as leave the Reformed Communion to joyn themselves to the Church of Rome For how can they excuse themselves from treachery against the Kingdome of Christ by thus listing themselves amongst the slaves of Antichrist But it is no pleasure to me to insist on so Tragical a subject Seventhly and lastly There is this use also of our demonstration that the late Blessed Reformation is the fulfilling of the Prophecy of the Rising of the Witnesses in that it may free men from falsly conceived fears and hopes of the Witnesses being to be slain and their bodies to lye three years and an half dead and then presently to rise again and then that there will insue such glorious times as none can easily pre-conceive Which is founded upon as little ground or reason as that conceit of 6 was of being the year of the ruine of Rome a thing which I always declared against as having no ground on any Prophecy in Scripture But that London was burnt that year all know And whether this conceit was not furthered by some in order thereto to put a dodge upon the Protestants to weaken their Faith and to make the pretending to understand Prophecies in prejudice to the Popedome ridiculous let those that understand the Intrigues of the burning of the City better than I declare their opinion In the mean time since all may rest satisfied that the Rising of the Witnesses is past and consequently their being slain and lying dead three days and an half in the street of the great City that is called Sodom and Aegypt let every one discharge himself of that Panick fear as if it were a thing yet to come and of that Romantick hope if it were to be done that they would rise again within three years and an half that so they forsooth may wisely step aside under some convenient shelter till the fatal storm be blown over but let all that have any faith in or kindness for the Reformmed Religion with joynt Effort resist five rushing in of Popery by sincere repentance and hearty prayer to God that it may never re-enter this Nation again nor any Nation else that has been gained out of the hands of Antichrist and let us bewaile our unworthiness and unthankfulness to God that we have not sufficiently esteemed nor valued this wonderfull work of his that he has brought things to that pass he has in the late Blessed Reformation and be morigerous to the Magistrate as well Spiritual as Civil in all things indifferent and heartily love one another of whatever different persuasion we may be that has no Impiety nor Immorality in it and then God will love us all and be our mighty Deliverer and Protectour But if ye bite one another saith the Apostle take heed ye be not consumed one of another But of this I may have further occasion to speak in the giving my reasons why I added the third part of my appendage viz. My twenty Arguments for the proving the Vision of the seven Churches to be a Prophecy of the State of the Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the world For I think it of very good use and moment that we be assured of this truth for these two main reasons especially First that it appearing so plainly That the Church of Sardis stands for the Reformed Churches as they are called we may look our selves in that glass and see our spots and blemishes therein to amend them For that we are signified by that Church even they do acknowledg who otherwise differ something from me in the determining the Seven Intervals of these Churches but have declared as I find long before me that this Vision of the Seven Churches is a Prophecy of the State of the Church to the end of the World while they expresly deliver that the Sardian Period as they call it is the Period of the Reformed Churches commencing from Luther and Melancthon's time c. Thus Balthasar Willius a sober and learned German Doctor in his Commentary on the Prophet Zachary and indeed he is so well assured of the truth of the Vision of the Seven Churches being a Prophecy of the Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the world that he makes it the Basis of a special part of his Commentary borrowing his first light from his Master Ludovicus Crocius whom he calls clarissimum suo seculo Theologiae Astrum gives his suffrage touching the fifth Period of the Church in these words Quinta Periodus saith he est Sardensis à Reformatione coeptâ per Lutherum Melancthonem Zwinglium aliósque veritatis Doctores in hunc usque diem durans in qua puritas doctrinae Apostolicae morte operum proh dolor dedecoratur ii quibus lux Evangelii fulget limpidissima contentionibus odiis ac discordiâ colliduntur somno vitiorum ac luxuriae sepulti jacent Which is a free perstriction of the disorders observable in the Reformed Churches how they hold the truth of God in unrighteousness and I wish it were not as true as free But there be a few names God be thanked even in this Sardis which have not defiled their garments of whom Christ foretells that they shall walk with him in white for they are worthy But the rest may read their defects or corruptions in the Epistle itself Where Christ tells the Sardian Church that is the Reformed Churches that they have a name that they live because they have zeal and heat which seems to be a symptome of life but it is not for the true indispensable Christian life but for or against this opinion or that ceremony whenas they are cold at the heart to what is the onely life of a Christian Humility Purity and Charity To which they are either dead or in a profound sopor Whence Christ says to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul in the behalf of Christ in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Awake out of this deep sleep or lethargy and keep they self awake and strengthen the things that are ready to dye that is Faith in God and Christ and of a life to come For it is horrid to consider how far Atheism Vnbelief and Epicurisme has spread itself even amongst the Reformed Churches themselves these monsters having grown upon us as our zeal has relaxated against the Church of Rome For to such all Religions are alike if the worst be not the most eligible with them especially of the Clergy it serving best for the pride power and profit of a corrupt Priesthood But Christ bids them remember how they have received and heard from the ancient Prophets and Apostles and from the late Witnesses to the truth as by whom they were expresly informed that the Pope of Rome was the great Antichrist and his Church a Synagogue of Idolaters That the Popedome is Antichrists Kingdome and consequently for one to forsake the Reformed Religion and betake himself to the Church of Rome is
loathsomly besmeared with Idolatry and bloud and that those that shut their eyes from seeing and their mouths from professing so plain a truth are but dough-baked Protestants and in great peril if occasion offer itself to be amassed and kned again into the old soure lump of Popery worse than the very Leaven of the Pharisees which Christ advised his Disciples to beware of Moreover That the Rising of the Witnesses was fulfilled in the late Blessed Reformation and that as the Popedome is the Kingdome of Antichrist so Reformed Christendome the Kingdome of Christ in opposition thereunto and a more visible emersion of the Fifth-Monarchy ever distinct from the four Monarchies so much guilty of Idolatry and bloud And that as the many Sects in the Primitive times more in number and more hainous in quality as you may see in Epiphanius than have appeared since the Reformation did not hinder but the Christian Church was then the real Kingdome of Christ no more do those Sects that appear in the Reformed Churches but are disallowed by them hinder at all but they are the true Kingdome of Christ also and rightfully oppose the Kingdome of Antichrist as the Primitive Christians did the Kingdome of the Dragon And that Reformed Christendome being in truth the Kingdome of Christ our inference therefrom is very sound that we ought from the very heart to give all Reverence and obedience in things indifferent to the Magistrates thereof a duty which is owing even to Pagan Magistrates from Christians much more one would think to Christian Magistrates from those that pretend to be Christians themselves This is a Truth so firm and sure that I have placed it amongst my eight Principles for the support and enlargement of the Kingdome of Christ in my Divine Dialogues in these express words The fifth Document or Instruction should be to all the Members of Christs Kingdome wherever their abode is that they do not suffer themselves to be stain'd with the least blemish or taint of Disloyalty to their lawful Sovereign upon any account whatsoever but especially upon a Religious one there being no greater disinterest to the true Religion than to appear to be promoted or maintained by so gross an Immorality as Disloyalty nor any greater advantage than through Faith and Patience to bear all tryals and hardships as the old Primitive Christians did whose eyes being lift up Heavenward and their feet wholly in that path by Providence stumbled on the Imperial Crown the Emperour at last becoming a professed Christian. Furthermore The Rising of the Witnesses and the Sardian Period commencing together That they of the Reformed Churches are bound in the fear of God with all attentiveness to read Christ's Epistle to the Church in Sardis and especially we of the Church of England and to impress those weighty words on our minds Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent as of our carnal and sensual lives so of our wantonness and stipperiness in matters of Doctrine as those two great points attested by the Witnesses of Christ That the Popedome is the Kingdome of Antichrist and the Papal Hierarchy the mother of Spiritual fornication or Idolatry That we are to remember what we have heard and received and hold fast and repent us of either our coldness in or Apostasie from the profession of so grand concerning Truths as also of our Schismaticalness and Rebelliousness That we remember I say what we have received and may still read in that excellent Book of Homilies of our English Church touching these main points of the Pope being Antichrist the Papal Church Idolatrous and of that hainous wickedness of Rebellion against our lawful Sovereign and of mingling any Righteousnesses or Satisfactions and Penances of humane invention with our Justification and Remission of sins in the bloud of Christ. The profession of the Risen Witnesses in the Book of Homilies is so sincere savoury and genuinely Christian in this point without the least leaning towards Libertinism and Antinomianism that I do not doubt but this profession of the Reformed Churches is alluded to Apoc. 15. in the placing those Harpers that sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb upon the Sea of glass mingled with fire namely upon the shore of the Red Sea for what reason so called it matters not in which Pharaoh and his Host was overthrown as the Pope and his Pontifician Clergy defeated by the Witnesses professing That a true and living faith in the bloud of Christ which the Title of the Red Sea is a Symbol of for remission of sins does alone justify us before God Whereby they flung off a load of trumperies and tedious impositions of humane invention by which they were kept in a worse than Aegyptian servitude under the Pope and Pontifician Clergy And therefore the Reformed Churches are brought in in the above-cited place of the Apocalypse in imitation of the Israelites that had escaped the thraldome of Pharaoh singing a triumphal song on the shore as it were of the mystical Red Sea where the Roman Pharaoh and his tyrannical Hierarchy were overthrown and that wretched bondage which those true Israelites had been kept in for filthy lucre's sake and gain of the Church cast off utterly and quite escaped For all that sweet alluring power and genuine comfort from the Gospel and wonderfull efficacy to make men truly good they hid from the eyes of the people and whenas the very specifick nature and essence of the Christian Religion is a sincere and vehement Love of our Saviours person and peaceful repose of our Souls in his Passion and Merits we in the mean time acting sincerely as our Homilies require in this Covenant of grace this high honour and affection we bear to Christ this repose and peace of mind we have in the merits of his most precious bloud and passion those supplies by his promised Spirit of illumination comfort and direction all this is so miserably and perfidiously squander'd away or sold if you will for the gain of the Church by multiplying of false Patrons and the vain worshippings of Saints and their images by making men to depend on the Infallibility of the Pope and his Priests and by stifling all hopes of illumination and direction from the blessed Spirit of Christ that the members of that Church are made not onely so many slaves bereft of their Christian liberty and enjoyment of the love of Christ that procured it but so many senseless stocks or stones as to Divine matters and are taught to transfer all that recumbency that every true Christian has on the person of our faithful High Priest upon the persons of these unskilful and which is worse unfaithful Tamperers with the Souls of men Whose Salvation consisting in a lively faith and sincere love honour and dependance on the person of our Blessed Saviour and doing the things that He commands these deceitful Emissaries of Rome O Detestable Treachery carry on such a Religion or
should continue upon God's People it is plain the time is to be reduced into years And so by the answer may be signified there would be Six years or there-about which may comprehend the first coming of Antiochus into Iudea when the Priesthood was prophaned as also his second his Interdicting the Iudaick Rites the placing the Idol in the Temple and the whole time of the Intermission of the daily sacrifice so Grotius expresly upon the place But from the time of that gross prophanation of the Temple when Antiochus his Soldiers set an Heathenish Altar in the Sanctuary and sacrificed Swine's Flesh on it till Antiochus Eupator granted the Iews the free use of their Religion and Temple Thomas Lydiat reckons about Three years and a half Which may give a glance being Prophetically understood at the Time of the true Antichrist Chap. 7. as to the duration of the entireness of his Kingdom Then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed At least by that time it shall be cleansed 15. And it came to pass when I even I Daniel had seen the Uision and sought for the meaning he praying in his heart that he might understand it Then behold there stood before me as the appearance of a Man An Angel externally visible to him in humane Shape For this is not a Dream or Night-Vision but a Day-Vision as I observed out of Grotius in the beginning 16. And I heard a Man's voice betwéen the banks of Ulai The River Vlaeus that runs by Susa betwixt the Banks of this River he heard the voice of Palmoni or Christ Who since he could walk on the Waters when he was in the Flesh might well appear betwixt the Banks of Vlai in the Air or upon the Water and there speak in a Man's voice before he was incarnate Which called and said Gabriel make this man understand the Uision The giving this command to Gabriel shews that this Palmoni is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any ordinary Angel but this and what was above-said may well assure us that it was the Prince of Angels yea Christ himself if we add what will occur in the Tenth Chapter 17. So he came near where I stood and when he came I was afraid And might have been more astonish'd if Palmoni himself had come so near him when he could not bear the presence of one of his Ministers And fell on my face Through very astonishment my Spirits failed in me But he said unto me Understand O Son of man that is be attentive and diligent to conceive what I say For at the time of the end shall be the Uision Though it be long even about 400 years till this of the little Horn be fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes yet at the end for a certain the Vision will be accomplished To say nothing how its Antitype at another Time of the End even during the Time and Times and half a Time will have its completion too 18. Now as he was speaking with me namely At the hearing of his voice I was as much stounded thereat as before at his sight and so sinking down fell upon my face my Spirits retiring as in those that are in a deep sopor as if they were half dead And therefore our English Translation is not so exact that renders the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in a déep sléep on my face toward the ground Vatablus has it Sopore correptus cecidi in faciem 〈◊〉 in terram and Calvin Sopitus corrui c. And the vulgar Latin Collapsus sum pronus in terram Which therefore signifies a sounding fit that took him at the hearing the voice of the Angel Hence Daniel is concluded to have fallen twice to the ground the first time at the sight the second at the voice of the Angel says Maldonat Which naturally implies that saving in these sounding fits Daniel was perfectly awake and that this Vision was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly so called a Day-Vision not a Night-Vision or Divine Dream But he touched me and set me upright The Hebrew is He made me stand upon my standing that is By his touch he enabled me to stand upon my Feet again so great vertue was there in it And no wonder that the Aethereal and vivifical Body or vehicle of an Angel which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the marvellous energy thereof actuated also by so holy an Inhabitant should raise Daniel faln into a sound unto life again when holy Souls even in their terrestrial Tenements have done such marvellous cures and by the application of their own bodies have raised them to life that have been taken to be dead as Elisha did in the Widow's Child and Paul in Eutychus And here we see the Angel Gabriel Christ appearing in humane shape by way of prelude to his Incarnation to have a preludious mission as of an Apostle to preach to Daniel and to instruct him and to do Miracles also as the Apostles did For this is a priviledge of the Ministers of Christ's Kingdom the Malcuth of the God of Israel which is the Tenth Sephirah with the Cabbalists as Geburah the Fifth the Topick of the Powers belonging to that Kingdom of which doing Miracles is one And Gabriel here the Angel his name signifies the Power of God or the Strength of God 19. And he said Behold I will make thée know what shall be in the last end of the Indignation For this prediction of the wrath of God in the time of Antiochus against his People and the raging tyranny of Antiochus over them is the main drift of this Vision and here the Angel promises to tell what shall come at the end thereof which he does Ver. 25. That he shall be broken without hand For at the time appointed the end shall be All times and affairs are in the hands of God and he can determine as he pleases and at his appointed time the Heat of those Persecutions and Oppressions of the Iews under Antiochus shall have an end they being not to last passing 2300 days as was declared above by Palmoni that Prince of Angels and Men and of Israel especially 20. The Ram which thou sawest having Two Horns are the Kings of Media and Persia that is The whole race of those Kings from Cyrus to Darius Codomannus as is to be understood from Ver. 4. where the Ram is said to push West-ward and North-ward and South-ward which was not performed by any one King but by the succession For that Typical Ram says Gasper Sanctius rusht out of Persis an Oriental Quarter and turning himself to the South assaulted Aegypt Aethiopia and Libya to the North Pontus Scythia and Cappadocia and turning himself to the West he made himself Master of the Babylonians Assyrians I suppose he means Syrians and the Isles of the Mediterranean These things were not performed by one King but by the succession And Grotius particularizes for the main For upon towards the West
a spurious reading understanding the Prophecy literally And it may be it was a Comment crept into the Text. For as all are agreed that by the red Apple is meant some Imperial City so the Red Hats of the Cardinals and the Scarlet cloathing of the Papal Hierarchy might easily invite the Commentatour to interpret this Red Apple of the City of Rome and if any Iew was the Interpreter as there are many amongst the Turks they understanding by Edom in the Scripture which signifies Red the City of Rome or the Roman Power it was hard for him to miss of that Interpretation And Cornelius à Lapide notes that the Iews by the Idumaeans understand the Romans in his Commentary upon Isai. 21. 11. The Burden of Dumah that is of Idumaea in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is very nigh in writing to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Martinius in his Technologia observes out of St. Ierome Sic saith he Hieronymus ait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literas parvo apice distingui cùm interpretatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paululùm literae apice commutato pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legi posse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonare Romam But there was no need of this nicety the Interpretation of this Turkish Prophecy is discovered enough already I will onely referr the Reader to Mr. Mede Book 5. Ch. 8. where by many examples he shows that the Iews by Edom understand Rome and how R. D. Kimchi turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I think Interpreters are much mistaken when they interpret the seven and twelve years not Symbolically but Arithmetically For if there be any thing in the Prophecy I suspect this to be the meaning thereof That the Turk may take the City of Rome suppose within the space of the seventh Vial being so hugely guilty of Idolatry and bloud if she prevent it not by timely Repentance And if the Christian sword advance not against him during the Septenary a Symbol of the reign of Idolatry for such was the seventh Head yet upon the commencing of the Duodenary which is the Symbol of the times of the pure Apostolick Restitution and of the new Ierusalem Christianity shall furmount Turcisme Nor shall the Christians any where be any longer slaves â—…nto him But I brought this Prophecy of the Turks taking the City of Rome set down by that zealous Romanist Bartholomaeus Georgivitz onely to shew that the forewarning the Church of Rome of the danger is no argument of the least ill will towards them Shall be slain with the Sword of him that sits on the white Horse And this is the Christian sword that in the beginning of the Duodenary when the truely pure and Apostolick Church shall appear will put the Turk to flight that is quite vanquish the Turkish Religion and Power and turn them all Christians And these are those times which Cardan in an Astrological Fit of Divination more than ordinarily assisted it may be as the Star-gazers of the East were by a Supernatural Star describes in his language briefly thus Martem Lunam debellant Sol Iupiter Authoritate Dignitate Veritate Ob hoc Christiani erigite capita qui potest capere capiat The language is fantastical as being Astrological but the prediction insinuated by some better kind of Genius as the Turkish Prophet haply might be inspired by some secret Emissary from Palmoni who has a right to all Kingdomes though not possession yet of all is sober and true as appears by the Holy Oracles of Scripture VISION VI. Continued From the times of the sixth and seventh Vial to the second Resurrection as also the Duration of the Entireness of the Kingdome of Antichrist defined And the time of his more palpable Discovery indigitated by two Numbers directing thereto Chap. 12. 1. AND at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the Children of thy people As it is said Ch. 10. 21. And there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your Prince This passage therefore denotes the time when the affairs of the Iews become very hopefull and prosperous which is about the sixth and the seventh Vials to speak in the language of the Apocalypse And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Nation even to that same time As it is said Apoc. 16. 18. under the seventh Vial And there was a great Earthquake such as was not since men were upon earth so mighty an earthquake and so great The comparing which two places together plainly shews to what times they belong And at that time thy people shall be delivered The Seventy have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy people shall be saved as also the vulgar Latin has it Salvabitur populus tuus namely from that bondage and abject condition they had lived in among the Nations as also from the rude and beggerly elements of Moses and by their conversion to Christianity they will be made partakers of eternal salvation Chery one that shall be found written in the Book Yea not the Iews onely but every one as well Gentiles as Iews that are found written in the Book of Life mentioned Apoc. 20. 12. shall be saved So that as it is usual with the Prophets there is a running out from the Temporal deliverance of the Iews to the Spiritual deliverance and from their particular deliverance from the lake of fire or second death to the General Salvation of all whose names are writ in the Book of Life As the sense is very coherent with what follows in the next verse which contains though something involutely and contractedly both the first and second Resurrection according as the words are capable of a double Exposition 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Where Many in counterdistinction to All does plainly intimate the first Resurrection which is not the General Resurrection but the Resurrection of the Martyrs onely such as did actually lose their lives for witnessing to the Truth or did without all reserve expose them for the same as Daniel did who was cast into the Lions den and the three Children into the fiery furnace though they were miraculously delivered Some to everlasting life The Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those to everlasting life viz. Those that awake out of the dust of the earth at this time Those that are revivificated into their glorious bodies at this first Resurrection these awake to eternal life and enjoy a blessed immortality in their Heavenly bodies This is the first Resurrection of which it is said Apoc. 20. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath â—…o power And some to shame and everlasting contempt In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you may render But those others another sort of people which the Prophecy
haec atque horribilis Bellua Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quenquam nomiâ—…are cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly that it cannot be the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemy to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdome upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quâ—…d majus erit omnibus regniâ—… Which shall be greater than all Kingdomes so the Vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to do unless it were so great a Kingdome as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdome of the Seleucidae and Lagidae * was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdome than any of the three preceeding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdome they would make this of the Lagidae and Seleucidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdome cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gasper Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this Errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit â—…ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quodque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum out malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less than his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that Four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inâ—…eriour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron legs and toes and of the Ten horned Beast with Iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidoe and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these legs and toes nay the whole Image oâ—… Iron Brass Silver and Gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense oâ—… the Vision And Ch. 7. One like the Son of man in the Clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanâ—…s that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21 verse I beheld and the same Horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them until the Antient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of Man his coming in the Clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Antient of days vers 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Antieâ—â— of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his Dream That the fourth Beast with Iron Teeth and the Iron legs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidoe and Seleucidae and tâ—…at Antiochus is this little Horn. * For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdome or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in tâ—…e days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdome of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occur in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be mis-led into so bad an adventure The Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven according to him is Populus Romanus nullum intra se habens Regem When our Saviour Christ intimated to the High Priest that he was that Son of man that should come in the Clouds of Heaven it seem'd so high an Arrogation that he rent his clothes and said he had spoken Blasphemy And truly I think that neither Jew nor Christian can well acquit Grotius of that crime who attributes that which is the peculiar character of the Messias to a Prophane and Pagan people and that forsooth because they had no King as if they were ever the better for that But they had Kings at first and both in the Infancy of their Empire and afterwards they had a Supreme Power so great and Imperial as may excuse them from the least shew of contempt They had always over them a Sovereignty so that they could not be deemed the Son of man for any such private condition For the Summa Potestas is the Summa Potestas under what name or form soever and of the same real grandeur Besides that they were a most glorious and victorious people before Antiochus his time So that it is a very dilute and sapless conceit of Grotius to apply the Phrase of the Son of man to them for any inconsiderableness in them or obscurity For they were not so in the times of Antiochus 6. Again The Kingdom of the Son of man and the Stone cut out without hands are all one both in truth and according to Grotius his own concession But this Stone is Christ and his Kingdome as being Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing erected not by human power but by the power and Spirit of God That this is the meaning of without hands is the general vote of Interpreters S. Ierom Irenaeus Iustin Epiphanius S. Augustin Theodoret and several others Where think you does Grotius take shelter now Why This Figure which is so appropriate to Christ and mentioned of him so often in the New Testament This Stone
I have demonstrated the Rising of the Witnesses to be in this second part of my Appendage And they that have applied the late Blessed Reformation to the second Vial as Mr. Mede and after him Peganius has done it was from this errour that they took it for granted that most of the Vials preceeded the Rising of the Witnesses And such is the humour fansifulness and partiality of many that they can hardly believe of themselves that the Witnesses are risen till Kingdomes Nations and Principalities of their own party rise into Political power namely all Episcopal all Presbyterian all Calvinists all Arminians all Socinians and so of Anabaptists Quakers and Famulists But they erre knowing not the Scriptures or the true meaning of them nor rightly considering the Records of History where they may find what was the testimony of these Witnesses who are predicted to rise in the Reformation and to be warred against before by the Beast and cruelly persecuted As there was nothing to alledge against the Apostolicalness of their faith they professing the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ and such like Articles of the Christian belief and living accordingly whereby they became idoneous Witnesses so their plain and simple testimony against the Church of Rome was this That the Pope was that Man of sin or Antichrist and their Church Idolatrous by reason of their adoration of the Host invocation of Saints and worshipping of Images and their Religion otherwise also grosly corrupt in seeking to propitiate God by their adhering to the multifarious vain and wicked inventions of men excogitated onely for the gain of the Priest and the keeping the people in blindness and ignorance This was the tenour of the Testimony of the Witnesses both in the Pergamenian and the Thyatirian Interval of the Church which they witnessed with great favouriness and assurance in virtue of the Spirit of life and holiness in them And persons innumerable that bore the same testimony and were of the same sentiments instead of being still mournfull Witnesses in sackcloth or lying dead in a Political sense in the streets of the Mystical Prophet-murdering Jerusalem the same with Babylon or Aegypt which signify the large jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome at the Reformation had a reviving into Political Power again and ascended in several Kingdomes to the highest Honours Dignities and Employments in Church and State Which therefore as I have proved in this part of my Appendage must needs be the Rising of the Witnesses they being of the same mind and profession with those that were so grievously persecuted and kept out of all power nay burnt at the stake murdered and massacred God knows how many hundred thousands of them And at this very day our own Church of England partly in her Homilies partly in her Articles and Liturgy gives the same testimony of the Church of Rome even that she is that old painted harlot of Babylon with her cup of fornication that is of Idolatry and that the Pope is Antichrist as I have shewn in my Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. Ch. 21. Which whenas our own Church which seems most moderate does so plainly attest we may be sure the rest of the chiefest writers of the Reformation do not mince the matter at all And if there be any persons in the Reformation any where that at all recoyl from this testimony it is because the Spirit of life and holiness is decayed in them and the gross Spirit of this world has blinded their eyes and darkened their understandings and hardened their hearts against the truth they preferring worldly power pomp and riches before the purity of Gods worship Wherefore I say this is one great usefulness of my demonstrating the Vials to follow the Rising of the Witnesses in that it is thence manifest that the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses was fulfilled in the late Blessed Reformation there being thus no other Vision to predict it but this Which conclusion contains a manifold usefulness in it For first that acclamation in Heaven upon the Rising of the Witnesses That the Kingdomes of the world were become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ namely after so many Principalities Provinces and Kingdomes had cast off the Pope in the late Blessed Reformation what does this imply but that they were before in the hands of Antichrist and that were the Pope has any Dominion it is ipso facto Antichrists Kingdome and on the contrary that all the Reformed parts of Christendome are the Kingdome of Christ and indeed the fifth Monarchy begun Which ought to stop the mouths and carrears of an ignorant and Fanatical sort of men that cannot see wood for trees and seek for a fifth Monarchy in a fifth Monarchy whenas so considerable a part of it is erected before their eyes already But as I noted above such is the folly and freakishness of ignorant and conceited men that they would not willingly acknowledge the Witnesses to be risen till those of the same crotchets with themselves whole Kingdomes and Nations of them have got into power But it is very true and extremely worth our nothing that as in the times of the old Roman Paganism all those that professed Christ according to the tenour of what we call the Apostles Creed though in the mean time they had several different conceits about things that appertained to the Christian Religion were notwithstanding lookt upon as the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Kingdome of the red Dragon the Pagan persecutive Roman Empire so all the Reformed Churches States and Kingdomes though some Lutherans others Calvinists some of one opinion others of another yet they keeping to the old Orthodox Faith of the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ acknowledged by the Church in the Symmetral times thereof and renouncing the Communion of the Roman Church for her gross Idolatries and wretched and intolerable Superstitions and humane inventions whereby she has so notoriously adulterated the purity and simplicity of the Christian Faith and worship all these I say are justly deemed the Kingdome of Christ in opposition to the Dominion of the Pope or Kingdome of Antichrist Whence as I was a going to say a second special use of this our demonstration that the late Blessed Reformation was the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is the undeceiving of those they call the Fifth-monarchy men who would pretend to begin the fifth Monarchy and upon that account raise commotions and tumults whenas it is so stupendiously and surprisingly by the special providence of God begun already And let a third usefulness be to reprove them that out of rashness and conceitedness or any other worse principle vilify and contemn this great work of God the late happy Reformation whether it be those that think there is too much done already they having an hankering again after the Flesh-pots of Aegypt the worldly bigness and downbearing
I look upon to be the more likely reading and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which bears the same sense comes so presently after Loveth all things that is to say is a sincere lover and hearty imbracer of the whole Creation of God and a rejoycer in his works Believeth all things that is All the Fundamentals at least of the truly ancient and Apostolick Faith in vertue of that purification of the Soul whereby she has arrived to this transcendent state of Divine Love Hopeth all things namely firmly expecteth all those great and gracious promises of a Blessed Immortality after this life and the Glories and Enjoyments thereof in which hope she is so fixt and stedfast by reason of the purity of the Soul and presence of the Divine Spirit in her that as it follows buoyed up by this full persuasion and chiefly in assurance it is for the glory of God and the good of his people she Endureth all things being assured that God whom St. John calls Love and with whom she is united by faith and love can carry her through a thousand persecutions and deaths and yet repose her safe at last in his own bosome Which is according to that couragious profession of the same blessed Apostle Rom. 8. Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerours in him that loved us For I am persuaded that neither Death nor Life the fear of the one or the love of the other nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ our Lord. This is that most excellent glorious and salutiferous Idea or Character of the Philadelphian state of the Church which is immediately to succeed the Sardian and in which alone the Reformed Churches must hope to be in safe Harbour indeed But in the mean time the nearer we compose our selves to this great Pattern in the greater safety and better condition shall we be If we will lay aside all our Dissentions and Animosities all our Factions and Schisms and remember that for all the stir and noise we make about Opinions and Ceremonies and Forms of Government in the esteem of our Lord Christ we are but dead bodies for so he declares to the Church in Sardis being destitute of the life of Christ which is the Spirit of Love whose fruits and effects I have above described out of St. Paul If we could but have so much zeal and ardour of mind to promote the Indispensables of Christian Religion as every Sect has to promote such Forms or Opinions as Christianity can well want and yet be most effectual for the Salvation of Souls which is the end of our Religion it would be a wholsome symptome or sign of our Recovery For this undoubtedly would bring along with it all Decency and Order and Morigerousness to the Magistrate whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in things indifferent and cement us together and consolidate us into one inexpugnable Temple of Christ able to bear off all the assaults of the Emissaries of Antichrist whereas now Divisions and Factions Animosity and Discord amongst our selves is like to make us a prey to the common Enemy These things are lively represented to us in those two Epistles the one to the Church of Sardis the other to the Church of Philadelphia which therefore made me so solicitous to confirm to all the World that Truth and here again repeatedly to declare it That the Vision of the Seven Churches is a Prophecy of the State of the Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the world To which I will onely cast in this third reason That it makes much for the Gracefulness and Elegancy and Enravishing Artifice of this Divine Volume of Prophecies the Apocalypse that the Vision of the Seven Churches be acknowledged such a Prophecy as I have described especially if we consider how the order of the Intervals agree with the order of the Synchronals of the Sealed and Opened Book-Prophecies and particularly how the Church of Sardis falls in with the Rising of the Witnesses on which things it is needless here to enlarge any further and not at all convenient my Preface having already swelled so exceeding much beyond my expectation Onely I will remind the Reader that I am not alone in this my confidence of the Vision of the Seven Churches being such a Prophecy those two eminent Theologers Ludovicus Crocius and Balthasar Willius an Authour that was very lately sent me by a Reverend and Learned Friend discovering the same truth before me and the latter so well assured of it that he makes it the ground of his Exposition of a considerable part of the Prophecy of Zachary as I have intimated above and the more of us hitting upon and approving the same Notion unknown to one another it ought to be the greater confirmation to others that the Notion is natural sound and true Thus have I with all imaginable sincerity and freeness given an account of this my Exposition of the Divine Visions of Daniel and of my annexing the Threefold Appendage thereto And now that this my just zeal for the truth may not seem to any one either unseasonable immoderate or extravagant That it is not unseasonable I think is over apparent there being that strong Effort by the Popish Party to bring their Religion again here into England and therefore it is the duty of every one of my Calling as he finds himself tolerably appointed for it to instruct the people touching the Solidity of our Reformed Religion and of the Detestableness of Popery such as it may be made out to be either from Reason or the Divine Oracles For for a Nation Priest and People to turn in a moment from one Religion to another as contrary to one another as Light is to Darkness and Christ to Antichrist surely must be the greatest slur that ever was put on the Profession of true Religion since the world stood and the greatest gratification and Triumph which that Triumvirate of pestilent Wits ever yet have had I mean the Atheist Antichrist and the Devil And verily there being that vast difference betwixt the Reformed Religion and Popery this consideration alone one would think should put an effectual stop to any ones revolt that is not an Infidel and believes nothing of a life to come viz. That if he does not stand his ground in this assault nor be driven off by the terrour and affright of men he cannot assure himself but if the like threatnings of death and cruelty were used to him to renounce all Christianity whatsoever that he might be an utter Apostate from Christ pass over to Turcism nay Paganism and at last be persuaded humbly to
salute not the cloven toe but the hairy backside of the black Goat in a Nocturnal conventicle of Witches The Consciousness of which baseness and impiety of spirit to him that has any sense of Religion left in him one would think should be more affrightful to him than the menaces of the most cruel Tyrant or the very flames of Hell Wherefore there being so strong an Effort and tugg to debauch a Nation on this manner how can it be unseasonable by all honest means to endeavour to keep them sound that God be not dishonoured nor Religion slurred before the eyes of this Atheistical world by so foul an Apostasie Nor is there any thing of Immoderateness or Extravagancy in this my zeal for so good a cause For I herein offend neither the Law of God nor man And I doe but that duty I owe to my Prince Church and Country in defending the established Religion of the Land against all Opposers or Vnderminers of it and being what I defend is true I have the Apostles warrant if not command to be zealous in it who tells us It is good to be zealously affected always in a good matter It is not onely asserted by our Church but it is irrefutably proved by able writers of our Church that the Church of Rome is Idolatrous And the most horrid murders they have committed upon innocent souls hundred thousands of them because they would not commit Idolatry with their Church all Histories ring thereof Wherefore our Church in her Homilies does not stick to intimate this bloudy Idolatrous Church to be that Harlot in the Apocalypse upon the Seven Hills as also that the Pope of Rome is the Antichrist And Bishop Jewel in his Volume against Harding appointed by authority to be in every Church expounds the Man of sin 2 Thess. 2. whom all the Ancients understood of Antichrist of the Bishop of Rome making the Antichrist predicted there to be the Pope And indeed what Protestant writer before Grotius ever expounded that Prophecy of any other than the Pope But how absurd and ridiculous Grotius his Interpretation is I have abundantly shewn in my Synopsis Prophetica Now what extravagance is it in me who further confirm what our Church holds to say nothing of other Churches by a more perfect and accurate account of the Prophecies of St. John and Daniel Wherein I shew all those Prophecies that the Ancient Fathers interpreted of the times of Antichrist himself necessarily to belong to the Papal Hierarchy And for Antiochus Epiphanes whom they lookt upon as a Type of Antichrist I have further shewed how lively a Type he also is of the Pope So fitly do things agree and cohere all along in every place And verily I am so well assured of the truth of the Expositions I have exhibited of Daniel and St. John those parts especially that appertain to the deciding of those grand Controversies betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestant Churches viz. whether that Church be Idolatrous and the Pope Antichrist that I dare in an humble confidence spread them in the sight of Heaven before God and his Holy Angels and the Blessed Spirits of the Saints departed and particularly St. John and Daniel the two inspired Pen-men of those Divine Visions which the special Providence of God has left to the comfort and direction of his Church and appeal unto them whether the Expositions be not true Not that I expect any miraculous voice from Heaven in attestation to the truth of the said Expositions but to signify thus to all the world with what sincerity and assurance I have written them Which I would have chiefly understood of the abovesaid Controversies and of my Applications of things past But as for what is to come that of the Poet may here take place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is the best Hariolus that guesses well so he the best Interpreter of Divine Prophecies that gives a rational account whatever the Event may prove touching such passages of them as concern things yet future Which I speak in reference to my Expounding Dan. Ch. II. vers 45. of the taking of Rome by the Turk which I heartily wish the Papal Hierarchy may prevent by a timely repentance of their Idolatry and bloud But the like fears and jealousies of holy men in former time touching the Turks over-running the West for their Idolatry are expressed in our Churches Homily upon that subject to which I refer the Reader But as for the truth of my Expositions which reach the main points whether the Church of Rome be not that Babylon the great the mother of Harlots with the golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of Fornication the woman on the Seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and whether the Pope be not the Antichrist and the Papal Hierarchy understood in all those Prophecies in John and Daniel which the Ancient Fathers and Primitive Writers understood of Antichrist whence it is manifest that the Pope with his Hierarchy is he these things I profess are as clear to me as any point in all Theology and Philosophy Geometry itself being not excepted But as for those that answer this our well-grounded confidence of the truth of our Expositions instead of endeavouring a solid confutation of them which they are conscious to themselves they can never perform and therefore have discreetly declined the taking notice of my Joynt-Exposition of the seventeenth and thirteenth Chapters of the Apocalypse in my Synopsis Prophetica published at least fifteen years agoe which alone would make good the conclusions aimed at of the Antichristianity and Idolatry of the Church of Rome for those I say which answer this well grounded confidence of mine with mocks and mowes with distorted drollery and course buffoonry I have no other Reply to give to them but that I heartily pity them and that I humbly conceive if there were any remainders of a mans heart left in them they would pity themselves could they but once consider what a few hairs breadths their souls are elevated above those of Monkeys or Baboons and would sadly sit down on their breech with their arms or rather forelegs if you will across and sigh deeply to the Maker and Former of all things that he would vouchsafe to transform them into the shape and state of men And I in the mean time it being something doubtfull how much the braying of their brutish nature may prevail shall desire all good people to pray for them But for those to whom is given a more sober and understanding heart and capable of the mysteries of God I hope by perusing the Expositions which I have written upon the Prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse they will not stick to acknowledge with our own Church and other Reformed Churches that the Popedome is the Kingdome of Antichrist and the Roman Church most foully and
rather Superstition as whose very nature is to abuse that Religious inclination in humane Souls by making them swattle away their love and zeal upon false objects and to spend their obedience on the vain inventions of men by making them rely on the falsly supposed merits of Saints and to depend upon the person and Trumperies of an ignorant or deceitful Priest instead of having their sure repose in the richness of the mercy of God through Christ Iesus our Lord. To whom if we be immediately united by faith and love and shew our love by endeavouring sincerely to our power to keep His commandments this is the plain and compendious way to salvation All other Interposals of humane invention are but distractions and obstacles thereto and wicked elusions of the power and comfort of the Gospel of our Lord Iesus This seems to be the sound and savoury sense of the Homilies of the Church of England and that in opposition to that Aegyptian servitude and vile bondage that Gods people were held in under the Church of Rome And certainly it must have been a most loathsome slavery and a sight intolerable to as many as whose eyes God had opened to see the whole scope of the Gospel thus â—…luded for filthy lucre's sake by the wretched inventâ—â—ns of men besides the sordidness and foulness of 〈◊〉 intermingled therewith Which made the sâ—…ate of that Church intolerable to as many as God had visited with his saving grace and had made to understand this mystery of Iniquity by the illumination of his holy Spirit insomuch that it was more tolerable to them to quit this world and life itself than to comply with such horrid Impieties How can we then whom God long since has delivered out of this vile bondage and have sung that Triumphal Song of Moses and the Lamb return again into Sodom and Aegypt How can we desert a Religion to the Witnesses whereof God has given so ample a witness in that blessed and Apostolick Reformation in raising them from the dead after three days and an half according to prediction and calling them up into the Political Heavens and setting them to rule in high places How can we return like a dog to his vomit to a vomit cast out and lying so long time cold and sour in the dirt and mire a vomit cast out as nauseous to all that is sound or sacred in the faculties of a man Nauseous to the outward senses and inward senses Nauseous to common Reason Nauseous to the principles of Logick and all sound Philosophy so nauseous to all these was that figment of Transubstantiation forged for the gain and honour of the Priesthood but quite repugnant to all the abovesaid faculties of man and nauseous to all common honesty and modesty to obtrude such an impossible fiction upon deluded people and to make them profess it whether they will or no for fear of being cruelly and barbarously murdered which must be exceeding nauseous to all such as have but the least sense of Iustice or humanity remaining in them How shall we again incorporate with that Church whom the Spirit of God has so plainly as well as the Homilies of our Church of England declared to be the Whore of Babylon May we take the Members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot How shall we forsake the Kingdome of Christ and make our selves subjects of the Popedome which out of St. John and the Prophet Daniel to say nothing of St. Paul three sufficient Witnesses I trow to put an end to this controversy is most evident to be the Kingdome of Antichrist If treason and rebellion against an earthly Prince be so hainous a crime as most certainly it is what a crime is rebellion and treason against him who is assuredly King of Kings and Lord of Lords even the Lord Christ Iesus And lastly How can we turn our backs of a Religion unless we will wilfully run into eternal perdition that has all the assurance of truth against that of the Church of Rome that the heart of man can wish or his curiosity require Is the vote of Primitive antiquity of any value that stands for us the Church for the first four hundred years being the very platform of our Reformation Has Sense common Reason the Rudiments of Logick the sound Principles of Philosophy any weight with them all these assuredly witness for us against the impossible figments and fond forgeries of the Church of Rome Has Morality and indispensable Principles of common Honesty which the pretence of no Religion ought in any wise to deface Has the eternal law of God and Nature implanted in our hearts any right to be appealed to we right willingly appeal to it how innocent the Form of our Religion is as to this and how foul and obnoxious will be found the Principles of the Papacy And finally has the attestation of Scripture and bloud of Martyrs some hundred thousands of innocent and holy Souls burnt and massacred by these Antichristian Persecutors have such serious Testimonies any force with them then have we even a cloud of Witnesses in the behalf of the Truth of our Reformed Religion against the impious corruptions of the Church of Rome The plain places of Scripture expresly condemn the worship of Images the praying in an unknown tongue the communicating but in one kind and the like And the Prophecies do not onely declare the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Babylon and the Pope Antichrist but those that professed the faith of the Reformed Churches to be the Witnesses to be the Martyrs of Iesus and the Saints of the most High Such a Seal is there set to the truth of the profession of the Reformed Religion against the enormous corruptions of Popery even by the bloud of infinite numbers of the serious and faithful servants of our Lord Christ that I may not say even by the bloud of Christ himself Who gave himself and shed his most precious bloud on the cross for his Church that he might sanctify it and cleanse it as with the washing of water by the word of God and the Pope keeps the word of God from the knowledge of the people that they may wallow in the black mire of ignorance and the filth of Idolatry for the gain of Holy Church Christ the true Bridegroom gave himself for his Church that he might present it to himself a glorious Church most illustriously shining forth in the fruits of the Spirit and the works of real Righteousness declared in the Gospel But the Pope blasphemously arrogating that Title of Sponsus Ecclesiae to himself has debauched the Church not presenting it a glorious Church to Christ her true Husband but in a whorish pompous dress contrary to the Christian mans very promise in Baptism to forsake the pomps and vanities of this wicked world presents it to himself a garisâ—… gorgeous Idolatrous Church for the satisfaction of his own pride and lust And whenas
Christ the true Husband gave himself for the Church that she might have neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but be holy and without blemish the whole body of the Religion of the Roman Church so far forth as it differs from the Ioynt Profession of the Reformed Churches is nothing but an overspread leprosie of grosly false Doctrines and of foully Superstitious and Idolatrous Practices besides being smeared over and over again with the bloud of the innocent and carrying on a perpetual design and trade of eluding all the force of true Religion and piety by a multitude of humane inventions and breaking off our comfortable recumbence and dependence upon the lovely person of our Lord Iesus our faithful Saviour and Redeemer to depend upon the person of some ignorant or deceitful Wight that bewilders a deluded Soul with a world of false devices and trumperies giving her no solid rest after she has once strayed from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ and fallen into the hands of these deceivers who are sealed and occrustated in the trade of their impieties by a false and boastful pretence of their Churches Infallibility and under the colour thereof declaring the true and faithful servants of Christ Hereticks they thereby snatch all occasions to drink and swill and make themselves drunk with the bloud of the Saints of the most High From whence it is plain that the Roman Church is an estranged Synagogue which is no Spouse of Christ but the Spouse of the Pope as he boastfully pretends to be her Husband So contrary does this Successour of St. Peter to the example of St. Paul who espoused the Church of Corinth as a chast virgin not to himself but to Christ but the Pope the Church of Rome not to Christ but to himself and not a chast virgin but all to be polluted with the filth of Idolatry which is Spiritual fornication But Reformed Christendome is the Spouse of Christ as acknowledging no Husband but him and depending immediately upon him by faith in his bloud alone and sincere obedience to his commands and not to the vain injunctions and inventions of men for her justification and salvation And for such a Church his own chast Spouse has Christ given himself and poured forth his most precious bloud and not for those that have espoused themselves to another Husband Which is also a sound Witness and may go for a most firm and authentick Seal to the saving Truth of our Reformed Religion These things I have taken the boldness to speak with all freedome out of sincere love and faithfulness to the Souls of men of what communion soever that those that are already deluded may be undeceived and they that are yet of our Communion may never so deeply sin against their own souls as to depart from it and so dislodging themselves out of the bosome of Christ run into the arms of that man of sin and son of perdition the declared Antichrist according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures and more especially of those Divine Visions of the Prophet Daniel which I have with so faithful care and diligence expounded for mens fuller satisfaction and instruction that they may return into or if they be there already continue and persist in the way of Truth and of everlasting Salvation A Plain and Continued EXPOSITION Of the several Prophecies or Divine Uisions OF THE Prophet Daniel VISION I. The Vision of the Image of the Four Metals signifying the Four Empires Babylonian Medo-Persian Greek and Roman seen first by Nebuchadnezzar and after revealed to Daniel Dan. 2. IN the second Year of his Reign which is now about 2300 Years ago did Nebuchadnezzar being sollicitous concerning the Fate of his own Empire and what would be afterwards his thoughts coming into his mind upon his Bed as it is said Ver. 29. fall into a Dream which much affected him when he was in it and therefore was earnestly desirous to recall it into his mind again but not being able he sent for his Magicians Astrologers Sorcerers and Chaldeans to try if they could divine what this Dream was For the thing was gone from him neither could he recover it into his mind But if they could have declared unto him what it was he could then have very-well remembred he had dream'd it Which forgetfulness of Nebuchadnezzar in not retaining the Dream in his mind as well as the Impression of the Dream it self is no small Argument of the Providence of God over his Church and People for whose sake these things happened viz. That Nebuchadnezzar should dream this Dream that concerned the Church of God infinitely more than himself and that he should forget it to the baffling of all his Magicians Sorcerers and Chaldeans and that Daniel a Jewish Youth and one of the people of God should by Divine Revelation have the honour of declaring the King's Dream unto him so that the King could not but acknowledge that this was the Dream By which alone it was manifest that the Spirit of the Holy God was in him And the Dream it concerning the people of God more than Nebuchadnezzar himself whether Jews or Christians there was this singular good effect thereof that they could not but be more certainly assured that it was a truly Divine Dream neither feigned by Nebuchadnezzar nor by Daniel but communicated to both by God either immediately or by the ministry of his Holy Angels And that therefore Daâ—…iel having this privilege of declaring Nebuchadnezzar's Dream had also the same supernatural privilege of rightly interpreting thereof The Declaration and Interpretation whereof is as follows which we shall expound as briefly and as clearly as we may where there is need beginning at the 31 Verse For it will be admirable to observe how the Preâ—…iguration of things in this Prophetical Dream reaches from Nebuchadnezzar's time not to our days only but even to the pouring forth of the seventh Vial whereupon all the Kingdoms of the World will become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. 31. Thou O King when thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy Bed and thou didst fall into that Dream sawest and behold a great Image or great Statue of a Colossean bigness it comprehending in its extent no less than the succession of Four Famous Empires This great Image whose brightness was excellent it representing the Splendour and Glory of those Empires it did prefigure stood before thee And the form thereof was terrible setting out thereby the great Fear and Awe these Empires viz. the Supreme Powers therein and their Ministers cast the World into by their severity violence and cruelty For which cause in another Vision they are resembled to wild Beasts for their rage and bloud-thirstiness as the true Church of God has too often found them 32. This Image's head was of fine Gold There being a Succession of Four Empires here to be prefigured by Four kind of Metals the order of dignity or pretiosity
most for the greatness power and riches of the Papal Hierarchy And all the gross and intolerable corruptions of their Church whether touching Faith or Practice are invented or upheld for this very end and upon this very advantage that the little Horn is thought only to have the eyes in matters of Faith and Religion but the other Ten Horns to be stark blind But lastly though this little Horn pretends to the only sight and infallibility in matters of Religion as if it were inspired so from God that it cannot erre yet the very character which the Prophecy gives it doth advertise us that this is but a bold boast among the rest and that these are really but the eyes of a man even of that man of Sin or Antichrist that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped For that by this little Horn Antichrist is Characterized is the common and current Opinion of the Ancient Fathers as the Romish Interpreters themselves cannot but confess though they were mistaken in the time of his coming And a Mouth speaking great things that is Uttering great boasts of his own Power and Infallibility For this Papal Hierarchy pretend him as to Superiority to be above all Kings and Emperours as to their miraculous Power that they can by certain words turn a piece of Bread into a man with Flesh and Bloud and all Essentials of humane nature nay into God after a manner and infallibly declare 't is no Idolatry to worship this thus transubstantiated Bread though it seem still Bread to all and is believed still to be so by all but by those that see only by the eyes of this little Horn and so trust his Eyes only and renounce in the mean time the use of their own Eyes and all their Senses nay of Reason and the plain Light of the Scripture Their pretence also of consecrating Images to the effectually keeping off Thunder and Lightning and incursion of the Enemies and the like may be reckoned amongst other their Boasts But this speaking great things may more especially respect the great vaunts of the Papal authoritative Power he being called by the Pontifician Polity Our Lord God Optimum Maximum Supremum Numen in Terris The Supreme Deity on Earth It being declared by them That his Tribunal and God's is all one That his Power is absolute That what he does he does as God and not as Man That he is all and above all That he has the disposing of Kingdoms can pull down one and set up another That he can do all that God can do That he can change the Nature of things make something of nothing make Injustice Justice and Wrong Right That all Laws are in his Breast That he can dispense with the Canons of the Apostles and with the New Testament itself That he is the Cause of Causes That it is Sacriledge to doubt of his Power That he has dominion over Angels Purgatory and Hell That he is the Monarch of the World and exceeds the Imperial Majesty as much as the Sun does the Moon And That he is to be adored by all the Potentates of the Earth This and more than this you may see made good by Bishop Downham in his Treatise De Antichristo for above Fifty Pages together And is not this a mouth speaking great things indeed And is not this part of the Prophecy also eximiously fulfilled understanding by the little Horn that Man of Sin or Antichrist that thus exalts himselâ—… above all that is called God or worshipped whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Which thing is exhibited in the following part of the Vision 9. I beheld till the Chrones were cast down The word in the original might as well be rendred set down or erected which is the most natural Sense and most conherent with what follows And the Ancient of Days did sit * namely God the Father who though he is not before the other Two Hypostases of the Blessed Trinity in time yet he is in order of nature He sate in his Throne together with the chiefest of the Angelical Orders in their Thrones or Seats to make up the solemnity of the Judgment Whose â—…arment was white as snow and the hair of his Head like the pure wooll Whiteness here by Interpreters is look'd upon that of his Head as an Emblem of mature Counsel and Judgment with a sutableness to his Title of the Ancient of Days that of his Garment as a Symbol of pure unspotted Righteousness and Impartiality in Judgment And this appearance of this first Hypostasis in general in White may denote the proper Character of his Nature Which the Platonists call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imply an ineffable Simplicity and Benignity and who would not have the world judged by such a Judge His Chrone was like the fiery Flame and his Whéels like the burning Fire viz. Such was the splendour of his Throne and of the Wheels thereof bright sparkling and shining like Fire and Light This is a Description of the Divine Shechinah not much unlike that in Ezekiel Ch. 1. and 10. This is a Chariot-like Throne as that a Throne-like Chariot and as the Wheels there as well as living Creatures are Angelical so there are Angels here innumerable in this great Session sitting with the Ancient of Days or assisting while he sits in his Imperial Throne drawn with Wheels Angelical Wheels by whose Ministry is the Revolution of all States and Kingdoms Though in the mean time there may be also an allusion in these Wheels to the Sellae Curules Chairs of State that ran upon Wheels in use in the days of old 10. A Fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Flumen igneum manabat ab ore ejus egrediens so Grotius says it is in Chaldaeo A Fiery stream issued out of his mouth The brightness of this appearance and the mention of this Fiery stream coming out of his mouth like that blast of Fire and flaming Breath 2 Esdr. 13. sutes excellently well with that passage 2 Thess. 2. Whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Which shall be by the clear demonstration of the power of his Spirit so manifestly appearing in his true Church of whom Jesus Christ is and ever has been the living Head the same which is the Son of man which is anon exhibited in this Vision namely Christ together with his true and living Church But in the mean time I leave to the ingenious Readers consideration whether that Fiery stream and Flaming breath coming out of the mouth of the Ancient of Days God the Father may not emblematize the Procession of the Holy Ghost the third Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity as well as the Son of man plainly represents to us the Second For who can doubt but that
Saints of the most High that is The Sentence was pronounced on their side God so generally convincing the World of the truth of their cause And the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom namely After the evidence of the truth of their Cause was so well known to the World 23. Thus he said The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth namely the Roman State or Empire Which shall be divers from all Kingdoms as having a Political constitution different from them as has been noted above The vulgar Latin the Septuagint and Vatablus as also Gasper Sanctius read Which shall be greater than all Kingdoms namely than those Three before named Which therefore cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would have it if that reading obtain And it has the start of the other for Antiquity And shall devour the whole Earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which sutes best of all with the sense of Vatablus the vulgar Latin and the Septuagint For the greatest Kingdom was the most able to do this 24. And the Ten Horns out of this Kingdom are the Ten Kings that shall arise The Roman Empire Ver. 7. is described under one Interval of its period to have Ten Horns so that it is the same Ten-horned Beast that occurs in the Apocalypse And Ver. 8. it is said that there came up among them another little Horn which naturally implies that it came up much about the same time with them though in what here follows it is said And another shall arise after them Which is no contradiction to the former supposing in order he came up last so be it was not any considerable time after or be understood of his more sensible growth or palpable appearance though the Hebrew word implies no necessity of signifying any posteriority of time but that he might spring up with them and amongst them but in such an occult manner and so unawares as if he had stoln his growth behind them For so the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word in the Original will bear that sense very well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying order of place as well as of time accordingly as the Septuagint have translated it But the time of the Ten-horned healed Beast being the time of the Apostasie of the Church and he being actually Ten-horned and healed at the same time For the crowned Ten Horns which shew their actual Reign appear only on the healed Beast's head as I have noted in my Exposition of the Apocalypse and the little Horn being said to arise among them or with them though the other Horns were not aware of him as having no Eyes though the little Horn have the Eyes of a man of a cunning perspicacious Politician it is manifest that the growth of the little Horn began with the Apostasie of the Church and so the little Horn may well be suspected of helping it on being most concerned in matters of Religion to manage them well or ill as being that Sacerdotal Polity or Hierarchy as is intimated in what follows And he shall be divers from the First namely from the other Ten Horns they being Laick or Civil this Ecclesiastick or Spiritual for such was the Papal Power And under pretence of this Ecclesiastick Power he shall subdue Thrée Kings The Three Kings which he is said to humble subdue or supplant are as I have hinted above those Three whose Dominions extended into Italy as that of the Greek Emperour Leo Isaurus whom he excommunicated and made his Subjects of Italy revolt from their Allegiance because he was against Image-worâ—…hip The other supplanting or subduing is of the Longobards whose Kingdom he caused by aid of the Franks to be wholly ruined thereby to get the Exarchate of Ravenna which since the revolt from the Greeks the Longobards were seized on for a Patrimony to S. Peter And the last of the Three which he humbled were the Emperours of Germany whom from the days of Henry the Fourth he excommunicated deposed and trampled under his Feet and never suffered to live in rest till he had made them quit their interest in election of Popes and Investitures of Bishops and what-ever remainder of Jurisdiction they had in Italy See Mr. Mede Epist. 24. Thus did this Horn with Eyes whose look was more stout than his Fellows 25. And he namely the little Horn shall speak great 〈◊〉 against the most High It is rightly translated great words because that Phrase touching the little Horn has been used so oft already Ver. 8. 11. 20. Where either great things or great words occur and there cannot be a more fit and authentick commentary on these passages than that in the Apocalypse Ch. 13. v. 5 6. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies where great things are expounded by blasphemies And in the following Verse he shews how these blasphemies are against God the most High many examples whereof I have given above upon Verse 8. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name his authority and titles and his tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven The Ten-horned Beast is said here to reproach them by allowing authorizing and inforcing against the decrees and authority of God which is also a blaspheming of his Name those blasphemous decrees of the Two horned Beast which is the same with the little Horn they being both the Papal Polity or Hierarchy the Ecclesiastick Authority not the Laick or Secular for Image-worship for Saint-worship and worship of Angels and for Transubstantiation which is a reproach to the Tabernacle of God the body of Christ see the place in my Exposition of the Apocalypse It is sufficient here to note how well the deeds of the little Horn sute with those of the Ten-horned Healed Beast who is but the Abettor and Executioner of what the Two-horned Beast would have And therefore when it is said the little Horn here speaks great words against the most High it is all one as if it were said of the Ten-horned Beast in the Apocalypse nor is it any repugnancy to understand it of them both For this which is said of the Ten-horned Beast is to be lookt upon as the meer Echo of the Draconick voice of the Beast with Two Horns So agreeable in every point is Daniel with the Apocalypse And shall 〈◊〉 out the Saints of the most High By Imprisonments Confiscation of Goods by Burnings Croysades and Massacres upon which this little Horn will put the Ten Horns as his occasions require as is also noted Apoc. Ch. 13. v. 7. and in this Chapter of Daniel ver 21. And think to change times and lawâ—… To alter the Primitive simplicity of the Christian Religion into a Constitution that best serves the Interest of his Papal Kingdom and the increasing the Revenues and the Power of Holy Church as they
as well Iew as Christian. But the very number of these Prophetick Weeks which consists of Ten Septenaries of Septenaries or Ten Weeks of Weeks seems not to want its Mystery For a Septenary of Septenaries or Week of Weeks Prophetically understood is 49 years which is the Iewish Iubilee consisting of Seven Sabbaths of years so that every Forty ninth year was as the Septâ—…agint render it their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the year of Iubilee wherein whose Lands were gone from him were restored again to him His Lands that were mortgaged as it were before were then released Gratis Now these Seventy Weeks being Ten Jubilees for Ten times 49 is 490 and the number Ten a note of perfection as Alcazar observes what are these Seventy Weeks of Daniel but the most perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the bringing in the most compleat Jubilee conceivable that is our being restor'd to our Heavenly Inheritance by the coming of the Messias For this is the main upshot of them Are determined The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is cut out as some would have it implying that immediately after the expiration of these the Iews would into Captivity again But that is a curiosity more than needs and not so conformable to the sense of the Prophecy So that in my apprehension the English translation has the odds of it Upon thy People and upon thy Holy City that is to say Near upon the expiration of the Seventieth Week the People of the Iews shall be no longer the People of God nor the City Holy their Religion naturally ceasing upon some act of theirs whereby a better according to the purpose of God shall be brought in But from the commencement of the Seventy Weeks till that time which is nigh 500 years they should be the People of God and their City accounted Holy which is a fair space of time and ought to be welcome news to Daniel To finish transgression that is To consume Sin and make an end of it For to that end Christ came who baptizeth all true Believers with the Holy Ghost and with Fire or who throughly purges his Floor and burneth the Chaff with fire unquenchable as Iohn the Baptist witnesseth of him And he of himself That he came to pluck up every Plant that was not of his Father's planting And such sure is all manner of sin and unrighteousness But the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie to compleat transgression And it seems as naturall a sense in this place As if the Angel should say Seventy Weeks shall the Scourge be taken from thy People wherein notwithstanding they will again follow their own evil ways and increase their sins to the very height which they did the most notoriously in killing their Messiah And to make an end of Sins Or to put an end to the Iudaical Sin-offerings For so will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as to Seal denotes a putting an end to a thing by fulfilling and compleating it as toward the latter end of this Verse to Seal up Vision and Prophecy the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used And surely Christ crucified on the Cross for the Sins of the World was the complement of all Sin-offerings And to make reconciliatiâ—â— for Iniâ—…uity Or to expiate Iniquity for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies But the sense is much-what the same in both And that Christ is that great Expiation and Atonement for Sin all true Believers are agreed on And to bring in everlasting Righteousness Such a Law or Religion as shall endure for ever and according to which if we live will be our Justification not the works of Mâ—…ses his Law nor those Offerings and Sacrifices Iustitia â—â—terna est Evangelium says Pintus quod 〈…〉 justitiam And I say it is that Evangelium â—â—ternum mentioned Apoc. 14. So that no other Evangelium is to be expected beyond this here mentioned in Daniâ—…l And to seal up the Uision and 〈◊〉 that is To fulfill and accomplish the Prophecies viz. Those great important Prophecies concerning the Messiah So the word to Seal is used Eâ—…ek 28. 12. Thou sealâ—…st up the Sum which plainly there signifies to make full or compleat And the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that is here and immediately follows Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty So that the vulgar Latin renders this passage very rightly Vt impleatâ—…r Visio Prophetia And to anoint the most Holy viz. The most Holy Person that ever lived For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the feminine Gender and may seem to signifie rather Sanctity in the abstract or Res Sancta yet the Iews themselves understood it of a Person Moses Gerâ—…ndensis of the very Messiah And it is used of any thing consecrated to God whether Field Man or Cattle Levit. 27. 28. Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 need not be a Noun of the feminine Gender but be the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctus as appears from Levit. 21. 7. and Num. 6. 8. or the words there are to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore again confirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to persons consecrated as well as things If it had been meant of the most Holy place of the Temple it had in all likelihood been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might go for the most Holy Place Christ was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see Rev. 21. 22. in the most eminent manner imaginable For in him dwelt the Godhead bodily 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the Commandment to restore and to build Ierusalem viz. From the Decree or Command of Artaxerxes Longimanus in the Twentieth year of his Reign that Decree namely that Nehemiah obtained of him who made his complaint to him how the place of his Father's Sepulchers lay waste that is the City Ierusalem and the Gates thereof were consumed with fire according as Hanani had told him Nehem. 1. 3. That the Wall of Ierusalem was broken down and the Gates thereof burnt with Fire Wherefore Chap. 2. ver 1. in the Twentieth year of Artaxerxes his Reign he obtained a Decree for the restoring and rebuilding Ierusalem For the other Decrees granted by Cyrus Darius Hystaspis and by this Artaxerxes in the Seventh year of his Reign concerned only the Temple not the City and the Walls as you may plainly discern by reading of Ezra Whence it is manifest that the Epocha of the Seventy Weeks must be taken from this Decree of the Twentieth year of Artaxerxes But Chronologers and Divines have been discouraged there-from because they could not adjust the time from thence to the Passion of Christ it shooting many years beyond it and so they were content to take up with the seventh year of Artaxerxes from which the Seventy Weeks end in
of the last Week of years shall the Messiah by suffering on the Cross put an end to the Iewish sacrifices and oblations For he that was prefigured by them being come and having been sacrificed and made an oblation it is plain those other ceased as to right and efficacy that is were abrogated or abolished by the excellency of his Person who offered up himself once a-sacrifice and atonement for the sins of the whole world The main drift therefore of the Prophecy is more curiously to define the time as of his Manifestation so likewise of the Death of the Messiah which I question not but may very well be hinted at here in this expression he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and what was spoke more at large and more undeterminately in the foregoing Verse touching his being cut off may here For time be more punctually defined And as at the mention of his death before there was annexed that vengeance upon them that murthered him so here where it is repeated again the same vengeance is repeated as follows And for the over-spreading of aâ—â—minatioâ—…s he shall make it desolate The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which with Mr. Mede I would render thus And commanding over a wing of abominations he will be a destroyer i.e. over an army of Idolatrous Gentiles namely the Roman Army And the coming of the Romans to destroy the City of Ierusalem is in several places of the New Testament called * the coming of Christ. So well fitted is the Interpretation to the nature of the thing See also Grotius upon Matth. 24. 15. whose Interpretation though it differ something from Mr. Mede's yet in my opinion does confirm it very much he proving by several citations out of Authours that the Romans bore upon their Standards the Images of their Gods which in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall only instance in that one of many out of Tacitus Fulgentibus Aquilis Signisque Simulacris Deûm in modum Templi So fitly is this wing of abominations interpreted of an army of Idolaters Even until the consummation and that determined Read out of the Hebrew And until the consummation i.e. the finishing of this destruction Shall be poured upon the desolate Read out of the Original It shall continue upon the distressed viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall do so The Roman Army shall continue upon Ierusalem till they have brought it to utter devastation Or it shall be spread like water poured out upon the desolate in that sense that Inundation was interpreted in the foregoing Verse For as I intimated before this is but a repeated prediction of the same vengeance upon the fame occasion namely upon the consideration of their murthering the Messiah which is implied in that expression He shall make the sacrifice and oblation to cease himself then becoming a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world according to the eternal counsel of God The sense which we have given of this Prophecy is so coherent and of one piece though taken out of several Interpreters that no sense can be applied to any Writing more naturally So that if Chronology will but favour the Interpretation of this Prophecy it is most certain that what we have given is throughout the true meaning thereof * And the Chronological part Thomas Lydiat in my judgment has made out accurately well of which I shall say something in my Notes The goods news therefore that the Angel Gabriel imparts to Daniel in this Prophecy is this That they should return out of Captivity and that from the going forth of a certain Decree to rebuild Ierusalem even with the Wall thereof that from that time forward God had determined Seventy Weeks for them that he would give them his special Protection so long and they should be his People and their City should be Holy their oblations and sacrifices should not be antiquated nor their Law and Religion abrogated But within that time a new Law or Religion should begin which should never have an end which therefore is called the everlasting Righteousness and that the Iudaical Sin-offerings should then cease that is should be no longer warrantable or effectual For the Messiah should by that time be come whom they will slay and he shall by his death put an end to all other sacrifices his bloud being sufficient to reconcile the whole world to God But though the design of Divine Providence herein was holy and good yet the Iews crucifying him out of malice and envy enormous wickedness having blinded their eyes the People of the Iews shall be cast out of God's favour nor shall they be the People of the Messiah but a People that shall be the Messiah's viz. the Romans shall come and destroy their City and Sanctuary with an utter destruction This is a short and easie account of the whole Prophecy in which it plainly appears That the foretelling of the destruction of the City is but an Appendix of the main Prophecy and comes but in by the by as an effect of that soul act of the Iews in slaying their Prince But that the circumscription of the Prophetical Weeks is made by those main designs they were allotted to the Iews for that is they should not expire till the everlasting Righteousness was brought in till the Prophecies were fulfilled and the most Holy anointed that is till the Messias was manifested to the world till he suffered rose again ascended into Heaven sent down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and set the Christian Religion on foot in the world All which was done in the last Week After which the City was to be destroyed by the Romans but there was no need of precisely setting down the time when It came to pass by Titus the Son of Vespasian about Thirty years after the expiration of Daniel's Weeks NOTES Upon VISION IV. Ver. 1. Which is very near to Assibaras and consequently to Assuerus c. Which name Assuerus Gasper Sanctius looks upon as a common name of all the Kings of Media as Merodac of the Babylonian Kings Seleucus and Antiochus of the Kings of Syria Ptolemaeus of Aegypt Caesar of the Roman Emperours Arsaces of the Parthian Kings and Tigranes of the Armenian because the first Founders or Enlargers of those Kingdoms were called by those names see Gasper Sanctius on the place But Diodorus seems to make this distinct succession by different names as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so thought because he succeeded Astibaras whenas according to Thomas Lydiat he might be the Uncle of Nicrotis which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks call ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence it is probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing there for one single King as well as the rest that it was the proper name of that single King as the rest are and consequently that Assuerus is not a common name of the Kings
to the Churches in Europe Asia and Africk For certainly the Church had disspred it self into all these Quarters of the world by that time As if the Spirit of Truth were a respecter of persons For these are not the Letters of Iohn but of the Holy Ghost But our Answer is ready at hand * That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the names of the seven Churches Asia alone was pitched upon But according to the Prophetical sense the true Catholick Church is writ unto under such distinct conditions as she was to vary into unto the end of the world So that there is no Partiality nor Acception of Persons in this Thirdly If a man demand touching the order or precedency of these Seven Churches that are writ unto What a plain and manifest account is there to him that compares the Epistles in their Prophetical sense with the Intervals 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 Jesuit be for it I cannot but suspend my judgment 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 less especially that in Thyatira according to the acknowledgment 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 ensuing part of the Book which is Prophetical 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 Prophetical 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 Symbolical it being the note of Vniversality whence the Pythagoreans as I elsewhere have noted call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore Seven and no more than Seven Churches are writ unto as standing for the seven Intervals of the Church from the beginning to the end of all Fifthly If it be demanded why these seven Churches rather than 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 Sardis why the same description in both or why in either In the Literal sense it will be hard to find any peculiar Reason but in the Prophetical sense already declared it is obvious For the seven Stars signify all the Pastours whether in present existence or succession And Ephesus is the begnning-state of the Church and therefore it is both very seasonable and methodical 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 attacqued by them and also discover them as well as the Church of Ephesus The Solution of which Problem is easy in this Mystical sense of the Epistles * that places the Ephesine Interval 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 than 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 〈◊〉 hurt by the second death In the Literal sense it will be very hard to find 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 Antient Church the Promise of the first Resurrection belonged Which is here obliquely glanced at according to the mode of the Apocalyptik 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 raâ—…ged neither according to the merit nor congeneracy of their Conditions pretending that it had been far better to have joyned the two irreprehensible 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 Mystical or Prophetical 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 intervals of the Church Catholick were to proceed in of which these Asiatick Churches are but the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks And therefore those two Intervals of time which take in the Reign of the Beast and the False Prophet viz. the
Intervals of the Church of Pergamus and of Thyatira must come after Ephesus and Smyrna because till the expiration of those two Intervals Idolatry had not again reentred the Apostatizing Church And the three following intervals of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea are the Intervals 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 Iezahel And Philadelphia which is the most holy and the most glorious Interval of the Church that is to appear on the face of the Earth is not to be named accoâ—…ding to her Dignity but according to her Succeâ—â—ion in time toward the latter end of the World as she is here ranged But of this more than 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 Ellipticalness 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 Prophetical sense it is very proper The Waldenses and Albigenses in this Interval 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 Brass 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 Prophetical 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 Tryals 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 Interval of the Church Twelfthly In a Book that is so full of Aenigmatical Involutions and coverings upon coverings where he calls the Churches Golden Candlesticks 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 Mystery in it would be a great Difficulty and hardly to be digested by the more sagacious and curious I must confess I have often wondred at this naming Antipas by name till I understood a further 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 than that of Sardis For though the former is said to be luke-warm yet the other making a great shew of life is notwithstanding declared to be dead That Christ should be more inraged against Luke-warmness than Hypocrisie and threaten it more deeply than 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 onsiderate 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 Prophetical sense the solution is easy 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 Prophetical 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 Iezabel 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 Prophetical sense there is no such incongruity The Object is worth the Spirits taking notice of in this kind this Iezabel 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 doubtless are Political Promises should be made to the Church in Thyatira more than to that in Pergamus or Ephesus and others What Victories or Dominion did the Church in Thyatira in Asia get over the Nations more than other Churches This is an hard knot in the Literal sense But in the Prophetical it is loosened at the first sight For the Closure of the Interval 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 than 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 Prophetical sense the thing is plain For the Interval 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
Harris M. D. lately Fellow of the same Colledg A True and lively Representation of Popery shewing that Popery is onely new-modelled Paganism Quarto The Reasons for Nonconformity Examined and Refuted Quarto Mr. Lamb's Stop to the Course of Separation Octavo Fresh Suit against Independency Octavo Allen's Works Octavo 2 Vol. R. Kidder ' s Christian Sufferer supported Or A Discourse of Christian Fortitude Octavo The extent of the Authours Exposition of the Prophecies of Daniel The change of Nebuchadnezzar by the decree of the Watchchers and Holy Ones into the condition of an Oxe how to be understood * Dan. 4. 33. Of the Hand seen writing on the wall by Belshazzar and of the Chaldeans Soothsayers c. being not able to read it The Interpretation of the said Writing by Daniel * Part. â—… Cap. 38. Two things most to be noted in the 〈…〉 shazzar and Daniels Interpretation * Ezech. 7. 17. Ch. 21. 7. * Part. 2. Cap. 43. Why the Authour did not undertake the whole Exposition of Daniel Why he undertook the Prophetical parts What the manner and nature of his performance therein And how grosly Calvin is mistaken in interpreting Daniel in those parts of the Visions that fall in with the Apocalypse That yet Grotius is far more intolerable and in what regard Whythe Authour has preferred 〈…〉 Epochâ—… of the seventy Weeks before Ioseph Mede's Why he so often names the writers he makes use of contrary to the professed purpose of Grotius who suppresses their Names Of the usefulness of faithfull Expositions of the Divine Prophecies and the Requisiâ—…eness of the reading the same * Chap. 39. The feigned and Hypocritical Modesty of such as pretend inability of studying Daniel and the Apocalypse What is at the bottom of this Hypocritical modesty or shieness Clear proofs that the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse are intelligible and what a touchstone they are to try a true Christian. Dan. Ch. 12. ver 10. The enravishing pleasure in reading and rightly understanding the Visions of Daniel The vast comprehensiveness of Christs care over his Church discovered in them Why Christ did not prevent rather than predict the persecution of his Saints The manner of Christs working Miracles and his communicating Prophecies compared one with another The reason of the Authour his adding the first part of his threefold Appendage The Popish fabulous notion of Antichrist and how it drove Grotius to embrace Porphyriuâ—… his opinion touching the fourth Kingdome in Daniel in favour of the Pope and why he rejected the conceit of Mahomet's being Antichrist The great importance of proving the fourth Kingdome in Daniel to be the Roman for making good the opinion of the ancient Fathers that the times of the little Horn with eyes are the times of Antichrist c. and consequently the Times of Antichrist the Times of the Papacy How manifest it is out of the 〈◊〉 that the Pope is the very 〈◊〉 That thâ—◠〈…〉 Representation Antichrist and false Notion of Idolatry to shelter their Church from seeming Idolatrous and the Pope from appearing to be Antichrist is indeed an acknowledging the Pope to be Antichrist and their Church guilty of Idolatry The second part of the Appendage the usefulness thereof in setling the Table of Synchronisms and discovering the vain conceits of men about the â—…ising of the Witnesses The main Testimony of the persecuted Witnesses what it was and that there was a Resurrection of these Witnesses in the Reformation A sevenfold usefulness of proving the late Reformation from the Vials following the Rising of the Witnesses to be the Rising of the same The first usefulness viz. The discovery of the Popedome to be the Kingdom of Antichrist and Reformed Christendom the Kingdom of Christ. The second Usefulness against the Fifth-monarchy men The third usefulness against the Contemners and Despisers of the Reformation or unjust censurers of it 〈◊〉 5. 22. Galat. 5. 19. The fourth usefulness The Conciliation of due Reverence and Obedience to all the Magistrates as well Spiritual as Temporal in Reformed Christendome The fifth usefulness For the justifying the Reformation from all imputation of injury or Heâ—… resie in casting off the Pope The sixth usefulness to show the â—…wrodâ—… of either publick or private persons Revolts from the Reformed Religion to Popery The last usefulness for the freeing mens minds from the vain fear of the Witnesses being to be slain and as idle hopes when they are slain that they will rise within three years and an half * Galat. 5. 15. Reasons why he added the third part of his Appendage as first from the Sardian Church its being so plain a Representation of the Reformed Churches as Balthasar Willius and Ludovicus Crocius had noted before him The sâ—…ules of the Reformed Churches laid before them with Comminations from Christ in his Epistle to the Church in Sardis Apoc. 3. 2. Ephes. 5. 14. The second reason why he added the third part of his Appendage viz. For the Description sake of the Philadelphian Interval which is to succeed the Sardian St. Paul's description of Charity with a brief explication thereof and consequently of the state of the Philadelphian Church Matt. 5. 6. 1 Cor. 13. 4. That the Sardian Church the nearer she makes towards the Pattern of the Philadelphian the greater will be her safety but that her slackness there may hazard all The third and last reason of his adding the third part of his Appendage The Authour's Justification of his Zeal for the truth of the Reformed Religion from the seasonableness thereof left men dishonour God and the profession of true Religion by their foul Apostasie That there is no Immoderateness nor Extravagancy in his zeal for the Reformed Religion Gal. 4. 18. * Book 2. Chap. 19. With what great sincerity and assurance the Authour has writ his Expositions of Daniel and the Apocalypse especially in those parts that concern the grand points betwixt us and the Church of Rome A brief Reply to the Contemners of his well-grounded Confidence What effect his Expositions are like to have with the more sober minded Protestants particularly in reference to loyalty to their Prince and seemly behaviour to other Magistrates Dialog 5. Sect. 29. How the Reformed Churches are boâ—…nd with all attentiveness to read Christ's Epistle to the Church in Sardis And of the sound and â—…avoury Doctrine in the Book of Homilies of the Church of England Several weighty Reasons why no Protestant should change his Religion upon the solicitation of the Emissaries of Rome 2 Cor. 11. 2. Apoc. 20. * Apoc. 19. 〈…〉 Chap. 11. â—… * 2 Macc. 6. 1. * Isai. 8. 20. â—… Sam. 9. 9. Apoc. 1. 1 3. Apoc. 2. 10 11. Apoc. 20. 6. Apoc. 2. 12. Apoc. 2. 18.
little better in foro Divino than rebellion and treachery against the Kingdome of Christ. Wherefore says Christ to the Church in Sardis Hold fast and be no revolters but renew and resume your ancient zeal for the Purity of Gods worship and the Power of Godliness your ancient Iealousy for the honour of God against Idols and Image-worship and other kinds of Idolatry and Heathen-like Superstitions your horrour and detestation of all Debauchery and Scandal of life lest he whose eyes are more pure than to behold Iniquity loath you and turn off from you on a suddain and leave you to be a prey to your insulting enemies So that here is Commination of misery enough to the Reformed Churches unless they repent without recourse to the slaying of the Witnesses the fulfilling of which Prophecy is already past But in the mean time it is apparent enough from this first consideration namely the usefulness of the Epistle to the Sardian Church for the representing the defects and corruptions of the Reformed Churches to their view that I had reason why I should be solicitous to make good that the Vision of the Seven Churches is a Prophecy of the state of so many Intervals of the Church from the beginning thereof to the end of the World And the other main reason is the description of the state of the succeeding Interval of the Church in Christs Epistle to the Church in Philadelphia Which glorious Character is exposed to the view of the Sardian Church as a Pharos to mariners on a dangerous Sea in a dark night that they may know towards what to make to and that the Reformed Churches may be assured that Christ intends such a state of his Church upon earth at the next turn as shall be without either spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it shall be holy and without blemish For for this very cause did he yield himself to the death of the cross as you may see Ephes. 5. 25. But of the Sardian Church it is said expresly that her works are not found perfect before God Apoc. 3. 2. And for this reason certainly most especially are they not found perfect because they are not done in charity according to that precept of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16. 14. Let all your things be done in charity which the Apostle elsewhere calls the bond of perfectness and is indeed perfectness itself without which nothing is right nor perfect nor can well hold together This is the thing that is especially wanting in the Reformed Churches and is the very Title and Inscription of the next Interval of the Church which is the Church of Philadelphia The Church of Holy Love or Charity For that Church will count every son of Adam their brother as the good Samaritan did every one his neighbour Wherefore this condition of the Church that is next is exhibited to our view as an high golden tower with crystal windows on the Sea side full of Lights by night and the burnisâ—…ed gold and crystal glistering in the sun by day to shew us whitherto we should stear our course that we may conform all our outward actions and inward motions as near as we can to this excellent principle of Charity The nature whereof St. Paul has so accurately described on purpose one would think that we might be guided by the light thereof And it is so Divine and transcendent a principle or deep and profound that a man may give all his goods to the poor and his body to be burnt and yet either not have reached it or else overlooked it and so be devoid of it when a man would think that so great a zeal and Liberality could not be without that Celestial flame of Holy Love But methinks I hear you say if these be not sure Symptomes of it what I beseech you are The Apostle will tell you For whenas the former things may be done out of Self-Interest the Apostles description is of a pure and holy unself-interessed Love that arises out of the Ruines Death or Annihilation of the Old Man in us and is that Rectitude of Spirit of which our Saviour Christ declares Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied As on the contrary they are in a sad condition that never felt this hunger and thirst in them and are thereby convicted to be mere Strangers and Aliens from the Life of God But out of the Annihilation and Mortification of our own impetuous selfish will or lust which is our true purification from the life of the Flesh does this Divine or Vnself-interessed Love arise the effects whereof Paul describes thus Charity suffereth long that is to say is slow to anger and no wonder Anger being properly a passion raised out of a sense of injury done to ones self Charity is kind as being the Image of that God who according to Saint John is love itself Charity envieth not Forasmuch as the good of the Vniverse and of every man in particular is the very life and pleasure of the regenerate soul whose real Regeneration is into this Divine Love Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does nothing scurvily rashly or tumultuarily forasmuch as this Grace arises out of the allaying or extinguishing all the Impetuosities of our own wills and lusts Is not puffed up this Spirit of Charity being not an huffy blast of crude Enthusiasm but the permanent and solid life of God in us into which our Souls are regenerated by the operation of the Holy Ghost Doth not behave it self unseemly no not to her Equals much less Superiours least of all to the publick Magistrates as being the ordinance of God but gives honour to whom honour and tribute to whom tribute is due For in the life of Charity all the quick Sentiments of Justice and Decorum are eminently contained Seeketh not her own And good reason she being not a Self-lover or lover of her own Sect or Faction but that unself-interessed Love whose glory and joy is in the good of all mankind and in reference thereto is mainly sensible and solicitous of the common Interest of the Kingdome of Christ which so much concerns the salvation of men and for this reason alone a sincere opposer of the Kingdome of Antichrist Is not easily provoked to wrath and invective speeches or severe designs as commonly Factions are affected one party against the other Thinketh no evil makes no misconstructions or perverse collections from the Opinions or Actions of men that are capable of better Interpretation out of an ill will towards them Rejoyceth not in iniquity though carried on with never so cunning Intrigues and never so good success in the behalf of any Party But rejoyceth in the truth that is In honest true and plain dealing not the preference of a Party but the common Interest of the true Church of Christ being the onely allowable spring of her Ioy. Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that