CHAP. 1.

BEing so extreamly necessitated after so manifold a manner, as first for the discharge of my conscience to God, and man; that woe is mee if like a fear­full or idle servant I should bury that simple talent; Secondly, for the vindication of my reputation, if I should sitdowne in silence, I might seeme to be an acces­sory to the false accusation of those that blast we with the most odious infamy of blaphemy (to deny the heavenly Trinity, and Jesus Christ to be our blessed Saviour,) and the truth of the sacred Canonicall Scriptures; Lastly, by my long and excessive indurance, being that I cannot pro­cure by the best friends I have, or of those that are appoin­ted by the Parliament, a Petition to be presented to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, to omit, that I cannot receive that small Annuity due into me out of Yorkshire, besides the false reports of injurious and ignorant persons, that I am not onely a most debosh'd, and desperate, but a distracted and mad man; which I hope will be a sufficient plea to indifferent judges for the publish­ing of my bonds. And I appeale to my Countrey and all good Christians, whether or no by so long imprisonment, without any allowance, or having a determinate hearing, [Page 1] notwithstanding above 100 Petitions printed and written to the House in generall, and the most eminent (and con­cerning members) I be not debarred of Christian, but of the liberty of a Subject contrary to Law, Ordinance of Parliament: equity and humanity. So that without a speedy remedy of such common continuate, and unheard of cruelties our ensuing end is like to be worse then that which we suffered in our late Civill Wars. For it is not the con­tinuance of our mock-fasts that will excuse, so long as our oppression continueth, Isa. 58. 5, 6. &c. yea, of such as con­clude their Fasts like that of January 28^th. 1645, at West­minster, with a consultation how to murther an innocent, and that after a most cruell (more then Heathenish manner without any legall hearing) much lesse laudable proceed­ing: (being not allowed of the Divines once to oppose, or yet to give an advised Answer by writing) Lord, lay not this to their charge, being but an intent (through igno­rance) which by Gods providence, and the more gracious of the Parlament was prevented.

For my discovery of two grand mysteries, viz. that anomious or lawlesse mystery, 2 Thess. 2. from the third to the thirteenth Verse, As also Revel. 17. 1, 5. and its opposite, Revel. 10. 7. the mystery of God, to wit, the Father and Creatour, 14. 17. For the better cleering of which misty mysteries, Imagine some great King like some of the old Persians, that would seldome or never be seen of the peo­ple, should send his sonne and heire fully acquainted with his will and pleasure, as his vicegerent plenipotentiary and prolocutor, whether the sonne being equivalent (to use that terme) in way of reference, John 14. 9. as 13. 20. 1 Thess. 2. 13. be in himself coequall to the King, for that (as) John 5. 23. is an Adverbe of like quality and not e­quality; this we know that God the Father is that invisi­ble and indivisible King, 1 Tim. 1. 17. 6. 15, 16. John 1. 18. 5. 37. 1 John 4. 12. and that the inauguration or anointing of our blessed Saviour was his baptisme, Matth. 3. 17. 4. 17. [Page 5] Acts 1. 22. 10, 37. which is therefore termed the beginning, viz. of his Gospel, Iohn 1. 1. 1 Iohn 1. 1. and that new creation, 2 Cor. 5. 17. so that Christ is to us both God and his Word, as Moses was to Aaron, and Aaron to him, Exod. 4. 16. not that a word is Christ, or Christ life ever­lasting, but in a figurative sence after a Scripture manner and meaning, according to the character of that beloved Apostle, as Erasmus observeth in his argument to his Epistles, and Hierome in his Preface to his Gospel sheweth that this Apostle had a speciall intent to confute Corinthus and the Ebionites that affirmed Christ to be but an ordina­ry man the sonne of Joseph, &c. this Apostle being the best Commentator of his own meaning; how Christ is said to be that visible God, as Isa. 40. 7. the word, Iohn 3. 34. yea, and palpable word, 1 Iohn 1. 1. life eternall, 5. 20. that Lambe of God, Iohn 1. 36. our Passeover, 1 Cor. 5. 7. the the rock 10. 4. David our King, Ezek. 34. 23. Hosea 3. 5. in them typicall predications, and the like, John 15. 1. Matth. 17. 12. Is. 1. 10. Revel. 11. 8. by a Metaphor, or Metonymy, as Perkins and Alsted in their Tracts of sacred Tropes; where Alsted expounds that 1 Cor. 15. 28. then shall the sonne also himself be subject, that is acknowled­ged to be.

CHAP. 2.

TO come to the Question whether Christ (after the doctrine of Athanasius in his Symbole) be coequal with the father? Wee know what charge the Apostle gi­veth, Gal. 1. 10. against such setters up of new Creeds with­out warranty, contrary to the first and great Commande­ment set forth by proclamation of the great King, expresly testifying not only his unity, Deut. 6. 4. Psal. 83. 18. 86. 10. Isa. 37. 16. &c. &c. &c. but also his supremacy and majo­rity, [Page 4] Psal. 13. 5, 5. Joh. 10. 29. 14. 28. Ephes. 1. 17. 4. 6. Luke 1. 32. John 17. 3. Mark 13. 32. in exclusive and su­perlative expressions: Of which see more, Mat 20. 23. 27, 46. Iohn 20. 17. Heb. 1. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 28. the son being te­nant in Capite, to God the Father, 1 Cor. 11. 3. both for his words, works, and honours, Iohn 3. 34. 5. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 17. and therefore not coequall, for without contradiction the lesse is dignified by the greater. Also God and Christ are distinguished, Iohn 14. 1. 1 Thess. 3. 11. it being an ob­servation of the learned Erasmus, that where God is put absolutely the Father is understood, as Iohn 8. 54. To come to the offices of Christ our Mediatour, 1 Tim. 2. 5. as a King, Acts 17. 31. Matth. 25. 34. as a Priest, Heb. 7. 24. of a Prophet, Deut, 18. 18. according to that most usuall epi­thite of his sanctification, the Son of man, denominations, being for the most part taken from the more worthy, so John 8. 40. Acts 2. 23. 13. 38. Rom. 5. 15. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Col. 1 15. Heb. 2. 16. 4. 15. 2. Esdras 13. 25, 32. which were to no purpose if the better part of his person were not man: there being but a graduall difference betwixt him and Moses and us, Heb. 3. 5, 6. 4. 15. Rom. 8. 17. there being not one such word, or any one text tending to that purpose in the whole holy Scriptures, but many to the contrary: If we have respect to the scope, coherence, analogy, and the originalls, in discerning figurative forms and phrases ac­cording to the sence and meaning, which is the spirit and life of the two Testaments, Revel. 11. 11. whereas the letter is but the corpes common as the high-way throughout Christendom. Wherefore to speak definitively of the heavenly Trinity. I beleeve the Father to be God him­self, as 1 Thess. 3. 11. expressed by these adjuncts, the God of heaven, Revel. 11. 13. the living God and Father, Joh. 6. 57. 69. and that the Son is our Messiah, 4. 26. whom God made Lord and Christ, Acts 2. 36. Prince and Saviour, 5. 31. And that the holy spirit is the very power of God, Luke 1. 35. 24, 49. as 1 Cor. 2. 11. or the Father God essen­tially, [Page 5] the Sonne vicentially, the holy Spirit potentially, or the Father God above all, Ephes. 4. 6. the Son of God with us, Matth. 1. 23. the holy Spirit God within us, 1 Cor. 2. 16. but for the Son to be coequall to the Father, or the ho­ly Spirit a distinct coequall person I cannot finde; and I be­leeve that these three are one, or agree and conspire in the substance of the same truth to salvation. See 1 Cor. 13. 13. 1 John 5. 8. of two Trinities without coequalls, or yet per­sons. Purchas Pilgrimage. Covert's Tra­vels. And that of three coequall persons to be but the Chappell of Rome, for the Church of Christ, and that which keepeth the rest of the World in the Popes pownd forth of his fold, both the Jews that beleeve the Old Te­stament, the Turk, and the Great Mogoll, &c. according to the dictate of common intelligence, not corrupt in this kind by a contrary habit, who cannot be brought to be­lieve in a Trinity implying Polytheosie, or Apotheosie, i. e. many gods or a man-god. So that the denying of a second Deity or Godhead is not destructive of faith, but onely removes it from false foundation to a true, that is God the Father by Christ Jesus, 2 Cor. 5. 19. 1 Pet. 5. 10. for that John 5. 18. was a misprision of the Jews proceeding from their ignorance, as may appeare, 10. 34, 35, 36, 37. by our Saviour his own Comment.

CHAP. 3.

TO answer objections of Scriptures wrested by that 1 third semipagan Century, and a prepossessed posterity; as in Gen. 1. 26. Let us make man, which in the next verse, also 5. 1, 2. six severall times; and Matth. 19. 4. Mark. 10. 6. is expounded in the singular number like that, Gen. 11. 7, 8. which were a contradiction, not an exposition, and that Elohim bara, the Gods made in the first Verse, a solecisme and not an Hebraisme, being a figurative consultation with [Page 4] his wisdom, or communication with the holy Angels by way of approbation, as 1 Kings 22. 19. Iob 1. 6. or enalla­ge of the plurall number for the singular, for the more ho­nour, Buxtorsii the­saur. 2. 10. as Iob 18. 2. Dan. 2. 36. Iohn 3. 11. as Kings write in the style of Majesty after the manner of the holy tongue,Drusius uno Elohim. see Gen. 24. 9. of Abraham his Masters, Iosh. 24. 19. hee is holy Gods, Is. 19. 4. 54. 5. &c▪ but to infer three coequal per­sons from thence, the person of Christ (according to the flesh) nor then existing is altogether inconsequent; of the like sort seems that to be, Eccles. 12. 1. if parents be not implyed.

2 For them high and glorious Epithites, Isa. 9. 6. of a man­child that was to be born, it is granted, they are very great and excellent, yet well beseeming our blessed Saviour, the founder and governour of his Church; of whose wonder­full birth and works wee have sufficient testimonies; being of his Fathers most intimate Counsell, a mighty God (not almighty God) above all appellative gods, 1 Cor. 8. 5. Revel. 1. 5. the everlasting Father, or of the Age to come, (as Ierome) eyther by way of Regeneration, and that by, an excellency or equivalency; as Iohn 14. 9. of whose go­vernment although there were a beginning, Heb. 10. 6. yet shall there be no enduring the term militant, or of morta­lity, 1 Cor. 15. 26. So that it is not a small thing for Christ to be so dignified by the Father, unlesse hee be deified and equallized with the Father, see Gen. 41. 43. Exod. 34. 14. 1 Sam. 18. 23. Ester 6. 9. as Is. 49. 6.

3 That Jer. 23. 6. is but an argument from the name for some relation to God, as Gen. 22. 14. Exod. 17. 15. Judg 6. 24. 2 Sam. 6. 2. as it may appeare, 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 21. unlesse wee would make Iehovahim gods in the plurall, which were dissonant to that incommunicable name.

4 That Zach. 13. 7. speaketh of a sociall and not a coequall party, as Iudg. 18. 20. Acts 15. 28. God and Christ con­curring as sociall causes, to wit, primary efficient, and prin­cipall instrument in the businesse of salvation, Iohn 6. 44. 14 6. 1 Iohn 1. 3, 6.

CHAP. 4.

THat John 2. 29. is an Enallage of the active for the pas­sive,1 and is spoken declaratively, as 20. 23. Levit. 13. and 14. &c. of the Priest clensing the Leper, like that, Gen. 41. 13. by the divine power wherewith God endowed him, John 5. 2, 9 there being so many testimonies to that purpose, Acts 2. 24. 13. 31. Rom. 4. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 14. Gal. 1. 1. Ephes. 1. 20. Col. 2. 12. 1 Thess. 1. 1. with Heb. 13 10. &c.

That Acts 20. 28.in some Translations is with that pe­culiar bloud,2 and not Gods own bloud which is absurd.

That Rom. 9. and 5^th. is spoken of Christ, as he was an Israelite by kinde, with the like clause to that, Rom. 1. 25.3 2 Cor. 11. 31.

That Philip. 2. 6. should be tooke not upon him the e­quality 4 of a God, Lord or Master, as Posselius and Pusor shew; the Apostle exhorting them by the example of Christ, who being in a twofold form, as John 13. 13. Gal. 4. 1. took upon him the form of a servant, wherefore God hath high­ly exalted him, as Verse 9^th. so that John 20. 28. is as much as Lord and Master, like Elohim and Adonim, for the truth of Christs resurrection was that which Thomas doubted, and not his Deity.

That John 8. 58. of Christ his being before Abraham, is 5 to be understood in place and dignity, as Verse 53. and not time (as appeareth) by circumstance 57: like that 1. 15, 30. of the Baptist.

That 1 John 5. 7, 8. be the same in effect, like that,6 Mar. 10. 8.Sixtinus Ama­ma Gram. an­not. one by conspiration, or conjugation, not indi­viduation, as 1 Cor. 6. 17. John 17. 21. Acts 4. 32. Heb. 2. 11. Jer. 32. 39. otherways we should confound the Trini­ty by such an Unity.

[Page 8] 7 That John 17. 5. is a Scripture Prolepsis, in regard of divine anticipation; as may be gathered from that 13. 31, 33. Luke 24. 26. according to Revel. 13. 8. so Jer. 1. 5. in regard of Gods sore-knowledge and decree; Acts 2. 23. Gal. 1. 15. Ephes. 1. 4, 3. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 9.

8 That 1 Pet. 3. 19. is understood of Noe as in the next Verse, who by the same spirit (1 Cor. 12. 4.) preached whiles the Ark was in preparing; before Christ began to preach, Mat. 4. 17.

9 That Christ in the Revelation is called Alpha and Ome­ga, so is the Angell, 22. 13. it being usuall to attribute that to the ministeriall cause, which is proper to the primary, Gen. 22. 15, 16, 18. 17. Exod. 3. 6. 7. Judg. 2. 1. Josh. 1. 11. 15. 2 Esdras 7. 3.

10 For that which some contend, the first Chapter to the Hebrews to be of the some, they are to observe the mani­fold transitions; as first of the Father, 2, 3, 4. of the Son, 5, 6, 7. of the Angels; 8. to the sonne; 9, 10, 11, 12. to the Fa­ther according to the 102 Psalme in which not a word of the Son; 13, 14 of the Angels again; so that in the sixth Verse is understood of a secondary and not supreme wor­ship like a shadow to the person it belongeth to, 1 Chron. 29. 20. so that inference of the whole first Chapter to the Hebrews, is a fallacy from a part to the whole.

11 That John 1. 3. All things were made by him, is not meant of this materiall world, as appeareth by the 10 verse, but according to the subject intended, the new creation, 2 Cor. 5. 17. according to that, Heb. 1. 2. which ought to be ages, and not worlds, see 2. 5. concerning spirituall and eternall things, as 2 Cor. 4. 8. Col. 1. 16.

12 That Christ is said to be our Saviour, we may read the like of others respectively in their kinde, Judg. 3. 9. 15. Isa. 19. 20.

13 That Pro. 8. 11, only argues that Gods wisdome was alwayes present with him, and doth infer his holy spirit, [Page 9] ler. 10. 12. Iob 33. 3. as Wisd. 7. 25. to which actions are attributed, Prov. 8. 1. by a Prosopopie of a person, as Psal. 85. 10▪ 11.

That Trifagie, Isa. 6. 3. is a reduplication expressing the 14 excesse of the action or affection, as 2 Sam. 18. 33. Prov. 31. 2. Deut. 13. 14. Wherefore let us labour to reconcile Scripture by Scripture, and by no means admit of an absurd sense.

CHAP. 5.

THat which is objected that Christ were not a suffici­ent satisfaction if he were not equall to the Father; is dissonant from the condition of remunerative justice consisting in a Geometricall proportion of acceptance by the partie offended, the party offended being sinfull man, besides that inferreth imminution to Christ his most pre­tious blood, Mat. 26. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 10. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 19. Revel. 12. 11. Iohn 15. 3.

For a corollary I will conclude with that, Exod. 34. 14. Because the Lord whose name is Zealous, is a zealous God, and will not give his glory to another. as Isa. 48. 11. having no equall in heaven, as Psal. 89. 6. Isa. 48. 11. for to add or substract to and from equals, maketh them unequall, equals agreeing in the same common measure, as Revel. 21. 16. So that if Christ be equall to the Father, as touching his Godhead he is so much more by the addition of his man­hood, which I now doe more then suspect to be that 2 Thes. 2. 4. of that Catholike professor in a Romish sense, according to the Originall at Thessalonia, Hist. Tripart. 9. 7. and if this, that, and another person, be equally God, Almighty, Eternall, &c. (three ones make three, as well in the greatest persons as least parts, also if the Son be from [Page 10] the Father, and the holy Spirit from both by a personall generation and procession, there must needs follow a Hysteren proteron in the Deity, to say that from God to na­turals is inconsequent, it is to be noted that for particular respects, God having a voluntary agent, and that infinite, doth whatsoever he pleaseth, even beyond ordinary means, yet in generall respects, there is good consequence to and from God, with naturals observing the distance that is due to his Majesty, as Malac. 1. 6. Mat. 5. 48. 7. 11. Where­fore to make Christ coequall to his Father, is to mak ano­ther or a false Christ▪ or (to deal plainly with friends) an Idoll Christ, or two Gods (as much as in us lyeth) the great indignity to his imparalleld Father, which the indignation of his most pious Son, in wounding the Father through his sides, and I feare that which we now, and others hereafter shall suffer for, as Revel. 6. 16, 17. for as it is high Treason to equallize even the Kings Sonne, with the King himselfe, so it is high blasphemy to equallize the first borne of every creature, Col. 1. 15. with the Creator himselfe, Rom. 1. 25. and I suppose that blasphemy of the Beast, with seven heads and ten hornes, Revel. 13. 1, 3, 5, &c. and that my­stery of iniquity written in the forehead of the G. Whore, 17. 5. diametrally opposite to that of the Fathers name, written in the forehead of the 144000, 14, 1, 7, 7, 3, &c.

As for that common evasion, applyed to Christ as he is God, and as he is man, it is contrary both to reason and Scripture, to limitate by so great a disparity, as Hos. 11. 9. for I am God and not man, Isa. 31. 3. 40. 17. implying contradiction, as he is, and as he is not, and is but a pre­sumptuous begging of that which is in question, and if it be illogicall to limitate by a superiour, or subordinate (as the Pope errs, not as he is Pope, but as he is man) it is much more absurd to limitate by a disparate, and that of infinite disparity, to omit that Luke 2. 40. the grace of God was with him, and Act. 10. 38. for God was with him, which [Page 11] were an idle tautalogie if he were God, onely he is called God by a metaphor, as Gabriell a man, Dan. 9. 21. and Judas a devill, Iohn 6. 70.

CHAP. 6.

THus we may perceive how by iniquity of time the re­all truth of God hath been trodden under foot by a verball kinde of Divinity, introduced by the Semi­pagan Christians of the third Century in the Western Church, immediately upon the ceasing of the Heathenish Emperours, who for their open hostility were likened to a Lyon, 2 Tim. 4. 17. as their successors to a Dragon, for their serpentine subtilties, continuing 1260 years, begun by the first Nicen Councill about 328, and made Catholike by the Imperiall decree at Thessalonica, 342, Hist. Tripart. 9. 7. but that prescription is no plea against God, and God be thanked, the time of this generall Apostasie is expired, the mystery discovered, and the unity of God, Zach. 14. 9. come upon the stage, Covenant. The second particular, that I cannot forbeate but to cry out with the people, it is fallen, it is fallen, Babylon the great, whiles I perceive that first resurrection from Antichristian errour, as Napier, and the calling of the Jews comming so fast on, Rom. 11. 15, &c. to make one sheepfold, Joh. 10. 16. Wherefore to make the G. Whore stigmaticall, first, by her brand in the forehead, Reveal. 17. 5. by that which is in the very frontis­piece of all the Catholiks Confessions concerning the Tri­nity. Secondly, by prescription (or marke in her hand) thereunto Revel. 13. 16. Thirdly, by her seat and place notorious, by seven hils, and ten Kingdoms, 17. 9. Fourth­ly, by that so well known name Latemos, 13. 18. as Moulin in his accomplishment of Prophecies. Fifthly, by her [Page 12] persecution of the Saints, 12, 13, 7, 17. 6. Dan. 17. 11. Sixt­ly, by a heathenish Polytheosie of many Gods, and Apo­theosie of a man-God. Seventhly, by her Tricotomy of the three Catholike professions, Revel. 16. 19. holding with the Whore in tail generall.

CHAP. 7.

HOwsoever Constantine by Gods providence was or­dained for ceasing the heathenish persecutions, yet had he no commission for setting up a new religion of redivived Ethnicisme, as Mede, Revel. 11. 3. in imitation of the three sons of Saturne, their three major Gods; the deifying of Hercules, Augustus, &c. their Heroes; in forcing some more difficult and figurative texts to confirme their inven­tions; whereas that which is most plain, common and commanded is the measure of that which is more difficult and obscure; for which cause they are termed Gentiles in the Revelation; and the true beleevers Jews. To passe by the reports of Zosimus concerning the conversion of Constan­tine; we may observe by those, Iudges 8. 27. 2 Sam. 17. 23. 1 Kings 1. 5. 12. 28. Ier. 44. 17. how Kings, Captains, and Counsellores, (albeit renowmed) are not presidents for Religion more the meaner men, as 1 Cor. 1. 27. 2, 6. so that such servile cattell and men-admirers for advantage, Iude 10. are the very bain of all ingenuity and Christianity.

CHAP. 8.

TO come to the first Nicen Council (the Load-star of the three following); besides that humane Councils are [Page 13] but externall and accidentall means of truth; it was falsi­fied by Sozimus the Civilian concerning the point of Pri­macy; and is generally condemned for there-baptization of the Cataphrygians; their three and ten yeares penance; that men should pray rather standing then kneeling; and is reproved by Hierome, for equallizing the History of Iu­dith with the holy Canon, besides that divers of the best learned of them dissented from the rest and major part, according to that Exod. 23. 2. also Calvine could not endure that very God of very God in their Creed; for God being a most pure act, a begotten God (to speak properly) is a most grosse contradiction: And that begotten not made, contrary to that, Rom. 1. 3. Gal. 4. 4. generation being pro­per to living and mortall creatures for continuance of their kind; thus by going forth of mens buildings or systemes, as 2 Esdras 10. 54. transported by some good Angell into the Wildernesse, as Revel. 17. 3. I got a glympse not onely of the G. Whore, but of the Spouse of Christ, 12. 6. 21. 9. which things although they may seeme strange and new, the reason resides in the abolishing of an old errour, see Zech. 14. 7. &c. Isa. 30. 26. 2 Esdras 5. 4, 6. 22. For my­steries they are either of things more hard to be understood as parables not expounded, Matth. 13. 11. prophesies not fulfilled, Ephes 3. 3, 4. godlinesse to a sensuall worldly and wicked man, 1 Cor. 2. 14. or that cannot be understood, as meerlyes in believing things that are not, especially ex­presse contradictions concerning the unity and supremacy of God, as 2 Thess. 2. 11. Revel. 22. 15. For to multiply the Deity, or detract from its unity is blasphemy, as all the Doctors define.

CHAP. 9.

BUt me thinks I smell a Fox or rather a Wolfe, in the Fa­ble, and unlesse the Lord put to his helping hand of the Magistrate, for the manacling of Satan in that persecuting power, Revel. 20. 2. there is little hope either for the liber­ty of the Subject, or Law of God amongst us, Psal. 119. 126. so this wo will not depart untill it rest in a poor and ter­rified remnant, as Revel. 11. 13. And I cannot understand what detriment could redound either to Church or Com­mon wealth by the toleration of religious, not antipoliticall, but rather benefit, as we see by example in Holland and Poland.

CHAP. 10.

FOr that which was objected concerning Arrius his formidable end, it is rather an argument of his equivo­call perjury, &c. Hist. Tripart, 3. 10. like Ananias and Saphira, Act. 5. or Judas 1. 18. then of the cause: As for that which is commonly answered, that God is not divided but distingoished into three equall persons, is as much as if they had not a reall, but only a relative or rationall being or existence, as if essence and existence differed in God, or in any thing whose kind consists in one individuall: for hy­postaticall union and communion of properties, they are but reall contradictions, and the froglike croaking of the Dragon, the beast and false Prophet, Revel. 16. 13. by ver­tue of a Hocus Pocus and a Babylonian mouth, thus after the precipice of this Romish Jezabel, and the death of her two daughters, Homousia and Symousia like Aholah, [Page 15] and Aholibah, Ezech. 23. I perceive how the Western Sun declineth to its period and setting: And as for that third Reformation which succeeded the Calvinian upon the Turkish Territories more remote from the Romish tyran­ny, especially, about Anno 1560, in Transilvania, Litua­nia, Livonia, and Polonia, wee cannot expect to be com­pleat before the revolution to the East (where it first began) Revel. 7. 9, 9. 14, 16. 12. (there being 12 Bishops successively at Antioch, unto the yeer 400,More's Chro­noll. Magde­burgs Hist. Antioch being the Me­tropolis of Syria, (famous for that, Acts 11. 6; and the ten Persecutions, bounded on the East by Euphrates.

CHAP. 11.

AS for presumption, to professe that which God com­mands, yea, that first and great Commandement I a­ver it to be none, Deut. 18, 20. and the son of Syrach 3. 23. 5. 10. be it opposed by never so many, or great; Numb. 14. 44. 16. 2. or never so glorious titles of the orthodox Ni­cene Fathers, and the Pope his Holinesse, for that Iob 32. 22. therefore, howsoever some object that it is damnable to beleeve no more then what we can comprehend, as Iob 11. 7. yet let them consider that in the precepts necessary to sal­vation, we are to beleeve what we may apprehend accord­ing to our best understanding, Mark 12. 33. Ier. 9. 24. this I say to the shame of such as shut their eyes against the most illustrious and authenticall testimonies of all or the most memorable and approved times, places, and persons; hardly to be brought that ever they had greater grand Fa­thers, &c. not allowing any more of authentick and clas­sick testimonies, then the most vain and improbable tradi­tions amongst men; nor to beleeve the Histories of Mo­ses, Christ, &c. because they had not the happy houre of [Page 16] S^t. Thomas, or others to be seeing, and sensible witnesses, as Iohn 20. 27. 1 Iohn 1. 1.

The Lord God of his most gracious goodnesse grant, that the more able and ingenuous, like true and trusty soul­diers of Jesus Christ, whose eyes the God of this world hath not blinded; would do their utmost endevour to re­duce the rest from that long captivity of our spirituall Ba­bylon, under that Man of sin; and that God would prosper their endevours that are studious of the sincere Truth; and strive for the same to death, as the son of Syrach, 4. 28; and defend justice for their life, to the exaltation of their Nation, as Prov. 14. 34; that releeve the oppres­sed, &c. as Isa. 1. 7; that so wee may enjoy the good things of the Land.