Works, Book 4 · Letter 32 – Letter 33
EPISTLE XXXII.
Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Osbourn's Quaere's, touching some passages in Daniel and the Revelation.
Qu. 1. WHether Daniel and the Revelation are Prophecies transfused into one another, or that Daniel reaches no farther than the destruction of Ierusalem.
Answ. I conceive Daniel to be Apocalypsis contracta, and the Apocalyps Daniel explicate, in that where both treat about the same subject; namely, what was revealed to Daniel concerning the Fourth Kingdom but summatim and in gross was shewed to S. Iohn particulatim, with the distinction and order of the several Fates and Circumstances which were to betide and accompany the same. And that therefore Daniel's Prophecie is not terminated with the First, but reacheth to the Second coming of Christ; as appears by the description of that glorious coming, and the great Iudgment, Dan. 7. and his prophecie of the Resurrection, Chap. 12. This hath been the constant Tradition of the Church from the Apostles days to this last Seculum, and was of the Church of the Iews before and at our Saviour's time. And if the Apostles had ever taught the Church otherwise, it could never so timely, so wholly, so generally have been forgotten.
Quest. 2. How was the Book of Apocalyptical predictions sealed until the Lamb opened it, Apoc. 5. if Daniel and the other Prophets wrote any thing of them?
Answ. Whatsoever the meaning be of that sealing and unsealing the Apocalyptical Book, it cannot be so far urged, as to infer the Contents thereof were in no wise …evealed until that unsealing; that is, until S. Iohn saw his Revelation. For the contrary is apparent; First, of the Day of Iudgment, and Resurrection at Christ's glorious coming in the clouds; which is the main But and scope of the Apocalyps, and yet was foretold by Daniel or some other of the Prophets: or else upon what Scripture did the Church of the Iews found their faith concerning both? Secondly, The Reign of Antichrist… which should precede that glorious coming, is no small part of the argument of the Apocalyps; yet was that revealed before S. Iohn saw his Visions; if you will not grant to and by Daniel, yet you must by S. Paul, 2 Thess. 2. which was at least 40 years before the Apocalyps was given. But he that considers S. Paul well will find, that he borrowed that piece and the ground of his Demonstration from Daniel; of which more by and by.
In a word, The Fourth Kingdom and that tyrannical Dominion which should foregoe the Son of mans coming in the clouds of heaven, was revealed summatim & in genere before S. Iohn's Visions; but the series rerum gerendarum therein from the First to that Second and glorious appearing of Christ, particulatim & in specie, was never revealed or unsealed till then.
Quest. 3. All things go round: That which is, is that which was, and that which shall be: What therefore though the expressions in S. Iohn be the same with those in Daniel? yet may the times and things prophesied of not be the same.
Answ. 'Tis true, all things go round, and the course of Divine government runs in a circle or repetition of the lame things: So that the Fates and Sequels of things foretold in the Prophets may be again and again repeated, and the Prophecies of them as it were often fulfilled; namely, by way of Analogy, but not of Propriety. But whither tends this? I suppose to make the ruffling Horn in Daniel and S. Iohn's blaspheming Beast to be diverse, though the expression and description be the same. If this be it, I meet with it thus: The Vision of the Son of mans coming in the clouds of heaven, Dan. 7. is in propriety the Second and Glorious coming of Christ; as appears by that coming so often described from thence in the New Testament, and our Saviour's using of the title of the Son of man with reference*For no where else is Messiah so termed, but there. thereto, as who, though now he appeared in humility, yet was the same which one day (as Daniel prophesied) should appear so gloriously. [Vid. Matth. 26. 64. Mark 14. 62, &c. Adhibe Iohn 12. 34, &c.]
But if this be so, then that Dominion which Daniel saw immediately to precede this coming, must be in propriety that Tyranny of the wicked one, which should precede that Second and Glorious coming of Christ. Ergo, not the Tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, but of Antichrist. And upon this ground did S. Paul build that Demonstration of his, 2 Thess. 2. That the Day of the Lord could not be at hand; to wit, because the Kingdom of that wicked one (which Daniel had foretold he should abolish at the appearance of his coming) was not yet in the world.
Quest. 4. Whether Nebuchadnezzar's Image contained more Kingdoms than were then in the world, or whereof himself was Master.
Answ. More Kingdoms than were then in the world, I see no reason why it might not; nay why it should not: For it was a Vision of Kingdoms that were to be foreign afterward (verse. 29, & 45.) and the Kingdom of Christ one amongst them: Yet was Rome a Kingdom then as well as Macedon or Persia.
Contain more Kingdoms than were comprehended in the Provinces he was Master of, I am sure it did; namely, that of Macedon, no part of which, neither of the rest of Greece, was ever subject to the Babylonian Monarchy; nor any more, but some of their Colonies of the Asian shore to the Persian. Nor is this so strange, since the form and shape of the Image consists not in the identity of place and bounds of Dominion, (though for a great and the principallest part it were the same) but in the order of succession which each Kingdom was to have to that which went before it; namely one of them should subdue and inherit another, till a fifth Kingdom came, which should never be subdued or destroyed, nor left (as the rest were) to another people.
Quest. 5. Whether Daniel's Visions (there where the Angel expoundeth them) be so mystical, as not in propriety expounded by the Angel.
Answ. I understand the Interpretation of every Vision according to the propriety of the Letter, and not to be a new Allegory needing another mystical interpretation: yet for all this I see no more necessity why the Roman Kingdom should be described (if Daniel any where describes it) from its situation to the West, (as those of the Seleucidae and Lagidae are by North and South,) than the Persian is by the East. For the Holy Ghost chuseth such Characters for distinction as he listeth, nor is tied to one way of characterizing, but doth it variously. Besides that Character of West-situation being common to the third kingdom, and anticipated in the vision thereof, chap. 8. 5. could not distinguish the fourth from it.
Quest. 6. Whether Daniel understood not his own Visions; especially when the Angel told him the foreign as in that from the tenth Chapter to the end.
Answ. 'Tis one thing to understand the Interpretation of a Vision, another to understand the Application of the Interpretation; namely, to what times and places it belongeth. Where the Angel gave Daniel the Interpretation or meaning of the similitude of any Vision, I doubt not but he understood what such similitude meant, as that by Beasts were meant Kingdoms, by Horns Kings, and the like. But the Application of the Interpretation (unless where the Angel sometimes applied it) I believe he understood not, especially in the last Vision, where himself says so: I heard, saith he, but I understood not. And no marvel, for the Angel tells him, Those words were closed up and sealed, till the time of the end. And it is to be observed, that in that last Prophecie the Vision is not described, but the foreign or Interpretation only reported. The Vision out of the last verse of the tenth Chapter may seem to have been some Book or Writing, which either conveniently could not, or the Holy Ghost thought not fit to describe.
Decemb. 17. 1632. Ios. Mede.
EPISTLE XXXIII.
Sir William Boswell's Letter to Mr. Mede, touching some of his Books sent him.
Good Mr. Mede,
I Know the Iudgment and current of rhe world is for present thanks upon kindness; Non me qui caetera vincit Impetus. Above four months since (with Letters from Mr. P. full of your and his Affection) I received four Copies of your Comment upon the Apocalyps: a large time to make accompts and acknowledgment; true, but both are so much the riper and better seasoned. My thanks I shall ever be renewing. Your Books I sent, one to Domenico Molins, a most learned, noble Gentleman of Venice: Another, by my Lord Ambassador Anstruther, and his Chaplain (one Mr. Iohnson) an honest learned friend of mine, into Germany. The third I bestowed upon Dr. Rivet (long and lately Professor of Divinity in Leyden, now Tutor to the Prince of Aurange his Son,) whose name and extraordinary worth you know by his works. The fourth I send to Scholars and acquaintance here. Some Animadversions I am promised, which I forbear to touch at present. In general, it is commended for a modest, discreet, learned, regular, and of all in that list most verifiable, discovery; if you forbear your Millenarian Fancy. Copies are very much sought; and certainly these parts would have taken off above two hundred, if sent at first. It is an errour and fault in our Printers, Visum non fieri extramittendo. In a word, you have set their teeth on edge: and I am pressed by many to procure them sight of all other things you have written; by name, your large notes upon foreign, ad Tim. 4. 1. they will come very seasonably; because there is in hand (since, and by order of the Synod of Dort) a new Translation of the Bible into Dutch, with marginal Annotations at large, to be printed in a folio Copy, wherein the Translators (understanding English perfectly) acknowledge the use and excellency of our last and authentick English Translation. Dan. Heinsius likewise tells me by Letter, that he is upon the New Testament; in what manner I shall know at meeting. I find the Zone here for Ecclesiastick Affairs temperate at present and quiet, though now and then producing Capreas saltantes, and such trifling Meteors which busie natures will be raising; as if to keep within the lists of obedience, and to do their work plainly and quietly, were but a Dulman's part. —Sic volvere Parcas! The Treaty between these Vnited and the other Catholick Provinces is slow-footed, & inter futura contingentissima.—Si quid in hac scena scire aves, aut aliud quicquam à vetere veróque amico velis, fac sciam. For I shall ever love Ioseph Mede as an honest old friend, and think upon him tanquam Academiam in Academia, being his most affectionate to serve him,
Hague 31/21 Maii 1633. William Boswell.