and Italy II. That the Roman Pope is the chief cause of all the confusions in the World as who having by force and fraud seized on the Government of the whole Church hath transformed the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into an earthly Kingdom and with earthly Arms and Counsels seeking to propagate it fills all things with frauds and violence as the true Antichrist the Great and Babylonish Whore drunk with the Blood of the Saints III. That the Beast that carries the Whore is the Roman Empire and particularly in some latter Ages the House of Austria the spoyer or layer waste of the purer Church IV. That God will no longer endure these confusions and persecutions of the Church and tyranny of Consciences but will again destroy the World of the ungodly with a deluge of Blood And therefore that these things draw nigh V. And to that end That he will shake Heaven and Earth that is stir up all the Nations of the whole World against one another to bring on unheard of confusions of things by most furious Wars through all parts of the Earth VI. The issue of which Wars to be the destruction of the Pope with his Kingdom and the overturning of his principal Supporter the House of Austria VII And that by the Nations provoked by their Tyranny flocking as it were thereto from the four Quarters of the World VIII Yet the principal People to be the Northern and the Eastern IX By name the Swedes with their King the Prince Palatine of the Rhine and the House of Ragotzi were commanded to be called forth X. But if these would not That then the Turks the Tartars and the Moscovites were about to be called by God Also the French with others from the West to execute the Judgements of God in Germany Italy Spain XI And to come with unheard-of swiftness in one Year Month Day Hour to the astonishment of the whole World XII And the Turks and Tartars after execution done to return with the Light of the Gospel for a Reward XIII And Universal Reformation to follow and change of Things for the better through all Nations of the World XIV The Laws and form of which Reformation are here also prescribed Namely Idols totally to perish and the most pure Spiritual Worship of God who is a Spirit every where to reflourish with unity of Faith and Order XV. And then indeed to be the peaceful illuminate Religious State of the World and of the Church under the whole Heavens Universal illumination of the Gentiles the Earth to be filled with the Knowledge and Righteousness of the Lord And the Kingdoms of the World to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ Universal Liberty without tyranny and slavery of Body and Soul Universal Unanimity without Wars Quarrels Dissentions Divisions Schisms Sects and Factions In one word Universal Righteousness Peace and Love even 'till the time when Satan shall again break loose and trouble things But Christ by the last and final Fire shall destroy the wicked and ungodly with the World it self And the Universal Judgment of Quick and Dead being finished shall begin Eternity it self These are the main Things and Matters which even all the three Kotter Christina and Drabricius especially do prophesie and treat of And withal we are taught here I. That Christ the Saviour of the World is in no wise partial But that in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him II. And for that reason in vain do men cry Here is Christ or there he is For that he is every where and would be sought found acknowledged lov'd and worshipped every where envying none the participation of Salvation III. That our violent Disputes about the Articles of Faith how wise soever they seem to us are but foolishness with God IV. But that hatreds for differences in Faith and seekings to Lord it over one another are a meer abomination V. That to sit in the Chair of Moses or of Christ or of Peter without the verity of the Doctrine and Life of Moses Christ and Peter is a vain thing As also to boast of the Reformed Religion in Doctrine and Ceremonies without a Reformed Life VI. That now Christ will tolerate no more none for Pauls for Apollo's for Cephas's But only his Disciples Friends and Brethren of what Party soever saluting one another mutually as fellow-Disciples fellow-Brethren fellow-Servants VII And that all Nations are about to be called to this Fraternity of Christ and Communion of Saints And that God will have all things reformed after his own Mind and good Pleasure VIII And that till this be nothing but concitations and commotions of all the Nations one against another and breaking one another to pieces c. And so now we come at length to the Prophesies themselves in particular having given you first this general sum and comprehension of them by Comenius that so you may have some kind of view and apprehension of their peculiar Nature Manner and particular Circumstances The chief whereof and their chief Passages we shall onely cull out as abundantly sufficient for the design of this Table And here Kotter's first offer themselves to us Kotter Citizen and Tanner of Sprottavia Born in the Year 1585. Prophesied from the Year 1616 to 1624. Dyed in the Year 1647. Of his Age 62. The sum of whose Prophesies in general was to denounce War Famine and Pestilence which he was commanded to prophesie of in the year 1616. when all things were in profound peace yet throughout Europe Then the Wars in Bohemia beginning and he stirred up by a new apparition of Angels with new commands to depose these things before the Magistrates after three years former silence to prophesie ruine to the Empire and Popedom And the last Universal Plagues to be executed by the Oriental Monarch with a deluge of Nations c. Commotions of Kingdoms one against another c. And lastly happy and glorious times after the fall of Babylon c. till the last Judgment c. But to the Visions themselves But here we were unhappily prevented by the severe Inspection over the Press In so much that waiting almost a Year for an opportunity after all this had been printed we could by no means find any And therefore are forced to break off here abruptly and imperfectly and so to let it come abroad unfinished into the World Which we hope the Courteous Reader will pardon and accept candidly of this as it is till some better opportunity be found to publish the Prophesies by themselves apart And for the mean while you have already here the sum and substance of them in the general which may suffice in part upon such an occasion especially for this General Table without a further taste of them in particular We can but therefore onely add the general Sum of the other Two's Prophesies likewise in particular viz. as follows Christina Poniatovia of
beseeching you all by the adorable name of God to suffer your selves to be perswaded that nothing under Heaven greater can at this time be undertaken and performed by you then this very question to be determined Is it the Voice of God that sounds here or no c. Seeing O Kings Princes Common-wealths your duties are here set before your eyes with wholesome Counsels for the publick safty be you intreated in the name of God and by your own and the Worlds salvation this thing in the first place to take these very Books into your protection and command them to be exposed openly through all the Book-sellers Shops of your Kingdoms and Provinces as freely as any other Books whatever of good note Instilling into the Christian People the fear of God reverence of Kings and amendment of life As freely I say as other Books of this nature as the Book of the three men and three spritual Virgins Hermis Pastoris Ugutine the Monk Fryar Robert and Hildegard Elizabeth and Mathilda published by Jacob Faber at Paris 1513. who all had Revelations and Visions like these c. Hear O Kings Princes Common-wealths and every Power among Christian People this Book which is offered to you stirs you up against no man but exhorts you all in the name of God to do your duty in stopping the confusions brought in by Satan and restoring the order instituted from God As yet promising Benediction if you yet admit counsel or denouncing the last Wrath Plagues and Destruction if you yet harden your selves Let the fear of the Lord therefore be with you and deligently put in execution all things It is your glory O Kings to be nursing Fathers c. and also it is your Duty to restrain any Church that degenerating into Babylon exercises fierceness cruelty and if the Spouse of Christ putting on a whorish dress waxes wanton to hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked and to eat her flesh and burn her with Fire God putting it into your hearts to do his pleasure And no longer to give your Kingdoms to the Beast till the Word of God be finished Rev. 17. But behold in our times the words of all the Prophesies old and new are consummated which the universal commotion of Nations which you see and the universal change of things which you shall shorrly see do witness Ho! therefore take again unto you your power and leave not your Scepters any longer in a strange and wrong hand I have commanded you O Kings and Princes that you your selves Govern For you have even your name from me Gods on the Earth not from an Angel or any creature saies the Word of God to Drabricius c. But what must you do when you take unto you your power O Kings That very thing which the King of Kings whose Ministers you are at this time requires of you TO REFORM THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS IN IT THROUGH ALL NATIONS For he who has long since by the mouths of his most holy Prophets said that he would make all things new on you O Kings as his Vicegerents he confers this Honor that this glorious Renovation be begun by your happy undertaking and be done by your Co-working and Authority through the whole world And then shall be the peaceable state of the World and of the Church in the Kingdom of the Messiah promised in Paradise in the destroying of the Devils Kingdom And which all the Patriarcks looked for and the Prophets prefigured in types and the Apostles prophesied of and the Prophets and Prophesies of God ever since have declared And which is so often reiterated in these Books that Peace shall return to the Earth before the end of the World with the divine benediction poured forth upon all Drabricius Rev. 107. Peace such as never was the like from the beginning of things Rev. 149. when all Wayes all Paths all the Trumphets all Books all Voices and Languages of all People and Nations shall agree in one angle of PEACE and in one common CHARITY Rev. 384. when the spiritual Jerusalem shall be built anew so beautifully that the very times of Solomon may not be compared to these Cotterus 18. When the Messias shall plant new Hevens and new Earth viz. new Churches and a new State wherein dwells Righteousness Which manner of things seeing they cannot but be an exultation to true Christians and that this Book declares them suffer it as well ye O Roman Chatholicks Princes as others whosoever love the coming of our Lord Jesus suffer it to live and to be taken for a publick Testimony of Gods being yet God doing nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the Prophets And for a publick looking or perspective-glass rationally to view all things which are here doing in the Ages of the world And for the last protestation and bearing witness of God that it will not be his fault if a new deluge come upon the impenitent world And then lastly for a Publick Alarum or Sermon-Bell to Universal repontance and for the last Trumphet after whose sound great Voices shall be made in the Heaven of the Church The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ who now shall Raign throughout all Ages forever Rather do this O Kings and Powers for the Honour of Christ now taking unto him the Kingdoms of the World under the whole Heavens Learn who is the King of Kings against whom the Heathen rage in vain and the People imagin a vain thing c. To whom the Nations are given for an inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his possession who shall rule them with a Rod of Iron and shall break them as a Potters vessel Understand now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling learn discipline lest his wrath at length be kindled ye perish in the way understand the mystery of these times why the Nations are troubled and distrubed and the Kingdoms declining why the whole Earth is moved at the Voice of God Namely that these are the works of the Lord and set as Prodigies and Signs upon the Earth to take away War even unto the end of the Earth To snap the bow in sunder to break the Weapons in peieces and burn the sheilds with Fire Therefore cease O ye Kings from War see that the Lord is God that God will be exalted in the Nations that he will be exalted in the Earth c. O therefore Christian Kings take heed any longer to stand against the Prince of Peace Christ with your furious Arms disturbing and laying wast his Kingdom w ch Kingdom you your selves are as also the Universal Christian People committed to you Or it shall come to pass that he will find some one to send upon you even from the utmost East to devour your Armies if you will not know the thoughts of the Lord
Authority committed to them of God out of the hands of the Antichristian usurper c. To call a General Council in order to a Universal Peace and Unanimity in Christendom and to agree for God and Religion for the publick good both of Church and State For that God will put it into their hearts to fulfil his Will and agree or make one Mind and Will and no longer give their Kingdoms to the Beast But that the Words of God shall be fulfilled To destroy Babylon and all her Abominations and Idols c. and to rule the World peacefully under the Banner of Christ and universally reform it out of all its horrible confusions and disorders according to the Will that is the Word of God c. And all Ecclesiasticks Angels of the Churches Pastors Bishops and Priests to perform the Ministry of their high Calling and the Service of God and the Church to restore the Primitive Reformation and do their first Works and repent and no longer neglect the Catholick Church of God through the whole World for worldly Dominion Honours Riches and Interests Nor to hinder Universal Reformation by wrangling and contesting for Opinions Ceremonies Revenues Prerogatives and Priviledges and such like vanities but rather to promote Catholick Charity and Indulgence and practise Christian Humility Self-Denyal and all the excellent virtues of the best Religion in the World which they are Chieftains of and to Sacrifice all their dearest concerns for the Salvation of Men And not mind their own things but the things of Jesus Christ c. And all Christians to endeavour and begin Reformation generally in their several places For that now is the time of Gods reforming the World more then ever That towards the end thereof it may be as from the beginning viz. one God and one Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth without Idols and false Godds and false Worships That all may inhabit peaceably the Earth without Wars Fightings Hatreds Contentions Envyings Strifes and without Sects and Parties lest his Wrath break forth upon them to the utmost and there be no Remedy for the Present Generation All which things to be sure are no other then was the drist of all the Prophets and extraordinary Messengers of God to Men of old when that all ordinary Persons Kings Princes Priests or People were become so corrupt and exorbitant that there were none that did his duty rightly but all desperately transgressed the Law of their God and provoked his Wrath without measure For what else was their Burthens but sad Lamentations for the Peoples sins and wickedness Exhortations to Repentance and amendment And denunciations of Grace upon Repentance and of Wrath upon Impenitence c. And what else are these likewise as to their main Scope and Intent The Sum and Substance of them in General now follows The Sum of all these Prophesies in the General is the same with all the Antient Prophets and indeed an Explication of them concerning the State of the Church in the last dayes And that our present Age is the last time of the World wherein shall be fully and finally accomplished all Scripture Prophesies I. Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth typified by the old to fall and its Builders to be dispersed Gen. 11. Jerem. 50. and 55. Revel 18. II. The Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands to destroy the great Image of Iron and Clay and increase into a great Mountain filling the whole Earth Dan. 2. III. The very Relicks of all Nimrodian Tyranies and Oppressions to be abolished quite and the Kingdoms given to the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. IV. Both the Beasts in the Revelations The greater with seven Heads blaspheming God and making War against the Saints and the lesser with two Horns counterfeiting a Lamb yet speaking like a Dragon now to be slain Rev. 13. V. The great Harvest and Vintage of the whole Earth at hand Rev. 14. VI. All the Vials of Gods Wrath a pouring forth upon the Earth Rev. 16. VII Till the great Beast that carries the Whore with seven Heads and ten Horns be destroyed and the Whore her self forsaken by her ten Horns viz. Kings her once defenders and lovers be burnt with fire Rev. 17. VIII The Lamb to be Victor over all Enemies Satan bound in the bottomless Pit for a thousand years The Church to be quiet Rev. 20. IX And then the Marriage of the Lamb to be solemnized under the whole Heavens Rev. 19. X. And the Church to appear in its Splendour and Glory such as the Prophets have heretofore described of old Isa 60. Rev. 21. And indeed these Books of the three Prophets are a very Revelation of the Revelation of St. John to end and decide all further contentious Comments thereabouts They being a new Comment upon that old Revelation not Humane but Divine explaining what is that Babylonish Beast making War with the Saints and the great Whore the Mother of Harlots c. riding upon the Beast and who are those Kings commanded from God to execute the Judgement upon Both. And that those destroyers of Babylon are now Born now Chosen and Called And that this whole affair is now in doing And now shortly to be Sealed and concluded by a full and compleat effect in the sight of Heaven and Earth And that we are now under the sixth Seal sixth Trumpet sixth Vial. That is That upon our times happens the great Earthquake shaking the whole frame of Heaven both of Church and State c. and the day of his great Wrath come And the day of the sixth Trumpet when the Angels bound at the great River Euphrates shall be loosed and come and kill the third part of men with Fire and Smoak and Brimstome although the rest that escape repent not And the sixth Vial poured forth upon the great River Euphrates to prepare a way for the Kings of the East to root out Babylon the unclean Spirits of Frogs mustering up heaps of Armies against them in vain to the Battel of the great Day of the Lord God Omnipotent Which Day shall come as a Thief on a sudden and unlook'd for That so the seventh Seal being opened Silence may be in the Heaven of the Church And that the seventh Trumpet sounding the Mystery of God foretold by his Servants the Prophets may be finished Namely That all the Kingdoms of the World may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christs c. And that the seventh Vial being poured forth there may be Voices and Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes such as have not been since men have been upon the Earth whereby the Cities of the Nations may fall and great Babylon it self c. More expresly and particularly I. That the World is become as corrupt now as it was in the dayes of Noah before the Flood and in Egypt Babylon and Jerusalem when she rebelled against God especially the Christian Nations By name Germany
many years and to this very day seeking to please not men but God For I can with Paul a chosen Vessel to bear the Name of Christ before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Act. 9. 15 confidently say that I have the same Spirit of Faith So that I dare say I believed and therefore have I spoken what I have spoken and written what I have written 2 Cor. 4. 13. And first indeed to my beloved Adjunct John Comenius then residing in Hungary afterwards departing by command of the Lord into Holland that he would make all these things known to Christian Peoples in the Tongue known to the Europaeans the Latin But for the Turkish Nation that he would take care to have the Sacred Books of both Testaments adorn'd in their Tongue at the Cost and Charges which the Princess the Mother of the Ragotzi 's ought to furnish him with But She esteeming more the Dirt of the Earth Gold than the Words of God although often admonished did none of those things and which is more was the cause why her Sons also did nothing about those things And therefore God took away Mother with Father and Sons and the Vncle Ladislaus one onely Granchild Francis being left To what end He himself onely knows But that they object That the Crown of Hungary was promis'd to them It is true But the Condition often iterated That they would purge this Land from Idolatry deliberating and consulting upon this matter with the Eastern and Northern But what did it profit to be admonish'd When neither They nor the King of Swede would do any of those things they drew themselves by their disobedience headlong into destruction as the World now sees Therefore I Drabricius publickly profess That I believe with my whole heart that Divine Promise made by Haggai I am with you faith the Lord Chap. 1. 13. and iterated by our Lord Christ himself Behold I am with you always even unto the end of the World Mat. 28 27. And again pronounced by Haggai Chap. 2. v. 22 23. I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and I will overthrow the Thrones of Kingdoms and I will break in pieces the strength of the Nations c. And to Christ declaring the distress and pressure of Nations Luk. 21. 25. And that I expect yea now see with mine Eyes how the Lord overthrows the Chariots and the Riders that every one may fall by the Sword of his Brother Hag. 2. 23. And that by it the glory of God may be revealed That all Flesh in like manner may see that the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken Isa 40. 5. by us Two also to you O Nations That the will of God is That the Beast counterfeiting a Lamb but speaking like a Dragon together with the false Prophet that wrought Miracles before him seducing those who had received the Mark of the Beast be both apprehended and cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Rev. 19. 20. But the Beast being destroyed and the Whore drunk with the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus burnt with fire Chap. 17. 16. That the Kings of the Earth who have committed Fornication and lived deliciously with her bewail her and lament for her standing afar off for fear of her Torments and saying Alas alas That great City Babylon that mighty City For in one hour is thy Judgment come Rev. 18. 9 10. But at the length Babylon being overturn'd that all Nations of the Earth run together into the Unity of the Faith and Acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. I Drabricius dare I dare with the Apostle Paul say That I in my Writings have not sought my own things as appears others do Phil. 2. 21. but the things which are Jesus Christs doing nothing through strife or vain glory but in humility v. 3. For I have learnt out of the VVord of my God That God resists the Proud but gives grace to the Humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. and puts down the Mighty from their Seats and scatters the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts and exalts the Humble Luk 1. 51. And because with the Apostle I believe with my Heart and confess with my Mouth That Prophecy never comes by the will of Man but holy men of God to be inspir'd by the holy Spirit and to speak 2 Pet. 1. 21. Therefore I hope also that it will be given unto me from the Lord and my God to overcome the malicious Enemies of God and mine 1 Joh. 2. 3. Because the VVorld passes away and the Lusts thereof but he who doth the will of God abideth for ever v. 17. Therefore into whose-soever Hands or Eyes of those known or unknown to me in any Nation mine and my beloved Adjuncts Labour shall come I beg and pray and in the Name of God with Adjuration intreat Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are seal'd up unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4. 30. Being solicitous to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace v. 3. That we all may be one Body and one Spirit as we are call'd into one hope of our Calling v. 4. For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all v. 5 6. who believe that we are Called and Chosen Rom. 8. 33. And that our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life who was slain from the beginning of the World Rev. 13. 8. If any have Ears to hear let him hear v. 9. Let him hear I say and weigh well who is that Lord of the holy Prophets who is wont to send his Angel to shew unto has Servants the things which must shortly be done Chap. 22. 6. He himself namely who is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End who Is and who Was and who is To Come Chap. 1. 8. That Omnipotent Prince of the Kings of the Earth who hath lov'd us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to whom be Glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen! v. 5 6. Take heed also All I beseech you of that Pharisaical haughtiness to disdain others and say I thank God I am not as other men or as this Publican Luk. 18. 11. For God resists the Proud but gives grace unto the Humble Jam. 4 6. Detract not from one another Brethren For he that detracts from his Brother detracts from the Law v. 11. As that light Soul Veterine does to me his Brother and which is more the Servant of Christ and Minister of the Gospel and Pastor of Souls whom the Apostle reckons worthy of Double Honour 1 Tim. 5. by by word of Mouth and Pen lyingly spreading concerning me whatsoever he can unto my contempt even also
upbraiding me with the wounds that were given me wholly innocent in the year 1635. by a drunken Fellow Martin Stuniak furiously meeting me on the High-way For which things this man having suffered Judgement of the Equestrian Order of the County of Trencinia ought to have lost his Life but that at the Intercession of the Lords the Judges I freely granted him his Life and permitted him to remain quiet with a Pecuniary Mulct Whosoever therefore thou art that shalt read these and the like slanders of this Calumniator especially where he derides the Threatnings of God made by me unto him also as vain I beseech you suffer not your selves to be carried away for the sake of a Fool who saith in his heart There is no God Psa 14. 1. for to taunt at the slow Judgments of God Which is not mine Admonition it is the Apostles That we must not judge before the time till the Lord come who will inlighten the hidden things of Darkness 1 Cor. 4. 5. For he saith who testifieth these things Behold I come quickly Amen! Come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 20. Come now also and shew the Verity of thy Speeches pronounc'd heretofore by John but lately by Kotter Christina and Me thy unworthy Vessels That the Church on Earth may now make Responsals in singing to the Angels in Heaven Babylon is fallen is fallen Although not according to our times and the terms of days and years which our foolish Reason is wont to fix unto thy Work O God! but according to thine own measuring with whom one day is equivalent to a thousand years 2 Pet. 3. 8. For the Lord is not slack concerning his Promises as some men do count slackness and among those my blasphemous Slanderer But is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance v. 9. The impatience of the Bethulians did tempt or try to prescribe unto God Bounds of their Deliverance But they are greatly checkt of Judith because God receives not counsel from men Chap. 7. and 8. And what was there could seem more equal in the eyes of men than that Moses as being faithful in all the House of God and through so great Labours of forty years with hardship passed through should introduce his People into that desired Land of Promise Yet the Lord for one onely mistake denied him although he earnestly prayed committing this Charge unto another And he must acquiesce For who may say unto him Why doest thou thus What did Jonas's Murmurs that God had forgiven to the Ninivites the destruction denounc'd by his preaching Prophet avail Contend therefore thou also Veterine or whosoever is like thee with God that he does not fulfill all things promis'd or denounc'd by Threatnings But does he not fulfil Does not so many Commotions of the Nations and initial Desolations every where testifie VVould to God the words of God may not be fulfilled on thee and those like unto thee VVo unto you who are wise in your own Eyes and prudent in your own sights Isa 5. 21. Contend therefore not with me but with the Lord who hath commanded me to write these things that are written But I am not better than Jeremiah the Prophet unto whom proud men cast in his teeth as thou Veterine lately to me Thou speakest a Lye The Lord our God hath not sent thee Jer. 43. 2. VVhen yet I may even as confidently as Jeremiah say of a truth The Lord hath sent me to speak and write all these words Jer. 26. 15. But my God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath not left me without Consolations against you so often promising me protection against you and a demonstration of the Verity of his words in the very work or deed it self And the Destruction of Unbelievers and those that devise evil things against me And behold How faithful is God! He hath preserv'd me hitherto and preserves me in the midst of my Enemies But my Detractors where now are they Sapor Effron Felinus and others As every one fill'd up the measure of his virulency so he was snatched away hence Nor let others expect any other thing even intire Nations according to those words of the Lord Out of my Mouth hath proceeded this which I have declared to thee decreed in my Eternal Counsel concerning those things which I will have done in the last days of the World When I will with punishments refrain the Blasphemies of the Nations wherewith they injure me and my Name The Earth shall tremble and they that dwell therein For the burning of my Zeal hath fallen like the Sun upon those who will not know me Rev. 211. And elsewhere Whoever speakes unto you otherwise than I by my faithful and true Witnesses let him be Anathema Rev. 250. Again Let my Contemners expect no other thing than Plagues for Plagues and Contempt for Contempt For with me there is not another Way nor to me another Door beside Obedience Faith Love and Patience with fear of my Judgements Rev. 257. All which things I would to God my Detractors would read Perhaps they would return to themselves acknowledging the Truth and Severity of God in has Threatnings Concluding this my Speech I Nicholas Drabricius will say with Job O that my Petition might come from the God of my Salvation That God would grant me the thing that I expect That he would break me in Pieces when he begins if falseness be in my mouth Job 6. 8 9. VVhy therefore have ye detracted from the Speeches of Truth seeing there is none among you who can reprove me v. 25. Seeing 't is God alone who revealeth deep things out of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadows of Death who multiplieth the Nations and destroyeth them and when they are overthrown restores them intirely again C. 12. 22 23. Last of all I the abovesaid confess That the Speeches which I have written but my Adjunct publish'd are not the Speeches of an Angel otherwise always present with me and carrying my Prayers to the Throne of God Much less mine a sinful man's but are the Speeches of my very Lord Jesus Christ himself who is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End of all things proceeded from his Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and the Spirit of Counsel and Strength and of the fear of the Lord Who hath form'd me also from the Womb for his Servant to bring back Jacob again to him and that Israel may be gathered unto him and I was glorified in the eyes of the Lord and my God is become my strength Isa 49. 5. who said also unto me In an acceptable time will I hear thee and in a day of Salvation will I help thee v. 8. To whom alone the Omnipotent VVise God as it was in the beginning so for ever world without end Be Honour and Power and Glory Amen! Amen! Hallelujah Hallelujah I have ended by the help of God the
to visit their House and Church Would visit all the corners of their Colledge with him and divert himself with him alone in his sorry Chamber laying aside all State and Ceremony fit for so great a Monarch and observ'd towards him by all others sometimes sitting upon his Straw-Bed made like a Monks sometimes upon an old Stool to contemplate the Rarities of Europe yea was pleased also sometimes to taste of the domestick fruits of their Garden with great satisfaction and pleasure admired at their Altars and Pictures their Splendour and Curiousness at the Fairness and Elegancy of their Printed Books the Letter and the Cuts But that which is more than all Complements he commanded by his Royal Edict to be engrav'd on an huge Marble-Stone erected before the Doors of their Church which was also built through his favour and finished Anno 1650. his Royal Approbation of the Christian Religion partly in the Tartarian and partly in the China Character and Language which Charter to this very day is exposed to be seen in the Jesuites Gallery at Rome as it was printed in China and is moreover drawn by an excellent hand in China and Tartarian Characters also white upon a black Fund or Bottom in the said Gallery likewise The tenour whereof that you may see the high esteem of this learned Jesuite for his Art and Skill and great Science is as follows A Chinese-Tartarian-Edict WHEREIN The Approbation of the Christian Religion engrav'd on a Marble Monument which was erected before the Doors of the Temple of our Saviour for a perpetual Memorial of the Thing at Pekin the Royal City of China by Command of the China-Tartarean Emperour XuNCHI in the year of Christ 1650. ACCORDING TO THE COMMAND OF HEAVEN The CHARTER Cut in China and Tartarian Characters THe Heavenly Science Astronomy which our Ancestours always made highest account of deserves that We also should follow their steps and extol it above the Skies especially seeing the same was heretofore under divers Emperours wholly declined and decayed and again restored and chiefly in the time of the Empire of Juen Emperour Tartarean who govern'd the Chinois above 400 years since was rendred more exact by Co ru kim and finally at length did too much err in the last times of the fore-going Emperour Mim There has been found one Johannes Adamus Schall coming from the utmost West into China who was expert not onely in the Art of Calculation but also in the Theory of the Planets and whatsoever pertains unto Astronomy He being brought before the Emperour our Predecessor by his Command undertook the care of the Acadamy of Mathematicks and Restoration of Astronomy But because many understood not the fruit that flows from this Science it could not then be concluded that the Subjects should use that Science of his But now when I came to the Empire and my first care was for the Order of Times for the Good of the Realm in the Autumn of the very first year of my Reign seeking an experiment of that Art which John Adams had restor'd I commanded to be observ'd most diligently the Eclipse of the Sun calculated by him sometime before And it being found that aswel the Moments of Time as the Ecliptick Points with all other Circumstances did exactly answer his Calculation And again in the Spring of the following Year when an Eclipse of the Moon offered it self commanding the same to be observed with the same diligence I also found that not to erre an hairs breadth neither wherefore I presently apprehended that this Man was presented to us from Heaven at such a time as this wherein I undertook the Government of so great an Empire and thereupon committed the whole presidence of the Mathematick Tribunal to him only But because John Adams from his Childhood is chast and has led a single life nor will meddle with any affairs not agreeing with his Religiousway of life I thought necessary by absolute command to oblige him to undertake this charge and to add the dignity of the second Order according to the Title of Master of the Heavenly Areana's In which office being now imployed some years he adds daily more and more study and diligence And because he has a Temple near the Gate of the City call'd Xun che Muen where according to the Rites of his Law he offers Sacrifice to God I also contributed some supply toward the building and adorning it And when I entred that Temple I perceived the Images and Utensils to have the appearance of extraneous and forreign things also And concerning the Books of the Law which I found placed on a Table when I had ask'd what was contained in them the said John Adams answered That they contain'd an explication of the Divine Law And truly I seeing I had formerly apply'd my mind to the Doctrine Yao Xun Cheu and Cum Cu I perceived something out of their Books In the Books Foe and I au although I read some things yet nothing sticks in my memory But seeing I could not hitherto by reason of the grand Affairs of the Kingdom look into the Books of this Divine Law but only by the by I cannot give an exact judgment out of them concerning that Law But yet when I consider John Adams who having liv'd for many years among the Chinois and with us both observes and practises this Law I judge it to be exceeding Good For John Adams does so reverence his God that he has dedicated this Temple to him conforming himself to this Law with so great modesty and integrity of his Person for so many years alwayes after the same manner and method and not a jot varying therefrom This truly is an express sign that 't is a Law of the highest perfection wherein John Adams himself is seen to excel with such most approved vertue seeing what that Law teaches namely to serve God obey Kings and Magistrates to do evil to no man to seek the Publick and our Neighbour's good he exactly fulfills with his fidelity And would to God Magistrates and all my Subjects would imitate this his Industry and Diligence in serving God and keeping the Divine Law and would but come any thing near it in obeying their Emperour without doubt it would go far better by many degrees and more prosperously with me and the whole Kingdom As for me I mightily approve of and commend this his mind and this Law And therefore in perpetual memory of this thing I prefix before his Church this Title I um hiven hia Kim That is An excellent place to penetrate Heaven Given at Pekin in the seventh year of Our Empire Whereby may be seen the Emperour's high esteem of this man and consequently of the preheminence of the Europaeans Science and Art For the Church it self it was built upon the account of the restoring the China Calendar as appears further from the Inscription of the Church it self by the Jesuites The Inscription of the Church at Pekin of the Society
and the Church in this Stile Peter the Apostle of Jesus Christ to you the most Illustrious King Pepin and to all Bishops Abbots c. I the Apostle Peter whose Adopted Sons you are admonish you that you perfectly come and defend this City c. And doubt you not but trust assuredly that I my self as if I stood before you do thus exhort you c. and that I Peter the Apostle of God will at the last day yeeld you mutual kindness and prepare you Tabernacles in the Heavens Upon this quarel of the Popes Pepin and his Son Charls destroy the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy and give large Territories to the Church And these things made way and gave occasion and opportunity for Charles upon his great conquests to set up the German Empire of the West Franks The Pope in requital confirms Pepin in the Ringdom of France gives his Son Charls afterwards the Title of most christian King and crowns him Emperor of the Romans at Rome An. 800. From which he would pretend to be above Emperors and Kings and to be his right to Crown confirm and depose them if not dispose of their Kingdoms But Charls at length reassumes the ancient and original Imperial Dignity and Power to Govern the Church call Councils and order Papal Elections and confirm and invest them c. against all begun usurpations and incroachments of the Pope and aws Italy And keeps the Pope still Subject which Authority of the Empire was prety well upheld during the Caroline Race The Pope in the mean while under pretext of the Christian Religion and converting Infidels and the Nations increases in Wealth Power and Authority over the World Thundering out these Decrees of Holy Church Out of the Church no Salvation The Pope's the Successor of St. Peter the visible Head of the Church the Vicar of Christ on Earth His right as aforesaid to create confirm excommunicate and depose Kings and dispose Kingdoms for the cause of Religion c. That they are Hereticks that dissent from the Roman Church the only true Catholick Church or are Enemies to it c. Hereby the Consciences of the Nations Princes and People converted to an outward christianity are aw'd and fill'd with Reverence and Zeal for the Church to convert or root out Infidel Nations c. and to do any Benefices or Services for the Church As the most acceptable Service to Christ whom they began to acknowledge and Worship as their God and Saviour Hence almost all the Nations subject themselves to the Pope as Head of the Church yea and in Temporals also in a great measure nay some to hold their Kingdoms of him c. As if they could not any better way recompence Christs Vicar for the benefit of their Eternal Salvation then to submit themselvs all theirs to his dispose And this Opinion was brought about to prevail in the World that they might redeem their sins by good deeds and charitable works and services for the Church against it's enemies c. Hence Riches and Revenues of the Clergy and Hosts and swarms of clergy men Hence Churches Temples Abbies Monastries without number c. for the Redemtion of Souls Hence Expeditions Holy Wars Leagues and undertakings for the Church Hence Pardons Indulgences and devices for mony c. 'T would be endless to mention particulars c. The Pope having thus erected his Throne in the Consciences of men strongly seated there through Ignorance and blind Zeal and Devotion begins to play Rex in the World Besides there being perpetual emulation of Princes specially in Germany and Italy for Empire and Dominion c. The Pope interests himself in one part and the other for fear of excommunication or force becomes subject to him The Pope therefore now practises all wayes he can against the superiority of the Emperor and from being any wayes subject to his Authority or control and to undermine all Supremacy in Temporals presuming that all power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth in the Church and State c. 'Till in the end they come not only to let the Emperors have nothing to do in their Election Confirmation and Investiture but also to have all in a manner themselves to do in the Creation and Coronation of the Emperors Not long after the Caroline power and race declining and that partly through the Popes practises Italy is usurp'd by several Tyrants against the Emperor and almost wholly broken from it wherein the Popes have a finger and make their own advantage upon these distractions of the Empire For An. 884. Adrian the 3 d. denyes the Emperors Authority necessary to the creating Popes and about the year 900. the Empire is wholly and perfectly translated from the French or Caroline race to the Germans by Pope Agapetus's plotting And about the year 1000. as some write Gregory the fifth appoints Electors for choosing the Emperors whereby they afterwards became weakned and the Empire broken into factions and parties and the Pope thereby to have the better opportunity to work his own ends and to raise his greatness out of others ruines striving now to be uppermost not only in Church but State too and to be above even the Emperors themselves For after this time open and down right Tyranny over the Emperors begins to manifest it self First Pope John takes away all choise of Popes from the people to the Clergy only upon this plausible ground That the People are to be taught not followed Next Clement the 2 d. about 1047. set up by the Emperor against other Anti-Popes by the Authority of a Synod caused the Romans to renounce by oath the right they claimed in choosing Popes Then about 1050. Leo the 9 th invested by the Emperor is perswaded by Hildebrand to put off his pontificalibus or papal Robes in his journey from Germany to Rome to wave the Emperor and have a new election from the Roman Clergy and then made Hildebrand Cardinal who manag'd all at his pleasure After this Nicholas the 2 d. about 1060. takes away the election from the Roman Clergy bringing it about to a Colledge of Cardinals also then instituted that is of Spiritual Temporal or Lincy-woollcy Princes like himself the Supreme Emperor as it were for the greater grandure and more magnificent authority of his Almighty Holiness who was now almost got to the top of Empire Supremacy and Omnipotency For it was decreed in Council the Pope only to be chose by Cardinals whose Wounderful Worships or Eminencies might lift him up one step higher even as it were into Heaven to be God on Earth For so some thought fitting afterwards to stile forsooth his divine Majesty c. And then they order that no lay Person should confer Ecclesiaslick Investiture For what should the Church concern them But yet they themselves would invest and Crown Lay Princes For though the State had nothing to do with the Church yet the Church had to do
power they quite and clean forget the salvation of Souls sanctity of Life and the Commandements of God Propagation of Religion and charity towards men And to raise Arms to make War against christians to invent new devises for the getting of mony to profane sacred things for their own ends by fine tricks fair and specious shews and pretences to get into the affections of Princes and oblige them to them by several arts and wayes to keep the people in ignorance and obedience though with the reigning of all manner of vice to get all the chief Preferments Benefices and Revenues of the Church into their disposal and the whole Army and interest of the Clergy at their service and devotion in these corrupt wayes and for such like unworthy ends to possess the Consciences of men with an opinion of their infallibility and undoubted power not only in Heaven and Earth but also over Pur gatory and Hell viz. to bind and loose to save or damn and that for mony and filthy lucres sake And lastly to make the whole Gospel and Christian Religion a pretext only to get and increase Church Power Dominion and Riches yea and with the Goods and Treasures of the Church to enrich their kindred and base children and raise their families c. I say these and such like things and practises become their only study and work and the great business of that is of him that would be accounted the chief Shepherd and Bishop of Christian Souls c. We will instance only in some of the most notorious particulars and matters of fact as they occur in time by the usurping and incroaching Popes following from this Hildebrand founder of the Popedom as hath been shewn about the year 1073. Next about the year 1090. his successor Urban the 2 d. excommunicates the Emperor likewise and deposes the Antipope by him chosen and thereby sets all christiendom in a combustion for these two Popes Therefore in stead of Urban called Turban or disturber And then likewise by his Religionists and Clergy stirs up and inflames all christendom with a zeal for that bloody Holy War for recovery of the Holy Land from the Saracens Which War consisted of twelve expeditions and of many hundred thousands at a time for the space of above 200 years together to the ruine of so many millions of Lives with the Arms first of the Cross and afterwards of a Globe too upon their Habits signifying that Christ crucified And to be sure the Pope as his Vicar ought to be Lord of the whole World To allay the quarrels of Christian Princes at home this Cross is often preached up with wounderous Zeal So that the main Religion of the World the Rulers and People generally in those days lay mostly in outward Christianity against Infidels Turks and Pagans and inlarging of this Visible Church as out of which no Salvation c. But i' th mean while this exhausive War of Christendom every way made for the Papal Interest The Popes having thereby greater opportunities to work their own ends out of poor Christians misguided Zeal and by weakning and diverting the Princes to strengthen and settle themselves for during all this time most cruel and perpetual wars continued at home between the Popes and Emperors for Imperial and Papal power and priviledges the Pope still usurping and domineering every day more and more About 1100. Paschal the 2 d excommunicates the said Emperor Henry the 4 th also sets his only son Henry the 5 th against him to persecute him to death who by the Bishops is perswaded to perjury also against his own Father whom the Pope caus'd after he was dead to lye likewise unburied five years together He denyed the right of investiture of Bishops to the Emperor and other Imperial priviledges And then excommunicated the son now as devoutly as he had done the Father And entertained and upheld Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in rebellion against his Soveraign This Paschal also first of all leaves off closing his letters with the year of the Emperor and substitutes the year of his Popedom An. 1120. Calixtus the 2 d. made Gregory set up Antipope by the said Henry the 5 th to ride through Rome upon a Camels back with his face towards the Tail and the tail in his hand for a bridle To shew no doubt that he held up the Tail Caesar and not by the Head St. Peter c. and then thrust him shaven into a Monastery About 1150. the Papal Canons Decretals are first hatched which afterwards in process of time were brought into use and set up and prevailed in the World and the Church in opposition to the Civil and Imperial Law and chiefly to advance the Pontificiall Omnipotency as themselves phrase it And this Canon Law or Divinity not the Law of God became in time almost the only divinity and study of the Prelats and great Church men who studied little else then to gain and increase Church Power and Treasure to get all into their clutches and to keep all people in slavery and subjection to their Authority and Religion And for others there began to creep in a Scholastick Divinity and Philosiphy out of the Fathers and Aristotle together not the Scripture And this Philosiphic-divinity brought all confusion of Opinions and learned Ignorance and Error into the world And for the more piously inclined and devout a practical Divinity of Monkish Legends or pious Tales and at best but devout stories of the Sanctimonious lives of Saints c. all which still made for the Pope About 1160. Alexander the 3 d. opposses the Emperor Frederick the first and excommunicates him thundering out curses and raising War against him every where and by the French Kings favour settles himself in the Popedom The Emperor notwithstanding takes Rome and drives the Pope to Venice for protection and sends his Son with an Army after him whom they beat and took Prisoner neer Venice The good Father therefore to preserve his Son is forced to submit and to prostrate himself before the Pope openly in the great Church at Venice to kiss his feet Where setting his foot on the Emperors neck he impiously and imperiously was not asham'd to say Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and the Adder and the Dragon shalt thou trample under foot And when the Emperor took the boldness to reply and say I do it not to you but to Peter The proud Beast goes on To Peter and to me too And from this time forth and for evermore forsooth it must be an high favour to kiss his Toes as much as other Princes hands And all this is Your most humble Servant of the Servant of God his Title once come too Beggers of all men proudest are When once they got into the chair This Pope likewise upheld Thomas a Becket against his King here in England and made the King submit to the lash for St. Thomas's death for his Holiness Sainted the Traitor and upon
most excellent and useful things of Nature Art and Religion That so true Religion Learning Arts Sciences Commerce and Traffick and all things else for the Common weale of mankind may flourish and be advanced in the World that Mercy and Truth may meet together Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other on the Earth which they have so long for saken But first There are a sort of Popelings yet behind Must ride the Devil off on 's legs and break his wind CHAP. II. Of the future State and Revolution of Europe both of Church and State OUT OF The last Visions and Revelations of Drabicius the Seer concerning wonderful things shortly to come As the ruine of the House of Austria of the Pope of Spain c. by the Turks Tartars King of France c. conversion of the Turks Jews and Heathens Reformation of the World and Church by the Secular Powers The Renovation and Restitution of all things at hand New Heavens and new Earth viz. Church and State c. The Preface VVE should now finish this Table but that we think it meet to add a second Chapter of the Prophetick History of Europe not from the uncertain conjectures of Astrologians and Politicians but Revelations truly accounted Divine If it more immediately concern all to know the present State of Christendom and of this last age above all before that are past and gone and almost forgotten yet that is principally in order to what is to come And so much more it concerns us to consider what shall be hereafter then the things that have been and are And indeed this all mens minds generally are most inquisttive after yet few will have faith to believe And hence the knowledge of things to come is one part of History as well as of those that are past Wherefore I shall think it no unacceptable service to my Country men and not unbefitting this place to represent to view a summary draught also of those wonderful Visions and Revelations of Dabricius by the Godly and Learned esteemed Divine at least that few yet dare say are meer phanatick delusions or diabolical that so this Historical Table or Representation of things last past and next to come may be for more profit and advantage and of greater use to the English Reader 'T is certain all the world expects some great Catastrophe and Revolutions at hand and great have lately past in all Nations preparatory thereunto All Astrologers gaze for it All Politicians presage it all Theologers divine it And generally All People Jews Turks Christians Papists and Protestants seem to bespeak as much As if some dark intelligence were hovering up and down to abode and whisper some such matter presently to betide the world The Jews stand gazing for the Kingdom of their Messias the Turks of their Mahomet The Christians of their Christ and the Papists of their Antichrist The Planetary Conjunction and new Stars the dreadful Comets and terrifying Prodigies The remarkable predictions and prophetick Spirits yea the very false prophets too in several Countries The wonderfull providences and strange revolutions and alterations of this last Age specially those of late as the great Eclipses not many years agoe The new Star in 1572. in 1604. and lately in 1660. The fiery Trigon begun 1603. and ended with that great Conjunction of the two superior Planets Saturn and Jupiter in that fiery Trigon in 1663. never before this eight hundred years viz. at the beginning of the German Empire by Charls the Great and hoped to be the last being the seventh only of the world having never happened but six times before since the Creation And this being also the third Conjunction of those superior Planets which is every twenty years in the seventh fiery Trigon and falling in the year 1663. Rome Rome remember sixty three and three was said of that year by the Astrologers and the great congregation of all the seven Planets in the fiery signe of Sagittary also preceeding it which whether ever happened before since the beginning of the world is not known makes some not only take a Sign but a beginning of some great Mutation in Religion and Government In Religion namely the conversion of Jews Turks and all the Nations of the Gentiles In State the subversion of all Tyrannicall Rule and Domination and all manner of oppression and violence in the Earth The too late Prodigious Comets succeeding about a year after as well as those in 1652. and 1618. Saturn being in the House of Infirmity for six month before concerning which there is extent a strange Prophecy found by Capistranus above two hundred years agoe and printed above an hundred agoe at Venice and afterwards upon the Comet in 1618. appearing at Pargue in Germany in 1620. and said by the said Capistran to be one of the Sybill's twenty years before Christ concerning the ruine of the Pope and Emperor and return of the Apostolick times There is also some thing particular mentioned in Capistrans explication concerning France and others Aix la Chapelle which is forgot The Prophecy said to be of the Sybills was only in figures of a Woman with a Triple Crown embraced by a Crowned King or Emperor With a Wheel with twelve spokes denoting the Cardinals like the twelve Apostles with the Arms of France Low-Countries c. with other particulars forgotten From one Angel appeared a blazing Star darting upon the Woman and Emperor c. Capistran by a prophetick Spirit wrote an explication of every particular in short Motto's writ underneath each which he buried in a wall not daring to make it known in those times Being an enlightened Monk and was found an hundered years after and Printed as was said at Venice The Motto under the Comet is only remembered viz. Saturn in the house of Infirmity which some Astronomers say could be meant of no former Comet but this last only having examined it by their Rules Since this we have seen the sudden irruption of the French into Flanders c. and the peace soon made again at Aix la Chapel and yet indeed as good as no peace but rather a truce It were well this prophecy were better looked into to see whether any thing solid to be observed therein or any thing that may answer and concern the present affairs or the late Comet yea or no. In fine the most lamentable Wars Plagues Fires and sad calamities and heavy and grievous judgments of Gods wrath abroad in the Earth especially the astonishing Blazing Fire of London soon after in 1666. The powerful approach and threatning of the Turks and their dreadful design upon Christendom the universal unsettlement shakings of Kingdoms and Nations the high Animosities and Jealousies of Princes and States the cry of Subjects and general failing of mens hearts for fear and expectation of others and the total deluge of prophauness atheisme impenitency and unbelief with their desperate effects namely all injustice oppression wars and persecutions and universal
Islands and breaking in peeces the Peoples one by another Behold It is the Lord who both speaks and does Let not the Protestants and the Evangelicks say they are reformed and comeout of Babylon and forsaken Antichrist Alas Alas We lack not Popes but Rome the spirit of Antichrist has notforsaken us in all things but only dispersed it self into more things How many Universities Doctors Masters Bishops Pastors we have so many Popes And every common man of the people would be a Pope and Dictatour above all Law and Discipline The Thunderbolts of God comprehended in these Books do reach all corrupt Christendom Let no party of Christians think that this Book is for them alone to destroy all others The world is full of Babylonish works therefore the whole World is Babylon And every Kingdom State City House Church and School hath its Babylon Every Faction would build a Tower to climb into the Heaven of Glory nor will cease from their own wayes and thoughts to bring them to pass Have we no Nimrods hunters of Dominion and Lordship over others and destroyers of the Christian Evangelick liberty Antichrist is not hard to be found even among the Evangelicks who for liberty in Christ began to shake off and would be now thought to have shook off the Antichristian yoak Either the Evangil is not Evangil or we are not Evangelicks But there are reformed Evangelicks Would there were not in name but in deed For the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power That Christians as they now are are of all which the Earth bears most perverse as who do all things against their profession believe against their Creed live against their decalogue and Law pray against their Lords prayer hope against their hope and before all other Nations to be reformed from the very foundation or to be rooted up from the very foundation may be here read Alas Alas Moses and Mahomet have theirs more dutiful then Christ For the Jews strictly observe through all sufferings their Ceremonies Christ has commanded to worship God in spirit and truth only and to love one another and no ceremonies and yet these Christians are mad for and quite regardless of the other Charity alone was commended to us not Ceremonies yet these only urged Among us perpetual fallings out all sorts of oppressions bloody Wars and mutual horrid butcherings of one another testifie that we have no charity Mahomet forbad his Wine and they abstain Christ forbad no good thing and taught only Temperance yet Christians live most intemperatly He forbad his to dispute of Faith they dispute not content with their blind faith Christ taught to do and not to say like the Pharisees yet we do nothing but scold about Faith but lead for the most part prophane lives Mahomet commanded to tolerate both Jews and Christians and they do molesting none for difference of Religion But Christ hath in vain forbid us to pluck up the Tares before the Harvest most deadlily raging against one another for Religion And so all things otherwise then he has commanded by whose name we are called O good Jesus the whole universe of Christians seems to have conspired against thee and they are first or prime in persecuting thee who have the primacy in thy Church c. But they are not fulfilled say some of the wise and learned in the particulars T is answered In Prophesies old and new the scope of God is not to satisfie humane curiosity about this or that particular thing or person But to ingenerate in mens minds Terror in the Evil Hope in the Good and Repentance and Patience in all And we are not primarily to seek what may be future as what is our duty what God requires or forbids promises or threatens and how to escape the Wrath and to obtain Grace which when men do not God blinds them so that to them Every Vision becoms a sealed Book not able to be read and the prophane find there nothing but stumbling stones of offence and darkness to blind them and to grope in That God fulfils things in his own time and way though we mistake That Instruments miscarry and God defers till the last till the very hour of desperation c. He that believes will not make hast That in promises and threatnings God intends them conditionally though spoken as it were many times absolutely Of which enough already c. O Protestants Christians Reform'd Evangelicks Because most of you are contemners of extraordinary works of God Visions and Revelations Charity compels to warn you that you do not proceed to sin against God and your own souls by a pertenacious Judgement condemning those things which you neither understand nor that you might understand ever made it your work or took any leisure for Run through all your Bibles you shall never find God complaining of mens too much credulity towards him and his words and other signs of his Anger or Grace but the contrary Shall we therefore now amongst so many Prodiges of Heaven and of Earth and the cryes of God Angels Men and almost of the very stones and whilst the Signs of Gods Wrath dart forth every where into our very faces fear to sin by too much credulity Specially when by new Revelations no new opinion is suggested only new incitements to weigh throughly the ancient words and works of God and to return into the ancient wayes of Faith and Obedience with perpetual revoking us from our negligence to the Scriptures And shall we yet go on to ascribe these things rather to Satan than give glory to God The conversion of the Jews and the Nations unto God with terrible foregoing Judgments and Plagues is the Theme of this Book And therefore no cause why any one should like to condemn this Book or prohibit it to any to be read For certainly Christians ought to rejoyce that what all have pray'd in the name of Christ this sixteen hundred years is now declar'd to be at hand Dissenters in opinion ought to rejoyce Because an end of Dissentions is declar'd and Universal Peace and Concord establishing Protestants ought to rejoyce Because God himself protests for them Catholicks ought to rejoyce Because the Pale of the Catholick Church is promised to be extended even to the ends of the Earth Zealots ought to rejoyce who have hitherto laboriously might and main persecuted those that erred in Faith and dangerously though with never so much pious Zeal endeavoured to root out the Tares out of the Lords Feild whilst Behold God himself now takes this his own work upon himself to purge his own Floor They that suffer or have suffered Persecution ought to rejoyce Because the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord are declared Neither ought this day of the Lord coming as Fire terrifie any man Because this Fire is the Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap wherewith the Sons of Levi namely the Clergy of all parties are throughly purged that they may be
that end That in the day of this last Age might be made known by me as his last Trumpet to Nations and Peoples and Tongues of the whole Earth the last Will of God By which his Divine Majesty Wills and Commands that Kings Princes Counts and all Potentates of the Eastern and the Western of the Northern and the Southern Lands do unto the Roman Pope as unto the Babylonish Whore That all Idolaters Hereticks Atheists and false Christians adhering to her perish And that to the Turks Tartars Jews and other Nations inhabiting under the Sun Light shine forth For these ungodly long since fore-ordain'd to this damnation as who turn the Grace of our god into wantonness and deny the alone Heir God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jud. v. 4. are even they who have segregated themselves from God and his Holy Law sensual not having the Spirit v. 19. All whom God destinates to destruction by the force and right of his Law and by the force of the secular Power into whose heart he hath given and in these last dayes doth give and will give to conceive hatred against the Whore and make her deserted and naked and eat her flesh but burn her her self with Fire Revellations 17. 16 17. For to save others with fear and snatch them as it were out of the flames and to hate the Cassock Cap and Hood spotted with the touching and defilement of the flesh with which the Guardians of the Whore being indued do with a ridiculous haughtiness and opinion of sanctity besot themselves and others stalking up and down shaven like fools girt with Cords like Hangmen and with naked Feet and Thighs like Whores designing to be seen of men and to be extolled with praises Wo unto them for they have gone into the way of Cain and running greedily after the error of Balaam for reward feed themselves Clouds without Water unfruitful Trees wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Jude v. 11 12 13. The Wisdom of God hath also by me lamented over the Political consusions of Kings and Princes of Lords and Subjects by denouncing his Will That there be made a Renovation of good Order after the Rule of his Law in Church and State By prescribing what manner of Persons Kings ought to be and others placed in Power And what the Ministers of the Church and Pastors of Souls with their Revenues on both hands and what Schools and all Orders universally And how in every Nation under Heaven a Monument is to be erected to oblige themselves and their Posterity after them to serve the one God The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken concerning this to me and by me unto all in the year 1651. March 26. Determining the Inscription of the Pillars in these words Our God Jehovah is one God in Essence but three in Persons Whom alone we will serve for ever through all our Generations Amen therefore So be it That it may be fulfilled what was foretold Zeph. chap. 3. v. 9. That it should come to pass that a pure Language be restored to the people that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one shoulder And as in Rev. 15. v. 4. That all Nations come and worship before God because his judgments are manifest That all under Heaven may profess the Doctrine of Faith delivered by Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and to the Faithful their successors to these very last times of the World in which the Wisdom of God by me also cries and sounds as with a Trumpet by declaring his Will That errors of all kinds cease But the Verity of the Words and Life of the Lord Jesus to shine forth after the ruine of Mystical Babylin and the going forth of the People of God therefrom as it is written in the Revelations which who so reads let him understand being certain that no Prophesie of Scripture is of any private Interpretation For that the Prophesies came not of old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake and do speak as they were or are moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. Know therefore know all Nations and Tongues of the universal World high and low rich and poor learned and simple in whom soever the fear of God and the use of sound reason is That the Speeches written by me and often watered with tears now with sear now with joy have not been nor are my Speeches proceeding forth from my will or Wit and my Judgement which is plain and simple in me and too dull for such and so great things as these but from the mouth of God the Creator God the Redeemer and God the Sanctifier and represented unto me intelligibly and to my mind and memory as a man perceptibly To which I give and do give wholly give belief by many now and various Experiments undoubtedly made certain and secure that the Holy and Blessed Trinity will own them for theirs and in very deed and fact demonstrate their verity Not then or so when and how I or thou whosoever thou art will or will'st but then when the time and hour of the Judgement determined by the Will of his Majesty shall come Because it is necessary that that remain true once pronounced A thousand years are with the Lord as one day and one day as a thousand years I therefore every way weighing and pondering the matter I denounce to every one contradicting me in these things and condemning them for something not yet approved by the event Behold I denounce That I cite him to day and will cite to morrow and so long as I or thou be alive and in the point of mine and thy death and in the day of that last tremendous Judgement in the illustrioous coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I cite him I say into the presence of the Clarity of the most High and most True God with whom is no acceptation of persons who alone is Judge of Quick and Dead judging not according to the sight of the Eyes nor reproving according to the hearing of the Ears but judging the Poor in righteousuess and reproving for the Meek of the Earth in equity Isa 11. 4. And I cite him into the presence of Seraphims and Cherubims and the whole coelestial Hierarchy I cite him into the presence of the Patriarks Moses and the Prophets and Apostles I cite him into the presence of the boly Doctors or Teachers of the Church Cyprian Ambrose Augustine Bernard c. And of the Martyrs Wickliff Hus Jerome c. And into the presence of the holy Reformers Luther Melancthon Calvin and their Successors faithful Lights of the Church c. Full of hope and confidence towards God and the Father of the Lord Jesus that if any one of you O men whosoever he be shall condemn me the least of all the Servants of Jesus Christ with this my Work perform'd dutifully yet laboriously to his
dayes in a lamentable manner First With his own hands killing his Mother and Daughter and at length grown desperate hanged himself Amidst such great Confusions of the China Empire the Christians grown to a great multitude were betwixt hope and fear and wait with sollicitous hearts the new own'd Emperors inclination and found him in the end more favourable then they could either wish or hope for Especially upon the account of Father Schall before mentioned as a Stranger of admirable prudence and skill in the Affairs of the China Kingdom and to whom he might unbosom the secret counsels of his heart securely and as one highly recommended to him for his rare skill in the computation of Time and Astronomy and other Arts of Europe And so made him Mandarine of the first Order and one of his supream Counsellors And set him about perfecting the reformation of their Calender for the Universal benefit and advantage of the Kingdom as before hath been declared After this was the Queen and her Son Converted and Baptized by the name of Helena and Constantine of which her Supream Minister of her Court Pan Achilleus long before a Zealous Christian more then once affectionately wrote Letters thereof both to the Pope and to the General of the Jesuites Society to send more Labourers into China as followeth The Interpretation of the China Letter from the Chancellor of the China Empire Pan Achilleus a Chinois Christian to our most Holy Lord by the Fathers Andrew Xavier and Michael Boym of the Society of Jesus in the Court of the Emperor of China for the time Assistants Of the most famous Empire of China by the command of the Emperor The Universal Vice-Roy of Kingdoms and Provinces Quám tum Quám Sy c Fò Kien Commissary of the Militia by Sea and Land Duke of the little petty King Quám Sy c Treasurer of the Revenues and Sollicitor absolute and sole decider or Judge of Causes in the absence of the Emperor Chief Captain of the Imperial Guard Master of the Horse Great Chancellor Privy Secretary of the Emperor and Chamberlain Pan Achilleus Christian on bended knees and head bowed down to the Ground prostrates himself before the Throne of the Vicar of God JESUS on Earth the Universal Doctor of the Catholick Church the true Lord the most Holy Father I Achilleus weigh with my self that being by Office Keeper of the Privy Chambers of the Emperor yet led by error I also take care of the Militia Whence I have diminished that is degraded or debased my self and without light and Discipline that is Instruction have augmented the multitude of sins Long since in the Northern Court or Palace through the good Will of God I hapned upon men of the Society of Jesus who led me who was rude and ignorant in the open Path exhorting me erring and going astray to follow the Faith Wherefore being with reverence expiated in the Holy Laver I then began to understand the documents that is Fundamentals or Principles of the Holy Doctrine and its hidden Excellency and high profundity And then being immers'd in this study night and day with a faithful heart I have prosecuted it twenty years and more nor durst I grow slack in the least So I have procured the help of the King of Heaven whom I know not how I shall be able to answer I had often a mind to come unto your most Holy Throne and with veneration to satisfie my eyes with your most Holy Countenance But the matters of the Empire were so various and the Royal Affairs so perplexed as they were permitted me not to perform the desires of my intimate Bosome Wherefore I am most highly aggrieved The onely thought and grief now of me a Sinner from the bottom of my Soul is in this that the calamity of the Empire has not yet ceased Therefore on purpose I went and asked a man of the Society of Jesus Father Michael Boym that in the next Ship that went away he would return back to the great West and come suppliant to you the chief Priest the most Holy Father that before the Altar of the Saints Peter and Paul with the universal Church of the whole World with eyes lifted up to Heaven you would pray to God that he would look down upon this Imperial House with mercy help and conserve the Empire and set limits of future speedy peace and together would grant that our most wise Emperor who is the eighteenth Successor of this Royal House and the twelfth Grand-child from the first founder of the Empire and Family That himself as Lord with his Subjects may adore Jesus the Lord of the Heavens This at length will be the intire happiness of our China Empire And indeed at present the most intire most wise most clement the venerable Empress of Christian Name Helena The Queen Mother of the Emperor of Christian name Mary The Queen his legitimate Wife of Christian name Anna and the Son of the Emperor Prince and Heir by Christian Name Constantine do all with humble hearts believe and worship the Holy Doctrine together they have the words of Speech which they send to the most Holy Throne viz. of the Pope As for me rude Sinner I humbly beseech you the most Holy Father That for the hour of my departure out of this life you would vouchsafe intire remission of the punishment of sins and would send also many men of the Society into this Empire of China who by their Doctrine may convert universally the men of the Age and may advertise them with Repentance to give good heed to Worship and adore the Holy Law nor may by a vain and transient stay be sent away with the Dust of their Feet snatch'd up that is quickly So at length I hope to attain Felicity truly never to have an end With Veneration I have in small measure by these things explained the Secrets of a simple ignorant Mind I cast my self wholly to the Earth expecting a mercifull beholding of your Countenance And no more Yum Lie the fourth year in order of the Revolutions of the Annual Letters Kem Yn the tenth Moon eighth day which was in the year 1650. the first day of November Further nothing to be read The place of the Seal wherein after the China manner for they do not use to write their Names otherwise are engraven these words The Seal of the most Valiant Generalissimo of Arms universal Vice-Roy The Interpretation of the China Letter from the Empress of the China Empire the Lady Helena by name and of the Queen = Mother the Lady Anne and the Queen = Wife the Lady Mary and also of the Son of the Emperor Prince and Heir the Lord Constantine By Father Andrew Xavier and sent to our most Holy Lord c. The Speech of Helena the most Intire most Wise most Clement Venerable Empress of the most famous Empire of China before the Throne of the Vicar on Earth of God JESUS Universal Doctor of the