Imprimatur Sam. Parker ERRATA In the Pref. to the Exposit. pag. 4. l. 2. Interims read in terms In the Exposit. p. 11. l. 1. r. the Church in Thyatira p. 53. l. 21. r. in Thyatira p. 107. l. 26. r. event In the Antidote p. 11. l. ult for at r. all p. 27. l. 17. r. impossible or p. 91. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Together with A Brief Discourse of IDOLATRY with Application to the Church of ROME By HENRY MORE D. D. PROV 12. 19. The lying tongue is but for a moment but the lip of Truth shall be established for ever London Printed by James Flesher 1669. To the Right Honourable John Lord Robarts Baron of Truro Lord Privy Seal Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and one of his Majestie 's most Honourable Privy COUNCIL My Lord WHat things single are usually thought sufficient to determine ones choice of a Patron to any publick Writing whether it be private Obligation from particular Favours or the Desire of leaving to Posterity a just and honourable Testimony to the Parts and Vertues of some excellent Person or the design of obtaining the Patronage and countenance of such a Person to what we adventure to make publick as is able by his Learning Judgement and publick Repute to protect it from Injury all these do so happily conspire in your Lordship that I should have thought it an Omission unpardonable if I had not taken this opportunity of paying your Lordship this due respect and of doing that right to the Truth I here professe as to put it under the wings of so fit and able a Patron Which still ought to be done with the greater alacrity there being that Providentiall Coincidence of things that I should have a Book ready in the Presse at that very time that our Gracious Sovereign did think good to conferre upon your Lordship that great Honour and Trust of being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Which conjuncture of Circumstances could not but excite me with greater readinesse to make your Lordship this congratulatory Present upon your new Honour Which all good Christians that know the inflexible uprightnesse of your spirit and cordiall adherence to the Apostolick Faith and just Interest of Reformed Christendome cannot but congratulate For this it is indeed My Lord that has begot in me a more special esteem of your Lordship that in this instable and uncertain Age you have with that steadinesse of minde and clearnesse of Judgement stuck to the Truth and Purity of the Protestant Religion as discerning the vast difference betwixt it and Popery which yet too many now-adays either because they are removed too great a distance from all Religion or else because their sight is extremely dim in matters of this nature can not or will not discern But this is spoke with a more particular regard to the second part of this small Volume I present your Lordship withall But the first also has its speciall sutablenesse to the Circumstances your Lordship is placed in For by how much more power any one is intrusted with by any Protestant Prince by so much the more he is concerned to understand how sacred a Province he undertakes and how expresly that Religion and Profession is owned in the Holy Prophecies Christ has delivered to his Church above and against the barbarous and idolatrous Tyrannie of the Church of Rome Which things are set out with that plainnesse evidence and easiness in this Exposition of the Epistles to the Seven Churches that I hope no impartial Reader can fail of being made exceeding sensible of the Sacrednesse of the Protestant Religion and Interest by the perusall thereof Besides that there are some notable Hints in these Oracles for the more happy and secure management of the Affairs of Reformed Christendome I shall onely name that passage to the Sardian Church Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast c. The Verse runs out into a dreadfull Commination of heavy Judgements to the Angel of the Church of Sardis for his loosenesse and slipperinesse in those points of Apostolick Doctrine which the Reformers had recovered into the knowledge of so great a part of the world And amongst the things that they had heard that voice of the Angel Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins c. was not the least articulate Whereby the Church of Rome was openly declared to be that Babylong the Great the Mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth as also the Pope with his Clergie to be that notorious Antichrist This the Sardian Church had received from their Evangelicall Predecessours And it had been their everlasting establishment never to have for got it never to have let it die or smothered it But what mischief the halting betwixt two Opinions is apt to doe and the not taking notice how sacred a thing the Protestant Religion is in the sight of God and how rejectaneous that of the Church of Rome I believe neither your Lordship nor any one else that has his eyes opened either into History or the Affairs of the world can be ignorant of or if he be a good Christian make the observation without regrett and sorrow But the Prospect of what is to come is more pleasing and comfortable which is the state of the Church of Philadelphia into which the Sardian Church that is to say Reformed Christendome or the Protestant Churches are to passe as being the next successive Intervall Which therefore cannot but be a Note of main importance for all Reformed States and Kingdomes to stear their Affairs by namely to bend their course thitherward whither they are pointed to by the Finger of God himself in his Holy Oracles For they sail as it were with winde and tide whose carriage of Affairs approaches the nearest to the purpose of Divine Fate Which is lively pourtray'd all along in this stupendious Book of Prophecies written by S. John The most pleasing and enravishing part whereof is that which is typify'd or prefigured by the Church of Philadelphia the Church of Brotherly love Which is the next Scene Divine Providence has designed to introduce And which all those do most grosly oppose who for difference in matters not revealed in holy Scripture nor necessary to Salvation think they have pretense enough with all unchristian keennesse and bitternesse of spirit to reproach and inveigh one against another to nourish the highest Animosities and to watch all opportunities of persecuting ruining and trampling one another into the Dirt. As this is extremely unchristian in it self so is it also diametrically opposite to that Dispensation that God intends to introduce into his Church as the chiefest Blessing he has in store for her and is as it were knocking at the door to enter if the lovd noise of hot and quarrelsome Brawls about matters of smaller moment as indeed all things are exceeding small
Servius saith Grotius upon Apoc. 1. 11. whence he would have the Church in Pergamus to re-mind us of high and heavenly things But this is a Moral not a Propheticall sense But with him howsoever I acknowledge that the signification of Sublimity is alluded to in the general but here most elegantly and seasonably in reference to the precedent state of the Church in Smyrna which was a state of Humiliation and bitter Affliction But at the very beginning of this present Intervall she so conspicuously emerging out of this low sad affictive state into the state of glory peace and prosperity what can be more significant then to salute her with the Title of the Church in Pergamus accordingly as she is here saluted which is a kind of Congratulation to her fresh emergency out of her late Miseries And this sense will hold good for a time in this Intervall namely till tho days of her Apostasy but then the Apostolick Church will be the Church in Pergamus still but in another kind of meaning 4. According therefore to the richnesse of the Prophetick style Pergamus has also another sense such as the City Babylon and the City Tyrus which are put for the City of Rome But then not in such a sense as to mean the Walls or Stones of the Roman City but the Roman Church and her Power and Jurisdiction And in such a sense is Pergamus also here put for Rome So that this Epistle written to the Church of Christ in Pergamus the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church is directed to this Church dwelling under the Roman Church or within the Roman Churche's Jurisdiction understanding old Rome especially as all such Apocalyptick Visions perstringe her most Now that Rome in this sense is perstringed by this Pergamus is very evident First in the easie Allusion of Pergamus to Rome from the signification of the words For as Pergamus signifies Sublimity so as Martinius notes Rome is from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exaltari Besides that her Situation is high and Buildings lofty according to that of the Poet Collibus è septem totum circumspicit orbem And the highest of all is the Bishop of Rome himself who exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped Is not this therefore a fit Bishop of Pergamus that perks thus above all Kings and Emperours and Princes of the earth And our Intervall of the Church of Pergamus reaches the highest times of her Exaltation it taking in both Gregory the seventh who first excommunicated the Emperour and took upon him the power of making Emperours himself and Alexander the third who trode upon the neck of the Emperour Frederick as also Caelestine the third that crowned Henry the sixth and his Empress with his feet and in scorn kick'd the Emperour's Crown off with his foot when he had crowned him Certainly the Popes of Rome were then the Bishops of Pergamus with a witnesse Nor after this Intervall could they ever hold their Crests so high Boniface the eighth indeed was a Blusterer and excommunicated Philip the Fair of France but he called him fool for his pains and handled him in such sort that surprized at Anagnia he was disgracefully mounted on a poor Jade and so carried prisoner to Rome where Pride and Regret broke his heart and so he there dy'd ingloriously But secondly It is said of this Pergamus that it was the most given to Idolatry of all the Cities of Asia so Andreas Cesariensis reports of it which is the notorious Character of Rome above all Cities and therefore elsewhere in the Apocalypse she is called the Whore of Babylon for her insatiable spiritual Fornications Thirdly These Pergamenians were very fierce and diligent Accusers of the Apostolick Christians to bring them to Martyrdome as Dr. Hammond upon the place notes out of ancient History For which also Rome is taxed elsewhere in the Apocalypse who is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Fourthly It is recorded of the Prefect of this City Pergamus that he would persuade the Christians to forsake the Apostolick Faith and return to Heathenism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the elder Religion was the more precious and to be preferred As Antiquity is the great Pretense of the Papal Church That Prefect said of Christianity that it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it began but the other day And so you may be sure the Church of Rome said of the Religion of the Waldenses and Albigenses See Dr. Hammond upon the place And lastly That it should be the Martyr Antipas that was slain in Pergamus can any name more directly and assuredly point at the Church of Rome or the Papal Church then this For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Father and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Papa â—â— but a Reduplication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eustathius has noted and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much as against And therefore who can be so blind as not to discern how fit a Type this Antipas is of them that within this Intervall of the Church should suffer for being against that holy Father the Pope as he is called Nothing can sound more congruously or harmoniously whatever any man by way of cavill can say against it The main Interpretation therefore of this present Epistle to the Church in Pergamus will respect the pure Apostolick Church abiding within the Jurisdiction of the Roman as this sense plainly implies the Woman in the wildernesse as the Holy Ghost elsewhere expresses it These things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges Christ is set out thus in this Epistle to the Church in Pergamns because this Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God understood and rellished by the Divine Spirit in us was the main Weapon whereby the Church in Pergamus defended her self from the Pergamenian Corruptions and so kept her self pure from the false Glosses and unsound Traditions of either Superstitious men or crafty Deceivers 5. I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth That is to say I know thou doest well for the main and to thy greater commendation I consider where thou dwellest even where the first-born of Lucifer has his throne he that exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So Christ compares Satan to Lucifer or the King of Babylon of whom the Prophet says How art thou fallen Lucifer thou son of the Morning Luke 10. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven And yet neither the awe nor glory of that Church could cause thee to forsake my Name and in stead of being a true Christian to become a Member of Antichrist and so relinquish the pure Apostolick Faith no not
the Devil according as is foretold concerning the coming of Antichrist that Man of Sin which the Pope and his Clergy most assuredly is namely that his coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders So that they glory in their own shame and boast themselves in the known Character of Antichrist and would prove themselves to be Holy Church by pretending to the Privileges of that Man of Sin and by appealing to the palpable signs of the Assistence of the Devil For from thence are all Miracles that are produced in favour of Practices that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures 16. But now as for their Sanctity what an holy Church they are any one may judge upon the reading of the Lives of their Popes and History of their Cardinals and other Religious Orders of that Church of Rome how rankly all things smell of Fraud and Imposture of Pride and Covetousnesse of Ostentation and Hypocrisy what monstrous examples of Sensuality their Holinesses themselves have ordinarily been of Fornication and Adultery of Incest and Sodomie to say nothing of Simonie and that infernall sin of Necromancy But for Murther and Idolatry those horrid Crimes are not onely made familiar to them but have passed into a Law with them and are interwoven into the very Essence of their Religion Judge then how holy that Church must be whose Religion is the establishment of Idolatry and Murther Of the latter of which Crimes the holy Inquisition is an Instance with a witness And yet that Den of Murtherers whose Office it is to kill men for not committing Idolatry with the Church of Rome must needs bear the title of Holy 17. And for their pretense of Infallibility it is expresly predicted in the Apocalypse of S. John as well as their laying claim to Miracles For as the two-horned Beast is said to doe great Wonders and to bring fire from Heaven which two-horned Beast is the Pope and his Clergy so Jezebel which is the same Hierarchy is called the Woman that gives to her self the title of a Prophetesse whose Oracles you know must be infallible For she does not mean that she is a false Prophetesse though indeed and in truth she is so And the Pope with his Clergy is judged to be so by the Spirit of God in that he is called the false Prophet as well as the two-horned Beast in those Visions of S. John And while he pretends himself to be a Prophet even without Divine Revelation one may plainly demonstrate that he is a false one from this one notorious Instance of Transubstantiation which is a Doctrine repugnant to common Sense and Reason and all the Faculties of the Mind of man and bears a contradiction to the most plain and indubitable Principles of all Arts and Sciences as I have proved above So that we may be more sure that this is false then that we feel our own bodies or can tell our toes and fingers on our hands and feet Judge then therefore whether is more likely that the Church of Rome should be infallible or Transubstantiation a mere Figment especially it being so serviceable for their worldly Advantages and they being taken tardy in so many Impostures and Deceits So that Infallibility is a mere Boast 18. And now for their Sacerdotal Absolution that they can so safely dismisse men to Heaven or secure them from Hell thereby this power of their Priest is such another vain Boast as that of Transubstantiation Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdome of God And the form of words upon one's Death-bed can no more regenerate any one then their Quinqueverbiall Charm can transubstantiate the Bread and Wine into the Body and Bloud of Christ. Where the form of Absolution has any effect it must be on such persons as are already really regenerate and unfeignedly and sincerely penitent which I have shewn to be incompetible to any one so long and so far forth as he adheres to the Roman Church So that in this case one AEthiopian does but wash another which is labour spent in vain There must be a change of Nature or no externall Ceremonie nor words can doe any thing For the form of Absolution is not a Charm as I said to change the nature of things but onely a Ticket to passe Guards and Scouts and to procure safe Conduct to the Heavenly Regions But if by Regeneration and due Repentance one has not contracted an alliance and affinity with the Saints and Angels but is really still involved in the impure and Hellish nature the grim Officers of that dark Kingdome will most certainly challenge their own and they will be sure to carry that Soul captive into a sutable place let the flattering Priest have dismissed her hence with the fairest and most hopefull circumstances he could This is the most hideous the most dangerous and the most perfidious Cheat of that Church of Rome that ever she could light on for the damning of poor credulous Souls that thus superstitiously depend on the vain breath of their Priest for the security of their Salvation 19. And yet they are not content with this Device alone to lull men secure in wickednesse but besides their pretense of singing them out of Purgatory by mercenary Masses and pecuniarie Redemptions by Pardons and Indulgences and I know not what Trumperies they allure men to come into their Church as having that great Store and Treasury of the Merits of Holy men and women their works of Supererogation which they pretend to have the keeping and disposing of So that a poor Soul that is bankrupt of her self and has no stock of Good works of her own may sufficiently be furnished for love or money by the Merchants of this Store-house Which besides that it is a blasphemous Derogation to the Merits of Christ is the grossest Falshood that ever was uttered For these Holy men as they are called and Virgins were God wot themselves most miserable Sinners and died in most horrid Idolatries as dying in the Practices of that Church and he that comes to that Church does necessarily become a grosse Idolater himself besides that he sets to his seal and makes himself accessory to all that innocent bloud the bloud of those many hundred thousands of Martyrs for the Protestant Truth which that Woman of bloud that sits on the Seven Hills has with the most execrable Circumstances imaginable so frequently murthered So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt so far is she from having any relief or advantage by reconciling her self to the Church of Rome 20. Wherefore who-ever thou art that hast any sense or solicitude for thy future state and Salvation believe not this Woman of subtil lips and a deceitfull heart and give no credit to her Fictions and high Pretensions but the more she goes about to magnifie her self
ought to be as much concerned as that particular Church of Sardis was in Asia minor And this intention of the Holy Ghost being once understood it will be of the like usefulness to the Philadelphian Church especially and also to the Laodicean Wherefore the Objections were but small considering the Usefulness of this Epistolar way though there were no other sense of these seven Epistles and the seven Churches but the mysticall For as in an entire Vision where the beginning is touching something past or present all goes under the Title of Propheticall though that part that respects things past is but Historicall Representation so in this entire Epistolar Vision though the first part be Epistolar yet it is but Historicall Representation exhibiting times and persons past as if they were present to be writ to and that for uniformity sake in the form of an Epistle as what is past in History under the form of Propheticall Vision as the Rider of the white Horse which is the first in the Vision of the Seals though the Representation was of what was partly past and partly present But what is to come is the proper object of all Vision Propheticall But now besides all this in the Literal sense there being then a Church in Ephesus when that Epistle was wrote to it and in a Moral sense it being applicable to any Church that does Ephesize in any part of Christendome and at any time the Objection in my judgment has melted into less then nothing And therefore notwithstanding this exception we will not stick to place the end of the Interval of the Ephesine Succession in the tenth of Nero's Reign and in the year of Christ 63. Till then let the Church of Christ be represented under the Title of Ephesus from that time till about three hundred and odd years after Christ under the name of Smyrna from thence to the latter end of the Persecution of the Albigenses and Waldenses let her be the Church dwelling in Pergamus from that time till whole Nations fell off from the Pope let the same Church bear the name of Thyatira from that time Protestantisme became the Religion of Nations till the last Vial let this Church bear the Title of the Church in Sardis from that time till the fourth Thunder let it wear the name of Philadelphia from the fourth Thunder till Christ come visibly to Judgement in the clouds let the Church bear the name of Laodicea These are the seven Intervals which how well they will fit with the Titles of these distinct successive States of the Church and the things spoken of them in the Vision I will anon endeavour to unfold CHAP. II. A farther Preparation out of the first Chapter of the Apocalypse whereby this Propheticall meaning of the Vision of the Seven Churches is more clearly assured BUT in the mean time for the greater assurance of this Propheticall or Mysticall sense we will first make some farther Remarks upon the first Chapter of the Apocalypso Where we will make onely this one modest Supposition that the Spirit of God sets down nothing immethodically nor in vain or at least nothing vainly immethodicall Wherefore upon the very first Verse which bears the Title of the whole Book The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass that is things to come to pass some shortly and other some in succession of time as all Interpreters agree I cannot but note this That if the Spirit of God do but respicere Titulum as most certainly he will he will set down no entire Visions as this of the Seven Churches is but they must in the main be of things to come to pass not of things present merely and not hid but obvious to the eyes of men as the State of the Churches here mentioned was to the world at that time And therefore something farther must be meant by them then can be contained in the Literal sense which is not of things to come as the Title requires but onely of things present or some Promises or Threatnings that do not properly amount to the nature of Prophetical prediction no more then the Law of Moses to which they are annexed 2. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the word of this Prophecy for the time is at hand This again plainly shews that this Book is all of it I mean all the entire Visions thereof a Book of Prophecies which as I intimated before mere Promises and Threatnings cannot make it no more then they do those Laws of Moses to which they are adjoyned And though the several States of the Seven Churches may be applicable to several states of particular Churches of after-Ages in Christendome l yet it cannot properly be in this Literal sense by way of Prediction but of Example of Vertue or Vice of pious or impious Actions which repeatedly happen in all History Whence if there be no more in it then thus these Epistles to the Seven Churches cannot be deemed any Prophecy and therefore are heterogeneous to the Scope and Title of the Book 3. But upon the so expresly calling this a Book of Prophecies for John to salute the Seven Churches in Asia with this Salutation Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come methinks it does even forcibly drive a man to conceive that the Vision of the Seven Churches which he so immediately falls upon is a Prophecy according to the title immediately mentioned in the foregoing Verse Besides that the description of the party in whose name he salutes them which is and which was and which is to come does very naturally insinuate that he is treating of what reaches from the beginning of the Church to the latest Ages thereof Which he insists more upon in the seventh Verse after he has spoken of the person of Christ Behold he cometh with the clouds this reaches the last Period of Laodicea when God will judge all people and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him for the Earth shall then be burnt up with the works thereof Even so Amen This will certainly come to pass about the seventh Thunder in that dark hollow Dungeon where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth let the sons of Infidelity or Unbelief conceit what they will to the contrary Wherefore the minde and scope of the spirit of Prophecy seems here to be carried out even to the utmost Ages of the world 4. According as he declares in the next Verse I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty That Wisedome and Power that reaches from one end to another mightily and sweetly orders all things This methinks strongly insinuates that the Vision of the Seven
resolved also farther to fight against your Adversaries the Pergamenians or Romanists with the Sword of my mouth till I cut off great branches from the body of that far-spreading Tree and dismember whole Nations from the Community of that idolatrous Church by the power of the Word and the preaching of the Gospel This is that which is predictory of some Events to happen in the following Intervall according to the Genius of these Epistles 9. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna The Promise here following the Epiphonema He that hath an ear to hear let him hear must according to the Rule signifie Theologically or Spiritually not Physically or Politically Wherefore the sense is Those of Pergamus indeed pretend that when they give that white and sweet Consecrated Wafer into the mouths of their Communicants they give them the true Manna my very Body and Bloud which was shed on the Crosse and my very Flesh that was there crucified and broken for them whenas notwithstanding they order their Eucharist so that they turn my Supper into a Feast of Idolothyta and make the partakers thereof guilty of Idolatry or spiritual Fornication forasmuch as they give Divine Worship to that which is not God So that as in the case of Balaam the Israelites were to eat things sacrificed to Idols in order to carnal Fornication so they that partake of this perverted Eucharist are necessarily ipso facto especially since the fourth Laterane Council drawn into spiritual Fornication or Idolatry But he that is courageous and abstains from this illicit Communion and through Faith overcomes all Difficulties for the quitting that outward white visible Wafer I will give him to eat of the hidden Manna of that true spiritual Manna mentioned John 6. For my flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drink indeed But the words I there speak they are spirit and they are life Or if he die in the Cause I will give him the hidden Manna even the invisible food of Angels and his Soul shall passe into the society of the blessed Genii and Holy Souls of Saints departed this life 10. And I will give him a white Stone and in the Stone a new Name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it That is to say Though he be accused and reproached for an Heretick and Schismatick in the Church of Pergamus where Satan the Accuser dwells yet I will give him a white Stone and quit him in judgement and establish the joy and peace of a good Conscience unto him Or thus I will give him a white Stone in which there is a new Name written that is his Old man shall be throughly crucified and he shall attain to the state of the New man in the purity thereof and enjoy that inestimable Jewel of the Divine Nature pure and permanent which no man knows the excellency of till he be made partaker thereof I will consummate Regeneration to him either in this life or upon his passage into the other state if he be snatched away by a sudden Martyrdome And this will more then countervail all the Injuries the lofty Church of Pergamus can doe to him in life goods or good name CHAP. VI. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira 1. AND to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write The true Church of Christ is still in the power and within the Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome and therefore as Rome has been set out by the City of Babylon Tyre and Pergamus so is it here in this Intervall necessarily to be understood by the City of Thyatira I mean in such a sense as it was by the City of Pergamus That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence both Strabo and Pliny and others that are Criticks fetch the reason of the name Thyatira is alluded to I am inclinable to think from those Authorities and that the Womanishnesse of the Church of Rome in this Period is perstringed That her Softnesse and Luxury was more then ordinarily increased in this Intervall is not to be doubted as certainly her Covetousnesse as also her prankings and adornings in the splendour of their Altars and Churches and Copes and the like Which could not be so continuedly and so high in the former Intervall But here all along she may well be looked upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filia delicatula a delicate Damosel indeed sitting like a Queen and knowing no sorrow when a little before she was like to be over-run by the Waldenses and Albigenses and was fain to enter the Field and fight manfully for her own safety A little after the beginning of this Intervall did Innocent the fourth appoint in the Council at Lyons that the Cardinals should go in their Rosie-coloured Hats and Robes and ride upon Horses with Furniture and Trappings sutable to the greatnesse of their Order and delicacy of their Condition And the Mitre of Paul the second is taken speciall notice of for the exceeding preciousnesse of the Jewels therein And no doubt there was the like encrease of the Ecclesiastick Bravery every-where A little before the beginning of this Intervall did Honorius the third appoint the Carmelites to goe in white that they might look more Maiden-like and decreed that they should be called the Family of the Virgin And the Franciscans and Dominicans are notorious all along this Intervall who had the Virgin Mary for their peculiar Patronesse And indeed within this Intervall the Roman Church ran so much in the seminine strain that they generally professed themselves more under the Government and Providence of our Lady then of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gregory the ninth a little before the beginning of this present Intervall ordained that Salve Regina an Hymn to the blessed Virgin should be sung in all Churches Boniface the eighth in the year 1293 composed that Oraison Ave Virgo gloriosa and in the year 1470 the Mary Psalter and her Rosarie were composed by Alanus de Rupe 2. And how feminine this Church was in this Intervall the observations of that excellent Person Sr. Edwyn Sandys though after the expiration thereof when one would think they should in Policy have been more castigate in their Religion will give us fully to understand The honour faith he which they doe to the Virgin Mary is double for the most part unto that which they doe unto our Saviour Where one professes himself a Devoto or peculiar Servant of our Lord whole Towns are the Devoti of our Lady The stateliest Churches are hers lightly and in Churches hers the fairest Altars Where one prayeth before the Crucifix two before her Image where one voweth to Christ ten vow to her and for one Miracle reported to be wrought by the Crucifix not so sew perhaps as an hundred are voiced upon the Images of the Virgin Their Devils in Exorcism are also taught to endure the name of God or the Trinity without trouble but at the naming
of our Lady to tosse and seem much tormented Where one fasts on Friday upon the account of the Passion of our Lord many fast on Saturday upon the account of his Mother And to their Beads they string up ten Salutations of our Lady to one of our Lord's Prayers The Bell also which is rung at Sun-rise at Noon and Sun-set is called the Ave-Mary Bell whereby all men every-where at those set times might be engaged to doe their Devotions to the Virgin Mary And lastly their chief Preachers do teach in Pulpit whatsoever is found in Scripture spoken of Christ the Son of God to apply it to our Lady also as being the Daughter of God Is not therefore the Church of Rome rightly called Thyatira as alluding to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which both Strabo and Pliny would have to be the reason of the name of that City 3. I will onely adde one thing more Alsledius calls this Intervall of time which we attribute to the Church of Thyatira Regnum Locustarum because of the variety of the Orders of Monks that started up within this time Therefore when the Church of Rome swarmed so with Monks and Friers that had abjured their Virility by an irrevocable Vow of Caelibate and went in sculking Hoods and long Coats like Women and so became Petticoat-men at the best was it not very congruous for the Spirit of Prophecy by way of just reproach to this Womanishness so to characterize the Church of Rome at this time by calling her Thyatira as if they had become rather the Daughters of men then the Sons of men by this so general Effeminacy in more then those Monkish garbs which I now mention Besides that these Petticoat-men the Dominicans especially managed their opposition against the true Church in a right feminine manner not manly as before by meeting their enemy in the Field but sneakingly by Perfidiousness and Treachery to bring them into the Inquisition and then cruelly and insultingly in the upshot as it is easie to understand by reading the History of the Holy Inquisition as they call it Therefore there being all these symptoms of Feminity in the Church of Rome in this Intervall it is not unreasonable to conceive that this corruption of hers is perstringed by calling her the City of Thyatira alluding to Thygatira which signifies not a son of Adam but a daughter 4. But were it not for the Authority of Strabo and Pliny there is another paronomastical Allusion which I should prefer before this Wherefore according to the richnesse of the Prophetick style I should also conceive Thyatira to allude to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to break or bruise Aromatick Spices which makes them give the sweeter savour or else to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altars for the burning of sweet Odours Any of which methinks is lesse forced then either Grotius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Strabo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as to the sense the Paronomasia is very expressive of the Persecutions of the true Members of Christ within this Intervall and agrees exactly with History wherein there is little talk of flaying with the Sword as is intimated in that expression in the foregoing Intervall where the Martyr Antipas is said to be slain which agrees admirably well with that great Slaughter of the Waldenses and the Albigenses which were martyred in the Field by the Pontifician Forces as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to slay suppose with the Sword or any such weapon of War 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Persecutions in the Thyatirian Intervall were usually Burnings or Rackings and wasting away their lives in miserable Imprisonments But that which was most frequent and most famous in this Period was the burning of men alive with Fire and faggot This filled Thyatira with so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where though the Cruelty of the Persecutors was most execrable yet the Faith Constancy and devout Sincerity of our blessed Protestant Martyrs went up with the flames and globes of Smoak sweeter then any Odours or Incense from the Altar into the presence of Heaven and were there accepted for his sake who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favour 5. The frequency of these Burnt-offerings in those times is noted by Sanderus a Papist Infinitos Lolhardos Sacramentarios in tota Europa nuper ignibus traditos fuisse But nothing can be so significative of the change of the Scene of the Persecution of the Church in Pergamus where Antipas was slain to this in Thyatira whereby these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are alluded to as that passage in the History of the Albigenses lib. 2. c. 9. which gave me occasion to terminate the Pergamenian Intervall in that year viz. 1242. Here you see saith he the last Attempt which we finde the Albigenses to have made and the last Expedition of Pilgrims levied against them All the pursuit against them afterwards was by the Monks the Inquisitours the Dominicans he means of whose Father Dominicus his Mother when she went with child with him dream'd she was big of a Dog that vomited fire out of his throat which Monks saith he now kindled their Fires more then ever And taking these poor people disarmed and singling them out by retail it was impossible for them any longer to subsist And so this suffering Church of Christ passed out of that state where Antipas was slain with the Sword to that of Thyatira where the holy Martyrs of our Reformed Religion were burnt at the Stake And this I think will suffice to make us understand why the Power and Jurisdiction of the Roman Church in this Intervall bears the Title of Thyatira 6. These things saith the Son of God who hath his eys like to a flame of fire and his feet are like fine brasse The Son of God is here Christ either personally or mystically understood for his Body the Church Understanding it personally of Christ his flaming Eyes denote his piercing and discerning Foresight and Providence it portends also his Wrath and Vengeance against the Persecutors of his Church with Fire and faggot but his Feet like fine brasse the peremptory Constancy amd Purity of his ways But if we understand these Feet like fine brasse of Christ's mysticall Body we are to make a supply of the Description out of the former Chapter ver 15. And his feet like fine brass as if they burned in a furnace whereby is insinuated the fiery Trial of his Church in this Intervall of Thyatira even in the grossest sense so many of his Servants standing at the Stake with their leggs in the midst of flaming Fire kindled by their barbarous Persecutors That the Son of God described in the foregoing Chapter is also representative of his Body mysticall the description of his Voice seems plainly to intimate His Voice being compared to the sound of
many Waters that insinuates that this Description respects also his Body Mysticall which are a multitude 7. I know thy works and charity and service and faith The true Church then in Thyatira being in Oppression and Affliction stood close to one another and encouraged and comforted one another and supported one another as well as they could and endeavoured after an Exemplarity of Godlinesse and due proficiency in the Power of Religion as being Candidates for that Deliverance which they by Faith saw was not far off And thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first That is I see the works of thy Patience in suffering Imprisonment Tortures and Death and particularly in giving up your selves as an Oblation of Incense to the Fire and faggot in such numbers for the testimony of my Truth Which being toward the latter end of this Intervall it is fitly said and the last to be more then the first This is according to what is found in History 8. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess c. viz. the Papal Hierarchy that pretends to be infallible and under colour of this brings in Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication and detains men in the Communion of their idolatrous Mass which the Spirit of God here parallels to the eating of things sacrificed unto Idols The Prophetesse Jezebel here therefore answers to the false Prophet after mentioned in the Revelations and this exprobration to the Church in Thyatira of permitting Jezebel thus to practice her deceits to that voice of the Angel Come out of her my people lest ye be partakers of her sins and of her plagues It is a kind of solicitation of the Princes and people in Christendome such as discerned the Frauds and Idolatries of the Roman Church to make a Defection from her and suffer her Trumperies no longer For the time of that Defection now drew near and things were ripe for it and it was in the power of them that disliked the condition of Affairs to amend it and therefore he saith Because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel For it is no fault in us to suffer those things which it is not in our power to help or redresse 9. This Jezebel is very expressive of the Roman Hierarchy if we recurr to the story of the book of the Kings not onely for her painting of her self which is notorious in the Roman Church and especially in this Intervall and such as the Homilies of our Church in England take especial notice of comparing all those rich and gorgeous Adornings of the Church of Rome to the painting of the wrinkled face of an Harlot but also for her Whoredomes and Witchcraft as it is noted 1 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy Mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many Which is exactly parallel to the Description of the Whore of Babylon who is said to be the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the earth described also by that Cup of Sorcery in her hand whereby she intoxicates the Kings of the Earth and makes them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication And whereas she is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Jezebel also in her History is famous for murthering the Prophets of God 10. And those grosse Wickednesses committed by Ahab who did very abominably in following Idols and in persecuting the Servants of the true God who is said to have sold himself to work Wickednesse are imputed to this subtil murtherous Whore and Witch as the Text plainly declares But there was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up That is to say the Roman Hierarchy according as both the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and of the two-horned Beast do plainly signifie was the Authour Contriver and Instigatour unto all those murtherous and idolatrous practices that the Secular Magistrate has been guilty of during their Force and Tyranny over the true Servants of Christ. The Beast with two Horns exercised all this Power before the Beast with ten Horns or rather made use of the Secular Power to effect all their devillish Designs against the Children of God as Jezebel wrote Letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal The Church got the stamp of the Imperial Authority upon all the wicked Dogmata of their Religion and Idolatrous practices which they contrived for their own carnal advantages and then if any Naboth would not part with the Inheritance of his Fathers the possession of an holy righteous and rational Conscience nor profess nor act against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those native Truths and Notions which God of his infinite mercy and faithfulnesse has implanted in the minds of all men that have not done violence to that innate Light the Candle of the Lord searching all the parts of the belly he was through the murtherous contrivances of this Strumpet Jezebel falsely accused as a Blasphemer of God and the King as an enemy to both the Catholick Faith and secular Magistrate and so was sentenced to death And death came by these wicked Accusations in this Intervall as in the former Intervall wherein Antipas was slain by openly fighting in the Field Thus apposite is the Allusion to the History of Jezebel for the setting out the state of this Intervall of the Church under the Tyranny of the Church of Rome 11. Nor is it all harsh thus to interpret a Vineyard to so spiritual a sense as to make it something within us whenas both Philo and other ancient Interpreters have interpreted Paradise to that sense or the Garden of Eden And others also cannot but acknowledge that that Law of Moses Deut. 22. 9. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers seeds has also a Moral or Mysticall meaning and is a Precept of Simplicity or Sincerity of heart Wherefore the Vineyard of Naboth may very well signifie the Humane Will and Understanding that is sown onely or planted with such Notions or notices of things as are from God whether they be those innate Idea's of the Soul or what is communicated farther by the Spirit of God in the Holy Writings of inspired men or are more immediately inspired into us by the abode of that Spirit in us All these Plants are of our Heavenly Father 's own planting and no other seed is to be sown among them repugnant thereunto And this Vineyard is the Inheritance of all true Christians descending upon them from the Apostles times to this very day But the Roman Empire being perverted by the doctrines of the whore or two-horned Beast or by the eorruptions also of their own nature had a mind to invade this ancient right as Ahab had to get into his possession Naboth's
trade of whoring still Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds Unlesse she repent I will certainly cast her into a bed of sicknesse and languishment for that bed of Adultery wherein she has entertained the Kings of the earth Her strength and glory shall be much diminished and her Paramours shall bewail the Calamity I shall bring upon her For there shall be of the Kings that shall hate the Whore shall make her desolate in their dominions and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire As it fell out in the late defection of whole Nations from her And I will kill her children with death That is either slay them with the sword of the Spirit and so make them dead as to her by their conversion to the truth or else kill them with a natural death such I mean as come against my true Church whether whole Armies or seditious Emissaries as has often happened since the Reformation And all the Churches shall know that I am he that searches the reins and hearts and will give unto every one of you according to his works That is it will be notoriously taken notice of in all Christendome how just my judgements are and that I deal not with Jezebel according to her fair pretenses and Titles who calls her self Holy Church and pretends all her cruelties and imposturous and Idolatrous Trumperies to be for my glory whenas they have run into all this degeneracy for their worldly Interest But mine eyes which are a flaming fire searching into the hearts and reins clearly see their abominable Hypocrisie and my feet like fine brasse that never goe out of the way of purity and justice will be sure to overtake them and doe due vengeance upon them I will reward every one according to his works 18. But unto you I say and unto the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine To you Pastours of my true Church in Thyatira and the rest which are your charge that hold not the Idolatrous doctrine or faith of the Thyatirian that is of the Roman Church And which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak that is which have not approved the deep mysteries as they speak of reason of State or of the Roman Religion such as murdering innocent men for the Interest of Holy Church Infallibility Transubstantiation and the like but I who search the heart and reins do apertly declare to be the depths of Satan they tending to nothing but to Luciferian Pride barbarous Persecutions and Murders and grosse imposture and Idolatry I will put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already hold fast untill I come I have already shew'd you my approbation of your wayes ver 19. and in that ye do not communicate with the Idolatrous Jezebel keep to where you are and stand out to the last let no Persecutions dismay you till I come in judgement against this Jezebel the same with the little Horn in Daniel which in the expiring of the time and times and half a time will certainly be judged 19. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations That company of men those people that keep my works to the end to the last semi-time of the Seven they shall have power over the Pagan Christians they shall get them under and be no more domineered over by them And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron that is with sufficient power and strictnesse to keep them in subjection As the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers The stone shall smite the Image on the feet and break them to pieces That shall be at the long-run Even as I received of my father I in you and you in me you in me by vertue of the Power of my Spirit shall thus reign and I in you according as it is written I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces as a Potters vessel But this is something further off 20. And I will give him the morning star In the mean time and which is next to succeed I will give them the morning star that is a considerable dawning towards that greater Day of the illustrious reign of Christ upon earth in his Saints by his Spirit The Phosphorus to the glorious Sun-rise of the happy Millennium properly so called This intervall will be the same with that of the Vials which are accompanied with such a smoake As here the Promise which is to be performed in the next Succession of the Church and there continued is not expressed with that vigour as elsewhere where Christ in reference to his Kingdome is said to be the bright morning star here onely the morning star without the ornament of that Epithet The Kingdome of Christ therefore under the first Thunder may be said to be the morning star but under the second the bright morning star And it is observable that whereas in that other place he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may also have the signification of more early then was expected which exquisitely answers to the evert it falling out toward the fore-part of the last semi-time But these things are onely by the by He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches There is nothing new remarkable in this Epiphonema but the placing of it here after the whole Epistle which is a sign that all the Epistle is a Parable and is not onely meant of the Church in Thyatira in the Literal sense but that the condition and affairs of some other Church the truely Catholick and Apostolick Church in the Intervall defined are here prefigured and described Prophetically And that therefore the Promises are to be performed on this stage of the Earth as of their own nature they appear to be such that have a Political sense Which therefore therewithall assures us that such a tenour of Interpretation belongs to the three following Epistles because the Epiphonema is the close of every one of them And therefore we shall steer the course of our Interpretation accordingly CHAP. VII The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church in Sardis 1. AND unto the Angel in the Church of Sardis write That Sardis was a City in Asia is manifest Ch. 1. And considered no otherwise then so does not at all illustrate the condition of this fifth Succession of the state of the Church But acknowledging here again a Paronomastical Allusion to Sarda the precious Stone as Grotius does or taking notice with Pliny that that Stone is so called for its first being found about
Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Propheticall sense with the Intervalls of the Church Catholick lying in that order that these Churches are ranged This is a satisfactory reason and worthy the Spirit that wrote these Epistles But whether they are ranged in this order because that a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus and then to Smyrna and so in order till he come to Laodicea whether the holy Spirit of Prophecy regarded that in the dictating of his Letters though Alcazar the Jesuite be for it I cannot but suspend my judgement and that not without a smile But of this Ataxie more particularly anon 3. Fourthly If it be demanded why just Seven Churches in Asia are writ to neither more nor lesse especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgement of Epiphanius being then not founded but after the writing of these Epistles it is hard to give a satisfactory answer in the Literal sense For to say this Book of the Apocalypse affects the number Seven and that because it runs upon the number Seven altogether in the insuing part of the book which is Propheticall it therefore for Conformity sake chuses this number in writing to the Churches though literally understood seems but a meagre mean and trifling account a design unworthy the Holy Spirit that dictated this Book But the using this number Seven all over is rather an intimation that the Book is Propheticall all over and that these Epistles are also a Prophecy accordingly as we have explained them And taking them so the Answer is plain and obvious viz. The number Seven is here chosen out as Symbolicall it being the note of Universality whence the Pythagoreans as I above noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more then Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervalls of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather then any others which in all likelihood may have the same Vertues and Vices that these are commended and taxed for The reason of this is writ in the very Notation of their Names every Name being significative of the Condition of the Church Catholick in that successive Intervall of time that this or that Church so named standeth for and in such order as they are repeated Sixthly If one require a Reason why Christ is described by holding the seven Stars in his right hand in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus and of Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to finde any peculiar Reason but in the Propheticall sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signifie all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the beginning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodicall to represent the first Founder Sustainer and Continuer thereof by this Emblem Lo I am with you to the end of the world And that this again is hinted at in the Epistle to the Church of Sardis is with evident Proportion and Analogy to the Affairs of the Church there represented For the Church of Sardis is as it were the beginning again or the emerging of the true Church or Kingdome of Christ out of the Power and Kingdome of Antichrist 4. Seventhly Why the Church of Ephesus of all other Churches should be commended for their trying false Apostles Why might not other Churches be attaqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Probleme is easie in this Mysticall sense of the Epistles that places the Ephesine Intervall within the Apostles times but the rest on this side of them Eighthly If any one demand why it is said to the Church of Smyrna more then to any other Church Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and again He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to finde any peculiar Reason why this might not as well be said to the Church in Pergamus where there was killing for Religion it seems by the mention of the Martyr Antipas I but there was no obtaining the Crown of life there in any peculiar sense but the Crown of life that is the Imperial Crown was given to the Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs under the Ten Persecutions to whom also according to the opinion of the ancient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptick style that loves to hint things by Ellipses in that Promise He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death implying thereby that he shall be made partaker of the first Resurrection Ninthly If any one will again object more particularly against the Ataxie of the Churches that they are ranged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible Churches together Smyrna and Philadelphia against whom there is no complaint at all and then Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea against whom there is no complaint of eating things offered unto Idols and afterwards Pergamus and Thyatira in which Churches alone there is If any one I say contend that this method had been more exact truly in the Literal sense it will be hard to frame an handsome and satisfactory answer especially if he urge that God is the Authour of Method as well as the God of Order But in this Mysticall or Propheticall sense the Answer is solid and exquisite and much-what the same that was given to the like Difficulty more generally propounded before namely That the Churches of Asia are named in that order the successive Intervalls of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervalls of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False prophet viz. the Intervalls of the Church of Pergamus and of Thyatira must come after Ephesus and Smyrna because till the expiration of those two Intervalls Idolatry had not again re-entred the Apostatizing Church And the three following Intervalls of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea are the Intervalls of the true Church elapsed out of the hands of domineering Idolatry and therefore we hear no more in them of things sacrificed unto Idols nor of any Jezabel And Philadelphia which is the most holy and the most glorious Intervall of the Church that is to appear on the face of the earth is not to be named according to her Dignity but according to her Succession in time toward the latter end of the world as she is here ranged But of this more then enough because we had
touched of it in the general before 5. Tenthly Why is Christ in his Description before the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus set out by a two-edged sword coming suppose out of his mouth according to the Ellipticalnesse of the Apocalyptick style what reason in the letter can be given of that for especially if this Supplement be made it cannot respect the slaying of Antipas with the sword What peculiar thing then in this Church of Pergamus is there to require this Description Truly nothing at all appears in the Letter But in the Propheticall sense it is very proper The Waldenses and Albigenses in this Intervall assaulting the Church of Rome or at least defending themselves and their pure Faith so signally by this weapon I mean by the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God though themselves died so many thousands of them in the field by the sword for the Faith they thus defended And in the eleventh place The Description of Christ before the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira And his feet like fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace for that Supplement is to be understood out of his Description in the first Chapter as before But now what peculiar significancy has this Description or what congruity to any thing in the Church of Thyatira Literally understood surely none But in the Propheticall sense it is very expressive of those lower members of Christ's body his Church here on earth of their invincible Zeal and Patience and Sincerity of Affection such as did abide the most fiery Trialls that could be put upon them and made them stand at the Stake amongst burning Faggots with the flames about their ears and never flinch for it As has been noted in the interpretation of that Epistle This was the state of that Intervall of the Church Twelfthly In a Book that is so full of AEnigmaticall Involutions and Coverings upon Coverings where he calls the Churches Golden Candle-sticks and the Bishops or Pastours Stars and Angels even then when he interprets and offers to be more plain that the same Authour should so openly and plainly mention any one by name as he does the Martyr Antipas if there were not some farther Mysterie in it would be a great difficulty and hardly to be digested by the more sagacious and curious I must confesse I have often wondred at this naming Antipas by name till I understood a farther sense thereof such as we have rendred in the exposition of that Epistle 6. In the thirteenth place One might well demand why Christ expresses a greater disgust against the Church of Laodicea then that of Sardis For though the former is said to be luke-warm yet the other making a great show of life is notwithstanding declared to be dead That Christ should be more enraged against Luke warmnesse then Hypocrisy and threaten it more deeply then the other I will spew thee out of my mouth which is quite to cast a thing away never to be resumed again must seem marvellous to the considerate Certainly if there were not some greater matter in it the Spirit of Christ would not speak so severely onely to follow a Metaphor But in the Propheticall sense the Solution is easie that passage being predictive of the Extermination of the Church from the face of the earth at the close of the world as I have expounded it In the fourteenth place It may be demanded why so affectedly and repeatedly in every Epistle that phrase is used I know thy works without any variation or omission Which seems a thing but of small importance in the Literal sense of these Epistles but in the Propheticall it seems on purpose so repeated to intimate an Allusion in Asia to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was intended on purpose to answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Asia may also be significant as well as the names of the Seven Churches which they all being it is a shrewd presumption this repetition was for some such design as has been declared Whereas the Literal sense can give no account thereof Fifteenthly Alcazar himself is much stumbled that the Spirit of God should be thought to take notice of any one particular Woman in the Church of Thyatira and so call her by the name of Jezabel as is ordinarily supposed And indeed these things are too little for the majesty of this writing of the Apocalypse But how can we help it in the Literal sense if we will interpret with constancy and coherency But in the Propheticall sense there is no such incongruity The Object is worth the Spirit 's taking notice of in this kinde this Jezabel being that painted Woman of Rome intoxicating the Kings of the earth with the Cup of her spiritual Fornications as has been shewn upon the Text. 7. Sixteenthly It seems very strange that that Promise of ruling over the Nations and receiving the Morning-star which doubtlesse are Politicall Promises should be made to the Church in Thyatira more then to that in Pergamus or Ephesus and others What Victories or Dominion did the Church in Thyatira in Asia get over the Nations more then other Churches This is an hard knot in the Literal sense But in the Propheticall it is loosned at the first sight For the Closure of the Intervall of the Church of Thyatira brings in the time wherein whole Nations revolted from the Pope and his idolatrous Church and professed the Reformed Religion and so in these parts got the Pontifician party under them Seventeenthly In the Epistle to the Church in Philadelphia there is mention made of a mighty Temptation that is to come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth touching which he saith Behold I come quickly Why should this be said to the Church of Philadelphia more then to any other of the Churches here specified There are not the least footsteps of reason to be found in the Literal sense But in the Propheticall sense the thing is plain For the Intervall of Philadelphia beginning in the last Vial wherein that mighty and terrible Earthquake is to happen the great Temptation what it is is plainly thence understood and how in respect of this Philadelphian Church it will come quickly she commencing but in the very same Vial that this is to happen under Eighteenthly Why upon this Philadelphia a private Asiatick Church should the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God the very same that is expressed Apoc. 21. be said to be written This title were too big and turgent for any private Church were it not a Type or Symbol of some greater matter But by the Propheticall interpretation this difficulty is quite removed For the Intervall of the Philadelphian Church is co-incident with the times of the new Jerusalem mentioned at the end of the Apocalypse and of the Millenniall Empire of Christ upon earth 8.
the permanent substance of our Souls on which all the general Precepts of Morality are ingraven as innate Notions of our Duty And therefore it is hereby intimated that the Precepts of the Decalogue are just and fitting not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely by an externall Law but engraffed in our very Nature and Reason and that the root and ground of them will easily be fetch'd from thence To which you may adde That it were a very immethodicall and heterogeneous Botch unworthy of the Wisedome of God and of his Servant Moses whenas all the rest of the Decalogue is Moral to phansy one or two of the Commandments of another nature This is so rash and gross a Reproach to the Divine Wisedome as truly in my judgement seems unexcusable But besides this The Morality of the Decalogue is also acknowledged by the Church it making part of their Liturgie every-where and we begging an ability of obeying the Second Commandment as well as the rest and Christ also referrs to the Decalogue for eternall life And lastly It seems as it were singled from all the rest of Moses Laws as a lasting and permanent Law to the Church of God whence it is entred into our very Catechisms never to be abolished or rather vigorously to be kept in force for the Second Commandment's sake particularly that it might strongly bear against those Invitations to Idolatry that may seem to offer themselves in the nature of our Religion or reclaim the Church from it when they were fallen into it as well as it was to keep back the Jews from joyning in Worship with their Idolatrous neighbors round about them Wherefore all manner of Idolatry being cautioned against by the Moral Decalogue given to the Jews there are no kinds thereof that ought to be entertained or allow'd of by any Christians 4. The third Conclusion That what-ever was Idolatry in the Heathen the same is Idolatry in us if we commit it The reason of which Assertion is this Because the Heathen had not so express a Declaration from God against all manner of Idolatry as the Jews and Christians have and therefore where-ever they are guilty of Idolatry the Jew and Christian if they doe the like things are much more The fourth Conclusion The Idolatry of the Pagans consisted in this viz. in that they either took something to be the supreme God that was not and worshipped it for such or else worshipped the supreme God in an Image or gave religious Worship that is to say erected Altars Temples and Images offered Sacrifice made Vows to and invoked such as they themselves knew not to be the supreme God but either the Souls of men departed or other Daemons or else particular Appearances or Powers of Nature The fifth That both Divine Daeclaration and the common Consent of Christendome do avouch to us that all the aforesaid Pagan Modes of Idolatry practised by them were in those Pagans practices of Idolatry And therefore by the third Conclusion they must be much more so in either the Jew or Christian. 5. The sixth That giving religious Worship that is to say erecting Temples building Altars Invoking making Vows and the like to what is not the supreme God though not as to him but as to some inferiour helpfull Being is manifest Idolatry This is plain out of the precedent Conclusion and may be farther confirmed from this Consideration That Idolatry was very rare amongst the Nations especially the Romans if this Mode of Idolatry be not truly Idolatry And scarce any thing will be found Idolatry amongst them but taking that to be the supreme God which is not and worshipping it for such But if any Being on this side the supreme God may be worshipped with religious Worship void of Idolatry all things may though some more non-sensically and ridiculously then others Wherefore to use any of the abovesaid Modes of Worship to what is inferiour to the supreme Being though not as to the supreme Being must be Idolatry or else the Roman Paganism it self is very rarely if at all chargeable therewith they having a Notion accurate enough of the supreme God and distinct enough from their other Deities so that unlesse they chance to worship him in an Image they will seldome be found Idolaters or rather never according to the opinion of some who say none that have the knowledge of the one true God can be capable of Idolatry 6. The seventh That to sacrifice burn Incense or make any religious Obeisance or Incurvation to an Image in any wise as to an Object of this Worship is Idolatry by Divine Declaration This is manifest out of the second Conclusion and the first as may appear at first sight For it is plainly declared in the second Precept of the Decalogue touching Images Thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them Of which undoubtedly the sense is They shall not be in any wise the Object of that Worship which thou performest in a religious way whether by Bowing down to them or by what other way soever For the second Commandment certainly is a Declaration of the mind of God touching religious Worship let the Ceremonies be what they will The eighth That to erect Temples Altars Images or to burn Incense to Saints or Angels to invoke them or make Vows to them and the like is plain Idolatry This is apparent chiefly out of the third fourth fifth and sixth Conclusions of this Chapter For the Pagans Daemons exquisitely answer to the Christians Saints and Angels in this point saving that this spiritual Fornication is a Rape upon our Saints and Angels but simple Fornication in the Heathen with their impure Daemons The ninth Religious Incurvation towards a Crucifix or the Host or any Image as to an Object and not a mere unconsidered accidental Circumstance is Idolatry This is manifest out of the seventh and eighth Conclusions But the Worship of Latria exhibited to the Host upon the opinion of Transubstantiation is Idolatry by the third and fourth 7. Conclusion the tenth To use on set purpose in religious Worship any Figure or Image onely circumstantially not objectively but so as to bow towards it or to be upon a man's knees before it with Eyes and Hands devoutly lifted up towards it but with an intention of making it in no sense any Object of this religious Worship yet if this were in a Country where men usually and professedly do it were notwithstanding for all this intention a grosse piece of Idolatry But if the whole Countrey should conspire to make this more plausible sense of those Incurvations and Postures admit we might hope it were not Idolatry yet it would be certainly a most impious and wicked Mocking of God and eluding his minde in the second Commandment that naturally implies the forbidding any Worship or Incurvation toward Images in a way of Religion and a crime as scandalous and near to Idolatry as the going into bed to
excuse and therefore become obnoxious to God's eternall wrath and Damnation if they relinquish not that false Prophetesse Jezebel as she is called in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira who by her corrupt Doctrines deceives the people and inveigles them into gross Idolatrous Practices 9. Thus little is conceded by those of our Reformed Churches that speak most favourably of those in the Church of Rome And yet this little must be retracted unless we can make it out that any of that Church are capable of sincere and unfeigned Repentance while they are of it For to repent as a Thief because he is afraid to be hanged is not that saving Repentance But to repent as a true Christian none can doe unlesse he has the Spirit of God and be in the state of Regeneration For true Repentance arises out of the detestation of the uglinesse of Sin it self and out of the love to the pulchritude and amiablenesse of the Divine Life and of true Vertue which none can be touched with but those that are Regenerate or born of God Now those holy and Divine Sentiments of the new Birth are so contrary to the Frauds and Impostures to the grosse Idolatries and bloudy Murthers of the Church of Rome which they from time to time have perpetrated upon the dear Servants of Christ that it is impossible for any one that has this holy sense but that he should incontinently fly from that Church with as much horrour and affrightment as any Countrey-man would from some evil Spectre or at the approach of the Devil 10. He that is born of God sinneth not saith S. John How then can they be so born whose very Religion is a Trade of sin and that of the highest nature they ever and anon exercising grosse acts of Idolatry besides that they are consenting by giving up their belief and suffrage to the murtherous Conclusions of that Church to all the barbarous and bloudy Persecutions of the Saints that either have happened or may happen in their own times or ever shall happen by that Church they become I say guilty thereof by adjoyning themselves to this bloud-thirsty Body of men with whom the Murther of those that will not commit Idolatry with them and so rebell against God is become an holy Papal Law and Statute And therefore I say how can any man conceive that those men are born of God who are thus deeply defiled with Murtherous and Idolatrous Impurities but rather that they are in a mere blinde carnal condition and uncapable while they are thus of any true and sincere Repentance and consequently of repenting of their daily Idolatries which they commit and ordinarily to make all sure in ipso articulo mortis and therefore are out of all capacity of Salvation while they are members of that Church As plainly appears both by this present Reason fetch'd from the nature of Regeneration as also from the judgement of the Romanists themselves touching the state of Idolaters after this life and chiefly from the expresse sentence of the Spirit of God in Scripture as I intimated before 11. And therefore in the fifth and last place it is exceeding manifest how stupid and regardless those Souls are of their own Salvation that continue in the Communion of the Church of Rome and how desperately wilde and extravagant they are who never having been of it but having had the advantage of better Principles yet can finde in their hearts to be reconciled to it This must be a sign of some great defect in Judgement or else in their Sincerity that they ever can be allured to a Religion that is so far removed from God and Heaven 12. But this Church as the woman in the Proverbs is I must confess both very fair of speech and subtil of heart and knows how to tamper with the simple ones right skilfully She knows how to overcome all their carnal senses by her luxurious Enticements She has deck'd her bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved works with fine linens of AEgypt She has perfumed her bed with Myrrh Aloes and Cinnamon She entertains her Paramours with the most delicious strains of Musick and chants out the most sweet and pleasing Rhymes to lull them secure in her lap Such as those Idolatrous forms of the Invocation of the Virgin Marie and of other Saints which I have produced of which she has a numerous store Unto which I conceive the Prophet Isay to allude in that passage touching the City of Tyre representing there mystically the relapsing Church of Rome Take an harp goe about the City thou harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet Melody sing many Songs that thou mayst be remembred See Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. 13. She gilds her self over also with the goodly and specious Titles of Unity Antiquity Universality the power of working Miracles of Sanctity likewise and of Infallibility and boasts highly of her self that she has the power of the Keys and can give safe conduct to Heaven by Sacerdotal Absolution and if need be out of the Treasury of the Merits of Holy men of their Church which she has the keeping and disposing of can adde Oyl to the Lamps of the unprovided Virgins and so piece out their Deficiency in the works of Righteousnesse Such fair speeches and fine glozing words she has to befool the judgements of the simple 14. But as to the first it is plain that that Unity that is by Force is no fruit of the Spirit and therefore no Sign of the true Church nor that which is from free Agreement if it be not to good Ends. For Salomon describes an Agreement of Thieves or Robbers heartening one another to spoil and bloudshed and to enter so strict a society as to have but one purse And therefore for a company of men under the pretense of Spirituality to agree in the inventing or upholding such Doctrines or Fictions as are most serviceable for a worldly design and for the more easily riding and abusing the credulous and carnal-minded thereby to be masters of their Persons and Wealth this is no holy Unity but an horrid and unrighteous Conspiracy against the deluded sons of Adam 15. And for Antiquity and Universality they are both plainly on the Protestants side who make no Fundamentals of Faith but such as are manifestly contained in the Scripture which is much more ancient and more universally received then any of those things upon whose account we separate from the Church of Rome which are but the fruits of that Apostasie which after four Hundred years or thereabout the Church was to fall into according to Divine Prediction So that we are as ancient and universal as the Apostolick Church it self nor do we desire to appear to be the members of any Church that is not Apostolicall And for their boast of Miracles which are produced to ratifie their crafty Figments they are but Fictions themselves framed by their Priests or Delusions of