〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them also having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that all subterfuge is quite taken away 2. Grotius his Commentary upon this place is very ingenious wherein he supposes Christ to speak to the Thief being a Jew according to the Doctrine of the Hebrews who called the state of the piously-deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Pleasure or Paradise where though they enjoyed not that consummate Happiness which they were in expectation of at the Resurrection yet they were at the present in a great deal of Joy and Pleasure so much indeed that they held none to arrive to it after their death but such as had their Souls well purified before they departed their Bodies whom he parallells to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 12. and therefore there was great cause saith he that our Saviour said This day thereby signifying that he should not be any longer deferred according to the Doctrine of their Rabbins notwithstanding the vainness of his life but upon this his Repentance should immediately be with Christ in Paradise even that very day he spoke unto him 3. Nor need we with S. Austin sweat much in labouring to make that Article of the Apostles Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree with his being in Paradise in the Intervall betwixt his Death and Resurrection For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general as this Expositour makes good signifies nothing else but the invisible state of Souls separate from the Body nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restrain it to a descent into Hell For as for this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is spoken of the whole Person of Christ as it is also of others that enter into the state of the dead by the defixion of our Phansy upon what is most gross and sensible viz. the going down of the body into the grave we are easily drawn to make use of it to express the whole business both of the Bodie 's and the Soul 's receding from amongst the number of the living as Iacob does Genes 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when notwithstanding his Son was not buried but torn in pieces with wild beasts as he thought Wherefore the sense is my Body descending into the Grave with my Soul shall I go unto my Son into the Region of the dead 4. Again Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually signifies to descend or go downwards yet it signifies sometimes merely to vanish or go out of sight and very often as in other words so in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has no signification at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go of which it were easie to give plenty of Examples out of the Septuagint but that I account it needless Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be rendred not that he descended into hell but that he went into the Region of Souls separate or of the Spirits of men departed this life And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears this General sense Grotius makes good not only from the forecited place of Genesis but from the use of the word in sundry Greek Authors as Diphilus Sophocles Diodorus Siculus Iosephus Plato and others That of Plutarch is very remarkable where he expounds that verse of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same Author elsewhere To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating that the Air is that Invisible Region of the dead into which the Spirits of dying men depart And it is confessed of all sides that whereas those other Elements Fire Water Earth are visible that the Air and Aether are utterly invisible and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well contain in it both Hell and Paradise Whence it is plain that Christ might be at the same time both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise as a man may be both in England and in London at once And his Promise to the Thief of the immediate enjoyment of that Bliss was as it were a Proclamation from the Cross to all the World That the Souls of men live and subsist out of their Bodies Which he further demonstrated by reassuming his own and ascending with it up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples 5. Which Truth he seems to me also plainly to suppose in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus as also of the Unjust Steward For Dives his desiring Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to inform them of his sad condition in what trouble and torment he was does manifestly imply That the Souls of the Wicked are in Torment and in Trouble before the Day of Judgment yea immediately upon their Death and That the Souls of the Godly are forthwith in Joy after their departure out of this life as is intimated by the Transportation of Lazarus his Soul into Abraham's bosome and our Saviour's application of the Parable of the Steward exhorting us to be liberal of these worldly goods that when this life and the pleasures thereof fail we may be received into joy everlasting But we need not insist upon what is more obnoxious to the Cavils and Evasions of our slippery Adversaries we having produced already so many and unexceptionable Testimonies of Scripture for the Confirmation of the present Truth viz. That it is no Paganism but sound and warrantable Christianity to assert That the Souls of the deceased do not sleep but do live understand and perceive what condition they are in after death be it good or evil BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. He passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 1. WE have at length passed through the most dark and doubtful part of our journey and have given what Account we were able of the most Obscure and Abstruse points in Christianity We begin now to enter into a more lightsome Region and easier prospect of Truth the day breaking upon us and the morning-light tinging the tops of the mountains from whence we are ascertain'd of a further and a more full discovery of that Grand Mystery we seek after which the Spirit of God in the plain Records of Scripture will afterward so ratifie and confirm that to those that have a judgment to discern it will be secured from all future controversie But in the mean time we are to contemplate the Reasonableness and Intelligibleness thereof from some chief Heads or
an husband who is the very Iehovah according to the most easie and natural meaning of the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. This therefore is the First and most Fundamental mistake of lapsed Mankind that they make Body or Matter the only true Iehovah the only true Essence and first Substance of whom all things are and acknowledge no God but this Visible or Sensible world And therefore stop not here but naturally proceed to the Birth of Abel which Iosephus interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorrow Which certainly the Soul of man in this condition is abundantly obnoxious to But the word may as well and does more ordinarily signifie Vanity according to that of the Apostle concerning the Heathens and their Religion that they were grown vain in their imaginations And so that came to pass which the Author of that pious Book entituled The Wisdom of Solomon so sadly complains of 3. Surely vain are all men by nature who are ignorant of God and could not out of the good things that are seen know him that is nor by considering the works acknowledge the work-master But deemed either Fire or Wind or the swift Air or the Circle of the Stars or the violent Water or the Lights of Heaven to be the Gods that govern the World The Charge is laid home by this Writer upon Universal Paganism But it is but a just thing to give them a little scope to plead for themselves that thereby Truth may be the better discovered and the more firmly established and the Natural state of Mankind before Christ came into the world be more fully understood which is the present business in hand and the last Point we propounded by way of Preparation to our main work The Crime they are accused of here is Polytheism which necessarily includes in it Atheism For to say There are more Gods then one is to assert There is none at all the notion of God in the strictest sense thereof being incompetible to any more then One. Wherefore the Heathen being Polytheists in profession by undeniable consequence are found Atheists 4. But here some of them apologize for themselves after this manner affirming that they acknowledged one only Supreme Deity viz. the Sun and that the several worships which were exhibited were to this One though under several names by reason of the several powers or virtues observed in him This is the plea of Macrobius and he manages it under the person of Vettius Praetextatus very handsomly and wittily reducing from either Properties of Nature allusion of Names the likeness of Statues or Images the conformity of Ceremonies or testimony of Oracles no less then sixteen Deities of the Heathen that to the vulgar seem distinct to this One of the Sun namely Apollo Bacchus Mars Mercury Aesculapius and Salus Hercules Isis Serapis Adonis Attin Osiris Horus Nemesis Pan Iupiter Saturnus And I doubt not but with the like windings and turnings of wit and imagination he may reduce the worship of the rest to the same Deity he having let fall an ominous word taken out of the mouths of the Ancients at the very entrance of the Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which if it be well followed will not fail to make good That the Heathens worship was terminated upon one Supreme Object which Macrobius will have to be the Sun And he concludes all for a fuller confirmation thereof with a double citation The one is of a short Invocation of the Heathen Theologers the form whereof runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. O Sun ommnipotent the Spirit of the world the power of the world the light of the world The other is out of the Hymns of Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou that dost guide the ever-winding gyre And wide Rotations of th' Aethereal fire O Sol great Sire of Sea and Land give ear Omniparent Sol with golden visage clear All-various Godhead Bacchus glorious Jove Or whate're else thou 'rt styl'd my vows approve In which Verses the Government and Generation of all things are attributed to the Sun who that it may be less incongruous is allowed to have Sense and Understanding in him as you may see in the same Author Saturnal lib. 1. cap. 23. which is also asserted cap. 18. where he proves Bacchus and the Sun to be all one For he gives the reason of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Mens Iovis understanding by Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Air or liquid part of the world as Theon explains it upon Aratus And here Macrobius saies that Iupiter signifies Heaven Physici Solem Mundi mentem dixerunt Mundus autem vocatur Coelum quod appellant Iovem 5. That the Sun is the Supreme Numen of the Heathens may be further evinced from the Ceremonies and Worship the Indian Brachmans did to him who were also called the Priests of the Sun whom Apollonius Tyaneus that industrious restorer of Paganism so loudly extols and so far preferrs before the Babylonian Magi Gymnosophists and all the Wise men of the world besides But the circumstances of his entertainment there according to Philostratus is an argument only of their being more able Magicians or Conjurers then the rest of the world not more truly Wise as we that worship the true God must of necessity conclude For what else can we gather from that black swarthy Page with a golden Anchor in his hand and a Crescent like the Moon shining upon his forehead that met Damis and Apollonius in the way told them their purpose aforehand and conducted them to the Magi What from that ever-smoaky Mount guarded or enveloped with a perpetual thick cloud or mist so that these Sages could not be found without some such black guide of their own sending nor their Habitation entred though there be neither man nor ditches to defend them What from their manner of entertainment of this zealous Greek that traversed so great a part of the world to find them out whom they received at a banquet where wine and viands were conveighed to the table without the help of the hand of any Mortal What from their Hymns and frantick dances in a round by way of Divine worship done unto the Sun when striking the ground with a rod the earth would rise in waves under them while they danced thus and sung their Morning Songs to their supposed Deity as he appeared above the Horizon What I say can be gathered from all this but that they were a Conventicle of Witches or Conjurers though I will not deny but they might be the most accomplished Priests that Paganism at that time could vaunt of and the fittest Instructers of Apollonius whose purpose was with all care and diligence to restore the Heathenish rites and thereby stop the growth of Christianity And surely the Devil made Paganism as desirable and
so apodictical and that there is nothing material to be alledged against them and that the numbers of daies and moneths there mentioned are of necessity to be interpreted years and that according to this Hypothesis there can be no other sense of the Woman in the wilderness of Babylon the great city of the two-horned Beast and the ten-horned Beast c. then what Mr. Mede hath given it is manifest that the Church of Christ would be lapsed into a degenerate condition for 1260 years and as evident that there will be a recovery out of this Lapse by reason that there has been yet no room for the promised Millennium persecution dogging the Church till Constantine's time after which the 1260 daies were to succeed and therefore the Millennium is yet to come As appears further in that it is Synchronall to the Seventh trumpet and that the Resurrection of the Witnesses is after their lying dead either all the 1260 daies or at least the last three daies and an half in that the Marriage of the Lamb commences from the burning of Babylon and the company of Palm-bearers from their victory over the persecuting Beast These things are so plain that they are not worth insisting upon And it is a great priviledge of this Synchronical architecture of Mr. Mede that it is not built upon any Hypothesis but the innate Characters of the Apocalyptical Visions themselves whenas Grotius his way depends so on the Chronologie of the writing of the Apocalypse that unless Iohn received these Revelations in Claudius his time which yet is against the common current of all both ancient and modern writers the fabrick of his Expositions falls to the ground To which you may add that he has no guide nor clue at all in this prophetick Labyrinth no not so much as that obvious but fallible one the order of the Prophecies as they lie but is forced sometimes to goe back as he fancieth himself able to apply his Historical materials So that he has indeed no guide at all from the Apocalypse it self whenas Mr. Mede is directed and limited by the demonstrative law of those innate Synchronisms he has gathered Of whose truth this may be one general After-ratification that the things that are found to be Synchronal have also a natural connexion and complication one with another as he that but casts his eye upon his Scheme of Synchronisms and considers the natures of things will easily deprehend CHAP. XVI 1. Of the Four Beasts about the throne of Majesty described before the Prophecie of the Seals 2. Of the Six first seals according to Grotius 3. Of the Six first seals according to Mr. Mede 4. Of the inward Court and the fight of Michael with the Dragon according to Grotius and Mr. Mede 5. Of the Visions of the seven Trumpets 6. The near cognation and colligation of those seven Synchronals that are contemporary to the Six first Trumpets 7. The mistakes and defects in Grotius his interpretations of those Synchronals 8. Of the number of the Beast 9. Of the Synchronals contemporary to the last Trumpet 10. The necessity of the guidance of such Synchronisms as are taken from the Visions themselves inferred from Grotius his errours and mistakes who had the want of them The Author's apologie for preferring Mr. Mede's way before Grotius's with an intimation of his own design in intermedling with these matters 1. BUT for further conviction of the Excellency of Mr. Mede's way above that of Grotius's I shall compare some of their main Interpretations For to meddle with all would be too tedious and voluminous but to give a specimen in some very commodious if not necessary First therefore In the first six Seals I may add also in the first six Trumpets Grotius fixes the Scene of all these Visions in Iudaea and ends them with the sacking of the City Of which in general it is to be noted That his Applications are too small and petty usually for these Prophecies and that the Prophecies themselves if they had no other meaning might very well have been spared whatever is needfull in them to the Church having before more plainly been predicted by the mouth of our blessed Saviour and therefore not likely to fill so great a part of the Apocalypse by their more obscure prefigurations But we will descend also to their particular weaknesses and inconcinnities and first of the Seals with the Session of Majesty prefixed before them Where Grotius makes the Four beasts the Lion Calfs Man and Eagle to be Peter Iames Matthew and Paul Which besides that in general it is a figment at pleasure without ground the applications I think are not so congruous For why should Peter who out of fear denied his Master be a Lion more then Paul whose heat assuredly was rather greater then the others and why Paul an Eagle rather then a Calf who certainly laboured like an Oxe in the Ministery and compares himself to one that treadeth out the corn 1 Cor. 9.9 And though he took long journies yet he did not flie in the Air nor goe faster by land or water then other travellers did And why should Matthew be a Man more then all the rest and rather then Iames the brother of Iesus who was peculiarly styled the Son of Man Wherefore Mr. Mede's account seems far more solid as having an acknowledged ground the order of the Camp of Israel which was distributed into Four parts each part being under a Standard or Ensigne those that lay on the East of a Lion on the West of an Oxe on the South of a Man and on the North of an Eagle So that this glorious Session of the Divine Majesty is set out by the order of the Israelitish Camp where in the midst was the Tabernacle as the Throne of God and about it the Tribes of Israel so disposed as I have intimated Which is infinitely a more solid account then that of Grotius as you shall more distinctly understand in the opening the four first Seals whose applications are admirably fit to each Beast in Mr. Mede's way but very frigid and faint in Grotius's For he thinks it reason enough of the Lion that is Peter his calling to see the Rider of the white Horse because Peter was the first that preached the Gospel and therefore he speaks first here Whenas it does not appear he spake first of those that spake the unknown tongues so fast Acts 2. who questionless preached the Gospel in them 2. That this Rider of the white Horse is Christ they both agree in but why the first beast should be the Praeco before this sight Mr. Mede's reasons are far more satisfactory as you shall hear anon The Praeco of the Rider of the red Horse he makes Matthew because it is written Matth. 24.7 Nation shall rise against nation and Kingdome against kingdome But this is not Matthew's prophecie but our Saviour's The Vision he fansieth fulfilled in the war betwixt
add the Description of the General Resurrection chap. 20. Which things being uttered by a Prophet whose Visions hitherto so punctually answer the known Events of things cannot but be an unexceptionable Demonstration of the Resurrection of Christ and of our own Immortality And indeed of the whole Truth of Christianity and especially of those two highest points thereof the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead For it being so generally acknowledged by the Church of God That the Gospel and the Epistles of S. Iohn and this Book of the Apocalypse have all one Author as indeed the very matter and style of them do further argue the Phrases and matter coming nearest the notions of the ancient Cabbala of the Jews as in particular his using of the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them all concerning Christ it cannot but be a great satisfaction that a person so highly honoured with the gift of Divine Revelation is so express an assertor of that holy Mysterie as he is surely in the beginning of his Gospel Which therefore even they are also to believe with reverence that are not able to fit themselves with any easie conception thereof it being not at all unreasonable that one so highly inspired as S. Iohn should have something communicated to him that passes the understanding of ordinary capacities So that Pride here must be the mother of Unbelief And this is the first and main general Use that may be made of this eminently-Divine Book of the Apocalypse and has reached I must confess further then the order of things requireth at this time But I cannot but prefer the Usefulness of my Discourse before the elegancy and accuracy of my proposed Method 3. But then secondly There is also another excellent Use thereof even against those whom either the pretence to or affectation of such kind of Knowledge has made either to appear or really to be very mad and extravagant For I think it not improbable that some men may be content to appear this way minded upon design and for advantage Which political abuse of the holy Oracles of God is in my apprehension one of the worst and the most execrable kinds of Sacrilege that is But by being well skilled in the meaning of the Visions of this Book we shall be the more able to defeat the evil purposes of such Enthusiasts and Impostours who being wholy ignorant of the affairs of the Kingdom of Christ will yet pretend to be the great Instaurators of his Empire and the beginners of the blessed Millennium and of the Reign of the Spirit Whose fraud and villanie is easily discoverable from the solidly-framed Synchronisms of Mr. Mede I speak chiefly in reference to that great Prophet of the Familists whom I have so often named whose imposture is easily confutable out of the Apocalypse For the Church having continued for some Ages Symmetral that is commensurable to the Reed of the Angel which Ages were before the Apostasie of the Church it is evident that the Faith and Practice of the Church Catholick then is allowable and approvable by the rule of God and therefore not to be reproved by men nor to be reformed any further then into that Primitive state when they held the Creed in the plain literal sense thereof without any shuffling Allegories as also the distinction of Laity and Clergy and met together in places set apart for publick Worship Which is an undeniable testimonie out of this so divinely-inspired Prophet S. Iohn against all those that would lay aside the Person of Christ and deny his Divinity with the Triunity of the Godhead antiquate his Mediatorship make no distinction betwixt Laity and Clergy would pull down Churches with the like wild fanatical professions and intentions Which certainly would have been accounted abominable in those Ages that the Church was Symmetral which lasted till about four hundred years from the Birth of Christ as appears out of that ingenious inference of Mr. Mede from the proportion of the outward Court of the Temple to the inward which according to Villalpandus is as 7 to 2 and therefore 1260 daies of Apostasie implies 360 daies of the Purity of the Church foregoing this Apostasie which added to the years from the Birth of Christ to his Suffering make up 400 years or thereabouts Or else if you reckon from these very times wherein this period of Apostasie should be near its expiration backward and take 1260 from 1660 there will remain 400 years again Till which time the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church is out of the Visions of the Apocalypse assured to us as approvable before God Which I look upon as a fit Engine to beat back the fury of such Reformers as those Enthusiasts are I mentioned and a demonstration that for all their heat and canting they are but Demoniacks and no divinely-inspired men But as in the times that the Messias was personally to come into the world many Impostours instigated by the Devil stood up to deceive the people of the Iews and brought them into much misery and mischief so now the times being at hand that Christ is to appear in the Spirit and the dead Witnesses are to rise up and rule many false Dispensations will crowd in with fury boldness and tumult and pretend to be the true Dispensation Which will not be prevented by slurring the main Scope of the Apocalypse and pretending that all the matters there are meant either of the Destruction of Ierusalem or else of Rome Heathen this is but like the sprinkling a little water upon too violent a fire which will but make it rage the more but by applying our minds more throughly to understand the meaning of these Divine Visions that we may be the more able thereby to steer the zeal of men off from doing so much hurt as they may be instigated to doe that the wheat be not burnt up with the cockle but that what is pure and Apostolical may be preserved And so also in Secular affairs Whereas the very Power of the Civil Magistrate and his security is hazarded by wild and hot-spirited men that would raise a Fifth Monarchie by Bloud and Rapine and tumble down all Government according as either their own Enthusiastick heat shall instigate or opportunity invite or give leave pretending that all Authority all Orders and Degrees in this Fourth Monarchie are unholy and prophane and that they are the Pioners to level all plain and break all Government in pieces that Christ the Fifth Monarch may personally come and begin his Millennial Empire upon Earth it behoves the Christian Rulers whether Ecclesiastical or Civil to be so well acquainted with the meaning of these Prophecies that they may be able to stop the mouths of these loud Fanaticks by those holy Oracles they pervert thus and abuse and to shew them that there is no proof at all of such things as they thus vainly imagine as assuredly there is not as I have
Person in his coming to Judgment that no tolerable Allegorie can elude them 3. That there will be a Resurrection of the dead in a natural not a moral sense at the same time is as evident from the very last words I cited For who but a mad-man will interpret the meeting of Christ in the air in a moral sense If it had been written in the Heavens they would have shuffled it off and said in the Heavenly being or Heavenly nature mystically understood But will they have the impudence not to acknowledg the aieriness and phantastry of their Mysteries of Incredulity when they must according to the same analogy be driven to say that we shall at the Resurrection meet Christ in the Aiery Being mystically understood But it is as false a gloss to interpret the doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. so as to exclude the Natural and Physical sense of it it being plain that such a Death and such a Resurrection is spoken of concerning us as is argued from the Death and the Resurrection of Christ who is said to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins which is impossible to be interpreted mystically Read from the first to the eleventh verse it is a plain History From whence the Apostle inferres that there is a blessed Resurrection or glorious Immortality in Body and Soul which Christ will bestow on all true believers at the last day As himself has promised over and over again in the sixth of S. Iohn's Gospel and I will raise him up at the last day Many other places there are to this purpose in Scripture which I willingly omit 4. The third and last is the Conflagration of the World of which I hold that of S. Peter an undeniable Testimonie But the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up The explication of which Prophecie Mr. Ios. Mede has set down with a great deal of caution and judgment To which I should wholy subscribe did I not believe that this execution of Fire were the very last visible judgment God would doe upon the Rebellious generations of Adam leaving them then to tumble with the Devils in unsupportable torment and confusion 5. And therefore I would expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 13. But yet Notwithstanding or Nevertheless before this Conflagration of the Earth we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in a Political sense in which Righteousness shall dwell Nor does that phrase verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for hastning the coming of the Day of God warrant any one to restrain this Prophecie to a Moral meaning as if it were only high expressions signifying something in our own power and to be done by us For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denote no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with great earnestness and diligence to expect or if so be you take them for two several things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie hastning that sense is also consistent enough with our Interpretation For being the Day of the Lord is a day of great Joy and ample Remunerations to the Godly as well as of Destruction to the Wicked and suppose it also comes not till Righteousness has had its reign upon Earth we may well be exhorted by our prayers and conversations to hasten and accelerate as much as in us lies the coming of either 6. But that by no such mystical Interpretation as this the Earth can be excused from being burnt by a visible and palpable Fire is clear beyond all exception from the 5 6 and 7 verses of this Chapter Where the Apostle alledges against that usual Refuge and Security of Atheists to wit The sameness and immutableness of the Law of Nature and the order or course of things that all things are as they were from the beginning and ever will be so and that therefore God will never step out in such an extraordinary way to Iudgment To this the Apostle opposes that eminent Example of God's Vengance in bringing the Floud upon the old World and drowning the Earth in an immense Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth which are now saith he are reserved unto fire against the day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly men Were the Waters in Noah's time natural when God had a controversie with all flesh and shall the Fire that the world shall be destroyed with be spiritual But light-minded men whose hearts are made dark with Infidelity care not what Antick Distorsions they make in interpreting Scripture so they bring it but to any shew of compliance with their own Phansie and Incredulity 7. I know there be that would understand by this burning of Heaven and Earth the destruction of the City of Ierusalem But the description is too big by far for so small a Work and not likely to be understood of them it was intended as a comfort to it being so exceedingly well fitted to the Conflagration of the World and so disproportionated to the other Event Moreover it is manifest from the Scoffer's arguing against the Promise of Christ's coming ver 4. That nature keeps still the same course it did since the beginning that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by S. Peter of the burning of a City by war For such things have hapned often and so they might not think it improbable Ierusalem might be burnt in due time but of that final glorious coming of Christ to judge the World which Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend 8. And truly if a man will but weigh things without prejudice he shall find the main matter of these two Epistles to be nothing else but an Exhortation to grow perfect and established in all Christian Vertues from the hope of that excellent Reward that shall be bestowed at the appearing and coming of the Lord Jesus as you may see in this second Epistle the first Chapter For so an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Which is parallel to that in his first where the Promise is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens and so on to the thirteenth verse Which verses doubtless no unbiassed judgment will ever understand of a delivery from any Temporal calamity much less the destruction of Ierusalem from which place those dispersed Jews were far enough removed as far as Pontus Cappadocia Asia Galatia Bithynia To say nothing that the so-carefull an Inculcation of that sad Theam of the fatal destruction of the holy City would not so much become the pen of this venerable Apostle nor the gust of them he wrote to being Jews by Nation
Vengeance shall make use of those Treasuries of Wrath. 10. We might adde further Arguments of Subterraneous fires and the fewel thereof from Earthquakes and hot fountains of which there are some in Peru as the same Writer reports that are so hot that a man cannot endure his hand so long as the repeating of an Ave-Marie There be infinite numbers of these in the Province of Charcas He makes mention also in the same place of several Springs and Fountains that run with Pitch and Rosin Which yet seems nothing so strange as those Thermae Fallopius speaks of in the Territories of Parma whose Water catches fire at a distance and as for hot Fountains they are more ordinary in these known parts of the world then that we need at all insist thereupon See Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundring Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes doe argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not hapned already 1. WE have seen how well stored the Earth is toward this general Conflagration let us now consider what the Heaven or Aire may afford Where letting go other Fiery Meteors we shall only consider some few instances of Comets falling Starres and of Thunder By Comets I understand onely such new Starres as are Sublunary and of combustible matter actually set on fire Of which sort there was one of so huge a magnitude which appeared after the death of Demetrius that it was found no less then the Sun to see to and with the brightness of its fiery shining turned Night into Day But to speak more at large of this Meteor Cardan and other Philosophers would have them either Signes or Causes of great Droughts and they may well be both these sublunary especially such great fiery bodies not being easily fed without wasting much of the kindly moisture of the Aire which makes the season also unwholesome and pestilential But for Droughts it has been observed that after the appearing of these Comets the year has been so excessive hot that it has parched the Corn upon the ground set whole Woods on fire and dried Fountains and Rivers as it hapned in the years 1477 and 1539. 2. The Stellae cadentes are either such as Virgil describes in his Georgicks Saepe etiam stellas vento impendente videbis Praecipites coelo labi noctisque per umbram Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus Oft mayst thou see upon approaching wind Starres slide from Heaven and through the Night 's great shade Long tracts of flaming white to draw behind Which Meteors though they make a great show in the Night yet doe not ordinarily much hurt unless they should light upon the fields of Aricia whose Earth was so combustible that it would take fire upon the falling of any coal Or else they are such kind of Comets as themselves become sometimes falling Starres Which Scaliger affirms to have been found true in his time and Fromondus out of Sennertus writes that the Tail of a Comet in the year 1543 flew off and falling into a River drunk up all the water of it 3. But the Effects of no fiery Meteor are so frequent or so terrible as that of Thunder To which sulfureous Exhalations out of the Earth contribute something as well as moist Vapors for the generating of Rain As is discovered by the great frequency of Thunders about the Vulcanoes we spoke of One notable Effect which Plinie takes notice of is like that of the Tail of the Comet For he saith there is one kind of Thunder quo dolia exhauriuntur intactis operimentis Like to this is that which the above-named Writer recites out of Wolfangus Meurerus that a certain Minister as he was going from Lipsia to Torga was so consumed by Thunder that not a bit of him was to be seen his whole body being dissolved into Vapour and Exhalations and blown away with the wind The closest texture of bodies will not hold when this quick searching Fire assaults them For this Meteor is made of such subtile glib and furiously-agitated elements that they will irresistibly pass whereever they attempt and disjoyn every congeries of Atoms as Lucretius has well described them Quae facile insinuantur insinuata repentè Dissolvunt nodos omnes vincla relaxant Which easily pierce and piercing straightway loose All knots and suddenly break every noose 4. But that is as remarkable as any thing concerning Thunder that the fire thereof is sometimes unextinguishable as it hapned in Macrinus the Emperours time when the Theatre was Thunder-struck in the very day they celebrated their Vulcanalia And such was that fire that fell from Heaven in Aurelius his time by the prayers of a Legion of the Christians which from this effect was called Legio Fulminatrix the Thundring Legion A competent shower of such fire as this that is thus peremptory and importunate what part of the earth is so incombustible that it would not subdue 5. I would not mention that strange and unexpected effect of Thunder whereby it conglaciates or makes rigid fluid or soft bodies which both Seneca and Cardan takes notice of The one gives an instance of hogsheads of wine turned into ice by Thunder the other of certain mowers in the Iland Lemnos who being thunder-struck as they were supping under an Oake their bodies became so hard rigid and stiff as if they had been so many Statues which imitated the same actions they were doing when they were alive one seeming to eate the other seeming to lift a pot to his mouth a third to drink c. I say I would not mention this did it not give some light and credibility to that wonderfull Transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt the thundring and lightning that then fell some of it it seems being attempered to such an effect and directed to strike that refractory woman that she might be not onely a monument of God's wrath upon disobedient curiosities but also of the manner of his executing that signal vengeance upon Sodom and Gomorrha with the neighbouring Cities viz. That it was with thunder and lightning from above as the Text witnesseth and Solinus and Tacitus also agree to and not onely by subterraneous fire breaking forth and the absorption of Earthquakes that swallowed down the Cities as Strabo seems to insinuate 6.
of Second causes partly Natural partly free Agents amongst whom the highly-exalted and supereminently-divine Soul of Iesus is the chief we discover a power able to effect more then we have declared concerning the Conflagration of the Earth And when this will suffice how over-evidently are we assured of the feisableness of this Atchievement from what S. Peter has suggested concerning the absolute power of the Word of God by whom all things are and who is a perpetual Spectatour of his Works For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world as the Wise man speaks and that which containeth all things has knowledge of the voice And it is as true that all things lye open to his sight and that the Earth is alwayes under the present eye of God Wherefore he that perpetually looks on is it hard to conceive that at last at some solemn period of time he may in a special manner step out into action if need so require and he be invoked thereunto 7. Wherefore the Faithful being gathered from all the corners of the Earth and carried up to Christ their Saviour and joyning with his Legions of Light there being then left in the Earth and in the inferiour Parts of the Aire none but obdurate Adherents to the dark Kingdome which shall now be made more externally dark then ever black pitchy clouds covering the whole face of the Sky and making Night fall upon the Inhabitants of the World even at mid-day in the midst of this sad silent and louring aspect of the Heavens He that in the flesh was heard and answered by Thunder when he prayed saying Father glorifie thy name shall by the same interest in the Eternall God cause such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Starres and discharge such claps of unextinguishable fire that it will do sure execution whereever it falls so that the ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take fire which inflaming the inward exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible murmur under ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be filled with sad remugient Echoes Earthquakes and Eruptions of fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide divulsions of the ground Nor shall the Sea be able to save the Earth from this universal Conflagration no more then the Fire could preserve her from that overspreading Deluge for this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the water quench her devouring appetite but excite it For such is the nature of some Fires as history every where testifieth 8. Wherefore the great channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into smoak and vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire cloud of an unspeakable thickness which shall cause more then an Aegyptian darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking heat and stench will compleat this External Hell a place of Torment appointed not onely for the prophane Atheist and Hypocrite but also for the Devil and his Angels where their pain will be proportionated according to the untamedness of their Spirits and unevenness of their perverse Consciences CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithful 1. I Hope by this time we have prevailed so far as to perswade the Possibility of the Conflagration of the World in that sense we have explained it And truly I know nothing that should keep a man from assenting to it as possible but that dull Fallacie whereby we conclude That nothing can be done but what we have seen done or phansie we could doe our selves And this is the reason that makes the Atheist misbelieve Creation because he himself can make nothing but out of prejacent Matter and a settled course of things causes so deep an impression in our Senses that we can hardly phansie they will ever alter Which makes some men never think of Death especially if they have never been sick a flattering impossibility by reason of so long continuance of life stealing into their hopes as if they should never die And therefore that great Monarch was fain to have one to rub up his memory every day with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember that thou art mortal Well may we phansie then such unalterable Laws of Nature as shall secure the Earth from such a destruction as we speak of when we are led unawares into so favourable a conceit of our own life or fortune after we have for a competent time been well settled in either as not at all to think of the mutability of our condition Wherefore I hope any one that is aware of this ordinary Fallacie will easily recover himself into so much use of his Reason as not to conclude the Conflagration of the Earth impossible because he knows not how to burn it himself or that it will alwaies continue unburnt because it has been unburnt thus long 2. But that which I drive at is to shew that the belief of a Christian is not only of things possible but reasonable which I have in some sort made good already by discovering the manifold treasures of the fiery and combustible principles in Heaven and Earth to which I add further First That Providence ordering all particular corporeal things by number weight and measure it is reasonable that the continuance of this present stage of things be numbred that is have its number of years set so that there be a full pause or Period a last Exiit and Plaudite to this Tragick Comedie 3. Secondly Whatever particular corporeal structure has a Beginning unless it be a Body inacted with a glorified Spirit will also have an End naturally of it self and that which will have an End is subject to decaying And for my own part I question not but that the Earth is of such a nature and that it waxes old by degrees will grow more more dry steril in succession of Ages whereby it
them with the skins of beasts to be worried by dogs others were crucified and others were burnt after day-light to serve in stead of lynks or torches This Persecution was not thirty years after the Passion of Christ. I appeal now to any one if he can think it possible that these that lived so near to that time when Christ was said to be crucified that they might make exact inquiry into the matter I appeal to him if he can think it possible they could expose their lives and fortunes to the hatred and cruelty of the Heathen if they were not most certain that there was such a man that was crucified at Ierusalem and demand further he dying so ignominious a death whether it be again possible that there should not be some extraordinary thing in the Person of Christ to make them adhere to him so after his death with the common hatred of all men and hazard of their lives 7. And therefore Lucian in his Peregrinus does rightly term Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great man crucified in Palaestine For at least he spoke the opinion of Christ's followers if not his own And the doctrine of the Christians he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the marvellous wisdome of the Christians whom he affirms to renounce the Heathen Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to worship their crucified Sophist or their crucified Master and Teacher And in his Philopatris if it be his and if it be not it is not much material being it must be of some Writer coetaneous to him there are some inklings of very high matters in Christianity as of the Trinity of Life Eternal of the Galilean's Ascension into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking up the Air into the third Heaven where having learned most excellent matters he renewed us by water Which is likely to be some intimation of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven or else of Paul's being rapt up into the third Heaven though the Narration thereof be depraved And Critias in that Dialogue swears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the son that is from the Father And he and Triephon jearing Divine Providence betwixt them as being set out by the Religious as if things were written in Heaven Critias asketh Triephon if all things even the affairs of the Scythians were written there also To which Triephon answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things if so be CHRESTUS be also amongst the Nations All which passages intimate what a venerable Opinion there was spred in the World concerning Christ and that therefore there was some extraordinary worth and excellency in his Person Which Conclusion I shall make use of in its due place 8. In the mean time I shall onely add that mention made of him in Suetonius in Vita Claudii cap. 25. where he is called Chrestus as before in Lucian's Philopatris he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit He expelled the Iews out of Rome they making perpetual tumults by the instigation of Chrestus Which is the highest Record of our Religion that is to be found in prophane Writers and no marvel it reaching so near the Passion of Christ from whence our Religion commenced For the reign of Claudius began about seven years after Christ's Passion and ended within thirteen years And that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate Tacitus himself gives witness in what we have above recited But a more accurate Chronologie of these things cannot be expected but from them who are more nearly concerned viz. the Christians themselves 9. Iosephus his Testimonie had reached higher in time if we could be assured that what he seemed to write of Christ was not foisted in by some thankless fraud of unconscionable Superstitionists or short-sighted Politicians that could not see that the solidity of Christian Religion wanted not their lies and forgeries to sustain it But for my own part I think it very unlikely that Iosephus being no Christian should write at that rate concerning Christ as he does besides other reasons which might be alledged And therefore for the greater compendium I shall be content to acknowledge that what is found in his Antiquities concerning the crucified Iesus is supposititious and none of his own Which Omission I impute partly to his Prudence and partly to his Integrity For certainly he knowing the affairs of Iesus so well as he did could not in his own judgment and conscience say any thing ill of him more then that he was crucified which was no fault in him but in his unjust and cruel Murderers and simply to have nominated him in his History without saying any thing of him had been a frigid lame business and to have spoke well of him had been ungratefull both to his own Country-men the Iews and also to the Pagans Wherefore it being against his Conscience to vilifie him and revile him and his followers so as the Heathen Historians have done and against his Prudence being not convinced that he was the very Messiah to declare how excellent a person he was it remains that in all likelihood he would play the Politician so far as not to speak of him at all 10. We shall produce but one Testimony more out of Pagan Historians and that is out of Ammianus Marcellinus concerning Iulian's purpose to re-edifie the Temple of Ierusalem that the Iews might sacrifice there according to their ancient manner Which was looked upon to be done more out of envy to the Christians then in love to the Jews and in an affront to that universal and inestimable Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered upon the Cross which was to cease the Jewish Sacrifices and to put an end to the exercise of the Mosaical ceremonies Ruffinus and Sozomen declare the matter more at large but we shall contain our selves within the recitall of what Ammianus has written lib. 23. near the beginning who being an Heathen puts as fair a gloss upon the Emperour's Action as he could but the Event is plainly enough set down and such as does much confirm the Truth of Christian Religion Julianus imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare ambitiosum quondam apud Jerosolymam templum quod post multae internecina certamina obsidente Vespasiano postea Tito agrè est expugnatum instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis negotiumque maturandum Alipio dederat Antiochiensi qui olim Britannias curaverat pro Praefectis Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alipius juvaretque Provinciae Rector metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente cessavit inceptum Julian having a mind to propagate the memorie of his Reign by the greatness of his Acts purposed to rebuild with immense charges that once-stately Temple at Jerusalem which with much adoe after many a bloudy battel was taken after siege
the time of Opposition the Sun by day the Moon by night The degrees thus given the Almuten Almusteli is to be found out which is the Planet that has most dignities in that place of opposition or conjunction which are Trigon House Altitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Aspect Then the degree of the Sign is to be noted in which the Almuten was at the time of the estimated birth c. For I need not hold on enough has already been said to demonstrate the whole process a ceremonious Foolery For the computation being to be made from the place of the Almuten Almusteli and his election by Dignities and Dignities being nothing but empty phansies and vanities as I have already proved the Correction of the Nativity by Animodar must needs be idle and vain Besides that the Almuten being one and the same as belonging to one and the same Conjunction or Opposition of the Luminaries how can it be a rule to Children born at the same times in divers Climates For it is evident the Horoscope alters with the Clime And lastly not only Picus a foe to Astrology professes how false both this method of Animodar as also that rule of Hermes is and clashing one with another but Origanus himself a friend to the Art advises us rather to listen to the relations of Mother Midnight then to give any credit to either of these waies The most certain way of correcting a Scheme of Nativity in Origanus his judgment is per Accidentia Nati whether good or bad as Honours Preferments Gifts Sickness Imprisonment Falles Conflicts c. which way notwithstanding at the first sight is very lubricous For it is at least disputable and uncertain whether there be Liberty of Will in man or no. But I will venture further that for my own part I think it demonstrable from inward Sense Reason and Holy Writ that there is Free-will in men whence it will necessarily follow Quòd multa accidunt hominibus praeter naturam praeterque fatum Diseases therefore Imprisonments Disgraces and Preferments may be brought upon us by the free Agency of our selves or others and that sooner or later according as mens Vertues or Vices act Which takes away all certainty of computation per Accidentia Nati 16. Besides that the manner of it is very frivolous and ridiculous For it being threefold as Origanus has set down Profection annual Transition and Direction there is none of them that are any thing more then mere phansies and figments For what can be more vain and imaginary then their annual Profection which makes the Horoscope and the rest of the Houses move thirty degrees a year till the whole period be finished in twelve Is this circuit of the Nativity-Scheme any where but in their own brain And then their Predictions or Corrections are by Aspects of the Cuspe of the Root with the Cuspes of the present Scheme calculated for this or that year And how Aspects themselves are nothing I have again and again taken notice And for Transition what is more monstrous then to think that a Planet by passing the same place in which it self or other Planets were at the Nativity should cause some notable change in the party born As if the Planets walked their rounds with perfumed socks or that they smelt stronger at the Nativity then other times and that another Planet come into the trace thereof should exult in the scent or the same increase the smell or what is it that can adhere in these points of Heaven that the Planets were found in at the Nativity or why is not the Whole tract of the same scent or why not expunged by the passage of other Planets But what will not madness and effascination make a man phansie to uphold his own Prejudices And truly these two Origanus himself is willing to quit his hands of as less sound and allowable but Direction is a principal business with him Which yet in good truth will be found as frivolous as the rest For as in Transition so also in Direction the great change must happen when a Planet or Cuspe or Aspect come to the place where such a Planet or Cuspe were at the Nativity When the Significator comes to the place of the Promissor then the feat does not fail to be done For the Promissor is conceived as immovable and such as stands still and expects the arrivall of the Significator which is a demonstration that this Promissor is either Imaginary space or Nothing and which of these two think you will keep promise best Nay the Significator also if it be the Horoscope or any other House is imaginary too as I have demonstrated And if it be a Planet seeing yet the Planets move not as a Bird in the Aire or Fishes in the Waters but as Cork carried down the stream it is plain how this Planet never gets to that part of the celestiall Matter in which the Promissor was at the Nativity the Promissor ever sliding away with his own Matter in which he swims and therefore if he hath left any virtue behinde him it must again be deposited in an Imaginary Space Which is an undeniable argument that the whole mystery of Direction is imaginary Wherefore if Profection annuall Transition and Direction are so vain that they signifie nothing forward how can we from Events though they should be judged and reasoned from exactly according to these phantastick Laws argue backward an exact indication of the time of the Nativity If they could have pretended to some Rules of Nature or Astronomy to have rectified a Geniture by they had said something but this recourse to their own phantastick and fictitious Principles proves nothing at all 17. And thus have I run through the eighth and ninth Sections of the foregoing Chapter before I was aware And he that has but moderate skill in the solid Principles of Naturall Philosophy and Astronomy and but a competent patience to listen to my close reasonings therefrom cannot but acknowledge that I have fundamentally confuted the whole Art of Astrology and that he has heard all their fine terms of Horoscope and Celestiall Houses Exaltation Triplicity Trigons Aspects Benigne and Maligne Station Retrogradation Combustion Cazimi Significator Promissor Apheta Anaereta Trigonocrator Horecrator Almugea Almuten Alcochodon together with the rest of their sonorous Nothings to have fallen down with a clatter like a pyle of dry bones by the battery I have laid against them And truly here I would not stick to pronounce that I have perfectly vanquished the enemy did I not espy a little blinde Fort to which these Fugitives usually make their escape And surely by the Title it should be a very strong one they call it Experience or Observation of Events which they boast to be accurately agreeable to their Predictions CHAP. XVII 1. Their fallacious Allegation of Events answering to Predictions 2. An Answer to that Evasion of theirs That the Errour is in the Artist not in the
proofs thereof out of the Prophets 4. As also out of the Gospel 5. And other places of the New Testament 6. The strong Armature of a Christian Souldier 7. His earnest endeavour after Perfection 1. WHerefore having sufficiently cleansed and oyled the first Wheel of this mighty Engine we are shewing the Usefulnesse of we proceed now to the second where if we do not use our diligence also this Machina will not prove effectual for the purpose it was designed viz. for the destroying of the works of the devil Of whose stratagems and devices we being not ignorant we will declare unto you what is most seasonable in this place namely That where he cannot corrupt our minds with this dangerous Errour of the sufficiency of an unsanctified and an unsanctifying Faith he will in the second place endeavour to perswade us that a small measure of Holinesse will serve our turn considering the Passion of Christ is of so great price in the eyes of his Father who accepts of his death for an atonement for our sins and that by his bloud we are reconciled to God and therefore any remisse desire any lazy inclination to obedience will be enough the Passion of Christ and the Imputation of his Righteousnesse will make out the rest 2. But that this is really the suggestion of the Devil not the meaning of the Gospel I shall make evident from many Testimonies of Scripture I might say that many of those we have already alledged do clearly demonstrate the same For what means that of Iohn where he declares That he that is born of God cannot sin because the seed of God remains in him What that of Paul where he saith That Christ came to redeem us from all iniquity and purchase to himself a Church without spot and wrinkle a Church holy and without blemish What means our Saviour Christ's setting the Rule of Righteousnesse at that exquisite pitch of perfection accounting tacit assents to lust no lesse then adultery rash and causlesse anger a degree of murder who has not only condemned retaliation but has commanded us to do good for evil I say what is the sense of all this but that we Christians are called to a higher degree of perfection in life and sanctity then ever any Masters of Morality and Religion in the world hitherto put men upon And therefore the dispensation of Christianity is so far from allowing men in any immoral vices or defects that it does not only cleanse from these but lifts us up a degree higher and never leaves till it has restored our Souls into a condition plainly Divine 3. That this is the state that every Christian is called to and ought to be unsatisfied unlesse his conscience tell him he is aiming at and growing in some measure towards it both the Propheticall descriptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah upon earth and several other Testimonies in the Gospel and Writings of the Apostles do still more fully witnesse For besides those places that describe the Reign of the Messiah from the abundance of Peace and Righteousnesse which should overspread the Nations as the waters cover the Sea there are other particular passages that do prefigure a very great measure of Holinesse that the Church of Christ should be conspicuous by with clearer knowledge and greater activity to walk in the wayes of God And I do not doubt but that which was fulfilled in a corporeal sense in Christs time had also a more spirituall and more permanent meaning namely that of Esay chap. 35.5 6. where the eyes of the blinde are said to be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped the lame to leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb to sing Which lively does set out the condition of the true Christian believer while he makes his faithfull progress in Christianity going on from strength to strength till he appear before God in Sion Add to this Zech. 12. For that it is mystically applicable to our present purpose appears from v. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced but what we were going to recite was v. 8. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them As our Saviour saith of John the Baptist That the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then he I shall close the Prophetick predictions with that of Malachi chap. 3. speaking of the Angel of the Covenant viz. Christ and that dispensation he was to set afoot in the world Behold he shall come saith the Lord of hoasts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness 4. The very same thing which John the Baptist witnesses of Christ Matth. 3. v. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaffe with unquenchable fire To which you may add v. 10. And now is the axe laid to the root of the trees Therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Like that Matth. 15. v. 13. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Which Scriptures do plainly declare to us That the design of Christ's coming was to consume utterly and to tear up by the very roots all errour and wickedness out of the hearts of them that would receive him 5. And this were sufficient to discover what a high degree of Holiness is expected of him that will be in good earnest a Christian. But I will not omit other places that sound to the same purpose 1 Peter 1.13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and of a perfect hope in the grace that is brought to you through the revelation of Iesus Christ as obedient children not fashioning your selves according to former lusts in your ignorance But as he that has called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your whole conversation in every thing you doe Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy The same which our Saviour exhorts to in his Sermon on the Mount Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Paul also to the Ephesians ch 6. v. 10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in
tell you of them Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein the Isles and the inhabitants thereof Let the Wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Let the inhabitants of the rock sing let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands The Lord shall goe forth as a mighty man he shall stir up jealousie like a man of war he shall cry yea roar he shall prevail against his enemies I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will make wast mountains and hills and dry up all their hearbs I will make the rivers Islands and I will dry up the pools And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight These things will I doe unto them and not forsake them 4. It is a very high representation of that mighty power of God from above that assists his Church and how Christ by the dispensation of the Gospel does set us free from the bondage of sin how he opens the understandings of the ignorant and procures liberty for those that were shut up in the dungeon of a dark conscience and held in captivity under sin how those that are dry and barren like the wilderness and the tops of rocks shall be watered with springs of living water and how the villages that Kedar possesses that is those that are overshadowed with sorrow and darkness a light shall spring up unto them and how they shall give glory unto the Lord for that he himself will be their champion he shall fight their battels and by the power of his Spirit and by that fire wherewith he will plead with all flesh wither the top and flower of their pride and dry up their restagnant lusts and lighten their paths before them and lead them forth into the land of Righteousness These are the true Warfares and Victories of the Church of Christ as those that have the veil taken off from their eyes and hearts can easily discover And surely with any other usefull sense then this cannot we ordinarily read the like descriptions of the Churches triumphs by Christ over her enemies or by those that have been Types of him as David was an eminent one And therefore if I would read the 18 Psalm I will love thee O Lord my strength c. I should hope for very small edifying thereby but in such a Mystical sense as this is that is by supposing that in me which partakes of Christ that is my inward Mind or Spirit raising war against Saul which is the power of the Flesh the craving pit of Hell that sin that lodges in this mortal body whose vain desires have no bottom nor end 5. I might abound with these allegations out of the Prophets and Psalms but I have given a Key into the hand of the judicious and he may unlock those treasures himself if he desires to have his Faith enriched and strengthened by those plentiful Promises of this assistance we speak of made to them that are serious professors of the Gospel I shall only adde one testimony more which in my apprehension is very express and that is Isa. 35. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees Say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you Then shall the eyes of the blinde be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped Then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land Springs of water In the habitations of dragons in the places where they lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes And an high-way shall be there and a way and it shall be called a way of holiness the unclean shall not passe over it but he shall walk in the way with them and the simple shall not erre No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away CHAP. IX 1. The great use of the belief of The Promise of the Spirit 2. The eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his bloud what it is 3. Further proof of the Promise of the Spirit 4. That we cannot oblige God by way of Merit 5. Other Testimonies of Scripture tending to the former purpose 1. THese places which we have recited out of the Old Testament cannot but warm and encourage him that reads them by reason of the loftinesse of their Prophetical style provided that he have in himself a facility of mystically applying of things to the great purpose they drive at But what we shall adde out of the New though they will not strike the phansy with so high language yet they will it may be reach ones Reason more surely and extort assent more powerfully even from them that are loth to finde it true That there is such a mighty supernatural assistance afforded from God viz. the Cooperation of his holy Spirit in our conflicts against sin Which perswasion is of great consequence to make us resolute in resisting all Temptations and to gain the victory in every assault and therefore we will produce sufficient evidences of the truth thereof 2. And the first that occurs to my minde is that of our blessed Saviour Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him And that this Dispensation of the Spirit of Sanctification is a common gift to all Christians appears out of what we have already recited out of S. Matthew where Iohn professes himself only able to baptize with water unto repentance but that the Baptisme of Christ should be with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the power of the Spirit that will melt and purifie us as silver is purified in the fire Also from Ioh. 6. where Christ styleth himself the Manna that came down from Heaven and declareth that he that eateth his flesh and drinketh his bloud hath eternal life with other expressions of the like nature Wherefore his Disciples began to be scandalized at it but Jesus answered and
that they made some of these Tutelar Gods under certain Constellations which is no wonder say I the Host of heaven being the Deities of the Pagans Telesmes and Astrology both rags of that ancient Superstition And Apollonius Tyaneus who trotted and trudged about the world so much to restore the Heathen Religion had an excellent gift if Historians do not belie him of consecrating Telesmes against Storks Gnats Inundations of Rivers Winds and Storms and other noxious Things Which notwithstanding that nasute Sophist Philostratus was willing to omit in his Legend of him as being very solicitous to save him harmless from the imputation of being a Magician as a man may observe by several passages in him So that either way the natural efficacy of Telesmes is discovered to be but a figment But that their Formation is but a Paganical Superstition those more exact Collections and Transcriptions of Gregory will further clear if a man do but peruse them For there he may see how in the building of Cities they did not only consult the Rules of Astrologie for a fit Configuration of the Heavens but also sacrificed and that sometime with mans bloud to the Genius of the place erecting a figure of Brass whereinto as they thought they Telesmatically conveyed the Tutelar Deity of the City Which Statue was therefore placed in some safe Recess or else in some eminent place but whereever it was there they conceived was contained the Fate or Fortune of all Of this sort doubtless was the Trojane Palladium and the Lame and the Blinde that the soul of David so hated 2. Sam. 5. as Gregory has with very good reason I think concluded 5. This is enough to intimate from what Principle these Telesmatical Fooleries sprung let them be of what kind they will And the Effects of them such as are recorded are plainly such as cannot be imputed to the power of the Heavens if we carefully consider the circumstances of things As for example what influence from Heaven can be derived upon a City for having the first stone of it or any one stone of it laid under such an Aspect What is this to the whole City that shall be so many months it may be years in building afterwards Besides that I have already demonstrated the whole Artifice of Astrology to be but a Foppery So that certainly it is nothing but the Consecration of the City and the Recommendation of it to the Tutelage of a Daemon And though we should admit that the Telesmatical Figure of a Stork suppose or a Scorpion may drive away Storks or Scorpions how should the Telesmatical Statue of a Man drive away Men and keep a Fort or Country impregnable from the incursions of the enemy as the silver Statues did buried in the confines of Thracia and Illyria that Valerius commanded to be digged up and taken away upon which those countries within a few daies after were overrun with the Goths and Hunns Besides it is much that the humane Statues should make such a difference as to take part with some men and be against others when the Telesmatical Figures of other Creatures drive away Creatures only of the same Species Which are things utterly inexplicable from the Laws of Nature 6. If there by any Natural Power in these things it must be from Similitude but it is most ridiculous to think that this Similitude has any thing to doe with the Stars For though there be the name there suppose of a Scorpion yet there is no Scorpion there nor the Image of one But if there were any Antiscorpionical Power in that Constellation that Matter or Metall that will receive it at all will receive it in any other figure as well as in the figure of a Scorpion and in some it 's likely better But this Influence being nothing but some thin particles that must pervade the pores of this Brazen Serpent can as easily goe out as come in and will give place to the next influence and so never be the same It is simply therefore the Similitude of a brazen Scorpion that must drive away the Scorpions which no man can imagine any reason for if the experience be true but the communitie of the Spirit of Nature and that Instance of one Chord trembling while that which is unisone to it is struck and of Sympathie in Persons by reason of Similitude and Cognation as in those two young children brothers and extremely like one another born at Riez in France who if one were sick sad sleepy the other would be so also Which are the most plausible reasons that Gaffarel alledges for his so-dearly-beloved Conclusion If therefore Scorpions and Gnats fled from the place upon the making of such a Figure of a Gnat or Scorpion suppose in brass or in any other metall I should think the reason was because the Spirit of Nature being harshly affected in the body of that which has so complete a similitude with such a creature may in some measure raise an harsh sense in those creatures and therefore finding themselves in such a place in an unpleasing temper they will be sure to keep far enough from it But if this be a right cause such a Telesme may be made without any regard to the Configuration of the Heavens Whence again all these Astrological Ceremonies will be demonstrated to be but Fooleries But I shall demonstrate further that this also is a Foolery and that there is no Natural efficacy at all in Telesmes and that from their own History For either Gregory or Gaffarel tells us that if part of a Telesme be broken off the Effect ceases Which we might have alledged as an argument that the virtue is in the Figure merely And they instance in a Telesmatical Crocodile whose chap was broken off For then the Crocodiles returned Which to me is an Indication that the Effect is not from the Spirit of Nature but from some ludicrous and deceitfull Daemons that love to befool Mankind For if Telesmatical Emerods and the Phallus work upon those parts why should not the above-named Crocodile that wanted but a chap work upon all the parts of the Crocodiles but their chaps which would be diseasement enough to keep them away And the Phallus Gregory mentions which he rightly I think reckons amongst these Telesmes cured or diseased the privy parts of the Athenians according as they received the Deity to which they were consecrated From whence a man may conjecture concerning the rest of these Trumperies 7. Again these Telesmes are made against such things as have no life nor sense in them as against Fire and Water Of which the engravements can have no such similitudes one would think as to engage the Spirit of Nature to act any way and yet Gaffarel tells us a very reverend story of a Telesme against Fire found under a bridge at Paris VVhich certainly if it had any natural power to preserve the City from great Fires such as would destroy the
Houses it would also have hâ—ndred them from lighting their candles at a tinder-box and warming their fingers in a frosty morning And yet this curious Philosopher seems to lament the losse of that Telesme they having thereby as he saies exposed the City to frequent Scale-Fires ever since But let the Telesmatical Sculpture of Fire and VVater be never so like insomuch that we may hope that it may affect the Spirit of Nature something there being no sagacity nor sense in the River Lycus suppose which Apollonius curb'd with such a device nor in Fire now existent much lesse that which is to come how can they withdraw themselves from such places where Telesmes are laid up they having not as Animals have the power of spontaneous motion Lastly There are Telesmes that have no similitude at all with the things they are to keep off as that Man on Horseback in brasse set up at Constantinople against Pestilential Infection which say they being once demolished the City has been extraordinarily subject to Plagues and fearful Mortalities That Ship also of brasse there Telesmatically consecrated against the dangers of that tempestuous Sea it had no similitude at all of either the Water or VVinde but yet of such force it was that a piece of it being broke off and lost the Sea returned to its former Unrulinesse but being found and put together the Sea became quiet again They took it therefore apieces again for experience sake and the Windes and Sea were suddenly rough and boistrous so that a Ship could not come up into harbour but the brazen Ship being again handsomely compacted the Windes and Sea were again peacefull and calme Wherefore if a man do but cast an indifferent eye upon the whole matter it will be very difficult for him not to pronounce That he that can believe that the power of Telesmes is natural is more irrationally credulous then the most simple Superstitionist in the world 8. Out of what has been said it is evident that the Brazen Serpent erected by Moses in the Wildernesse was not a Telesme in that sense Gaffarel would understand the word that is a Sculpture Statue or Similitude of something made so by Astrological Art that what Effects it has for the keeping off evil or remedying what has already befallen is merely from the concurrence of natural causes though the Application of them was Artificial the chief whereof is the Influence of the Heavens and the Figure of the Telesme For it is apparent there can be no such But if they mean by a Telesme such a Figure of some creature consecrated in a way of Religion for the services above-named nothing hinders but that the Brazen Serpent may be a Telesme whether from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an Image or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes Consecration And this of Moses was both a warrantable and effectual Telesme For it was by the prescription of God himself and throughly did the effect it was set up for But the cures that it did being supernatural and neither the Figure nor the Matter of the Serpent contributing any thing to the healing of them that were bitten by those fiery flying Serpents it is plain that Moses had been left free from making any such Telesme of the Figure of a Serpent there being nothing in the thing it self to invite him to it had not God moved him thereto Nor can we imagine any other cause why divine Revelation should suggest such a thing unto him unlesse there were some mystery in it Something therefore that did notably concern the Church of God was denoted thereby and what I was a going to say at first having removed all obstacles I now again resume and dare pronounce That it was a plain though Typical Prophecy of the Messias his Passion and of the use of it and so clear that no words could have more punctually prefigured it to us For the Analogy and Resemblance is most exquisite if we cast our eye upon the whole Scene of things 9. For how naturally doe the Israelites in the Wildernesse represent the Church of Christ in the World and their being bitten with fiery flying Serpents our being poisoned and pained with vexatious lusts and remorse of conscience when sin has entred into our Souls What could more lively represent our Saviour upon the Crosse who knowing no sin yet was made sin for us then this Brazen Serpent set upon a pole in the Camp of Israel Which indeed had the outward shape of a fiery flying Serpent but was so far from being a Serpent that it had nothing of a Serpent but external form thereof and healed all them that were bit with those poisonous and deadly Serpents So our blessed Saviour devoid of Sin himself yet being in the most ugly outward appearance of Sinfulnesse that could be put upon him he suffering betwixt two criminal Malefactors as it was prophesied of him that he should be numbred amongst the transgressors he is in this posture where he looks so like Sinfulnesse it self unto the whole Church of God when they are smitten with the fiery excitements of Sin or the deadly pangs or remorse of Conscience those rancorous wounds that Sin leaves in the Soul when she has been once bitten therewith he is I say thus hanging upon the Crosse if they look upon him with the eye of Faith the most soveraign Remedy and the most presentaneous asswagement of their Pain and Malady that can be offered to the thoughts of men I am sure of any humble and well-meaning man 10. But for those that are self-conceited of a perverse Reason and of an high-flown Luciferian Temper that prefer the subtilty of their own opinionated Wit and curious search into all secrets and magnifie their own natural Worth before the Friendship of him that loved us even to the death these men are not fit Relishers of the Sweetnesse of that abundant Goodnesse and kinde Condescension of Divine Providence in his manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world as neither the fiery Enthusiast filled with the sense of his own foolish Revelations and Divine Visitations as he phansies them so stout so stiffe and so perfect as the flatteries of his own Imagination would bear him in hand that he findes nothing but God and himself worth thinking of and will be an immediate Reteiner to the Almighty without any Interposal whatsoever To that height and hardnesse is he swollen in his own conceit But the true Character of him is that which the Apostle Iude has given him that he is but a mouth filled with great swelling words puffed up sensual knowing not the Spirit Such as these are those in too great a measure that wholly neglect the meditation on Christs Passion though it be of so great efficacy for the quenching and suppressing of all the restlesse and fiery motions of Sin in them But execrable Blasphemers are they whose Pride and Conceitednesse has made