words seem naturally to imply such a seeing of him as S. Paul had by Vision from Heaven whereby he was converted and forced to say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord to recant his Judaism and sing Hosanna to Christ the Son of David and profess himself a Christian And accordingly which is the third place pointed at by Mr. Mede S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But for this very reason says he I who out of ignorance had been a Blasphemer a Persecuter and Injurer of Christ obtained mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in me first as the Primitiae of the Jewish Nation that is to be converted in such a miraculous manner as I was Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as our English has it for a pattern to them for then it should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a representative Figure or Type of them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting This seems to be the natural sense of the place For why should he say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in me first if others were not to follow that should be converted in such a miraculous manner as he was by Vision and Voices from Heaven For in other ways of Conversion he was not the first of the Jews that were converted Wherefore there must be a Conversion of the Jews by such a mean as S. Paul was converted and of which the manner of Paul's Conversion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prophetick Type or Figure These three Scriptures may incline a rational man to believe that some chief of the Jews the most able the most noted and most zealous of them for the Jewish Religion may be called as Paul was Whose Testimonies will awake all the Jewish Nation and cause them more impartially to consider the Truth of Christian Religion And the Completion of Prophecies and their genuine Interpretation the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and the lives of the Reformed Christians a sort of them at least may be so considerably perfected by that time those few Names in Sardis by that time being well increased that things being so fitly prepared it may seem a Miracle for any honest sincere Jew in those days not to be converted These are my own proper thoughts on these three places of Scripture But for fuller satisfaction you may consult Mr. Mede I do not love to dwell long on an Argument that I cannot so certainly and assuredly master CHAP. XIX The last part of the Letter The Reinforcement of his Objection against the literal or physical sense of the first Resurrection from two parallel places of Daniel and John An Answer to that Reinforcement from those very parallel places The Genius of the Prophetick Stile in Daniel and John in intimating one Antitheton by another What Antitheton to those awakened into Eternal life in Daniel is to be found in the Apocalypse What is meant by the Devil's detrusion into the Abyss That the first Resurrection is Physical not Political proved from the Text it self Apoc. 20. v. 4. That the Judgment there did pass upon those that were either naturally or politically dead before the Millennium when the wicked were not politically so and therefore cannot be those revived in a Political sense after the Millennium Further Arguments that the first Resurrection is Physical THUS far I wrote before I received your last which contains a Reinforcement of your former Objection against the taking the first Resurrection Apoc. 2◠in a literal or Physical sense and not in a Political What you add I confess is sober and ingenious and may suit with some mens palates the best but though I have thought several times of this very thing afore of my self yet mine ever refused it I will set it down in your own words that I may not disadvantage the strength of the sense you aim at You ask Whether since my self make that place of Daniel Chap. 12. parallel to that of Apoc. 20. the first Resurrection mentioned there by S. John may not be understood rather in a Political sense of the state of the Church in the Millennium than in a natural and Physical concerning the Martyrs For those others say you in Daniel which awake to shame and everlasting contempt perhaps may be answerable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalypse and the awakening there parallel to the living here c. And whereas it is said by S. John The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished what hinders say you but it may be understood of the wicked getting into Political power again after the expiration of the Millennium That is briefly your sense if not your very words To this I answer That though the attempt be ingenious to object thus from those two parallel places yet the places themselves that are parallel will jointly bear off the force of the Objection and show that a mere Political sense for these places is harsh and forced For what can be more violent and harsh than to interpret Dan. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Political sense This is the main place that the Jews alledge for their Article of the Resurrection in a Physical sense as also the Christians And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very Gospel-phrase again and again inculcated that signifies a blessed Immortality in a glorified body And besides this as Apoc. 20.12 there is mention of Books being opened at the general and Physical Resurrection as all well in their wits must needs understand it so before this Resurrection in Daniel there is mention of the Book in which those whose Names are written are to be saved as it is said Apoc. 20.15 that those whose Names are not found in the Book of Life were cast into the Lake of fire These things considered methinks make it certain that the awaking here in Daniel into everlasting life signifies not a Political but Physical Resurrection let Porphyrius and Grotius phansie what they please And therefore in this parallel place of the Apocalypse the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their living and reigning with Christ must have a Physical sense not a Political and signifie their Vivification into celestial bodies and their reigning with him in Heaven And so those that had not worshipped the Beast nor received his mark c. they answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eodem genere that is to say in a Political sense to those that in Daniel are to be in shame and everlasting contempt one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying the opposite thereto and the opposite to that in Daniel is here made choice of in the Apocalypse For it is the Genius of the Prophetick stile in these two Prophets Daniel and John to intimate one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by another I have observed several Examples though I have not the command of them in my memory for the present That in
Paralipomena Prophetica Containing several Supplements and Defences OF Dr HENRY MORE HIS EXPOSITIONS OF THE PROPHET DANIEL AND THE APOCALYPSE WHEREBY The impregnable Firmness and Solidity of the said EXPOSITIONS is further evidenced to the World Whereunto is also added Phililicrines upon R. B. his Notes on the Revelation of S. John 1 Esdras Chap. 4. v. 38 40. As for Truth it endureth and is always strong it liveth and conquereth for ever Blessed be the God of Truth LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Sign of the Bishops Head in S. Paul's Church-yard 1685. The ERRATA correct thus Paralipomena Prophetica  For Read PAg. 3. l. 9. to many of so so many and of so p. 30. l. 2. Quintiliaeus's Quintilian's p. 50. l. 33. certainty ass certainly ass p. 54. l. 13. perusing phrasing p. 60. l. 24. Juliano 13. Juliano 3. p. 61. l. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 13. Muserius Mulerius p. 85. l. 23. Sextius Sentius p. 89. l. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 104. l. 23. Saturninus How Saturninus How p. 128. l. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 143. l. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 145 l. 28. Bossus Bassus p. 151. l. 6. takes takes place p. 156. l. 4. Scribes esp Scribes esp p. 179. l. 13. Prophecy Prophecies p. 181. l. 6. that that what p. 220. l. 15. that 't is that when 't is Ibid. l. 17. that it p. 243. l. 1. and v. And v. p. 257. l. 26. fall till p. 261. l. 22. for a year to a year p. 270. l. 15. Pharos Pharas p. 290. l. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 298. l. 29. past put p. 336. l. 1. higher lighter p. 351. l. 18. made of of p. 419. l. 24. Witness Witnesses p. 420. l. 18. thorough after thorough after p. 421. l. 22. this that p. 429. l. 30. the Fanat his Fanat p. 444. l. 13. Genius a Genius p. 469. l. 6. takes takes off Phililicrines Parrhesiastes  For Read Pag. 3. l. 20. Corruption Corruptions Ibid. l. 29. Chap. V. 1. Chap. I. v. 5. Ibid. l. 29. conceive receive p. 4. l. 18. Names Pains p. 6. l. 12. no not p. 9. l. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11. l. 11. to have to have made p. 13. l. 3. obnoxious to obnoxious to p. 18. l. 32. welome welcome p. 19. l. 22. the World this World IMPRIMATUR Guil. Needham Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Wilbielmo Archi-Episc Cantuar. à Sacr. Domest Ex Aedib Lambeth Sept. 23. A. D. 1685. THE PREFACE Reader BEing firmly assured in my own Reason and Judgment of the truth of my Expositions of the Visions of Daniel and the Apocalypse especially for the main that the assurance of this Truth might also appear to others I was desirous that those who have a Genius to these studies should freely and diligently search and examine these Expositions if they could find any flaw in them And how unexceptionable they are may appear from the Answer to S. E. the Remarker to any unprejudiced Peruser of the Answer and Remarks But these were but from one hand But in this present Treatise which I call Paralipomena Prophetica there are Answers to Objections from more and more skilful hands than that of the Remarker who have exercised their Wits in objecting what they could Whereby he that has a Genius and leisure to peruse what is written I hope will discover how sound solid and unexceptionable my Expositions are throughout Concerning the Acceptance whereof in the World I should not have the tenth part of this solicitude were I not as fully perswaded of the weighty Usefulness of the Expositions as I am of the Truth of them For it being so incredible a thing since the Visions as well of Daniel as the Apocalypse which were written and recorded for the use of the Church do reach the former higher the other from the beginning of the Church to the End of the World that they should omit the Prefiguring of that great Degeneracy which would come into the Church those coarse Corruptions in Doctrine and Worship and bloody Persecutions of them that could not submit to them And being the Visions are so easily interpretable that way nor any cunningly distorted Glosses able to hide their genuine sense from him that has but half an eye to discern what is true And this grand Truth being as too often others are abused to popular Faction and Tumult to Dissentions and Schisms even in the Reformed Churches themselves some brooding in their Fanatical minds vain conceits of a Rising of the Witnesses to come whenas that Vision most certainly has had its accomplishment many years ago and joining with the ruine of Antichrist the abolishing of Monarchy if not of all Political Government and interpreting grosly those Victories which the true Apostolick Church is to have against the Man of Sin who is to be destroy'd by the breath of Christ's mouth and the Sword of the Spirit as to be obtained by an arm of flesh and most fierce and salvage Wars and Bloodshed And that they may thereby avoid that noble Testimony to the Reformation especially to this of the Church of England which is so exquisitely and professedly reformed according to the Pattern of the Primitive Times while the Church remained Symmetral they minting also false Glosses touching the measuring of the Temple Apoc. 11. and pretending the Witnesses are not yet risen nor will be till such a Reformation come as will fit their unaccountable Humours I say therefore my Exposition of the Apocalypse being so diametrically opposite to this Enthusiastick Phrensie and I being not only assured of the Truth but of this apparent Usefulness thereof for the general Peace of Christendom for Loyalty to Sovereigns whether they be of the Reformed or Unreformed Religion for securing to Monarchs their Crowns for the preventing barbarous Bloodshed in the Christian World and for the extinguishing Sects and Schisms especially here in our own Nation I thought I could not be over-diligent in evidencing the truth of my Expositions and in publishing my NOTES at the same time with my Paralipomena Prophetica they serving to both these and other weighty Purposes which I have mentioned in my Prefaces to the said Expositions Where in that to the Visions of Daniel Sect. 36 37 38. I have set down a lively Description of the Philadelphian Spirit which is the only Weapon whereby the Reformed Churches will be able to run down their Adversaries and the Conquest and Victory of such will prove even the Joy and Advantage of them that are vanquished and overcome So little harm can come to the Christian World or indeed Universal Mankind from the right understanding of those admirable Records of Providence Daniel
ancient Apostolick Church not any blind Conceits and Phancies of their own And for the saving Operations of the Spirit nothing is more inculcated than that in our Publick Service Nor is the Ministry of man so much the conveyer of it as the sincerity of the Party who desires to partake of it It is the gift of Christ to the sincere who has told us from his own mouth here upon Earth That blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied It is not the hearing of a gracious man once or twice a week or being present sometimes in the Meetings whether silent or vocal of a Company of sullen Melancholists or Histrionical Mock-Prophets but a firm and unshaken Faith in the power of the promised Spirit of Christ for the subduing our Corruptions a fixt and continued Resolution of not offending the God of Heaven in any thing small or great a close Guard upon our Words and Actions as having a sense of the Presence of the Divine Majesty all the day long a perpetual exercise of mortifying the impetuosities of our own Will and of extinguishing all the sweet Relishes of Self-interest and vain-glory and a constant endeavour of wholly resigning our selves to God and his Service who has wholly made us Body and Soul and strictly and conscientiously walking according to His Will revealed in his written Word that is the Method of attaining to a more near Communion with God and the only way of more fully participating of his Spirit And this certainly may as well be done holding still Communion with the Church of England as in any new-fangled way that either the cunning of man or subtilty of Satan can invent And therefore it is rather a wanton kind of Hypocrisie in men or Insincerity to true Religion indeed that makes them break from the established Religion of the Church of England reformed according to the old Symmetral and Apostolical Pattern than any colour of Necessity driving them thereto And thus much briefly to those high-flown Spiritualists But what I now shall utter is still more weighty forasmuch as it concerns a greater number of men that have an honest inclination to Religion but their Education Parts and Calling do not capacitate them to make so strict inquiry into the Doctrines thereof as others may make but seek some external Authority to support their Faith and thereby lye obnoxious to the solicitations of the Emissaries of Rome who boast so much of the safe Anchorage of their Church To these men therefore I appeal what can be more safe for them than to adhere to the Autority and Profession of the ancient Apostolick and truly Catholick Church such as it was found before the Apostasie and is bore witness to in the Oracles of the Holy Scripture as I have above declared To adhere I say and keep close to this steady Rock and stop their ears against the vain pretences of any idle Fanatical New Lights or bold Enthusiasts Now he that adheres to the Church of England does adhere to this ancient Apostolick Church the Church of England being reformed according to that Pattern as to the frame of Government and Articles of Faith And for the Precepts of an holy Life besides what occurs in our Liturgie Litany and Catechism they are so plain in the Scripture and so fully and effectually declared by those in our own Church in printed Sermons and several other Writings to say nothing of the good Preaching up and down that no well-minded Christian can want any due Instruction This is a consideration the best accommodate that I know to keep us all in one which is to acknowledge the Autority and Undeceivedness in matters of any moment though not Undeceivableness or Infallibility of the ancient Catholick Church before the Apostasie came in Which true and just ground will give us all the Advantages and more than that false Boast of the Roman Church as if she forsooth were infallible and therefore irrefragable whenas that one Tenent of Transubstantiation alone sufficiently demonstrates it to be a groundless Pretence that Doctrine being plainly a Fardel of Impossibilities and Contradictions to say nothing of their infinite Superstitions Impostures and gross Idolatries and barbarous and bloody Persecutions and Murders for not submitting to them So that she is a Church all over besmeared with sordidly-gainful Superstitions Idolatries and Blood And therefore she being deprehended so grosly and enormously erroneous or imposturous and deceitful and supporting all her absonous Opinions upon that single pretence of her Infallibility she has manifestly forfeited her Credit before all the World and most justly lost her Autority that no man that has leisure and freedom to examine the Truth can easily be perswaded to rely or lean upon this broken Reed of Aegypt which is a fictitious and certainly false Pretence to Infallibility by an Apostatized Church shamelesly obtruding upon those they can deceive all the Abominations that are declared against in Daniel and the Apocalypse where the Visions represent the state of those Times into which this grand Apostasie fell How unsafe therefore is it for any one to repose himself on the Autority of such a Church God open the eyes of all that mean sincerely in Religion that they never fall into such a dangerous Ditch as this But the Church of England keeping to the ancient Symmetral Church to whom the Divine Oracles bear witness is in truth infallible in the main Points above-mentioned and in all things else material to Salvation and therefore all sorts of people learned and unlearned may safely embosom themselves in her so long as she continues which I wish may be for ever In the mean time we see what a mighty advantage it would be if that as our own Church in particular so all the Reformed Churches would jointly exhibit the same unexceptionable Pattern of Antiquity to be followed that bears a just Autority with it which the generality of men may safely rely on and that Independency and the guidance of private Spirits seducing men from the National Churches framed to that ancient Platform were quite out of fashion in all Reformed Christendom and that all men with alacrity of mind and sincerely loyal affections would shew themselves morigerous to their Supreme Governours For this is the only effectual and warrantable way that I can conceive for the enlarging the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus and the overthrowing the Kingdom of Antichrist The other Scene of things as I noted above hardens the hearts of the Princes and Prelates of Christendom who cannot but think it a sorry exchange to accept of Presbytery which would prove but a Democratical Papacy for the Order of Episcopacy or a dismal Spectacle to see the Body of Christ mouldred into an infinity of Sects and Schisms as a dead Carcass dissolved into a multitude of crawling worms and the decent grandeur and splendour of the Church to dwindle into dispersed Companies of obscure Conventicles and
the just and honourable Revenues of it to shrink into the poor arbitrarious Pittances of either the appointment of the State or uncertain benevolence of the fickle People That Scene of things I say cannot but harden their hearts against listening to never so just a Reformation for the further enlargement of Christ's Kingdom and hazard the very Being of the Reformed Churches Whenas this way I wish may obtain would silence Atheism and Fanaticism at once and be the readiest means of bringing on those happy Times of the Church which God has promised and predicted by the mouth of his holy Prophets But this is the gross iniquity and madness of the Sectaries that they think so goodly and choicely every one of their own Party that they think it worth the while to hazard the safety of Reformed Christendom to support any how and keep up for the present the small freaks and conceits of their own self-chosen Way and Sect. Than which nothing can be conceived more enormous and outragious amongst the dealings of the Sons of men to bring into imminent danger so solemn and sacrosanct a Constitution as the Reformation for the Dreams and Opinions of private Spirits which no sober Christian would hazard for small indifferent dispensable things though they had the stamp of publick allowance upon them which it is and ought to be in the hand of the Sovereign Power to alter for the common good And verily this Fanatical distemper is so heinous and abominable that they that are on the right side ought to take heed how in the least shew they imitate it For a man may be factiously affected in a right Cause and bear an over-proportionated zeal for things of smaller concern out of an over-heightned Animosity against the present Sects to the hazarding the quiet settlement of the whole And if any one be so affected I appeal to the sober if he may not justly be reputed to play the Sectarian himself though it be against the Sectaries No such Cure for our Breaches and Wounds as the most profound Humility in all Parties and unfeigned mutual Love and Charity Of which Vertues or Graces whosoever is found destitute let him call himself of whatever denomination Christian as loud as he please be has really in him not one spark of saving Christianity This or to this sense at least and most what in the very same words I wrote and published about two or three years ago to fence Peoples minds from Popery and reclaim them from Schism and perswade them to adhere to the ancient Primitive Church according to which our English Church is reformed and whose Principles she professes and hath ever practised as to the point of the Primitive Christians their not resisting the Sovereign Power though with undaunted Courage they professed the Truth of Christianity against the Vanities and Idolatries of Paganism and now for its present seasonableness and usefulness I have here transcribed it if the sincere vehemence wherewith I writ it may but have a suitable effect for the perswading the Sectaries to leave off their Schism and reconcile themselves to the Church of England Whereby besides the Purity and Decency of Divine Worship and soundness in the Faith Loyalty and Monarchy may be secured and they become good Christians and good Subjects at once Thus much I thought fit to write by way of Preface to intimate the more particular Usefulness of this present Treatise Other things are taken notice of in the Introduction in which then I was not aware that I should have so much to do with those affected Rationalists who pretend that Prophecies especially those of Daniel and the Apocalypse are utterly unintelligible In which conceit though they may applaud themselves as more special Admirers of dry Reason yet I cannot see how their Opinion can well comport with serious Piety and a sound Mind For in their thus oddly adhering to their imagined Reason in this thing they point-blank contradict the Scripture which declares Dan. 12. That the wicked indeed shall not understand but the wise shall understand And that is but a sorry Triumph of Reason that is pretended to be over true Wisdom And then for the Apocalypse let us but consider what Pomp and Applause the Communication of the Visions of the Book-Prophecy to our Saviour from his Father is set out by Apoc. Chap. V. and then judge of the unreasonableness of this Imputation of Unintelligibleness And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the Throne a Book written within and on the back-side sealed with seven Seals And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof And no man in Heaven nor in Earth nor under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the Book neither to look thereon But at last the slain Lamb v. 7. came and took the Book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the Throne and thereupon the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fall down before the Lamb and to their Harps chant out this new Song v. 9. Thou art worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God c. And immediately upon this v. 11. there is heard the voice of many Angels about the Throne even of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain c. Let us therefore in the fear of God consider not only how ridiculous but how blasphemous a thing it is to think that this pompous Introduction than which nothing can be contrived more highly solemn and pompous should be to a Book of Prophecies that are utterly unintelligible As if the incarnate Wisdom did not only sport with the Children of men but delude and mock them What can be conceived more horrid and impious Wherefore without doubt the Visions of the Book-Prophecy are clearly intelligible And for the Epistolar Prophecy the Epistles to the seven Churches that they are also clearly intelligible may appear from the Introductory Vision there also For Christ in his Pontifical Habit there dictates them And therefore they are as so many Oracles given out from the Urim and Thummim of our High-Priest Christ Jesus which the Seventy interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is clear declaration and certain Truth in counterdistinction to the obscure and ambiguous Answers of the Heathen Oracles and the Uncertainty of their Event And this is an Argument for the Intelligibleness and Truth of the whole Book of the Apocalypse it being all the Revelation of Jesus Christ the true High-Priest with his Urim and Thummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clear Declaration to them that understand the Prophetick Stile Synchronism and History and such as will be accompanied with Truth and certainty of Event
of S. John by continued brief but clear Notes from Chapter to Chapter and from Verse to Verse with very useful and apposite Arguments prefixed to each Chapter framed out of the Expositions of Dr. Henry More Quarto 1685. His Confutation of Judiciary Astrology against Butler Quarto His Reply to the Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry with his Appendix Octavo His Remarks on Judge Hales of Fluid Bodies Octavo Paralipomena Prophetica THE INTRODUCTION The occasion of the Author's writing his Paralipomena Prophetica His design in writing them to show there is but one true way of interpreting Daniel and the Apocalypse How himself was discouraged in his younger days by the variety of Interpretations with a solution of that fallacy His Apologie for his great care and diligence in managing this Province of rightly interpreting the above said Prophecies WHEN I wrote my Expositions of the Visions of Daniel and the Apocalypse I was solicitous only of these two things that my continued Interpretations should be unforced natural and coherent solid true and agreeing with History And that I might dispatch them as timely as I could for present publick use Which latter therefore made me more compendious than otherwise I might have been my main anxiety being that nothing should pass my Pen but what was sound and true not being at all careful to bring all into view which might give further strength and light to what I had written or to obviate all objections which by scrupulous Wits might be made What therefore I may seem to have omitted then I shall make a supply of now And those Omissions which I therefore call Paralipomena they being then passed by for the present but now for the further confirmation or illustration of several passages in those Expositions compiled into one Book I offer thus collected unto thy serious Perusal In which compilement I have observed no order as in this case being needless but as matters came into my mind or occasion was given I writ and have set them down They are easily referred to the passages of the Expositions themselves whether on Daniel or the Apocalypse which are sufficiently orderly and coherent My main design in general is to make those Expositions as setled and unexceptionable as possibly I can that the Reader may perceive that the Interpretation of Prophecies is no such uncertain and lubricous thing but that there is one sense of them genuine and natural and far beyond any other pretended Interpretations whatever That so he may be released from that distraction and confusion of multiplicity of Interpretations which weakens the belief of any and makes the pretence of understanding Prophecies either heartless or ridiculous I must confess when I was young that very thing hugely turned my stomach from those studies But it might as well have done so from the study of Philosophy the reasons of the Phaenomena of Nature which Philosophers give being as various and repugnant as the Interpretations of a Prophecy But that which is solid and sound in either when it is once light on will plainly by the impartial and judicious be discerned to be such and he will rest fully satisfied therein That I should manage this Province with so much care and solicitude no man that has any kindness for Christian Religion can take amiss Prophecy being the peculiar strength and glory of Christianity no Religion in the World being able to produce the like Which being to many of so great moment and of so clear and indubitable Interpretation in virtue of demonstrable Synchronisms and palpable Applicability and exquisitely suitable significancy of the Visions to the Events they do not only put the truth of Christianity beyond all doubt but is one of the most irrefragable Arguments for Natural Religion viz. for the Existence of God and of Angels and for a Divine Providence over the affairs of men and a reward after this life according to what we have done whether it be good or evil that can be desired But having more fully suggested these things in my Prefaces to my Expositions I shall detain the Reader no longer here with them but fall upon my present design CHAP. I. Tho. Lydiat 's Epocha of the twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus for the compute of Daniel 's weeks more fully to be insisted on Two undeniable Postulatums in order thereto The passage of the Prophecy that respects the Epocha of the weeks Four Decrees but only two of them Competitors for the Epochate viz. that of the seventh and that of the twentieth of Artaxerxes the one granted to Ezra the other to Nehemiah The Commissions granted to each and some circumstances of the execution of them The comparing of them with the Epocha described in the Prophecy That Nehemiah 's nuncupatory Commission does the more exactly agree with the said description That the Jews had never any Decree to build the walls of Jerusalem till that of Nehemiah Further Arguments to the same purpose In what sense the City may be said to be built before the Commission of Nehemiah An Answer to an Objection from those words Ezra 9.9 to give us a wall Further Reasons to prove that Ezra had no Commission to build the walls of Jerusalem The testimony of the Son of Sirach No Commission but that of Nehemiah had the Title of building the walls That it is so plain a case that Nehemiah 's Commission is the true Epocha of the weeks that learned men have betaken themselves to Lunar years to compute by rather than desert it The unsuccessfulness of that device WE shall begin with that passage of the Exposition of Daniel's Weeks that notable Prophecy concerning the coming of Christ and as clear if rightly managed as notable for its weight and importance The passage is the placing the Epocha of these seventy Weeks in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus Funccius and several others would fix it in the seventh of his Reign which Opinion I was once inclined to my self till I was convinced of the truth of the other I have produced something for the confirmation thereof out of Thomas Lydiat in my Notes upon my Exposition of that Prophecy But the business being of so great moment I shall here resume it again afresh that I may do him right by more fully bringing into view and yet as briefly as may be whether out of himself or from elsewhere what makes for the confirmation of his Opinion And this I shall do gradually First by setting down two Postulatums which I hope no reasonable man will ever deny me Secondly I shall represent out of the Prophecy it self that part that respects the Epocha of the Weeks and out of the History of Ezra and Nehemiah the state of the Controversie Whether of these two Epocha's bid the fairer to be the Epocha of the seventy Weeks And lastly I will consider the twentieth of Artaxerxes in Thomas Lydiat's sense what grounds he has for it The two Postulatums are these The first
not committed such gross errours if he had not been remiss and careless And thus much shall serve for the preparing the way to an Answer to those two main Objections which we shall be able now briefly to dispatch We answer therefore to the first That it is an unreasonable thing Josephus wholly omitting the Expedition of Caius Caesar into the East and his making Peace with Phraates King of Parthia that we should expect of him the commemorating any Civilities or Attendances of Herod upon Caius Caesar as he passed by Judaea it being a contradiction the whole entirely omitted there should be mention of any part of that affair This argues a great defect in Josephus his History but none in T. L. his arguing in this matter But whether Josephus his ignorance or his dissembling the truth was the cause of this great omission is not so easie to determine Suetonius in the Life of Augustus writes of him thus Caium nepotem quòd Judaeam praetervehens apud Hierosolymam non supplicâsset collaudavit This pride therefore and contempt of Josephus his Religion who was a Jew might lye in his stomach and make him omit the whole business of Caius for his omitting his duty as he thought to the God of Israel in worshipping him at his holy Temple as other Grandees of Rome had done He avoided the Recording the whole Affair of Caius that he might not record this slur put upon his Religion Or it may be it was out of ignorance of this affair it having no complication with Herod's at all Herod out of cautiousness and policy that he might neither offend Caius by omitting any Civilities he might expect in his passage by Judaea nor Tiberius his Corrival by doing them casting his journey so that he was on his way to Rome which is the last he made thither while the other was on his Expedition into the East insomuch that Herod was absent from Judaea in that very year when Christ was born This T. L. copiously makes out in his Recensio cap. 14. but it is little to our present purpose to pursue it any further Only this I will note by the bye that Christ being born this very year of Herod's last journey to Rome there are so many things done by Herod after his return recorded by Josephus that less than three or four years cannot suffice for the atchieving the same Which therefore much confirms the Opinion of the ancient Fathers that declare that Herod lived four years after Christ was born And now for the other which is the more weighty Objection the Answer is short but I hope sound I say therefore that Josephus in his Narration of Caius his being present at the Council when the Cause of Herod's Sons was pleaded who should succeed him in his Kingdom supposing there was any of Augustus his Sons at that Pleading which I speak because no other ancient Writer I know of mentions it but himself that he has committed a mere Antonomasma or Misnomer therein as he did in attributing such things to Xerxes which belong to Artaxerxes and as Epiphanius is observed by Petavius to set down Claudius instead of Cocceius Nerva see my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 2. cap. 2. sect 8. But this Antonomasma of Josephus in this place is more excusable than those others every thing exquisitely agreeing saving the Name For Augustus might place first in the Council an adopted Son of his born of Agrippa and his Daughter Julia but his Name was not Caius but Agrippa Posthumus Nor could there be the least doubt but that it is an Antonomastick mistake but that Writers give such an ill Character of Agrippa Posthumus As Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. Hoc fere tempore says he qui eodem die quo Tiberius adoptatus ab avo suo naturali jam ante biennium qualis esset apparere coeperat mirâ pravitate animi atque ingenii in praecipitia conversus patris atque ejusdem avi sui animum alienavit sibi moxque crescentibus indies vitiis dignum furore suo habuit exitum This last I verily conceive is meant for a justification of Tiberius his killing of him immediately after Augustus his death and Velleius is a great Flatterer and high Encomiast of Tiberius every where in his Writings And again Suetonius in the Life of Augustus cap. 65. mentioning his three Grandchildren Lucius Caius and Agrippa Brevi that is a little after Augustus had adopted him the same time he did Tiberius ob ingenium sordidum ac ferox abdicavit seposuitque Surrentum cast him off and confined him to Surrentum And then toward the end of that Chapter he says Agrippam nihilo tract abiliorem immò indies amentiorem this in all likelihood is spoken in imitation of Velleius his dignum furore suo habuit exitum in Insulam transportavit sepsitque insuper custodia militum And lastly Dion Cassius lib. 55. describes Agrippa as one that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love to be much on the Sea a fishing and thence stiled himself Neptunus that he would reproach Livia as a Stepmother and mutter against Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had more of his Father Agrippa's Goods than was fit For this Carriage therefore he was at last abdicated by Augustus and banished into the Island Planasia These things I thought fit to bring into view that I might not seem to trepan any one unawares into an opinion by concealing what might make him more shy and wary But now that I have produced the worst let us see what it will amount to In all likelihood to no more than Tacitus sets down in the beginning of his Annals Senem Augustum Livia devinxerat adeò ut Nepotem unicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam projiceret rudem sanè bonarum artium robore corporis stolidè ferocem nullius tamen flagitii compertum Livia had got Augustus grown old so much under her girdle that at last she caused him to banish Agrippa his only Grandchild against his own inclination into the Island Planasia as haply she at first was the cause of his Confinement to Surrentum for a while But the affection of Augustus did so firmly cleave to his only Grandchild left M. Agrippa Posthumus that he is said as the same Historian writes not long before his death to have given him a private Visit with some few he could confide in Fabius Maximus accompanying him at Planasia Multas illic utriusque lachrymas signa caritatis spemque ex eo fore ut juvenis penatibus Avi redderetur Dion also lib. 56. speaks to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which secret coming out by Martia Fabius his Wife and Livia knowing thereof occasioned her to hasten Augustus his death by poisoned Figs the better to secure the Empire to her Son Tiberius See the full story in Tacitus and Dion Wherefore to save Josephus his credit and to make him mistaken only nomine
that make choice of that other Epocha the seventh of Artaxerxes produce Historians and Chronologers of their side also is with all readiness acknowledged Nor is there any Point controverted in Chronology and History but there must be such Testimonies alledged on both sides else it could be no Controversie But the main Allegations of the adverse Party and on which the greatest stress of their Opinion lies have been sufficiently answered by us above even keeping our selves within the bounds of humane Testimony But the weight of our second Postulatum being added thereto which I have set down in the first Chapter shows their pretence to be infinitely light and vain So that I hope the unprejudiced and considerate will easily perceive and acknowledge that the genuine Epocha of Daniel's Weeks is rightly setled and determined for ever to the Glory of God the Edification of his Church and the immortal Credit of Thomas Lydiat a learned industrious and faithful Member thereof and painful Protestant Minister of the Church of England To abet whom in so rightful a Cause I thought but a piece of Justice due to Him to the Truth and to the Honour of our English Church and Nation CHAP. XVII A Tripartition of a Letter to a Friend touching the first Resurrection and the Calling of the Jews The first part thereof What Exposition the most easie and natural That the primitive Fathers following this Rule expounded the first Resurrection in a Physical sense not Political That Grotius also expounds it so but in what deficient An Objection from two places of Scripture Luke 14.14 and 2 Tim. 4.8 An Answer to the first Who as well as Martrys capable of the first Resurrection An Answer to the second What meant by the Day of Christ's appearing That it may be the time of his Millennial Kingdom That the Martyrs receive their reward in the Morning of that day Others at the Evening thereof SIR I Have received yours and am glad that you have reaped that satisfaction in reading my Exposition of the Apocalypse that you profess you have saving in that one passage Chap. 20. v. 4 5 6. where I take the first Resurrection applied to the Martyrs in a literal sense I am glad so good a Wit and Judgment as yours rests satisfied in the rest I shall therefore endeavour to convince you that my Exposition in this passage is as easie natural and smooth as in others For I conceive that Exposition is most easie and natural that has the least tricks and devices in it and runs not from the proper signification of Words to Allegories and Metaphors when there is no necessity so to do Which Rule in this very place the Primitive Christians followed being perswaded from hence that a first Resurrection in the proper sense was the peculiar Priviledge of the Martyrs from which perswasion they were also the better encouraged to suffer Martyrdom And I appeal to your self supposing there were such a first Resurrection belonging to the Martyrs whether the words of the Text do not exquisitely well fit it which therefore must be if true the most natural and easie sense thereof Consider that Saying of our Saviour Christ to the Church of Smyrna which is that interval of the Church wherein so many suffered Martyrdom He that overcometh namely by couragiously suffering Martyrdom shall not be hurt of the second death and compare it with what occurs here Chap. 20. v. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power Where Holy Sanctus Grotius interprets thus Sanctus hîc idem quod semotus ab omni malo Omne enim quod inviolabile est sanctum dicitur Therefore this is a peculiar Priviledge of security to the Martyrs Which Grotius upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explains thus Animae quae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non dicuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed eae demum quae translatae sunt sub solium gloriae ut loquuntur Hebraei sic vocant perfectissimum statum animarum ante Resurrectionem Vniversalem And upon those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he Illa Martyrum in Caelum evectio potest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dici Wherefore it is plain that not a Political nor Moral but a Physical sense here in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is acknowledged also by Grotius But is it not more full easie and natural to take it in the proper physical sense than in this more maimed and dwindling sense and to confess that this first Resurrection is also a Resuscitation of the Soul into a perfect blessed Immortality by her union with an Heavenly or glorified Body And your self also acknowledges that there is a great fitness in the thing that when the Millennial state takes the Martyrs should receive some Crown or Triumphal honour in Heaven And if then be their evectio in Coelum as Grotius speaks how fitly does it fall in that they should then be invested in Heavenly bodies Think seriously on that Heaven is the fittest place for an Heavenly body Is it not But you 'll say If they be thus afore-hand cloathed with Heavenly bodies this seems to anticipate the general Day of Judgment which our Saviour Luke 14.14 emphatically calls the Resurrection of the Just till which time the Crown or their being cloathed with Celestial bodies is a Depostium which S. Paul did not expect from the hands of the righteous Judge till that day 2 Tim. 4.8 viz. till the day of his appearing as is said in the following words of the Text. But to these two places of Scripture I briefly answer thus To the first That it rather implies a first Resurrection distinct from the Vniversal than contradicts it For if it were meant of the day of the Vniversal Resurrection our Saviour would rather have said the Resurrection of the dead than the Resurrection of the just But there being supposed two distinct parts of time the first when none but the just arise the other when both just and unjust the former of these will naturally be called the Resurrection of the just by themselves as the other the Vniversal Resurrection or at large the Resurrection of the dead Which former part though it be most peculiar to the Martyrs yet other singularly sanctified men and that have the deepest dye of the Christian Spirit in them viz. of Humility and Charity the fruits whereof our Saviour commends in that place Luke 14.13 may commence Coelicolae at the same time and be invested with Heavenly bodies Though a man give all away to the poor and profess voluntary poverty himself or give his body to be burnt and have not this Spirit of Humility and Charity he is nothing esteemed Therefore they that excel in these may well with the Martyrs have a share in the first Resurrection This is one solid way of answering that place of Scripture But it may be also briefly answered thus That the Resurrection of the just
Jerusalem is here upon Earth To the third I say That that high expression of the Heaven and Earth flying away or vanishing from the face of him that sate upon the Throne and that there was found no place for them is only to set out the exceeding great Glory of him that sate upon the Throne that they could neither see Earth nor the Azure Sky their eyes being so filled and taken up with the great resplendency and brightness of that light But the real stress of the Argument if there be any in it is That there is a new Heaven and a new Earth after the Conflagration which accompanies the last Judgment mentioned in the beginning of the ensuing Chapter But from what has been faid to the second Argument it is apparent that it is a mere Lemmatosynechia that is the continuing together of the Visions in the outward Cortex of the Apocalypse as if that were the very order of time in the things they prefigure when it is quite otherwise in the true sense of the Visions This is one part of the artifice of Concealment affected by the Apocalypse of which there are many instances As that Chap. 4.1 where after the Vision of the seven Churches John is bid to come up that he might be shown what things must come to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after these things Which Lemmatosynechia has so imposed upon some otherwise learned and of notable parts that they have joined the beginning of the sealed Book-Prophecy with the ending of the affairs of Laodicea That also seems to be a Lemmatosynechia Chap. 13.14 where the two-horned Beast is said to make an Image to the Beast that had the wound by the Sword and did live as if the ten-horned Beast in the immediately foregoing Vision were meant which is a glib correspondency in the Cortex when the inward sense is otherwise But there is not a more elegant Lemmatosynechia than that Chap. 11.9 where the three days and an half of the Witnesses being dead are immediately placed after the twelve hundred and sixty days of their mournful prophesying when yet the three days and an half are the same time or Synchronal to the twelve hundred and sixty days as I have elsewhere proved by impregnable Arguments I will only add one instance more Chap. 16. v. 18 19. where the City is said to be divided into three parts upon the Earthquake there mentioned whenas that Tripartition of the City was before but it is a very smooth and trim Lemmatosynechia in the Cortex And such a Lemmatosynechia is this in naming a New Heaven and a New Earth immediately after the Conflagration which is a wonderful smooth connexion in the Cortex when yet in truth this New Heaven and New Earth is a Political Heaven and Earth answering to that of Isaiah Chap. 65.17 and created in the beginning of the Millennium This is the promised New Heaven and New Earth mentioned by S. Peter alluding to that of Isaiah wherein dwelleth righteousness whenas the Polity of Babylon was full of persecution injustice and blood Wherefore Alcazar being not aware of this usual Artifice of Concealment intended in the Apocalypse which I call Lemmatosynechia has produced that for a strong Argument which the matter rightly understood has no strength in it at all To his fourth I answer That we are both agreed in this that the 7. and 8. verses of Chap. 21. respect the state of men to come after the Day of Judgment the Lake of fire and the Inheritance of Heaven For I declare in my Exposition That from the second verse to the ninth is a brief description of the affairs of the Church from the second Thunder to the last or to the end of the World to the last Reward of the Godly and Punishment of the Wicked But as after a brief mention of the destruction of Babylon Chap. 16. v. 19. there is a large description of her and her destruction in the two following Chapters 17. and 18. so here after a brief intimation of the emersion of the New Jerusalem into being there is a full and glorious Description thereof from the ninth verse of this 21. Chapter to the sixth of the next And I may here further add that as in the foregoing Chapter v. 9 10. the Conflagration is glanced at in the destruction of Gog and Magog by fire who besieged the holy City but the Judgment of the wicked and fiery Lake or Conflagration more fully prosecuted from v. 11. to the end of the Chapter So here after the brief mentioning of the state of the New Jerusalem in the five first verses it is more fully described from the ninth verse to the end of this Chapter and some part of the next So small force has this fourth Argument to infer that these descriptions of the New Jerusalem belong to the state of the Church in Heaven The fifth Argument makes a pretty show but it is grounded upon a gross mistake as if the twelve thousand furlongs were the side of the Square Area of the New Jerusalem whenas it is a solid Number whose Cubick root multiplied by four gives the same Perimeter in a manner that Ezekiel's four thousand five hundred multiplied into four do give that is eighteen thousand not Reeds but Cubits as both Gaspar Sanctius and Villalpandus conceive them to be both of them learned and industrious Commentators upon Ezekiel By which solid account the seeming force of this fifth Argument quite vanisheth See Mr. Potter's Interpretation of the Number 666. Chap. 5. And the Equality of Perimeters of the Square Area of Ezekiel's and S. John's Cities supposing the solid measure of S. John's City to be twelve thousand furlongs as the Text it self seems to intimate and he measured the City with a Reed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all twelve thousand furlongs and he presently thereupon adding the length breadth and height of it are equal implies they are solid furlongs this Equality I say added to the twelve Gates in each City twelve Tribes the River and the Trees and Fruit is a plain Argument that S. John's City and Ezekiel's are Figures of the same thing and Ezekiel's being of the State of the Church on Earth S. John's must be so also And now for his sixth Argument from I saw no Temple there It consists very well with the state of the Church in those best and most glorious times thereof in the Millennial Reign of Christ which the Cabbalists also call the Reign of the Spirit when God will find in abundance such Worshippers as he seeks for viz. such as shall worship him in Spirit and in Truth And this passage seems inserted on purpose to be a Key to the Jews that will then be converted how to understand Ezekiel's Prophecy of the same state of the Church by the City he describes and makes so much to do with the Temple and Rituals thereof they will by this Note understand that it is an Hylastick Parable
appearing is Christ That this third Introductory Vision is a kind of Transitionary Introduction to the Opened Book Prophecy Proved briefly from the Oath of the Angel that the Sealed Book Prophecy reaches to the End of the World FOrasmuch as I am fully perswaded in my own judgment that I have suggested in my Exposition of the Apocalypse touching that Volume of Divine Visions is true namely that the whole in a manner consists of three main Prophecies which reach each of them from the beginning of the Church to the End of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy to the Seven Churches the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy and of three Introductory Visions each of the three Prophecies having prefixed to it one And because this is so fundamental a Truth that no man with success can interpret any part of the Apocalypse repugnantly thereto yet knowing certainly and experimentally that men of Learning Wit and Parts and of a Genius to these kind of studies have notwithstanding overlooked this necessary Principle and thereby have bewildred themselves and lost themselves in inextricable Labyrinths therefore for the more sure inculcating so sound and necessary a Notion I have thought fit something more fully here to insist on the proof thereof but more especially that those three Visions prefixed to these three Prophecies are rather Introductions to the said Prophecies than Prophecies themselves That the Epistles to the Seven Churches is a Prophecy I have in my Exposition demonstrated by no Iess than twenty solid Arguments which are also set down at the end of my Exposition of the Visions of Daniel and the scope thereof is enforced by Notes thereon But that it is a Prophecy reaching from the beginning of the Church to the End of the World that one Consideration might assure any one that is not hoodwinkt with prejudice viz. that these Seven Churches imply seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church as any will grant that is convinced it is a Prophecy and the Number Seven every where in the Apocalypse implies All from the Terminus whence the Reckoning is and therefore it necessarily implies all the intervals of the Church from the beginning to the end thereof This must be indubitable to him that understands the stile of the Apocalypse And taking this ground and observing the intervals we have chosen and applying History to each of them the Epistles are found an exquisite Prefiguration of the things in each interval and the Paronomastical allusions hugely expressive of the Events of every interval which is as full a confirmation as one can desire that the Epistolar Prophecy reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World And now that the Sealed Book-Prophecy does so too it is evident from the same Argument drawn from the Septenary which is an Apocalyptick Symbol of Vniversality taking in from the term it commences all the space of mundane Affairs wherein the Church may be concerned and Divine Providence and Prophecy imployed which therefore is to the end of the World And thus not only the seven Seals reach to the end of the World but by the same reason the seven Trumpets commencing with the seventh Seal and seven Thunders commencing with the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the World And the Angel Chap. 10. swears to this Truth That there shall be no more time saving that wherein the seventh Angel shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished as I shall make good afterwards Wherefore here is abundance of Evidence that the Sealed Book-Prophecy reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World And that the Opened Book-Prophecy does the like that is reaches to the end of the World is manifest because it reaches to the last Judgment and Conflagration Chap. 20. And that the Visions of Chap. 12. respect the beginning of the Church viz. the Woman in Childbirth and the Fight of Michael with the Dragon no man of common sense can deny From whence yet it will naturally follow That the measuring of the Temple of God and the Altar c. respects also or reaches the beginning of the Church for the Church was Symmetral as soon as it began But these three Points there was less need to insist upon they being sufficiently made out elsewhere The chief thing intended here is to prove that the three Visions prefixed to these three main Prophecies are Introductions only to those Prophecies and not properly Prophecies themselves For the better clearing this Truth we will take our rise from the Title of the Book comprized in vers 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified viz. the things to come to pass some sooner some later by his Angel to his servant John Here we see how methodically in a plain vulgar stile is set down the summ of this Book viz. that the Book is a Book predicting things to come that is to say a Book of Prophecies That this Book of Prophecies is a Revelation of Jesus Christ that he is the Revealer of these things to come and that unto John by Angelical Ministry But that the Man Christ Jesus had this Revelation from God it being the high Priviledge of the Soul of the Messias to have such Secrets revealed unto him The two main things therefore included in this Title are these That this Book is a Revelation of things to come That this Revelation is from the Man Christ or through the Humanity of Christ but by the Gift of the Eternal Godhead Both these things are set down here in an ordinary vulgar stile But forasmuch as those Predictions in the three main Prophecies which might have been made also or expressed in such a vulgar plain stile but yet are not but in pompous and Aenigmatical Phrases it was very suitable and congruous that the signifying that these three Prophecies were the Revelation of the Man Jesus Christ by the gift of God should be expressed with correspondent Pomp and Magnificency And this is the thing I contend for that those Visions prefixed to these three main Prophecies that the main design of them is to intitle the succeeding Prophecy to the Revelation of Jesus Christ by the gift of God and that the Godhead is joined with him in every one of these three Introductory Visions and so makes good that part of the general Title of the whole Book and in as magnificent a manner as the Prophetical part it self is set out therein That there are such Introductory Visions prefixed before eminent Prophecies is observable in very illustrious Examples thereof As Isai Chap. 6. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple Above stood the Seraphims c. Which Vision is no Prophecy but a signification of Isaiah's Mission and Inspiration from God whereby he was inabled to utter infallible Prophecies The
Synchronal thereto reacheth to the end of the World and consequently the Sealed Book-Prophecy reacheth thither also which is the thing that was to be demonstrated And it suits mighty well with the last Thunder reaching to the end of the World which falls in with the Conflagration or Lake of Fire and with the Exit of the Laodicean interval so called in allusion to Ptolemy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laodicea combusta Wherefore the distribution of the main of the Apocalypse into those three Prophecies which from the beginning of the Church reach unto the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy and the Introductory Visions belonging to each of them being thus demonstrably true I do again pronounce as at first whoever goes about to interpret the Apocalypse repugnantly to this grand Principle he must necessarily run himself into the Briars and fall into such Labyrinths as he will never be able handsomly to get out of CHAP. XXII A Mechanical frame of the Seven-sealed Book so contrived as is requisite for no more Writing than what belongs to the present Seal to be seen at once The different Opinions of Interpreters what this Book signifies The mistake of the Ancients in conceiving it to be the Bible What this Book really is the Symbol of That this Book its being said to be written within and without denotes a twofold sense that of the Symbolical Letter and that of the inward Prophetical meaning of those Symbols Arguments to prove this to be the right sense of being writ within and without Ezekiel 's Roll writ within and without compared with this Seven-sealed Book of the Apocalypse Three useful Consectaries deduced therefrom IT is a matter of no slight moment to understand clearly and assuredly what is the right meaning of the Book in the right hand of him that sits upon the Throne Apoc. 5. its being said to be writ within and without to be Liber Opisthographus In order to which we are first to take notice what was the fashion of the Books of the Ancients viz. that they were one Membrane some longer some shorter rolled upon a round stick or some stiff thing as we sometimes do Maps Which makes me conceive that this Book with seven Seals consisted of at least twice seven such Membranes Parchments or Papers fastned together so at one end that it might be stiff enough to have all those leaves of paper rolled about it And I say there must be at least twice seven that no more Writing may be seen than what belongs to each Seal in their order by opening Therefore there is to be a leaf of paper with a Label at it to cover the leaf that has the Vision of the first Seal and then another leaf with a Label at it to cover the leaf of the Vision of the second Seal and so a Label-leaf before the Vision-leaf till you come to the Number of seven in each that no more of the Writing may be seen at a time than what belongs to each present Seal saving in the last where you breaking open the Seal that belongs to the seventh Label not only the Vision of the seventh Seal is discoverable which are the seven Trumpets and the seven Thunders but all the Visions of the Opened Book-Prophecy So that there must be as many leaves without Labels placed after the seventh Label-leaf as will serve to contain all the Visions of the seven Trumpets and also all the Opened Book-Prophecy Which must be some number of leaves though writ within and without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within and on the back-side as the foregoing Vision-leaves are conceived to be that is written on the concave and convex side of this Roll of leaves And thus in the breaking open the Seals the convex side of the Vision-leaf will occur first in every unsealing This I conceive is the most probable Mechanical frame of this Book written within and without and sealed with seven Seals But what this Book is a Symbol of there is a wide difference amongst Expositors The generality of the Ancients as A Lapide has noted take it to be the Bible and that which is writ without to be the Old Testament and that within the New the Old Testament being as it were the Velamentum or Covering of the New Or that which is writ without to be the literal sense that within the Spiritual or Mystical But this general Conceit of the Ancients is but a general Mistake because this Book was sealed up till the Apocalypse was communicated to S. John which was at the end of Domitian's Reign and therefore would imply that the Old and New Testament or Gospel were a sealed Book not to be understood till then Which yet certainly the Apostles understood and taught the people rightly to understand it so that it was no sealed Book to them But that this sealed Book is a Book that contains all the Prophetick Visions set down after the opening of it in the Apocalypse is so exceeding plain that it would amaze a man how it should come into the thoughts of so many of the Ancients that this Book with seven Seals should be the entire Bible whenas it is not so much as the entire Apocalypse but contains only the sealed Book and the Opened Book-Prophecies but that the being written within and without intimates a literal and mystical sense of the Book how near they come to the Truth therein we shall observe in the main Point we drive at In the mean time I cannot but approve of Cornelius A Lapide's Verdict in the Case who says Liber hic non est aliud quà m Divinae Providentiae consilium praefinitio c. This Book is nothing else but the Counsel and Determination of Divine Providence whereby God has purposed with himself either to permit or effect things in the World wherein his Church is concerned in such a way as is prefigured in this Book of Prophecies Which is to the same sense that the Answerer to S. E. has declared touching the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth that it is what is decreed and recorded in the Divine Mind The standing Intellect of God in which are described all the Laws and Decrees of his Providence is that Writing or Book of God which is so often mentioned in the Bible as Exod. 32. Psal 56. and 139. And this Book represented to John sealed and unsealed is but a Symbol of part of this Book or Writing as I may so speak And to the Scripture of Truth in Daniel as well as to the Roll in Ezekiel in all likelihood may this Apocalyptick sealed and unsealed Book allude And now to come more near to the main Point in hand though I have given such a Mechanical account of this sealed Book written within and without yet I am still utterly of the mind of the Answerer to S. E. his Remarks Apoc. Chap. 5. that it is a childish thing to think that
sort of men by their Faith Patience and powerful preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom will at last have so glorious and victorious success that they with their Successours shall bring in the New Jerusalem-state or Millennial Empire of Christ so that all that is predicted of the New Jerusalem shall be fulfilled in them here on Earth while all Christ's suffering Adherents in the mean that are dead enjoy themselves in Heaven As for the Promise to the Laodicean Overcomers it is not the promise of an Earthly Throne but an Heavenly as to be Assistents of Christ coming to judge the People as the Word signifies in the Close of this Interval of the Laodicean Church which Interval may be so denominated as for other reasons so haply by way of Allusion to Ptolemy's Laodicea combusta as I have more than once noted the Conflagration closing this Interval Object 4. Notwithstanding the great Learning which you have employ'd Sir in the Exposition of the seven Churches it seems a somewhat lubricous business But the rest of your Exposition is matter of much greater Certainty But it is no disparagement for any man that is thus assured of the truth and meaning of the Apocalypse as to the main purport of it to acknowledge there is great difficulty in interpreting several particular passages Touching the New Jerusalem I cannot but observe that there are a great many passages in the Apocalypse which seem to argue the time will come when God and the Son of God will hold his Estate and Court here upon Earth Which how strange soever it may seem is not so strange as that the Son of God should be crucified here upon Earth And if this Hypothesis might be thought solid and well grounded all the passages of this Book aforementioned and many more would be sufficiently clear and the description of the New Jerusalem in the two last Chapters would be easily intelligible which I think cannot be well understood without it These places Rev. 21. v. 3 4 5 6 12 13 15. and Chap. 22. v. 3 4 5 6 14 15. sound this way at such a rate that they almost force me whether I will or no to believe some such thing But how far and in what manner these things may be true may be troublesom to conceive Answ This business would not seem so lubricous to the learned Objector if his Reason and Phancy was but once well inured to that Figure of the Prophetick Stile which we call Henopoeia which takes not place only in a Man Woman or Beast made the Symbols of some Society or Body Politick But the Pronoun He which so often occurs in these Epistles to the Churches has also in it this Figure and signifies not a single Person but such a Body or Society of men so or so behaving themselves together with their Successours This successive Body by a Prophetick Henopoeia is represented as one single Person by the Pronoun He He that overcometh This once admitted all difficulties vanish as to the seven Churches And if the Objector did but observe how full of Hylasmus's and Israelismus's the Apocalyptick Stile is he would easily be reconciled to such a sense of these places of the twenty first and twenty second of the Apocalypse as the Expositor has given of them though they bear so hard upon his Phancy for the present as to drive him to expect a personal Reign of Christ upon Earth Consider also here what we intimated above That the Description of the New Jerusalem is so drawn as to be a Type also of the Church Triumphant in Heaven But to proceed We averr moreover That Christ's Personal Reign here on Earth would be infinitely more strange than his Suffering here because the Reasons of this latter are so palpable But I see no reason at all for a Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth whenas the Spirit of Christ within us in that measure and efficacy it will be in those days will serve all intents and purposes that his Personal Reign can be supposed to serve to And this reigning by his Spirit is a greater perfection in his Church than if he should guide them by his personal Presence and Voice here on Earth Inward Regeneration by the operation of the Spirit into the living Image of Christ is a greater Priviledge I say than to be guided by the external Person and Voice of Christ amongst us sounding in our ears As if the thing could be it were better for an Horse to be turned into a perfect man than to be rid by the bravest Heros that is And lastly That Opinion touching all the suffering Adherents to Christ that they should become Citizens of this New Jerusalem on Earth which is conjoined with the Opinion of Christ's personal Reign is not agreeable to Reason in that it brings down the persecuted Saints great Reward in Heaven which Christ promiseth Matt. 5.12 to a lesser reward here on Earth CHAP. XXXIX Two Objections more out of the same Letter The first touching the Palm-bearing Company whether they synchronize with the New Jerusalem The other touching the Intricateness and Obscurity of the Vision of the two Witnesses With Answers to both Objections THE first Objection is upon pag. 67. Mr. Mede's Arguments saith he for the Synchronism of the Palm-bearing Company with the New Jerusalem seems not firm If they were and we could be assured that the Palm-bearing Company were personally Citizens of the New Jerusalem it would argue that the New Jerusalem-state is designed to be premiant to the suffering Christians And indeed it seems to be the main scope of the Apocalypse to predict that Divine state of things But however the Palm-bearing Company are plainly the Triumphant Army of Martyrs and are of great affinity with those Rev. 20.4 saving only that the latter are the Martyrs under Antichrist the former seem to be the Martyrs under Paganism And since these Martyrs are described as personally rewarded with their white Robes c. it would be strange for us to think they are rewarded by Proxy in the prosperity of others in the Jerusalem-state Besides that it is too early of the Apocalypse to have a formal Vision of the New Jerusalem state Answ That the Palm-bearing Company synchronizes in part with the New Jerusalem besides what Mr. Mede alledges the Methodicalness of the Apocalypse may assure us For the prefixing of the 144000 sealed ones with the Residue of that Vision in that Chapter before the seven Trumpets is according to exquisite Method the seven Trumpets being a more distinct and particular Representation of the affairs of the same Time Nor does it follow from the Palm-bearing Company 's being Citizens of the New Jerusalem that those individual Martyrs that suffered either under Paganism or Antichrist that they live in the New Jerusalem here on Earth but by a Prophetick Henopoeia the whole successive Body of the pure Apostolick suffering Church under the Persecution of Antichrist being understood when this one
foretold made to Daniel but the Object of the Vision the things foretold and that not when they would begin but when once begun how long they would hold from some certain Epocha viz. the time of their beginning But as for the mere Visionary Exhibition it was so far from reaching to the 2300 days whether vulgar or prophetical that it is not likely to have taken up one single hour And besides the Object of the Vision which is the taking away the daily Sacrifice c. not commencing before Antiochus his time as the Type or Antichrist's time as the Antitype it is impossible the Epocha of the two thousand three hundred Evening-Mornings should be placed so high as the Fall of Babylon by Cyrus Nor is the time of the Visionary Exhibition inquired into but the time of the taking away the daily Sacrifice the transgression that makes desolate and the giving the Sanctuary and the Host to be trodden under foot Unto this question of the time of these things it is answered Vnto 2300 days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed So plain is it that the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings cannot be fixt higher than from the violation of the Temple by Antiochus Though there may be a pretence indeed in the Typical sense of placing it lower viz. in the beginning of the Reign of Antichrist the mystical Antiochus which according to my Epocha of his Reign is the year 393. And therefore if you add the 2300 days Prophetical to 392 years it will be the year of our Lord 2692. before the Sanctuary be cleansed a thousand and odd years hence But if you take the Author 's Epocha it will be above forty years more So improbable is it that the beginning of the Reign of Antichrist of whom Antiochus was a Type should be the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings Wherefore if they be Typical as well as Antiochus as the Term of the 2300 days literal from the first violation of the Temple shows when the Sanctuary should be cleansed from Antiochus his Pollutions so the end of 2300 Prophetical days from the same Epocha shows when the Church of Christ will be quite purged from the Pollutions of Antichrist And according to this middle or moderate placing of the Epocha it will be about four hundred and fifty years till the universal cleansing of the Church from Antichristian Pollutions till which there being so ample a space of time from the Rising of the Witnesses or commencement of the seventh Trumpet it is a plain indication how much the Author of the Calendar is out in allotting but forty five years to the Effusion of the seven Vials And as it is thus demonstrable by Reason that the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings is to be fixt in the Pollution of the Temple by Antiochus in the Typical sense of them So is it expresly declared Dan. 12.11 that there likewise is to be fixt the Epocha of the 1290 days and the 1335 days So that this quaint and wittily contrived frame of the six Collateral Lines so artificially adjusted to the Principal Line of the 2300 Evening-Mornings is every way utterly broken in pieces as also any hopes from hence that the Papacy and Turkish Tyranny will be brought so low about twelve years hence that the Witnesses every where will put off their Sack-cloth and cloath themselves with the garments of gladness Or that the New Jerusalem will appear upon Earth about eighty eight years hence Not the least glimmerings of hope shine forth from these Evening-Mornings of any such thing This I freely declare as one not interessed in any Party any further than they are in the Truth and it is not the Church of England as the Church of England but as she has the Truth on her side and is the most eminent and noble Specimen of the Accomplishment of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses in the whole Reformation and that it is the adequate fulfilling of the Prophecy I have with irrefutable Evidence demonstrated elsewhere so that it is needless to say any thing thereof in this place that makes me adhere to so excellently well constituted a Church CHAP. XLVI Some few strictures more upon several passages of the Calendar of Prophetick Time As touching the four Beasts and twenty four Elders The meaning of the Doxologie of the twenty four Elders alone Apoc. 11.18 and of the Inversion of the Doxological Service and that they both argue the twenty four crowned Elders to be Kings or Monarchs Whether the Interval of Smyrna is to be restrained to the ten years of Diocletian 's Persecution His mistake in making part of the sixth Seal a whole seventh Seal Whether the Paganish Barbarians are the floud cast out of the mouth of the Red Dragon His dating the taking away the Daily Sacrifice from the first moment of the Apostasie That the roaring of the Lyon Apoc. Chap. 10. ceased not of a sudden The ground of his making Thyatira Sardis and Philadelphia run their course together to the New Jerusalem confuted The incongruity of the Position it self The difficulties the Calendarist incumbers himself with in his way of treating on the Vision of the Churches The true way of solving those difficulties WE shall add some few more strictures upon several passages of the fore-mentioned Calendar As upon pag. 38. That the ingenious Author mislikes our English Translation's rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the four Beasts which bears an ill sense in all other places of the Apocalypse as answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be found fault withal Mr. Mede in his Answer to a Friend calls them instead of the four Beasts the four Wights a word which our English Translators I suppose did not adventure on it being worn out of use otherwise it would exactly answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifying so much as a living Creature But the deserting of Mr. Mede's Interpretation of these four Beasts or living Creatures and making them a Representation of the Apostles as some shallow Interpreters make them the four Evangelists posted at the four Angles of the Throne as an universal Ministry diffusing the Gospel into all parts of the World and the pure Israelitish Ministry to be Typed by the twenty four Elders this is a slip of his in no wise commendable For first it is against the Genius of the Prophetick Stile to understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any other than a Body Politick not one single or some few persons This is a general Rule from which there is no Exception saving that of the Lamb which signifies the Person of Christ though it may be with a Connotation of his Church his Body And then secondly it seems wondrous harsh to interpret the four Wights of the Christian Church and the twenty four Elders of the Jewish whenas without all question as Mr. Mede has unexceptionably made it out that Vision is a Representation or has
Opened Book-Prophecy as commencing as high as the seven Churches or Seals there is he out again For that Vision in the eleventh Chapter does not reach to the end of Apocalyptick Time but to the seventh Vial only inclusively So that the Descent of the New Jerusalem the Millennial Reign of Christ and the Laodicean Interval are still behind But the Apocalyptick Time upon the seventh Thunder above-mentioned was quite ended and so a fit Regress made to a new set of Prophecies Which the ingenious Calendarist cannot deny but that it ought to begin as high as the seven Churches and the Seals And then of necessity the Time of the inner Court will not be synchronous but antecedent to the Time of the outer Which is a very plain Truth and equally useful He makes my second Argument for the forty two months beginning before 400 That the Invocation of Saints had entred somewhat before it In Answer to which he recurs again pag. 84. to the device of the Balance But my Reply to his Answer to the fifth Objection will serve here So that I will add nothing further but remind the Reader that not only the Invocation of Saints but the reposing Confidence in the Mahuzzim was then and this exceedingly spread as has been proved Chap. 28. The sixth Objection and the Answer being less material to my purpose I omit We therefore pass to the seventh and last which is this The Witnesses are risen and out of their Sack-cloth and that some years ago and therefore the 1260 years are also so long ago expired which utterly subverts the Calendar pag. 85. This says he being the great Objection requires the most distinct Answer I shall therefore briefly explain my full sense c. In pursuance of this I confess he is witty operose and copious but the substantial summ of the matter so far as I can gather is this That as the Time of the Medial Visions is distinguished into parts A Time and Times and Half a Time and three Days and an Half so there are several Degrees of the Completion of the Vision To this sense is that which occurs pag. 78. By all which it appears saith he Time at large has a less full presence of the Event and admits a contrary intimate Time hath the full presence of the Event and admits no contrary And pag. 88. Some says he speaking of the Witnesses are called up into places of Dignity as into Heaven but not as they shall be at the end of the 1260 days For each first and last part of all the Characters of Time must have degrees of the Event else they could not have a foundation to be so distinguished Even our Lord's first Night was a beginning to dye in his Agony being betray'd c. And till the Evening of the first day of the week he appeared not to a Number as not publickly risen till the end of the third day And then giving several instances of the scantness of the Reformation and of great Objects still remaining of the Witnesses sorrow to conclude then says he pag. 89. till after the full Expiration of the Time of the Apostasie being in Power as a Throne or Kingdom in all its coextensive Characters the Witnesses are not in full Apocalyptick sense Risen as the golden Key of the Time the three days and an half also assure us For till the Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or After three days and an half are fully past they rise not viz. conspicuously as our Lord did not And that that is not yet beside the credit of our Calendar is apparent in that since the Reformation there have been no effects like those that are to signalize the end of the 1260 days c. This is the main of his Answer to which I briefly reply that it reaches not the case For the utmost fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses is not that there shall be a Rising of them throughout the Kingdom of the Beast but that it shall be only in part of his Kingdom For it is expresly said in the Text that at the very hour of their Rising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tenth part of the City fell not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt which there is as much difference as betwixt ten and one For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third part which is a Symbol of the Roman Empire does not signifie the whole Habitable or then inhabited Earth but the third part of the Earth only so the tenth part of the City cannot signifie all the ten parts of the City or the whole City but the tenth part only Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not here relate to the ten-horned Beast or Secular Empire but to the Hieratical Polity the City of Babylon the tenth of that only fell but the Secular Empire where this fall was stood rather more strong than ever was more complete than ever being rid of the Papal Tyranny at the Reformation so far forth as it was reformed And now for the Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the three days and an half Forasmuch as it is said after these three days and an half the Witnesses rose and the tenth part of the City fell it is as clear as Noon-day that no more than a partial Fall of the City and a proportionated Rising of the Witnesses is the full completion of this Vision or Prophecy But whatever other Accessions there are to be made to the Kingdom of Christ or Ruine of Antichrist they must be the completion of some other Visions but not of this And as for the Credit of his Calendar I have again and again shown how frail it is And for any Effects to signalize the end of the 1260 days I have demonstrated elsewhere that not Days but Semi-times are the measuring Vnite of the Event of this Vision And that there was no signalizing Effect at the expiration of the 1260 days from the right Epocha it is a further confirmation that not a Day but a Semi-time is the Eventual Measure and the last Semi-time was signalized with the blessed Reformation But yet as if his Answer to this seventh Objection had been in it self solid and valid and that as he has explained things the Witnesses were not Risen in a full Apocalyptick sense he proposes three Objections out of what he has read of mine The first Objection is this The latitude of months for the fulfilling Events in some parts of them may so disagree with the narrower lines of day too narrow for the months pag. 90. that the Prophecy may be made to contradict it self and so speak true and not true as to point of Time and Events together True in the months not in the days But his Answer is this As the heighth of Events is by the Prophecy determined to the intimate part of the three days and the three times and an half so the duration of the Event at large is by the Prophecy
thus unexceptionably constituted as having no other Author or Cause of it self but it self i. e. the reason of its Existence and Essence such as it is is resolvible only into the transcendent Excellency of its own Nature or Idea This plausible Plea humane Reason if need were might offer in behalf of three Hypostases and no more than three in the Divine Essence But the Triunity of the Godhead being an ancient solemn and Divine Tradition embraced not only by the Church of God but by the best and divinest Philosophers of old whether we have rendred punctually and particularly the very reasons of three Hypostases and no more or not yet it is indubitable but that in the general we have not erred viz. that the Godhead was most absolutely completed in these three though we cannot give the account so particularly and precisely and that therefore there was no more And Ingenuity and Modesty may well acquiesce in this general Hypothesis touching so profound and unsearchable a Mystery And scarce any I think would have hesitated touching this Divine Tradition if they could have reconciled these three real Hypostases not Logical Notions according to the first Definition with the Vnity of the Godhead that is if they could have made out that there is no Repugnancy in affirming That there are three real Hypostases in one singular or individual and indivisible Divine Essence or Substance which one singular and indivisible Divine Substance is that one God according as it is described in the second Definition of whom the whole Creation depends But now that there is no repugnancy in this I think I may say is demonstrable and that in a few words and from Principles acknowledged by all viz. That the Generation of the Son is not arbitrariously or precariously dependent on the Father but that it is the very Priviledge of his Nature to be necessarily unavoidably and eternally generated of him by an Emanative Generation as he is called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eradiation of his Father's Glory And so none will question but that the Holy Ghost proceedeth either from the Father or from the Father and the Son by an Emanative Procession Nor can any Wit of man imagine why the production of one should be emanative and not the other Now the nature of what is emanative from another is this whether it be Mode or Substance That as it is not that adequately from which it does emane but something some way distinct therefrom else nothing did emane and there would be no Emanation so that which does emane thus necessarily is as inseparably one and indivisibly with that from whence it doth emane as the parts if I may so speak of any Substance incorporeal which is Ens unum per se non per aliud So that if that which does emane is Substance from Substance they are both as much one Substance as to Substance as any one Substance can be according to our third Definition Insomuch that according to this account of the three Hypostases the second and third issuing from the first by an eternal necessary and unavoidable Emanation not arbitrariously or precariously which is the proper Character of Creation the Creature having but a precarious Existence all these three real Hypostases are as much one singular Divine Essence or Substance by definition the second as any Substance can be From whence it plainly follows that though there be three Hypostases in the Divine Substance so described in the second Definition yet that Divine Substance being as perfectly one as any Substance can be that yet there is but one God which is the thing that was to be demonstrated Which plain account is a Key that will unlock the hardest difficulties in the Athanasian Creed touching the Trinity and Vnity of the Godhead I will give one Instance for all where it is said The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God yet there are not three Gods but one God If any one should here object that nothing can be God but what is Divine Substance and that if the Divine Substance of the Father be the sole adequate Substance for the whole Trinity of the Hypostases the second and the third Hypostases will be empty Logical Notions according to Definition the first but if they be real Hypostases there will be three Divine Substances whatever is said truly to be God being a Divine Substance I say according to this account we may safely and intelligibly pronounce that the Father is a Divine Substance the Son a Divine Substance and the Holy Ghost a Divine Substance yet there are not three Divine Substances but one absolute Divine Substance according to Definition the third and so plainly but one God though three Hypostases Whose Union is such accordingly as has been described that they make one singular or individual and indivisible Divine Essence or Substance nor admit of any singular Divine Nature or Substance excluding therefrom or not including themselves Forasmuch as that fourth being a singular Divine Nature would ipso facto be an Hypostasis by Definition the first unless we can imagine a singular Divine Substance devoid of Intelligence Whence it is manifest that the above proposed account is the most unexceptionable and intelligible that is and the true account indeed how three real Hypostases are consistent with one singular Divine Substance that is with one God If any one be curious in these things he may read the Scholia at the end of the last Chapter of my Enchiridium Metaphysicum as also the six last Sections of the third of the Divine Dialogues and the Scholia thereon But this brief account from thence I thought fit to insert into my Paralipomena Prophetica because the truth of some Passages in my Exposition of the Apocalypse depends upon the truth of the Mystery of the Trinity As Apoc. Chap. 9. v. 11. and Chap. 11. v. 2. For our Compute of the Symmetral Times of the Church implies the Truth of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity which if it were not true would argue our Computation false and that we are out in our Interpretation CHAP. LI. Fourteen Queries raised out of a Letter written in favour of some Passages of S. E. his Remarks with Answers subjoined to each Query I Thought to have concluded my Paralipomena Prophetica with the immediately foregoing Chapter touching the Triunity of the Godhead But having a Letter sent unto me written in favour of some passages in S. E. his Remarks before my Paralipomena were printed off I thought it not amiss to raise some Queries out of the same Letter and answer to them and so conclude all with these Query 1. Whether in those words Rev. 10.6 That there should be time no longer Time there signifies the Political Order and Government of the World and implies that in the Millennial state all Humane Laws and Polities shall cease and the Government be carried on merely by
of which the Truth is to be followed and the shadow to fly away And lastly For what is alledged in the seventh Argument they are but such things as are already answered by my answering the first where I have explained in what sense there is said to be no death nor sorrow nor pain And it being said there is no curse that is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that respects the Papal Curses as is noted in my Exposition And that there is no Night is no more than is said by Esay of the state of the Church on Earth Thy Sun shall no more go down c. Chap. 60. And this state of the Church being so holy on Earth it is no wonder that such ill people as are called Dogs Sorcerers Whoremongers Idolaters c. are excluded from it and not admitted into their Communion And in that they are said to enjoy the sight of the face of God and of the Lamb what is this more than what S. Paul witnesses we are capable of in this life That God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness may shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ So that there being so many indications as I have observed in my Notes that the description of this New Jerusalem is a description of a state of the Church on Earth and the best Arguments alledged against it being really invalid it remains manifest that the state of the Church in the Millennial Reign of Christ on the Earth is predicted and described by this Description of the New Jerusalem But now after the pondering of the Plea of both Parties though I am very confident that the description of the New Jerusalem is a description of the Church on Earth in the Millennium yet I am on the other side as confident of what is not at all repugnant to this that this excellent Millennial state of the Church is a Type and so intended to be in its description of that more transcendently blessed and glorious state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven And the reasons that induce me to this belief in brief are these First It seems handsom and congruous that it being so universally acknowledged on all sides that the State and Oeconomy of the Jewish Church was a Type of the Christian Church which was to succeed it so the best state of the Christian Church Militant which is the Millennial state or rather the state of the New Jerusalem here described which the Heavenly state succeeds should be a Type of the succeeding Church Triumphant in Heaven Secondly There is a sufficient lively Description and sensible Representation of the state of the second Death which succeeds the general Judgment the Lake burning with brimstone and fire why therefore should there not be as lively or rather more lively description of the state of Eternal life to which the Godly are adjudged as well as the Wicked to the other state Thirdly therefore The Description of the New Jerusalem State or Polity for it is the Kingdom of Heaven immediately succeeding this Lake of fire in the very next Chapter under the very name of a new Heaven and a new Earth the same with the New Jerusalem and this after the Conflagration we are fairly invited thereby to conclude that the state of the New Jerusalem on Earth is so described that it is also a Type of the Triumphant Jerusalem in Heaven And thus far we will allow force in Alcazar's second and third Argument that they may fairly warrant in conjunction with other Considerations the description of the New Jerusalem on Earth to be a Type of the Church Triumphant in Heaven Fourthly This being a most Holy Book of Divine Visions and this of the New Jerusalem the last of the Visions what can be a more proper Vision than this that typifies also the glorious and blissful state of the Saints in Heaven to be the close of all and which not only this Book of the Apocalypse but the whole Bible aims at Fifthly and lastly It is observable and I have noted it in my Mystery of Godliness Book 7. Chap. 7. That in a Prophecy that may have a meaner fulfilling at the first and is really intended for that fulfilling yet by reason of the high actuation of the Spirit of the Prophet some expressions may come from him that much better fit the Antitype than the Type in which the Prophecy is first fulfilled This is so over and over again verified in the Prophecy Typical of our Saviour Christ that it is needless pains to name any And many such instances also are observable in the Typical Prophecies of Antichrist as that in the Prince of Type c. Now this being so observable in Predictions that are but Types of what there will be a fuller completion that there are strokes in them that properly belong not but only figuratively to the Type but to its Antitype there being this very case in the description of the New Jerusalem a Prophecy of the Millennial state of the Church on Earth that is to say there being such expressions therein that more naturally describe the state of Heaven as S. Augustine has well observed in the first Argument and Alcazar in the last the genuine Result of this Consideration is this That it is a Prophecy of such a State of the Church on Earth as is a lively Type withal of that transcendent Happiness the Saints will find in Heaven where there shall be not only no more death sorrow crying tears pain or torture from that bloody persecutive Polity of Babylon which are intimated by a Synecdoche Generis but absolutely and properly speaking without a Figure there shall be none of these things at all These are the Reasons that move me to think that though the description of the New Jerusalem be a Prophecy of the blessed Reign of Christ on Earth that yet it is withal a Type of the Joys and Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven wherewith the Saints are rewarded after the Conflagration CHAP. XXI The occasion of his more fully making out that grand Truth that the whole Apocalypse in a manner consists of three main Prophecies beginning with the Church and reaching to the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy Sealed Book Prophecy and Opened Book Prophecy with the three Introductory Visions prefixed thereto That the Epistolar Prophecy is such a Prophecy That the Sealed Book Prophecy is such And also the Opened Book Prophecy The Reference of the three Introductory Visions to the Title of the Book of the Apocalypse Introductory Visions to Prophecies in Isaiah Ezekiel and Daniel and that they are not properly Prophecies themselves The Meaning of the Introductory Vision of the Epistolar Prophecy The like Meaning of the Introductory Vision to the Prophecy of the Sealed Book The drift of the third Introductory Vision muchwhat the same with the two former and that the Angel there