Empire in Constantine's time became the Kingdome of God but were no particular members of the Church at that time in any thing reprehensible Whether the Reformation cease to be the Kingdome of God for the wickedness of some of that denomination let our Adversaries be judges who never spared to style themselves Holy Church for all the abhorred ungodliness of the Heads their Holinesses at Rome and universal pollution of the members and that because they took themselves to be the true Christian Church and to hold the right Faith and to retain the Rites and Religious Practices as to the externall Worship of God though they were indeed an Antichristian Church and all overrun with abominable Doctrines and Idolatrous Practices and Diabolical Cruelties against the true Worshippers of God Of how much more right therefore ought the Reformation to be held the holy people of God and his peculiar Kingdome who profess the Apostolick Faith entire without any Idolatrous superadditions who murther no man for his Conscience and make the infallible Word of God it self the Object of their Profession and the platform of their Religion Cuph. The truth is the disparity is infinitely great if the Roman and Reformed Church stood in competition which of them two should be the Kingdome of God Bath But it being so plain that the Reformed Church is the true Externall Kingdome of God forasmuch as they make pure profession of the Gospel of the Kingdome cleared from all the gross Corruptions of men and teach Christ merely according to the Word of Christ and that also in this regard the Church of Rome by their Antichristian Doctrines is really a contrary Kingdome thereunto that is the Kingdome of Antichrist how abominably nauseous O Cuphophron must Indifferency in Religion be amongst Pretenders to Protestantism whenas the Romanists themselves scarce in the worst of times would have laid down their zeal in the behalf of that Christianity against Turcism though Turcism ought not to be more abominable to them then their Antichristianism ought to be to us XVII The Charge of Antinomianism against th Reformation For what can be more contrary then the Kingdome of Christ and of Antichrist Cuph. This would bear more weight with it Bathynous if there were no gross flaws in the externall Profession of the Protestants and that they were right in their declared Opinions For in my judgement Antinomianism and Calvinism I mean that dark Dogma about Predestination are such horrid Errours that they seem the badges of the Kingdome of Darkness rather then of the Kingdome of God Bath What you mean by Antinomianism O Cuphophron I know not But so far as I know there are but these two meanings thereof either a conceit that we are exempted by the liberty of the Gospel from all moral Duties a thing exploded by all the Protestant Churches as you may understand by the Harmony of their Confessions or else it signifies a disclaim of being justified by the doing our Duties and an entire relying on the Satisfaction or Atonement of Christ which rightly understood has no evil at all in it but is an excellent Antidote against Pride For those that profess such an Antinomianism as this and declare they look to be saved by Faith onely without the Works of the Law will not deny but that they are to live as strictly and holily as if they were to be saved by the integrity of their conversations and yet when they have lived as precisely as they can that they are wholly to relie upon the mercy of God in Christ. How lovely how amiable is such a disposition of a Soul as this who taking no notice of her own innocency or righteousness casts her self wholly on the Goodness and Merits of her Saviour and so like an un-self-reflecting and an un-self-valuing childe enters securely and peaceably into the Kingdome of God and into the choicest mansions of his heavenly Paradise Cuph. Nay if that be the worst of it Bathynous I am easily reconciled to Protestantism for all this Bath This is the worst of it O Cuphophron so far as I can understand And you know the orthodox Protestants universally adde their Doctrine of Sanctification or a good life to that of Justification by Faith onely so that I dare say they dealt bonâ fide but by a secret Providence directed so their style and phrase as was most effectual to oppose or undermine the gainful traffick of that City of Merchandises where the good works they ordinarily cry'd up so were nothing else but the good and rich wares those cunning Merchants purchased at cheap rates from abused souls the increase of whose sins were the advance of the Revenues of the Church and their externall good works as they are called an excuse for their want of inward Sanctification and real Regeneration the main things the Protestants stand upon which can be no more without Good works in the best sense so called then the Sun without Light Cuph. But are there then Bathynous no Antinomians in the ill sense amongst the Protestant Bath No otherwise Cuphophron then there were Gnosticks and Carpocratians in the Apostolick times There are but disallowed by general suffrage Cuph. Let that then suffice XVIII The Charge of Calvinism against the Reformation But this dark Opinion of Predestination how dismall does it look Bathynous black as the smoak of the bottomless pit out of which the Locusts came Bath What do you allude to the Turks and Saracens Cuphophron The Turks indeed are held great Fatalists whence some in reproch call this Point of Calvin Calvino-Turcism Who would have thought Cuphophron so Apocalyptical That you take so great offence at Predestination in that rude and crude sense that some hold it I do not at all wonder for it has ever seemed to me an Opinion perfectly repugnant to the nature of God that he should Predestinate any Souls to endless and unspeakable misery for such sins as it was ever impossible for them to avoid This is a great reproch in my apprehension to the Divine Majesty But that there is an effectual Election or Predestination of some to eternall life I must confess I think it not onely an Opinion inoffensive but true which seems to me probably to be intimated from such passages as these Apoc. 13.8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And again in another place of the Apocalypse And they that are with him are called Apoc. 17.14 and chosen and faithfull And also in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 8.28 29. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and whom he did predestinate them he also called c. These places considered together want not their force
and is also the Kingdome of Christ or of the Messiah and is likewise styled the Kingdome of Heaven even in a Politicall sense as where it is compared to a Net Matth. 13. and elsewhere This Kingdome of Christ is the Kingdome of God in a more eminent and illustrious signification not onely for its holiness but also for the vast extent thereof according to the Hebrew Idiom For at long run it is to take in all the Kingdoms of the Earth But there is a more particular occasion of the styling of it the Kingdome of God from that passage in Daniel Dan. 2.44 And in the days of those Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroy'd From hence the Kingdome of Christ is called the Kingdome of Heaven and of God Now this great and notable Kingdome of the Son of man or the Messias was not present in our Saviour's days though it was in a near approch And therefore the Disciples might very well be taught to pray Thy Kingdome come and our Saviour preach that the Kingdome of God was at hand and encourage his little flock his few Followers in that at last the Roman Empire would fall into their hands as it did under Constantine the Great when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire But in that he saith Mar. 1.15 The time is fulfilled and the Kingdome of God is at hand that undoubtedly relates to the Seventy weeks of Daniel Dan. 9. which were upon their expiration about that time that Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdome that is a little before his Suffering ver 25 26. For after seven weeks and threescore and two weeks that is sixty nine weeks the Messias was to be cut off and the people of the Iews cease to be God's people any longer under the Mosaicall Dispensation and the everlasting Righteousness ver 24. or the Eternal Law or Religion of Christ to be brought in and the Iudaicall Sacrifices to cease the Son of God being once made an Oblation upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world This is the Inchoation of the Kingdome of God so much spoken of in the Gospel which though it was at first but as a grain of mustard-seed Matt. 13.31 yet in a little time spred far and wide in the Roman Empire and was at last made Master thereof For I must confess I understand that Parable of the Mustard-tree in a Politicall sense not in a Moral and compare that which our Saviour adds by way of illustration of its greatness so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof with that propheticall expression in Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdome is also resembled to a wide-spreading Tree Dan. 4.12 The Beasts of the field had shadow under it and the Fowls of the Heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof And thus was Christ's promise made good to his little flock to whom he had declared that it was his Father's good pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luk. 12.32 Philop. This is handsome and to me not unsatisfactory O Philotheus so far as it goes But did not the Church of God both in Constantine's time and after pray Thy Kingdome come Philoth. I doubt it not Philopolis and it will never be unseasonable so to pray in the Moral sense either for our selves or others but hitherto it has been also seasonable in the Politicall For though the Church where uncorrupted with Idolatry and other gross Pollutions has been the Kingdome of God ever since it had a being whether in prosperity or persecution yet it has been hitherto but Regnum Lapidis not Regnum Montis and therefore in a Politicall sense they might ever pray that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel That the stone cut out without hands might smite the Image upon the feet Dan. 2.34 35 44. and become a great Mountain and fill the whole Earth and be a Kingdome that shall stand for ever a Kingdome of God's setting up that shall never be destroyed that is to say shall never relapse into Idolatrous practices nor be under their lash and subjection that do No power shall be able to persecute them for the purity of their Religion For it is the Kingdome of God triumphant and permanent that Daniel seems chiefly to point at as if that short stay of the Seventh King mentioned in the Apocalypse were scarce worth noting in these more compendious Visions Apoc. 17.10 Which seeming omission in the Vision of the Statue is more palpably repeated again in the Vision of the Four beasts For though the Kingdome of the Son of man was in the Reign of the Seventh King in a triumphant state yet because it was so short and unpermanent the Prophecy seems to take no express notice of it but to begin the Inauguration of the Son of man into his Kingdome upon the destruction of the little Horn which destruction is not yet compleated When Dan. 7.21 22. because of the great words the Horn spake the Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame namely the Beast with this little Horn with eyes in it which little Horn is more fully and distinctly represented in the Apocalypse under the figure of the Two-horned Beast then Daniel saw in the night-Vision and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdome that all people and Nations and languages should serve him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdome that which shall not be destroyed which therefore is not so properly the Kingdome of God under the Seventh King but that Dominion of the Saints which emerges upon the Beast that is not and yet is his going into perdition Do you understand me Philopolis Philop. Very well XIV The Easiness of the Prophetick style and I think your Notion mainly solid Nor do I finde it any difficulty to converse with men touching these Propheticall Mysteries since I have pretty well conn'd the Prophetick style the knowledge whereof in my mind is as well more easie as more usefull and pleasant then Heraldry which yet every ordinary capacity is easily master of Philoth. I am exceeding glad to hear you say so O Philopolis and wish all the Gentlemen in Christendome were of your mind They would find such Conviction in the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse that I dare say we should in a short time be all of one opinion in matters of Religion Philop. I wish with all my heart they would set themselves to this so easie and pleasant kind of seriousness Bath Sensuality Levity and Profaneness of spirit makes holy things though of themselves very easie and pleasant both unpleasant hard and tedious to such unmoralized minds
That is the great bar to the reception of Sacred Truths with such kind of men as Pride Covetousness and Hypocrisie with others Philop. What you say I believe is too true Bathynous the more the pitty But while we cannot change the minds of others let us at least improve our own as well as we can And from what we have proceeded in hitherto I am the more desirous to hear an answer to the last part of my present Quere Tell me therefore I beseech you O Philotheus Where the Kingdome of God now is That was the last Point in my Second Question and methinks I am more puzzled in it then ever Philoth. You are not so puzzled XV Where the Kingdome of God now is Philopolis but I believe you will easily extricate the difficulty your self and find out where God has by first finding out where he has not his Kingdome For I believe you will not say that the Kingdome of God is amongst the mere Pagans by reason of their Ignorance Atheisticalness and Idolatry Philop. No sure I did not so much as dream it was Philoth. Nor amongst the Iews For they were a City of murtherers and killed their Messias and so ceased to be God's people and as many as are not converted to Christianity justifie the act of their forefathers and become successively guilty of their bloudy and murtherous Crime Besides that they are professed Enemies and Rebells to the manifestly-declared Law of God which is the Christian Religion and therefore the Iewish Nation can be no part of the Kingdome of God according to the Definition of it above mentioned Philop. You say true Philotheus Philoth. Nor the Turk for the same reason I mean for his express enmity to Christianity the plainly-declared Law of God besides the tearing Cruelty and Savageness of that Polity For the Kingdome of God must be devoid as well of bloudy Persecution and Barbarity as of Idolatry and Polytheism And what an ill Character the Turks and Saracens have in the Prophetick Visions is plain in that the latter are figured out by Scorpion-like Locusts out of the bottomless pit Apoc. 9.10 11. the title of whose King is Abaddon or Apollyon the other by Horsemen ver 17 19. whose horses heads are compared to Lions and their tails to Serpents to intimate that league they have with the Kingdome of the Serpent or of the Devil for the Devil was a murtherer from the beginning and these Wasters of the world by war and bloudshed Philop. This is more then enough evident Philoth. And for the Popish Church it is well known how besides their multifarious Idolatries and gross Superstitious practices it is all-over besmeared with innocent bloud as she also is figured out in the Apocalypse by that gorgeous Whore with whom the Kings of the earth commit Fornication Chap. 17.2 6. and who is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Philop. It remains then that the Reformed parts of Christendome be the Kingdome of God for none else occurr to my mind that can lay claim to the title Philoth. And there is good reason to conclude so both because the Definition of the Externall Kingdome of God above given agrees to them namely that they worship the One and onely-true God and have purified his Worship from all Idolatrous practices and corruptions and have so far ceased to be that murtherous City that stoned the Prophets that they use no other sword then that of the Spirit against Idolaters themselves whom they never kill but either in the open field in battel or upon the account of Treason against their lawfull Prince and also because God be thanked they are free from any yoke but that of Christ and their own Reformed Princes And therefore being a self-sufficient Power able to maintain themselves against all extraneous and Idolatrous Powers these of them that are in this condition seem to me to be an hopefull Inchoation of that promised Kingdome of the Son of man which Daniel foretells of and to be the first Rudiments of the Fifth Monarchy forasmuch as they arise out of the ruine of the little Horn with the eyes of a Dan. 7.25 man which is said to wear out the Saints of the most High Philop. I understand you very well Philotheus O the admirable perspicuity and convictiveness of Truth O how necessary is the knowledge of this Theory to all the Protestant Dominions that they may know how to be both good Christians and good Subjects at once For no man can oppose undermine or be false to the Protestant Interest as such or to any Reformed Prince but he must ipso facto commit Treason against the Kingdome of God and be a Traitour or Rebell against the Sovereignty of the Lord Iesus O how infinitely satisfied am I with this Truth O how I could dwell upon this so-concerning a speculation O how am I eased in mind and freed from all distraction while my Soul is stedfastly determined to one that I know what to wish for what to pray for what to act for what to suffer for I mean for the interest of the Kingdome of God and the reviving Monarchy of the Lord Iesus Christ. Cuph. XVI That smaller faults in Things or Persons hinder not but that a Church may still be the Kingdome of God This Truth if it be a truth is like a spark fallen into very combustible matter that it has set Philopolis thus all on a flame It 's pitty but what you say should be true Philotheus that Philopolis his sincere and ingenuous zeal may not have hit on an undue subject But for my part I cannot but be something hesitant at least in the point if not quite incredulous For the Manners the Opinions and the manner of the Rise of Reformed Christendome are such as in my judgment ill sute with so glorious a Title Hyl. What it seems then that Mr. Advocate General of the Paynim will now act the part of an Accuser of the brethren This it is to be of such an universalized spirit as to be ready and fit for all turns Cuph. I shall aecuse them Hylobares whom I desire to be found clear and before such Judges as I hope will not be unfavourable Philoth. For my part Cuphophron I cannot say that either all Things or all persons of the Reformation are without fault But the sinfulness of some yea though it were of many does not exclude the whole from being the Externall Kingdome of God And that is the point that we are upon For the Externall Kingdome of God may be presumed much larger then the Internall And our Saviour Christ himself you know compares the Kingdome of God in this externall sense to a Net cast into the Sea Matt. 13.47 which gathers of every kind as well bad as good The people of Israel was the Kingdome of God but was every particular man of them holy and vertuous The Roman
expressive of the Crucifixion of our Saviour then the lifting up of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness as he himself intimates in S t. Iobn As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so shall the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Bath That is very well observed of you Philopolis it is a very expressive Type indeed and it has been a great delight to me when I have considered with my self not onely on that one Symbol of the brazen Serpent but how the whole Camp of Israel with the Tabernacle among them was one entire holy Type of the itinerant Church of Christ travelling through the Wilderness of this World to the Land of Promise or the Kingdome of Heaven The Incarnation of Christ his Divinity and Apotheosis his Passion Ascension and Intercession all these are lively set out in those standing Figures among the Israelites Hyl. I pray you how Bathynous Bath The Incarnation of the Logos O Hylobares is plainly figured out in the Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence God spake And you know the Apostle calls this mortal body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.13 as the ancient Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.14 And the Word in S t. Iohn is said to tabernacle amongst us the Apostle speaking there of his Incarnation God's Residence therefore in the Tabernacle the Children of Israel in the mean time encamping about him in their booths is an easie Representation of Christ's Incarnation of the Word his living in the flesh amongst us that live in the flesh Hyl. It is so Bathynous Bath And for Christ's Passion what more significant thereof as Philopolis has rightly observed then that of the brazen Serpent Christ as it being lifted up in his Crucifixion on a Pole of wood And as that Telesm was of the most accursed shape of Creatures so Christ was made sin and a curse for us crucified betwixt two Thieves as if himself had been such a Malefactour But himself having no sin the Contemplation thus of him on the Cross had a sovereign power to take away both the pain and poison of Sin and redeem us from eternall Death as the brazen Serpent being no Serpent but a Figure heal'd them that look'd up to it from the sting and poison of the fiery flying Serpents and so redeemed them from a temporal death Hyl. But how is his Ascension and Intercession figured out in these Israelitical Types Bath His Intercession Hylobares is signify'd by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mercy-seat For in that Christ has suffered in the flesh and is now set down at the right hand of God he is our Atonement with him in him God is made propitious to the world But his Ascension as also his Intercession is farther typify'd by the High-priest's entring alone into the most Holy Hyl. That is the very same that the Authour to the Hebrews takes notice of Hebr. 9. Bath And lastly Hylobares his Divinity is most magnificently embroidered on the Robes of Aaron the High-priest who undoubtedly was an illustrious Type of Christ. For according to Philo Iudaeus his own confession the Robes of Aaron were a Type of the visible Universe and who can be said to wear and bear out into shape and order and fill the whole frame of Nature with his Presence but he that made it and continues it in Being who but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Divine Logos None can be said to fill out these Robes but he And that Aaron's Robes were not onely a Type of the Universe but fitted according to the truest Systeme thereof is apparent forasmuch as the Ephod and Breast-plate which was placed about the region of the Heart which is the Sun of this lesser World had its contexture of Scarlet and Purple Exod. 28.6 with Gold and white Silk which plainly denote the vehement heat and refulgent light of the Sun the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Ephod and Breast-plate are placed in the midst of the body of Aaron The blew Robe also resembles so much of the Heaven as comprehends the space of the Planets which the pendulous Pomegranates represent and that farther-reaching Stole of eye-work the Coelum Stellatum the Stars resembling so many twinkling eyes but the Bells the Harmony of the Universe Hyl. I understand you very well for I have read in a late Authour a more full description to the same purpose The consideration of these Congruities of the Israelitical Types strikes my minde with a marvellous pleasure They are very admirable Bathynous and very delectable and solid pledges compared with the completion of them in the Christian Church of a perpetuall and peremptory Providence of God in carrying on thus the affairs of his own People and Kingdome Philop. But some XXIV Vocal Prophecies touching the Kingdome of Christ and its Success in the world Hylobares are convinced more by express vocal Prophecies then by silent Types the slowness of their wit suspecting such Interpretations of over-much Phancifulness Hyl. Wherefore Philopolis Philotheus will easily return again to that province upon your least intimation Philoth. That I shall Hylobares But I hope Philopolis does not expect I should range through all the Prophecies that concern the Iewish Church for it were a Task that would require a Volume Philop. I am so far from desiring that Philotheus that I am rather afraid of it and therefore debarr it as also the troubling your self much with setting out the success of the Iewish Affairs while their Polity held For these things are to be seen orderly in the Bible and are so numerous that we should lose our main design by entring into them That their Captivities were fore-threatned by reason of their sins at good distances and their Return predicted is ordinarily known For fear time fail us let us intreat you Philotheus to confine your discourse to such Prophecies and Observations onely as concern the Kingdome of God set on foot by the Son of God the Lord Christ. Philoth. Such as the Prophecie of Iacob which I last mentioned In which that long Captivity of the Ten Tribes seems to be involved For Iacob's Prophecie pitches upon that Tribe that was to continue till the coming of the Messias Philop. That 's a plain Indication that Iacob's Prophecies touching his sons were not uttered at randome Philoth. So it is Philopolis And as Iacob's Prophecie so plainly bounds the time within which the Messias would not fail to come so do also those of Haggai and Malachi Chap. 2.6 Chap. 3.1 they both declare plainly that it should be within the time of the second Temple Philop. I know they do Wherein Providence was very faithfull to the people of God in giving them so certain a sign of the Advent of their Saviour and that the Iews might understand upon the demolishing of their Temple that there was no
Sion Apoc. 14.1 and if you demand to what Hierarchy they belong they follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes and follow no man farther then he follows the Lamb according as that ancient Follower of the Lamb exhorts them 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. In this Head they are an united Kingdome of God and of Christ living all under his Laws and submitting to no Decrees contrary thereunto This Kingdome Philopolis has not yet been destroy'd and I am confident never will be Philop. I hope so too But in the mean time the summe of the Success of the Kingdome of Christ since the beginning of the Apostasie it seems is this That from thenceforward the Kingdome of Christ for about 1260 years became the Kingdome of Anti-christ excepting the Succession of those Regiments of the Lamb who had his Father's name written in their foreheads Apoc. 14.3 4. and to whom alone it was given to sing that new Song before the Throne as being redeemed from the Earth and having become pure Virgins in whose mouth there was found no guile Bath These are those Philopolis of whom it is also written John 1.12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And from the carnal man are hid all the Mysteries of Regeneration That new nature is a new Song that he can never learn before he be truely regenerate let him lay about him as stoutly as he will with his unsanctified Reason and externall Institutes Sophr. And from this Ignorance or rather Antipathy of life is that War and Persecution raised against the innocent Souldiers of the Lamb. Accordingly as it is noted by the Apostle Gal. 4.28 Now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise that is the children of the spiritual birth Ver. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now Cuph. XXVI The Kingdome of Antichrist how warrantably so called and whether the Pope be that Man of sin spoken of by the Apostle I and ever will be so I think O Sophron especially while they that are born after the Spirit give such ill names to them that are born after the flesh What a marvellous reproch is that of Philotheus to call the Rule of the Church for above a thousand years together the Reign of Antichrist Sophr. Why Cuphophron would you have Philotheus wiser in judgement and expression then the Spirit of God himself who has called that Monster that would corrupt and wast the Church so by the name of Antichrist as also generally did the ancient Fathers And I pray tell me whether the false Prophet the blasphemous Horn with eyes the two-horn'd Beast the Whore of Babylon the Man of sin be less harsh Appellations then that of Antichrist And these assuredly belong to the Hierarchy of Rome Cuph. The blasphemous Horn with eyes the Whore of Babylon and the Man of sin methinks are as reprochfull Titles as that of Antichrist and if the Bishop of Rome could be proved any of these especially that Man of sin it would be hard to fend off that other more ordinary imputation which they so whinch at Euist. It was the generally-received opinion of the Church that the Man of sin described in the Epistle to the Thessalonians is that famous Antichrist that filled the Christian world with his noise and terrour Philoth. And that this is the Pope with his Clergie O Cuphophron you that are so scrupulous of the right Rise of the Kingdome of God in the Reformation have a peculiar obligation to believe the Rise and Continuance of the Pope's Sovereignty being by such odious and wicked means as nothing worse can be imagined For that he had no such universal Sovereignty left him by Christ as he pretends to is a thing acknowledged by their own best Historians as by Guicciardine for example in the fourth Book of his History Euist. You mean Philotheus what was left out of all the Latine French and Italian Copies of Guicciardine and was published and printed in those three Languages at Basil by it self in the year 1561. A notable specimen of that foul play which is usual with that Church for the maintaining their own Interest Philoth. I mean the very same Euistor And this I think is very observable in that Excerption that although the Historian rejects the famous Donation of Constantine to Pope Sylvester as a Fiction Some saies he questioning or rather affirming that Constantine did not so much as live in the same Age with Sylvester much less by deed of Gift pass away part of his Empire to him as the City of Rome it self and many other Cities and Countries in Italy namely at that time when changing the Seat of the Empire he betook himself to Byzantium which afterward from him was called Constantinople yet in the conclusion he adds this Nemo tamen negat Imperii Constantinopolin translatione ad Pontificum potentiam viam esse patefactam ex eâque originem habuisse Then which nothing can be a better Commentary on those passages of the Prophecie of the Man of sin 2 Thess. 2.6 7. And now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time and again Onely he that now letteth will lett untill he be taken out of the way and then shall that Wicked one be revealed c. It was the presence of the Emperours at Rome that hindred the Bishop from discovering his Luciferian Ambition and from shewing himself to be the first-born of all the sons of Pride Euist. This is very consonant to the sense of the Fathers who took the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the entireness of the Roman Empire as if the breaking of it would be the bringing in of Antichrist and the Corruption of it the Generation of such a pestiferous Monster But this receding of Constantine to Byzantium is but the first beginning of the completion of this passage of the Prediction touching the removall of that out of the way that hindred the visible growth of Antichrist supposing the Pope to be him It was the Inundation of the Barbarians that did more effectually second his design For Italy being overrun by these though there were for a time also Western Emperours yet they ended in Augustulus and Constantinople became the sole Seat of the Imperial Majesty Which being raised to an extraordinary magnificency was so agreeable to them that after when the Barbarians were driven out of Italy the Emperours never cared to return to Rome but ruled Italy by Exarchs placed at Ravenna who sent meaner Governours under the title of Dukes to reside at Rome Wherefore the meanness of this Secular Power there made the Ecclesiastical shine
had it on it would not have protected the Emperour's neck from being trampled upon by the foot of that insulting Prelate For the Popes have as well made Foot-balls of the Crowns of Emperours as Foot-stools of their Necks Cuph. I know not what you mean Euistor Euist. I reflect upon the manner of Henry the sixth and his Emperesse's Coronation by Pope Celestine the third who put on the Crown upon the Emperour and Emperesse's head with his feet sitting on his Pontifical Chair and as soon as it was on the Emperour's head he kick'd it off again though the Cardinals that stood by were so civil Gentlemen as to reach it up for the Emperour and put it again on his head Cuph. But however he was not so rude to the Emperess as to kick the Crown off of her head I hope Euist. No he was not Cuph. It was a great Civility to that Sex Philop. But do you not see in the mean time O Cuphophron what a lively Picture the Pope is of that Man of sin that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped Cuph. He exalts himself against and above the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Emperours with a witness but how above God Philop. He exalts himself against and above God in autoritatively opposing and cancelling his Laws as is manifest in abundance of Examples of that Religion which he has established as a Law expresly against the Law of God Euist. Bell. de Rom. Pontif lib. 4. cap. 5. And his great Creatures no less then Bellarmine avow this Right of his declaring that he has a power to make that no Sin that is Sin and that if the Pope command Vices and prohibit Vertues the Church ought to believe Vices good and Vertues evil Cuph. This is a most enormous Elation of the Pope to pretend that he can change the immutable nature of Good and Evil. Hyl. He that can transubstantiate Bread into the living Body and real humane presence of Christ so that his natural Body may be totally present in a million of places at once what cannot he doe Philop. I tell you Hylobares he cannot clear himself before any intelligent and impartial Judge from being the most daring and bold Impostour that ever appeared upon the face of the earth Euist. But to satisfie Cuphophron's curiosity a little more palpably If the Pope exalt his own throne above the Throne of Christ does he not manifestly exalt himself above God in the grossest manner one can imagine or expect Cuph. I pray you how is that Euistor Euist. Whose Throne is the Holy Table O Cuphophron if it be not the Throne of Christ's Body Cuph. Indeed they that hold the Bread once consecrated to be the very Body of Christ as the Romanists do must of necessity hold the Holy Table to be the Throne of Christ or his Royal Seat on which his Body resteth Euist. But the feet of the Pope's Chair of State trample upon this Throne of Christ at his Inauguration whence he receives also at that time the Adoration of the astonish'd people and that in the Temple of God materially understood as well as figuratively Cuph. History and Prophecy strangely shake hands together in these things Hyl. XXVII Emperours and Princes how frequently excommunicated by the Pope But I believe in the mean time Euistor you are diverted from pursuing the Examples of the Pope's Insolencies against Emperours in his Excommunicating of them and Deposing them I am so little versed in History my self that I desire to hear you farther on that Subject For these things seem of that hideous consequence in setting all Christendome on broils that methinks the Bishop of Rome should very rarely venture on such exploits Euist. How the Popes of Rome are minded in this point that one Clause in the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England will inform you at once viz. That God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build He pretends this Charter from God And I 'll assure you Hylobares he has not spared to make use of the Privilege as often as he had but any hopes that it would serve his worldly Interest For after Pope Hildebrand had given that outragious example upon the Emperour Henry the fourth both Vrban and Paschal followed that wicked Precedent against the same person and with such hideous circumstances as I above intimated And after this many examples of like Insolency succeeded Calixtus the second excommunicated Henry the fifth Alexander the third Frederick the first as I told you before Innocent the third excommunicated and deposed Iohn King of England and gave his Kingdome to Philip of France as Celestine the third gave the Kingdome of both the Sicilies from Tancred to the Emperour Henry the sixth But for Henry the third King of England never was any man's Superstition so basely abused as his His fear and Superstition kept him indeed from incurring Excommunication but his Submission was such as was below the condition of the vilest person or the pettiest and most contemptible School-boy Cuph. Why I pray Euistor what was it I long to know Was it worse then what Frederick Barbarossa suffered Euist. You shall judge of it Cuphophron your self The fear of the Pope and the awe of Superstition debased the King so far as that so soon as he was within the sight of the Cathedral of Canterbury where that Martyr and Saint Thomas a Beckett lay whom the King was accused to have slain by an angry countenance he put off his shoes as if all the ground at that distance had been holy and in the form of a poor beggar bare-foot and bare-legged and bare-bodied too saving a vile Coat cast about him passed through the City in the sight of the people in this sad habit beating the bare hoof on the stones and dirt of the street till he came to the Sepulchre of the Saint which he had occasioned where he did his Devotions to his Saintship with prayer and fasting in most humble manner Cuph. Verily Euistor I know not whether the Humiliation of Frederick Barbarossa or this of Henry the third be the more tolerable Euist. But you will know Cuphophron For King Henry after he had fasted there a day and a night having not yet satisfied the expectation of his hard Masters and his own Superstition gave his bare body to the Rod of Discipline and the Covent of the Monks of Canterbury being assembled he received of each of them a Lash The Writer of the Life of this rigid Saint saies There were no less then fourscore Monks and that the King received of each of them three stripes Cuph. If this be the difference betwixt the Humiliation of Kings and Emperours for my part I had rather be an Emperour then a King I wonder in my heart how so sour a soul as this Thomas a Beckett if you
description of this future state of the Church from innumerable passages of the Holy Scripture What can be a more glorious or desirable state of the Church of Christ then that described by Isay ch 11. v. 4 c where speaking of Christ's Reign With righteousness saith he shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth and he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Childe shall lead them The sucking Childe shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Childe put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy on all my holy Mountain For the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Philop. This is an excellent state of the Church indeed Philotheus Sophr. Psal. 87.3 Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Philoth. Isa. 2.2 c. Again chap. 2. And it shall come to passe in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths For out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem And he shall judge amongst the Nations and rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more O house of Iacob will the Nations say come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Sophr. Like that concerning the new Ierusalem in the Apocalypse And the Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it Apoc. 21.24 and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory unto it Philoth. But that of the Apocalypse seems more expresly to allude to that of the 60 th of Isay Ver. 1 c. Arise O Sion shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee For behold the darkness shall cover the Earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And at the latter end of that Chapter The Sun shall be no more thy light by day Ver. 19 21 22. neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Thy people also shall be all righteous they shall inherit the Land for ever the Branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I the Lord will hasten it in its time Sophr. I believe to this time also may belong that of Isay 30. Isa. 30.26 Moreover the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound As also that of Zacharie Zach. 12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble amongst them at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Euist. The Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Drusius renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sicut Dii understanding thereby Angels Bath John 1.11 As it is said in S t. Iohn that to as many as believed on him he gave power to become the sons of God And our Saviour Matt. 11.11 though he declared that among them that were born of women there had not risen a greater then Iohn the Baptist yet notwithstanding saith he he that is least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then he Philoth. That is a shrewd Note of Bathynous his upon the Testimonie of our Saviour touching Iohn and such as should urge a man to search deep into his own Conscience as well as it will instruct him how little hitherto there has been of the Kingdome of God in the World But in the mean time Philopolis I think it is pretty plain already what in the general the state of the Church will be in those glorious Times we speak of viz. That there will be spiritual Strength and Righteousness and Peace and Ioy and Security from Wars within the Church and from any Persecution of God's people This for the Quality of the Church VII The Extent thereof But for its Extent it is insinuated that it will be exceeding large as if it would spread over the face of the whole Earth Isa. 11.9 For it is said The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea and that is far and wide And again that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains Chap. 2.2 and that all Nations shall flow unto it Also in that expression A little one shall become a thousand Chap. 60.22 and a small one a strong Nation c. To which you may adde what is foretold by Daniel chap. 2.32 And the Stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth And again chap. 7.26 But the Iudgement shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the end And the Kingdome and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdome under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Accordingly as those voices in Heaven do declare upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Apoc. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Philop. These things Philotheus in the general are very plain and clear But are there not more particular Prefigurations in the Prophetical Writings touching the state of the Church you now discourse of Will the one and twentieth Chapter of the Apocalypse afford no more Particularities then thus Philoth. Probably it may VIII A more particular description of the
some time But Carnality and Externalness especially after the Reign of Constantine quickly over-ran all But however the pattern of Perfection was again recorded in the Vision of S t. Iohn Apoc. 4.2 wherein he saw the Throne of God in Heaven the four and twenty Elders and the four Beasts full of eyes For even in this he was shown also things which must be hereafter Ver. 1. For this is the Heavenly Idea of that state of the Church which will be actually on Earth when the new Ierusalem descends from Heaven and the Tabernacle of God is amongst men and that he dwells in them by his Spirit and by his living Presence Which Community of God's people some conceive may be in some sense represented also by the Sea of glass like unto Crystall before the Throne Ver. 6. as well as by the four Beasts Because Sea signifies the Collection of people into one Kingdome and the fixedness and pellucidity of this Sea may denote the steddiness and purity of the hearts and consciences of God's people whom his Spirit penetrateth and possesseth and the Light of his Presence doth comfort and irradiate and expells out of them all mistiness and darkness of sin and errour Their Conflation is as that of Glass by fire by the fire of Zeal and Charity which has rectified and reduced what-ever is foul and opake but their purity solidity and transparency is as that of Crystall Philop. This were congruous enough if Sea were here understood as in the Prophetick style For those Interpreters that so understand it look upon it as a fixt crystalline Sea But surely this Sea here alludes to the Sea in Solomon's Temple 1. King 7.23 Philoth. In all likelihood Philopolis that is likewise alluded to Apoc. 4.5 the seven Lamps being also mentioned But though we understand this Sea of Crystall in such a sense as the Sea of brass is meant in the Temple of Solomon yet it will again respect the Community of God's people it being that Sea wherein they are baptized into one body It will notwithstanding prove that effectuall Laver of Regeneration that Baptism of Christ which is with the Holy Ghost and with Fire 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And our Saviour Christ declares John 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life But this he spake of the Spirit as it is said elsewhere Apoc. 22.4 And the River of water of Life clear as crystall is said likewise to proceed out of the Throne of God as this Sea of glass to stand before it Philop. 2 Chron. 4.6 But the brazen Sea of Solomon O Philotheus to which this Sea of glass answers was for the Priest to wash in Philoth. I deny it not Onely remember Philopolis that outward washings profit little but that it is the Spirit that cleanseth This is the Laver of the New Birth whereby we are baptized into one body and into one Spirit and into one holy Community of Saints the light of the glorious Presence of God shining quite through this pure Sea of Crystall So that this Spirit of Regeneration and Purification being the same that this Laver or Sea of crystalline water and residing in the Saints of God the Saints of God again or the pure Church is this Sea according to the Prophetick style And the Sea of Solomon seems to have born the title on purpose to meet with this happy Allusion at last I am sure Aretas upon the place saith expresly That Sea signifies an immense multitude So that so far as I see this Type may bear a double Allusion one to the use of Solomon's Sea the other to the signification of the name in the Prophetick style Philop. Nay I am of your minde Philotheus And you know all true Christians are a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 and no man is wash'd by the Spirit but drinks in the Spirit for the Spirit washes us not without but within Philoth. But mistake me not Philopolis I do not mean that the Sea of glass stands primarily for the Hieroglyphick of God's people for the four Beasts are plainly the Hieroglyphick of that Communialty but it stands for the Laver of the Spirit into which the people of God are baptized Which Laver of the Spirit is set off by the effects thereof in that it makes the people of God as this Sea of glass like unto crystall the light of the Spirit of Life penetrating and possessing their pure and pervious hearts and minds as the beams of the Sun do the clearest and most transparent Crystall Philop. I commend your care and accuracy of judgement O Philotheus for you lose nothing of the usefulness of the Representation and yet decline that harshness as it may here seem of having one and the same thing represented by two several Hieroglyphicks in one and the same Vision Philoth. You understand me aright Philop. But I pray you what is the meaning of those seven Lamps of fire burning before the Throne Apoc. 4.5 which are said to be the seven Spirits of God Philoth. To omit all conjectures touching the seven last Sephiroth I shall onely return this answer for the present That the number Seven need not here signifie Numerically but Symbolically denoting the Purity and Immateriality of those Angels or Spirits that watch over the Church and minister to it when that shall be fulfilled in that glorious degree that is foretold Apoc. 21.3 The Tabernacle of God is with men Here the Lamps are distinguishable from the four Beasts but in Ezekiel's Cherub-Chariot the living Creatures themselves are resembled to Lamps Ezek. 〈…〉 because that Vision represented also the actual Kingdome of Angels But yet the Beasts here are described almost just in the same manner the Cherubims are in Ezekiel's Vision which denotes the Angelicalness of this last and best state of the Church The quadriform Genius of those of the Angelicall Kingdome I need not here repeat the Application is easie I will onely pick out some of the most useful Observables in this present description and then goe on As first Apoc. 4.6 That the Beasts are said all of them to be full of eyes before and behinde Which implies that they look backward and forward into the History of times past and into the Prophecies and Predictions of things to come and compute in counsell all possible futurities the better to manage the present affairs of Christ's Kingdome and be provided against every Emergency For in this consists all useful and practicall wisedome Apoc. 4.8 Secondly They are said to have six wings Undoubtedly for that use the Seraphims are said to make of them in the Prophet Isay Isay 6.2 With twain to cover their
the Succession of this Family then they that are still unwholesome and diseased Philop. I think the sounder the better Family as being of a nearer affinity or consanguinity with the most ancient Progenitours of them all And therefore questionless we are not the less of the Succession of the Apostles for cleansing our selves from After-corruptions and reducing our selves to their ancient Apostolick Purity The Succession indeed is continued in the Church of Rome as a diseased Family is the Continuation of the Family of their Ancestours but the Apostolicall Succession is not onely continued but rectified again and perfected in the Reformation So that I conceive there is no hazard at all to Succession in admitting those due but sharp Invectives in the Apocalypse and other places of Scripture to belong to the Church of Rome they all not amounting to the making her no true Church or no Church but an Idolatrous one a Murtherous one and an Imposturous one As an adulterous murtherous and cheating Wife is a Wife and therefore a true Wife till she be dead or divorced Philoth. XXVII That although the Church of Rome were not a true Church yet it follows not but that the Reformed Churches are You understand me right Philopolis But besides this suppose the Miscarriages of the Church of Rome were at last so high and that for some Ages that she plainly ceased to be in any sense a true Church which yet I must confess I cannot believe no more then that the Church of the Iews ceased to be a true Church when they ston'd the Prophets and shamelesly polluted themselves with Idolatry yet the true Church was continued elsewhere and the truest Church of all the Elect of God every-where There was a Woman in the Wilderness when the Church had become a Wilderness Though I must confess this respects rather the Perpetuity of the Church at large then the continued Succession of Pastours But neither do I hold that necessary that every true visible Church should have a visible Succession of Priests from the Apostles to their time The Ierusalem that is said to come down from Heaven will be a true Church Apoc. 21.2 and will be approved to be so though she could not make this Boast in the flesh that she can number a visible Pastoral Succession upon Earth from S t. Peter at Rome or S t. Iames at Ierusalem And suppose at that call of God's people out of Babylon Apoc. 18.4 Come out of her my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues that all the Priesthood had hung together upon Interest and would not have stirred had a whole Kingdome that had reformed without the leave of the Priesthood been no Church nor the Prince had any power to appoint the most able and eminent of his Subjects in the knowledge and practice of Christianity to preside in Rebus sacris in the Affairs of Religion and begin a Succession from them whom we will suppose to order all things according to the Word of God and the Practice of the Apostles and to profess no other Doctrine then what they taught and is evident out of the Scriptures What shall such a Nation as this be no Church for all this in these Circumstances of things O Philopolis Philop. I promise you it is a very nice Controversie Philotheus I know not well what to say to it of a sudden Bath It is a nice point indeed Philopolis But I 'll propound to you a point that is more clear Whether is not every Sovereign Supreme Head of the Church as well in Ecclesiasticall Affairs as in Civil in his own Dominions Philop. Surely he is Bathynous or else he is not absolute Sovereign For I conceive that to be the Supreme to which is committed both the trust and power of ordering all for the welfare of the Subject which consequently must needs include Religion of which therefore of necessity the Supremacy is Judge Whence every supreme Magistrate is if not formally yet eminently as well Priest as King else he were not King or the King not supreme Magistrate as being bound to be ruled by the judgement of the Priest in matters of Religion which unquestionably all Mundane Affairs ought to stoop to Whence it will follow that all Power that does not include the Priesthood in it at least eminently or virtually must stoop to that Judicature But being the Supremacy of any Nation is to stoop to none but God it is plain that he that is Supreme has at least virtually the Sacerdotal Power in himself Bath I profess unto you Philopolis you are so subtil in Politicks that I conceive it will be very hard for any one to evade the force of your arguing Euistor The anointing of Kings and Emperours at their Coronations as also the Emperour's Crown comprehending in it the Episcopal Mitre methinks Bathynous bears a notable Compliance with this Conclusion of Philopolis Cuph. You may as well argue for a communion of Kingship in the Priesthood because the Priests be anointed in the Church of Rome Bath It 's likely they would catch at that greedily enough Cuphophron But in that Kings are crowned as well as anointed Exod. 40.13 15. but Priests anointed and not crowned with royal Crowns it is an intimation that both the Kingship and Priesthood in some sense is in the King but onely the Priesthood in the Priest But a more notable Correspondence then this of Euistor's occurrs to my phancy that is the Vision of the twenty four Elders with the robes of Priests and the Crowns of Kings upon them Apoc. 4.4 which assuredly intimates that in the best state of the Church every Sovereign will be confessedly both Priest and King over his own people Philoth. You say well Bathynous And it is very remarkable in that Vision that there is no one visible Head of the universal Church such as the Pope pretends to be but every Sovereign is there set out as a Kingly Priest or a Priestly King in his own Dominions Philop. Gentlemen you have finely adorned my dry Reasonings with your Historicall and Propheticall Observations all which jointly considered do easily bear me into a full and settled persuasion that every Christian King has so much of the power of the Priesthood in him and of the Autority of our Heavenly King and Priest Christ Iesus that being enlightned with the true belief of the Gospel and being destitute elsewhere of a Priesthood to officiate in the Church or rather of such as may consecrate men to that Function himself may raise a Succession of them by his own power Exod. 29.5 6. and they ordering all things according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostles that the whole Nation yielding obedience to these Precepts and Institutes does ipso facto become a true visible Church of Christ. What think you Bathynous Bath Nay I am abundantly satisfied For you know Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus And it is
the Spirit This is surely the Vnity of the Spirit which all good Christians are exhorted to But how shall we attain to it Philotheus Philoth. This I conceive would confer much thereto if all Opinions and Practices in Religion that either hinder or do not promote the Life of God in the world were universally undervalued by the Church of God For in this Life of God is his Spirit And by this means all opportunity and pretense of any one's shewing himself to be religious but wherein true Religion doth consist being quite cut off men that would be thought at all religious must endeavour the imitation of that Life we speak of to approve themselves such Which they will do very lamely without the presence of the Spirit And all occasions of squabbling and contention about the Shadows and Coverings of Opinions and Forms being thus removed and taken out of the way it will be far easier to perform what the Apostle exhorts to Ephes. 4.3 namely To keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For no man then shall be able to bustle with any credit unless it be in the behalf of what tends to the good of the people of God and of all mankinde But of those externall Coverings hear what the Prophet Isay denounceth Wo to the rebellious children Isa. 30.1 saith the Lord that take counsell but not of me and that cover with a Covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin This is the false Covering of Opinions and Formalities heaped together by the Ignorance or Hypocrisie of men whereby they would hide themselves as Adam from the eyes of their Maker But God has foretold that those of Mount Sion the Souldiers of the Lamb Isa. 25.7 shall destroy the face of the Covering cast over all people and the Veil that is spread over all Nations And then they must either be cloathed with the Covering of the Spirit Apoc. 16.15 or be found stark naked to their open shame as they are forewarned in the last Vial. Thus should we approch nearer to that Type of the best state of the Church figured out in the form of the Cherubims or the four Beasts where the Eagle is conceived to have the foot of an Oxe Isa. 55.2 none of them labour for that which is not bread Wherefore the number of Formalities and Opinions being lessened according to their uselesness and consequently being but few and profitable all the Church will easily understand their importance and truth As all the four Beasts are said to be full of eyes in opposition to that blinde Obedience cried up in the Roman Church and so throughly discerning the same Object and therewithall passing the same judgement upon it are also carried with one joint motion and affection For even their wings are full of eyes as denoting they move not out of any blinde Principle but from a Principle of certain Knowledge Which therefore Philopolis I would in opposition to the Church of Rome who cry up Ignorance as the mother of Devotion make the Seventh Document of holy Policy The Seventh Principle viz. To instruct the People throughly and convincingly of all the Fundamental mysteries of Truth and Interest appertaining to the Kingdome of God They that obtrude Falshood for their own advantage upon the People it is their Interest to keep them in Ignorance But they that are the Assertours of the Truth it is their Interest to have it as fully and fundamentally understood as may be and made clear out of Reason or Scripture And I conceive all Truth that is needfull to Life and Godliness may be in such manner cleared to the unprejudiced Whence it will be a very hard tug to seduce any from the Church to Romanism Infidelity or Atheism Philop. XXXI How the mind of man may arrive to a state of Unprejudicateness I am clearly of your minde Philotheus but all the difficulty is to get to that state of Vnprejudicateness Philoth. If the Son make you free then are you free indeed Sophr. That is not spoken Philotheus of freedome from Prejudice but of freedome from Sin so far as humane Nature can be free * John 8.34 35. Whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever Then follows Ver. 36. If the Son therefore make you free then are you free indeed Philoth. And a little before he saith If ye continue in my word Ver. 31 32. then are ye my Disciples indeed that is to say If ye keep my Commandments And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Whereupon the Iews expostulate with our Saviour We be Abraham's seed Ver. 33. say they and were never in bondage to any how saiest thou then Ye shall be made free Whereupon in that passage O Sophron which you cited he charges them with being servants to sin implying that that was the Prejudice and impediment to their attaining to the Truth in that they lived in sin So that freedome from sin I think in our Saviour's own judgement does infer also freedome from Prejudice that hinders the knowledge of the Truth Wherefore O Philopolis in the Eighth and last place for I will not discourse so now as if I despaired of ever having the opportunity of conferring with you again I shall propose this one Document more not onely very serviceable for the Unity of the Church but the most effectual I know and the most necessary for the bringing on those excellent Times your desire is so carried after Philop. I long to hear it Philotheus Philoth. It is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ The Eighth and last Principle which he has promised to all Believers that by this assistence we may get the conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This Doctrine That we are not onely obliged to an higher pitch of Morality then either Paganism or Judaism did pretend to or could boast of but also that through the Spirit of Christ inhabiting in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon upon the Mount and elsewhere in his Discourses in the Gospels It is this Doctrine I say that must renew the world in righteousness and bring on those glorious Times that so many good men believe and desire This Philopolis is a necessary preparation thereto For what Doctrine but this can reach the Hypocrisie of mens hearts who under colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling-sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian Nay they will quit none of them under pretence we must