Moses there was sent to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old man of Athens a venerable Sophist I warrant you to give them to understand that this Image which they were so affrighted with was but the Image of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiter Olympius that is of the God of Heaven Olympus signifying Heaven with them and Zeus that God which according to the notation of his name is the living God and gives life and motion to all things and that their very Law or Scripture calls their God the God of Heaven also so that they will worship but the same God still and thus the whole Kingdom of Antiochus will be of one Catholick Religion the Iews joyning with the rest in the same worship Which will be much for the honour safety and peace of Antiochus his Kingdome And as for the worshiping of the Image would that reverend Sophist say that we directing our intention aright the worship of the Type passes to the Prototype and that we do not give divine worship to the Image but such as it is capable of nor to the rest of the Inferiour Gods whose Altars might be set in other parts of Iudea but such is meant to them as they are capable of and no more At which grave Harangue of this old Greek the Apostate party might find themselves much edified and it may be others drawn in but the sounder sort it 's likely would cry out To the Law and to the Testimony and that those that spoke not according to that word there was no light in them And certainly it is most safe to hold to the plain and obvious sense of that Doctrine which is delivered by Inspiration And the like just and safe appeal there is of the reformed Churches to Scripture given by Divine Revelation in the plain and apert sense thereof against the Church of Rome But by the Sophistry of that old Athenian if they will listen to his deceitfull speeches they may be seduced to worship not onely Iupiter Olympius but Pluto also and all the Fiends of Hell with their most deformed and affrightfull Images such as the Indians Idols are in reference to that great and terrible God as he is in judgment as well as infinitely sweet and alluring in mercy under pretence of their being the ministers of his wrath and that we intend no higher worship to them than is due Wherefore the worship of God is the most safely bounded by his own inspired word not by the humour some or fraudulent and self-interessed prescripts of men or by their subtile and perverse Interpretations of Holy Writ which is abundantly plain in any thing of moment touching Divine worship But now for this Idol of Iupiter Olympius its proving an Abomination of desolation it was so in that it caused the Temple to be left desolate and deserted of all good men driving them into secret places wheresoever they could fly for shelter and it is said 1 Macc. 4. 37. How the Sanctuary was desolate and shrubbs grew in the Courts as in a Forrest or one of the mountains 32. And such as do wickedly against the Covenant shall he corrupt with flatteries Eos qui sacerdotium sayes Grotius contra legem nundinati sunt blandimentis eò perducet ut ad Idololatriam conniveant Those that had merchandized and given money for the High Priesthood contrary to the law by fair insinuations and flatteries he would further persuade to comply with his Idolatrous designs Where we may observe Earthly-mindedness Covetousness and Ambition in the Priesthood what an occasion it is of and what a prop to Idolatry and the corrupting the worship of God But the people that do know their God Calvin well upon this place says Cognitio autem hîc non tantundem valet ac frigida Imaginatio sed accipitur pro fide quae radicem vivam egit in cordibus This knowledge says he of God is no frigid Imagination but is Faith that has a living root in the heart which implies a purity there from whence all firm assurance of knowledg in Divine matters doth arise And that is pitifull knowledg indeed that has not firm assurance For how can we be said to know what we are not assured of that it is true It is vain Imagination and conceit but not knowledg such as a man will adventure any thing upon And hence it is that men crumple so in persecution in that they do not know God with any assurance their hearts being not purified sufficiently for such a kind of knowledg and real sense of God as it were according to that saying of our Saviour Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and act always as in his sight and presence which will give them invincible courage and fortitude whiles they are assured that He looks on in whom they trust and for whom they suffer and who will plenteously reward their fidelity to him Shall be strong and doe exploits that is by the strength and power of God and by Faith in his assistance they will not be forced through the threats of mortal men be they never so great and potent to forsake the law of God or to relinquish their loyalty to him who brings these persecutions on his people on purpose to try them Wherefore if they prove faithless and disloyal to him the note of condemnation is branded upon their own consciences whereby it shall be either enraged with everlasting disquietness or hardened into eternal deadness and stupidity Which is a sad thing and worth our serious consideration But as for the fullfilling of this Prophecy touching the exploits they doe that truly know God and are not mere sons of talk and Imagination besides both the Books of the Maccabees Iosephus also witnesses to it lib. 12. cap. 7. where he says though many of the Iews partly of their own accord and partly to avoid the punishment threatned by King Antiochus to them that disobeyed his command which command was to disobey Moses and embrace Gentilism they submitted to what he decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are here the people that knew God they listened not to him but had more regard to the Law of God than to the threats of King Antiochus against those that Disobeyed his Decree and accordingly they endured murders and tortures rather than they would forsake the law of God Which is a lively Type of the sufferings of Gods people under Antichrist for adhering closely to the law and will of Christ and avoiding that Pagan-like worship of Idols that Antichrist has introduced into the Church of God 33. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many These that understand among the people are those that before were said to know their God from such a principle of life in their heart and not in dry Imaginative opinion These therefore being assured of the truth whether Priests or Lay-men instructed many For so Gasper Sanctius says Hi vero non sunt
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
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
For as the Stone was cut out without hands so it will be carried without hands to smite the Image on the Feet namely by the power and conduct of the Spirit of Christ who will then open a door of success that no man shall be able to shut as it is said to the Church of Philadelphia considering I say that Omnipotency it self is the Spring of this motion and that it does not depend on the humours and purposes of men I can of a truth declare unto the King that The Great God hath made known to the King what shall come to pass hereafter or after this namely after the demolition of all these Four Empires the Vision reaching to the end of the World which that expected glorious State of the true Church will precede when the Kingdom of the Stone cut out of the Mountain that is out of the Roman Empire shall it self become the Kingdom of the Mountain and fill the whole Earth that is when that State of the glorious and pure Church shall spread over all And the Dream is certain and the Interpretation thereof sure and more particularly touching that excellent State of the Church concerning which it is said Apoc. 21. 5. And he that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new And he saith unto me Write For these words are true and faithfull And he said unto me It is done I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End The Dream that he has interpreted is certain especially the most concerning part thereof the Glory and Prosperity of the true Church of Christ it being to be atchieved by the irresistible power of the Lord Jesus NOTES upon VISION I. Ver. 43. * Alliance by Marriages whereby one Kingdom c. That this is not the sense of the place viz. The Marriages of those of great rank in these Principalities mutually with one another thereby to bind these distinct Kingdoms in peace and amity besides the reasons alledged in my Exposition this may be one also that the words which seem to import it are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a very improper word to signifie that Noble Princely Royal sort of Men or Women who matching with one another of several Kingdoms might tie those Kingdoms in the bonds of unity and friendship It would then have been said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall mingle themselves with the seed of Nobles or Men of great power and interest or at least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the seed of Men in a common or indifferent sense But here it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the seed of mean abject weak despised Men such at least in appearance as Cornelius à Lapide very well Comments upon those words Dan. 7. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est saith he alluding to the Roots 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi filius hominis miseri aerumnosi mox morituri obliviosi oblivioni tradendi haec enim omnia significat Enos from the Two Roots above named the one whereof signifies to be sickly the other to be oblivioâ—…s Whence he makes Enos which is the same with the Chaldee Ansa to denote a wretched weakly sickly contemptible Wight and at least seemingly dull and oblivious and whose Name is quickly to be drowned in oblivion Which certainly is a very unmeet Character for the Princes and Great ones of Kingdoms But may very well decipher those of the Papal Seminaries Covents or Monasteries those Monks and Fries mob'd in their Cools and long Coats and making a shew of great mortification and despicableness as if they were altogether dead to the world and the vigour of nature were quite extinct in them they pretending to nothing but holiness and interest of Holy Church whether in these mob'd habits or got into a more brisk dress to carry on affairs in the behalf of the Papal Dominion either in their own Country or other Nations The very propriety of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say intimates that this mingling with the seed of Men does not signifie matches of Great persons of several Kingdoms and that therefore it will naturally point to that sense I have pitch'd upon in my Exposition And how hugely applicable this is to History see that Excellent English Gentleman Sir Edwin Sandys his Speculum Europae Which shews what fast hold the Pope takes on the Secular party by the activity and fedulity of the Monks and Friers and other Emissaries that are sent out of their Seminaries for the purpose For the Religion that is taught in those Seminaries being framed more for the Power of the Pope and worldly interest of Holy Church than for safe guidance to the Eternal salvation of Souls those that come out of these Seminaries to instruct the people do reaâ—…ly the work of the Papacy that is bind the Laick party to obedience to the Pope and so make the Iron stick to the Clay VISION II. The Vision of the Four Beasts rising out of the Sea whereby the Four above-named Empires are prefigured Dan. 7. AS by the Statue consisting of Four Metals those Four Empires the Babyloâ—…ian Medo-Persian Greek and Roman from their beginning to their ending were represented so they are here in the very same extent of time notwithstanding this Vision was seen towards the end of the first of these Empires namely the Babylonian Which manner of representing in Prophetical Type part of time past in a Set of Visions is made use of also in the Apocalypse the greatest part of the time of the first of the Six Visions in the First Six Seals being expir'd when S. Iohn saw them And there is the same reason of the Set of Visions of the seven Churches which begin as that of the Seals from the first Epocha of Christianity as does also the Vision of the measuring the Inner and Outer Court and the Woman clothed with the Sun with Twelve Stars upon her head c. There was about Sixty years from the Epocha of S. Iohn's Visions to the time he saw them and less from the beginning of the Babylonian Empire till Daniel's seeing of this Vision of the Four Beasts So that this is no obstacle but that the Babylonian Empire may be here represented from its beginning though Daniel saw this Vision toward the end thereof But because that in a Set of Prophetical Visions a little snip of time in comparison of what the whole Set of Visions takes in may be set out by some inconsiderable part of that Set of Visions to take the liberty of interpreting a whole Set of Visions viz. all the Six Seals nay Two whole Sets of Visions succeeding one another viz. all the Six Trumpets succeeding the Six Seals of things past when S. Iohn saw those Visions as Grotius does is so wild and extravagant that it may well astonish any sober man
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
or above him by decreeing things contrary to the Laws of God as if he were supremum Numen in terris as his Flatterers call him for who can null or abrogate the Law of God but that God that made it or some God if there be any higher than he What Antiochus did to the Iews in commanding them point-blank to transgress the Laws of the God of Israel and in making them conform to the Idolatrous Laws of the Gentiles the Samaritans those false Brethren writing in the mean time to Antiochus in this style 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glorious God King Antiochus the same does Antichrist in his forcing the true Servants of the living God and faithfull Members of Christ against the express Word of God to worship Idols of his own setting up and so to pollute the Church with Gentilism his Flatterers in the mean time crying out Dominus Deus noster Papa and that all is right that he commands and no man must disobey him as I have noted above These are great examples of boldness in the Antitype as well as the Type who yet was never so bold as to avow that a piece of Bread such certainly examined by the indubitable Test of Sense Scripture and Reason was either a Man or God and miserably to kill men if they would not yield to this bold obtrusion Now for the understanding dark Sentences as this passage in some sense respects Antiochus Epiphanes so it does Antichrist and is it may be more eminently fulfilled in the later than in the former The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chidah which most usually signifies a Parable or Riddle but it signifies also at large any hard question Such as the Queen of Sheba is said to propound to King Solomon the word Chidah is there used 2 Chron. 9. where she is said to commune with him of all that was in her heart and that Solomon told her all her questions c. Which two great persons surely spent not their time in Riddle me Riddle me what 's this as Children sometimes do but the Queen of Sheba put hard and weighty questions to him in points of State Religion and Philosophy And in the two former Antiochus might be pretty well versed and would not stick when the question was put whether the pure worship of the God of Israel such as himself had appointed was to be kept or the Rites of the Gentiles and their Idolatry to be brought in amongst the Iews to make all his people of one Religion and so the more to strengthen his Kingdom he would not stick I say to pronounce having an equal share of boldness as of wit that the pure worship of the God of Israel must stoop to the Reason of State And whether Antichrist has not horribly defiled the Ancient pure Christian Religion with gross Gentilism and Idolatry to support the wealth and greatness of his Antichristian Kingdom let all indifferent men judge These things are so plain and open that they are unknown to none but those that wilfully shut their eyes But besides this the Papal Hierarchy is a most notorious understander of hard questions in matters of Religion especially and of State so far forth as Religion or Holy Church is therein concerned as assuming to themselves the privilege of Infallibility So that the Pope with his Hierarchy at least is the infallible oracle of Christendom to solve hard questions Which makes me conceive that this passage and understanding dark Sentences and hard Questions was put in by the Spirit of Prophecy with a more peculiar respect to Antichrist himself than to Antiochus his Type And indeed that Church would make every Sentence in Scripture a Riddle or dark Sentence that the Pope may have the pretence of interpreting it who will be sure never to interpret it inconsistently to his own corrupt Interest 24. And his power shall be mighty but not by his own power The Power of Antiochus over the Iews was caused by some mistaken or ill-minded Iews themselves And as for Antichrist or the Head of the healed Beast or of the Beast that was and is not and yet is it is plain Apoc. 17. 13. that the Ten Kings give their power to him Thus plainly is his power mighty but not by his own power And he shall destroy wonderfully But whether Antiochus destroyed more Iews or Antichrist more Christians let any one that reads History compute and tell which of them is the more wonderfull destroyer For not only the bloud of Saints and Prophets but the bloud of all the slain upon Earth is laid to the charge of the Papal Hierarchy Apoc. 18. 24. And shall prosper and practise Antiochus against the Iews and Antichrist against the true Christians Apoc. 13. 7. And shall destroy the mighty and the holy people The mighty the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azumim the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vatablus and the vulgar Latin Robustos It signifies those that were strong in Faith and stout and couragious in professing the truth whether in the times of Antiochus or Antichrist These may be those which the Apocalypse calls the Prophets and the holy people are those that are instructed by them which are called Saints Apoc. 18. 24. What a destroyer Antiochus was and how much greater a destroyer of these Antichrist has been all History rings of it What Antiochus was to the sincere Iews the same was Antichrist and much more to the sincere Apostolick Christians 25. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnifie himself in his heart that is Applaud himself as all Politicians do when things succeed for his own great Policy that he has brought things to pass as they are This History testifies to be true as in Antiochus so much more in Antichrist or the Papal Hierarchy there never having been a more cunning Polity in the world as all Historians and Politicians are agreed Which perspicacity of theirs in Politicks is set out by the little Horn with eyes Chap. 7. amongst the Ten Horns as I have noted above on that Chapter And by peace shall he destroy many The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in peace out of time of war he shall destroy many Multos pacificos innoxios occidet says à Lapide and Grotius understands it of the Iews persecuted for their Religion by Antiochus But what is this to the bloudy Massacres that Antichrist has made upon the peaceable and innocent Protestants and to the burning God knows how many beside with Fire and Fagot The examples are more fresh than that they need to be named He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes The Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Grotius says that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is attributed to the Chiefs of all the Families of the Priesthood Ezr. 8. 24. and Ch. 10. v. 5. Wherefore the chief Priests being called Princes
the Passion of Christ according to Funccius and others But our Country-man Thomas Lydiat has adjusted the Chronology of Times so that from this Epocha of the Twentieth of Artaxerxes the Passion will fall in the middle of the last Week which is exquisitely according to the prediction of the Prophecy as we shall hear anon Unto Messiah the Prince that is Unto the manifestation of that Person that is so well known and so much expected by the Iews under the name of their Messiah the word never being used absolutely but concerning him To the initiation therefore of him into his Ministry he being first baptized by Iohn and so shewing himself after in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and doing Miracles for the confirmation thereof in the sight of all the people To this manifestation of the Messiah Shall be seven Wéeks and threescore and two Wéeks that is Sixty nine Weeks there being no mystery in the paâ—…ting of these Numbers saving an Hebrew Idiom to be understood from Ezekiel Ch. 45. v. 12. and Gen. 5. often in that Chapter as also Ch. 8. v. 3. as Grotius comments upon the place In the last day of the Sixty ninth Week that is in the Four hundred eighty third year from the Twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus did Iesus the Messiah manifest himself according to Thomas Lydiat's Chronology whom I conceive to have hit the nail on the head in this business The stréet shall be built again and the wall This seems to be added on purpose to give light to Interpreters that the Decree here mentioned from whence the Weeks do commence is the Decree granted in the Twentieth year of Artaxerxes because that was expresly for the City and the Wall the other Three that preceeded for the Temple The sense is That not only the Area of Ierusalem shall again be replenished with Houses but the Wall shall also be built again Even in troublesome times As it appears out of Nehemiah Ch. 4. For the Builders were fain to have their Swords in readiness as well as their Trowels 26. And after thréescore and two Wéeks shall Messiah be cut off namely After the Sixty two Weeks which succeed immediately the Seven Weeks that is to say after Sixty nine Weeks shall Messiah be cut off viz. The above-named Messiah the Prince For that must needs be the natural meaning thereof and as I said before Messiah is never put thus absolutely but here whence doubtlesly the Iews gave him whom they expected for their Redeemer the name of Messiah And now for cut off if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original it might signifie transfixus or affixus as Funccius would have it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cut off not only from life but as Mr. Mede says from reigning as a King And in respect of the Iews he was cut off in both these senses For he was the Messias their Prince whom his own people rejected and cut off from life and thereby from themselves that they should be no more his people nor he their King But not for himself The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most easily and naturally is translated And they shall be none of his viz. They that cut him off or crucified him the People of the Iews shall no longer be his People This sense generally Interpreters run upon and it is most congruous and coherent The Messiah shall be cut off by the hands of the people of the Iews and that 〈…〉 none of his And the people of the 〈…〉 shall come i.e. But the people designed 〈…〉 people of Messiah the Prince hereafter For 〈…〉 â—…ede interprets the place excellently well in 〈…〉 rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Populus 〈…〉 understanding thereby the Romans in 〈◊〉 Empire Christ was chiefly to have his Church 〈◊〉 Kingdom And it is most natural that as Messiah before was the same with Messiah the Prince so the Prince here should be the same with the Messiah the sense not only fitting exceeding well but being more closely knit and compact Shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary For this hainous Parricidium of the Iews namely for their murthering of their Messiah the Prince shall the Romans destroy their City and their Sanctuary which was effected by Titus the Son of Vespasian And the end thereof shall be with a 〈◊〉 that is After the destruction of the City the Roman Army shall overflow Iudea And to the end of the war desolations are determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius here interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not to and renders it Pro fine belli erit definita desolatio Deus hunc exitum bello isti praefinivit terrae vastitatem God has determined that issue of the War the devastation of the Land 27. Aâ—…d he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one Wéek Mr. Mede renders it Nevertheless he shall For indeed the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has the force in a manner of any conjunction and may be rendred according as the sense directeth And the most genuine sense seems that which Mr. Mede has given That though Israel was cast off yet a Remnant according to the election of Grace should be won off to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel of his Kingdom which should be done before and after his Passion by himself and his Apostles This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or New Covenant which adorns the very Title page of the New Testament And the Seventy turn it in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall confirm the Covenant that is The Covenant of the Gospel See Funccius on the place And that with many i.e. with several For so the word signifies frequently though it be true also that many of the Iews were converted and entred the Covenant within the space of this one Week which is the Seventieth or last Week some being converted before Christ's Passion others afterwards But the main Body of the Iews remained obstinate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and were none of his pleople And in the midâ—â— of the Wéek he shall cause the sâ—…crâ—…fice and oblation to cease This implies the death of the Mâ—…ssiah as well as that in the foregoing Verse And after Threescore and two Weeks the Messiah shall be cut off but the time there is less definitive So be it be but afâ—…er the Threescore and second Week or rather the Sixty ninth and before the Seventieth expire that part of the Prophecy as to time would be fulfilled if there were no more accurate determination intimated as there seems to be here and that he is to be cut off in the midst of the last Week suppose in the fourth year thereof Whis is the scope that Thomas Lydiat has aimed at and as I conceive hit the mark Which makes me now less adhering to that laxe sense of in the midst which I set down in my Mystery of Godliness on this Verse Wherefore about the fourth year
the true servants of God who will never suffer them to be tempted above what they can bear which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal Even to the time of the end that is To the time of their ending For God had set his time wherein these afflictions of his Church should end as bounding all human affairs by his Power and Providence so that there may be a respiration to his people from these extremities of affliction And therefore there is put an end to this affliction of his Church because it was foreseen that another would begin as it is intimated to us by what follows according to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it is yet for a time appointed The vulgar Latin has it Quia adhuc aliud tempus erit Because there will be yet another time namely of persecution of the Church of God viz. under the Roman Empire Pagan and Pagano-Christian Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Elliptical speech as was observed above v. 27. Which verbatim is thus to be rendred Because yet-again at the time appointed subaudi There will be a persecution of my People or Church viz. under the Roman Empire whose succession begins in the next verse For hitherto is described from vers 21. the Reign and feats of Antiochus Epiphanes But that now the times of the Roman Empire succeed both the mention of A Time and Times and half a time Ch. 12. 7. and those other numbers there vers 11. that point to them and that vast gap that would be betwixt Antiochus his time and the Resurrection of the dead mentioned v. 2. may sufficiently assure us To which you may add that the Passage here from the Greek Empire to the Roman in the next verse is as distinct and plain as from the Persian to the Greek vers 3. and the like great success and Prosperity expressed in both in that of both Kings it is said And he shall do according to his will * Which therefore cannot be understood of Antiochus Whence they that would drag what follows of the Prophecy to that scope are fain to run back and apply the same things that were predicted before and so make the Prophecy to tautologize Besides many things are most wretchedly distorted and very weakly and faintly accommodated to the person of Antiochus Which Calvin being sensible of applies all to the Roman Empire from the times of the Roman Empire after Antiochus his death to the coming of Christ. In which besides that many things are dilute or forced he leaves a vast gap as well as those others viz. from the beginning of the Gospel to the Resurrection Which makes the Prophecy less worthy of that Pompous Preface to it viz. the Prefatory vision Ch. 10. as I noted above Wherefore there can be no doubt with them that consider the matter but that this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth does not only here pass from the Greek Empire to the Roman upon the death of Antiochus and the vanquishing of Perseus the last King of Macedonia by Aemylius Paulus and turning his Kingdom into a Roman Province but that the Prophecy continuedly goes on though in general strokes through the whole series of times of the Roman Empire to the end of the world or general Resurrection And that as there has hitherto been predictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Literally or Historically to be understood of the affairs of the Persian and Greek Kingdome and more particularly of those two parts thereof the Kingdoms of Syria and Aegypt where the real gests of Antiochus Epiphanes are foretold and are but onely as other Historical parts of Scripture drawn to a Typical sense so whatever follows touching the affairs of the Roman Empire has a plain Historical meaning and is so to be understood till its utter dissolution So that there will be no room left for such a Chimerical Antichrist as some of the Fathers have fancied and others have been either themselves such children or would have others to be such as to believe them Wherefore bidding adieu to Hugo Grotius and laying aside all the fancifull and Chimerical Crotchets of mistaken Antiquity I shall clear the sense of the remaining part of this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth as follows 36. And the King shall do according to his will and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God This may be understood of the Roman Empire at large and the words be rendred thus Then shall a King do according to his will shall have all things go prosperously according to his desire by King understanding here as it is elsewhere in Daniel a State or Kingdome which is here the Roman upon the expiration of the Greek Empire Macedonia being conquered by the Romans of which Perseus was the last King contemporary to Antiochus whom Daniel foretels to reign Ch. 8. in the latter time of the Greek Kingdome And therefore the Roman is very fitly here supposed to succeed it after Antiochus Epiphanes the rest of his Successours being taken no notice of for the same reasons that all but one after Xerxes are past by in the Persian Empire And this Roman King or Kingdome is said to magnify himself above every God in that the Romans by sacred charms called out the Gods of those Cities they conquered and so as it were led them captive to Rome See my Synops. Prophet Book 2. Ch. 10. And shall speak marvelous things that is blasphemous against the God of Gods that is The officers of this Roman Power shall do so namely against Christ Jesus himself who was truly God as well as man and therefore the God of Gods and yet was he in word and deed most despightfully used by them and crucified And how the God of of Gods viz. the God of Israel was despised by the Romans a man may collect from that greatest Wit of the Roman Empire Marcus Cicero and one of the best men of them who yet speaks but contemptibly of the Religion of the Iews as unworthy of the greatness of the Roman name and Empire and insults over their Nation as less befriended by the Gods because they were vanquished and subjected to the Romans If a person of his quality went so far in reproach to the God of Israel what would others of less sagacity and morality blurt out See his oration pro Flacco And shall prosper till the Indignation be accâ—…mplished for that that is determined shall be done And yet they shall prosper notwithstanding this their villany towards Christ and bloudy persecution of his members wherein he was again reproached and blasphemed till the determined time of this rage ran out and that the Empire became Christian which was certainly determined to be
done under the sixth Seal 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers that is The Roman Empire becoming Christian will cast off the Gods of their Ancestours and cashier the old Pagan Religion Nor the desire of women that is Marriage will not be in that high esteem then as it was with the Ancient Romans as those Laws testify which were called Iulia and Papia which Constantine abrogated This I say may be one sense of the foregoing verse and of this part of this and so take in all the time of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the Gospel at least to the times of the Apostasy of the Church or of the Empire become the Beast that was and is not and yet is By a Geniconoea as I may so speak this may be the sense of the foregoing verse and this part of this But by an Idiconoea I conceive with the Ancients that the chiefest sense is that which concerns that Antichrist which undoubtedly Paul aims at 2 Thess. 2. And therefore emboldened by his authority I shall paraphrase the foregoing verse and this hitherto thus Then shall a King c. i.e. After the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes that Type of Antichrist and notorious enemy of the people of God in the Greek Empire shall there arise a Rex Sacrorum or Royal Pontifex if you will who with his formed body Politick or Ecclesiastical Power shall prove the very Antichrist indeed answering in the Roman Empire to that wicked Antiochus in the Greek and both of them placed in the latter times of each Empire Which Ecclesiastical Prince or Pontifex finding the stream of Affairs and good fortune to carry him along shall at last exalt himself above every God i.e. every Supreme Magistrate the Emperour himself not excepted nay shall speak strange blasphemous words against the Sovereignty of God himself as if he had power to abrogate and dispense with the laws of God and Christ and were himself Supremum Numen in terris Which impieties he will prosperously carry on for such a time as Divine Providence shall permit that is for a Time and Times and half a Time at the expiration of which his Kingdome shall begin to be broken But notwithstanding all this wickedness he shall not be a pure Roman Pagan nor shall he regard the Gods of his Ancestours or Predecessours that is of the Supreme Magistrates of Rome who Reigned there a long time before him such Deities I say as Neptune Mars Iupiter Capitolinus and the like But this shall be notable in him that he shall be outwardly a strict professour of a single life and it shall be against his Pontifical office to marry and likewise his Clergy shall be tyed to the same laws that he may thereby the better promote the designs of his Rampant and Insatiable Ambition Which spirit of pride and worldliness shall grow so rank in him that he shall in time cast off the real sense of all Religion as it follows in the Text. Nor regard any God for he shall magnify himself above all And therefore he will subordinate all Religion to his own worldly advantage and Interest Whence it will be that he will amongst other things make no conscience of Idolatry as it follows 38. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces The Hebrew runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. For together with God or besides God for so will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify namely together as Dan. 11. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calvin renders cum exercitu he will honour the Mahuzzim that is the Daemons which St. Paul Prophesies of whose worship would be brought in in the latter times that is in the Time and Times and half a Time which is the Reign of Antichrist and in the fourth Empire by unconscionable liars and men that are against marriage and place their Râ—â—igion in abstaining from meats that is by Monks especially This Paul says 1 Tim. 4. That the Spirit has foretold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly not obscurely nor Aenigmatically as being in this Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth that is in this plain and express Prophecy and not at all obscure or Aenigmatical These Daemons therefore of St. Paul and Daniel's Mahuzzim are the Souls of departed Saints which this Antichrist King of Rome or Roman Hierarchy will worship together with God or Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in his estate but place namely in the places or Temples of God or Christ in Churches which have their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord Christ. Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify as much as upon his bottom or foundation which is the very pretence of the Pontificians that they worship the Saints upon account of honouring Christ. And it is to be noted also that Mahuzzim signifies as much as Towers Fortresses Walls Bulwarks Guards and Protectours which are the very Titles the Idolatrous Saint-worshippers give the Saints and their Reliques reposed in their Churches Of so fit significancy is this name of Daemons viz. Mahuzzim which 〈◊〉 expresses them by and the worshipping of whom St. Paul says is so expresly foretold would be And where is it foretold especially expresly if not here And a God whom his Fathers knew not Read according to the Hebrew Even together with a God which his Fathers that is his Ancestors the ancient Romans knew not which God is Christ. Shall he honour them with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things Which is abundantly fulfilled in the rich offerings to and clothings of the Images and Altars of the Saints in the Romish Church which are very costly and sumptuous 39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange God This is very obscure sense The Hebrew runs thus and is easy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. And he shall make the Holds of the Mahuzzim jointly to the foreign God As if we should say the Holds of the Mahuzzim with the foreign God i.e. the Holds jointly made to them both or jointly appertaining to them both Which are Churches and Monasteries dedicated to Christ for he is this foreign God partly as being a Iew by birth not a Gentile much less a Roman and partly as being really God-man which is such a strange and foreign Deity as the Romans nor any Nation else were ever acquainted with before together with this or that Saint and elegantly here are these Churches and Monasteries called Holds in reference to Mahuzzim which has a warlike sense in it and signifies * military Protectours and Champions whose Houses therefore may well be called strong Holds And the Reliques of the Saints lying there are accounted strong Castles and Towers of defence by the superstitious followers of Antichrist Whom he shall acknowledg and increase with glory that is Antichrist shall make an outward Profession of Christ and accumulate external shews and pomps in honour to him And he shall cause them the Mahuzzim to
Defenders Guardians Helpers as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very often rendred in the Scripture The Septuagint five times in the Psalms render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mahoz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vulgar Latin as often Protector See Mr. Mede his Apostasie of the latter times ch 16. part 1. There can be no doubt of the sense of Mahuzzim in this personal signification And in the other two places where Mahuzzim are named though it were translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Walls Towers Bulwarks and the like yet the persons of the Saints or Daemons are easily understood thereby forasmuch as the antient Fathers gave those very names to the Saints in reference to their reliques disposed of in this or that Church or Monastery I will onely add one citation of Mr. Mede's out of Theodoret who calls the holy Martyrs Guardians of Cities Lieutenants of Places Captains of men Princes and Champions c. which are plainly Military terms and so leave the Reader to see the rest in that excellent Authour in the abovesaid place But hence it is plain how wonderfull easy and naturall the Exposition of this place of Daniel is Vers. 45. Or the Hill of Sabi Kodesh of the God who is called his holiness That the Pope affects a kind of Divinity was the complaint of Frederick the second and how he is twice placed upon the holy Altar which is the proper Throne of the body of Christ after his Election and at his Coronation you may see in Laurentius Bank his Roma Triumphans and what adorations are done unto him And in the Gloss of the Canon Law the Pope is called Dominus Deus noster Our Lord God as Bishop Downham has noted in his De Antichristo lib. 4. cap. 10. And there are many passages to that purpose in their Canonists and Theologers who think fit to give all the names to the Pope that are given to Christ to assert his Primacy over the Church Powel De Antichristo lib. 1. c. 15. thes 32. And therefore Sabi which no man can deny to be justly given to Christ may be given to the Pope And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint render Ierem. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God Omnipotent suits excellently well with what the Canonists call Omnipotentiam Pontificiam the Omnipotency of the Pope In Papa omnem esse potestatem supra omnes potestates tam Caeli quà m terrae which Bishop Downham cites as the saying of an Arch-Bishop of that Church in a publick oration of his in the Lateran and there are several to that purpose as you may see them cited by Bishop Downham and by Gabriel Powell in their Books De Antichristo So that the Pope is a Sabi Sabaoth indeed and take it in the most military sense he is as one predicted of him that Rex Superbiae cui paratur sacerdotum exercitus that King of Pride with his Army of Priests of severall ranks and as well ordered as themselves will not stick to acknowledge as an Army with Banners So little unfitness is there that the Pope should be called Sabi Scoptically by the Prophet he in the mean time in good earnest foretelling how immensly he would extoll himself and be extolled by his own But Kodesh is added that there may be no mistake and that we may understand that the same Sabi is not here meant that is meant vers 41. where the land of Iudaea is called the land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that true and eminent of that solid not tumid Sabi even of the God of Israel himself But here this Hill the Hill Coelius in all likelyhood where the Popes proper Imperial Palace is and Chair of State whose feet are as high as the top of the Emperors Chair and other great Princes is onely called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hill of Sabi not of that true and eminent Sabi the God of Israel Kodesh I say is added that no man may miss of who is meant thereby namely his Holiness of Rome For this is his known Title nothing more celebrated And that it may be the Title of a man notwithstanding it is the feminine gender and in the abstract Cornelius à Lapide very well makes out upon Dan. 9. 24. where says he Sanctitas Sanctitatum the most Holy is to be understood of Christ not of the Temple and signifies no more than Sanctus Sanctorum or Sanctissimus Sic Pontificem says he vocamus Sua Sanctitas that is Sanctissimus Dominus and Gasper Sanctius on the same place speaks to the same purpose What can be more easy or plain So manifest is it that no Grammatical or Critical violence is done to the Text by thus expounding of it but by the coherence of things and of the Context the place thus expounds itself By rescuing the Hill and consequently the City c. I do not love to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a messenger of ill news to any but this is more tolerable and less affrightfull it being of a thing in all likelyhood so far off But whether this be not the natural and easy sense of this passage in Daniel I appeal to any unprejudiced Reader And it is no more than has been threatned to old Rome as well as it has happened to new Rome already namely to Constantinople by men of their own Church that their City would be destroyed by reason of the wickedness of their Clergy So St. Bridget St. Catharine of Sienne Abbot Ioachim and others have denounced against them and some of their being overrun by the very Turk But of all predictions of that kind none seems more considerable than that which Bartholomaeus Georgivitz a zealous Pilgrim of the Roman Church and one who was a slave for some thirteen years in Turky delivers in his Epitome De moribus Turcarum Cap. 3. as a Prophecy of the Turks themselves to this sense That after their Emperour the Grand Senior has taken the red Apple if at the seventh year of his Reign the Christian sword does not advance he shall rule unto the twelfth but after the twelfth year that he shall have won the red Apple the Christian sword shall appear and put the Turk to flight Which is an odd Prophecy amongst the Turks and the more considerable in that it seems so impartial as to declare against themselves But what this Red Apple should be saith Georgivitz is a question amongst the learned of them there being a various reading in the Prophecy either Kusul Almai which signifies a Red Apple or Vrum Papai which may indigitate says he the Patriarchacy of Constantinople Vrum signifying the Greek forasmuch as all Greece was once under the Roman Empire otherwise Vrum would more immediately signify Roman but taken in that other sense Constantinople would be aimed at But it is so long since Constantinople was taken that Vrum Papai will either signify the seat of the Pope of Rome or else must be excluded for
must be cast away as if it were neither precious nor a Corner-stone and be bestowed again on a Pagan people the Romans For so Grotius does not stick to profess Idem Lapis Filius hominis and he made the Son of man before the people of Rome But can a man believe that the Original or success of that people was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing brought to pass by the special power and Spirit of God and not more humano according to the usual course of the World and that not of the best kind their beginnings being helped on by a rabble of Ruffians and Robbers 7. No but that is not Grotius his gloss you will â—…ay Let us therefore hear what it is Lapis abscissus de Monte sine maâ—…ibus according to him is Exercitus populi qui suae esset spontis nullique Regi pareret cujâ—…s populi origo à Monte nempe Palatino In which there is nothing sound nor solid For was this Roman Army any thing more suae spontis in that they had not a Kingly Government at Rome That supreme Power of Consuls and Senatours was as directive and coactive as if it had been Regal So that the motion of this Army was never the more spontaneous for this Again The Stone cut from the Mountain without hands implies that it was then spontaneously divided from the Mountain when it is said to be cut thence But when the Romans first issued from Mount Palatine yea so soon as they were Populus Romanus Regal Government was amongst them it being the first Government of this â—…eople and therefore they were not then Populus suae spontis according to Grotius his own conceit so that he cannot bring both ends together And lastly To interpret Mountain here in a litteral sense is unskilfully done and not according to the analogy of the Prophetick Style nor the very intimation of the present Text which says the little Stone became a great Mountain it self and filled the whole Earth Wherefore this Mountain signifying not litterally but politically there is no question but the other does so too and that the Stone is in some sense homogeneal to this rocky Mountain Whence the sense is plainly this That out of the great Mountain that is the Roman Empire there should be a people raised not by human power or policy but by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the Gospel by Iesus Christ and his Apostles which should be a peculiar people to him and becomâ—… the Subjects of his Kingdome that is to say That the Church of Christ should be cut out of the Roman Empire without human help This is a most easy and undistorted sense and against which there cannot be made the least exception 8. Fourthly which I have already intimated above The Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast with Iron Teeth and the Ten Toes of the Iron Legs of the Statue signify the same thing Wherefore it is plain sith the Ten Toes imply a Coexistence of the Ten Horns by reason of the coordination of their Site that there must be Ten Kings together in the Fourth Kingdome But in the Kingdome of the Seleucidae and Lagidae there were not Ten Kings together all at once Therefore that Kingdome is not the Fourth 9. Fifthly Antiochus Epiphanes part of this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is said to riâ—…e up in the latter time of the Kingdome of the successours of Alexander Dan. 8. 22 23. Wherefore this Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae has expired near two thousand years ago But the Kingdome of the Fourth Beast reaches even to the day of Judgment Dan. 7. 9 10. And I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit His Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burniâ—…g fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him * the Iudgment was set and the Books were opened c. That this is the description of the day of Judgment is the general opinion of both Christians and Jews and answers exactly to the lake of Fire and the opening of the Books Apoc. 20. which Grotius himself does interpret of the last day Whence we may safely conclude that the Kingdome of the Lagidae and Seleucidae is not the Fourth Kingdome as having ceased so long before that time though we understood the day of Judgment in the sense of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which the meaning of I beheld till the Thrones were set and the Books were opened is this that the Prophet Daniel had a prospect even to the utmost end of that great day But he begins more particularly at the beginning of that day in the eleventh verse But this I have onely noted by the by 10. Sixthly and lastly Alexander's Kingdome and that of his Successours is all one Kingdome But that of Alexander's is the third according to Grotius his own concession Now that that of his Successours of which Line are the Lagidae and Seleucidae is one Kingdome with that of Alexander's is evident out of Daniel Ch. 8. 21. The rough Goat is the King of Graecia and the great Horn that is betâ—…ixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas Four stood up for it Four Kingdomes shall stand up out of the Nation but not in his Power This is one plain proof that the Kingdome of Alexander and his Successours is all one Kingdome For he calls Alexander the first King which necessarily implies that his Successours are the second and that therefore they all belong to one and the same Kingdome Nay he says plainly that these Four Horns stand up for that great one that is in his stead What is this but to succeed in place of him as the Heads of one and the same Empire For no new Beast is said to succeed this Beast but the Horns the Horn. And then the comparing of them and saying But not in his power farther intimates a cognation and succession of one Line and that he does noâ—… speak of the Heads of two different Kingdomes Which appears farther from vers 8. Therefore the Goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great Horn was broken and foâ—… it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven But where should these come up but on that Head that had lost this great Horn which is compensated with four lesser ones * though in their kind notable For it is very incongruous and extravagant to fansy them to come up in any other And surely if they had belonged to any other Beast that Beast would not fail to have been named Wherefore they must either grow out of this Goat's Head or no where unless out of the ground which is ridiculous And therefore it is plain that Alexanders Kingdome and that of his Successors is but one Kingdome For that Goat is but one
be satisfied if not of the Truth of the thing yet at least that I have not rashly dissented from Mr. Mede therein We having thus solidly stated the sense of this Vision of the Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses which was the true sense thereof many hundred years ago and ever will be we may now the more seasonably enquire whether the Prophecy be yet fulfilled or no. Which if it be not and the Witnesses be not risen it is evident from what we have proved above viz. That the Vials follow the Rising of the Witnesses that there is not yet one Vial poured out But there is no Protestant Interpreter that I know but will allow that some of the Vials are already poured out Wherefore unless they will shamefully recoil they must of necessity acknowledg that the Witnesses are already risen But I shall use but one Argument for all to prove that this Vision or Prophecy of the Rising of the Witnesses is already fulfilled What a remarkable Providence as touching the Church of God and what a vast change of affairs there was in the Papacy at the late Reformation is notorious and what an innumerable company of people were delivered out of that worse than Aegyptian Bondage of the Pope and multitudes who because of their supposed Hereticalness lay dead useless and unactive to all Political Power whether in Church or State being excluded therefrom for their falsly suspected Heresy got into the most honourable employments at the Reformation both in Church and State Nay that the highest honours were in the hands of the Protestants in many intire Kingdomes and Principalities which had been under the Papacy before What a marvellous nay stupendious change this was no man can but be sensible of and therefore that it must be and that in no slight manner predicted in the Apocalypse Now it cannot be predicted in any of those Visions that in order of time follow the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses as the Vials do because this notable and stupendious mutation of things has happened already and as those of the adverse party would have it before the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore I demand of them in what Vision which is antecedent to the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is this so remarkable and marvellous a piece of Providence predicted or prefigured I am confident they cannot find any before this of the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore it must be this Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses which prefigured this stupendious piece of Providence in the Reformation or else none at all Which were an absurdity intolerable and utterly incredible Wherefore it is even Mathe matically evident that the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is a Prophecy of the late Reformation and that it is fulfilled therein And this it would be though it were less significative of that marvellous passage of Providence than it is But that it is most fitly and fully significative thereof as if made on purpose for it my Exposition of it in my Apocalypsis Apocalypseos and elsewhere will I hope abundantly make good which is needless here to repeat as also how naturally the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb follows the Rising of the Witnesses which contains a deliverance of the Servants of God from that worse than Aegyptian Bondage of that Mystical Pharaoh the Pope and how the Sardian Interval of the Church which signifies a Song of Ioy commences at the same time Which things fall in with that Congruity and Harmony that he must be something more than ordinary stupid that is not enravished therewith But in the mean time having observed that neither the Messias who is called the Christ when he was come though predicted plainly enough by the Prophecies was taken notice of as such by them that were concerned to take notice of him nor yet Antichrist as fully nay more fully and repeatedly predicted and prefigured was taken notice of by them who were sufficiently concerned so to do I less wonder that the Prophecy of the Rising of the Witnesses so punctually predicted and manifestly fulfilled in the Reformation should be so little taken notice of as it is but that several men as the Iews expect a Messias to come and the Romanists an Antichrist so they a Rising of the Witnesses to come when the impletion of that Prophecy is so evidently already past Wherefore it was the duty of some or other to remind them of it The Authours twenty Arguments whereby he does prove that the seven Epistles to the seven Churches are a Prophecy of the state of the Church cast into seven Intervals from the beginning thereof to the last Iudgment out of his Exposition of the seven Churches Chapter X. 1. AS in Natural Hypotheses those are accounted truest that solve the Phaenomena of Nature the most naturally and easily and especially if such as are no otherwise solvible than upon the proposed Hypothesis so that meaning of Scripture I mean especially of any considerable portion thereof ought to be esteemed truest that can solve the most Difficulties that may be raised concerning the same or the Contexts precedent or subsequent thereto and if all still the more certain and if unsolvible otherwise there is still the more assurance of undeniable Demonstration Now how near this Mystical or Propheticall Exposition of these Epistles approaches to the clearness of this case I will leave to the Reader to judge after he has considered the Solutions of the questions easily raised out of the Epistles themselves or the precedent Chapter and not easily answered nor at all satisfactorily at least most of them but upon the Hypothesis we have gone 2. As first If a man enquire why the Spirit of Prophecy after he has so expresly given notice that this Book of the Apocalypse is to shew unto his servants things that are to come and called it plainly a Book of Prophecies should start so unexpectedly from the Title and intended Subject as to write no less than seven Epistles to certain Churches that have nothing considerable of Prophecy in them before he deliver any Prophecies properly so called but onely Promises and Comminations and that he should do this * with as great Pomp and as high a Preamble as he does when he begins so famous Prophecies as those of the seven Seals and the opened Book But according to our Hypothesis the Answer is easie viz. That though these seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia have a Literal sense yet they are also a Parable or Prophecy and of as high concern for both matter and extent of Time they reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end of the world as the Prophecy of the Seals and Opened Book and that they are ushered in with this great Pomp on purpose to give us notice thereof Secondly A man would be prone to enquire why the Spirit dictates Letters unto the Churches in Asia and not rather
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
respect of this Philadelphian Church it will come quickly she commencing but in the very same Vial that this is to happen under Eighteenthly Why upon this Philadelphia a private Asiatick Church should the name of the City of God the new Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God the very same that is expressed Apoc. 21. be said to be written This Title were too big and turgent for any private Church were it not a Type or Symbol of some greater matter But by the Prophetical interpretation this difficulty is quite removed For the Interval of the Philadelphian Church is coincident with the times of the new Ierusalem mentioned at the end of the Apocalypse and of the Millennial Empire of Christ upon Earth 8. Nineteenthly The Curious may be prone to enquire why the Church of Laodicea in those times should account her self so hugely and extraordinarily rich encreased in goods and to have no want of any thing And truly why this should be her estate rather than any of the Churches specified from the Literal ground we can fetch no reason But admitting the Prophetical sense and that this is the last Interval of the Church of Christ it will naturally so come to pass For this Laodicea will be left Heir to all the Riches of her Sister Philadelphia to Peace Prosperity Purity in Worship abundance of natural Knowledge universal skill in the Interpretations of the Prophecies and whatever good thing there is belonging to the Church saving the Life and Spirit which Philadelphia carried along with her into the other World How easily then and naturally or rather necessarily does this Description of the Church of Laodicea fall upon the last Interval And Lastly It is a Question extremely obvious to demand Why that phrase * He that hath an ear to hear let him hear which our Saviour so often is found to adde at the end of his Parables to the People should be used here so repeatedly in every Epistle they being no Parables but Epistles sent to each of those Seven Churches in Asia respectively And then why this Epiphonema is sometimes the last close of the Epistle sometimes not To which Problem there is no tolerable Solution in the Literal sense of these Epistles But supposing a Mystical or Prophetical sense there was a necessity of affixing this Epiphonema to shew there was a farther sense intended than that of the Letter and also that sometimes this Epiphonema should come last of all as in the four last Epistles that the Promise to the Conquerour to him that overcomes might be more certainly understood to be of a proper Prophetical or Political sense not merely Theological Moral or Spiritual as has been abundantly declared in the Exposition 9. We might have drawn many more Questions and Solutions from the consideration of the Letter and of this Hypothesis we go upon to shew its solidity and fitness but that we hold it needless having produced so many already which jointly considered with the perpetual easiness and naturalness of the whole Exposition of all the Epistles * and the exact Correspondency of the Names of the Churches to the Events of the successive Intervals of the true Catholick Church which they represent one would think they should not fail fully to satisfy any unprejudiced Peruser of our Exposition of these Epistles touching the truth thereof But I am abundantly taught by Experience that both the finding out and receiving of Divine Truths found out by others is a special gift of God And therefore to him alone be the Glory for ever and ever Amen NOTES Upon the Twenty Arguments Sect. 2. With as great Pomp and as high a Preamble as he does where he begins so famous Prophecies as those of the Seven Seals c. You may adde to this of the Seven Seals and that of the Opened Book the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth in Daniel To which Prophecy the Vision Chap. 10. vers 5 6 c. is a Preamble as this Vision is to this Prophecy of the Seven Churches and which is yet more remarkable the Person represented in the Vision the same Person in the like attire and other circumstances as here And there set before the most concerning Prophecy in all Daniel which reaches from the Persian Monarchy to the end of the World Whence it is the more â—…rigid and absurd not to make these Epistles of the Seven Churches a Prophecy as well as those three other are that reaches to the end of the World as they do That for the significancy of the word Asia to comport also with the significancy of the Names of the Seven Churches c. And there is one significancy more in this Name Asia than I was aware of when I wrote my Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches For besides that Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fundamentum and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies operari to work from whence I know thy works is so often repeated there may be also a further Allusion to the Cabbalistical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as they call it Mundus Asiathicus of which the Earth is the lowest Region So that the Churches in Asia will sâ—…gnify according to this Cabbalistical Notion the Churches dispersed over the whole Earth Because a Letter-carrier going from Patmos his first journey will be to Ephesus c. This is Alcazar his conceit and yet as Literâ—â— as it is it will not hold For he must be an unskilfull and indisâ—…reet Letter-carrier that setting out from Patmos to Ephesus will pass to Smyrna and to Pergamus if he intend what he ought to doe the delivering most of his Letters in the shortest time he may For then if we consult Ptolemies Mapps in Asiae Tabula 1 he being to deliver the most of his Letters in the shortest time is not to go from Ephesus to Smyrna and so to Pergamus but from Ephesus to Laodicea from Laodicea to Philadelphia from Philadelphia to Sardis from Sardis to Thyatira and from Thyatira to Pergamus and then from Pergamus to Smyrna from whence he may take shipping to Patmos again to give Saint Iohn an account of the delivery of his Letters This is very evident out of Ptolemie's Geographical Table especially if we understand by Laodicea that Laodicea which is situated betwixt the Rivers Meander and Lycus which questionless Alcazar understands And that Laodicea is near to Philadelphia and Philadelphia to Sardis and Sardis not far off from Thyatira But there is a Laodicea at a great distance from them all that lies a good deal East of the Mountain or Valley Aulocrene from whence the River Meander runs which Ptolemy calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laodiceam combustam which were it understood would alter the account And yet for ought I know it may be chiefly alluded to in the Prophetical sense of the Epistles to these Churches the Laodicean Interval in a manner conterminating with the Conflagration of the World
So that not onely the Notation of the Name of Laodicea intimates that to be the Interval of the Church that reaches till the last Judgment but that Epithete also of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or combusta that it is the Interval next to the Conflagration of the Earth Sect. 4. That places the Ephesine Interval within the Apostles times c. For the Ephesine Interval terminates in the tenth year of Nero as I have shewn in my Exposition In which Interval all the Apostles were living Saint Iohn long after But another Character of this Interval is that the Nicolaitan Sect appeared not till presently after it Whence they are commended that they hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans that is such deeds as the Nicolaitans after were found guilty of And Spondanus places the Sect of the Nicolaitans some two or three years after the tenth of Nero. The Church hitherto had kept free from such wretched Debauchery as that Sect. 6. As if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was intended on purpose to answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though there be two other Paronomastical Allusions in the word Asia besides this yet I do not doubt but this is also intended and the rather from the repeating so perpetually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know thy works and it is the most usefull and the most accommodate to vulgar capacity That Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mundus Asiathicus lies more deep and is less intelligible to the vulgar Sect. 8. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear c. namely what the Spirit saith unto the Churches This Additional put to that excitation to attention to what the Spirit saith unto the Churches shews that all these seeming private Epistles to particular Churches are indeed one Sett or Compages of Epistles which concern the succeeding Intervals of the Universal Church from the beginning to the end of the World Whence the Epiphonema of each Epistle to every Church is so framed as if it were directed to all the Churches that is to every Interval thereof The whole being a Representation of the State of the Church Universal according to several Intervals from the beginning to the end which they are bound to take notice of and consider and compare together for the better understanding of the whole Sect. 9. And the exact correspondency of the Names of the Churches to the Events c. And not onely of the Names of the Churches but of whatsoever Names of Persons are mentioned in any of the Epistles to the Churches there is a correspondency of these with the state or affairs of that Interval of the Church whereever they occur It may be that some strong Spirits as they are called or high and hard lofty Wits will overlook these Paronomastical Correspondencies or Allusions in words or names as Trifles But the great Hugo Grotius himself does not that makes the Names of every one of the Seven Churches to be significant Nor does Peganius that incomparably learned as well as singularly pious German who knowing nothing of my Exposition of the Seven Churches nor I of his gave about the same time muchwhat the same Prophetical Exposition with Allusions to the Words or Names that I have done Which shews the obviousness and naturalness of this way of opening the Prophetical sense of these Epistles to them whose Judgments are free And though I knew none when I set my self to the Prophetical Exposition of the Seven Churches that held it a Prophecy of the State of the Church distinguished into so many Intervals from the beginning to the end unless he that put me upon it might surmise some such thing yet after the publishing my Exposition I met with one who was something a curious enquirer after Expositours of the Prophecies of Scripture that named to me at least half a dozen that held the Seven Churches to be such a Prophecy reaching from the beginning of the Church to the end thereof and I have had some such like information since But none of these that were of this Opinion had attempted to make the thing out as I was informed from the same hands And very lately by chance looking again into Mr. Mede I find him also explicitly to declare his opinion that the Vision of the Seven Churches is a Prophecy touching the Church Universal à principâ—…o ad finem setting out the different states of the Church in several Intervals in that order that the Seven Churches are ranged in the Apocalypse which I have noted in my Preface to the Exposition And he gives two reasons for it The one that the Number Seven is a Number of entire Revolution of Time to which I would adde expresly that As the Seven Seals reach from the beginning to the end of the entire Apocalyptick Period whose Epocha is the beginning of the Christian Church and Exitus in the end of the World so doth also the Vision of the Seven Churches and that for that reason they are likewise exhibited under the Number of Seven His other reason is That if this Prophetick sense was not intended the Spirit of Prophecy would not have pitched upon these Seven Churches in Asia but the Letters would have been directed either to all the Churches or the most famous such as the Church at Antioch at Alexandria and Rome and many others and such as no doubt says he had need of instruction as well as those named in the Apocalypse These are his two Arguments which I have not missed in my twenty though I never met with them before that in Mr. Mede And these two Arguments were sufficient to perswade that Person of so excellent a wit and judgment of the truth of the thing in general Into how deep a sopor therefore or lethargy is their wit and judgment cast whom twenty Arguments of like nature will not awake But now for a further assurance upon a more particular account Which is briefly this I first considered the Integrum which was to be distributed into these seven parts Which is the true Apostolick Church not contaminated with either Pagan or Pagano Christian Idolatry though living in various circumstances from the beginning to the end Now there being a complaint of eating things sacrificed unto Idols under the third and fourth Intervals and none in the two first and three last made me conceive that those middle Intervals both put together did comprehend no less space than the times of the Apostasy of the Church before whole Kingdomes and Nations had emerged out of it as it happened at the blessed reformation This is the first fast hold I seemed to have of things viz. that the Pergamenian and Thyatirian Intervals included the times of the Apostasy of the Church till the Time of Reformation came The Time antecedent to this was all that Time before the Apostasy or at least which I look upon as the more probable before the Roman Empire became Christian by the Conversion of Constantine Now this antecedent
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
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