like Introductory Vision and more ample of the glory of the God of Israel enthroned above the Cherubims is prefixed before Ezekiel's Book of Prophecies but is no Prophecy it self but a sign of Ezekiel his Call and Inspiration from God to prophesie He upon the Throne speaking to him Chap. 2.3 and saying Son of man I send thee to the Children of Israel c. there 's his Mission and then reaching him a roll of a Book to eat whereby as John Apoc. 10. doing the like he was inabled to prophesie I will add a third Example out of Daniel of that Vision of an Angel habited like Aaron the High-Priest Chap. 10.5 prefixed before the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth who communicated to Daniel the said Prophecy But now as no man is so sensless as to take those Introductory Visions in Isaiah Ezekiel and Daniel to be proper Prophecies but only or chiefly significations of the Divine Inspiration of those Prophets that they were inabled thus to prophesie by the Spirit of the Lord So it is a wonder to me that any one of wit and parts and learning should be so heedless and grosly mistaken as to make any of these Introductory Visions to the Epistolar Prophecy the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy to be Prophecies properly so called and not Introductory Visions such as those in Daniel Ezekiel and Isaiah whose proper scope is to intimate the Divine Inspiration of John in writing those Prophecies which were communicated to him by Angelical Ministry upon the appointment of Christ whose Merit obtained this Revelation from the Eternal Godhead That this is the genuine meaning of those three Introductory Visions I shall now endeavour to make good in order as they lye And it is exceeding manifest in the first that the Appearance to John of one in the Pontifical Habit like that of Aaron is hugely like that Appearance to Daniel Chap. 10.5 Wherefore why should this be more a Prophecy than that But both these Appearances being in the High Priests Habit who was a Type of Christ it is a plain Argument that it is Christ himself that appeared or was represented in both places And this very Appearance dictating the Epistles sent to the seven Churches unto John as if he were his Amanuensis or Secretary and these Epistles being the Epistolar Prophecy it self it is plain that it is the first part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ signified to his Servant John And that God is here in Conjunction with Christ is manifest from his Pontifical Habit which is a Symbol of the visible World as Philo takes notice though he knew not the right System thereof But what an excellent Hieroglyphick those Aaronical Habiliments are of the true Pythagorick System thereof I have abundantly made out in the Appendix to the Defence of my Philosophick Cabbala Chap. 5. Sect. 3 4. See also the Latine Scholia thereon Wherefore the Assistance of the Eternal Divinity to the Soul of the Messias or Humanity of Christ is hence easily conceived And the like may be observed in that Vision prefixed before the Sealed Book-Prophecy contained in Chap. 4 and 5. It is no more a Prophecy than the Vision prefixed before Ezekiel's Book of Prophecies and the less likely it being in a manner the same Vision with it And therefore why should it be a Prophecy more here than there Nay if it be a Prophecy of any King or Queen sitting on their Throne in Christendom it is a very ancient Prophecy of them indeed For that Vision in Ezekiel is the very same which Moses and the Elders saw on Mount Sinai Some intimation thereof is from the mention of the Sapphir stone on which he is said to stand in the one and to sit in the other but there is that which is yet more pressing For as Ezekiel says of his Vision that it was the Appearance of the glory of the Lord Chap. 1.28 and the glory of the God of Israel Chap. 10.19 so it is said Exod. 24. that the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai Which therefore what it was is amply indicated in the Vision of Ezekiel which I doubt not but is a Symbol of the spiritual and invisible Kingdom of the God of Israel where he sits enthroned amidst his bright Angelical Squadrons and the Psalmist briefly notes The Chariots of God are twenty thousands even many thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai where there was the Representation of his Glory and Majesty in his Angelical Kingdom and 't is likely on a Sapphir Throne whose very Scabellum was also Sapphir and so his feet which is all from the Hip to the Toes rested on Sapphir For to phansie him standing does not so well agree with the Representation of Majesty But the strongest Argument is yet behind viz. That the Cherubims and the order of the Camp of Israel answer so exquisitely to this Vision of Ezekiel Whence it must be plain to him that will see Moses being to order all things according to the Pattern in the Mount that the order of the Camp of Israel and the Tabernacle c. was according to the Representation of the Glory of the God of Israel on the Mount in his Spiritual Kingdom To the perfection whereof it being not the Lot of the Church of the Jews to reach they bore notwithstanding the external and Ritual figure thereof in the order of their Camp Tabernacle c. Wherefore that Vision in the Mount again seen by Ezekiel and lastly here by S. John with some few alterations only and prefixed before his Prophecy of the Sealed Book as it is before Ezekiel's Book of Prophecies how awkward a thing is it to conceit this a proper and formal Prophecy it self of the same nature that the three main Apocalyptick Prophecies are whenas it is of no other nature than the Vision prefixt before the Epistolar Prophecy some parts of which Vision are made use of in the Epistolar Prophecy it self as there is of this in the Sealed Book-Prophecy And as that Vision being a Representation of Christ in Conjunction with his Church may have some general and less distinct significancies of her condition so this Vision prefixt before the Sealed Book-Prophecy it being really a Symbol of the Spiritual Kingdom of the God of Israel may be so framed as to have some glances on those times when this Spiritual Kingdom of the God of Israel in Heaven which is the chief aim of all shall descend thence from God and be found on Earth in the New Jerusalem state of his Church This being the great scope of all contained in both the Sealed and Opened Book-Prophecies it is not irrational to conceive this ancient Vision seen by Moses and Ezekiel to be so attempered in this seen by S. John as to have some glances at those most excellent times of which the Spiritual Kingdom of the God of Israel is the Archetypon and it being so it is prefigurative of
Postulatum That we are to acknowledge that sense of any passage of a Prophecy whether it respects the Epocha thereof or any other part to be the true sense that is least forced or is most easie and natural and most plainly agreeable to the words of the Prophecy and that does the least or no violence to the words of that passage whose sense is controverted This Postulatum is of it self so clearly reasonable that nothing can be added to make it more firm unless this ill consequence of denying it that we shall not ever know when we have the right sense of any Prophecy or indeed of any place of Scripture else if this be not the Touchstone thereof The second Postulatum When Historians disagree in their Story or Chronology forasmuch as profane History as it is vulgarly called is not infallible but some may be right in one thing some in another we are to embrace that story or passage of Chronology that suits best with or does the least violence to the certain Verity of the Sacred Writ And there is the same reason of one and the same Historian that varies from himself or writes in one place what is repugnant to what he has writ in another We are to account that passage the truest that agrees best with the Holy Scriptures and to acknowledge as touching the other that ignorance or inadvertence has misguided his Pen. This Postulatum is as reasonable and undeniable as the former because as Aristotle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth is always consonant to truth whence that which is dissonant thereto must necessarily be false Wherefore that Historian that speaks consonantly and consistently with the infallible Holy Writ in the thing that he so speaketh he is to be judged to speak true compared with the other that in the point contradicts the Holy Writ or if one and the same Historian speak repugnantly to himself if one part of that Repugnancy agrees with the Sacred Text the same is to be esteemed the right the other an errour or mistake Now for that passage of the Prophecy that respects the Epocha of the Weeks the words are these Dan. 9.25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times Here the Epocha is to be taken without all Controversie from the going forth of a Command or Decree of which there were four one in the first year of Cyrus another in the second year of Darius Hystaspis a third in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus and a fourth in the twentieth year of his Reign But the first Decrees and consequently the Epocha's from them are pitched so high that they fall many years short even of the Nativity of Christ so that they are plainly shut out from any pretence of claim to be Epocha's of this Prophecy The competition therefore is only betwixt the Edict or Decree given out the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus to Ezra and that given out in the twentieth of his Reign to Nehemiah Let us therefore consider the History of each and whether of them agree best with the Prophecy Ezra Chap. 7. v. 11. Now this is the Copy of the Letter that the King Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the Priest v. 13. I make a Decree That all they of the people of Israel and of his Priests viz. of the God of Heaven and Levites in my Realm which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem go with thee And so from this 13. v. to v. 25. all is concerning the Temple and the Priests and the Worshp of the God of Israel But v. 25. his Commission is enlarged to Civil Judicature And thou Ezra after the Wisdom of thy God that is in thy hand set Magistrates and Judges which may judge all the People which are beyond the River all such as know the Laws of thy God and teach ye them that know them not And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let Judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment This is the summ of the Decree given out the seventh year of Artaxerxes unto Ezra Now that Commission given to Nehemiah is set down thus Nehem. Chap. 2. And it came to pass in the month Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the King that wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it to the King Now I had not been before time sad in his Presence Wherefore the King said unto me Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick This is nothing but sorrow of heart Then I was very sore afraid and said unto the King Let the King live for ever Why should not my countenance be sad when the City the place of my Fathers Sepulchres lieth waste and the Gates thereof are consumed with fire Then the King said unto me For what dost thou make request So I prayed to the God of Heaven And I said unto the King If it please the King and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight that thou wouldst send me unto Judah unto the City of my Fathers Sepulchres that I may build it And the King said unto me For how long shall thy journey be and when wilt thou return So it pleased the King to send me and I set him a time Moreover I said unto the King If it please the King let Letters be given to the Governours beyond the River that they may convey me over till I come into Judah And a Letter unto Asaph the Keeper of the Kings Forest that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the Palace which appertained to the house and for the wall of the City and for the house that I shall enter into and the King granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me This is plainly a Grant from the King to Nehemiah to build the City of Jerusalem and to wall it about We will add also out of Chap. 4. what straits they were put to at the building of the wall v. 7. And it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were making up and that the breaches began to be stopped then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem and hinder it And v. 16. And it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the work and the other half of them held both the Spears the Shields and the Bows and the Habergeons They which builded on the wall and they which bare burdens and those that laded every one with one of his
according to the richness of the expression sometimes of the Scripture it would illustrate one thing by two Metaphors at once and so the Two-horned Beast would seem to do the office of both a Chirurgeon and Conjurer at once of a Chirurgeon in healing the deadly wound of the Sword of a Magician or Conjurer in making the dead Dragon appear alive in a breathing and speaking Image Arg. 6. Lastly Mr. Mede argues very well That of the self-same is the Image of the Beast said to be of whom is the Name and the Number Chap. 15.2 But I say the Name and the Number is of the Ten-horned Beast Chap. 13.18 See the Context and the following Note 2. And his Number is 666. The chief meaning must of necessity be Six in opposition to Twelve the Apostolical Number because of the six Idolatrous Heads of which the sixth bears the Whore which I prove thus The Empire was not totally destroy'd by the Ostrogoths but only wounded Who can doubt but the Monarchical Government of England is the same now that it was before Cromwell Or thus 3. The Head that was cured bears the Whore this none will deny but the Head that was wounded is the same with that which was cured For it is unreasonable to give one man a Cut upon the Head and lay a plaster on another mans head Therefore the Head that was wounded that is the sixth Head or that of Emperours bears the Whore 4. Note That 144000 is not a square but a multiplication of 12 and so is 666 of six And see Dan. 3.1 where Nebuchadnezzar's Image which was undoubtedly a Type of this was sixty Cubits high and six broad And it falls out handsomly that the Apostatical Number should be half of the Apostolical because the Apostates had about the half of the Apostolical Truth viz. they spoke half Canaan and half Ashdod c. Answ To the first I say That the Context shows the Number to be the Number of the two-horned Beast For it is the Image of the Beast that causes all to receive by his coercive power the mark of the two-horned Beast For of the two-horned Beast and the Image he made does all the second part of the Chapter run And therefore the Beast must be understood of the Two-horned Beast not of the Ten-horned Beast and the Number to be his and the Image his as the Artificer thereof 2. To the second that I see no necessity of Six in opposition to Twelve it had been rather Seven viz. 777. there being just seven Idolatrous Heads of the Beast Chap. 13.1 or seven Idolatrous Kings Chap. 17.10 and the Apostolical and Apostatical opposition also appearing under the seventh Head the Whore riding the Beast under that same Head not under the sixth Nor is the deadly Wound on the Head of the Beast by the Ostrogoths but by Michael in his fight with the red Dragon He that does not see that must be stark blind in Apocalyptick Notions To bring in the Ostrogoths here is as if one stuffing a Pillow with feathers should so forget himself as to stodge in pieces of Brick or Clay 3. To the third I say It is a mere inelegant Quibble Inelegant in that it makes the Whore a Pail of Milk as it were born upon the Head of the Beast A Quibble in that he would have it as if one mans Head were cut and another mans Head had the plaster applied to it whenas it is not one Beast's Head wounded and another Beast's Head healed but the Head of one and the same Beast is both wounded and healed For it being one and the same individual Beast in succession so it is one and the same Head or supreme Power though under a sevenfold Modification and they are called seven Heads only in that respect But one and the same Beast has still one and the same Head that is his own Head not the Head of another Beast as this Quibble phansies two Heads of two several men one wounded but the other plaistered But the Beast Chap. 13. being represented with his Head healed which ipso facto is the seventh Modification of the Head and that under which the Beast bears the Whore which expression implies it to be for substance the same Head agrees well with that of Chap. 17. where the Beast is called the Beast that was is not and yet is which imports that he is the same Beast as the Head the same but healed from its wound with the Scar of Christianity upon it though so grosly grown into Pagan-like Idolatries Whence it is plain the Number 666 has no reference to the Ten-horned Beast restored else it should have been 777. Besides what wisdom would there be in counting this Number c. 4. To the fourth I grant that 144000 is made by 12 into 12000 and 666 by 6 into 111 but in the mean time it is undeniable but that 144 Chiliarchies or Regiments which have the nature of Vnits in this case and that 666 propounded alone is to be numbred by extracting the square Root thereof neither 6 nor 111 being given to divide it by nor both to produce it And that one should say that the Image that Nebuchadnezzar set up was undoubtedly a Type of this seems a piece of such Levity as hugely misbecomes any serious Interpreter of the Apocalypse Nor is there any handsomness in six the Apostatick Number being half of twelve the Apostolick Number For the Apostatick Church if you compare the Apostolick Doctrines of it with themselves it has all of them but if with Apostatick or corrupt Doctrines the Apostolick is not the tenth part of the Apostatick But besides the weakness of all these Arguments it is impossible the Pope should be the Image of the Ten-horned Beast restored the Popes being single Persons but the Ten-horned Beast a Body Politick CHAP. XLII Nine Arguments out of Socinians and other Sectaries whereby they would prove the first Imperial Council Anno Dom. 326. to be the Epocha of the time of the Witnesses till their Rising With Answers to each Argument IN Arithmetica Apocalyptica upon the third Query I have fixt and setled the Epocha of the Apostasie with all care and circumspection I could and there I hope upon very good grounds concluded That the true and precise Epocha of the Apostasie of the mournful Witnesses and indeed of all the Medial Visions is to be pitched in the year of our Lord 393. Wherefore we are concerned to answer these nine Arguments that would infer it to be in the year 326. which are as follows Arg. 1. The first Imperial Council made the Empire a National Church and so most fit to be called a Beast Answ The Jewish Church under their Kings was a National Church and yet no Beast Idolatry and Cruelty make the Beast not one publick National Confession of Faith It is against the very Light and Law of Nature that the Supreme Power in any Kingdom should not look after
Love that results therefrom in finding himself that full free and absolute unself-interessed Good such as he is in his eternal and immutable Nature The fourth That any Perception of himself or Love and Joy in himself is not enough to complete his most absolute Perfection but it must be a Perception and Love of the most perfect kind The fifth That Essential Perception and Essential Love is a far more excellent Perception and Love than that which is Modal such as Creatures are capable of But it is the Priviledge of the Deity to perceive by an Essential Perception and to love by an Essential Love Per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not per speciem as Julius Scaliger speaks God's eternal Perception of himself is not by a Modal Image of himself but by a Substantial Representation of himself within himself more substantial than his Conceptus ad extra which yet the whole Creation of things visible and invisible really is viz. one substantial Thought issuing from the Divinity We may experience in our selves how imperfect our Perception is of our own selves Forasmuch as we perceive not the very Essence or Substance of our Souls at all but merely Phantasms and Operations which are not the Soul it self which is a permanent Being but these pass away perpetually in succession We seem to perceive the Body more perfectly it being a Substance our Soul is nearly united to and steadily present with us and that so lively and feelingly that the Vulgar take their Body to be themselves The sixth The power of creating argues a vast Perfection in the Deity and to be a Creature as vast an imperfection in respect of God The seventh The exteriour Creation is uncapable of being ab aeterno nor is it any defect in the Deity but in the nature of the Creature that it cannot exist from all Eternity The eighth In the Fountain of the Deity whom we call the Father there is not only himself but the whole exteriour Creation Eminently Causally and Ideally The ninth Though the exteriour Creation could not be ab aeterno yet there not only could be but necessarily and unavoidably was an Eternal Generation of the Son who is the Eradiation of the glorious Richness and Fulness of his Father and the express Image of his Person God of God Light of Light very God of very God which plainly imports no empty Logical Notion but a real second Hypostasis distinct from the first The tenth The Father containing in himself the whole exteriour Creation and the Son being the express Image of his Person does ipso facto contain in himself also the Ideal or Archetypal World ab aeterno So that although there could be no exteriour Creation ab aeterno yet this interiour Generation of the Son does more than compensate that Defect and takes away the Imputation of an Eternal solitude and sterility from the Deity Which therefore argues the greater perfection thereof in this regard also Axiom 6. The eleventh Moreover this second Hypostasis being the express Image of his Father's Fulness God of God or a Divine Hypostasis from a Divine Hypostasis here is another Argument of the Perfection of the Divinity viz. the most perfect kind of Perception of himself That it is not per speciem but per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per ipsam rei praesentiam according to the fifth Axiom The twelfth And so for the same reason that the Love whereby God loves himself or joys in himself may be of the most perfect kind it is not to be per operationem or speciem but per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be essential or per ipsam rei praesentiam Which therefore requires a third Hypostasis whose essential Character is Divine Love or Joy and issues eternally from the grateful Perception that the Father and Son have of one another This Hypostasis proceeding whether from the Father as the Greek Church would have it or from the Father and the Son as the Latine which to me seems the more rational and agreeable to Scripture his joyous Love-flame as I may so speak is the more highly kindled by the Perception of that exulting Complacency the first and second Hypostases have in one another as both also in him For whatever is felt in one Hypostasis is felt in all three by reason of their thorough and solid Union and that with the most perfect kind of Perception the Hypostases themselves feeling as I may so say and intimately perceiving how it is with themselves in feeling how it is with one another Wherefore we see manifest reason why there should be three Hypostases in the Deity because they tend to the perfection thereof that it may have the most perfect Perception of it self and the most perfect Love of and Joy in it self viz. that they be not merely per Speciem or Operationem but Essential as is plainly deducible out of the third fourth and fifth Axioms to say nothing of the sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Out of which we understand that the Eternal Generation of the Son comprizeth also in it the Archetypal World ab aeterno though the exteriour Creation was uncapable of that Priviledge and that the Spirit the immediate Mover in the exteriour Creation was eternally impregnated from the Son as he actuated from his Father whence proceeded the Spirit and nothing but the incapacity of the Creature was a lett from its existing from all Eternity Wherefore the acknowledging a Trinity in the Divine Essence speaks Perfection therein upon this account also and takes the imputation as I hinted before of an Eternal sterility and solitude in the Deity And therefore this Trinity of Persons or Hypostases in the Deity is not to be rejected by the second part of Axiom the second But now that there are no more than three Hypostases in the Deity may appear from the first part of the second Axiom that advertiseth us that the Oneness and Simplicity of the Deity is so sacred and universally acknowledged by the Principles of humane Reason that no more multiplicity is to be admitted therein than consisteth with and tendeth to the Divine Perfection which being completed in every regard by these supposed three Hypostases there is a necessary stop given in our Reason from admitting any more no not so much as a fourth there being no reason to be given for the admittance of a fourth but what will with like validity infer four thousand nay four millions of Hypostases or rather an Infinity of them Which is so gross and wild a Conceit that there is no wise and sober man but will explode it at first sight Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora is a Maxim of universal Truth And the perfect Symmetry as I may so speak Beauty and Congruity of the Divine Nature or Essence is such that it cannot admit of any such uncouth superfluities It is the Priviledge of the absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature to be