Gospel was also spred among the Gentiles the Apostles were so careful to make Collections in all the Churches for the relief of the poor Saints at Ierusalem even those who at the first had disfurnished themselves of all and at whose charges as may be supposed the Gospel was at the beginning preached among the Gentiles Rom. 15. 26 27. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 2 Cor. ch 8 and ch 9. And seeing I have entred thus far into the question of Monkery I will take leave to examine two more Examples which they bring to that purpose though not so near to the matter of my Text as the former Thirdly therefore The Patrons of Monkery alledge the Example of the Rechabites of whom we read Ier. 35. 6 7. that according to an Ordinance wherewith their Father Ionadab bound them they drank no wine built no houses sowed no seed neither planted nor possessed vineyards or fields but lived in tents all their days Which singularity of life seems not only to resemble but to warrant that of Monkery in those two main points of forsaking possessions and abstaining from meats seeing God himself in that place commended those Rechabites for observing this Ordinance of Ionadab their Father But I answer This of the Rechabites was no matter of Religion as that of Monks is but a mere civil Ordinance grounded upon a National custome For the Rechabites were of the race of the Family of Hobab the Kenite Moses's Father-in-law as you may read 1 Chron. 2. 55. Now the Kenites were Midiâ—nites and the Midianites were dwellers in Tents from the beginning This I prove 1. Becauâ—e the Arabiâ—ns of those parts were such both then and still are at this day 2. The Ishmaelites and Midianites dwelt together insomuch that their names are consounded in Scripture or interchangeably used the one for the other For Gen. 37. 25 28. those Merchants to whom Ioseph was sold are promiscuously called sometimes Ishmaelites sometimes Midianites as if they were both one people as indeed they both descended of Abraham the one by his handmaid Hagar the other by his second wife Keturah So Iudg. 8. 24. the Midianites which Gideon vanquished are called Ishmaelites They had saith the Text golden ear-rings for they were Ishmaelites Now it is apparent in Scripture that the Ishmaelites or Hagarens used to dwell in Tents whence 1 Chron. 5. 10. it is said the Reubenites in the daies of Saul made war with the Hagarites who fell by their hand and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the East-land of Cilead Besides of the Ishmaelites were those famous Scenite-Arabians mentioned in Scripture so oft under the name of the Tents of Kedar Such therefore as the Ishmaelites were may we deem the Midianites also to have been who dwelt with them and to put it quite out of doubt we have so much told us in Scripture in the prayer of Habakkuk cha 3. 7. I saw saith he the Tents of Cushan or Arabia in affliction and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble This custome of their Nation and Countrey did that Midian Tribe of the Kenites of which was the Father-in-law of Moses still observe after they came to live in Canaan with the Israelites So we read Iud. 4. 11. that Hober the Kenite which was of the children of Hobab the Father-in-law of Moses severed himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim which is by Kedesh See 1 Chron. 2. 55. according to Hierome And this manner of living they seem to have retained partly for to be a Badge and Cognizance of the Nation whence they were descended and partly to live the more securely in the land where they were strangers either from the envie of the Iews at home or danger of enemies abroad to whom by this means they should be the less subject as having neither houses to fire nor lands to be taken from them but only cattel wherewith they lived and tentsâ— which they removed hither and thither as opportunity served for pasture to feed them Even as Abraham lived while he sojourned as a stranger in the land of Canaan and in imitation of whom being their Ancestor perhaps this custome was derived to the Midianites his children Howsoever at length it seems these Kenites allured by the more pleasant living of the Israelites began to change this custome of their Ancestors which occasioned Ionadab the son of Rechab a famous Kenite to renew it again and bind his posterity to observe it and to that end he forbad them altogether to drink any Wine lest desire thereof might occasion them to plant Vineyards and so to build Houses as the Iews did and so to forsake the custome of their Nation as perhaps licorousness of Wine before had caused many of them to do For certain it is that Ionadeb renewed but that which their Ancestors had observed long before he was born And thus you see it was no order of Religion which they bound themselves unto but a maintenance of a Civil custome And therefore the wild Arabians and Tartars who at this day live in like manner are as good a Pattern to warrant Monkery by as they But there is another Example yet wherein they put great confidence as being established by God himself and that is of the Nazarites in the Law who bound themselves by a solemn vow to a singularity of life not much unlike that of Monks especially those of the ancient form as to separate themselves unto the Lord to drink neither wine nor strong drink nor suffer a razor to come upon their heads and to be accounted in a special manner holy unto God above other men I answer If this be the sample from which Monkery is derived there needs no other Argument utterly to overthrow it and therefore it is as ill chosen as could be For this Law of Nazarism is one of the things expresly named which the Apostles decreed at the Council of Ierusalem should not be imposed upon the Gentiles who believed in Christ. Look Acts 21. where S. Paul having made a Nazarite's Vow at Cenchrea for a certain time according to the manner Iames and the Elders of the Church at Ierusalem advised him to joyn himself with four others who had the like Vow upon them and the time thereof also as Paul's was then to be fulfilled for they were seldom perpetual and to take and purifie himself according to the Law with them that the Iews might take notice he was conformable to the Laws and Orders of his own Nation till God should dissolve the same But as touching the Gentiles saith Iames verse 25. we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing Is not this plain enough If therfore Law of Nazarites be the Pattern of Monkish Orders the Apostles decreed the Gentiles should observe no such thing And for the Iews God hath now also dissolved their Temple and all their Legal Worship THUS much for the first Observation
touching the Necessity and Contingency of these Subordinate Causes That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii in the way of direct and natural subordination But that here the Chain is broken off because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii does beget or produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis in man only contingently and without any necessity And thus è contrà That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coeli does beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperamenti begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii This naturally as before But that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenii should beget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Actionis this is from no necessity because it is in mans power and liberty who is naturally ill-disposed yet through the emprovements of Art and especially by the Grace of God to become good or better as the Divine Goodness shall minister opportunity Which is as much as can be said in so few words and might determine the question to all judicious and knowing men concerning the power of the Stars and those Celestial Influences into and upon this inferior world where their Operations are genuine and natural and properly efficient and where they have their stint and their Nè plus ultrà nothing at all to do unless by a remote disposition which is properly no Cause at all This is enough also to vindicate Man born to Liberty and to command the Stars from that supposed vassalage whereunto the jugling Astrologers of our days would fain subject him and cast the credulous world into a Trance of blindness to believe Lies and Follies and gross Vanities for very Truth 16. But leaving the hot pursuit of Astrological fancies the busie idleness of some even to their old age he applied himself to the more useful study of History and Antiquities particularly to a curious enquiry into those Mysterious Sciences which made the ancient Chaldeans Egyptians and other Nations so famous tracing them as far as he could have any light to guide him in their Oriental Schemes and Figurative expressions as likewise in their Hieroglyphicks not forgetting to enquire also into the Oneirocriticks of the Ancients Which he did the rather because of that affinity which he conceiv'd they might have with the language of the Prophets to the understanding of whom he shew'd a most ardent desire His Humanity-studies and Mathematical labours were but Initial things which he made attendants to the Mysteries of Divinity and though they were Preparatives as he could use them yet were they but at a distance off and more remote to his aim for he had more work to do before he could be Master of his design A well-furnish'd Divine is compounded of more Ingredients than so For Histories of all sorts but those especially which concern the Church of God must be studied and well known and therefore he made his way by the knowledge of all Histories General National Ancient and Modern Sacred and Secular He was a curious and laborious searcher of Antiquities relating to Religion Ethnick Iewish Christian and Mahumetan the fruits of which studious diligence appear visibly in several of those excellent Treatises which have pass'd the Press particularly in his Apostasie of the Latter times The Christian Sacrifice his Discourses upon Daniel his Paraphrase and Notes upon S. Peter's Prophecy and in his great Master-piece those elaborate Commentaries upon the Apocalyps where the Fata Imperii i.e. the Affairs of the Roman State there predicted are to admiration explain'd out of Ethnick Historians and the Fata Ecclesiae illustrated with no less accuracy out of Ecclesiastick Writers His Writings best speak his eminent skill in History yet it may not be amiss to superadde upon this occasion the Testimony of a very judicious person and one of long and inward acquaintance with Mr. Mede and his studies we mean that forementioned ancient Collegue and Consocius of his Mr. W. Chappell who before his going into Ireland was heard thus to express himself That Mr. Mede was as judicious a man in Ecclesiastical Antiquities and as accurately skilled in the first Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latin as any man living 17. Unto Histories he added those necessary attendants which to the knowledge of the more difficult Scriptures must never be wanting viz. an accurate understanding of the Ichnography of the Tabernacle and Temple the Order of the Service of God therein performed as also of the City of Ierusalem together with an exact Topography of the Holy Land besides other Iewish Antiquities Scripture-Chronology and the exact Calculation of Times so far especially as made for the solving or clearing of those difficulties and obscure passages that occur in the Historical part of Scripture which the vulgar Chronologers have perplex'd and the best not fully freed from scruple And how great his abilities were for the Sacred Chronologie may appear to omit other proofs from that clause in a Letter of the then Archbishop of Armagh to him I have entred upon the Determination of the Controversies which concern the Chronology of the Sacred Scripture wherein I shall in many places need your help That great and laborious Work which this equally Learned and Humble Prelate was now entred upon was his Chronologia Sacra wherein he intended to confirm those dispositions of Years and accounts of time he had set down in his Annals of the Old and New Testament lately published by him This Work had exercised his industry for many years and he labour'd in it to the last minute of health he enjoy'd but he lived not to finish it Yet that the fruit of all his travels herein might not die with him so much as he had elaborated was published by the Learned Dr. Barlow Provost of Queen's-Colledge in Oxford whose great care and industry herein did deserve in this place an express celebration For such useful Labours justly entitle a man to the honour of being a Benefactor to the world 18. By the fruit of these Studies particularly by his happy Labours upon the Apocalyps and Prophetical Scriptures what honour our Author purchas'd abroad besides what he gain'd at home among men studious in this way and therefore capable of judging is evident by the many Letters sent him from Learned men in several parts expressing their own and others high esteem of his Writings As the above-mention'd Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher who also acquainted Mr. Mede with the great esteem that another Archbishop in Ireland had for his accurate labours upon the Apocalyps The judicious and moderate Paulus Testardus Pastor of the Reformed Church at Blois in France who was so highly pleas'd with his Clavis Commentationes Apocalypticae as to take the pains amidst his other pressing labours to translate them into French designing the printing of them for the benefit of his Countreymen
year a Tenth of his Gain for the relief of the poor Hereunto he was induced by this Reason besides others set down by him in his Memorials That he might shew his Love and Thankfulness unto God as for raising him from a mean condition to that Wealth he then had so especially for his Spiritual Goodness to him This proportion he constantly set apart and out of this Treasury it was that he so liberally dispens'd upon all just occasions This was his Practice and it was agreeable to his daily Prayer That as God increas'd him in Wealth so he would be pleased withall to increase in him Humility Thankfulness together with a constant Perseverance in that lovely Grace of Charity But what was the issue of all God heard his Prayers and rewarded his Alms but he would fist try him For which is not to be unremember'd he reported it himself that for some space of time some three or four years after that his resolution of setting apart the Tenth of his Gain for Charitable purposes he found no increase nor did it appear that he thrived in the world yet was he not thereby discouraged but still gave bountifully and chearfully And this he did to use his own words out of love to God freely leaving Prosperity in Temporal things to God's good pleasure and conceiving that God in wisdom and Goodness prospered him not thereby to try his Sincerity to him and his Charity to others and that he himself might thereby have experience of his Love to God his Faith Patience and Constancy nor would he forgoe those Evidences hereof that thereby he gain'd for ten thousand times ten thousand times more than they cost him And thus God recompensed his patient continuance in doing good with Inward Blessings and he then thrived in his Spiritual estate if not in his Worldly But from that time forward after this proving of him for a season God abundantly advanced his Temporal estate so that he profess'd he found experimentally those gracious Promises of God to be true of his blessing him that disperseth and giveth to the poor and of the repayment of that with interest that is lent unto the Lord and of the finding again after many days with increase the bread that is cast upon the waters This was his Constant and Stated Charity besides what over and above all went out of his Poors-purse which he never carried out empty that he might ever be doing good Nor did he in all this seek his own Praise but God's that so his Charity might occasion many thanksgivings unto God And therefore when he himself gave to others his usual word was Praise God or when he sent to others any summe to be distributed among the poor his manner was to add in his Letter Will them to praise God for it Iust according to the mind of the Religious Mr. G. Herbert who in his Character of the Country-Parson doth thus express himself When-ever he gives any thing and sees men labour in thanking of him he exacts of them to let him alone and say rather God be praised God be glorified that so the Thanks may go the right way and thither only where they are only due These excellent Memorials of this Merciful mans Charity we thought good to excerp out of the fore-named Funeral Sermon and to present them here though in a more contracted form they being so highly Exemplary and Useful and therefore worthy to be made more publick too good to be lost as else they might be that Sermon being printed many years since and by itself and not extent in the Volume containing his other Sermons 39. But to return to Mr. Mede There were not a few that wonder'd at his Diffusive Charity considering his Incomes were not great for he had nothing but what his place in the Colledge afforded him no Dignity or advantageous Preferment abroad But their wonder might have been lessen'd had they either seriously considered the Promises of Plenty and outward Blessings in this life made by God peculiarly to this Grace of Charity or had they known how great a Summe the prudent charitable man is able to lay up for the poor by a Frugal management of a little Stock But our Author knew it well and by Experience which is the mother of Wisdom the surest way of knowing for our selves and of convincing others Experimentis optimè creditur Accordingly to this purpose upon an occasion which proved expensive to him through the disingenuity of some who yet were obliged to ease him he thus express'd himself I take it patiently and put it among my Erogations of Charity and I thank God I have not been so ill a husband of a poor Fellowship but I can spare so much for pious uses He warily therefore avoided the occasions of unnecessary expences and when he saw others lavishly spending beyond their Income and not wisely proportioning their expences to their Receipts he used to say with a pleasant allusion to that Philosophick term They wanted the Estimative Faculty And indeed in Prudence it was not less than needful for him to husband well his small Stock who employ'd his thoughts and cares his studies and best diligences about other things than Wealth Honour and Pleasure which yet are the things that not a few men pursue eagerly and industriously with all their mind and heart with all their soul and all their strength to the dishonour of their Function if any Clergie-men should be so Secular and Unspiritual in their Disposition and Practice as also to the dishonour of the Doctrine of the Holy Iesus deliver'd in his Sermon in the Mount be they Christians of what denomination soever Besides that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Plurihabitio this covetous ambition greedily hunting after more and more still is contrary to the great and many obligations of our Religion to that High Holy and Heavenly Calling wherewith Christians are called as also to the expectation of that better and enduring substance that great recompence of Reward reserved in Heaven His honest Thrift and Frugality was the more able to administer to his Charity because it was accompanied with a constant Temperance His feeding for the most part was rather to suffice Nature than to allow any pleasure to his Appetite which being usually good sometimes though very seldom he would gratifie with making a larger meal but his ordinary was his Colledge-Commons to which no man was more constant with the smaller sort of Beer the Wine which he drank at the Communion being usually more than he drank all the year besides Which made him merrily to tell them who observ'd the thriving of his Body which in his latter years was very apparent that They might see what Colledge-commons could do And in his both Frugality and Temperance he verified that of the Psalmist A good man will guide his affairs with discretion It being a most approved and experienced Truth That for the enabling a man to
a free and chearful exercise of Christian Charity it is absolutely necessary that he retrench and cut off all needless expences either about Apparel or Diet Building or Sports and Recreations c. Otherwise Frequent or Expensive Treatments Pride and Curiosity about Attire and Dressings will soon make Charity bare and cold make it look pale and meagre and at last quite starve it Where much is laid out upon Back or Belly there will be but little spared for Beneficence Where a man through his Voluptuousness and Sensuality finds himself too dear for himself so that it becomes difficult to maintain his deliciousness it will be thought too grievous to maintain good works for necessary uses as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3. Such a one will be greedily scraping for himself that he may have to consume upon his Lusts rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distribute proportionably to his estate to him that needeth Where so much is solemnly offer'd in Sacrifice as especially at great Feasts to that false God the Belly and the best and fattest is offer'd up and withall the sweetest for large Drink-offerings to that mortal and perishing God there will be but little reserv'd for the Sacrifices of communicating and doing good with which the Eternal and only true God is well pleased But Christian Religion as it designs to cherish and advance every thing that is worthy lovely and useful for the good of man is excellently prepar'd and accommodated to secure the Grace of Charity by obliging to Modesty and Humility sober Frugality and Temperance and in order thereunto to the subjugating of all inordinate Affections to the resolute denying of the clamorous cravings and impetuous desires of the Sensitives Powers the subduing whereof is a great instance of Spiritual Valour inward Health and Strength as on the contrary it is a great Imperfection and Weakness and withal a dishonourable thing for one that owns the name of Christian not to have power over his Sensual appetites but to have impatient desires vehement affections for such or such delicacies and as vehement delights in them to be over-curious and studious for pleasing his Appetites to be enslaved to his Palate enslaved to Wine and serving various pleasures as the Apostle describes the temper of some unworthy Christians Besides it argues a man not to have had so true a Gust of the powers of the world to come nor to be as he ought affected with the Hope of those pure and permanent Felicities in the Future Life which Christianity over and above the present ease and pleasure that accompanies Humility and Temperance here hath more fully brought to light and set before us For were these cordially believed they would work in men a generous disregard of those Sensual enjoyments which too many such is the courseness of their Temper count their Felicity making themselves hereby like the Beasts that perish who if this were Felicity enjoy as much or more of it than Man himself To conclude If men are not so much under the Power of Religion as to deny the solicitations of their inordinate Appetites and bring in subjection the Flesh with the Passions and Lusts thereof to the Spirit they do but Parrot-like and as they are taught talk of Self-denial and Mortifications and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of Pleasures rather than Lovers of God and their Neighbour they plainly and in reality deny the Power of Godliness though they may have the Form of it Whereas if they were under the power and energy of Religion they would find themselves throughly furnished and chearfully dispos'd to every good work So true a Friend is Frâ—gal Temperance so hurtful an Enemy is a Delicious Soft and Luxurious as well as the Covetous humour to that Divine Amiable and universally-Beneficial Grace of Charity 40. And now having spoken of his Charity or Love towards men it aptly falls into this place that we should observe something of his Love towards God wherein yet we need not be so large as in the former Instances for what we have already observ'd of his Character doth abundantly prove it His Meekness Patience Christian Prudence and Moderation and those Two bright Graces of the Greatest magnitude his Humility and Charity are pregnant evidences and real demonstrations of the Love of God dwelling in him Where these Fruits of the Spirit grow and flourish it 's a sure sign that such a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rooted in Love To be Meek and Patient Humble and Lowly in spirit to have an Heart full of Charity and melted into all compassionate endeavours for the good of others even of Enemies these are higher and harder things than to talk of Religion to say Lord Lord to shew much love with their mouth to abound in the external observances of Religion for so did the Pharisees who therefore by their outward specious profession gain'd a great reputation of Sanctity from the world but yet of them our Saviour Christ pronounces freely and smartly I know you that ye have not the Love of God in you a startling and grievous word to the Pharisees then and the like it would be to the Pharisaick Christians to be told so now In brief He testified his Love to God in that which is the most eminent and genuine expression of it viz. an Entire Sincere Uniform and Constant Obedience to his Commandments For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments or according to those two main Characteristicks of the Pure and Vndefiled Religion in S. Iames in Vnspottedness from the world and Charity to the poor and desolate What 's less than this is but Lip-devotion religious Courtship insignificant and empty Complements And whereas he observ'd that too many seem'd to make conscience of the Duties of the First Table but had little or no care of the Duties of the Second he had respect unto both For said he None can be truly Religious towards God that is not truly Honest in his conversation towards his Neighbour Thus he believ'd and thus he practis'd 41. But to superadd some other particular Instances of his Love to God He farther shew'd the Tenderness of this Affection by the Zeal he had for the Honour of God and by the dear regard he express'd to every thing wherein he thought the Divine Interest was concern'd He could in no wise brook the bestowing Religious Worship upon Creatures and therefore with a just severity he would equal the practices of the present Roman Church in their Saint-worship and Image-worship with those of the Israelites in following the ways of Ahab and Ieroboam and constantly asserted That the Great Apostasie or Antichristianism did as to one main part thereof consist in Spiritual Fornication or Idolatry Nor need any Protestant be disturb'd at the word Antichristian or Antichrist so frequently used by our Author when he has to do with the Roman
other yet can they not outwardly be discerned asunder by the eye for because they are incorporated into one external body the outside or visible dimensions which are seen are one and the same But when the Refiner comes and severs them then will each metall appear in his own out-side and his own proper colours whereby they are easily discerned a sunder one from the other Such must the State of the Church needs be when an Apostasie shall rise out of the bowels thereof and such do we affirm was the State of the Church of Christ in that great prevailing Apostasie from which we are separated viz. The purer metal of the Christian body was not outwardly discernible from the base and counterfeit while one out-side covered them both but when the time of refining came them was our Church not first founded in the true Faith God forbid but a part of the Christian body newly refined from such corruptions as Time had gathered as Gold refined begins not then first to be Gold though it began then first to be refined so our Church began not a hundred years ago to be a Church though then it first began to be a Reformed Church And is this any thing more than that which besel the Iewish Church in her frequent Apostasie Was the seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal a visibly-distinguished Society from the rest of the body of Israel were they such as were outwardly known unto others who were not of their Communion nay were they known one to another yea to Elias himself I think no man will easily affirm it Yet were they a distinct Society joyned in the Communion of the same true Worship and in that respect separate from the rest of that Idolatrous body yet nevertheless as far as there was any thing which was found yet remaining for the external Regiment and Ceremonies it is most certain that they could not but be to the eyes of the world of one external body with the rest as receiving the same Circumcision and living under the same Priests and Ceremonies so far forth as any soundness in either of them remainded Nay do not our Adversaries themselves in their good mood grant us as much as we have said though it be because they cannot will nor chuse as is the Proverb For it is a thing chiefly to be considered and remembred in this Quarrel between them and us about the Visibility of the Church it is I say to be considered That when all granted and pleaded on both parts is well examined the point of difference between them and us is only this They hold the glorious Visibility of the true Church to be in present and the overshadowing of the light and eclipsing of the glory thereof under Antichrist to be yet to come at which time of his being in the world they grant and affirm more of the eclipsing and overshadowing of the true Church than we do for our hearts He that reads their conceits of Antichrist shall easily find this to be true For they hold that then the publick exercise of Christian Religion saying of Mass and all shall utterly cease until Antichrist's days be out this is their Tenet We on the contrary hold this clouding of the Church's visibility to have been already and the greatest glory in probability or at least some part thereof to be yet to come So that we both agree That in the great Apostasie the Churche's visibility and glory should cease but we say that this Apostatical time hath been already they say it is yet to come we say that that time was to last many ages they say that when it comes it shall be but three single years and a half Why then are they not ashamed to choke us with this Argument of the Churche's Visibility and glory as though the Church could never be without it when yet themselves confess that there is a time to come when the case will be such that the same Argument may be alledged against the true Church though it were theirs as is now alledged against ours This is too great partiality Seeing therefore the whole Controversie lies in this Whether the Churches great Apostasie be already past or in being or yet to come It is a great deal the quicker course for them and us to examine the condition and quality of both Religion by the Scriptures and not to distract our selves with every point of differences for every Error is not a part of this Apostasie But let us examine our Religion in that point alone wherein the Scripture it self places and limits the quality of this Apostasie namely that it should be Spiritual Fornication or Idolatry for Babylon is not called the Lier of Babylon the â—yrant of Babylon the Heretick of Babylon the â—urtherer of Babylon but the Whore of Babylon It is very like indeed that as Whores have commonly many other foul qualities so may the Spiritual Whore have also Yet as every ill quality of a Whore is not a part of her Whoredom no more is every Error of the Spiritual Whore how gross soever a part of Spiritual Fornication Let us therefore examine her by the Mark which God sets upon her and by that Abomination for which only in a manner if we observe the Scripture God did use to punish and wrathfully complaâ—n of his old people Israel though no doubt they had many other corruptions besides but had they been faithful in that one God could have winked at many other As we know a Husband if his Wife be faithful and true to him in that point which so nearly toucheth his jealousie he will the easier bear with other shrewish conditions Now if the Church of Rome be not an Idolatress or a Spiritual Whore prostituting her self to other gods to stocks and stones and many ways breaking her Faith to her one Lord and Mediator Christ Iesus by committing fornication with I know not how many other Mediators there never was a Whore in the world And certainly if the Church of Rome may herein be justified the Church of Israel had but hard measure to be condemned who could as truly plead that she never forsook the true God altogether only she would worship him in Calves and such Images as other her neighbour-Nations used to do and that though she was for variety yet she reserved the chief place for her Iehovah and in all other respects could as well as the present Roman Church excuse her practice in that kind And yet we know how she is branded by the Prophets for a Whore and not a simple fornicating Whore but an Adulteress and is threatened to be proceeded with and judged as those that break wedlock and shed bloud are judged to have bloud given her in fury and jealousie And such an Example of God's fury and jealousie hath he made them to all the world as no other people how great soever their Idolatries have ever equall'd or come near their sufferings
ignem quem praeparavit illi Deus Angelis ejus priùs inputeum abyssi relegatus cùm◠Revelatio filiorum Dei redemerit conditionem id est creaturam à malo utique vanitati subjectam cùm restitutâ innocentiâ integritate conditionis pecora condixerint bestiis parvuli de serpentibus luserint cùm Pater filio posuerit inimicos sub pedes utique operarios mali Origenes contra Celsum lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpres hîc non bonâ fide egit Idem in Ierem. Hom. 13. Siquis servaverit lavacrum Spiritûs Sancti i.e. ut paulò antè innuerat qui sanctus est neque post fidem magisterium Dei rursum ad scelera conversus est qui mortale peccaetum non commiserit iste in Resurrectionis Primae parte communicat Siquis verò in secunda Resurrectione servatur iste peccator est qui ignis indiget baptismo c. alludit ad illud Mat. 3. 11. Quamobrem cùm talia post mortem nobis residere videamus Scripturas diligenter simul recitantes reponamus eas in cordibus nostris juxta earum vivere praecepta nitamur ut ante excessionis diem si sieri potest peccatorum sordibus sic vocat leviora peccata seu passiones animae ut paulò antè emundati cum sanctis valeamus assumi in Christo Iesu annon respicit 1 Thes. 4. 16 17 cui est gloria imperium in secula seculorum Amen Quamvis non dubito quin Hieronymus qui in Prol. ad Orig. homil in Ezech. fatetur se vertisse 14 Origenis homilias in Ierem. hîc Origenis sententiam nonnihil immutando emolliverit tamen satìs adhuc remanet quo Origenes cum Millenariis sensisse arguatur Methodius Olympi Lyciae deinde Tyri Episcopus in Libro de Resurrectione contra Originem apud Epiphanium Haeres 74. interloquente Procl Et verò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I. M. THE APOSTASY OF THE LATTER TIMES OR THE GENTILES THEOLOGY OF DAEMONS Revived in the LATTER TIMES amongst Christians in Worshipping of Angels Deifying and Invocating of Saints Adoring of Reliques Bowing down to Images and Crosses c. All Which Together with the Original and Progress of this Grand Apostasy Are Represented In several Elaborate DISCOURSES upon 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 c. Howbeit the Spirit speaketh expressely That in the Latter times some shall revolt from the Faith attending to erroneous Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons Through the hypocrisie of Liars having seared consciences Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats By The Pious and Profoundly-Learned IOSEPH MEDE B. D. sometime Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge The Fifth Edition enlarged and corrected in sundry places according to the Authors own Manuscript THE APOSTASY OF THE LATTER TIMES A Treatise on 1 Timothy Chap. 4. Verse 1 2 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which I conceive may be thus Translated Howbeit the Spirit speaketh expresly That in the latter times some shall revolt from the Faith attending to erroneous Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons Through the hypocrisie of Liars having seared consciences Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats c. CHAP. I. The dependance of the Text upon the last verse in the foregoing Chapter Why in the Description of the Mystery of Godliness those words Assumed into Glory are set last A view of the several parts of the Text containing the Method and Order of the insuing Discourse The Author 's 3 Reasons for his rendring the Text differently from the Common Translation THE WORDS I have read are a Prophecie of a Revolt of Christians from the Great Mystery of Christian Worship described in the last verse of the former Chapter which according to the division of the Ancients should be the first of this For that last Verse together with the first six Verses of this and half the seventh verse make the seventh Title or main Section of this Epistle expressed in the Edition of Robert Stephen and so are supposed from the grounds of that division to belong all to one argument The Words therefore of my Text depend upon the last of the former Chapter as the second part of a Discrete proposition That howsoever the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mystery of Christian Religion which is God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels and assumed into Glory though this Mystery was a great one and at that time preached and believed in the world Nevertheless the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaketh expresly That in the latter times there shall be a revolt or departing from this Faith though not in all parts of it yet from a main and fundamental part thereof namely The assumption of this God and Man to the Throne of Glory and incommunicable Majesty in Heaven whereby he hath a Name given him above every Name and whereof no creature in Heaven or in Earth can be capable Which connexion is the reason why the Apostle putteth this Assumption into Glory in the last place of his description which should else in the true order have followed the words justified in the Spirit and been before preached unto the Gentiles and believed on in the world But it is the method of the Scripture sometimes to translate the proper order and to mention that in the last place whereunto it is to joyn and from whence it is to infer the next words that follow after And unless this reason be allowed here there will hardly be found any other reason of this misplacing But more of this shall be both spoken and made better to appear hereafter I come now more near to my Text the words whereof I divide into two parts First A Description of this solemn Apostasie in the first verse Secondly The Manner or Means whereby it was to come to pass in the following verses viz. Through the hypocrisie of Liars who had seared consciences forbade to marry and bade to abstain from meats For the Description of the Apostasie it self we shall find it first Generally and Indefinitely expressed both in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall Apostatize or revolt and in the next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall attend to erroneous Doctrines or Doctrines of errour Then Particularly 1. What these erroneous Doctrines should be for the kind or quality namely new Doctrines of Daemons or a new Idolatry 2. The Persons who should thus apostatize not all but TINE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME 3. The Time when it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the latter times 4. The Proof or warrant of this Prophesie it is that which the Spirit hath else-where long agoe foretold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the written word verbatim totidem verbis or in express words For the second part viz. The Means Consider 1. The Manner or Method used viz. By lying hypocrisie or hypocritical lying 2. The quality and description of the
passage Chap. 2. verse 2. CHRIST IESUS is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world that is not for the sins of us only who are Iews but for the sins of the Gentiles also And doth not the name of General or Catholick Epistle given unto this as well as to those of S. Iames and Peter imply thus much For it cannot be thus called because written to all Christians indefinitely and generally since the contrary expresly appears in the former but because this as well as the rest was written to those of the Circumcision who were not a people confined to any one certain City or Region but dispersed through every Nation as we read in the Acts Chap. 2. verse 5 c. that at the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles There were sojourning at Ierusalem Iews devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia Iudaea and Cappadocia Pontes and Asia and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselytes that is Iews by race and Iews by Religion c. For we must not mistake those here numbred to be Gentiles but Israelites both of the Ten Tribes captivated by Shalmaneser and the other Two some of whom never returned from Babylon but lived still in Mesopotamia but of those who returned great multitudes were dispersed afterwards in Egypt Libya and many other Provinces before the time of our Saviour's appearing in the flesh So that the Apostles of the Circumcision had their Province for largeness not much inferiour to those of the Gentiles But I come to note the places I spake of And first out of the forenamed Epistle of S. Iohn where from that prediction of our Saviour's in the Gospel that the arising of false Prophets should Be one of the near signs of the nigh-approaching End of the Iewish State the Apostle thus refers unto it Chap. 2. verse 18. Little children this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last hour and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the Last time Here by the Last time I suppose no other thing to be meant but the near expiring of Daniel's 70 weeks and with it the approaching End of the Iewish Commonwealth and why might not this Epistle be written in the Last week at the beginning whereof Iesus Ananiae began that woful cry Wo unto Ierusalem and the Temple Ioseph l. 7. Belli Iudaici By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Antichrists are meant no other but false Prophets or Counter-prophets to the Great Prophet pretending an Unction and Commission from Heaven as he had to teach the world some new revelation and doctrine For the name Christ implies the Unction of Prophecy as well as the Unction of a Kingdom and accordingly the name Antichrist and therefore the Syriack here turns it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 False Christs that is such as should falsely pretend some extraordinary Unction of Prophecy like unto him And the coming of such as these our Saviour in S. Matthew's Gospel a Gospel for the Hebrews makes one of the Last signs ushering the destruction of Ierusalem And if the harmony of this Prophecy in the three Evangelists be well considered there was no more to come but the compassing Ierusalem with armies Well therefore might S. Iohn when he saw so many Anti-prophets spring up say Hereby we know that it is the last time Again because the Desolation of the Iewish State and Temple would be a great confirmation of the Christian Faith therefore the believing Iews whom nothing could so much stagger as the standing glory of that Temple and Religion are encouraged by the nearness of that time of expectation when so great a confirmation of their Faith of the Messias already come should appear Hebrews 10. 23 25 Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching namely that day when you shall be sufficiently confirmed So I take the 35 and 37 Verses of the same Chapter â—asi not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry What He is this but even He whom Daniel says The people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary Dan. 9. 26. For even as the destruction of Papal Rome would be a great confirmation of the Reformed Christian who hath forsaken the Communion of that Religion the continuance and supposed stability of the glory thereof being that wherewith their Proctors endeavour most to shake and stagger us So was the destruction of the Iewish State and Temple to be unto those Iews who had withdrawn themselves from that Body and Religion whereof they once had been to embrace the new Faith of the Messiah preached by the Apostles For if at the end of the 70 weeks approaching the Legal Sanctuary were rased and the Iewish State dissolved then would it be apparent indeed That Messiah was already come and slain for sin because this was infallibly to come to pass within the compass and before the expiration of those 70 weeks or 490 years allotted for the last continuance of that City and Sanctuary when it should be restored after the captivity of Babylon Not without cause therefore doth S. Peter in his second Epistle say to the Christian Iews We have a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Yea and besides Because Iesus as well as Daniel had prophesied of the approaching desolation of that City and Temple mentioning all the Sign that were to usher it if the Event when time came should fall out accordingly then must Iesus of Nazareth who foretold the foregoing Signs thereof be approved as a true Prophet by whom of a truth the Lord had spoken Now for the last place that I mean to alledge Because the fall and shock of that State might shake the whole Nation wheresoever dispersed unless God spared the Christians and made them alone happy in that woful day or rather because Christ had foretold that one of the next fore-runners thereof should be a general persecution of Christians as it happened under Nero therefore the remembrance of the End of these 70 weeks so near the expiring was a good caution to all the Christian Iews to watch and pray To this sense therefore I take that of Peter 1 Pet. 4. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End of all approacheth be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer that is The End of all your Commonwealth Legal worship Temple and Service is now within a few years Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer that ye may