Works, Book 4 · Letter 17 – Letter 19
EPISTLE XVII.
Mr. Mede's Answer to Doctor Twisse his Second Letter, concerning the two Wars of the Beast against the Witnesses, as also of the manner of the Iews Conversion.
SIR,
I Owe an answer to your Letter, though I can scarce find time to attend it. Some I have now gotten, and therefore desire you to vouchsafe to read and accept these few lines.
The Apocalyps mentions two Wars of the Beast: one to be in medio Testium luctu, during the time of the Witnesses mourning-prophecy; another when the Witnesses began to make an end of mourning. The first, while the Court of the Temple was wholly troden down and prophaned by the Gentiles: the latter, when it began to be purged, and so the cause of the Witnesses mourning to be removed. In these two Wars we may observe in the description these differences. First, The intermedium bellum is said to be against the whole Body of the Saints, Chap. 13. ver. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the Saints, and overcome them: But the Bellum novissimum or last War is against the Prophets or Witnesses only: The Beast which ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war with the Witnesses, and overcome and kill them, Chap. 11. v. 7. This difference is remarkable and to be considered for the better understanding of this last War, and how it differs from that formerly against the Waldenses, &c. Secondly, In the former his prevailing and success is absolute, so that all kindreds, tongues and nations submit unto him, and worship him, Ch. 13. v. 7, 8. But in the latter some of the people *Chap. 11. 9.[foreign, &c] and of the kindreds and tongues and nations shall be an obstacle to the perfecting and securing his victory, as not suffering him when he shall have slain the Witnesses to bury them and make them sure, in hope to recover them. Thirdly, The first prevailed many ages; this latter but three days and an half. Adde, if you well, (though it be included in the former) the first advanced his Dominion to that height it came to; this latter shall occasion his utter ruine and downfal.
These differences I thought good to propound to your consideration, to intimate that the seantling of this last War cannot be well taken from that against the Waldenses and Albegenses, &c. as being to be of another kind; namely, an extermination of the Reformed Pastors out of their places and Churches, and not a general extermination of the Body of the Reformed people, which are too many to be dealt with according to former violence, and shall remain to terrifie the Beast, and revenge the Clades of their Prophets before almost they shall have done rejoycing over them.
FOR my conceit of the manner of the Iews Conversion; though it often solicits me to give credence to it, as best becoming the greatest work that ever God yet did for that people, for whom in former times he shewed so many wonders: yet I will ingeniously confess, the grounds I have hitherto found seem not to my self sufficient to build a firm assent upon; but only by a kind of concinnity induce to a pleasing, but a wavering, conjecture. And therefore it were to little purpose to contend much for that wherein my self have no sufficient confidence. I use to object to my self, That the appearing of Christ in heaven belongs to the time of his Second coming: But the Iews must be converted before then, lest they all should perish amongst the enemies of his Kingdom, whereof they would be the principal. I salve it with a supposition of some latitude in that appearance, as being first to be ushered with some preparation or praeludium towards the Iewish Nation, before his great and universal Appearing to the whole world to judgement. So Cestius Gallus, the President of Syria, compassed Ierusalem with an Army, by way of anticipation, three years before the final and fatal siege by Vespasian, to be for a warning to the believing Iews, to flee into the mountains of Arabia, according to our Saviour's sign given them, Luk, 21. ver. 20.
For strengthening of such a supposition, methinks I discern in S. Malthew, (the Hebrew Evangelist) Chap. 24. v. 30. two such Appearances intimated: The one in the words, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and all the Tribes of the earth shall mourn, (out of Zach. 12. v. 10, 11, 12.) The other in the words following, And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, (out of Dan. 7.) But here I find a rub, which I cannot yet get over: For this appearing of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, as well as his coming in the clouds with great glory, is said to be*Matt. 24. 29. immediately after the tribulation of those days; that is, (as I am wont to expound it) soon after the long tribulation of the Iewish Nation shall be ended: But their tribulation shall not end till they be converted: Ergo their Conversion must needs precede the sign of the Son of man in heaven there mentioned. Here I stick.
But your Objections I think I could answer thus. As first, to that of the Iews Conversion to be wrought by the taking away the veil from their hearts, 2 Cor. 3. I could answer, That that is the Internal cause of their Conversion, or, if you will, the act of the Spirit of God illuminating and converting them; as he that takes away the film from the eyes of him that sees not, or the hood from him that is hoodwinkt, does by that act make him see: But I speak of the External cause or means of the Iews Conversion, such as in the ordinary administration of God is the preaching of the Word; but extraordinarily may be by Miracle, as was in the Conversion of Paul, who nevertheless had the Mosaical veil taken from his heart, as well as the rest of his Nation when they are converted shall have.
But by the way, because you mention that place Luk. 7. 47. give me leave to add, That foreign signifies in Scripture not only*Because. Quia or quoniam, but also the redditive thereto, which is*Therefore. Ideo, propterea; because namely the Hebrew particle foreign to which foreign answers, signifies both: as appears Psal. 116. v. 10. compared with 2 Cor. 4. 13. ubi foreign in Hebraeo à Paulo exponitur foreign. And Gen. 22. 17. item Eccles. 8. 6. See our English. In both which places foreign is both the causal Quoniam, and the redditive thereto Ideo. Now the Scripture is wont to extend the Greek words it useth unto the full notion of the Hebrew or Chaldee to which they answer, (as may be proved by many Examples) though in the Greeks use they signified not so. This Dialect is called Lingua Hellenistica, (spoken by the Hellenists or Greekish Iews which lived dispersed under the Greek Empire) whose property is to accommodate verba Graeca notioni Orientis: But no such ground can be shewn (I think) for foreign quando, to signifie the redditive tunc.
To your other Objection, How such a Vision could be manifested to the Iews dispersed in several parts of the world; I could answer, That a Vision or Apparition in Heaven may be seen to the greatest part of the world at the same time (as Stars and Comets are:) how else shall the Appearing of our Saviour in the clouds of Heaven,Or I could say, This apparition might be vouchsafed to some chief ones of them, whom God should chuse; and they as wi…nesses make it known to the rest. at his coming to Iudgment, be seen at once to so many Nations of the world?
But here is one thing more considerable from the miraculous Conversion of S. Paul, upon supposal that that of the Iews may be like it; viz. That though many were present with S. Paul at that time, yet none saw the apparition of Christ, nor heard him speak, but Paul alone, for whose sake he appeared. The rest saw indeed a strange light, and heard the voice of Paul replying and answering, but they heard not the voice, nor saw any that spake unto him; which therefore made them astonished. Compare Acts 9. 7. (where it is said, They heard Paul's voice) with Acts 22. 9. (where it is said, They heard not the voice of him that spake unto him.) And take heed here of some of our English Bibles, which have put in a [not] where it should not be, as they have done the like in other places. Fie upon such careless Printers. But to the matter; What if the like be at the Iews Conversion, to wit, that they alone shall see and hear the voice of Christ, but none of the Gentiles amongst whom they dwell, though perhaps some strange light for a testimony may at that instant surprise the whole world, to the astonishment of the Nations therein? Consider that of Matt. 24. 27. and the places of the other Evangelists answering thereto.
And what if the Iews upon such an apparition may have, as S. Paul had, an Ananias too, or (as they expect) an Elias, to instruct them? So you know the ancient Christian Church believed, from Mal. 4. 5. Mat. 17. 11. Ecclus. 48. 10. For though the Fathers as well as the Iews might erre concerning the person and circumstances of this Elias, yet it follows not presently but the substance of the opinion might be true. But I will not discover all my roving Speculations, unless I had better ground for them; lest perhaps I should make you more than wonder at me. Howsoever it be, I suppose it is no sin to conceive magnificè and foreign of so great a work of God towards a people for whom he hath formerly shewed so many wonders; especially this being to be the greatest work of mercy and wonder that ever he did for them; far beyond the bringing them forth of AEgypt and leading them in the wilderness, &c. Consider it.
Besides, it may be there is a precedent already extant: Sure I am, when I had entertained this conceit into my meditation, I was led by I know not what providence (as I was searching some other matter) to find an History of the greatest multitude of Iews that ever, I think, were converted since the Apostles times, to have been convinced by such a miraculous apparition in every respect as I had apprehended.
The Story (if it be true) happened about some 570 years after Christ,A remarkable story of a great conversion of Iews wrought by Christ's apparition and voice from heaven. in the daies of Iustinus the Greek Emperor, (though Bigneus puts it a hundred years before) in the kingdom of the Omerites (some write Homerites) in Arabia Felix: where the Iews in those parts (being a strong party) had challenged to a publick Disputation a Christian City and Kingdom in that Tract, upon condition that if they could not convince the Christians by strength of Reason and Scripture, they would become Christians; if they could, they required the Christians should turn Iews.
The Disputation was performed for three days together sub dio, in a full assembly of the King, his Peers and people, between Gregentius Bishop of Tephra, and Herbanus champion for the Iews who were there assembled with him. The third day Herbanus required to end the controversie, that if Iesus of Nazareth were indeed living and reigning in Heaven, and if those who worshipped him had any power with him, that he would upon their prayers manifest himself from Heaven, and they would then believe in him. Thereupon all the multitude of Iews cried out in derision, Ostende nobis Christum tuum. Vae! quia fiemus Christiani, &c.
The conclusion was, that Christ Iesus, after a dreadful Thunder and Lightning, appeared from Heaven with beams of glory, walking upon a purple cloud, with a Sword in his hand, and a Diadem of inestimable beauty upon his head, and over the Assembly uttered a voice, Appareo vobis in oculis vestris ego crucifixus à Patribus vestris. Which having spoken, the cloud took him presently out of their sight. The Christians shouted, Domine, miserere; the Iews were all stricken blind, and received not their sight till they were all baptized.
This Story (whereof I tell you but the brief) hath been long unknown to these Western parts, and was brought in our time from the Eastern among divers other Greek Manuscripts, and published in Greek and Latin by Nicolaus Gulonius in octavo, under the name of Gregentii Archiepiscopi Tephrensis Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo. The beginning is imperfect: In the end is the Story I have related. I have seen and used that Book, but could not be owner of it. But the Latin translation is inserted into the Bibliotheca Patrum of the edition of Colen, in the fifth Tome, pag. 919. which if you read, I could wish you would joyn with it the Story of the Martyrium Omeritarum published by Baronius out of a Vatican Manuscript, in his sixth Seculum about the middle. It is worthy your reading, and supposed to have happened a little before this Conversion of the Iews I speak of: which Baronius nevertheless then knew not of, as being published after he had written that Tome. The Persecution was raised by Dunaan a Iew, who had gotten the Kingdom of the Omerites, and meant to extinguish the Christian City and Dition of Nargan, which was subject, as many other small Reguli were, to that Kingdom, &c.
If this Story be true, it makes much for a probability of such a conjecture for the future. If it be counterfeit, at least it argues that some, many ages ago, thought such a mean not unlikely: For Poets themselves are wont to feign Verisimilia. So howsoever, I am not the first that thought of such a matter.
That which you say of S. Paul's miraculous Conversion, that by it he had Apostolical authority immediate and independent, as having his Mission from Heaven, and not from Men; I acknowledge it. But that this should be the only end of his so being converted, I suppose it is not necessary. For it might have pleased God to have converted him by an ordinary mean, and yet have given him a Mission for his Apostleship by an immediate and extraordinary way. The immediateness of Apostolical Mission depended not upon such a miraculous Conversion, though it pleased God at one and the same time, by one and the same miraculous manifestation, both to convert him to the Faith of Christ, and send him to be an Apostle to the Gentiles.
But it is now time to give over. I have been tedious and troublesome, I know, and perhaps not well busied in spending so many words and paper about a wavering and uncertain Speculation. But because in my first Letter I had unawares discovered my fancy, I was somewhat solicitous till I had more fully explained my self, lest I might seem to believe much upon very little reason, or be supposed to be more confident in this conceit than I am. But he that seeks for that which is yet to find, must be poring as well where it is not as where it is. God Almighty, the Father of Lights, direct us in the search of his Truth, and give us grace, when we find it, to use it to his Glory and our own Salvation. To whose protection I commend your self, not forgetting my best respect, who am
Your assured Friend, Ioseph Mede. Christ's Colledge, Decemb. 2. 1629.
I shall bid you farewel for this year, and write shorter Letters the next, that so I may hold out. I have made a saltus in my Meditations by these Discourses of the Great Day. I am not come to it yet: I have much to think of, and bring to more perfection, which is preceding to it; The Witnesses, Dragon, Beast, &c.
EPISTLE XVIII.
Mr. Mason's Letter to Mr. Mede, touching the Millenaries.
Good Mr. Mede,
I Think my self much indebted unto you, that you do so freely communicate unto me your learned Writings. I wish I had been more conversant in studies of this nature, that I might in some sort be able to talk with you in your own language. But you have had the happiness to follow these studies with good leisure and much opportunity; and I (to say nothing of other wants) have been hindred both with businesses of my place and weakness of my body, that I have scarce had time to think on any thing but what hath been necessary for my present imployment; and so it happeneth to me in my studies as to poor men in getting of their living, we have nothing but from hand to mouth. The consciousness of these wants maketh me to write so seldom and so slightly: Else, if I had any thing in my thoughts that might be fit for your reading, I would be as free in communicating my studies with you as you are in imparting yours unto me; especially in this business, wherein you have travelled with such success. I only now can say, that I wish I may see the full finishing of your intended Work, and so do others abroad also: but yet I had rather stay your leisure, till you have concocted all according to your mind, than to hasten you forward before the time. Dr. Potter hath read your former Papers which you committed to Mr. D. and by occasion thereof hath proceeded to read others of the same Argument; which when I understood, I desired him to peruse two Writings of Dr. Gerhard of the same Argument, both purposely intended against the Millenaries: the one is in the second part of his Disputationes Theologicae, Disp. 3. de novis Fanaticis; the other in the ninth Tome of his Common Places, Loc. de Consummatione seculi, cap. 7. p. 442, &c. VponUpon the reading of those Treatises he sent a Letter expressing his mind and judgment concerning them, which I received this evening: And because I know you desire to hear the opinion of Learned men, I have sent down inclosed herein so much of his Letter as concerneth that business. Which I did the rather also, because I suppose this may give you oc…sion to answer such grounds as Gerhard hath laid to the contrary. Perhaps, if you consider him well, you may find a tacit Answer to that which you object against S. Hierome, for laying an imputation on the Mellenaries, as if they dreamed of Earthly Pleasures in this Kingdom of our Lord; for he saith that (as Dr. Gerhard thinks) of the Cerinthians and Iews, not of the ancient Fathers; how truly, I leave it to your consideration and judgment. In the Margin of your Notes on Iustin Martyr I noted a place to the same purpose in Lactantius: It is in black lead, and may easily be wiped out, if it be nothing to your purpose. Dr. Potter signified in a former Letter, that he had a purpose to write to you; perhaps he is not yet ready for that which he meaneth to say: but if he send his Letter this way, I will take care to send it down by your Carrier. In the mean while, and ever, I commend you and your studies to the Blessing of the Almighty; and so for this time I leave you.
Your ever assured Friend, Henry Mason. S. Andrew's Undershaft Decemb. 10. 1629.
EPISTLE XIX.
Dr. Potter his Letter to Mr. Mason, touching the Millenaries.
Good Mr. Mason.
I Have read those two large and learned Discourses of Gerhard against the Millenaries, and find him (as his wo…t is) to be very diligent both in recounting the Opinions of other men and in the establishing of his own. By him I see, the conceit is ancient among our later Writers, and favoured by many ignorant and fanatical spirits; which I confess casts much envy upon the Conjecture. But yet methinks, First, the consent of so many great and worthy Lights of the ancient Primitive Church doth more honour and countenance the opinion, than it can be disgraced or obscured by these late blind abettors. Secondly, The Anabaptists and their fellows are confident, where Mr. Mede doth but modestly conjecture; and that, Thirdly, upon other and better grounds than their dreaming doting heads ever thought of. Lastly, The Devil himself may sometime speak truth, and so may his disciples, with an ill intention, or at hazard;
foreign.
I suppose no Learned man or Christian can deny that the Nation of the Iews shall be once hereafter called by God's mercy to the Faith, and that their general Conversion will bring with it a great and glorious alteration in the Church; and therefore that Kingdom of our Lord upon earth, howsoever in some circumstances it may not answer our hopes, (which may be ungrounded and deceived) yet for substance it seems an indisputable Truth. But Prophecies are Mysteries till their accomplishment; let us therefore leave them to God and to Posterity:—foreign. I have received Philostrates and Origen, &c.
C. P.