sour Grapes grow out The grounds thus laid and materials brought in place the building will be better framed But for fuller disquisition the Infusiastists Arguments with the Traductists Answers shal first be fairly filed then their Objections with the others Solutions orderly mustered Arg. Dust saith Salomon shalreturn to earth as it was Eccls 12. 7. and the Spirit to God that gav it Ergo every Soul or Spirit coms from God Answ This evidently relats to the first creation of both for no mans body since Adams is made of dust as his was but of Seed and Blood and God gav or inspired his Soul whence al others derivativly or secundarily com and shal return to the original Giver as the body shal to earth its Mother so this provs the Souls immortality but no way disprovs the Traducibility sith every particular Soul proceds mediatly from God the first Fountain Arg. The Lord saith Zechary spred the Heavens laid the Zech. 12. 1. Earths foundation and formed Mans Spirit within him Ergo God created it in the Body Answ This is the pregnantst place and best proof in al sacred Scripture for intrinsecal infusion by creation but intends apertly as the former did covertly the protoplasm or primordial production for when God spread the Heavens and founded the Earth he then formed Mans Soul within him but ever since ceased to creat either new Spirits or Souls so this is no plain evidence for jugial creation of every particular Soul Arg. S. Paul makes an Antithesis between the Father of Heb. 12 9. our Bodies and Father of Spirits Ergo God is sole Author and Creator of Souls not the Pâ—â—â—â—ts Answ God is the Father of Spirits as wel in regard of Angels and Saints which is not the Apostles aim as spiritual regeneration ther intended without reference to Soul-creation yet becaus he breathed the first Soul whence al since are derived he may be caled the primitiv Father of Souls though one immediatly beget another Arg. God in Isaiah saith I have made the breath meaning Isaâ— 57. 16. Mans Soul which he originaly breathed in Ergo he only creats it nor is it carnaly generated Answ This is meant in S. Pauls sens in him we liv mov and hav our being or it may be referred to the first Souls inspiration without successiv creation Arg. Zedekiah swore to Jeremy As the Lord livs that made Jer. 38. 16. us thes Souls I wil not sâ—ay thee Ergo 'tis evident that he makes al mens Souls Answ Som interpret it by Synecdoche like the seventy Souls issued from Jacobs loins the principal part for the person as the Lord livs that made us both som literaly of life as the Lord livs by whom we liv I wil not bereav thy life Yet the words may be granted to imply the Souls creation though he meant not properly or purposly the Souls production rather then persons or lifes for 't is a greater emphasis in the Oath as the Lord liveth who created our Souls I wil not take away tâ—ine which he created Howbeit in this sens he could not destroy the Soul it self sav only sever it from the body but life the effect therof Take it either way or any way the words may be aptly applyed to the Souls primitiv creation sans exception or contradiction Arg. Godfashions Mens Hearts saith David and understands Psal 133. 14. al their Works Ergo he forms our Souls ther understood by Hearts as 't is usual in Scripture Answ The inference is infirm for by Hearts here is meant the Wil and Affections but by fashioning disposing Other Scriptural Texts are pressed but of no moment Arg. Whatever is generated shal be corrupted which is an irrefragable principle in Philosophy and Theology Ergo Mans Soul if procreated must be mortal Answ This authentic Axiom properly concerns compounds which are the adâ—quat subjects of generation and corruption not principal parts which are only ingenerated or congenerated but 't is verified in al things bred of a corruptible matter els not For God the Son is begoâ— of his Father and the holy Ghost proceds from both yet eternal without beginning so Angels and Mans Soul were created ex nihilo yet eviternal without ending but al the rest intire composed of the common Chaos Heavens Elements Meteors Mixtils Vegetals Animals and Mans Body which are corruptible in whol or parts and of thes that Maxime is rightly understood not of Mens Souls which are generated of Parents Souls having al a divine faculty by divine blessing to beget an immortal essence like itself Arg. 'T is a disparagement to Man the noblest Creature that his divine part should proced of impure seed like Beasts Ergo this opinion is to be exploded Answ 'T is his chief dignity that he hath power of or in himself to beget both parts specialy one so noble and divine els were he wors then Beasts in that behalf nor doth it proced of seed but from an Animific virtu of the Parents Souls conveied with the seed If then it be immortal as undoubtedly 't is what skils it in that respect whether it be created or generated and what difference whether God be immediat Plastes or giv man power with his general blessing to produce it by successiv propagation having the same power of immortality which the first had by himself infused and power to beget the like incorruptible essence by his special benediction Repl. If any Animific virtu be conveied with the seed then must it be reduced to act instantly at first conception which is most imperfect or gradualy which argues divisibility But both thos are absurd and abhorrent in Nature Ergo no such virtu can be conveied with the seed much less proced from it Answ Both Soul and Body are begot in an instant as every conception is made but as bodily lims and lineaments are gradualy shaped and strengthned from weak waterish rudiments to more maturity so the Soul exerciseth hir vegetativ functâ—ons of nutricion sensitiv of motion and intellectiv of reason daâ—ly by slow degrees as organs are apparated or accommodâ—â—ed whiâ—h argues no divisibility For al things in Nature as God proceded at Creation attain to perfection by divisible degrees yet no division in the Forms or Souls which are conceived in a moment Arg. If ther be virtu in or with the seed to beget a Soul then when 't is shed spilt or spent upon barren or gravid wombs so many Souls are lost which is harsh and horrid to hold Ergo no such Animific energy is conveied with the seed but al Souls proced from God Answ No Souls are lost by loss or sterility of seed but only a power or possibility to produce and procreat them which being not reduced into act perisheth or is frustrat so is the said virtu void to beget so many Bodies and prepare them for reception of Souls which is alone and no absurdity ariseth of either but presseth both sides alike Arg. If Souls be begot
spotless and blameless of him in peace accounting his long suffering for Salvation as our beloved Brother Paul according to the wisdom given him hath writ to you who in al his Epistles wherin are som things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction as they doo other Scriptures speaks of thes things viz. Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 1. 7 8. 1 Cor. 3. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 11. Phil. 1. 10. Ph. 2. 15. Ph. 3. 10. Col. 3. 4. 5. 1 Thes 2. 12. 1 Th. 3. 13. 1 Th. 5. 32. 2 Th. 1. 8 11. 1 Tim. 6. 14 25. Tit. 2. 12. 13. Heb. 12. 14 28 29. For better understanding St. Peter of the Worlds conflagration or combustion consider thes circumstances 1. That the old Hebrew the Scriptures language hath no one word to express the univers of superior and inferior Bodies caled in Greec Cosmos in Latin Mundus in English World but Heaven and Earth jointly so when St. Peter saith the World then being perished by water but the Heavens and Earth now are reserved to fire he might convertibly utter the Heavens and Earth then perished by water as the World now shal by fire so a new Heaven and Earth in Scripture notion imply a new World 2. That no other World or Heaven and Earth shal perish by fire then what before perishd by water as the antithesis argues which is the sublunar whos Heaven is Air and Earth the whol Geographic Globe both which were vitiated or defiled by the deluge and the Creatures destroied or much depraved Such a World then and no other Heaven or Earth shal suffer a secund flood of Fire for restauration as it had before a deluge of Waters for corruption This is a witty novity as ther be sundry such now adais but scars Orthodox sith 't is a Catholic Tenet that the Ethereal Heavens with al their Starry host shal be burnt up 3. That the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Elements is not distinguished from Heaven and Earth ther named becaus Heaven includs Air and Earth Water so three Physical Elements are implied and Fire if it be a fourth or not rather a quality of intens heat inherent in another Body must burn the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and can be none of that to be burnt So it must be rendred the whol Host of them or Furniture belonging to them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the works or Host of the Earth which shal be burnt Gen 2. 1. For Moses saith The Heavens and Earth were finished with al the Host of them which the Septuagints stile Furniture So the meaning is the Heavens and Host therof with the Earth and works or Furniture therin shal be fired The Scripture specifies three Heavens 1. Empyreal of Glory whos Host or Army are invisible Angels and blessed Spirits 2. Ethereal or Starry whos Host are shining Stars and Planets 3. Aereal or Sublunary whos Host are either visible as Meteors and Fowls or invisible as evil Spirits and Fiends with their Prince of the Air Satan the Devil To apply it St. Peter cannot intend the Empyreal which is increat and impassible nor Ethereal which is of vast immensity and sublimity in regard wherof this lower world is but a point or Center nor did thos two receiv any curs for Mans sin or contagion or contamination by the Deluge nor doo any of Gods enimies dwel ther to defile them So it rests That the Aereal only with al their Host shal be burnt up at last day Thes Heavens then shal melt with fervent heat being a metaphor taken from refining Metals which is his meaning who expounds dissolving by melting or purifying as the Septuagints stil interpret that word by refining but when the Aereal is so refined the Ethereal Lights wil shine to them on Earth far more glorious as passing their rais through a purer medium so that the world shal seem renewed As to the word passing away 't is an Hebraism signifying any change of a thing from the old Estate so al imply a secession from their pristin condition but no utter abolition by Fire more then the former destruction by Water If any ask whether the Host of invisible Spirits shal suffer by it 'T is answered That they shal not be burnt as the visible yet shal be exiled or excluded from thos lofty mansions into lower Dungeons as St. Jude intimats The Angels which lost their Jude v. 6. first estate and left their habitations he hath reserved to everlasting chains of darknes at the Judgment of that great Day Ther is another exposition to the same effect for Christ describing Mat. 24 29. the coming of this day useth prophetic expressions that the Sun shal be darkned and Moon giv no light the Stars shal fal from Heaven whos powers shal be shaken this cannot be construed literaly sith som Stars are bigger then the Earth and cannot fal on it nor can be darkned being essentialy lucid bodies so the meaning may be the World is either Mundus continâ—ns viz. the whol frame of Heaven and Earth or contentus viz. the Inhabiters and kingdoms therin so the Heaven of this politic world is the Soveraign part therof whos Host and Stars are the ruling powers or Magistrats and Earth the Pezantry or Plebeians together with al terren creatures serving mans use such acceptions are usual in the Prophets as Poets strains are to us If this notion of the contained world be admitted the whol Host of Heaven and Earth high and low Princes and Pesants Men and Beasts shal be consumed at Christs coming to judgment but wheras at the Flood the Contained only perished yet the Containing was also corrupted or contamined In the destruction by fire it shal be contrary For the world of wicked ones being destroyed the Heavens and Earth Containing shal be purged or purified for the righteous to possess This exposition is not so proper as the former yet if ther be som whom neither can satisfy but wil needs hav the Fire totaly to annihilat this visible world it may be answered that the judgment Day shal last a thousand yeers so saith he but none els and this Fire not be at beginning when Christs Enimies with Satans Kingdom shal be destroyed and then a restauration buâ— at end or evening shal be an utter annillation of the whol Creature so Saint Peters words may bear thus however Heaven and Earth shal in fine perish by Fire yet before that be we look for new or the worlds restauration to anteced this abolition according to his promiss Howbeit this suits not so wel with his chief scope nor with the Prophets promiss pointed at which specifies such a Fire only as shal forego a restauration and not caus a final abolition of the whol Univers with al therin nor hath it any ground in Scripture or if any such annillation shal be it stands with reason to be by Gods immediat hand or
rule in this World or Heav'n for ever Nec patet An Terris regnabit mille per annos Cum Superis Sanctis Martyribusque suis Whether he shal reign on Earth one thousand yeers With Angels Saints and Maryts 't not appeers 5. As to the Worlds final dissolution whether it shal be by a refined renovation of the Old a created substitution of a New or a predecreed abolition into Nothing I stand stif for the last against al Opposers or Oppugners 6. Anent Christmas and other holy harmless Pests forecited I suppose them to be both lawful and needful among prophane people who should be compeld to Church in season and out of season as the Spaniards at first drov uncatechised Indians like herds of Cattle to Baptism for the service of God yet al too little among stupid carnal Gospelers for al which assertions with others on the by I have rendred strong sufficient Reasons from other mens works in the particular Theses Treatises or Theorems but the three middle of Prophecies concerning the Messiah to com Christs two Genealogies and Revelation reveled are no Polemical points nor wil require farther explication or exposition therfore take this dry Distich for a final Farewel Quid volo scire voles sic stat sententia nostra Qua data hoc addo tibi Lector Amice Vale. Wilt know what I hold So sounds my judgments knel Which giv'n I bid thee Reader Friend Farewel Protestatio Verissima Protestation A most tru Protestation Tu Domine Omnipotens mea qui praecordia nosti Spargere velle nihil me nisi vera vides Thou Lord Almighty who my heart doost know Knowst that I nought but truth abroad would sow AN END Additio de Anima Humana An Addition of Mans Soul WHile my Pen was busy to transcribe the Prolog previous Theorems I met with Mr. Hobbs learned Leviathan of a Common-wealth and among divers Paradoxal points or positions as who cannot devise new dogmats and colorably defend his devises Found four flatly opposit to so many of my Theological Theses or Tenets which I thought fit by way of vindication to enumerat but not by way of refutation to recriminat being far too weak to incounter so strong a Champion as a Dwarf to a Giant 1. That Mans Soul is no special Entity Essence or Existence distinct from the Body which after separation by death shal subsist in Heaven or Hel til the general Resurrection of al Flesh and particular reunion of every individual Soul with its own identic Body but only the Breath Life Energy or Accidental quality therof as is in other animats or animals so denomined of Anima not Vita yet the Body shal rise at last day the self same living Man it was in this World This novity crosseth cleerly my first Thesis concerning the 1 Thesis Souls origin or production wherin I maintain with the current stream of al Orthodox writers that 't is an essential part of Man so wel as the Body but after death or dissolution of one from the other a distinct individual immaterial tho no simple Spirit and immortal substance which shal immediatly by Gods particular Judgment partake of Heavenly jois or Hellish torments and in fine reunite with its own Body at general Resurrection The whol controversy is largly debated already needing no vain repetition but the Souls Verity Unity and Immortality shal be farther proved by a few select places of sacred Scripture promiscuously collected and congested together for the present occasion God breathed into Gen. 2. 3. Adam the Spirit of Life or infused a living Soul as 't is generaly interpreted Which cannot be simple life sith Zechary expounding it saith The Lord spred the Heavens laid the Zeâ—h 12. 2. Earths foundations and formed Mans Spirit within him which provs intrinsic infusion Semblably saith Salomon Dust shal 〈◊〉 12. 〈◊〉 return to Earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gav it which cannot imply life or Breath sith that only ceaseth or vanisheth but returns not to God who first infused into Adam a substantial Spirit whence al others are successivly derived David speaking of Christ saith My flesh shal rest in hope 〈◊〉 16. 9 〈◊〉 for thou wilt not leav my Soul in Hel nor suffer thy holy one to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 26 27. see corruption This is meant of our Saviours condition after his Passion as deep Divines define that his flesh in the Grav shal rest in hope but his Soul descend into Hel to conquer the strong Man Satan in his own Kingdom not to be left ther nor the whol compound see any corruption being to rise speedily The blessed Virgin saith My Soul doth magnify Luk. 1. 46 47. the Lord and my Spirit rejoice in God my Saviour which two pathetical terms Soul Spirit she would not use of life or breath a blast bubble bawble nor can Christ be caled hir Saviour in that respect sith hir life did not depend on him Christ saith Ther was a rich Man clothed in purple that fared Luk 16. 19 20. sumptâ—ously every day and a begger named Lazarus who lay at his gate ful of sores Lazarus dying was caried by Angels into Abrahams bosom but the rich Man tormented in Hel flame This he whiffles off slightly that 't is a Parabol yet many learned Men take it for a tru story becaus the begger is named nor would Christ so pointly pourtray Abrahams bosom the rich Mans dialog with him and Hel-torments no not in Parabols to teach People old wifes fables if al were fals figments or that Mens Souls did not liv after dissolution from the body which was his main scope to instruct or to what end els did he propone it Yea elswhere he bids Men not to fear them which kil the Body and cannot kil the Soul but to fear Mat. 10. 28. him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hel. How can this be eluded Here are two distinct parts directly specified Body and Soul nor can the last be life for he that kils the Body is able and actualy doth take away that too at once together with it nor would he ad fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body if he meant life only Christ said to the penitent Theef on the Cross Today instantly Luk. 23 43. 〈◊〉 and immortaly shalt thou be with me in Paradise which must needs intend both their Souls sith their Bodies were to be buried that night Indeed many able interpreters expound to day eternaly yet al apply it to their Souls which shal liv with God for ever and ever St. James bids his Countrimen with Jam. 1. 〈◊〉 meeknes to receiv the word which is able to sav their Souls not their lifes for Gods word cannot sav them Many mo places may be alleged beside Reasons and testimonies of Authors if any refutation were intended but sith he saith the contrary to his Assertion that Soul and Life
and Ephraim are rejected from this type as being chief Coriphees of the Idolatrous Apostasy under the Judges Ergo unfit to present Professors of tru Religion yet to complet the number Lâ—vi is set for Dan and Joseph tacitly supplies Ephâ—aim but the Wifes and Handmaids Sons promiscuously interserted and Handmaids Children adopted for their Dames to shew or signify that both bond and free are al one in Christ Sith then Leahs Sons Natural and Adopted are duple to Rachels in the first six are four of Leahs Juda Reuben Gad Aser and two of Rachels Nepthali Manasses So among the last six four of Leahs Simeon Levi Isachar Zabulon and two of Rachels Joseph Benjamin but on both sides thos are preplaced or preferred which holy Writ commends for som memorable act touching Gods Worship or Zele As Juda is prime becaus Josua 22. 21. Christ issued of that Tribe Reuben next for their sacred protestation about the Altar of Witnes built on Jordans bank wherby and becaus first born he must stoop to none sav the Regal Tribe Gad is third being Reubens companion in that famous action as also in that Eliah and Jehu Destroiers of Baalism descended of that Tribe Aser fourth becaus the widow of Sarepta who fed Eliah and the Prophetess Anna who proclamed Christ at his presenting in the Temple sprung of this Tribe Leahs last quaternion Simeon Levi Isachar Zabulon are not so renowned as the rest or blasted with som Crime Among Rachels issu Nepthali and Manasses lead the Family for from the first sprung Barach Siseras Vanquisher from the last Gidion subverter of Baals Altar and Elisaeus the Prophet But Nepthali more noted becaus his Seat is Galile and chief City Capernaum wher Christ most conversed Yet Joseph and Benjamin being youngest bring up the Rere But Ephraim guilty of much Apostat Idolatry in Jeroboam and Achab beside that Saul a Benjamit hated David a Judait Censure Thus the order of the sealed Tribes is explicated which is a curious Cobweb of wit if of so much worth or congruous to the holy Ghosts intention but 't is briefly plainly and truly presented to satisfy al subtle or serious speculators Under the six foregoing Seals the Empires state yet florishing til Idols should fal is described by intestin Chances Now succeds the seventh or last Seal of the seven Trumpets wherin 7 Seal the destinies of its decay are displaied for they sound Alarms to the fatal battle for the blood of so many Martyrs slain by Roman Emperors Now though they becam Christians yet that staid not Gods hand from avenging thos which cried under the Altar no more then Josiahs godlines did from destroying the Kingdom of Juda for the Idolatries and murders of Manasses At opening this Seal was silence in Heaven half an Rev. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. hour when seven Angels had seven trumpets given them and another standing at the golden Altar with a golden Censer offereâ— much Insens with the praiers of the Saints Then were Voices Thundrings Lightnings and an Earthquake being al prepatories to thos trumpets Al Divines know that the works of divine Providence are executed by Angels or Messengers and thos seven prepared to sound but the four first Plagues of less moment or extent then the rest which rest mostly on the Western World or Bishop of Rome who was to be Head For the Empire with other Kingdoms is tacitly resembled to the Worlds body whos parts are Earth Sea Rivers Heaven Stars which every Monarchy resembleth The often repetition of a third part as of Trees Earth Sea Rivers Heaven implies the Empires extent over a third part of the then known World in St. Johns dais as afterward the seven headed Dragon with ten horns i. that heathen Empire drew a third part of the Stars or Princes and Rulers under Rev. 12. 3. 4. his Dominion with his tail and cast them to the Earth The Rev. 12. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. first Angel sounded and Hail and Fire mixd with Blood fel on the Earth and a third part of Trees was burnt up with al green grass The secund sounded and as it were a great Mountain was cast into the Sea which turned a third part into Blood and a third part of al Creatures therin that had life died and a third part of Ships destroied The third sounded and a great Star caled Wormwood fel from Heaven burning like a Lamp which fel on a third part of Rivers and Fountains making them bitter that many Men died of them The fourth sounded and a third part of the Sun was smiten with a third of the Moon and Stars so as a third part was darkened and a third part of the day shone not nor of the night The first Trumpet entring at the Roman Idol Government 1 Trumpet which was shaken at end of the sixth seal being ready to strike the first blow destrois a third part of the Eaâ—th with a Isai 28. 2. Isai 30. 30. terrible tempest of Hail Fire and Blood which was the impetuous irruption of Northern Nations wasting the Nobles and Commons For Hail in Prophetic notion indicats hostil assalts but lightning and fire is joind with it as David doth Ps 18. 12. 13. wherto blood is added to shew great slaughter insuing Trees in Prophetic Parabols imply great Lords and rich Men as Okes of BasanIsai 2. 13. Cedars Isai 14. 8. Firtrees Zech. 11. 2. in al which places Princes and Potentats are pourtraid but green grass imports the Commons To apply it the Wo of Applicat this Trumpet began at Theodosius death A. 395. when Alaric with a vast Army of Goths and other Barbarians broke in upon Macedon and raged fiv yeers but then betook to the West committing most savage spoils and slaughters in al parts as Epist 3. St. Jerom an Ey witnes wofully relats At last he invaded Italy and besieged Honorius at Hasta whos Lieftenent Stilico levying puissant forces resisted his fury and repeld him to Pannonia who by composition retired to Illyricum in the East Soon after Rhadagaiso a Scythian with 200000. Goths Sarmatians and Germans attempted Italy and besieged Florence but Stilico subdued and beheaded him Immediatly a swarm of Vandals Alans Marcomans Heruli Suevi Almans Burgundians and other barbarians broke into Galle Spain and Africa as St. Epist 11. Jerom also dolefully declares This is that direful Hail storm mixd with fire and blood for sundry writers Achmetes and others aptly resemble War by such Meteors and Metaphors 2 Trumpet The next Trumpet the Empire being enough wasted on the Earth therof assails the Sea with a far greater stroke killing the living Creatures and destroying Ships For Rome the Metropolis being once or twise taken and burnt with hostil flames the Enemies possessed the out Provinces at pleasure and set up several Kingdoms which is signified by the Sea of that Jer. 31 36. Isai 19 5. Ezek 31. 4. Ezek. 14. 19
reveled in his holy Word 7. Their clashing contradiction is a plenary confutaâ—son for som say no mixtils or Animats shal subsist but only Câ—lical bodies and two Elements yet can shew no caus or colour why they rather then the rest or how the world shal be more glorious being as a bare house unfurnished and unhabited sith variety makes it Mundus or comly som that al creatures shal be restored so wel as men yet know not how to stow them as two were of ech kind in the Aâ—c in the world unles they fain it of infinit capacity som that such only shal be reserved as are extant at last day that is good luck and bad as al the world is now ruled for why they rather then the rest sith al shal be incinerated so wel as thos already corrupted som that none now or then existent are capable of restitution or resurrection but new shal be formed of rare kinds like thos in the Lunar world to serv the Saints in a new material world to com Touching this Earth som say it shal be refined like gold in the fire and bettered or beautified tenfold for the Saints mutual commerce som that it shal be a mansion for such as neither deserv Heaven for their good deeds nor Hel for hainous crimes som that it shal be the habitation of unbaptized Infants which they hold better then Saint Austins dark dungeon Thes are al carnal conceipts or ungrounded unwarranted Phantasms sith the kingdom of Heaven is stiled the Seat of blessed Spirits wher they shal reside as in their proper place of perpetual possession not as an Inn to lodg in for a space and at last leav it for ever nor shal they hav a City hous and country Grange to remov from Heaven to Earth at pleasures as som sottishly surmise but shal enjoy a Heavenly habitation and beatific Vision for their eternal inheritance which wil be no boot to change for an Earthly mansion though they should enjoy Christs personal presence to boot which they also hav stil in Heaven Most Greec Fathers with many Latin assert annihilation Authorities Hilari saith this Heaven caled Firmament shal pass away and not be but that invisible wherin God dwels abides for ever Clement fains his Master Saint Peter to tel Simon Magus that ther be two Heavens one superior increat eternal wher blessed Spirits inhabit another inferior visible studded with stars which at last day shal be abolished Saint Jerom saith thos two Fathers Opinion was most approved as cohering with Saint Pauls saying The things seen are temporal but thos not seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. eternal meaning that al Visibles shal perish to nothing but invisibles abide for ever in infinity Dr. Hakewil cites sundry late L. 6 Apol. sub â—â—nem Protestant Professors as Patrons of annillation viz. Luther Melancthon Bucer Beroaldus Bartolinus Vorstius Junius Rivet Hunnius Tilenus Cassanius Meisnerus Polanus Martinius Brentius Wollebius Gerard Arnobius Frantzius and others whos pregnant testimonies to that purpose he produceth worthy of exact perusal which to recit or capitulat consorts not with my affected brevity who must hasten to answer the Ronovators and Substitutors Arguments Ob. Saint Peter saith The Heavens must contain Christ til the Acts 3. 19 21. times of refreshing and restitution of al things which God hath spoken by al his holy Prophets Ergo al shal be restored Sol. The Syriac Interpreter renders it til the end of al times or worlds consummation but the times of restitution or refreshing signify the complement of our Redemption for as Calvin comments becaus our restitution or redemption is yet imperfect while we grone under the bond of bondage we shal be restored to liberty at last day when 't is perfected but speaks nothing of the Worlds renovation after 't is burnt nor can it be wiredrawn or wrested to any such construction if rightly sensed Ob. David saith God laid the Earths foundations that it Ps 104. 5. shâ—uld not be removed for ever So Salomon One generation passeth and another coms but the Earth abides for ever Ergo Eccles 1. 4. shal not be annilled Sol. Thes places are stifly urgd against the Earths diurnal motion with more color then to oppugn abolition yet truly against neither for the intention is that by Natures cours it is laid to remain for ever without decay or diminution in the whol like other elements had not God decreed to dissolv it but the parts of them al are subject to jugial alteration and corruption the word for ever is so long as Time or the World lasts so caled in comparison of mans mortal condition as circumcision is stiled perpetual Repl. The Lord saith Lo I creat new Heavens and Earth Isai 6â—â—7 Rev. 21. 1. for the former shal not be remembred So Saint John cals them new for the first passed away and ther was no more Sea so Saint Peter The Heavens shal pass away with a nois and Elements 2 Pet 3 10. 13. melt with heat but we look for new Heavens and Earth Ergo being burnt they shal be refined and renovated or new created and substituted but not al utterly abolished or annulled Sol. See how partial Sectists are it was pressed last that the Earth abides for ever now that it shal be renewed or a new surrogated but truth lies in the kernel of genuin sens not in the shel of words surely they are not meant literaly of material Heavens and Earth or if they be it tends rather to annillation then restitution oâ— substitution for Isai saith The former shal com in mind no more Saint John They passed away and there was no more Sea Saint Peter The Heavens shal pass away with a nois and Elements melt with heat how then renewed such as constru to perish pass away be no more c. of the worlds instauration or melioration and not of annihilation must answer wher in Grammar 't is so taken for in Philosophy and Theology renovation diametraly differs from destruction Beza applies Isais alleged words to the Churches State or Christs kingdom which also alluds to the Saints condition in Heavenly Jerusalem as Saint Johns immediat ensuing words import I saw the holy City new Jerusalem Rev 21. 2. coming from God prepared as a Bride trimmed for her husband which intimats their continual cohabitation or hir eternal Mansion with God hir Bridegroom So Saint John and Peter by new Heavens intend the Saints glory in new Jerusalem with God or the Lamb and not any material new Heavens as al authentic Authors expound Rep. Isaiah saith The Moons light shal be as the Sun and Isai 30. 26. Suns sevenfold as of seven dais Ergo at last day al things shal be perfected in far greater glory not totaly abolished to be no more Sol. The Prophet speaks Mysticaly and Metaphoricaly as oft elswher of the Church under Christ which he cals a new Heaven and Earth as the new Heavens
Press but with this difference or dissonance Dictio Praeconis tenues cito transit in auras Scriptorum at remanent dogmata saepe diu A Preachers wordst ' empty Air turn again But Writers works oftimes doo long remain Al Men are apt to er but the modest ready to acknowledg and amend it if detected or displaied as I vow in presence of our great God freely to doo if any shal fairly shew it nor ever wil be found a Beast perversly to persevere therin I wil serv no Person Sect or Faction for fear favor or flattery but only deliver my privat personal Judgment how weak or worthless soever sincerely according to verity or verisimility This such as know my constant resolut disposition wil easily beleev but others may take it on trust til they shal hav time to try the contrary Al the Theses are too redious but ther prolixity consists more in multitud of matter then words for I could hav made the Work twise so voluminous with half the toil but doo study brevity to spare the Readers Purs and Pains The Speculations are somwhat sublime but stile facil and familiar fit for vulgar understandings Let every one take or leav and take al in good part Farewel Rustica Ruricolae Fabrique Fabrilia tractent Tangere nec Medicos dogmata sacra decet Let Clowns the Plow and Smiths their Forge attend Nor should Phisitians to things sacred bend Articuli Fidei Anglicae 39 Articles of our Faith THE Articles of Religion concluded in Convocation and confirmed by Act of Parliament under Queen Elizabeth Anno 1562. but ratified or reestablished under King James by the same duple authority Anno 1604. which are here presented to satisfy or gratify al lest men like Lynces should seem sharp sighted to look into the Confessions of other Reformed Churches abroad and Lamiae or blind Beetles at home in being ignorant of our own Principles and Doctrins the general Catalog of which follows in order 1 Of Faith in the holy Trinity 2 Of the Word which was made Man 3 Of Christs descent into Hel. 4 Of his Resurrection 5 Of the holy Ghost 6 Of the Scriptures sufficience to salvation 7 Of the old Testament 8 Of the three Creeds 9 Of original birth-sin 10 Of free wil. 11 Of mans justification 12 Of good works 13 Of works before justification 14 Of super trrogation 15 Of Christ alone without sin 16 Of sin after Baptism 17 Of Predestination and Election 18 Of obtaining salvation only by Christ 19 Of the Church 20 Of the Churches authority 21 Of general Councils 22 Of Purgatory 23 Of ministring in the Congregation 24 Of speaking ther in an unknown toung 25 Of the Sacraments 26 Of the Ministers unworthines which hinders not their effects 27 Of Baptism 28 Of the Lords supper 29 Of the wicked who doo not eat Christs Body and Blood 30 Of both kinds 31 Of Christs Oblation finished on the Cross 32 Of Priests marriage 33 Of Excommunicat Persons how they are to be shunned 34 Of the Churches Traditions 35 Of â—omilies 36 Of Consecrating Bishops c. 37 Of the Civil Magistrat 38 Of Christians goods which are not common 39 Of a Christian mans Oath The Particulars insu Article 1. THere is but one only tru living God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinit power wisdom and goodness maker and preserver of al things both visible and invisible in unity of which Godhead ther be three Persons of one substance power and eternity the Father Son and holy-Ghost Article 2. The Son who is the Word of the Father begot of him from everlasting the very eternal God of one substance with the Father took mans Nature in the womb of the blessed virgin of hir substance so that two whol perfect Natures the Godhead and Manhood were joined in one Person never to be severed wherof one Christ consists perfect God and very Man who suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and be a sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for al actual sins of men Article 3. As Christ died for us and was buried so 't is to be beleeved that he went down into Hel. Article 4. Christ truly rose from death and took again his body with flesh bones and al things pertaining to the perfection of Mans Nature wherwith he ascended into Heaven and ther sits til he shal return to judg al men at last day Article 5. The holy Ghost proceding from the Father and the Son is one substance majesty and glory with the Father and Son very eternal God Article 6. Holy Scripture contains al things necessary for Salvation so that whatever is not read therin nor may be proved therby is not required of any man to be beleeved as an Article of Faith or be thought needful to salvation By the name of holy Scripture we understand thos Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament whos authority the Church never doubted of and the other Books as saint Jerom saith the Church reads for exemple of life and instruction of maners but doth not apply them to stablish any Doctrin All the Books of the new Testament as commonly received we receiv and reput them Canonical See their names and number in the holy Bible Article 7. The old Testament is not contrary to the New for in both everlasting life is offred to mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Therfore they are not to be heard which fain that the old Fathers looked only for transitory promises though the Law given of God by Moses touching Ceremonies or Rites doo not bind Christians nor the civil precepts of necessity to be received in any Christian Commonwealth yet no Christian man whatever is free from obedience of the Commandements caled moral Article 8. The three Creeds Nicen Athanasius and that commonly caled the Apostles ought throughly to be received and beleeved for thes may be proved by most certain warrants of Scripture Article 9. Original sin stands not in imitating Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk but is the fault and corruption of every mans Nature that is ingendred of Adams ofspring wherby man is far gon from original Righteousnes and inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and therfore in every person born into the world it deservs Gods wrath and damnationthis infection of Nature remains yea in the Regenerat wherby the lust of the flesh caled in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which som expound the wisdom som the sensuality som the affection som the desire of the flesh is not subject to the Law of God and though ther is no condemnation to them that beleev and are baptized yet the Apostle confesseth that Concupiscence hath of it self the nature of Sin Article 10. The condition of man after Adam's fal is such as he cannot turn or prepare himself by his natural strength and good works to Faith for
entring at dore as tru Shepherds of the Flock or owners of the Family betwen conterfet Cranks and approved Ambassadors of Christ For the Gospel Ministry is a dreadful imployment to discharge it duly which requires peculiar Workmen fit for so high a Function nor is it less weighty now then of old When Ministers must contend with blunt rusticity bold barbarity Schismatical curiosity fantastical novity Heretical subtlety disguised Hypocrisy superstitious vanity Factions fury politic prophanenes and al sorts of spiritual wickednes Nothing old can pleas though never so tru nor new com amiss though never so fals a new Church way new fangled Ministry new ordered Sacraments new sensed Scriptures and what not Every one sings In nova fert animus With such proud silly scornful Sophisters who need Teachers yet dare to teach must Ministers incounter who cast off al Church Order and Government so 't is most requisit to keep such unruly Buls of Basan under Rashnes is no part of Fortitud nor confidence a character of courage nor Confusion any ingredient of Charity nor Faction a support of Faith nor disorderly walking fit fuel of holy flames Psal 122. 3. in Christians hearts For the Church is compared to a City at unity in it self and to an Army with Banners which holy allusions Cant 6. 3. argu that ther is to be exact government in al affairs but the enemies of reformed Ministry who affect subtleties more then solidities becom Ministers Rivals from whom they had thos pretended Gifts and like Balaams Beast presume to teach their Masters trampling their feeders under feet but such Sectists or Seducers make Ministers most necessary to oppose their fury repel their folly and reform novity which els like wild Bores would destroy the Lords Vineyard if thes faithful Watchmen did not prevent them Thus much in general of the whol Ministry now more neerly concerning Episcopacy which is assaulted at first entry Ob. If it be granted to be of divine Apostolic Institution at first yet it hath since declined into Antichristian Apostacy under Popish Primacy being linealy derived from it Ergo both Bishops and Ministers like links of one chain or branches of the same Tree are to be lopped off Sol. Indeed Bishops hav constantly and continualy ordeined Ministers ful 1600 yeers but Popes of Rome usurped Antichristian Supremacy in the West as they would over the whol world if they could catch it about 1050 yeers yet al sacred Ordinances used or abused by them must not be abandoned as Antichristian for then we may seek new Scriptures Creed and Sacraments with another Gospel and Messias so wel as Bishops and Ministers sith al thes hav been defiled by their depraved doctrins and superstitions Nor was the Church Catholic against which Hel-gates shal never prevail to blot out Christs name wholy ruined by Antichristian superstructures that the main fabric must be puld down and made Nehustan instead of repairing or restoring it to pristin purity For so Christ reduced divine worship to his own Hous when avarice had made it a Den of Theefs Nor did the Jews Priesthood ceas for the Priests enormities Nor the dialectic teaching part fal from Moses Chair though the Scribes and Pharisees fat therin teaching Mens traditions Nor doo the Sacraments or Evangelic Ordinances fail by any Papal alterations or additions Hence al Godly Reformers specialy in England were content to cast out al corrupt doctrins vain customs impure mixtures and superstitious vanities which Papal novity had built on the foundations of Christian Religion laid by the antient Architects al over the World reserving the Scripture Canon with al sound Doctrin holy Disciplin Sacramental seals and other duties of Praier fasting c. according to the cleer sens of Gods Word and practis of primitiv Churches yet were they not so silly or giddy to reject al which the Popish party received or retained but only refined gold from dross the pure from vile which they had from Christian Predecessors Martyrs and Confessors in that once famous Roman Church by du succession though since much degenerated No Christian in his right wits whos Conscience is guided by science and zele tempred with Charity wil or should reced from them farther then he finds them to deviat from the rule of Faith held forth by Apostolic Precepts and primitiv Precedents But in matters of extern prudential order every Church hath like liberty to use or refuse such Ceremonies as ech thinks fit In som points we may convers with them as simply Men in som imitat them as Secular or Ecclesiastic Rulers in many join with them so far forth as they hold the truths of Religion and Fundamentals of Faith But their misexpositions of Scripture with al Antichristian additionals we utterly detest disclaim and disavow For instances We celebrat the Lords supper with the same Lords Supper Elements but renounce that sens of Christs words on which they rais the new doctrin of Transubstantiation sith 't is contrary to Gods providence both in Natural and Spiritual things which change not the substance but only the relation or use from Natural to Mystical contrary to Scripture phrase in like expressions wher things related by religious Institutions are mutualy denomined without essential changes contrary to common Reason and four of fiv Senses testimony which are the proper Judges of sensible objects contrary to Christs way Sâ—ght Smel Taft Touch. or end of strengthning a Receivers Faith which is not doon by what is harder to be beleeved then the whol Gospel mystery beside for nothing is less credible then that Christ sitting at Table gav his own very visible Body to be eaten by his Disciples and al Communicants after when as he stil sits as Man at his Fathers right hand in Heaven Thes with like fancies ful of absurdities and consequential Idolatry of Bread-worship and sacrilegious detaining the Cup from Laics contrary to Christs express Drink ye al of this words and primitiv Churches practis for many ages we flatly abjure or abandon yet receiv it with the same pious veneration of purest Antiquity but doo not determin the maner of that mysterious Union endevoring for the Graces which may make us worthy partakers when we receiv that dreadful yet most desirable seal of our Faith not by eating his flesh grosly with our mouths but by receiving him spiritualy into our Souls Yet by the same Faith we realy partake his merit death body and blood to eternal life before we receiv him by the said Sacrament yea though we should never hav oportunity so to doo which yet we may not neglect sith 't is the same object received by the same Instrument to the same end but in different degree and way yet the same Saviour of the World For Baptism we retain the words and form but discard the Baptism superfluous superstitious dresses Salt Oil Spittle Insufflation which deform that duty though not destroy it nor doo rebaptise thos baptised by them Semblably
21. 5. Jer. 7. 11. Mat. 21. 13. Psal 8. 2. Mat. 21. 16. Isai 5. 8. Mat. 21. 33. Ps 118. 22. Mat. 21. 42. Ps 110. 1. Mat. 22. 44. Isai 8. 14. Mat. 21. 44. Zech. 13. 7. Mat. 26. 31. Isai 53. 11. Mat. 26. 54. Psal 41. 9. Mat. 26. 23. Lamen 4. 20. Mat. 26. 56. Isai 50. 6. Mat. 26. 67. Zech. 11. 13. Mat. 27 9. Psal 22. 18. Mat. 27. 35. Psal 22. 2. Mat. 27. 46. Psal 69. 22. Mat. 27. 48. Nothing was doon by Christ which the Prophets foretold not nothing foretold by them which he fulfilled not for he saith al things writen of me hav an end couching al in that one Word on the Cross Consummatum est 't is finished Al Prophecies spoken of him are accomplished al Lawish Ceremonies which prefigured him abolished his own sufferings performed and Mans salvation perfected For al particulars of his Passion are precisely pointed out he must be apprehended so saith Jeremy The Lords Annointed was taken in their nets How To be sold For What Thirty Silver peeces What to doo To buy a Field So saith Zechary They gav thirty Silver peeces the price of him that was valued and gav them for the Potters Field By whom sold By that Child of perdition to fulfil the Scripture Who was he One that eats bread with me So saith David What shal his Disciples doo Run away as Zechary saith I wil smite the Shepherd and the Sheep shal be scattered What shal be doon to him he must be scourged and spit on So saith â—aiah I hid not my face from shame and spitting What more He shal be led to death So saith Daniel The Messiah shal be slain What death He must be life up as Moses did the Serpent Whither To the Cross So saith Moses Hanging on a Tree How lift up Nailed to it So saith David They hav pierced my Hands and Feet With what company Even Theefs So saith Isaia with the wicked was he numbred Wher Without the Gates So saith the Prophecy What shal becom of his Garments They divided them and on my Vesture or Coat cast lots saith David How must he dy Voluntarily Not a bone shal be broken Why It was prefigured in the Paschal Lamb and performed in him the tru Passover as a Sacrifice for sin How then He must be thrust in the side with a Spear so saith Zechary They shal see him whom they thrust through What shal he say Eli Eâ—â— Lama Luke 23 34. sabactani My God my God why hast thou forsaken me as David speaks how shal he resign his Soul Into thy hands I commend my spirit so saith the Psalmist What uttered he of his Enemies Father forgiv them So saith Isai He praied for Psal 22. 1. transgressors Lastly that al predictions might be verified he said I thirst not for any necessity of Nature but to fulfil divine John 19. 28 30 Decree in Scripture Then he cried consummatum est If any Jew or Infidel seing this admirable harmony or concent of al circumstances shal demand like Johns Disciples Art thou Acts 1. 11. he or shal we look for another The two Angels appeering at his Ascention answer with an Interrogation Ye men of Gallile why stand ye gazing or gaping into Heaven for another Messiah this same Jesus now taken up shal so com as ye saw him go into Heaven In him only are al Phrophecies fulfilled and by him al that was predicted to be doon finished No other Spirit could foresee or foresay such things should be doon nor any power possibly doo them so foreshewed sav only Jesus Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the World 2. Touching legal Observations Christ is the end of the Law both Moral which he kept perfectly by himself and satisfied plenarily for us and Ceremonial which was referred to him observed of him and abolished by him For al Lawish Ceremonies Circumcision Passover Tabernacle Temple Laver Altar Shewbread Tables Candlestics Vails Holy of Holies Arc Propiciatory Pot of Manna Aarons Rod high Priest his Order Linage Habits Inaugurations Washings Annointings Sprinklings Offerings Sacrifices and other Rites look'd at Christ which had their virtu from him relation to him and end in him They al died when the Temples vail rent the Obligation of the Ritual Law being cancelled and the way into Heavenly Jerusalem opened for the shews yeelded to the substance when he said Al is finished 3. His sufferings from the Cratch to the Cross are infinit and inexpressible his whol life being a perpetual passion he humbled yea emptied himself to becom Man suffering more herein then al Men can for if Man should be turned into a Beast as Pythagoras dreamed into dust into nothing 't is no such disparagement as God to be made Man What Man if Monarch of the World to tread on Kings necks trampling al Crowns and Scepters under feet it had bin som port or pomp but he cam in form of a Servant and becam the contempt of Men yea a worm and no Man the shame of Men and scorn of the multitud He was born in a Stable cradled in a Cratch or Manger caried a Child into Egypt to avoid Herods butchery basely bred in his Foster-Fathers Cotage lived poorly and obscurely endured al extremities of hunger thirst cold and other calamities during minority but coming to Virility and shewing the power of his Deity he was transported and tempted by Satan derided of his Kindred traduced by the Jews persecuted by the Elders and Pharisees restless harborless comfortless sold by his own servant apprehended arraigned condemned crucified But wher not in a corner but at Jerusalem the Ey and Heart of the World wher he wrought a world of Wonders Wherabout in Calvary among stinking sculs and execrable Malefactors When At the Passover wher Proselits resorted from al parts to receiv the type and reject the archetype who instead of eating the Paschal Lamb slu and sacrificed the tru Passover With whom Betwixt two Theefs He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God is made equal to Robbers What suffred he A cursed lingring tormenting ignominious death even on the Cross being made a curs for us a curs wors then the shame but both wors then the pain and scorn worst of al. His Cross-Companions had no irrision inscription or insultation over them but death only he death with disdain disgrace and derision the Jews Souldiers and Theefs twitted or triumphed over him Al his senses were windows to let in sorows his Eys beheld the tears of his blessed Mother and Friends with manifold despits of his Foes his Ears heard the blasphemous railings and revilings of the Multitud His Nostrils smelt the noisom sent of dead Mens bones His Touch felt the nails His Tast bitter Gal Was ever sorow like his sorow That Head which Angels adored is harowed with thorns That face fairer then the Children of Men is smeared with filthy spittle and furrowed with tears Thos Eys brighter
Devils like Frogs coming Rev. 16. v. 13 14. out of the mouths of the Dragon Beast and fals Prophet working miracles are Papal Emisaries or Ambassadors sent to sommon the Kings and Potentats of the whol World to the battel of that great day of God Almighty wherin the Dragon shal assist the Beast and fals Prophet with al his warlike powers worldly plots and wily policies but the seven Angels poured out their seven Phials of Gods wrath The Woman in rich attire sitting on a Scarlet Beast ful of Rev 17 v 3. c. names of Blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns on whos forehead was writ a Mystery Great Babylon Mother of Harlots drunken with the blood of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus is Romes Papacy which rides on the Empire in the seven headed City being both but as one head the seventh and last consisting of the Temporal and Spiritual State which is even the eighth yet one of the seven reigning jointly together The Man which sat on a whit Hors in Heaven caled the Word Rev 19 v 11 c. of God who was clothed with a Vesture dipt in blood having on it and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords is our Lord Jesus who shal smite the Nations ruling them wiâ—h a rod of iron and subdu al with great slaughter The Beast and fals Prophet which shal be tormented in a lake Rev 20. v 10. of fire and brimstone for ever is the whol Papacy and Antichrist the Pope head of that State or Society The holy City new Jerusalem prepared as a Bride adorned for Rev. 21. vers 2 hir Husband is the Company of Elect ever ready to receiv hir Bridegroom or best beloved Lord. The Lambs Bride or Spous that great City holy Jerusalem is Ibid. v. 9 10. Christs Militant Church on Earth which jointly with the triumphant in Heaven makes Christs Spous Thes new notions of names forty four in number never vented til now wil if wel digested make the meaning more obvious in most mysteries Many mo circumstantial terms are sparsed in the Text which are amply unveled in the insuing Commentary but this short Index shal serv to lead strangers steps in this Labyrinth Analysis Apocalypseos The Apocalyps Analysed THree principal parts are considerable 1. The Preface Analysis Part 1. which is both general of the whol Prophecy noting the Matter Pen-Man and Profit and special relation to the seven Asian Churches and in them to the Catholic Church wherin is a nomination of the person writing and thos writen to with a salutation of them and description of Jesus Christ 2. The substance and Body of the Book which contains a narration of the Churches State both Militant and Triumphant The Militant is deciphered at present as it was when John wrot and for future as it shal be at last day The Triumphant is declared both for the inchoation at general Judgment and duration to eternity 3. The Conclusion which confirms the whol Prophecy 1. By an Angels testimony who shewed it to John from the Lord 2. By Christ who testifies it to be tru and amplified by Johns earnest request on the Churches behalf 3. By John who denounceth direful judgments on al that shal ad to or take from it with a salutation to the Saints at end of al. The particulars of the Church Militant exhibit two points 1 Vision Ch. 1. 2. 3. 1 A Vision of seven golden Candlesticks and seven Stars signifying the Asian Churches 2 A description of thos Churches in seven Epistles directed to the Bishop-Angels of thos seven Seas in al which is one current constant form observed which imports 1 A description of Christ Jesus sutable to his Vision 2 A narrativ of the good commendable or evil culpable in every Angel and Church 3 Promises or menaces proportional to their Virtues or Vices 4 An exhortation to attend things writen to the Churches The Churches State for future specialy in Europ is more mysticaly unfolded which is to premonish hir of grievous persecutions by Tyrans Heretics and lims of Antichrist against al which the holy Ghost givs many comforts That God wil be with her in al distresses whos tribulations shal terminat in short space but hir Enemies shal perish and she in fine set safe or secure in the life to com al which things are pointly or precisely expressed in six Visions one after another Thes are comprised in two Prophecies or Systems Ch 4 〈◊〉 11. of Visions contemporar the first begins with the sealed Book the last lasts to the end of Apocalyps taking in som passages of five Trumpets viz. the litle Book the measuring of the Temple the out Court not to be measured and fate of the two mourning witnesses The Churches future estate is reveled in a mysterious Vision 〈◊〉 Vision Ch. 4. of a Book fastned with seven seals wherin is comprised a preparatory to open them which displais God 's sitting on a Throne in Heaven with his Ensigns or Emblems of Majesty viz. twenty four Elders and four Beasts Lightnings Thunders Voices Trumpets seven Lamps which are his seven Spirits a Sea of Ch 5. glass like Crystal and Songs of prais by them al to him that sits on the Throne The sealed Book held in his right hand which none was worthy or able to open sav the Lamb shewed to John the Churches future state til the worlds end In the seventh seal are Ch. 6. presented seven Trumpets and in the last seven Phials of Gods wrath ful of the last seven plagues or punishments The first Seal shews a whit Horse the secund a red the third a black his Rider bearing Ballances in his hand the fourth a pale his Rider death with Hel folowing at heels the fifth the Martyrs Souls under the Altar crying for vengeance which had whit robes given them with promiss of complet glory when their felow Brethren should be fulfilled The sixth sets forth Gods direful Judgments on the Churches Enimies attended with dreadful signs viz. A great Earthquake the Sun becam black and Moon as blood the Stars fel to Earth Heaven departed as a scrole and every Mountain and I le moved out of their places Herat Kings great Men cheif Captains Bond and Free even al Persecutors fel to despair hiding in Dens desiring the Mountains and Rocks to cover them from the Lamb. The seventh contains more Mysteries then any viz. A Vision 3 Vision Ch. 7. Ch. 8. of seven Angels with seven Trumpets as shal be specified but the holy Ghost comforts the Church and an Angel seals Gods Servants in the Foreheads as a sign of their deliverance At opening wherof was half an hours silence in Heaven betokening great things to com and the Angels addressed to sound The first sounded And Hail mixd with Fire and Blood insued which burnt a third part of al green things At sound of the secund A mighty Mountain burning with
Fire was cast into Sea and a third part becam Blood At the third A great Star caled Wormwood burning as a Lamp fel making a third part of Rivers and Fountains bitter that many died of them At fourth A third part of Sun Moon and Stars was darkned that the day and night for a third part shined not Here intervens as a preparatory transition to the three last Trumpets An Angel flying through midst of Heaven crying a loud Wo Wo Wo to the Earths Inhabiters by reason of the three Angels yet to sound The fift sounded which is the first Ch 9. 1 Wo. of Wo And a Star fel from Heaven to Earth and he opened the bottomless Pit with a Key whence arose Smoke darkning Sun and Air out of which cam Locusts whos effects are notably described together with their King Abaddon or Apollyon The sixt or secund Wo sounded whâ—ch 2 Wo. Ch. 10. loosed four Angels bound at Euphrates who were prepared to slay a third part of Men their Army being two hundred thousand thousand Horsmen which are largely described with their woful effects Here a mighty Angel Jesus Christ descended with a litle Book in his hand open who set his right Foot on the Sea and left on Earth swearing with lifted up hands by him that livs for ever ther should be no more time but at sound of the seventh Trumpet the mystery of God shal be finished as he declared to the Prophets This Angel cried loud as if a Lion roared or seven Thunders uttered their voices which John was about to writ but a voice from Heaven bid him seal it up and eat the little Book which in his mouth was sweet as Hony but made his Belly bitter that he might Prophecy Then â—b 11. was John bid to mesure Temple Altar and Worshipers with a reed but not the out Court for the Gentils must tread the holy City under foot forty two Moneths and he gav his two Witnesses power to Prophecy one thousand two hundred sixty dais clad in Sack-cloth but the beast rising from the bottomless Pit shal kil them whos dead Bodies shal ly in the street of the great City three dais and half unburied who shal reviv and ascend to Heaven to their Enimies great grief and terror The seventh 3 Wo. or third of Wo sounded which finished Gods mysteries and his Churches miseries then were great voices heard in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of this World are becom the Lords and his Christs to whom the twenty four Elders sung a gratulation attended with Lightnings Thundrings Voices Earthquake and great Hail Here the first Prophecy or System of Visions which contains chiefly the fourth Empires condition ends after which the secund contemporar with the former of Seals and Trumpets folows foretelling the Churches future state til the last day Herin three principal points are handled 〈◊〉 1. Hir tribulations 4 Vision by several Enemies 2. Hir deliverance by their destruction 3. Hir happy condition after deliverance Most Interpreters make both Visions one continued Prophecy yet not so properly tho in substance neer one The Churches persecutions Ch. 12. by several Enimies are pourtraied in this fourth Vision but the parturient Womans pursuit by the Dragon most pointly who waged war with the remnent of Hir seed The Dragons Ch. 13. instruments are the Beast with seven heads and ten borns rising from the Sea and that coming out of the Earth which had two horns like a Lamb but spake as a Dragon The events Ch. 14. of this persecution is the Saints victory by their constant confession of Christ even to death which is amplified by the causes and effects The Vision of seven Phials ful of Gods wrath and the seven 5 Vision last plagues poured out by seven Angels declare the Churches Ch. 15. deliverance by hir Enimies destruction The first poured his Ch. 16. plagues on the Earth the next on the Sea the third on Rivers and Fountains the fourth on the Sun the fift on the Beasts seat the sixt on Euphrates the seventh into the Air whos effects see in the context In the sixt Vision many mysteries are manifested being before 6 Vision Ch. 17. but obscurely mentioned which point out the Rise Reign Seat Vassals Success and final fal of Antichrist with al the Churches Enimies Here behold the great Whores judgment and event wherin a lifely description of the Whore to be judged both by visional representation of a Woman sitting on a scarlet Beastful of Names of Blasphemy having on hir forehead a Name writen A Mystery Babylon the Great Mother of Harlots and Abominations and by real explanation that the Beasts seven Heads are seven Hils and ten Horns ten Kingdoms The Instruments which shal destroy the Whore are thos ten Horns or Kings who shal hate and make hir desolat or naked eat hir flesh and burn hir with fire The promulgation Ch. 1â— of Babylons perdition is performed by three Angels one declares the certainty 't is falen and becom the habitation of Devils another warns al Gods People to com out of hir for fear of hir plagues setting forth hir Vâ—ssals sad laments crying alas alas that great City the last seals up hir ruins irrecoverablenes under the type of A great Milstone cast into the Sea Then folow gratulatory Ch. 19. exultations of the Heavenly company singing Halelujah to God both for the Whores judgment and preparation of the Lambs Wife to marry with him together with the Lamb and his Armies total conquest over the Beast fals Prophet and earthly Kings with their Armies wherto al Fowls are invited to eat their flesh The last Vision shews the event of the Whores judgment 7 Vision Ch. 20. which is triple 1. The Saints safety by chaining up the Dragon or Devil for one thousand yeers in the bottomless pit 2. The Martyrs living and reigning with Christ one thousand yeers but the rest of the dead lived not again til thos yeers were finished 3. The Saints miraculous deliverance from the Nations Gog and Magog by fire from Heaven to devour them when their Deceiver is cast into a Lake of fire and Brimstone wherupon folows the general judgment of the dead smal and great according to their works So far the Church Militants future state on Earth next folows the Triumphants happy condition in Heaven for ever which is gloriously decyphered with the Water of Life and Tree in midst of the Street as the Text Ch. 211 Ch. 22. shews The conclusion with its three parts is Analysed at first among the three chief Heads of this Prophecy which shal not be Tautologicaly repeated or reiterated Mr. Dury in a prolix Preface to the German Divines Clavis hath prefixed an ample Analysis which is abundantly abridged and annexed for variety of wit The Title tels that the Book Ch. 1. v. 1. is a Revelation of Jesus Christ who is the Subject-matter sith the sole scope is
simply but as the Dragons Deputy or Dragon under the Beasts disguise For to worship the Beast unles as the Dragons Idolatrous Vicegerent was no more impious then to obey any temporal authority therfore the Beast signifies his Kingdom whos worship is subjection to it that is they freely obeied him as if none could resist his power but to worship him in a religious capacity as he resembles the Dragon is blasphemy against God Ther was given him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies 〈◊〉 5. and power was given him to continu fourty two months The Beasts condition or constitution is exhibited before now rests to shew how he exercised the power delegated by the Dragon viz. blasphemy and cruelty This Vision agrees with Daniels Prophecy of the same fourth Beast and his last cours Dâ—â— 7. v. 8. here specified but the things declared to him more succinctly are here dilated more largely He had a mouth speaking great things saith Daniel which John cals blasphemies by which Idolatry is implied being the highest contumely against God He shal also continu to blasphem fourty two months during which space the Gentils shal trample on the out Court or holy City For sith this prophanation tends to the same impiety with the Beasts blasphemy both may signify the power of darknes or night measured by months or the Moons motion not by dais or yeers after the Sun els why doth the holy Ghost infer it immediatly upon the Beasts blasphemy unles the time be referred therto Ergo the Beasts 42 months begin not at this wrath and war with the Saints but at his Blasphemy So the meaning is that he continued to blasphem so long That by blasphemy is intended Idolatry or spiritual fornication is plain 1. Becaus Babylon the Beasts Metropolis is caled Mother of Harlots with whom the Kings and Inhabiters of the Earth Harlotized 2. 'T is such blasphemy as may fal into the courses of the next Foregoer or rather al the Heads which are charged with it but no blasphemy can be laid to his Antecessor not to al in common sav only Idolatry 3. The word blasphemy imports Idolatry in many mo places Isai 65. 7. Jor. 23. 15. 17. Ezek. 20. 27. Deu. 31. 20. 2 King 19. 22. Prov. 14. 31. Ps 44. 16. Psal 69. 10. in al which to rebuke reproch and blasphem God is al one sens He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blasphem Vers 6. his Name Tabernacle and them that dwel in Heaven What was spoken of blasphemy in general is here specificated by a triple Idolatry 1. He blasphems Gods Name or Peson by Image-worship ascribing it to Stocks and Stones 2. His Tabernacle or Christs Humanity wherin the Deity dwels personaly which Temple or Tabernacle is blasphemed by beleeving his Body to be daily made of bread becaus transubstantiating John 1. 14. Priests caus it to be adored for his tru Tabernacle 3. He blasphems Heavens Inhabiters Angels and Saints in caling John 2. 19. Hebr. 9. 11. Idols by their 〈◊〉 which is also a contumely against Christ their Lord for they are made Mediators or pretended Intercessors with him against their wils as Patrons or Pleaders for mortal Men in Heathen maner and many faigned miracles fabled fastâ—ed or fathred on them which is more blasphemy It was given him to make war with the Saints and overcome Vers 7. them and power was given him over al Kinreds Toungs and Nations This is his other part of power viz. persecution wherby he provs himself the Dragons Deputy Daniels words Dan. 7. 2â— are he made war with the Saints the Womans Seed and prevailed against them The Beasts whol reign is a war against the Saints but this is waged with bloody slaughter as 't is said vers 10. He that kils with the sword must be so killed For here the Secular Beast not Spiritual is meant which must be so handled He made not this war in Infancy but in maturity A. C. 1â—â—â— about the twelfth age from Christs nativity The first war fel heavy on the Albigenses Waldenses and other Professors of whom were slain only in France as Peronius tels about a million of Souls who were massacred by mighty Armies levied against Sarrasens which bloody broils lasted seventy yeers Many mo slaughters befel elswher for three hundred yeers after yet about An. 1500. sundry Stats Kingdoms Countries and Churches fel from the Beasts dominion against whom cruel wars were raised which continu to this day and shal not ceas til the Beast be destroied So this persecution for number of slain far exceds al the primitivs for from the Jesuits A. C. 1580. origin in thirty yeers space Baldwin computs nine hundred thousand L. de Antiâ—â—â— c. 16. Orthodox Christians doon to death by Executioners yea Duke d' Alva boasts that he executed thirty six thousand in Belgia and Vergerius vaunts that the Inquisition consumed a hundred and fifty thousand in thirty yeers by several tortures They excuse it that the Clergy doth it not but Magistrats yet they condemn them for Heretics and make the others their Hangmen For so 't is said here of the Secular Beast that he shal make war and overcom the Saints but of the Ecclesiastic that he shal caus so many as wil not worship the Beasts Image to be slain and not kil with the Sword or by his own hands His power reached over al the Roman dominion with so great persecution that no Kinred Toung or 〈◊〉 can resist his impiety yet al particular Men are not included in this generality for very many in al ages as God said he had seven thousand 1 Kings 19. 18. in Israel that never bowed knee to Baal kept their Covenant with the Lamb but al intire Kinreds or Stats served the Beast so thos few disperst in the Beasts Provinces made for a while the intemerat Virgin Church Al that dwel on Earth shal worship him whos names are not V. 8 9. writen in the Book of life of the Lamb slain before the Worlds foundation Lest any presuming on a catholic consent of Kinreds and Nations which folow the Beast or deterred with grievous persecution shal think they may run safly with the multitud the holy Ghost here reads their doom that their names are not registred in the book of Life Hereto is an Apostrophe annexed of attention If any hav an ear let him hear i. al godly Christians listen deeply and devoutly to what is foresaid not what folows of their unhappy condition which folow the Beast He that leads into Captivity shal go into Captivity he that Vers 10. kils with the sword must be so killed here is the patience and Faith of the Saints This is a consolatory close that God wil be their avenger to afflict their Adversaries with such measure as they mete wherof they being confident are no whit daunted with tribulations but patiently faithfully and constantly endure al expecting revenge
15 16. cried to the Lycaonians we Preach that ye should turn from thes vanities to the living God who in times past suffred al Nations to walk in their own wais but now the time of his Judgment is com The Instruments used to denounce Gods judgments were holy Bishops and Confessors who first opposed Martyrs Reliques as appeers in the story of Vigilantius and others but A. C 720. afterward more conspicuously in the Greec Church against Image-worship which many zelous Emperors Leo Isauricus Constantinus Iconomachus Leo Armenius Michael Balbus Theophilus stisly opposed yet in fine it prevailed by the power and policy of the two horned Beast and fals Prophet For tho som condemned Images yet many favored invocation of Saints under which notion Iconolatry crept up closly which Constantin with divers orthodox Fathers impeached of error For the nominal honor of Saint given to Apostles Martyrs and Confessors was never denied til in this last ignorant age by giddy Sectists as a Christian compellation but only the real invocation and intercession which drew on superstitious adoration of their Images yet to decry the name of Saints to such is no less erroneous though not so enormous The cry of this flying Angel sounded in the West so wel as East for the Synod of Francfort under Charlemaign of almost three hundred A. C. 790. Bishops condemned Image-worship and the secund Nicen Council which established it So the Synod of Paris summoned A. 825. by his Son King Lewis declared it to be impious and rejected that Nicen cru as superstitious Now listen to the secund Angels proclamation Ther folowed another Angel crying Babylon is falen is falen Vers 8. that great City becaus she made al Nations drink the Wine of the wrath of hir fornication He declares the foundation of Babylons ruin to be laid wherin he imitats Isaiah touching Isai 21 9. Babylon in the same words is falen is falen when the Medes and Persians were about to destroy hir The Ministers of this cry against mystical Babylon were the Waldenses and Albigenses who by word deed and death declared Rome to be Apocalyptic Babylon for hir Spiritual whordom of Idolatry wherwith she intoxicated al Nations Thes Champions began hir downfal for multituds of Men in al hir Provinces gradualy started or revolted By poisoned Wine is meant the amorous philâ—ry or sorcery of hir spiritual fornication but the Wine of hir wrath alluds to mortiferous potions usualy given to Malefactors specialy among the Grecians in antient times The third Angel folowed saying aloud if any worship the V. 9. 10. 11. Beast and his Image and receiv his mark in forehead or hand he shal drink the Wine of Gods wrath mingled with the Cup of his indignation and shal be tormented with fire and brimstone in presence of the holy Angels and the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascends up for ever and ever They hav no rest day or night which worship the Beast and his Image and receiv the mark of his name This Angel proceding farther then the two former forewarns the Beasts folowers how dreadful dangers hang over their heads unles they speedily shun his society The chief Minister of this cry was Luther with his Sectators Successors who began that great glorious Reformation when whol Stats Kingdoms and Provinces not single Men as before cast off the Beasts yoke with al his abominations Here is threatned a terrible punishment look to it Romish Catholics if they persist in their old drunkennes they shal drink the Wine of Gods wrath mix'd with bitternes Myrrhe Aloes Gal Frankincens or Wormwood such as the Jews gav them that were put to death and offred to our Saviour Here the first Angel admonished them to worship God aright the next menaceth ruin to Babylon and this denounceth judgment to al his Folowers Here is the Saints patience Here are they that keep Gods Vers 12. Commandments and Faith of Jesus This cry is the Touchstone to try the Saints patience in so long expecting the Beasts punishment not being dejected or discontented at his prosperity nor deterred with his tyranny in obedience to Gods Commands and Faith of Jesus by abondoning the Beasts communion and renouncing his Image mark or cognisance I heard a voice from Heaven saying Write blessed are the Vers 13. dead which dy in the Lord henceforth saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works folow them This declaration most Men refer to the preceding words as a comfort henceforth to the Saints in the Lord but they rather tend to the subsequent matters as a warning of the Judgment and Resurrection to com under the seventh trumpet As if he said Now is the time wherin thos that dy in the Lord shal rise to a blessed life eternal This interpretation seems best for three reasons First becaus the day of death is never caled a reward but Judgment and Resurrection is Secundly becaus a Voice from Heaven imports som notable matter insuing nor is any command given to write sav only at beginning Thirdly becaus R. v. 11. 11. 18 it agrees with the seventh trumpet wherin the caus of thos that dy in Christ shal be judged and God shal reward his Servants which fear his name as here 't is said Blessed are the dead from this time that they may rest from their Labors and their works or a blessed reward folow them Both expositions intend specialy such as dy for the Lord viz. Martyrs who giv their life 's for Christ rather then other Saints or Confessors which dy in the Lord and put faith in him for so the context evidently evinceth or argueth by the Saints patience in suffering persecution even to death I looked and lo a whit Cloud and on it one sat like the Son of Vers 14 15. 16 Man haveng on his head a golden Crown and in his hand a sharp sickle and another Angel cam out of the Temple crying aloud to him that saâ— on the Cloud thrust in thy sickle and reap for time is com and Harvest is ripe and he thrust in his sickle and the Earth was reaped By Harvest three things are meant viz. Cutting of Corn gathering it in and threshing it out Hence a duple Parabol of contrary sens is used in Scripture one of killing or destroying by cutting down and threshing as Jeremy saith Babylon is a threshing floor 't is time to thresh hir Jer. 51. 33. yet a litle while and Havest time shal com So Isaiah speaks of Israels overthrow by Tiglatpeleser It shal be as when the Harvest Isai 17. 5. man reaps the ears of Corn with his arms Another of saving or restoring by gathering in used in the new Testament as Christ saith The Harvest is great but the Laborers or Gatherers such as shal be saved are few Now which of the two is here presented rests to be sifted or scanned by order of things doon The treading of
curious Comment modestly pretending he wil not meddle with Prophecies yet to com unfulfilled but left a few fleeces or fragments formerly scattered among friends which concern other mysteries contained in the last eight Chapters Som of thes he promiscuously and preposterously presents by peecemeal observing no such precise order of Chapters and paragraphs as before which shal be pithily abstracted Mystical Babylon the Metropolis of Antichristian Apostacy is the City or Sea of Rome somtime Christs spotless Spous Rom. 1. 8. whos Faith was famous over the World but since becam an Harlot and Mother of Harlots causing other Cities or sigâ—iories to commit fornication For though she be guilty of other Heresies as whores be of sundry Vices yet this spiritual whordom so much laid to old Israels charge is the grand Apostasy wherwith the great whore is marked This Vision is plainly shewed to John by one of the Phialbearing Rev 17. Angels and the interpretation reveled which is not Vers 8. usual to be literaly taken as ther dilivered 1. The Woman sitting on the Beast is that great City then reigning over the Kings of the Earth 2. The scarlet Beast carying the whore is the same shewed before in another shape viz. the Roman Vers 10. 11. Empire 3. The Beast with seven Heads or Romes seven Hils and seven forms of Governors in that State wherof fiv Kings Consuls Tribuns Decemvirs Dictators were falen before Johns time one of Caesars then extant which was to be changed into Christian Emperors of short continuance seeming to be the eighth yet indeed the seventh which is the Bearer of this whore not yet sprung up being not under the cours of the last Head the Popedom If then the sixth Beast Pagan Emperors reigning at Rome in Johns age ceased to be as it was abov twelv hundred yeers ago that which now swais ther is the seventh and last Ruler which he saw bear the whore Vers 12. 13. 4. The Beasts ten horns are ten Kingdoms not then risen into which the body of the Roman Beast should be rent in this last cours by the wound of this Caesarcan Beast al which should jointly confer their authority on the Beast that was to be cured Vers 14. 16. or restored under the Rule of that last Head now past 5. Thos ten Kingdoms which shal grow together under the fals Prophets Government being their Head shal fight with the Lamb but be overcom by him That war was waged long ago and is stil in action or agitation the Victory being in som sort atchieved but shal be accomplished much more gloriously For som of the ten Horns or Kings shal at length hate the Whore whom they so long bore and shal make hir desolar naked eat Vers 4 5. hir flesh and burn hir with fire as the Angel interprets 6. This Whore held in hir hand a golden Cup ful of abomination and filthines of his Fornication and on hir forehead was a name writ Mystery c. This needs no explication being taken from the common custom of Stews-Strumpets who drank philtres or amorous potions to their Paramores in a Cup of gold and the Cels or Chambers had several whores names set on them as Seneca Martial Juvenal and other Authors inform yea thos of most note had their name set in their foreheads as Juvenal seems to intimat of the insatiat Empress Messalina who assumed the name of Lycisca an infamous Prostitut Nuda papillis Constitit auratis titulum mentita Lyciscae She stood with bare gilt Paps bestained And by Lycisca's name hir self fained So this name Mystery Babylon the great Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth may fitly be applied either to the Whores person fastned on hir forehead or to the place set on hir Brothel hous the City Rome where she resides Concerning the seven Phials of Plagues poured out by seven Rev. 15. V. 2. 3. Angels preceding Antichrists ruin wher before any particular narration of Angels or Phials be made another Vision is exhibited together with them how the Church being clensed from Idolatrous pollutions in the sacred Laver or Sea of the Temple not made of brass like Salomons but of Glass or Crystal sung a triumphant hymn of Moses for hir victory over the Exod. 15. 1. Beast saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and tru are thy wais O King of Saints Then the clothing or preparation of the Angels with the Phials are described more particularly The seven Angels cam out of the V. 6. Temple clothed in pure whit linnen having their brests girded with golden girdles viz. in their Priestly habits 1. The pouring Ezek 44 17. out of Phials signifies the Antichristian Beasts ruin for as the Roman Kingdoms first state was to be subverted by the plagues of Trumpets so this last by Phials which argues a great parity betwen both sith this last bears the Image of the former Roman policy 2. The seven Phials are so many degrees of its ruin for as the Beast gradualy grew up so he is to be destroied by degrees 3. On what ever any Phial is poured that suffers som damage thereby sith 't is the effusion of Gods wrath 4. The Earth Sea Rivers Fountains Sun Beasts Seat Euphrates Air import somthing in the Antichristian Beast semblable or sutable for al Phials are poured on the Beast or somwhat of his which toucheth his safty or utility 5. The Beasts whol Body or Antichristian Univers is covertly compared as it was in the Trumpets to the worlds System whos principal parts are Heaven Earth Sea Rivers Lights 6. Becaus God useth Angels as Ministers of his Providence in governing the changes of Human affairs therfore such things as are to be acted by many are attributed or ascribed to an Angel as the guid and Ruler therof Thes be his previous cautions touching the Phials which folow in order The first Phial is poured on the Earth and there fel a noisom Rev. 16. V. 2. grievous sore on Men which had the Beasts mark and thos that worshiped the Image This is poured on the Beasts whol body the Earth which denots the People or common sort of Christians as Antichrists Footstool on which basis the Papal Hierarchy being built reacheth like Babels Tower to the very Skies This Phial fild the Beasts Folowers with fury like incurable Ulcers not to be cicatrized Which was fulfild by the Waldenses Albigenses Wicklifits Hussits and other pious Professors who renounced the Beast caling Rome apocalyptic Babylon and the Pope Antichrist which so inflamed his Sectaries with sores of indignation tyrannizing many yeers with Fire and Sword Yet al in vain their Ulcers were cureless like Exod. 9. 8 9. Egypts biles and botches sprinkled with dust and ashes wherto they mysticaly comply by way of Analogy The secund is poured on the Sea which becam as blood of a V. 3. dead Man and every living Soul died in the Sea
This is the whol cru or circuit of Papal Communion containing al Nations Kingdoms Dioceses conjoind in spiritual society though dis-joined severaly This becam cold or congeled as a dead Mans blood when the Pontifical Sea is dismembred which Luther and other Reformers performed when they drew off whol Lims of People Provinces Princes and Potentats from Papal communion The third is poured on Rivers and Fountains of Waters which Vers 4. 5. 6. 7. becam blood thou Lord art righteous becaus thou hast judged thus for they hav shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou givest them blood to drink The Rivers and Fountains of the Beastian world are the chief Champions of Antichristian Jurisdicton whether Ecclesiastics Priests Jesuits Moncs Friers or Secular Governours who uphold the declining Papacy For their Emislaries were justly doon to death in England as they unjustly served the Saints Yea the Duch began to revenge that blood which Duke d' Alva and the Spanish Inquisition cruely spilt to fulfil this Phial The fourth is poured on the Sun and Men were scorched with Vers 8 9. great heat who blasphemed Gods name which hath power over thes plagues but repented not to giv him glory To know what Sun signifies in the Antichristian world we must serch what Heaven imports which is either the Popes universal Authority or any eminent Monarchic power in the Beasts world Now in it are sundry Stars of several magnituds Kings Princes Dukes Prelats Free States yet but one Sun which seems to be the German Emperor the King of Spain being the Moon who hath bin of the Austrian Family two hundred yeers This is the Sun on whom the fourth Phial shal be poured to his conversion or confusion The fifth is poured on the Beasts Seat Rome City and his Vers 10. 11. Kingdom was dark and they gnawed their toungs for pain blaspheming the God of Heaven becaus of their pains and sores but repented not of their deeds Here the holy Ghost useth no Allegories becaus great light shal then arise to the Prophecies by this evident sign wherby wil appeer what Phials are past and what to com This destruction of Rome seems to be intimated before but the name Pope shal not quit perish only his Rev 11. V. 12. 13. glory and greatnes shal be clipped that they shal bite their toungs through teen and curs God persevering stil in the Kingdom of darknes to despise light The sixth shal be poured on Euphrates and the water dried Vers 12 up to prepare a way for the East Kings Thes Kings seem to be the Jews which shal be converted whom haply the Beasts Folowers wil misdeem to be Antichrists Army rising from Don as they dream and so shal be hardned in their error To prov that the Jews are meant by East Kings this reason is pregnant becaus this is the penultimat Phial and unles they be then converted they must needs perish with Christs Enimies among whom they yet abide at the day of universal Judgment which the seventh or last Phial shal bring on them Isaiâ—h saith The Lord shal destroy the toung of the Egyptic Sea and with a Isai 11. 15. 16. mighty Wind shal shake his hand over the River and smite it in the seven streams and make Men go over dry shod Ther shal be an high way for his People left from Assyria as it was to Israel at their Exod out of Egypt but this Prophecy seems not so pregnant for Euphrates and Assyria as for Nilus and Egypt Now by Euphrates the Turcish Empire is mysticaly meant which borders Eastly on it who shal be thes new Converts chief obstacle and the Beasts best bulwork but this Euphratean deluge shal be dried up or destroied yet whether by the Jews or other Aliens or their own intestin discords is not reveled Vers 17. The seventh or last is poured into the Air and ther cam a great voice out of the Temple of Heaven from theThrone saying It is doon Hereby is meant the power or Prince of the Air even Satan who fosters not only the Beasts dominions but al Christs Enimies in what Coast Climat or Country soever for as the Beast had his Spirit or Life from him at first so the last Fortunes of al his Folowers and Worshipers shal depend chiefly on his charge or conduct as appeers by the preparations of so many Aids and Allies for war to be procured in this last Phial by his Diabolical devises Who bestirs by al means possible both of his Lieftenents the Beast and fals Prophet and by his own Artificies to rais this universal Army in the last danger of his Kingdom Vers 13. 14. For ther cam three unclean Spirits Devils working miracles like Frogs out of the Dragons Beasts and fals Prophets mouth which go forth as Emissaries with Summons to the Kings of the whol n orld to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty So the Prince of the Air musters al his Forces and Fautors to assist thos two at this last exigent on whom being pent up in a Coop at Armageddon This last Phial shal thunder not with arm of Flesh as formerly but an Heavenly voice of revenge wherby the Beasts total downfal shal be consummat not only within Babylons wals as before under the seventh Trumpet but of the whol City wherever scattered or dispersed Yes of al Kings Cities or Stats which committed filthines of fornication with hir Idol fals Gods together with other forren Tyrans joining in opposition against Christs holy Spous or Church V. 19 20. 21. The Cities of the Nations fel and God gav Babylon the Cup of Wine of his fierce wrath Every Iland fled and the Maâ—ntains were not found a great Hail from Heaven every stone a Talent weight fel on Men who blasphemed God becaus of the Hail for the plague was exceding great Mr. Mede proceds no farther to the excution of thes threats on the great Whore sitting on the seven-headed Beast with ten horns who with the fals Prophet are to be cast into a burning Lake for ever as 't is expressed in the 17. 18. and 19. Chapters but treats tenderly with much modesty of Christs 1000. yeers reign on Earth with his Martyrs and som chief Saints at his secund coming to Judgment which last day he makes one continued act with the triumphant millenium of his reign to decline a third coming of Christ as common Chiliasts assign without warrant But this sublime speculation shal be suspended or superseded to the next Thesis peculiarly addicted or appropriated to this Subject This 1000. yeers reign after the Martyrs resurrection but before the day of Judgment is specicified in the twentieth Chapter of Apocalyps wheron the Millenars build their Doctrin beside som other obscure places in the Prophets which shal be fairly yet briefly debated or discussed in the Theory immediatly insuing Commentarii Compendium A Compend of the Comment THe Comment contains
None know the day of Judgment nor direct time of it no not the Son of Man but if Christ shal reign on Earth one thousand yeers before it any Man can then tel it wil be one thousand yeers after 6. Jerusalem shal never be restored no more then Sodom or Samaria as the Prophets inform but eternal life in new Jerusalem is the reward of just Men at last day as St Paul Ezek. 16 53 Amos 5. 3. 2 Tim. 4 6. tels Ergo none shal reign on Earth with him in a rebuilt new Jerusalem much less he with them here 7. Antichrist is to be cast alife into the Lake burning with Brimstone at the Lambs mariage which shal be celebrat with his whol Church of Elect not part at the general Resurrection Rev. 19. Rev. 7. 20. Ergo he shal not be totaly destroyed til last day as is shewed 8. The reward of Mattyrs is eternal life in Heaven Ergo not temporal on Earth a thousand yeers but their Souls according to Chiliasts are in wors condition then other Saints which stay behind that space to enjoy the beatific Vision while they grovel below and return to bodies that eat drink sleep and delight in carnal things not like Christs glorious body nor thos immortal ones promised to the Faithful which must needs be irksom to them 9. The holy Martyrs Souls rest under the Altar in Heaven til their Brethren be fulfilled Ergo shal not return to reign here a thousand yeers Archer seing how absurd 't is to bring Rev. 6. 9. back Souls til last judgment rovs at random that no Soul shal enter the third or highest Heaven til then but abide in a sublunar Paradise with Enoch and Elias yet how knows he their Mansion is sublunar or can that be under the Altar To silv which scruple he frams a new Moon-calf-model of Heaven Hel and Paradise after his own Pythagorean Noddle 10. Antichrist is to continue til the last day of Judgment Ergo he shal not be fully or finaly abolished before thos thousand yeers commence as Chiliasts say who agree not together whether thos Saints during the millenium shal beget children as others then living must multiply incredibly nor how al shal be sustained with food and raiment whether miraculously or by industry Such are Sphynx Riddles and many mo Reasons may be alleged but let thes suffice Now to answer their arguments the chief arrows in their quiver folow who like al other Sects and Factions cul out the obscurest places of Scripture either misunderstood or misapplied or misinterpreted putting their own sens on them which shal be sincerely scanned Ob. To begin with their best Basilisc of battery Saint John Rev. 20 4 5. saith I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witnes of Jesus who lived and reigned with him a thousand yeers but the rest of the dead lived not again til thos yeers were finished this is the first Resurrection Ergo they shal regin so long Sol. The Apocalyps is a most misty mistical Prophecy and this the darkest part which treats of the Resurrection only obiter or occasionaly wheras first Resurrection in al places els is spiritual of the Soul from the grav of sin to Grace and the very words apply to the Souls not Bodies of thos that were beheaded for holy Writ hath no first Resurrection of the Body but we must seek the tru meaning wher Resurrection is purposly handled and much more is here included or intruded in the premisses then the conclusion can bear for no Ey able to pierce a Milston is able to espy Earth in al the Context nor that Christ shal reign with the Martyrs but they with him to the tru meaning of the words the very next much conduce They shal be Priests of God and Christ and shal reign with him Now his Priesthood is spiritual as his Kingdom so al Christians are Priests but not to offer bodily Sacrifices and al Kings but not to rule mens temporal stats els ther would be more Kings then Subjects in thos thousand yeers sith not only the Martyrs and a few privileged Saints but al the godly millions of millions that must be born in that space must reign as Kings nor can it in any property of speech be applied to Christs personal reign on Earth sith 't is eternal not to be measured by time but if it be referred to his regal office of Mediator that is far longer then a thousand yeers for if al his Monarchy past from his byrth til now 1654 yeers be cut off whith repugns al Scripture sith he stil sits on Davids Throne ruling his Church as King yet the future cannot be confined to so short a scantle sith sundry secular Stats Signiories or Soveraignties hav lasted far longer hence master Archer makes the millenium the evening or last daun of his personal reign contrary to master Mede assuming to the morning many mo as if Christ by his omniscience and opening the Books of every Conscience cannot dispatch Judgment in a moment but must imploy thousands of yeers as men will presum to appoint him Saint Paul hath three parallel phrases If Children then Heirs Rom. 8. 1â— of God and joynt Heirs with Christ if we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together here we are Heirs Sufferers and glorified with him yet none imply his personal presence with men here but our spiritual communion with him in Heaven the case is semblable of this Millenar reign which is meant mysticaly and metaphoricaly of the Saints eternal reign with Christ this is the King-key of al the Fabric and therfore so amply answered Ob. Daniel saith many not al that shal sleep in the dust of Dan. â—â— â— Earth shal awake som to eternal life and som to shame and everlasting contempt but al shal rise at last day Ergo this is meant of the Millenar reign and real first Resurrection of Martyrs and som special Saints to Earthly glory Sol. He had need of cleer Crystal Specticles or Galilaeus great perspectiv who can see such a meaning for the Prophet speaks soly of the last Resurrection which Martyrs shal not partake as Chiliasts teach nor the wicked of the first til thos one thousand yeers end The Word many so hotly pressed provs not that al shal not rise at once but that thos which rise shal be many So Dr. Deodat senseth it wel to the Original the multitud of them that sleep in dust shal awake For al and many are oftimes Synonyma signifying the same as several subjects prompt and plain precedents prov Repl. Daniel ads the wise shal shine as the Firmament and Ibid. v. 3. Saints as Stars but at last Resurrection they shal shine as the Sun Ergo he means the first Sol. He expresseth no absolut but comparativ glory of Saints As St. Paul saith ther is one glory of the Sun another of Moon and Stars so is your Resurrection Nor doth
less then twenty four hours becaus al time to God is but as a Day to Man In the interim many puzzeling questions may be proposed to them 1. Whether the holy Martyrs and chosen Confessors to com Interrogaâ—s with Christ shal multiply their generations in subordinat successions like the Saints then living here If so then must they marry and giv in mariage which scars sutes or sorts with glorified bodies 2. Whether thos then living shal surviv al thos yeers and not tast of death but be only changed at last day If so then shal they exced Methusalah and al the Protopatriarchs in longevity 3. Whether their Progenies shal be al elect vessels being none of Gog and Magogs race which are to be destroied both Bodies and Souls If so then is Christs Flock no litle Fold sith their Ofspring wil multiply incredibly in one thousand yeers 4. How so many millions of millions can be maintained whether miraculously as Elias was or by industry as al others If so then must every particular person provide for himself sith al servitud wil be cashired 5. Wher such numberless multituds shal inhabit whom the Earth can hardly contain much less sustain Whether al must cohabit in new built Jerusalem to eat and drink at Christs Table wher Infidels shal assiege them or scatteredly abroad wher they shal be subject to the Enimies swords Whether they shal be invulnerable and incorruptible to slay thos with whom they wage war yet never be hurted How they shal liv so gently with al sorts of Serpents and wild Beasts yet hold hostility with Men Lastly how the natures of al Animals shal be so miraculously Metamorphosed as not to fear Mans face nor to feed on prey but al liv familiarly one with another on the same foods Beside sundry such scruples touching eating drinking sleeping voiding excrements and other works of Nature simply in themselfs sinless Haply they wil answer with a vulgar Proverb One Fool may ask mo questions then many wise men can resolv therfore let this by business be buried in silence lest they sting my long ears Stulte cave quid agis noli irritare Crabrones Fool what thou doost take heed Stir not the Hornets breed Be wise or wary too many such nests are roused already and mo wil be when thou ministrest more matter of wrath by future provocation Mr. Burton and som of his Brethren allege a few Fathers Fathers to countenance the Chiliastic caus yet no Sects so much slights or scorns the Antients as they but infinit authorities may be mustred to the contrary were it not lost labor For deaf Adders wil not be charmed nor self wedded Sectists informed or reformed Such as desire to know the primitiv Churches verdict herin may consult St. Austin L. 20. de Civ Dei and L. Vives commentary but let al wise sober Christians reject such vain doctrins or delusions which tend not to amend maners or sav their Souls expecting with patience our blessed Saviours secund and last coming in the Clouds to Judgment not to a temporar reign to begin A. 1650. 1655. 1695. or ad Graecas Calendas being stil prepared like wise Virgins with oil in their Lamps to meet the Bride-groom and sing St. Johns Epithalamion Even so com Lord Jesus the grace of our Lord Rev. 22. Jesus Christ be with you Amen which being the last per close of holy Bible shal be the final upshot or Catastrophe of this harsh Scene sav a Supplement touching their cheif Coryphee Mr. Mede who is much more cautious and curious tho alike Mr. Mâ—â—â— veracious then the rest Therfore his scattred speculations shal be carefully collected and faithfully presented to public examen whos principal proofs are almost al answered plenarily in the premisses 1. The Millenar doctrin was so general in the next age after Apostles that Just Martyr saith both he and al Orthodox beleeved it yea Irenaeus Tertullian Lactantius Cyprian and others defended it from St. Peters words One day with the Loâ—d is as a thousand yeers but it was soon decried or discarded being not rightly understood or corrupted in som circumstances which drew Men diversly into Factions so that the Antichiliasts being pressed with pregnant proofs from the Apocalyps which they could not answer suspended that Book from the Scripture Canon til they found shifts of a spiritual and corporal Resurrection and other such to elude thos places and then allowed it 2. Justin in his Dialog to Trypho a Jew speaks thus You ask whether we seriously confes Jerusalems restauration and expect the gathering of Israel with their Tribes Patriarchs and Prophets or gâ—ant it only to gain us I answer That many pious Professors with my self sincerely assert it but others not so Orthodox deny it For som prophane Atheists and Heretics who blasphemed the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying ther is no resurrection gainsay thes things but we know and beleev both a Resurrection of the Body and a thousand yeers reign in Jerusalem which shal be reedified and inlarged as the Prophets testify Isaiah saith Ther shal be a new Heaven Isai 65. 17. 22 and Earth the dais of my People are as a Tree of Life Which last words plainly point out the thousand yeers For God said to Adam In that day thou eatest of the Tree thou shalt dy but he did not accomplish a thousand yeers We also know that saying one day is as a 1000. yeers to be to the same purpose For a certain Man with us caled John one of Christs twelv Apostles prophecied by Revelation that Christs faithful Members should fulfil thos yeers at Jerusalem when the last Judgment and general Resurrection shal be of al jointly together Ergo 'tis no new Opinion 3. The Rabins say the World shal dure six thousand yeers as it was created in six dais the seventh thousand shal be the great day of Judgment or reign of Messiah So R. Ketina the World lasts six thousands yeers and in one it shal be destroied of which 't is said the Lord only shal be exalted in that day Isai 2. 11. 17. Psal 90. 4. David saith a thousand yeers in thy sight are but as yesterday which later Rabbins understand of the general Judgment to be a thousand yâ—ers and then ensues an eternal Sabbath but they differ as Christian Sects doo in divers dogmats at what Millenium this day shal be The School of R. Elias makes the Judgment day the last Millenium of their six thousand but others assign a seven thousandth for that day Hence St. Jerom chargeth Chiliasts with Judaism as a chief brand of error yet to hold their Opinions in tru Tenets as of Paradise Gehenna the World to com c. is not culpable no more then to maintain the Trinity with Papists but to reject al wil harden and exasperat them The 92. Psalm is intitled A Song for the Sabbath wherin is nothing but rest so Tradition agrees that as every seventh
power as he first framed it of meer nothing without help of any Agent or Instrument rather then by Fire Thes are his self singular speculations Quisque suo sensu sed Medus maxime abundat His wit reacheth beyond the Moon and diveth beneath the bottom of the great Deep being indeed incomparably piercing or profound for the familiarly conversed in the darkest deepest mysteries of al Prophecies specialy the Apocalyps and was most ready in al learned languages Hebrew Syriac Chalde Perfic Arabic Greec Latin and in the Jewish Rabbins or Doctors wherin he super-excelled nor was any part of abstruse literature strange to him or hid from him yet his gay gloss how specious soever it shews that as God created the Univers of nothing by his bare word Fiat so if his wil be to dissolv it into nothing he would doo it by his sole word sans help of Fire this is of litle solidity for he made only the Chaos or rude Lump of simply nothing as the common stock of al the rest wherof they were compact so at last dissolution he wil consum them al by Fire but the ashes or reliques left at last like the first Chaos shal be quite annihilated by his bare word Cesset or Desinat that is as Saint John renders it Let their place be found no Rev. 20. 11. more so the proportion holds pointly or perfectly between the first Creation and final Consummation of this World as the next Thesis shal shew His other cringe concerning Abraham Isaac and Jacob to Answers possess the promised Land in person hath no more solidity or sincerity then the former for they dwelt ther personaly though but as Sojourners and bought som parcels wherin their bodies ly as a livery and seisen of the whol as their progeny or posterity enjoyed it proprietarily for many ages according to Gods Covenant pacted to them and their Seed Gods saying to Moses and Christs inference He is God of the living not of the dead doo not argu that thos Patriarchs shal be raised to possess the promised Land in person a thousand yeers with or under Christ but only that they now liv in blessed condition with God and shal rise at last day to inherit eternal glory both in Body and Soul united in the highest Heaven wheras damned Reprobats ly dead in Hel whos God he cannot be caled The City which Abraham looked for whos builder is God must needs be Heavenly Jerusalem clyped his Country which is prepared for al the faithful not any new material Metropolis to be made in Palestine or any place of this Earth as they dream Zacharias words of performing his mercy promised to our Fathers and remembring his holy Covenant cleerly concern Christs first coming so oft promised in the old Testament wherof John Baptist then born was the faithful forerunner Lastly Christs words many shal com from East and West to sit down with Abâ—aham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven cannot in property of phrase possibly purport any terren temporal reign but Men are too prone to strain Scriptures after their own sens how violently or untruly soever God giv us al grace to be wise to sobriety and not wrest his holy Word according to our own Wils which may turn to our damnation and perdition of sundry silly seduced Souls For the main Thesis of Christs Millenar reign Mr. Mede Opinions saith Eusebius a strong Adversary to it fains one Gaius to father it on Cerinthus but none knows any such Man sav himself Surely he was a sincere Historian not given to foisting or faining and Cerinthus generaly reputed the original Author nor is any other alleged He farther saith St. Jerom did hâ—s best to decry or disgrace the Tenet but he usualy mis-related things out of peevish petulant partial passion yet durst not damn it becaus many authentic Authors and Martyrs maintained it Contrarily Justin Martyr an Apostolic Man ascribed the origin herof to St. John and told Trypâ—â— that none but Heretics gain said it Now for later writers Piscator holds that the Saints of the first Resurrection shal reign with Christ a thousand yeers in Heaven but Alsted Mr. Mede and almost al els on Earth Yet Piscator Alsted and the rest agree that it shal be at Christs secund coming to reign before his third to Judgment but Mr. Mede finding no warrant for a third coming dissents from them al making the Day of Judgment one continued act with the Millenar reign which is a devise of his own subtle wit never broched before Sic a principiâ— est fratrum concordia discors In varios sensus lis furiosa trahit Thus Brethren from beginning il agree Who into different minds distracted be My privat resolution in this point and that other whether Christ shal reign personaly on a new Earth for ever resigning his Kingdom of glory wher he now sits to his Father Must needs amidst such a copious cru of learned Clercs who hav diversly debated it both wais be very amphibolous or ambiguous as a giddy Ostrich which having laid hir first Eg at rovers on the sands regards not how she lodgeth the rest nor on what heap she sits on brood so that I may truly cant out thes two dubious Distichs Me trahit in dubios aliorum assertio sensus An reget in Mundo hoc Christus an Arce Poli Nec patet an terris regnabit mille per annos Cum superis sanctis Martyribusque suis Others Opinions make me doubtful whether Christ shal rule in this World or Heaven for ever If he shal reign on Earth one thousand yeers With Angels Saints and Martyrs it not appeers Touching the Argument or Contents of the Premisses they are couched or concluded in a few familiar verses like the former Impius asseruit Christum annis mille Cerinthus Persona in terris velle manere sua Vile Cerinth said Christ wil in person reign One thousand yeers and here on Earth remain Velle Redemptorem regere annis mille Chilarchae Aliteâ— Judicii in terris asseruere die Chiliarchs affirmd that Christ on Earth wil sway One thousand yeers at the last Judgment Day Mille annis Christum Chiliarchae in somnia produnt Aâ—ias Hic cum Martyribus velle manere suis Vain Chiliasts dream that Christ with 's Saints wil stay One thousand yeers and here on Earth bear sway Regnare in terris mille annis velle Chilistae Secus Christum cum sanctis dogmata fâ—lsa tenent That Christ with 's Saints one thousand yeers wil reign On Earth bold Chiliasts doctrins fals maintain De christ imperiâ— Chiliastae mille per annos â—â—ve Ante Diem extremum somnia vana canunt That Christ one thousand yeers on Earth shal reign Before last Day Chiliasts vain dreams doo fain THESIS VIII Mundi hujus Dissolutio The Worlds dissolution THe wisest Heathen held that this World shal hav an end even by fire as St. Jerom and L. Vives
signify the same cannot be proved by Scripture thes few pregnant Texts shal serv to vindicat the truth Politia Ecclesiastica An Ecclesiastic Polity 2. THat the Church is no different or distinct Oeconomy or Corporation from the civil Common-wealth but subject and subordinat to it in al things nor hav Clergy Men except they be temporal Princes any spiritual Government or coerciv jurisdiction unles delegated by suprem Magistrats special Commission but al their function is to Preach Teach administer Sacraments and doo other Ecclesiastic duties Which the Soveraign Magistrat may also execut if he pleaseth so wel as perform a Constables Office or any other civil faculty yea he can constitut what Books of the Bible shal be Canonical and which Apocryphal binding the Subjects to observ the one or other as he shal dictat direct or determin under pain of civil obedience or disobedience For Ministers are only our Ghostly instructers and School-Masters not Rulers or Governors no not in spiritual sanctions which concern the life to com whos precepts are pious Counsils not positiv commands This â—latly contradicts my third Tenet touching Church-Government 3 Thesis from the Creation to the first Century after Christs Birth and consequently to our times who defend that for divers of the first generations al Rule both sacred for Soul and secular for Body consisted in Fathers and Elders of Families but after when Men gathered like Partridges in Covies into several Societies public Poliâ—y grew up to two distinct Bodies which had sundry privileges of Rule but subordinat or subalternat one to another This is â—atified at large in the unwrested History of both Bodies drawn down from the first times to our modern ages which to reâ—terat wil be tedious if not nauseous Yet som few proors or places of Scripture shal be briefly subjoined as in the former Moses who first instituted Government over Gods people Israel Deut 17 9 12. erected by divine dictat or direction two distinct Courts one for Church-matters caled a Consistory another for Common-wealth affairs clyped a Judicatory as Jeremy Jer. 26. 8. 16. was arraigned accused and condemned to dy by the first but acquited and released by the last Thes two in process of time by long slavery of the Jews to sundry Nations were much pared or impaired yet som prints remained til Christs coming Who cals the secular Councils and spiritual Synagogs Mat 10 17. yea if any offend a Man and he tel him of it privatly but the other wil not hear Christ bids the party tel it to the Church Mat. 18 17. which if he also neglects to obey let him be as a Pagan or Publican Mat. 5 22. He describes both Courts in thes words Who ever is angry with his Brother causlesly shal be culpable of Judgment meaning the lesser Court who cals him Rhaca in scorn shal be liable to a Council or cheif Consistory but who shal say thou Fool shal be in danger of Hel fire Thus far of Church government under the Law which had power to punish Blasphemy Idolatry Adultery and som other crimes with death Now under the Gospel Christ as suprem Head held al rule soly to himself but after his death and departure into Heaven the Apostles in a joint Copersigniory governed al who toward their deceas appointed Bishops or Prelats to preside over Presbyters which were ordained before like the sâ—vâ—nty Disciples sent abroad by Christ to Preach Baptise and doo other spiritual duties for suppression of Sâ—hisms and Heresies sowen by Satan in thos dawning dais Men of pervers minds Who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities St. Paul being Judâ— v 8 Acts 19. 21. to leav the Eâ—st and go to Rome substituted Titus in his stead as Bishop of Crete a large I le To ordein Elders in every 2 Câ—r 8 6 16. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 1 3. 1 Tim 5 20 21 22. Tit. 2. 15. City so he appointed Timothy about the same time to abide at Ephesus that he might charge som to teach no other doctrin The Rules which he prescribes to both being before but common Presbyters plainly indicat that he gav them coerciv power over other Elders to over see censure rebuke or silence them with al Deacons under their charge but to doo nothing partialy nor lay hands on any suddenly St. Jâ—hâ— after his return from Patmos exile constituted som supervisors in divers Cities planted whol Churches and ordained Presbyteries in several places as Paul and Timothy used to doo the like did other Apostles in divers Dioceses as many antient writers and authentic Historians truly testify Much more might be added for proof of the premisses which is omitted to avoid prolixity De regno Fidelium aterno Of Saints eternal reign THat no elect Saints when their Bodies shal be raised to life at last day according to Gods iterated promisses shal reign in the Kingdom of Heaven or third Heaven Gods highest Throne but only here on a new Earth with our Lord Jesus Christ as King not for a thousand yeers before or at the day of Judgment as Chiliasts conceiv but for ever and ever For it sutes not with the Majesty of so great a King that his Subjects or Servants shal hav place so high as his Throne or abov the Earth his Footstool which yet is commonly caled the Kingdom of Heaven in reference to that place of Eternity wher God reigns in glory This diametraly opposeth my seventh Theorem against the 7 Thesis Millenar reign of Christ with his Martyrs and som Saints at Earthly Jerusalem who hold that Christ shal com in the Clouds to judg al mankind whos bodies shal then be raised every one reunited to its proper identic Soul according to their works but shal carry his Saints with him into Heaven ther to reign or remain in ineffable jois eternaly Which position is proved by thes pregnant places without descant division or distortion Earthly Jerusalem shal be never restored no more then Sodom Acts 6. 17. or Samaria as the Prophets inform but eternal life in new Jerusalem which is Metaphoricaly meant of his Spous the Church is the reward of just Men at last day as St. Paul testifies 2 Tim. 4 6. Ergo none shal reign on Earth with him much less he with them in Jerusalem new built The holy Martyrs Souls Rev. 6 9. rest under the Altar in Heaven but shal not return to reign here on Earth either temporaly or everlastingly For al the Godly at Christs secund coming shal rise immediatly to glory 1 Thes 4. 16 17. upon sound of the Trumpet and thes then living caught up in the Clouds with them together to meet the Lord who coms not to reign or reside with them here but to carry them with him into Heaven ther to reign and remain for ever Now if it sutes not with the Majesty of God so great a King that his Subjects and Servants shal sit
Angel what Messenger which relats any thing that makes known his extraordinary presence or power principaly by Dream or Vision The Scripture speaks not of their Creation but cals them ministring Spirits and Spirits as is said somtime signify thin imperceptible Bodies as Air Wind vital or animal Spirits somtime Images of the phansy in Dreams and Visions which are no real substances but intentional or accidental appeerances in the brain yet when God raiseth them supernaturaly to signify his Wil they are termed his Messengers or Angels Were not multituds of real individual Angels created by Qâ—â—â— God as Divines deem or define to wait on his Wil Or are the Good only formed on occasions and dissolved again If so then doth not God ceas from his work but creats new thin Aerial Bodies continualy Here he hath a large discurs that the Jews from the Gâ—ntils not by any proof or pressure in the old Testament hâ—ld thos apparances which God somtime raiseth in Mens phâ—â—sy for his service caled Angels to be real substances or permanent Creatures wherof som which they thought behoâ—ful or beneficial they caled Angels of God but such as they deemed hartful evil Angels foul Fiends Spirits or Devils For they â—sâ— eâ—ed Pythonists mad-Men Lunatics Epilectics or the like Demoniacs Then he shews how the word Angel in the old Testament is only an Image supernaturaly raised in Mans imagination to signify Gods presence in executing som supernatural work but no permanent Creature or incorporeal Ghost Touching Angels names in Daniel Michael Gabriel by the Dan. 12. 2. first is meant Christ under the title of a great Prince but the last was a supernatural Vision by which Daniel deemed or Dan. 8. 16. dreamed as divers doo that two Saints talked together and one said to the other Gabriel make this Man to understand Dan 9. 21 the Vision but God needs not to difference his servants by names which are helps only for weak short mortal memories nor can it be proved in the old Testament that Angels except when they are put for Men made Messengers or Ministers of Gods Wil Words or Works are permanent or incorporeal individuals as the Schools say The chief places alleged in the Mat. â—5 41. new Testament are thes Go ye cursed saith Christ into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This indeed provs their permanence but not immateriality sich no simple 2 Pet. 2. 4. spirits are patible of material fire St. Paul saith know ye not that we shal judg the Angels St. Peter if God spared not Jâ—dâ— v. 6. the Angels that sinned but cast them into Hel St. Jude the Angels which kept not their first estate he reservs in everlasting chains under darknes unto the Judgment of the great Day Thes prov both the permanence of Evangelical nature and immateriality also For as incorporeal is taken for not Body not for a subtle invisible Body an incorporeal substance is a contradiction and to an Angel or Spirit in that sens incorporeal substance is a Cambridg Bul and in effect to say ther is no Angel or Spirit at al. He was of Opinion that Angels were only supernatural apparitions of the Phansy raised by God to notify his presence and precepts to Mankind specialy to his chosen People but confesseth that upon so many pregnant places and Christs plain words he beleevs ther be real substantial permanent Angels yet not incorporeal immaterial indefinit or nothing 'T is wel he sees his error in this point which argues he may overween in others and it were to be wished he would review sundry strange singularities to retract what he finds faulty or erroneous but not seduce or lead on the silly sort who are apt to clasp any shadows Was not the Angel Gabriel who audibly annunciated to Quaere the Virgin Mary hir present Conception by the holy Ghost Rev. 12 7. the same with Daniels so caled And Michael who with his Angels fought against the great red Dragon and his Angels the same Inspiration literaly as Spirit is a thin Air implies a blowing Inspiration into Man som thin air vapor or wind as one fils a bladder with his breath but if Spirits exist only in the phansy 't is but the blowing in of a Phantasm which is improper or impossible to say of such things as only seem to be somwhat yet are nothing The word is used in Scripture Metaphoricaly soly as when God inspired into Adam the breath of Life vital Gen. 2. 7. motion is meant Why not rather his rational Soul the fountain of Life and Quaere motion which was infused at creating and created in infusing as St. Austin asserts St. Paul saith Al Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim 3 16. speaking of the old Testament which is tru of the new Testament but 't is a Metaphor that God inclined the Spirit or mind of thos writers to pen infallibly tru as they did by his special dictat or direction St. Peter saith Prophecy cam not in old time by 2 Pet 1. 21. Mans Wil but thos holy Men spake at the holy Spirit moved them Here holy Spirit signifies Gods voice by supernatural Dream or Vision which is not inspiration nor when Christ breathed on his Disciples saying Receiv the holy Spirit was that John 20. 22. breath the very holy Ghost but only a sign of thos spiritual Graces he gav them So when 't is said of our Saviour or others he was ful of the holy Spirit 't is not meant any infusion of Gods substance but accumulation of his gifts whether supernaturaly attained as the firy cloven toungs sat on the Acts 2. 3 4. Apostles filling them with the holy Ghost or ordinarily acquired by industry as Men get learning by study which in al Cases are Gods gifts alike Thou then that hast received more then others must be most thankful Infusion and inspiration are not taken properly as if good or bad Spirits entred into Men but only for Gods imparting his Graces or Virtues which are not to be poured in as Bodies into Barrels but instilled ordinarily or supernaturaly Gods Kingdom is taken by most Divines metaphoricaly Kingdom of God Chap. 35. for eternal felicity after this life in the highest third Heaven which they cal the Kingdom of Glory or somtime for sanctification the earnest of it clyped the Kingdom of Grace but properly in Scripture 't is Gods real Monarchy or Soveraignty over any Subjects by their own consent or Covenant so the Israelits peculiarly chose God for their King upon his promising them the Land of Canaan but very seldom metaphoricaly and then 't is used for dominion over sin in the new Testament only becaus such a dominion every subject in Gods Kingdom shal hav without prejudice to the Soveraign From the Creation God reigned over al Men naturaly by his might and commanded his peculiar Subjects by voice as
holy Land but Jerusalem the City of general worship more holy the Temple holier and Sanctum Sanctorum holiest of al places A Sacrament is a separation of som visible thing from common use consecrated to Gods service for a sign of our admission Sacrament into his Kingdom or a commemoration of the same Circumcision was the sign of admission in the old Testament Baptism in the new but the commemoration in the one was eating the Pascal Lamb once annaly to mind them of the night when they were delivered from Egypts temporal bondage and celebrating the Lords Supper in the other wherby we are remembred of our deliverance from sin and Satan by our Saviours crucifixon The Sacraments of admission Circumcision and Baptism are used but once to every one becaus we are admitted no oftner but thos of commemoration Passover and the Lords Supper often reiterated becaus we must be often minded of our deliverance and allegiance Ther be other Consecrations which in ample acception may be stiled Sacraments as the word implies a sacred institution for Religious uses as Ordination Matrimony and many mo but as it imports an Oath Promiss or Covenant of Allegiance to God thos precited are soly so named A Common-wealth cannot possibly consist wher any sav the Soveraign hath power to giv greater rewards then life or inflict Chap 38. grievouser punishments then death but sith eternal life excels temporal and endless torments exced death of nature 't is worthy to be wel weighed of al that wil obey Authority to avoid the calamities of confusion and civil war what is meant in Scripture by eternal life and endless torment as also for what offenses and against whom committed Men are to be eternaly tortured and for what actions to enjoy everlasting life Adam had enjoied it in the terren Eden Paradise for ever had he not broken Gods commandment to eat the forbidden fruit who had the Tree of Life allowed to eat but so soon Eternal Life Gen. 3. 22. as he tasted the one God thrust him out of the Garden lest he should take of the other and liv for ever So if he had not sinned he should liv on Earth perpetualy but mortality seized on him and al his posterity for this first sin Sith then he forfeted eternal life by sin he who is to cancel that forfeture must recover it by righteousnes which Christ Jesus did by satisfying for the sins of al that beleev in him and so recovered life eternal lost by Adam to al beleevers So saith St. 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. Paul sith by Man cam death by Man cam also the Resurrection of the dead for as in Adam al dy so in Christ shal al be made alife Touching the place wher Men shal enjoy eternal life the precited Texts seem to set it on Earth for if al forfeted it in earthly Paradise by Adam they shal enjoy it on Earth by Christ els the comparison were not consonant nor complet So saith David God commanded the blessing on Zion Ps 133 3. even life for evermore So St. John to him that overcometh Rev. 2. 7. I wil giv to eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of Gods Paradise Rev. 21. 2. 10. This was the Tree of eternal life on earth Again I saw the holy City new Jerusalem coming down from God as a Bride adorned for his Husband As if he should say new Jerusalem Gods Paradise or rather the Church Christs Spous shal descend from Neaven at Christs next coming to Gods people and Acts 3. 11. not they ascend to it So the two Angels in whit clothing said to the Apostles looking at Christ ascending This Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shal so com as you see him go up into Heaven As if they had said Glossa corrumpit textum he shal com down to govern them under his Father eternaly on Earth he coms to Judg not to Rule and not take them into Heaven This conforms to the restauration of Gods Kingdom began under Moses which was the Israelits Politic Mat. 12 30. government on Earth Christ saith In the Resurrection Men neither marry nor giv in mariage but are as the Angels in Heaven This describes eternal life like that which Adam lost at point of mariage For sith Adam and Eve if they had not sinned had lived on Earth eternaly yet could not continualy propogat Progenies becaus if immortals should immortaly procreat as Men doo now the Earth in short space could not afford Foot-room to stand on much less food to sustain them How then can a new created Earth except extended to Quaeâ—e iâ—finit immensity contain al Mankind which are unimaginable multituds born and to be born since the Creation Thes with sundry such quirks surpass the reach of reason to resolv The comparison betwen life eternal lost by Adam and recuperated by Christs victory over death holds thus that as he lost it by sin yet lived long after so a faithful Beleever recovers it by Christ though he dy 〈◊〉 natural death for a long time even til the general Resurrection for as death is counted from Adams condemnation not execution so is life reckoned from the absolution not from the Resurrection of thos elected in Christ Jesus Such are his specious speculalations favouring of singularity That Men after the Resurrection shal liv eternaly in Heaven Ascention into Heaven caled by St. Paul the third Heaven is not evident in Scripture by the Kingdom of Heaven is meant Gods Kingdom who dwels in Heaven which was Israels People whom he ruled by Judges Prophets and high Priests as Lieftenents til they rebelled and required a mortal King like other Nations So when our Saviour by his Ministers shal perswade the Jews to return and accomplish the fulnes of Gentils ther shal be a new Kingdom of Heaven becaus God whos Throne is Heaven shal be King yet it folows not that Man shal ascend to his seat of happines or higher then his Footstool No Man John 3. 13. hath ascended into Heaven but he that cam down from it even the Son of Man that cam down from Heaven Wher note that thos are St. Johns words not Christs as al the rest were who was not then in Heaven So David saith Thou wilt not leav Ps 16. 10. my Soul in Hel nor suffer thy Holy one to see corruption which St. Peter provs to be spoken of Christs Resurrection not of Acts 2 31 34. himself becaus David is not ascended into Heaven If any answer 't is tru they shal not ascend in bodies til the Resurrection but their Souls enter Heaven so soon as they dy As Christ confirms Who provs the Resurrection by Moses words Luk 20. 37 38. at the bush when he cals the Lord the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who is a God of the living not of the dead This cannot be construed of the Souls immortality sith Christ ther
treats only of the Bodies resurrection or immortality of Men who shal liv again He means thos Patriarchs were immortal becaus God in meer grace confers eternal life on the faithful who tho dead liv stil to God being writ in the Book of life with thos that are absolved of their sins to reviv at resurrection but not by any property consequent to Mans essence or Soul For to make it a living entity independent after separation on the Body and in it self immortal or that any Man is immortal except Enoch or Elias hath no cleer warrant Job 14. 10 12. in the word Job complains of Mans mortality by nature Man dies and wasts away yea givs up the Ghost and wher is he Down he lieth and riseth not til the Heavens be no more Which 2 Pet 3 7. 13. St. Peter shews shal be at the universal Resurrection when the Heavens and Earth shal be dissolved by fire but new expected according to promiss wherin dwels righteousnes So wher Job saith Man riseth not til the Heavens be no more 't is as if he said immortal life for Life and Soul in Scripture sens is the same begins not in Man til the Resurrection or day of Judgment and the caus of it is Gods promiss as St. Peter tels not Mans specifical Nature or Essence Now sith Gods Kingdom is a civil Common-wealth wher he-self is Soveraign by virtu first of the old and now since of the new Covenant it evidently appeers that when Christ shal com again in Majesty and Glory to reign existently and eternaly his Kingdom shal be on Earth as God was in Israel So Gods Enimies and their torments after Judgment shal be on Earth for the place wher al remain til the Resurrection is usualy stiled in Scripture under ground in Latin Infernus or Inferi Greecly Hades wher Men cannot see or dy implying the Grav so wel as any other deep place but the damneds place after Resurrection is not designed in al holy writ by any note of situation but only by their company wher such wicked Men were whom God in miraculous maner had cut off Touching Hel 't is no real place in any part of the created Hel what World but a Metaphorical word signified by wicked Men ther being 1. 'T is caled Infernus Tartarus or bottomless Pit from Corah Dathan and Abiram swalowed alife into the Earth 2. 'T is said to be under water becaus the Giants mighty Men in Noahs dais caled Greecly Heroes were drowned in the Deluge 3. Becaus Sodom and Gomorrha consumed by Fire and Brimstone becam a bituminous Lake 't is caled a Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the secund death So Hel fire is expressed by Sodoms fire indefinitly Rev 21. 8. taken for destruction as 't is said Death and Hel were Rev. 20. 14. cast into the Lake of fire or destroied for after the last day Men shal dy no more nor go into Hades 4. 'T is termed from Egypts triduan deep darknes utter or extern darknes viz. without the habitation of Gods elect which is ful of Light 5. Neer Jerusalem is the Vally of Hinnon in part wherof caled Tophet the Jews most Idolatrously sacrificed their Children to Moloch wher they cast out their Carrion and to clens the Air made continual fires whence Hel is caled Gehenna or Vally of Hinnon and from thos incessant Fires cam the name or notion of everlasting unquenchable Fire Now none is so sensless to expound any of thes literaly as if the damned after rising from death shal be for ever under Earth or Water both which are but one Globe like a Pins point compared to the Heavens in a bottomless Pit or that they shal be eternaly punishd in Gehenna the Vally of Hinnon or shal liv in utter darknes not one to see another or be scorched for ever with Fire and Brimstone Ergo the meaning is Metaphorical and must be disquired by the nature of the Torments and Tormenters The Tormenters are termed Satan or Enimy Diabolus or Tormenters Accuser and Abaddon or Destroier which significant titles set not forth any individual Persons like proper Names but only an office or faculty and are very Appellativs which should not be left untranslated as they are becaus therby they seem to be proper names of Demons and Men sooner seduced to beleev the Doctrin of Devils then Pagan Religion contrary to Christs So becaus the Enimy in Gods Kingdom of the Jews is meant by Enimy Accuser and Destroier if Gods Kingdom after the Resurrection shal be on Earth the Enimy and his Kingdom must be ther also as it was when the Israelits deposed God and chose Saul sith Gods Kingdom was in Palestin and the Nations round about Enimies whence it appeers that Satan signifies any Enimy of the Church Metaphoricaly it may but is not Satan properly or literaly Quaere Rev. 12. 〈◊〉 a foul Fiend Enimy to Mankind as the great red Dragon that old Serpent was who deceived Eve and since the whol World Are al the Dialogs between betwen God and Satan about Job conterfet Chimaeras When the seventy rejoiced that the 〈◊〉 10. 17. 18 20. Devils were subject to them Christ said I saw Satan as lightning fal from Heaven but rejoyce not that the Spirits are Mat 12. 24. 〈◊〉 Cor. 5. 5. subject to you Here Christ cals Devils Spirits and names Satan as one yea Beelzebub is named Prince of Devils Excommunication 1 Tim. 1. 20. is caled a delivery to Satan is this meant only a Jailor or temporal Enimy Hel torments are somtime caled weeping and gnashing Torments of teeth somtime the worm of Conscience of time fire wher Dan. 12. 2. the worm dieth not which is never quenched but by Daniel shame and contempt Al which Metaphoricaly denote great grief or discontent of Mind from sight of others felicity which they lost by their own disobedience and incredulity but becaus others felicity is known only by comparing it with their own misery it results that they shal suffer such bodily pains and calamities as Men that liv under cruel Governors having God the King of Saints their eternal Enimy Yea beside al torments of Body and Mind they shal likwise endure a secund Death For tho the general Resurrection be evident yet it 1 Cor. 15. 42 no eternal life promised to Reprobats St. Paul to the question with what Bodies Men shal rise saith 'T is sown in corruption and raised in incorruption sown in dishonor raised in glory sown in weaknes raised in power but Glory and Power cannot comply to wicked Mens Bodies nor the name of secund Death apply to such as can never dy but once Howbeit tho a calamitous everlasting Life may Metophoricaly be termed eternal Death yet can it in no property of speech be stiled a secund Death Everlasting fire prepared for the Damned is an estate wherin Secund Death none can liv after the Resurrection
same condition that Adam and his Posterity were since his fal sav that God graciously promised a Redeemer to such as should repent and beleev but not to thos that dy in their sins impenitent as Reprobats doo so they may liv as they did before with gross corruptible Bodies as al Men now hav and haply beget Children continualy which no 1 Cor. 15. Scripture gainsais St. Paul treats only of the Resurrection Luk. 20 34. c. to life eternal not a word of that to pnuishment nor Christ who saith the Children of this World which liv in the estate Adam left them shal marry and generat successivly by an immortality of Kind not of Persons who are not worthy to be counted among thos that shal rise and obtain the World to com that is life to com not a terren World which alone are Heirs of eternal life equal to Angels and Children of God So a secund eternal death remains to Reprobats when after the Resurrection shal com a time of torment or punishment which by succession of sinners shal last so long as the kind of Man by propagation shal endure that is eternaly but not so every single Person nor shal the Tormenters be Fâ—ends or evil Angels Touching the Souls natural immortality that 't is a spiritual substance subsisting by it self after separation he answers som objections Ob. Salomon saith Dust shal return to Dust as it was and Eccles 12. 7. the Spirit to God that gav it Ergo God created the Soul distinct Spirit Sol. He shews how Mans Body made of dust must return to dust but God only knows what becoms of his Spirit Chap. 3. 20. Breath or Life He hath a sentence of semblable sens Al Man and Beast go to one place al are of dust and turn to dust Who knows except the Omniscient that Mans Spirit goes Ibid. v. 19. upward and a Beasts downward Sith 't is said That which befals the Sons of Men betides Beasts as one dies so doth the other yea they hav al one breath before spirit so that a Man hath no preeminence abov a Beast for al is vanity He praiseth Châ—p 4 2 3. the dead beyond the living and ads Better is he which hath not yet bin nor seen the evil work doon under the Sun then both the dead and living which cannot hold current if Mans Soul be immortal that no Soul were better then it only for a little oppression in this life Lastly he saith The living know they shal dy but the Dead know nothing naturaly before the Body shal rise nor hav any more a reward for their memory is forgot Al which places prostern the Souls immortality and by Spirit is meant Breath or Life as often foresaid Ob. Christ saith Abraham Isaac and Jacob are living Ergo their Souls separat subsist stil for their bodies lay buried many ages before Sol. This purports Gods promiss and certitud of their Resurrection not any actual life as God said to Adam on the day he should eat the forbidden fruit he shal certainly dy so from that day he was a dead Man by Sentence but not by actual execution til 930. yeers after Ob. The wicked shal rise to Judgment and go into everlasting fire torment or punishment wher the worm of Conscience never dieth which is caled a secund everlasting Death and general everlasting Life in torments far wors then Death as appeers in the new Testament Ergo c. Sol. Al this is tru yet it no wher appeers that the Damned shal liv in torments everlastingly for God the Father of Mercies and fountain of Goodnes who doth al what he wil and holds al Mens hearts at his disposing working them to wil and doo without whos free gift no Man hath any inclination to good or repentance of evil wil not punish Mens transgressions committed by inevitable ignorance natural frailty or wilful obstinacy sans end of time or with extremity of torture more then Men can conceiv or imagin Then he proceds to answer Bellarmins places or proofs in both Testaments touching Purgatory which he that lists may read p. 346. c. The next Caus of spiritual Darknes is heathen Demonology 2 Caus or doctrin of Devils as St. Paul cals it which their Poets as principal Priests diffused divulged or dissipated over the World witnes Hesiods goodly Genealogy of Gods For they caled al Spirits good and bad Demons but the Jews gav the name Demon only to evil Spirits stiling the good which Prophets or others inspired had the Spirit of God So they caled Lunatics Maniacs Lycanthrops Epileptics Hysterics or the like direct Demoniacs possest with evil Spirits They said unclean Persons had an unclean spirit dumb Men a dumb Devil aspersing John Baptist and our Saviour himself to hav Devils but Devils specified in Scripture are meer Diseases If any ask why Christ did not cross comptrole or teach Quest the contrary but confirms it by bidding Dâ—vils go out of Men which is improper to speak unto any Diseas that cannot hear He answers that Christs command to any Diseas is no more Answ improper then to rebuke the Fever Wind or Sea which obeied him yet can hear no more then the rest Nor are such speeches improper becaus they import or impart the power of Gods word to command such contumacious Diseases under the appellation of Devils as they were then generaly deemed to depart out of Mâ—ns Bodies So Devils Spectres or evil Spirits which they dreamed of are meer Phantasms or Inhabitants of their own Brains nor are any Ghosts of the Dead or ever were extant in the Air Heaven Hel or any real place as som surmise Al this must be taken upon his bare Phythagorean Ipse dixit Was that legion of Devils who besought Christ to enter 〈◊〉 into the Gergesens Swine and caried a whol Herd headlong into Sea only a Diseas Can Metaphors discurs or doo such mischeef When Christ cast out a dumb Spirit the traducing Pharisees denied not the dispossessing or matter of fact but said he did it by Beelzebub Prince of Devils can Christians then deny it Christ saith St. Matthew was led by or of the Spirit into Maâ— 4. 1. Maâ—â— 1. 12. Luk 4. 1. the Wildernes which Spirti drov him into the Desart saith St. Marc but Luke that he being ful of the holy Ghost which descended on him as a Dov newly before at Baptism was led of the Spirit into the Wildernes al which imply the holy Ghost nor can this be a possession of one substance by another sith Christ and the holy Ghost are one self same substance 'T is said after the Devil took him up into the holy City and set him on a Pinnacle but anon after caried him on a very high Mountain to shew him al the Worlds Kingdoms but certes the Devil did not transport him by force nor is any Mountain so high to shew him one Hemisphere of the World The meaning then must be
certain Philosophia prima on which al other ought to depend consisting chiefly in right limiting the fignifications of most universal names or appellations to avoid ambiguity or equivocation in reasoning Such are caled Definitions as of Body Time Place Matter Form Essence Subject Substance Accident Act Power Finit Infinit Quantity Quality Motion Action Passion c. necessary to explane a mans conceptions concerning the Nature and Generation of Bodies which Theory is termed Metaphysics Thes mixd with Scripture to make School Divinity teach that ther be certain Essences abstract or separat from Bodies caled substantial Forms for interpreting which Jargon take these solid grounds 1. The univers or Mass of al created things is corporal or an aggregat Body having the Dimensions length bredth depth of maâ—nitud so is every part of it a Body with like dimensions but what is not Body is no part of it and consequently Nothing or No wher becaus the univers is al in al. Yet it follows not that Spirits are Nothing or No wher sith they hav dimensions though commonly caled incorporeal 2. Of Words som are the names of things conceived as of al Bodies in the World som names of Ideas Images and Imaginations of things which we see or remember as Definition Affirmation Negation Syllogism Interrogation Promiss Covenant and other forms of Speech som names of names or several sorts of speech as Universal Plural Singular som to shew the dependance or repugnance of one name to another as when 't is said a Man is a Body being but several names of the same thing Man by coupling them together with the word is in Latin est which signify their consequence and may be expresd by placing two names in order without est or is if it were the custom But what then wil becom of thos terms Entity Essence Essential derived from it with many mo depending on them as commonly applied so they are no names of things but signs which notify how we conceiv the consequence of one Name or Attribut to another as when we say a Man is a living Body we mean not that the Man is one thing a living Body another and Is or Being a third but that Man and living Body is one thing becaus the consequence is tru being signified by the word Is so to be a Body walk speak see and lik Infinitivs which signify just the same are the names of just Nothing 3. This doctrin of separated Essences built on Aristotles vain Philosophy frights men with empty names as Birds are scared from Corn with a bare doublet hat and crooked stick from obeying the Laws of their Country for hence 't is inferred that a Mans Soul or Lâ—f can walk after death and is seen among Graves that the figure color and tast of bread hath being ther wher they say is no Bread but Christs Body that Faith Wisdom and other spiritual Virtues are somtime poured into a Man somtime blown from Heaven which beleefs lessen Subjects dependance on Soveraign power for who wil obey his Country Laws if he expects obedience to be blown into him or who wil not obey a Pâ—irst that can make God rather then his Soveraign or God or who that fears Ghosts wil not honor such as can make holy water to chase them away This Error of separated Essences draws on divers other absurdities for if thos forms be real they must hav som place but becaus they hold them incorporeal they doo not but only invisible sans dimension and Place must be filled with corporals they are driven to devise a ridiculous distinction that they are in place Definitive non circumscriptive when circumscription is the defining or determining of a thing to its place and so both terms of their distinction are the same Touching Mans Essence Soul they say 't is al in the whol and al in every part who wil swalow such gudgeons or beleev thes gulleries Yet they must who beleev the real existence of a Soul or Spirit separat from the Body If it be asked how a Soul can be tormented with fire being incorporeal They only say it cannot be known how fire can burn Souls Sith motion is change of place proper only to Bodies they are troubled to resolv how a Soul can go hence to Heaven Hel or Purgatory without a Body Or Mens Ghosts with Cloths can walk by night Haply 't is definitive non circumscriptive or spiritualy not corporaly and temporaly Are not inanimats compounds consisting of two constiâ—ntiv Quaere parts matter and form which last distinguisheth one kind from another as a Stone from Iron And are not animats so differenced by their several specifical Souls as a Man Mous Marygold If it be said they differ in external shape of Body which is sufficient how doo we differ from Mairmen in shape not at al sav only in rational Souls which they hav not nor any use of Reason more then brute Beasts Much more may be alledged 4. For eternity they wil not hav it an endless succession of time for then they can render no reason how Gods Wil or Decrees to com should not be before his Prescience of the same as an efficient caus before the effect or Agent before the action but a standing stil of the present caled in Schools Nunc stans which they nor any els understand more then they can Hic stans for an infinit immensity of place or the like Wheras we hold a Body having many parts to hav many places for them they teach that by Gods Almighty power one may be in many places or many in one at once as if it were a magnifying of Divine power to say that which is is not or that which has bin hath not bin Such incongruities with many mo Men fal into who disputing Philosophicaly of divine nature in stead of admiring or adoring it heap absurdities one upon another Of Physics or natural Philosophy they render no secundary Physics subordinat causes of events but empty words if ye ask why som Bodies sink down to Earth and others ascend They say from Aristotle 't is through heavines if ye ask what heavines is they say an endevor tending to the Earths Center or to be below is not this like a Horsin a Mâ—â— to say Bodies ascend or descend becaus they doo They say 't is becaus the Center is a resting place for al heavy things wher they desire to be as if stupid inanimats can discern the place they aim at or desire rest like animals or a peece of Glass were less safe in a window then faling to ground If yâ— ask why the same Body without adding or subtracting seems somtime greater somtime lesser They say it only seems so being ratified or condensed as if ther can be matter which hath not a determined quantity and one Body greater then another or as tho a Body were made without any quantity and more or less of it put in afterward to appeer more or less dens
Aio Negas Nego a property of self-secking turn-coat Parasits becoms no tru Scholar nor ever harbored in my candid Dov like habitation the worth of Mutâ—â—m aâ—â—ilium your work wil shine the better and brighter by this foil or at least spread farther Opposita juxta se posita magis melius elucescunt and my Book haply wil be more esteemed becaus it brings such dainty exotic fruits and excellent flowers from your ful furnishd Eden When Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Alban intended to divulge his Instauratio Magna to new model al liberal literature he sent a MS. copy to crav Sir Thomas Budleis accurat judgment on it who after perusal highly commended as indeed it deserved both stile stuf and structure but told him the world would never want new Devisers and old Readers like Carriers horses could not leav their beaten Road being more addicted to antiquity then novity the application is obvious and superfluous Of later ages many Mr. withers and others men hav translated Davids Psalms into English meters seeking a priviledg to print them with our Bibles instead of thos allowed by Queen Elizabeth but could never obtein so base a Monopoly savoring more of filthy lucre then Scholastic ingenuity King James compiled a Translation but neither he nor his Son caused it to be inserted in the Bible sith new things seldom excel the old I wish you would revise or examin my excerptions not exceptions as Aliens and not your own to see what faults you can find in the Positions so wel as misprisions that fitting retractations may be made by your self or me or both in future Editions or new Additions for al men are too partial and obnoxious to errors To recapitulat the points that I dissent in are 1. That mans Summary Soul is an immortal substance first inspired by God into Adam and ever after produced successivly one from another though most Divines differ from us both by virtu of the general benediction to Increas and Multiply in their kinds but not life or breath only which as an accidental quality or effect of the Soul vanisheth ceaseth and perisheth with the Body That after separation from the Body by Death it subsists in Heaven or Hel for ever whereas al Essential parts els extinguish with their Bodies 2. That Church government belongs to the Clergy or Ecclesiastic Hierarchy being a Body distinct but subordinat from the Civil State 3. That the real kingdom of Heaven Gods high Throne wher Christ sits at his Fathers right hand in glory shal be the Elect Saints eternal Mansion wher they shal enjoy the beatific Vision or blessed presence of the sacro sanct Trinity face to face eviternaly 4. That Christ shal reign or remain in this Kingdom of Glory for ever resigning the Kingdom of Grace or Government of the Church to his Father that God may be al in al but not in any new finit World on Earth sith after the general Judgment al shal be infinity Your other Tenets touchig Gods Kingdom in Israel by contract or Covenant that Hel Hâ—lfire Torments Tormentors Satan Devil Accuser Dâ—sticier and such like are meant Metaphoricaly which al Divines take realy for the Vally of Hinnon caled Gehenna Bâ—imstome Lake of Sodom and Gomorrha the Churches Enimies or temporal Foes but no real Fiends which fel by pride that Christ never dispossessed any Men of Devils but only hâ—aled their bodily diseases or violent maladâ—es that ther is no Demonology Sorcery Witchery or Witches yet such justly deserv death for their fals opinion and wiâ—ked intention to doo mischief if they could which is hard Justice that suprem Soveraigns in al Stats whether legal Successors by long lineal Ancestry or late Conquerors and Intruders by power or policy are to sway al matters of Religion by their decrees dictats or directions both in defining the Canon of Scripture and al Articles of Faith wherto People must simply submit or implicitly obey whatever the civil Magistrat shal impose or innovat in Doctrin or Dâ—sciplin which is contrary to what they are taught that in such cases of Conscience they must rather obey God then Men. This the stubborn English wil scars subscribe whos contumacy was such against our last King that they rooted out him and his posterity upon pretext of Tyranny wherwith the mutinous male-contented multitud usualy brand or blast al their Roial Rulers Indeed Men ought with the noble Bereans to sift or serch whether thes things be so or no els al Common-wealths shal be stil Subject to put on new Masques or Visors of Religion at their Princes pleasures as Camaeleons change colors wheras Catholic constancy even with loss of life was ever esteemed the best blessed seed to sow Christian soil either under Pagans or Papists as our Marian Massacres make manifest but versatil wits like Weather-cocks can turn every way or with every wind to serv turns as Proteus is fained to vary Nunc violentus Aper nunc quem tetigisse timeres Anguis erit Now a fierce Bore fearful to see Next Snake horrid to touch hee 'l be Al the premised Positions with som other suspected Novities I touch not nor trench upon but commend them to the Readers free judgment If you wil deign to accept thes bold addresses or advertisments from an old Dotard who intends them fairly sans scandal or scurrility in good part you shal shew a laâ—dable disposition and liberal education according to the tru intention as they are tendered for the public behoof or benefit of the literary Republic if not I hav discharged my duty Docte tuum Nomen colo magnopereque recordo Si modo veridicus vis humilisque fore Noli Animam violare tuam nec tollere nostram Quam simul Authorum comprebat omne genus Nec tunicam spoliato tuam renuendo Ministros Jure suo Gregibus posse praeesse suis Nec Christo Sanct is Terrestria pradia finge Qui modo celsa Dei Coelica regna tenent Nec Tropice reputa Reprobos descendere ad Orcum Nec Coelum Electis detrahe post obitum Parce mihi mea si Theoremata redderâ— certo Justis vindiciis sospita ab omne malo Audeo non verbis contendere viribus impar Artibus Ingenio Literulisque bonis Unius haud oculus licet integer omnâ—â— cernit Multa scienda sapis tu resipisce tamen Learnd Sir your Name I lov and weigh greatly If you 'l embrace truth and humility Doo not your own Soul wrong nor ours take away Which Authors of al sorts maintaind alway Nor doo your Coat desile right to deny That Pastors hav power their Flocks to rectify To Christ and Saints fain not Earthly mansions Who now posless Gods Heav'nly habitations Nor deem the Damnd go t' Hel Tropicaly Nor Heaven after Death to th' Elect deny Spare m' if I to guard thes Theses contend And by just means from al il to defend I dare not striv in words being short in
fit matter wil serv as sundry Plants propagat sans Seed and som Animals of putrefaction 28. Summarily the Souls vegetant in Plants and sentient Summary in Animals whether general wherby they becom Plants and Animals or special specifical which distinguish them into Kinds are only the nobler Temperament of more activ qualities in a subtler matter whether propagated of Seed or other wais ingendered but no substances This needs no other proofs then thos already alleged to refute the Substantiality of Forms but why Man 's Soul should be a substance rather then Beasts many of which are so intelligible and docible as most of simple People witnes the dancing Hors cald Asinago no satisfactory reason can be rendred in nature sav only som dark places of Scripture The result of al is that no substance ever dies or perishes for matter is invariable and al Forms of Inanimats together with the Vegetant and Sentient Souls meer mortal accidents or temperaments only Mans Soul is a substance or Spirit infused or inspired at first by God which is immortal and livs of it self for ever Thes are his Principles of new Philosophy touching the origin of Forms and Souls which let every one relish as his palat affects Now to answer Objections Ob. If the Soul be only a Temperament every natural Body that hath a tempered Crasis shal be Animat but 't is not so Ergo a Soul is no Temperament Sol. This Argument consists of meer affirmativs in the secund Figure and therfore is a filthy Paralogism but every Temperament of Inanimats is not fit for a Soul Ob. A Temperament is changed according to age place and diet but a Soul is not so changed Ergo 'tis no Temperament Sol. Forms are changed or varied gradualy as foreshewed but in the argument is a duple error 1. That it doth not distinguish betwen a total essential and partil gradual change of Temperament for in the total is not only a mutation but corruption of the Soul and makes nothing to purpose in the partil is a change more or less which doth not vary or alter the kind as a tender young Plant being removed from its natural Soil to a Forren grows better or wors without changing the kind yet the unity of Form remains with an alteration in the degrees of perfection 2. That a transition from other Animals to Man is improper for if his Bodily temper change yet the Soul being a distinct substance varies not but in al els Soul and Temperament are one Ob. If the Soul be a Temperament ther be in Animats so many Souls as Tempers one of the rind and wood in Trees another of Flesh and bones in Animals but in every Animat is one only Soul Ergo 'tis no Temperaments Sol. The Peripatetics place two Souls at least in every Animat and three in Animals but divers forms in Inanimats essentialy distinct so according to them 't is no absurdity to grant plurality of Souls yet is ther no plurality of substances but diversity of Temperament Ob. If the Soul be but a Temperament of humors and spirits it could not bridle the Bodies passions or perturbations but it doth and is not led by them Ergo c. Sol. This is tru in Mans Soul which somtimes bridles or moderats passions and somtimes yeelds to them but in no other Animats whos Soul not only folows but is Temperament it self Ob. That can be no Accident or Temperament from which the noblest faculties and functions of imagining remembring and perceiving or judgin â—ensitiv objects proced but Beasts Souls hav such operations remblable to Mans Ergo they are not Accidents Sol. Al such operations are meerly Organical in a material subject and depend on it the Organ is a pure cleer activ Animal spirit sited in the Brain as the seat of Sensation which Spirit is not only the Organ but first Principle therof For in al Animal Spirits two things are found viz. matter and mixture of lifely qualities matter is the first Subject and Organ of Sens qualities the first caus or origin and in both commixd consist al the faculties of apprehension imagination and memory which Brutes hav Thes Spirits are the sole Instruments of al Sensation but no substance useth or ruleth them being the first caus of Sens That which they cal Soul must be either material or immaterial if material 't is either purer then the Spirits which cannot be sith they are purest or viler and impurer but 't is absurd to grant that to the baser which is denied to the best if immaterial let them answer al arguments alleged against Forms Ob. 'T is abov or beyond the power of purest matter indued or invested with most exquisit qualities to judg remember desire shun c. but Brutes Souls doo al this Ergo c. Sol. 'T is not nor is it more strange that such effects should proced from the Temperament of Brutes Brains then doo other admirable properties as in the Magnet and many mo simples from Inanimats Temperament which is weaker then Animals Thes are magnalia Dei Gods wonderful works which Men must admire not inquire Lastly he treats of Mans Souls origin which was first in intention Upshot and sole scope of this Subject or Speculation touching whos essence that 't is a rational immortal substance or spirit none but Atheists or Sadduces wil doubt but of the origin is much dispute Som deem they were al created eternaly and reserved in blessed Seats or Stars til they be incorporated into Bodies Som that they be created by Angels Som that they be generated by the Soul of the World and made of Celical Substance Som that they consist of Elements Som that they are framed of Gods own substance Som that they be produced by the Heavens as an extern Efficient Som that they propagat successivly one from another Som that they are continualy created and infused in the Body by God like Adams first Soul which is the common Tenet Thes two last Opinions rejecting al the rest as futilous and frivilous he debats more freely and fully which he that lists may contemplat but being before abundantly agitated in the first Thesis shal be suppressed or superseded Touching the Vegetativ and Sensitiv Souls 't is probable they Censure are a meer Temperament of qualities or life it self nor doth Scripture them to be substances but they vanish or perish with the Bodies like forms of Inanimats and new ingendred or educed from the power of matter by the efficient Caus For God made al Creatures in their kinds intire Bodies at once both Plants and Animals but Created Man in his own Image thâ— Body first of Dust or Earth from the previous preexistent Chaos like other Creatures into which he breathed the Spiracle or Spirit of Life even a Rational Soul being far more divine and immortal then the rest as al Orthodox writers agree Hence 't is said Man becam a living Soul meaning that his Soul should liv for ever as he had doon in Body too had he not eaten the forbidden fruit contrary to Gods command upon pain of temporal and eternal death yet afterward in mercy he ordained a remedy that the Womans Seed even Christ our blessed Saviour should bruis the Serpents head by dying for the sins of al such as shal penitently beleev in him Peroratio ad Theologos A Conclusion to Divines Haec quicunque legent Medici Theoremata sacra Censuras rigidas parcite ferre precor Who shal a Phisitions sacred Theses read I pray spare to giv Censures ful of dread Nunc opus exigitur Laus Patri debita summo Christo incarnato Spirituique sacro The work 's now doon to God the Father du prais To Christ incarnat and th' holy Ghost alwais ALLEUIA