A modest enquiry into the mystery of iniquity by H. More.

CHAP. IX.

1. Tail; Temple. 2. Throes; Throne of God. 3. Thunder an Iconism of Divine assistence for the discomfiting of the Enemies. 4. Other more mystical meanings thereof. 5. Time; Hours; Days. That Day signifying a Year is an Icasmus. 6. The appropriation of Months and Days to the story of the Wicked and Righteous, with an inference from the latter of a latitude of compute in the 1260 days in the Apocalyps. 7. Trees; Vintage; Water. 8. White-clothing; Wilderness; Winds. 9. Whore and Whoredom. 10. The exquisite Analogie Idolatry bears thereunto. 11. Wine-press. 12. That it signifies also spiritual Destruction and slaughter. 13. Woman and Women. 14. Worship; World. 15. That the Prophetick style is so determinately intelligible, that the endea∣vour of understanding Prophecies is most unjustly reproached for any insuperable difficulties therein. 16. Certain Rules to try Interpreta∣tions of Prophecies by, which are more warrantable and genuine, which less.

1. TAil. The Tail of a Beast is that part that follows or comes be∣hind, to which therefore the Train of a great Prince or Potentate will correspond in Analogie. But, me-thinks, the Analogie is most exact in Serpents of a great length, who therefore have a long train following them. But it is significant enough in other Animals also, as the Oniro∣criticks have taken notice. Achmet. c. 152. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (he means 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 If any one dream he rides on a generous Steed, (such as the Persi∣ans called Pharas) having a large Tail, thick of hair and long, he shall have a Retinue or Train of Men or Officers answerable to the fulness and length of the Tail. This Analogie will hold good from Nobles to Princes and Em∣perours, or any Sovereign Power over a State or Kingdom. In which case their Forces and People are their Train or Tail.

Temple. To omit those more Mystical or Moral meanings of Temple, it signifies sometimes in the Prophetick style a People consecrated to God by an outward profession of him, and so set apart from other Nations, as consecrated Places are from other buildings or plats of ground. 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maiest know how to behave thy self in the House of God, which is the Church. And Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God: which both Grotius and Dr. Hammond interpret of the Church Visible; Grotius of the Sardian, Dr. Hammond of the Church Catholick.

2. Throes of Child-birth. The Throes of Child-birth are a Figure or Image of great endeavours to bring something to pass, not without much difficulty, pain and danger. And the compassing their end is a delivery of what they were big with, and a deliverance from the pain and danger they laboured under. There are several examples of this Iconism in the Pro∣phets.

Jer. 30. 6, 7. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the day of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Also Esa. 66. 7. Before she tra∣vailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man∣child: which Interpreters usually understand of the sudden Birth of the Church, I mean, of the sudden Conversion of the Gentiles to it; Grotius, of the deliverance of Judaea by Maccabaeus.

Throne of God. The Throne of God signifies a great Throne, a magni∣ficent Throne, according to that usual Hebraism, where Nouns joyned with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 acquire a sense of excellency, vehemency or greatness. So the Trees of God, the Cedars of God, the Mountains of God, are great and high Trees, Cedars and Mountains, the Fire of God a vehe∣ment Fire, and the like. According to which the Throne of God is an high and exalted Throne, a Royal or Imperial Seat, from whence the Political World is ruled, as God from Heaven rules the whole Universe.

3. Thunder. Thunder and Lightning signifies the disjection and dissi∣pation of the forces of War. Esa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of Hosts with Thunder and Earth-quake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire. And Job 39. 25. He smelleth the battel afar of, the thunder of the Captains and their Chariots. It is very frequently used of God's discomfiting of the enemies of his Church. 1 Sam. 2. 10. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of Heaven shall he thunder upon them. Again, chap. 7. v. 10. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistins drew near to battel against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder that day upon the Philistins, and smote them untill they came to Beth-car. Which whether it be understood figuratively here or naturally by an Is∣raelism, it will be an Image or Figure of the deliverance of the Church from her Enemies to all posterity. David also describes his deliverance from his enemies after this manner, Psal. 18. The Lord thundered in the Hea∣vens, and the Highest gave his voice, hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea he sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them.

4. But there is also another more Mystical signification of Thunder; Prophecy or Revelation from God being signifi'd thereby, by way of al∣lusion to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Filia vocis, which is one kind of Prophecy. Such was that voice from Heaven testifying of our Saviour Christ, Matth. 3. 17. as also Joh. 12. 28. where the people that stood by said, It thundered. See Drusius upon the place. But besides this, Thunder has of it self a signifi∣cancy of Prophecy, the one being the Voice of Heaven, and called the voice of God, the other an Oracle from God.

But there is yet another sense that Thunder may be capable of; as, name∣ly, of some special and signal Promulgation of the Gospel to a people that has not yet either heard of it, assented to it, or rightly believed it; and this by an allusion to the Law given to the Israelites in Thunder and Light∣ning: not to say, with some respect to the manner of God's witnessing out of the clouds to his Son Christ, and declaring of him, in a voice of Thun∣der,

that he had glorifi'd him, and would glorifie him again. See Fire.

5. Time. That a Time and Times and half a Time in Daniel signifies three years and an half, we have the suffrage of Grotius, and indeed no In∣terpreters that I know dissent. But this Figure of speech is referrible to none of the Prophetick Schemes which I have set down, but is a mere Synecdoche Generis; as Hour is indeed a Synecdoche Speciei, when it is put for an indefinite short time, as it is sometimes. As 1 Thess. 2. 17. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, &c. The Greek has it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Also Philem. 15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou mightest enjoy him for ever. For a season is in the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

This use of an Hour in the ordinary style is, as I said, but a Synecdoche Speciei, but in the Prophetick style there is a Diorismus in it. But as for a Day when it is taken for a Year, it is an Icasmus, there being a Circuit of the Sun in each, and therefore they bear a similitude one to another. From whence it will follow that if one Day will stand for one Year, then in pro∣portion one Month of days will stand for Thirty years.

6. But that numbering by Months is appropriate to the works of Dark∣ness, as reflecting upon the Circuits of the Moon, which is the Governess of the Night, and numbering by the courses of the Sun appropriate to the works of Righteousness, is, as I have noted already, an observation of Mr. Mede's, and is exactly true in the Apocalyps: where the continuing of the Beast and the prophaning of the holy City by the Gentiles is reckoned by Months; but the Prophecy of the Witnesses; as also their undergoing that Martyrdom, and their lying unburied, by Days. The abode of the Woman in the Wilderness is also numbered by Days, and by a time and times and half a time; which, according to this curiosity of Appropriation, must of necessity signifie three Solar years and an half; of which not∣withstanding they fall short near twenty days. But Modicum nec curat Praetor nec Propheta is better here applied then as Grotius applies it. And hence it is demonstrable that there is a concealed or tacit latitude of twen∣ty years at least in these 1260 days, which are the same with a Time and Times and half a Time; and that the first measure may be an Icad. But because the Sixty sounds, and that is silent in this Number, it is not impro∣bable but an Hexecad might, if need were, be taken for the first measure or Divisor of 1260. But that 1260 days is a Diorismus, I have expresly taken notice of above.

7. Trees. That Trees according to their several bigness and procerity signifie several degrees of men, is plain from that of Zacharie, chap. 11. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy Cedars. Houl, O Firre-tree, for the Cedar is fallen, because all the mighty are spoiled. Houl, O ye Oaks of Basan, for the forest of the Vintage is come down. Those few words, All the mighty are spoiled, are a certain Key to the Parable, and shew that the Prophecy does not point at Trees, but Men: and there∣fore Vatablus and other Interpreters do interpret it accordingly. That Pro∣verbial Iambick,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

sounds to this sense; and the Onirocriticks of Nicephorus give a further and clearer suffrage thereto,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

And Achmetes, according to the doctrine of the Persians, Indians and Aegyptians, does largely insist upon these Iconisms, applying several sorts of Trees to several qualities of persons. See Onirocrit. cap. 151. Which yet he does more copiously and particularly cap. 200. And lastly, cap. 165. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. To which purpose he also speaks in the following Chapter.

Vintage. See Wine-press.

Water. That Waters may be the Hieroglyphick of Words and Speech, or of that Doctrine that is conveyed by them, appears from Prov. 18. 4. The words of a mans mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisedom as a flowing brook. Also chap. 15. 28. The heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. But never so bad as when it poureth out such speeches as tend to strife and contention, which is like the cutting a bank in the Sea and over-flowing all. Whence it is that the Wise man gives that wholesome advice, Leave off contention before it be meddled withall, for the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. See other significations of Water in River and in Sea.

8. White-clothing. By comparing Nicephorus with Astrampsychus. White-clothing should signifie that honour and chearfulness that arises from a mans innocency and integrity.

Astrampsychus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Nicephorus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

Achmetes, according to the sense of the Indians, c. 157. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And again, cap. 232. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 according to the sense of the Aegyptians and Persians. I need not adde what is said in the Apocalyps, That the White raiment is the Righteousness of the Saints.

9. Whore and Whoredom. That by Whoredom is signifi'd Idolatry, there are infinite Instances in the Old Testament. Exod. 34. 15. Lest thou make a Covenant with the inhabitants of the Land, and they goe a-whoring after their Gods, &c. Deut. 31. 16. This people will rise up and go a-whoring after the Gods of the strangers of the Land, &c. And Ezek. 6. 9. I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me, and with their eyes that go a-whoring after their Idols. That Idolatry therefore is compared to Whoredom is a plain case.

And truly the reason of this Icasmus is not obscure, since the people of God are his Spouse, and God calls himself their Husband. By which Fi∣gure is meant that the highest Joy of the Soul of man is by keeping her self in strict union with her God, and by being sincere in his Covenant; as also

that it is his duty to be so, and that that high act of Religion and devotio∣nal Love which is due to him should not in any measure be diverted upon another, but that the eye of our Mind should be wholly fixed upon him. This is the duty of every Rational Soul, whether she be in exterior Co∣venant with God or no. And therefore the very Idolatry of the Heathen in this regard is rightly called Whoredom, as it is in that first place of Exo∣dus which I cited. But when she is in external Covenant with God, and God becomes her Husband both jure and de facto, the Whoredom is double.

10. We see therefore the Analogie betwixt Whoredom and Idolatry. For as in Whoredom that special kind of passion and the proper effects thereof, which are due onely to a Legitimate Husband, are derived upon some other person; so in Idolatry that summity and flower of our Divinest affection, which is Religious Devotion and Adoration, with the outward signs thereof due to God alone, are discharged and exercised upon some Creature, whether Idols of wood and stone, or any other things which are not God. This is a fundamental reason of this frequent Iconism in Scripture.

To which you may adde some other few Resemblances. As the Provo∣cation of God's jealousie against them especially that be in an exteriour Covenant with him: The ornamental Pompousness in Idolatry, answering to the garishness of Whores and the pranking up themselves to allure their Paramours: The Pronity also and Propenseness to fall into this sin, it being even as natural to this corrupt condition of the Soul to dote on a visible Object of Worship, as for the Body to incline to the reaping of those joys it presages upon every inticing Object, did not an higher Law forbid it in both cases. To which you may further adde the Remorseles∣ness of Conscience which men easily fall into in both sins, they rowing down so easily with the stream, and their Animal nature being so much gratifi'd by them. Such is the way of the adulterous woman in both senses; She cateth and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. And, lastly, as the being engaged in whorish practices extinguishes that love and respect that is due to a Husband; so the being inveigled in Idolatrous worship does quite suffocate and dead that Divine sense whereby we enjoy God indeed and know our true duty to him, and relish those indispensable points of Obedience wherein we are really to honour him.

So deep and weighty a sense is there concealed under this one Prophe∣tick Iconism, Fornication or Whoredom. Which therefore seems to be so particularly affected in the Apocalyps, not onely by way of just reproach to the sin, but for the exquisiteness of signification, it so fully and so truly em∣blematizing the nature of Idolatry.

Wilderness. See Desart.

Winds. See Sea.

11. Wine-press. That a Wine-press is an Hieroglyphick of great pressure and Affliction, yea of effusion of bloud and great slaughter, the nature of the thing it self does witness, I mean, the pressing of the grapes till their bloud comes out, as it is called Deut. 32. 14. And accordingly Scri∣pture has made use of this Emblem, Lam. 1. 15. The Lord hath troden

under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me, he hath called an assem∣bly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath troden the Virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a Wine-press. And Joel 3. 12. Let the Hea∣then he awakened and come up to the Valley of Jehosaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the Heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the Har∣vest is ripe; come, get ye down, for the press is full, the fats over-flow, for their wickedness is great. This is understood of the great slaughter of the enemies of the Jews in the valley of Jehosaphat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Seventy render it.

12. But though this Iconism of the Wine-press signifie slaughter or an abundant effusion of bloud, yet we are to remember that death and slaughter it self does not always signifie Physically, but sometimes Morally. And for my part I do not question but that of Esay 63. [Who is this that cometh from Edom, with his died garments from Bosra, &c? and again, I have troden the Wine-press alone, and their bloud shall be sprinkled up∣on my garments] what ever other sense there is thereof, has some such Al∣legorical meaning as the Fathers have put upon it concerning Christ his spiritual Victories, as I shall have occasion to insist more largely upon in its due place.

13. Woman and Women. That Woman by a Prophetick Scheme sig∣nifies not one single Woman, but a Body Politick, I have already taken no∣tice. For I have heard a voice as of a Woman in travel—the voice of the Daughter of Sion, Jer. 4. 31. But this Scheme is so usual, that it is needless to insist upon Instances. Here Sion, that is, the Inhabitants of her, is called both Woman and Daughter. The second in a sense of delicacy and nobility, as if we should say in English, The Damosel Sion. But there is another sense of Daughter, which is conspicuous Ezek. 16. where he calls Jerusalem Harlot, v. 35. Wherefore, O Harlot, hear the word of the Lord, &c. And does in the process of the charge or complaint declare how Jerusalem with her Daughters was worse then her two Si∣sters, Sodom and Samaria, with their Daughters; who yet notwithstand∣ing, v. 45. are said to have loatbed their Husbands, that is to say, to have been Whores and to have committed Idolatry. A Metropolis therefore with the lesser Towns are Mother and Daughters, and consequently all Women; but if Idolatrous, such Women as it will defile them who joyn with them in publick worship.

But there is yet another sense of Woman, not Political, but more Physi∣cal and Cabbalistical, and that is, The life, sense and relish of this Body: This is a Woman that we must have a special care of being polluted by, through over-passionately closing with any of her suggestions, or over-deeply sym∣pathizing with or resenting of those pleasures she would allure us by, and so desix our desire upon her. For not Idolatry onely but all other Enormities arise in us from the listening to the false counsel of this domestick Eve.

14. Worship. That Worship or Adoration may be an Iconism of Sub∣jection, is plain from the nature of the Ceremonie it self; the bowing of the Body being a fit Symbol of submitting the Mind and Will to his power to whom we doe this homage. And that it does signifie thus in the Hebrew Idiom, is manifest from several Instances. But the very Symbol it self is

explained, Gen. 37. where the Sheafs of Joseph's brethren are said to make obeisance to Joseph's Sheaf, that is, to worship Joseph's Sheaf; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Your Sheafs worshipped my Sheaf. Whereupon his Brethren presently interpreting the Dream say unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or, Shalt thou indeed have do∣minion over us? that is to say, Shall we be your Subjects, or fall under your Dominion? So Esa. 45. 14. speaking of the subjection of the Aethi∣opians and Sabeans to King Cyrus, They shall come after thee, saith he, in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee. The Greek has it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, They shall worship thee. All which signifie sub∣mission and subjection to his Sovereignty. I will onely adde one place more, Gen. 27. the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob, Let people serve thee, and Nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. The word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in both places, and sig∣nifies obedience or subjection at large, as is manifest.

But suppose it had not that general signification of it self, but only denoted that part of the duty of subjection which is Worship or Incurvation, it might notwithstanding signifie thus largely, Stylo Prophetico, by a Diorismus.

World. See Heaven and Earth.

15. These be the chief Icastick terms that occur in the Prophetick style; which if they haply prove more in number then we shall have use for in this Discourse, yet I account my pains not improper in reference to what I have had occasion to treat of in my Mystery of Godliness, besides their desireable usefulness at large for understanding the chief Visions and Pro∣phecies in Scripture. And I hope I have made it appear, partly by this Al∣phabet of Iconisms, and partly by my Explication of those preceding Prophetick Schemes, That it is as easie a thing to render a Prophecy or Vi∣sion out of this Prophetick style into ordinary language, as it is to interpret one language by another; and That the difficulty of understanding Pro∣phecies is in a manner no greater, when once a man has taken notice of the settled meaning of the peculiar Icas•…•…s therein, then if they had been penn'd down in the vulgar speech, in which there are as frequent Homonymies of words as here there are of Iconisms; and That therefore it need be no re∣proach to any one that he endeavours to understand the Prophecies of Scri∣pture, more then the Histories thereof; Prophecy being nothing else but an Anticipatory History, and, when once fulfilled, as plain an History as that which was never prophesied of.

16. We will onely annex a few Rules concerning the Preference of one Interpretation of Prophecy before another, and then conclude.

The first Rule.

That Interpretation that keeps close to the approved Examples and Ana∣logie of the Prophetick style is to be preferred before such as are framed at pleasure according to the private phancy of the Interpreter.

The ground of this Rule is this, That besides that it is safer to follow an approved Example then to be destitute thereof, and wholly lean upon a mans private sense; the very style of the Prophets being as it were a peculiar language or dialect, there is a necessity of understanding things according to the meaning of their dialect or language, and not accor∣ding

to what it would sound in our own. Which is as fond and ridiculous, as if an English-man in hearing of Latin spoken, where the word Fur is oc∣casionally brought in, should think the Furre of an Alderman's Gown were meant; or at the sounding of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Greek should let his fancy presently fall into the dripping-pan. And yet as absonous and incongruous is it to interpret the Iconisms of the Prophets according to what conceits are either vulgar or peculiar to our selves. As if because Vices and Vertues are painted out in the figure of Women or Beasts, we should therefore ap∣ply that meaning to the Prophetick style; whenas they always signifie a Body Politick, even in that very Scheme where abstract Inscriptions are upon them: as Zech. 5. 7. where the Woman in the Epha is said to be Wickedness. By which Woman notwithstanding Vatablus understands the Ten Tribes revolted to Idolatry, and other Interpreters expound it to the same purpose. And so to interpret Hail of hardness of heart is like the interpreting of Latin or Greek by what they sound nearest in English. This is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Aristotle speaks, and quite to forget where we are or what we are about.

The second Rule.

That Interpretation that keeps one tenour of sense of the same words, in one and the same Vision especially, is to be preferred be∣fore that which varies backward and forward, and takes the same word in as many different senses as it occurs in different places of the Vision.

To be in many tales is accounted an infallible sign of a false story; and to vary the Interpretation of the same word in one and the same Vision, without any account or reason, is as great a demonstration of fraud and forcedness in the Interpretation, and that the Interpreter was biassed by some design or interest, and that he has done violence to the Text for his own advantage. As for example, If one should interpret that Iconism of a Beast, one while to signifie a Kingdom or Empire, an∣other while some single Person of that Empire, and then again some grand Vice thereof; were not this a mere botch in comparison of interpreting this Beast of such a Kingdom or Body Politick in every place of the Vision? I might instance in other such like shufflings, but this one intima∣tion shall suffice.

The third Rule.

That Interpretation that does concern the affairs of Religion and the Church of God, and is of the greatest use and serviceableness to us, is a more likely Interpretation and to be preferred before that which less respects us, but seems to make the Spirit of God to have predicted things with little or no reference to the usefulness of the Church.

The truth of this Rule appears not onely from the perpetual Exam∣ples of Prophecy, where it is rare to find any that do not respect the Church of God some way or other in a special manner, (for even the Riders of the red, black and pale Horses were as it were so many Scouts to inform the Church of the succeeding Periods of her affairs) but also from the reason of the thing it self. For if the number of Prophecies be not limited by this measure, what must be the bounds of them?

And if there be any beyond this, why are there not Prophecies of all Na∣tions and of their affairs without any reference to the Church?

The last Rule.

Those Interpretations are more likely to be true that are suggested to a Minde unprejudiced and unbiassed by any outward respects, then those that are made by such as the sense of Interest, worldly hopes or fears, or any feud or disgust may put a false biass upon, and make the judgement partial.

The truth of this Rule is plain at first sight, but I must confess the usefulness is more maimed and uncertain. For though it may be apparent enough in many cases, that an Interpreter is prejudiced by some of those waies I have intimated; yet because it is very hard to be assured of any mans being entirely free from prejudice, the application of the Rule will be found the more difficult. But where certain Demonstration will not reach, wary Conjecture may claim a right of succeeding in its place. Nor need we be over-solicitous concerning the force or use of this last Rule, it respecting the Interpreter more then the Interpretation, and arguing ra∣ther from the quality of the person then the solidity of the performance; which is better examined by the three foregoing Rules, and other firm Principles of Reason and Knowledge.

Notes

• Joh. 12. 28, 29.
• Prov. 17. 14.
• Prov. 30. •…•…0.
• Rev. 6.