the primary sense or scope of these Visions and the Church and whatsoever is comely and usefull be saved from any farther or severer Castigations provided they did not Antichristianize in what is left and place all their Religion merely in an outward though unexceptionable Form neglecting the indispensable Laws of the Life of God and of honest and laudable Morality So little reason have any to be affraid of the right sense of the Apocalyps in those Visions unless they have a favour for the Kingdom of sin and dominion of the Devil in the World 11. Again I must confess also that I cannot but dissent from Mr. His difference from Mr. Mede's way in expounding the three days and an half of the death of the Witnesses and in the placing of the Vials c. Mede in his expounding the three days and an half wherein the Witnesses lay slain three years and an half and not three times and an half which is a mistake of no small consequence As also in his placing of six of the Vials within the sixth Trumpet whenas I have shewn reason I think sufficient why they should be all ranged within the seventh Upon which supposition the pouring out of the first will follow the ascension of the Witnesses into Heaven in a cloud with a very close and natural coherence and such as is intimated in the very Text. For it is said that they ascended up into Heaven in a cloud and their Enemies beheld them and you may be sure Apoc. 11. 12. with a very envious eye and with much wrath and bitter exulceration of spirit accordingly as it is said Ver. 18. And the Nations were angry This is presently upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet And the first Vial answerably thereto is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. 16. 2. an evil and wicked Ulcer or Sore Which does very significantly indigitate that rancour and exulceration of spirit that fell on them that had the Mark of the Beast upon their seeing the exaltation of the Witnesses and hearing the Triumphal Song of those mystical Israelites that had escaped the Tyranny of the Roman Pharaoh by betaking themselves to the safeguard of the Red Sea in such a sense as I have above intimated These are considerable Examples of differences betwixt Mr. Mede 's Interpretations and mine From which several others must necessarily flow as depending thereon beside others that depend not on these which were to little purpose to note particularly But they all put together will not amount to any such summe as will at all impair that rich stock of honour and esteem which will be for ever due to so excellent a Writer whose Modesty Judgment and usefull Industry will I doubt not be admired and applauded to all posteritis For there is no reason at all that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I mention here should derogate any thing from either that singular ability Mr. Mede had of interpreting Prophecies or from the credit of other performances of his in this kind where he had more maturely considered things and therefore according to the accuracy of his Judgment had perfected his Interpretations beyond all just exception But these that I differ from him in he does ingenuously confess to be but certain Specimina which he had communicated to his private friends nor did look upon them himself as throughly concocted and completed 12. These are the main prejudices that seemed to encumber our Design The reason of the Prolixness of his Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms which I think I have clearly removed As for particular Exceptions they are of less moment such as might be made against the Prolixity and Inadequateness of my Alphabet of Iconisms my Confutation of Grotius onely and that with some sharpness in some places and lastly my uncharitable Liberty in applying those Prophecies of the Apocalyps and other Scriptures which by the ancient Fathers and more modern Writers even of the Romanists themselves are understood of the famous Antichrist unto the Papacy and Church of Rome To which I shall briefly answer and in order To the first That that Alphabet of Prophetick Iconisms is neither prolix nor inadequate to the whole design I had in mine eye when I compiled it though it be much too long for the use of the present Treatise But we are to remember that I had occasion to write of other Visions in my Mystery of Godliness which are pretermitted here as not appertaining to our present Scope But the use of this Alphabet is extendible also to that former Writing as likewise to a future design in my last part of the Mystery of Iniquity where I shall have occasion to range very far into the Prophecies of the Apocalyps besides other Divine Predictions even upon this very account more fully and accurately to examine whether those Comminations that threaten destruction to the Fourth Beast and the Whore or by whatsoever other Figures those Powers are indigitated do primarily signify any bloudy or boisterous destruction such as the keen Fifth-Monarchy-men or any other Enthusiasts are over-forward to imagine or whether the Mystery of God may not rather be accomplished in such an orderly Reformation as was made by the Sovereign Power of England in King Edward and Queen Elizabeth 's time Which can be no affrightfull news to any that have any Knowledge of God or Love of the Truth For assuredly that was an eminent Example of Christ's Re-visiting the World in the behalf of the faithfull and of his coming again to Judgement in thus judging the Whore and rescuing this part of his Kingdom here in this Island out of the hands of that Man of Sin though few have taken due notice hereof or had a right notion of this so marvellous Event 13. And therefore it is a wonder to me that there are so many that talk so loud of the Spirit of Elias and pretend to be in that Dispensation A Description of
but Fire from Heaven To which destruction whoever do take upon them to adjudge men may very well be said to bring down fire from Heaven upon them which that Thunder-bolt of Excommunication does threaten 15. Flesh. By Flesh is understood in Scripture whatsoever is opposite to the Spirit and I mean in a Moral or Mystical way and that is all to be consumed by the Spirit and by Fire But more particularly Flesh signifies sometimes that which they vulgarly call Carnal Ordinances in some such sense as that is meant by S. Paul Are ye so foolish having begun in the Gal. 3. 3. spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Where he speaks of the Law of Moses And the Author to the Hebrews more expresly who speaking Chap. 7. v. 16. of Christ and comparing of him with the Mosaick Aaron Who is made saith he not after the Law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life And still nearer to our purpose chap. 9. ver 10. where he speaks of a service which stood onely in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation By Flesh therefore may be understood all the external Ordinances and Institutes that men have rashly heaped upon Christianity whether merely useless or else Superstitious and Idolatrous for these are to the spirit of Christianity as the over-load of a fulsome and over-grown and unwholesome Flesh to the spirit of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. But there is another sense of Flesh taken much notice of in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 3. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good for a rich man to dream he eats his own flesh for it signifies the utter wasting of his riches or substance Achmetes c. 283. according to the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like that of the Israelites eating the flesh or the Leviathan in the Wilderness for the Leviathan or Dragon is the King of Aegypt And again c. 285. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Indians c. 87. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And compendiously and at once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh is universally referred to gold and riches in the interpretation of Visions or Dreams 17. Floud See Water Fornication See Whoredom Frogs A Frog is an Hieroglyphick of Imperfection saies * Hieroglyph lib. 29. Pierius according to the sense of the Aegyptian Priests and he makes as if the occasion thereof was the observation of the half-finished generation of this Animal out of the slime of Nilus which he casts up in his overflowing after which this Creature is seen half-formed part Frog part Mud as * Lib. 1. Hieroglyph 25. Horus Apollo also expresly affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in that it is thus gendred of filth and mire I should look upon it as a fit Emblem of that Wisedom which is not from above but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly Animal or Sensual and Devillish and is accompanied with bitter zeal and strife in the heart as the Apostle intimates just before and contrary to that Wisedom which is from above which is first pure not bemired with worldly lusts then peaceable not breeding contention nor full of words and brawlings like the importunate narsh and disharmonious Coaxations of Frogs so called in the Greek from that very ungratefull noise as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the shrilness and asperity of the noise they make much less forward to war and bloudshed or to the instigating of Princes and men in Power thereunto which the hoarse and harsh Coaxation of these Creatures may be a fit Symbol of and the rather if these Trumpeters to war be conceived to be such men as are as soft and unwarlike as these naked and slimy Animals no more fit to fight then they but be onely Trumpeters to war and confusion and that for their own Interest the zealous declamations and vociferations they make being in behalf of themselves as all the noise the Frog makes is with its tongue turned inwards towards its one gullet Whence that Creature seems a very lively Emblem of such Wretches as these Artemidor lib. 2. c. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranae homines impostores scurras significant which has no small affinity with our larger description of them 18. Gemms and precious Stones See Crown God In the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Magistrates as well as God as appears from several places of Scripture And Artemidorus has taken notice of the Analogie even from the highest Antiquity lib. 2. c. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quicquid dominatur vim habet Dei And again lib. 3. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any rich man dream he is made a God it prognosticates a very great Principality For Princes are in a power of doing good and hurt in a manner equal to the very Gods CHAP. VII 1. Hail the signification thereof according to Scripture 2. And the ancient Onirocriticks 3. Harvest the evil and auspicious sense thereof 4. Head how clearly significative of Sovereign Power whether in Many or One. 5. Heaven and Earth 6. Horn. 7. Horse Islands 8. King and Kingdom 9. That Kinds or Sorts of things are sometimes expressed as if Individualls of the same Kind 10. Leopard Locusts 11. Male-childe Mark Measure Mill Month Moon 12. Mountain the several significations thereof 1. HAil Whenas Winds and Storms signify Political Commotions and Warres as is acknowledged by Grotius and all other Interpreters that they doe as in Daniel 7. 2. where the Four winds of Heaven are said to strive upon the great Sea well may a storm of Hail signify War and Incursion of the enemie and especially if they come from the North the congeledness of this Meteor bearing upon it the character of that Quarter Two eminent Examples of this Prophetick Figure we have in Esay The first Ch. 28. Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong One which as a Tempest of Hail and destroying storm as a floud of mighty waters overflowing shall cast down to the Earth violently The crown of Pride the Drunkards of Ephraim shall be troden under feet Haec significant saith Forerius hostium adventum qui universum regnum Israel devastaturi erant But it is so plain it wanted no interpretation The other example is Esay ch 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall shew the lighting down of his arme with the indignation of his anger and with a flame of devouring fire with scattering and tempests and hail-stones For with the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down c. that is to say The forces of the Lord will come against Assur like Thunder and Lightening and Hail So plain is it that an Hail-storm is significative of the incursion and assault of an enemie according to the style of Scripture 2.
safely render it full of Daemons in Mr. Mede's sense that is full of the superstitious and Idolatrous worship of the Souls of the Saints departed besides other Idolatries committed in the manner of worshipping the due Object of our Religion God and Christ since the Empire has become Pagano-Christian Nor is the Beast in the Thirteenth Chapter less remarkable for this foul sin For as the Scarlet Beast was full of names of blasphemy dappled as it Par. 2. Agr. 2. were with those black Titles so Grotius makes the Leopard spotted with various objects of Idolatry Pardalis varii coloris animal sic Idololatria Romana Deos habebat mares foeminas mari-foeminas maximos medioximos minimos vario vultu vario habitu variâ potestate And does the Pagano-Christian Idolatry fall any thing short Has it not its He-Saints and She-Saints to which they give Religious worship Do they not profess a Dulia and Hyperdulia as well as Latria which bids fair towards the Heathens Dii Minimi and Medioximi Has it not some Saints famous for inflicting particular mischiefs and others for doing this or that particular good some Saints of one aspect and dress and others of another Have not some one office and others another as shall be seen more punctually hereafter But the Blasphemy that is the Idolatry of this Beast is more copiously recorded and more expresly v. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies that is to say an Authority decreeing gross Idolatries to the reproach of the living God whose name he is said to blaspheme in the following verse and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven To blaspheme God viz. by worshipping him by Images or by giving Religious worship to others which is onely due to him and thereby vilifying him and making him no better then a Creature To blaspheme the Tabernacle of God that is the Body of Christ in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily as the Apostle speaketh by pretending that a piece of Bread which they put into See my Idea of Antichrist Book 2. Ch. 5. Sect. 2 3. that foul prison whither a mans phancy is loath to descend is the very Body of Christ even that Body so full of stupendious glory which certainly is wretchedly eclipsed while a morsel of Bread is avowed to be really it and is adored towards accordingly And lastly To blaspheme them that dwell in Heaven namely the Saints by declaring they are so ambitious See Idea of Antichristianism Book 1. Ch. 16. Sect. 2. and rebellious against God that they do not onely accept but would extort Religious worship from men by deaths and imprisonments and various pressures and afflictions which this bloudy Beast does execute against the sincere members of Christ having first branded them with the odious Nick-name of Hereticks pretending herein their Zeal and Honour to the Saints while they are really by these courses very highly reproached and blasphemed as cruel and inhumane against men as well as rebellious and treacherous against God So wonderfully true and significant is this Character of Blasphemy upon the Beast and so plainly have we made out the second Agreement of the second Parallelism 5. Having seven Heads and ten Horns So Chap. 13. And I saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea having seven Heads and ten Horns Which Par. 2. Agr 〈◊〉 is a palpable evidence of the first Agreement of our second Parallelism What is meant by these seven Heads and ten Horns we shall understand anon Ver. IV. And the Woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls That Purple and Scarlet is an Imperial colour we have already noted and is here again allowed by Grotius on this 4. verse But here it is seasonable to observe That as the Beast which is the whole Roman Empire was allowed to be called a Scarlet Beast though that Wear was peculiar to the Heads of the Empire I mean the Emperours themselves or the Senate so this Whore may be said to be arrayed in purple and scarlet that is the Roman Hierarchy or whole Body of that Clergy though this colour should belong onely to the Head or at least those higher Governours of this Body next to this chief Head And such are the Robes and Habits of the Roman Cardinals as is well known And for the Gold and precious Stones and Pearls it does plainly refer to the Pope's Triple Crown of Gold glistering with rich gemms and precious stones as also to the pearls of his rich Cope c. Which shews that this Vision hath a more peculiar regard to the Church of Rome properly so called though it may cast a lighter glance on the whole Idolatrous Clergy of the Empire But this Head of the Roman Hierarchy with his purple Cardinals are so Emperour-like and of such a Senatorious splendour that it is manifest that there is an affectation of Imperial power in the Pope himself his Crown and Vestments being so plainly Imperial And though the colour of the Beast and the Seventh Head distinct from this Mitred Head implies there is an Emperour to be acknowledged distinct from the Pope yet this Hieroglyphick does plainly signifie that the Pope does play the Emperour as well or more then he Which does admirably agree with the known event of things and is plainly foretold also in the 13. Chap. v. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him that Par. 1. Agr. 3. is to say He plays the Emperour as much or more then He. Which must be understood of this Two-horned Beast most especially as residing at Old Rome who timely challenged the right of Universal Bishop and had it early conferred upon him by the bounty of Phocas the Emperour and after so out-topp'd the Emperours that he made himself greater then they though I do not stick to confess with Grotius that neither they nor their Empire has yet ceased to be accordingly as the Prophecie it self may seem to testifie there being a Seventh Head of this Beast distinct from the Head of the Two-horned Beast or the Whore 2. But that this Two-horned Beast viz. the chief and most eminent part of him does exercise all the power of the first Beast before him is to admiration Par. 1. Agr. 3. fulfilled in the Pope's playing the Emperour As in wearing not onely a single Mirre as Bishop but a Triple Imperial Diadem as if he were Emperour His purple Vestments also and crimson pantofles his Title of Dominus Deus noster his Senate of purpurate Cardinals his making Kings and Princes kiss his feet his receiving Tribute even from the remotest parts of the Empire his Canonizing of Saints with the joint suffrages of the Cardinals his sending of his Legats to Princes his Revenue out of Stews c. of which and others of the like nature you may be informed more punctually in * Molin Var. Lib
the Book of Articles Trans substantiation cannot be proved Article 28. by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Whence she rightly and demonstratively concludes that the Sacrament is not to be carried about lifted up nor worshipped For there is none that can worship the Host upon presumption that it is Christ to whom Divine worship is due but he is ipso facto an Idolater as I have proved elsewhere more at large And again in the same Book she does expresly declare That the Sacrifices of Masses in the which it is commonly Article 31. said that the Priest does offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt are blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits The truth of which is easy to be understood out of what we have written in our Idea of Antichristianism touching Idolatry and the Abuse of Christ's Person and Office in this enormous Errour And in the Homily concerning the Sacrament she expresly taxes the Popish Masses with Idolatry imputing it to the ignorance of the nature of the Lord's Supper What hath been the cause of this gross Idolatry but the Ignorance thereof what has been the cause of this mummish Massing but the Ignorance thereof And a little after Let us therefore so travail to understand the Lord's Supper that we be no cause of the decay of God's worship of no Idolatry of no dumb Massing of no hate and malice c. To all which you may adde what is annexed in our Liturgie at the end of the Communion viz. That the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians And the natural Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven and not here it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places then one Which Rubrick is interserted in our Liturgie with unexceptionable Judgment and Fidelity and does fully reach the end of its Intersertion For no man I think can be so grosly ignorant or so openly malicious as to pretend that after this so plain Declaration of our Church either himself or any one else can become guilty of Idolatry by that humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the Sacrament 4. And lastly touching the Adoration of Images there can be nothing more seriously protested against by any Church then this enormous wickedness is by ours To omit how she has perstringed them in the Book of Articles she does expresly bind the worshippers of them under a curse in her Liturgie in the Form of Commination Cursed is the man that maketh any carv'd or molten Image to worship it And in her Homily against the Peril of Idolatry with a passionate but unexceptionable and judicious zeal she does copiously inveigh against the very having of Images in Churches I mean such as are in any capacity of being worshipped nay against the very making of the Image of God or any of the Persons of the Holy Trinity yea of Christ himself forasmuch as he is truly God contending that no Image can be made of Christ but a lying Image as the Scripture peculiarly Homily against the Peril of Idolatry Part 3. calls Images Lies for Christ is God and Man Seeing therefore for the Godhead which is the most excellent part no Image can be made it is falsly called the Image of Christ. Wherefore Images of Christ be not onely Defects but also Lies Nor does she stick here but urges the argument and truly not without judgement against the Images of Saints whose Souls the most excellent part of them can saith she by no Images be represented and expressed But concerning the having such Images in Temples she doth with an holy Jealousy peremptorily contend and inculcate that it is plainly against the Second Commandment adding this reason For they being set up have been be and ever will be worshipped and thereupon become abominable Idols nothing different from those of the Heathen they being made of the same matter with them and men having the same conceits of the Saints they are made to and of their offices as the Heathen had of their Deities they worshipping them also with the same Rites and Ceremonies And to shew they have the same opinion of their Saints that the Pagans had of their several Gods she compares such Saints as are made Guardians of Kingdoms to their Dii Tutelares such as Belus was to the Babylonians Osiris and Isis to the Aegyptians Vulcan to the Lemnians the Guardian Saints of Cities to their Dii Praesides such as Apollo was to Delphos Minerva to Athens Juno to Carthage and Quirinus to Rome and lastly their Templed Saints to Jupiter in the Capitol and Diana in the famous Temple of Ephesus And touching one and the same Saints having Images in several places she parallels our Lady of Walsingham our Lady of Ipswich and our Lady of Wilsdon to Venus Cypria Venus Paphia and Venus Gnidia to their Sea-Gods Neptune Triton Nereus and Venus S. Christopher S. Clement and the Blessed Virgin to Vulcan and Vesta Gods of the Fire S. Agatha And then intimating that as in ancient Paganism the Affairs of Love of War of Diseases in men and beasts were assigned to several Deities so to several Saints in the Popish Religion she at last breaks out into this zealous Exclamation Where is God's Providence and due honour in the mean time who saith The Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine the whole world and all that in it is I give victory and I put to flight Except I keep the City the Watch-man waketh but in vain that keepeth it Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Countrey nor City Peace nor War to rule and govern neither men nor beasts nor their diseases to cure That a godly man might justly for zealous Indignation cry out O Heaven and Earth and Seas what madness and wickedness against God are men fallen into What dishonour doe the Creatures to their Creatour and Maker namely in reposing a religious trust in those Saints they invoke to these purposes which can belong to none other but God himself 5. And as touching the manner of their worshipping these Images and Saints What meaneth it saith she that they after the manner of the Gentile Idolaters burn Incense offer up gold to Images hang up crutches chains and ships legs arms and whole men and women of wax before Images as though by them or Saints as they say they were delivered from Lameness Sickness Captivity or Shipwreck Is not this COLERE IMAGINES to worship Images so earnestly forbidden in God's Word And a little after more fully and vehemently Wherefore when we see men and women on heaps to goe on Pilgrimages to
the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burthensome 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching only to the freeing us from the Guilt of sin not the Punishment 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers 8. The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction 9. The conclusion of the description of this second Limb of Antichristianism 1. AND now in the last place of all to make up the full weight of this Antichristian yoke and burthen suppose there were added the fear of a more then Pagan Purgatory as I said that is to say Suppose the Church should determine That no Souls unless such as are absolutely pure and perfect in this life of which rank there are either really none or if there were they would not be so immodest as easily to account themselves so should upon their departure out of this Body goe into any easefull or blessed condition but into a state little different from the torments of Hell saving that they are not perpetual but may be for many and many years unless some care be taken to relieve them and rescue them who are in this sad and dismal place which I suppose they would set out with all extremity of horrour to the rude people telling them of many sad and ghastly Apparitions who with wan countenances and mournfull tones have made known their extreme distress in this Infernal house of Correction and have implored their assistance in praying and paying for them as much as they could that they might find ease 2. Nor would they forbear the exaggerating this unsupportable calamity by all imaginable Mythologie as namely That the Souls of men were seen in a Vision by some holy man of God or other to be tortured in wonderfull manners some standing up to the knees others to the navell othersome to the arme-holes others to the very chin in a stream of fire and brimstone that others are run through with rods of Iron and roasted against the fire like Geese upon a spit the foul infernal Fiends in the mean time some blowing up the coals with their black mouths or to save their own breath with a large pair of brazen bellows others lading up the grease that fries out of these roasted Souls and pouring it upon them again scalding hot that others are scourged with whips of red-hot wires others fried in frying-pans others racked and turned round upon a wheel full of hot burning hooks that others had their bowells torn out with the fiery crooked stings of huge overgrown Toads and Serpents and lastly that others are put into vessels of hot scalding metalls These dismal chambers of Death re-echoing in the mean time from their hollow roof the mournfull howlings and hideous shriekings of these tormented Ghosts These or such like terrible fancies of things did they but imbue the minds of the people withall the belief of them certainly could not but screw the whole-rack of this burthensome Superstition which I have been all this time describing to the highest pitch that the wit of man can invent nor could the flames of this Purgatory fail to prove that very Fire in which these slaves and vassals of the Mystical Pharaoh and his hard Task-masters I mean that Apostate High-priest with the rest of his adulterate Hierarchy which I am delineating should droyl and sweat in for the finishing their imposed tales of brick to build these sons of pride their Pyramids and Palaces 3. Wherefore being stript and spoiled of all these comfortable succours that the true Faith in Christ Jesus does afford men and being made to believe that the Passion and Satisfaction of Christ takes away onely the Guilt of Mortal sins not the eternal Punishment but yet which is a great favour that by the power of the Keys this eternal Punishment is turned into temporary which every one is bound to undergoe and satisfie either in this life or that which is to come and that either in his own person or by some other that is He is bound to doe or suffer such things himself or others for him as the Church shall appoint or accept for satisfaction which also is to be understood of venial sins and lastly that the spots and filth of sin inhering in our Nature must wholy be purged out by Satisfactions and penalties which if it be not fully done in this life it must be perfected by the expiation of Fire in the other I say if the people should be deluded by such Antichristian Doctrine as this and have the sweet and easy yoke of Christ taken off from their neck which consists onely in sincerity to the best of our power to live according to the plain and indispensable Law of Christ and wherein we fail to be assured that both the Guilt and external Penalty is taken away through the intercession of him who is our Advocate with the Father and a perpetual propitiation for our sins but instead of this easy and ingenuous service should be fettered and held fast in that Aegyptian bondage we have described into what a world of slavery and drudgery would mistaken mortalls be haled 4. How would they be forced to bestir themselves by these hard Task-masters what trotting from Church to Church from Shrine to Shrine what howling and muttering before this Saint's Image and that Saint's Image what knocking of breasts and kissing of pavements what fastings and watchings not for correction but satisfaction what long stretching Pilgrimages from Country to Country and from one end of the Earth to the other what prayers and oblations to make the Image or at least the Priest to smile what kissing of unsavoury Reliques what Vows of Coelibate and Abstinence from meats what Flagellations and Excoriations of the Body what Nundinations of Pardons and Indulgences what awe and servility to the Priest what strict observation of Fasts and Festivalls what vexatious Scrupulosities about needless opinions what abject postures and rufull looks in forced Confessions what covering themselves with Religious habits what imprisoning and confining to Nunneries and Cloisters to Solitudes and Hermitages what creeping of dying men into Monks Cowls and rowling in beds of Ashes what besprinkling with Holy-water what Anointing and besmearing with enchanted Oyls what hastening to enroll themselves in this or that holy Fraternity to share in their merits what shaving and paring away of Childrens portions for hired Masses and Prayers to sing the dying mans Soul out of this imaginary Purgatory In fine what endless circuits of drudgery and labour of body and mind does this Aegyptian Tyrant put his slaves unto under the lash of this torturing conceit That the Death of Christ
is not for the Remission of Punishment but of Guilt and that he that would goe to Heaven must travel thither upon his own proper cost and charges must satisfie in his own person for his faults and corruptions in such ways as this adulterous Church has prescribed Which is no method of freeing Souls from the pains of Purgatory but of the inslaving them as I have said to a worse then Aegyptian bondage and condemning them to gather stubble and make bricks to work and drudge to hold up the wealth and magnificency of this imperious Pharaoh and his cruell Task-masters Which is a Servitude as abominable and Antichristian as can be invented or imagined For it does absolutely change the condition and nature of Christian Religion then which there is nothing more free and ingenuous and more professedly opposed to the yoke of the Mosaical Law into a poor pitifull ignorant and servile Pedagogie and makes it not only exceed the burthen of Moses but which I cannot too often inculcate the very bondage of Aegypt it self 5. But though this Figment of Purgatory would be a very profitable invention for the increasing of the wealth and power of this Pseudo-Clergie and bring vast revenues to their Church there being a like fear of it and desire to be rid of it in Princes and Peasants in Gentle and simple yet it cannot be denied by any but such as are past shame but that it is a mere Figment and has no grounds of truth at all in it nay is contrary to what is most certainly true For it is assuredly true and any good Christian may feel it to be so that Christ has satisfied as well in respect of Punishment as Guilt and it is perfect Non-sense that the sincerely-minded should be justified by the merits of Christ's Passion and the excellencie of his Person he being that innocent Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that is to say in a Forensal sense be esteemed as Just and yet be handled or treated as Sinners For it is as if a man should be acquitted and yet punished for the same crime at the same Court then which nothing is more foolish or incongruous Wherefore it is manifest that there can no external punishment abide the Sincere soul after this life for I cannot pronounce any thing in the behalf of the unsincere but that Hell it self is their portion no fire no whips of Furies or Devils to afflict them no infernal Bailifs or horrid Pursivants of Purgatory to arrest them but they may pass free through all guards and scouts of the invisible Regions and not one dare to offer to molest them 6. And that he that was sincere-hearted in this life and did not onely believe in Christ but to the best of his power and skill followed his Precepts and had a real enmity against all the appearances of sin whensoever they assaulted him nor could be overtaken or overcome by the importunity of his Body without sorrow regret or indignation that this man should carry in himself any tormenting Hell or Purgatory in his freedom from the body is a thing impossible and unconceivable For he being freed from that with which he was so often forced to tugg and in the midst of his greatest conflicts his life being comfortable to him through the sense of his own sincerity and through the assurance of the Love of God in Christ Jesus what can Death be to such a man but Life from the dead He that in patience can possess his soul in a prison cannot fail to enjoy himself in the fresh aire and he that can walk upright in fetters may easily if he will dance for joy when he is out of them So little fear is there of any such Mormo's or Bug-bears to the sincere Christian when he has passed out of this mortal life 7. Some pretence indeed they may have for Purgatory from that passage in S. Paul If any mans work be burnt he shall suffer loss but himself 1 Cor. 3. 1â—… shall be saved but yet so as by fire which is the only place in Scripture which makes any show for them But yet if it were meant of a Purgatory-fire after this life it will not at all serve their purpose as neither those several passages of the Fathers do which seem to make this way which would be too prolix a business to enter into But the interpretation which Scaliger and Hugo Grotius give of the place is so genuine and natural and so little inferring any such Purgatory-fire that this ground will prove very lubricous to the builders upon it For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger and Grotius expound thus That he shall escape but so as out of the hot fire it being nothing but a proverbial expression signifying the great danger he will be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est preverbiale ad significationem summi periculi So that the sense is nothing but this He will hardly escape the dreadfull judgment of God As for Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like expressions of the Fathers they will never establish such a Purgatory as these Masters of mischief would erect in the Universe who make sure that no man may doe any thing meritorious in this condition nor make any progress in grace and holiness for all the very Fire is called Purgative For this would beat down the price of Pardons and Indulgences make men careless of hiring Masses for the dead and take away all that costly sollicitude from friends for their deceased kindred if they were conceived to be in a capacity by their own demeanour and carefull management of their affairs in the other world to wind themselves out of trouble 8. But how weak soever their Proofs were for Purgatory their Motives thereto would be very strong this Figment making all the rest of their Frauds take more certain effect with men they being hereby affrighted into a facil and foolish good humour of parting with any thing even to the impoverishing of themselves and their posterity so that those may be satisfied who pretend they have the Keys of this prison of Purgatory and may be persuaded either to excuse them from ever entering into it or if they must enter into it to deliver them out of it as timely and speedily as may be But the grand Mischief of this cheating Invention is a blasphemous affront to the Merits and Satisfaction of our dear Saviour and a Tyrannicall oppression of the consciences of the simple but so great a scandal to the more nasute that it were a strong temptation to them to misbelieve the whole summe of Religion or any state at all of the Soul after death but that she is mortal and perishes these false Apostles having abused the belief of the Doctrine of her survival after the death of the Body so grossely and rancidly merely to the advancing their own estates in this life and to the wallowing in
Also Christ's Handkerchief and the Shirt which the blessed Virgin made for him as likewise the Cradle in which he was rocked 15. Furthermore the Virgin Mary's Veil with which she used to cover her head her Comb her Hair her Girdle her Needles sowing-Thread and Work-basket nay the very House in which she dwelt and wrought transported as I said before out of Palestine into Italy by the hands of Angels The Reed with which they smote Jesus the Rope with which they haled him to execution the very Sponge also with which the Jews gave him vinegar mingled with gall to drink and some of the Coin for which Judas betrayed him nay the very Lantern he used in that work of darkness and the Dice wherewith the Souldiers play'd for Christ's seamless Coat Moreover the pure Bloud of Christ and the Milk of Mary his Mother kept in glasses The Pillar also at which Christ was whipped and the Stairs or Steps on which he went up into the Judgment-Hall and some of the Thorns wherewith he was crowned An Image of the Virgin Mary made by S. Luke to which an Angelical Statue of Marble was seen often to bow The paring of the nails of a living dead Crucifix and the lively Picture of Christ made by himself by the pressing onely of a Napkin to his face when he sweat 16. What would the world say to the credibility of three Tuns of Teeth from the Jaws of one Saint to the producing of the very Dagger and Shield with which S. Michael fought with the Devil and a Feather that might then haply fall out of one of the Angel's Wings What to the shewing of the Skull of a Saint's head at one place his Hair in another his Jaw-bone in another his Forehead in a fourth and yet his whole Head in a fifth What to the Fore-skin of Christ shewn also in five several places at once What to some dozens of Nails wherewith Christ was nailed to the Cross and as many pieces of the Cross as would load a Cart to carry them and as many glasses of the Virgin 's Milk as would fill all the vessels in a countrey-dairy How can such gross Impostures as these but wipe the Priests lips clean of all credit and belief and cast the world into desperate Atheism and Infidelity 17. But eighthly and lastly The Incredible of all Incredibles and the greatest Impossibility of all Impossibilities were that pretended Mystery of Transsubstantiation which being urged with the like necessity and assurance of Truth that any thing is urged by this Antichristian Church whose Picture I am a-drawing will doe the most fatal execution upon the Christian Faith that any thing imaginable can doe For supposing this the most Fundamental Article of their Creed or if you will the most precious and the most seriously-urged Fundamental of them all and the very hindge of almost all their publick Devotion and God-service if this break all must fall to the ground For if the Church be found shamelesly false in so important a Point as this it does immediately follow that she will be believed in nothing Wherefore they whose belief was either wholly or mainly supported by the seeming greatness of her Authority this failing by the easy discovery of so gross a Falsehood and yet by her most earnestly and most seriously avowed for Truth the Faith of every such man must also necessarily fail unless by some special grace of God assisting his conference with the persons or writings of some better-instructed Christians which he may haply meet with in this vast Wilderness he wanders in he be stopt from splitting himself a-pieces from this dangerous precipice he stands on and from the plunging himself into the mire of Atheism and Unbelief 18. For undoubtedly if he have no other help but this Pseudo-christian Synagogue though he may be awed by their external lash from professing his Infidelity yet it will be impossible for him to hinder the tacit growth of it in his own Soul but he will naturally disgust and disclaim all hearty commerce with Religion and even loath it as a pack of lies Wherefore it is impossible but this congregation of Impostours and Deceivers which I am setting forth in the truest colours I can should swarm with multitudes of grown and obdurate Atheists For the Imposture we speak of now being so signal and the discovery so easy and obvious how can it chuse but be discovered even by multitudes of people For the account comes onely to this Whether it be more likely that the Church for her own advantage which I perceive she does every-where eagerly and stiffly pursue may knowingly and wittingly impose upon me or at least mistake in her own judgment of the Infallibility whereof I have no proof but her own boast when it is in the mean time her Interest to boast so I say the account comes onely to this Whether it be more likely that she may practise fraud or fall into a mistake out of some blind Superstition or that by the uttering of Five words a Priest should have such a power as to turn a piece of Bread into a Man the Bread according to all my Senses being as much Bread as it was before Which is a double Miracle and greater then ever was yet done in the world considered but thus far and almost as great a Miracle that any one should believe it 19. But there are still greater I cannot say Miracles but downright Impossibilities As first That this Bread is not turned into a Man that was to be but that was already in being Which is the hardest Non-sense that can be offered to the mind of man to think upon And yet in the second place the Bread is so turned into a Man that is to say into the Man Christ that he is entirely in every place where this consecrated Bread seems to be that is in thousands of places at once at very large distances Which is as perfect a Contradiction as any can be proposed That one and the same Body should be entirely distant from it self For how can it be One being thus divided from it self since Unity consists in Indivision and Self-Unity certainly is Self-Indivision Wherefore if there be one Self at Oxford suppose and another at Cambridge at the same time it is impossible it should be one and the same Person their distance or division demonstrating them two distinct ones And thirdly and lastly From this false supposition That one and the same Body may be at the same time in several places it will also follow That one and the same Person or Body may be at the same time wholly within it self and wholly without it self wholly above it self and wholly beneath it self on the right hand of it self and on the left hand of it self That it may be One Body and yet many Bodies at once or rather no Body but a Spirit or to speak more truly Nothing That one and the same Person may meet himself and complement
himself may at the same time move and rest lie along and walk be many miles absent from his friend and present with him at once may be now in Heaven and then in a moment on the Earth without passing any of the Regions betwixt with many such like Incongruities which we having above noted it is needless any longer here to insist upon 20. It is already plain enough that Transsubstantiation or the turning of the Bread into the very Body of Christ is encumbred with so many and so manifestly gross Impossibilities and easily deprehensible that the Impossibility of the Churche's either ignorantly erring or voluntarily imposing uponmen for her own gain can bear no weight at all to turn the scales in her behalf but there will be such an irresistible moment of these apparent and plain Contradictions of this so boldly obtruded Article of the Church I mean this of Transsubstantiation that the weight thereof will naturally sink all her sons that but a little consider of it if nothing better then their Church help them and buoy them up into the abhorred pit of Infidelity first and then of Hell 21. For there is no plastering over such Impossibilities which are deprehended to be such according to the Universal and Immutable Laws of Reason by feigned Miracles to give countenance thereto As if they should make such Stories as these That the Sacrament being struck with a dagger did bleed That when the Bread as was thought was taken out of the mouth of the Communicant it proved Flesh in the fingers of the Priest That the Host has dropt many drops of bloud upon the Corporall as it has been taken into the Priest's hands That it has flown out of his hands round about the Church dropping drops of bloud on the Marble pavement all the time of its flight That a lovely fair Child has been seen sometimes to appear out of the consecrated Bread and the like For these Stories could not evince the truth of that which is impossible to be true but would argue their own falseness by the end of their producement For commonly liers back lies with lies 22. And now I think I have described so plentifully and punctually this particular Limb of Antichristianism which is opposite to the Root of the Divine Life Faith that nothing can be conceived wanting to the perfection of such a Contrariety nor any man doubt but that Church which is thus described is really one and the same with that which is excluded out of the New Jerusalem as being opposite to her inhabitants For from such a Constitution of things as I have here in this member of Antichristianism set forth it will plainly follow that the professed sons of this false Church as those in the * Chap. 21. Chap. 22. Apocalyps must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say They must either be men whose spirits are intimidated with superstirious Fables which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fearfull and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as love to hear lies and believe vain things out of a sottishness and imbecillity of mind and brutish simplicity or else they must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unbelievers and Atheists though they externally for their own peace sake submit to the Orders of their Church or lastly they must be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as forge lies and help to deceive the people with multifarious Falsehoods and Impostures Which being the Characters of that Church which is opposite to the Holy City it is a farther Indication that in the putting together these things that do so diametrically oppose or undermine the Christian Faith we have truly described a notorious Limb of Antichristianism CHAP. IX 1. Humility the proper Characteristick of the Person and Spirit of Christ. 2. The Affectation of an Ecclesiastick Sovereignty contrary to this Divine Grace 3. The pretence for this Ambition That the visible Church being One requires one visible Head with the Answer thereto 4. Further Reasons to prove the Church wants no visible Head besides Christ. 5. That this one Head Christ Jesus and one Apostolick Law does make the Church sufficiently One 6. That there is no just pretence for any such claim of being this Universal Head in any Bishop 7. But that Ambition may purchase such a Title by wicked practices 8. The method of this Universal Bishop's enslaving the Clergie to himself and undermining the Secular Powers 9. His Frauds against the Emperour and other Princes 10. A further description of the Frauds Rapine and Pride of this Universal Pastour and of his Usurpation in a manner of the whole Power of the Empire 1. WE proceed now to the Description of as lively Opposition as we can to the First Branch of the Divine Life namely Humility which being so special a Characteristick of the nature and Genius of Christ's own Spirit and so pronounced by himself in his own person when he was upon Earth Learn of me for I am humble and meek Matt. 11. 29. that which is perfectly opposite to this must needs be exquisitely Antichristian in all manner of people but especially in those that do in a more peculiar way presume themselves to be Successours of Christ and his Apostles whom he of old premonished of Pride and Lordliness and affectation of Superiority saying The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But Luke 22. Mark 10. it shall not be so among you c. Which lesson Peter remembred and endeavoured to transmit it to others where he advises the Pastours to feed their flocks not for filthy 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over God's Heritage but being ensamples to the flock How contrary therefore to this would it be if some pretended Supreme Pastour whom others in their severall subordinate capacities would in proportion naturally imitate should not onely Lord it over his flock but tyrannize over Kings and Emperours and Lucifer-like place himself in the same Throne with God and Christ or rather displace them and domineer absolutely according to his own will treading under foot the plainly-promulgated Laws of God 2. Let us therefore dip our pencil a little deeper in some of those colours which we made use of in the Description of that member of Antichristianism which was opposite to the Divine Life in general and pourtray out more fully such an Ecclesiastick Polity as will appear most oriently Luciferian and Antichristian and most diametrically opposite to that holy Humility that was recommended by Christ to his Successours We will therefore suppose as before some one Prelate that has got the start of the rest to put in for the Title and Authority of Universal Bishop which whosoever does was declared by Gregory the Great the Fore-runner of Antichrist the Fore-runner of that Rex Superbiae cui
which theme having spoken sufficiently in my Description of the Second Limb of Antichristianism it was enough to mention it onely here CHAP. X. 1. The wicked Method of raising the Power of this Supreme Pastour to this height a demonstration of the excess of Ambition 2. His blasphemous usurpation or acceptation of the Divine Titles 3. His barbarous insultation over Excommunicated Kings and Emperours 4. The excess of Homage done to him by the greatest Personages 5. His exalting himself above God in point of Jurisdiction 6. His elation of himself above him in point of Honour or Precedency 7. Other Instances of that kind of Pride 8. His exaltation of himself above God even in the very House of God literally so called 1. WE have already wrought up this Image of Antichristianism in the power of One particular Priest or Patriarch so high as that by hook or by crook he has wriggled himself into the pretence if not possession of Absolute Sovereignty over all the Potentates of Christendom Which being acquired by such wicked means it must needs be that a more then Hellish Fire of Ambition lies at the bottom which will betray it self yet more fully in these visible flames namely Certain exorbitant Titles and Prerogatives this Son of Pride is adorned with His barbarous insultations over subdued Princes and Emperours and the extravagant Homages and Services done to his person in publick Solemnities 2. As for example What can be more blasphemously Antichristian then to suffer himself to be decked with the spoils of the Divine Attributes To be styled Our Lord God Optimum Maximum Supremum Numen in terris A God on Earth A visible Deity To have declared that his Tribunal and that of God is all one That his Power is absolute That what he does he does as God and not as Man and That all must submit to his Decree as being infallible That he is all and above all That he has the disposing of Kingdoms can pull down one and set up another That he can doe all that God can doe clave noâ—… errante That he can change the nature of things make something of nothing make Injustice Justice and Wrong Right That all Laws are in his breast That he can dispense with the Canons of the Apostles and with the New Testament it self That he is the Cause of Causes That it is Sacrilege to doubt of his Power That he has a Dominion over Angels Purgatory and Hell That he is the Monarch of the world and exceeds the Imperial Majesty as much as the Sun does the Moon and That he is to be adored by all the Potentates of the Earth This is one blazing Eruption out of this infernal Aetna of Luciferian Ambition 3. The second was his haughty Insultation over Excommunicated and subdued Princes As for example It were most salvagely Antichristian for this Triumphant Patriarch after Excommunication and submission to his power thereupon to make one Emperour to wait some days together bare-foot and clad in Canvass with his Empress for Absolution at his gate and that in the midst of winter to make him resign his Imperial Ornaments and after all this to depose him and give his Empire to another To make another prostrate himself publickly in the Church and in this prostration to set his foot on the Emperour's neck as if he were crushing an Adder or Snake To crown another not with his hands but with his feet and then with the same feet to kick the Crown from off the Emperour's head To make one Prince resign his Crown and live some days as a private person and then upon condition of becoming a Vassal to his High-priestship to permit him to receive it again at his Legat's hands lowly kneeling at his feet To make another by way of penance to go creeping along his Holy-Highnesse's Palace upon his hands and knees with a Collar about his neck like a Dog To whip another stark naked in an open Cathedral every Monk or Religious person bestowing some number of lashes on him Certainly such gross usage as this of Emperours Kings and Princes cannot but be the Indication of a Pride and Elation of mind plainly Diabolical 4. But what speak we of Penances when we may draw so odious a Draught out of ordinary expected Homages and Observances We will therefore suppose that according to the known Ceremonies of this Sacerdotal Court when his Holy-Highness Universal Head of the Church will be something still higher by getting on Horse-back that the Emperour or King that is present must of duty hold his Stirrup as he gets up or if his will is upon some occasion to be transported in a Chair of State that the Emperour and King are to submit their neck to the yoke and take up this stately Man in his Chair on their shoulders When this grand Prelate also goeth to dinner the Emperour or King there present must have the honour imposed upon them to serve him with Water and a Towel to wash his anointed hands For which service they shall be permitted to sit down at Table after attendance till the first Course be served The Emperour's place also in an Oecumenical Council shall be at this High-priest's feet like a good son of Gamaliel And finally wheresoever this Oecumenical Patriarch goes the people shall fall down on their knees or if they doe not that Worship willingly and glibly be knock'd down upon them by his rigid Guard those grim extorters of the Adoration of this Idol 5. This tenour of Ceremonies will plainly place this High-priest many degrees higher then the Princes of the Earth be they Kings or Emperours or what other Potentates soever But we will now draw a stroke or two of such an Elation or Haughtiness of spirit in point of Ceremonie and Precedency as may make him justly seem to affect a Sovereignty above that of God himself Of which Affectation we have given substantial Examples as touching Power in that he was supposed to cancel the Laws of God and to substitute in their place some gainful Decrees of his own Which is a perfect exalting himself above God in point of Authority and real Jurisdiction 6. And for point of good Manners and Ceremony If we should imagine that those things which himself and his adherents give the highest Religious Worship to were yet cast lower then this Supreme Prelate were it not to take precedency of the most High God As for example if the Cross which they judge Latria due to were cast so low as this High-priest's feet were not he then higher then what the highest kind of Divine honour is due to But this you will say perhaps will but make him equal with God But the Host or consecrated Bread is already supposed to be esteemed by this Pseudo-Christian Church the very Body of Christ or his corporeal Person that is to say that where this is Christ true God is truly and corporeally present in his own Person as truly and really as
he is in Heaven If therefore this Person of Christ which is ordinarily called the Holy Sacrament should be less respected then the High-priest that consecrated it it is plain that he were exalted above it Wherefore for example If in solemn Processions this High-priest should appoint the Ceremonies in such sort as that this Sacrament that is to say according to them the real Person of Jesus should be placed amongst the less noble of the Pomp but the High-priest himself in the midst of the most illustrious Princes that Jesus Christ should be carried on an Horse but the High-priest on the shoulders of Kings and Potentates that a mean servant of the Sacrist shall lead the Horse that carries Christ Jesus but if the High-priest be on horse-back at that time some Prince or Emperour that the Canopy over Jesus Christ shall be carried onely by Citizens of the City but the Canopy of the High-priest by great Nobles or Embassadors Were not this plainly and palpably to take place of God Almighty himself and to be so proud an Oecumenical Patriarch as to prefer himself before the Eternal Father and Maker of the Universe 7. Which might be done also in more ordinary journeyings If this High-priest suppose should appoint Jesus Christ to ride on an ordinary Gennet led by an ordinary Stable-groom and to go before there is Precedency indeed but amongst the baggage of his Retinue Calones Lixas Curtesannas to be an Harbinger of his holy Highnesse's coming himself in the mean time marching fairly on accompanied with Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and such like persons of Quality Surely this would suggest to any musing man a very deep conceit or profound meditation to wit how one and the same person according to his circumscribed bodily presence should at one and the same time ride on Horse-back here on Earth disgracefully and contemptibly amongst those Scullions and Curtesans and yet sit in a Throne of Majesty and Glory in the highest Heavens incircled with the Praises and Adorations of the Holy Angels But be that how it will it is in the mean time very manifest that this sublime Priest is so far out in good manners as well as in usurpation of real right of Jurisdiction that he does elate himself above God himself according to his own concession or doctrine of his Church in appointing thus to himself more honour then to the Itinerant Person of Christ. 8. To all which we might further adde this supposition also That this High-priest at his Inauguration into this Supreme Office might be placed upon the Holy Altar of Christ in some chief Church of his Metropolis the seet of his Chair of State trampling upon the Sacred Throne of the Body of Christ and there receive Adoration from his Ecclesiastick Princes and the gazing and amazed People But I think I have already drawn the Effigies of so perfect an Antichristian Pride that nothing need be added thereto nor the least scruple left but that he that exalts himself thus high cannot but be that Man of sin which 2 Thess. 2. sits in the House of God and exalts himself above all that is called God CHAP. XI 1. That the Pride of this Superlative Head will diffuse it self also into its Members 2. Further general Incentives to this Vice in this usurping Priesthood 3. Peculiar Incentives thereto in some great Dignities 4. The singularity of Habits and way of living in some Religious Orders an occasion of Pride 5. The pretence of meriting in these Orders an high and hateful Instance of this Vice 6. That such an elated Pseudo-Clergie as this might well go for that Man of sin that exalts himself above every thing that is worshipped 7. And be emblematized in the description of the Leviathan who is called the King of the children of Pride 1. NOr can we imagine the Head so diabolically proud but this poison must diffuse it self into all the Body and swell up all the Members thereof in some sort or other For though this High-priest have a great power over his Clergie themselves to tax them and fleece them yet they would all of them be not a little puffed up to conceit themselves parts of that Body whose Head is so transcendently raised above all the Princes of the Earth over whom he having once usurped the Tyranny and being warm and well settled in his power he may haply be the more easie and beneficial to his own Tribe Besides their being exempted from all Secular Powers must needs elate their minds and make them haughty and domineering and prone to be injurious they being able to recoil to such Judges as will be parties for them 2. Moreover the power of receiving Auricular Confession is a mighty subjugative and insulting Privilege over the poor prostrate Laiety at the feet of their Confessors And that distinctive Privilege of the Eucharistick Cup peculiar to the Priest must needs make the Lay-men lear or Iounge aloof off and look maimedly on 't as acknowledging so vast a distance betwixt them and the Priesthood All which things tend naturally to the swelling up of this Clergie How then can they bear that conceit of the power of creating their Creator and of being such Priests as offer the very Body of Christ for a propitiation and therefore in this regard may conceit themselves in some sense superiour to Christ himself These are common to the whole Body Sacerdotal 3. But there are also Considerations peculiar though to great numbers as those that are Sacerdotal Princes and great Persons in this Church have a peculiar instigation to this Vice For it were easie to phansy that this mighty High-priest may create Ecclesiastick Potentates under him which may be Co-assessors and sharers with him in this Spiritual Domination over the World he creating them with some such Form as this Estote Fratres mei Principes mundi which must needs set their spirits at an high pitch But many Ranks inferiour to these and yet equal to Secular Princes and Nobles such as may have the pomp or accommodation of * Rev. 18. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of Horses and Coaches and Lackeys or Pages to attend them or run by them may make up a numerous company of these children of Pride who yet bearing the Titles of Pastours and Over-seers of the Flock of Christ oversee them in no other sense then of over-looking them they being placed so high above them that they have not any mind or ability to feed them but rather to flay them and Lord it over them 4. And lastly for those that are yet more numerous which we may suppose to have put on the vizard of a more peculiar Holiness listing themselves under the Title and Conduct of this or that Saint and making a show of Humility by wearing some uncouth and sordid Habit and seeming separate from the World by retiring into lazie and populous Monasteries and mortified to the pride and glory of it while