The Accomplishment of the Prophecies, Title page – Table of contents
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES; OR THE THIRD BOOKE IN defense of the Catholicke faith, contained in the booke of the high & mighty KING IAMES. I. by the grace of God King of Great Brittaine and Ireland.
AGAINST THE ALLEGATIONS of R. Bellarmine; and F. N. Coëffeteau & other Doctors of the Romish Church: BY PETER DV MOVLIN Minister of the word of God in the Church of Paris.
Translated into English by I. HEATH, Fellow of New College in Oxford.
Printed at Oxford by Ioseph Barnes and are to be sold by Iohn Barnes dwelling neere Holborne Conduit. 1613.
THE PREFACE TO the Reader.
I wrote my two first bookes beeing diversly distracted, & my spirit surseized with feare, foresaw the dismal chaunce that is nowe come vponupon vsus. The seditious sermons, the impairing of a dutifull respect to the king, the cōmon reports that were spred abroad of his death, before his death, the encrease of the Iesuits, & by a consequent the establishment of their maxims, made many to suspect shrewdly, & it was no great praise to bee a prophet. We hauehave therefore foreseene, & foretold the future calamity that was like to betide vsus to our great losse, & spake more true in it, then we could wish to hauehave done; VponUpon the downefall of this so great a Prince many hauehave powred out the torrents of their eloquence, and hauehave bewailed him with so much art, that nature hath no more left to say. And to speak the truth wordes are too weak and feeble signes to expresse such a griefe; light afflictions speak, when the greater are dumbe, and with the vaile of silence cover that which cānot be vttered. O miserable age! The murdering therefore of kings will ere long turne into a custome; and the naturall respect that the French were wont to hauehave of their Soveraigne bee choaked by superstition. We see it to our great griefe. For whosoever shal hereafter take vpō him to attēpt the life his king, shal be vnderpropt by many examples, &, which is more, shall not want for rules: and if this growing evill be not by time prevented, it wil at last be held a punishment to raigne, & the coronation of our kings, shall be as it were a consecratiō of sacrifices markt out for the slaughter. For howbeit the singular wisedome, and vigilant care of our Queene his Maiesties spowse hath served vsus as a prop to sustaine our ruinous estate, yet may wee say that in him Fraunce hath lost the worthyest king it hath had these many yeares, and the manner of whose death is a fatall example, and a grand caveat to posterity.
This wound did so smart, that I coulde never get my fingers of from it, nor for a long time togither settle my selfe about finishing the remainder of this work. Griefe which of its owne nature is idle, is then so most especially, when the thing grieved at is past all remedy. Herevnto adde that this third booke, which entreats of the accomplishment of prophecies, togither with the interpretatiō of them, requires a more cō posed spirit then the two former did: For as God intending to reveale future events to his prophets, withdrew them aside, and carryed them either to the desert, or els to the sea shore, that so having pluckt them from amidst the presse, he might setle their mindes in a quiet repose; So thinke I, that to diue into their prophecies a man neede be free from all cares, & to partake of their rest, that he may partake of the cleerenesse of their spirit. And, indeed, what by reason of the publike griefe, the greatest part whereof hath fallen vponupon vsus, and what by reason of many interruptions, I had never dared to hauehave set vponupon this matter, had not the excellent spirit of the King of Great Brittaine enlightened me, and if in the vnfolding of these prophecies I had not been assisted by experience, which is the cause, that I hauehave more need of a memory herein, then any extraordinary revelation. God also, whom I here invoke to mine aide, wil by his spirit sharpen the dulnesse of mine, and as hee hath given this property to the sea-cards needle to stand firme in the most violent tempests, so is he able to giuegive his servants a piercing wit, and a setled minde amidst this confusion. He reveales his secrets to those which feare him, and makes them to vnderstand his will. Now that no man may accuse me of rashnesse herein, as though I did too curiously pry into after ages, or presumptuously gaue mine owne interpretations for rules; the reader shall do well to consider, that it is one thing to prophecy, another thing to speak of the fulfilling of prophecies: the one is done by revelation, the other by experience; for the one we need to be inspired from aboue, for the other we need nothing but a memory togither with some insight in the present times. The Prophets drew their prophecies from the counsell of God, but we finde the accomplishment of their prophecies in histories, by conferring the predictions with the events; for the predictions after the events become histories, and the promises performances.
This is the reason why his Maiestie of England saith (and that most truely) that the fathers of the first ages, spake of this matter but only by coniectures, wheras we speake of it by experience; For the prophecies which foretell of an evill to come, may easily be interpreted by those vponupon whom it is come. Even as the Iewes being led captiues into Babylon did easily vnderstande the prophecie of Ieremie; so Christians held vnderunder the second captivity of Babilon, may soone know the meaning of the prophecies in the Revelation, which foretell of it; I would to God we were not the interpreters of our owne miseries, and that we had not learn'd the meaning of these prophecies by experience. Which makes mee to wonder at our adversaries who to intangle this point the more, doe nothing but quote passages out of the fathers, whenas they speake only but by coniecture, or else say such things as our adversaries themselues do deride, & which experience hath confuted. Lactantius in the 25. chap. of his 7. booke saith that the world should not last aboue 200 yeares more at the most, and yet notwithstanding it is well neere 1300. yeares past since Lactantius wrote. Sulpitius Severus in the second booke of his history tels vsus that it was generally thought in his time that Nero was not dead, but that hee vvas cured of the vvounde that vvas given him, and that his wound being cured, he is reserved aliue for the last day, to the end that he may exercise the mysterie of iniquity. S. Austin in the 19. Chap. of the 20. book of the cittie of God, expounding S. Pauls prophecie, in the 2. Chap. of his 2. Epist. to the Thess. speakes thus, I confesse that I vnderstand no thing of all that which hee hath said; only I will relate the divers surmises of men, that I could ever heare of, or read vponupon this subiect; Then he alleages divers opinions, which he cals coniectures. Compare the booke of Antichrist fathered vponupon S. Austin, with the expositions of Andrew Archbishop of Cesarea, and Bedaes, and S. Ieromes Commentaries vponupon Daniell, & you shall see but little agreement between them. Wherefore the Iesuits writing vponupon this subiect are often times troubled about confuting the Fathers opinions. If we then speak with more certaintie thē they, it is not our sufficiency that is the cause thereof, but rather our misfortune to bee reserved till the last daies, that wee might see the execution of the plagues foretold in these prophecies.
This notwithstanding their praise remaines whole vntounto them stil: for he which expoundes prophecies not yet accomplished, ought to be more admired, if amōgst ten false expositions hee hit vponupon one or two true, then if after they were fulfilled hee should expound them all truly. Nowe the Fathers doe happily light vponupon the true meaning in many of these points, and bring divers expositions, which the experience of succeeding ages hath confirmed, which we will produce in their place.
But heere before wee venter vponupon this matter, the faithfull reader must bee advised to avoid two extreames; the one is, that he tie not himselfe too religiously to these things; the other, that he set not too little by them. As for the former, his Maiestie of England plainely affirmeth, that in this doctrine there are obscure things which he would not vrge as necessarie to salvation for every one. And that with good reason. For I am perswaded that in Christian religion, there is no one article of faith, which may be necessarie to salvatiō at one time, and yet not necessarie at another. Now all confesse that the vnderstanding of these prophecies was not necessary before they were fulfilled. It followes therefore that even after their accomplishment a man may bee saved without the knowledge of them. And I finde not that the reading of civill and ecclesiasticall histories is recommended vntounto vsus in the holy Scriptures as necessary to salvation. But so it is that partly out of them, partly out of the present evils, wee draw the meaning of these prophecies. The articles of the doctrine of salvation, are no prophecies, but Commandements, or simple and bare promises; or if it please any one to call the articles of the resurrection of the flesh, and of the life everlasting, by the names of prophecies; yet are they coucht in such cleere tearmes, that they hauehave no need of any interpretation. For God which hath covered future events with a thick darkenesse, doth propose the things simply necessary to salvation with great perspicuitie.
The other extremitie, which is the setting too little by these prophecies, hath no lesse danger. For as when the ruine of Ierusalem by Nabuchadnezar did fulfill the Prophecy of Ieremy: or when the birth of our Saviour, made the prophecies of Iacob, Esay, and Micheas, plaine, & perspicuous; if any one were so obstinate that he would not vnderstand these prophecies, hee had reiected the grace of God. So now adaies when God hath made vsus to see the accomplishment of matters foretold by Daniel, S. Paul, and S. Iohn, whosoever shall herevpon close his eies of set purpose, that man doth resist the wisdome of God, and frustrates the holy Ghost of his intēt, making (as much as lies in him) these prophecies to be vnprofitable. For God revealed these things to his Prophets and Apostles to no other end but to profit vsus. That so the deliverances, which they foretell of, taking effect, wee might not attribute it to our owne wisdome or force, but to his providence, and determination, which hee declared long before to his Prophets: as also that we might knowe, that these calamities, being foretold of, come not vponupon vsus by hap hazard, but by his fixt counsell, resolved vponupon from everlasting, and to the end that we might keepe our selues from being amongst the number of those vponupon whome he will powre out the vials of his wrath because of their vnbeliefe. For whosoever shall labour to prevent the iudgements of God denounced by his Prophets will never stile the studie of knowing thē, by the name of curiositie. But on the contrarie even as the faithfull which lived a little before the birth of our Saviour, comforted themselues vnderunder the Roman yoke by meditating vponupon the comming of Christ promised by his Prophets which they called, *Luc. 2.the cōsolatiō of Israel, so ought wee vnderunder this Romish bondage, which tyrannizeth over our consciences, comfort vp our selues by these prophecies, part of which being already finished, assure vsus that the rest too shall in their due time bee put in execution. Otherwise the reproach wherewith the Iewes were vpbraided by Ieremie shall also be cast in our teeth, to wit, *Ierem. 8.7that the Storke, the Turtle, the Crane and the Swallow knew their seasons, but the people of God knew not theirs. For hee iustly sends them to the schoole of beastes, that will not be schollars in the house of God. But if these prophecies be not necessary as articles of our faith, yet at the least are they necessarie as Gods forewarnings to vsus ward, which we cannot reiect without hurting our selues, & displeasing him. For is it no fault, trow we, if that after hee hath painted out the sonne of perdition vntounto vsus long time before his comming, we wil nor knowe him then when he is come, & whē we are within his clumbs? The holy Prophets, should they ever hauehave foreseen these evils so long time before hand, to the ende that we should not see them when they ariue? And if we demonstrate, that according to the predictions of the Prophets, that man of sinne must needes bee already come; what carelesnesse is it not to harken out his habitation, and not so much as vouchsafe to looke whether it may not be that we our selues serue him without thinking of it. I omit to tell how the vnderstā ding of these prophecies, are of great force to giuegive waight and authoritie to the Gospell. For the mysterie of godlinesse is made more cleere by beeing opposed to the mysterie of iniquitie. Because we are soon induced to beleeue that the Prophets are true in their doctrines, when wee finde by effect that they speake truth in their prophecies. We doe not therfore herein serue our owne curiositie, but the good of the Church, and the commandement of God. Let others read the events of things to come in the Starres, or study Chiromancy, or Meteoposcopie; the best Prognosticke that a man can hauehave, is the feare of God, & his word, the best booke of predictions, wherein God speakes, as if hee did stretch out his finger from heauen, and point out the See of Rome vntounto vsus, saying, behold her here of whō my Prophets spoke, & which I marked out vntounto you in my word.
It remaines that I speake of the subiect of this booke, & of the end that I proposed to my selfe therein. I doe not here dispute who that Antichrist should be, nor whether the Pope should be so called. And I refraine from doing this for two reasons, The one is, because I would not willingly contest about wordes, but rather tie my selfe to the things. For since all the fathers and our adversaries agree with vsus in this, that in the 2. Chap. of the 2. to the Thessal. and in the 13. of the Apocal. and other places, Antichrist is pointed out, it shall suffice if we search the meaning of these chapters. For if it be found that they speake of the Pope, the difficultie touching the name wil be taken away. We will make the propositions, let who so will drawe the conclusion. The other reason is, because this very name doth exasperate the simpler sort who thinking this an odious word, condemne the booke for the titles sake. They thinke that other controversies pricke his Holynesse at the throat, but that this cuts his wind pipe. To whose quaint stomacks, and impatient delicacie I thought good to fit my selfe at this time; being content only to shewe the meaning of these holy prophecies, and to confirme my expositiō with proofes: which I hope to deliver so cleerely, and make them so agreeable, that I am perswaded that hee which is resolved not to beleeue any of them, shall at the least wonder by what chaunce it coulde come to passe, that so many things foretold by Daniel, by S. Paul, & S. Iohn should all meete iointly together in one man. Or how they could draw a picture so like the Pope, and never thinke vponupon him.
Now, this being a difficult point, and a matter of importance, I must of necessitie (to handle it with order and care) speake a great deale more in it then Mounsieur Coeffeteau bindes mee to doe. For seeing hee doth but florish the matter over superficially being content to cast some light difficulties here and there in the way, it had beene impossible for mee to sound the depth of it in following him. Nevertheles he hath said nothing, to which I doe not answer, as it crosseth my course. God, of his mercy, fil vsus with his grace frō aboue, and after the accomplishment of these prophecies which threaten vsus, giuegive vsus the accomplishment of his promises.
A TABLE OF THE MATters contained in this third booke.
A Preface.
An exposition of the 4 first verses of the fourth Chapter, of the first Epistle to Timothie. Chap. 1.
An exposition of the second Chapter of the second to the Thessalonians. Chap. 2.
An exposition of the 12 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 3.
An exposition of the 13 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 4,
An exposition of the 14 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 5.
An exposition of the 17 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 6.
An exposition of the 18 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 7.
An exposition of the 7 Chapter of Daniel. Chap. 8.
An exposition of the 11 Chapter of the Revelation. Chap. 9.
The conclusion with the clozure of the king of Great Brittaines Preface. Cha. 10.