search into hidden and difficult Truths. P St. Jerom extols the Revelation of St. John for the Obscurity and hidden Sense of it; as Dionyfius, Bishop of Alexandria, had done long before him. In those Ages, it feems, it was no Objection, but the highest Character that could be given of the Revelation, to say that it was difficult to be understood. The Wisdom of God therefore, in condescension to all forts of Men, and to fit the Scriptures for the use and benefit of all Capacities and Dispositions, has caus'd some of the Prophecies to be plain and obvious to all Readers, and others to be so deliver'd as to employ the pious and humble Labours of the most Learned and Inquisitive, to keep them in perpetual Dependence upon God for his Grace and Assistance in the Explication of the Scriptures; and at the fame time to take down the vain Curiosity and Pride of such, as little concern themselves about the plain things of the Law, but are wholly bufied in unfolding hidden things, and in pretending to understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge, The Curse denounc'd against Man, upon his Fall, was, that with Labour and Sweat he should eat the Fruits of the Ground, as his Punishment, for having eaten the forbidden Fruit: and it was but just with God to punish the Curiosity of Men after forbidden Knowledge, which occasion'd his Fall, with making the Attainment of Knowledge more difficult. If the Scriptures were all obscure, they would be of little use; if they were all obvious, they would be despised. For if Obscurity be made an Objection by some, their Plainness and Simplicity is objected by others; but God has so order'd and proportion'd the several parts of them, that no Man may have just P Apocalypfis Joannis tot habet sacramenta, quot verba parum dixi pro merito voluminis, laus omnis inferior eft in verbis fingulis multiplices latent intelligentiæ. Hieron. ad Paulin. Epift. • Καὶ ἐκ ἐποδοκιμάζω ταῦτα, ἃ μὴ σωεώρακα· θαυμάζω μᾶλλον, ὅτι μὴ κἶδον. Apud Eufeb. Hift. 1. 7. c. 25. M 4 caufe cause to complain, that he doth not understand enough for his Salvation; nor any Man cast, them aside, or read them with little Care and Diligence, since there are so many things in them, which may require the utmost Study and Pains of the most judicious and learned Men. 7. There is no Prophet so obscure, but some Prophecies are very plainly deliver'd by him, which we know to have been fulfill'd; and this is a Warrant and Afsurance to us of his Mission, and that we ought to rely upon it, that whatever he has deliver'd concerning other things will as certainly come to pass; and in the mean time, before they come to pass, or are throughly understood, they are exceeding useful in the Church. The Revelation of St. John is hard to be apply'd to particular Events, because it comprehends so vast a Series of Time, in which long course of years many Events may be exactly alike at different times and in different places, and there may be a gradual and repeated Accomplishment of some of his Prophecies. But the time was at hand for the fulfilling of other of these Prophecies, Rev. i. 3. xxii. 6,7, 10, 12. and we know they have been fulfill'd in the seven Churches, Rev. ii. 5, 16, 22, 23. iii. 3, 16. which are proposed for Examples to all others. He that hath an ear, let him hear, what the Spirit faith unto the Churches, Rev. ii. 7. The seven Churches are spoken to by Name, and what is said to them, having been fulfill'd, is a certain Argument, that the rest, which concerns all other Churches, shall be fulfill'd in its due time, tho' it be not perhaps yet understood. But the obfcurest Prophecies, even before their Accomplishment, are of perpetual and inestimable use to us. It is acknowledg'd by all, that Parables are very proper and fit for Instruction, and therefore in ancient times their Doctrines were wont to be deliver'd in that way; because it is a more familiar and easy Method of teaching than by Rules, and Precepts, and Rational Rational Discourse, without that Illustration which is given to them by supposing a particular case. For then every one is apt to make the case his own, when he sees the Precepts reduced to Example, and cloath'd with Circumstances, and brought home, as it were, to his very Senses, which before lay more out of Sight, in abstract Notions and Speculative Discourse. And if feign'd cases be so much more effectual than bare Precepts or Exhortations, an infallible account of the state of the Church in all Ages, tho' we cannot point out the particular times and places, when and where every thing shall come to pass, must needs be of inestimable value and Benefit. To hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches, to observe what Errors and Faults are reproved, and what Vertues and Graces are commended and encouraged in the seven Churches of Afia; the Praises and Adorations, chap. iv. and the Bliss of the Righteous, the Joys of Heaven, and the Rewards of Martyrs, chap. vii. the Terrors of the Great and Dreadful day, chap. vi. the great Apostacy that was to be upon the Earth, chap. xiii. the Patience and Faith of the Saints, and the Refurrection of the Dead, chap. xx. the Description of the New Jerusalem, and the Glory and Happiness of the City of God, chap. xxi, xxii. These are the Subject of St. John's Revelation, and are things of the greatest use and importance. We have the state and condition of the Chuch in all Ages presented to our view, tho' we are not able to mark out the particular times and seasons meant in the several parts of the Prophecy. And this is at least of the fame use to us that all History is, and besides may be of as much more benefit, as it more nearly concerns us: for we do not know but that we may be fallen into the worst times there prophesy'd of. Here is the patience, and the faith of the Saints. We see the Care and Providence of God over his Church, the wonderful Deliverances which he is pleas'd to work for it, the Supports which he he affords his faithful Servants under Persecutions, and the Rewards prepar'd for them, and the final Destruction of the Enemies of God and Religion; these things are visible in the Revelation, and it cannot be deny'd, but these are of excellent use, to yield us Comfort in the worst of Troubles, and to excite Faith and Hope, and Patience, and all Christian Graces in the Minds of Men. The Revelation of St. John may be look'd upon as an History of the Church without any Chronology annext to it; but will any Man say, that the exactest and truest History, that can be penn'd, of the most important Affairs, and such as concern all Mankind, is of little value or consequence to the Conduct and Management of our Lives, unless we were likewise acquainted with the particular time, and the Names of the Places and Persons described in it? It is as much as our Salvation is worth, to be inform'd of a Future Judgment, though we are not told when it shall be; and that Book which fets Rewards and Punishments, Heaven and Hell before us, is of the greatest Advantage for the Edification and Salvation of Men, though the several Circumstances and Particularities described, are unknown to us. 8. Tho' the Arguments from Types are, above all, apt to be look'd upon as uncertain, and to depend rather upon the Conjectures and Fancies of Men, than upon any clear Evidence Yet we shall find the contrary, if we do but a little consider the Nature of them. A Type is a Likeness, a Form, or Mould, (as the word signifies) and where the Antitype reprefented by it, and prefigur'd, answers exactly to it, there is no more question to be made, but that the one belongs to the other, than there is reason to doubt, when we fee an Impression made upon Wax, what kind of Seal it was by which it was made; Or, when we fee a good Picture of one we know, to enquire who fat for it. A Type is much of the same Nature in Actions or Things and Persons, as an Allegory is in Words: but but Allegories are oftentimes so plain, that no Man can well mistake what is meant by them. And thus it is as to Types in many cases: Indeed, where there is but one Type or one Resemblance, it is not so easily difcern'd; but where many concur, he must be very wilful that does not acknowledge the Agreement. When an Author, as it often happens, describes the Persons of his own Time under feign'd Names, a Reader who knows nothing of it, may perhaps overlook one or two Characters, supposing them to be by chance; but when he perceives that they all exactly agree to so many several Persons whom he knows, he no longer doubts of the Author's Design; especially, when he observes the same Persons described in divers Places, and different ways, according to their Condition and Circumstances of Life, and their Qualifications of Body and Mind. And when many Types concur in the fame Person, with a great number of Particularities, any two of which perhaps never concurr'd in any one Man before; as in the Person of our Saviour these things concurr'd, that he was compell'd to carry his Cross, as Ifaac had carry'd the Wood; that he was lifted up, and fastned to it, as the Brazen Serpent had been lifted up in the Wilderness; that as the Bones of the Paschal Lamb were not broken, so not a Bone of him was broken when the Bones of those were, who were crucify'd with him; and that he was crucify'd at the very time when the Paschal Lamb was to be facrific'd: when so many different Circumstances concur, which have no Dependence one upon another, nor upon the Will of Him, in whom they concur, but proceed from the Will (and as in this cafe) from the Malice of others; if these things meet by chance, it must be a very extraordinary and unaccountable Chance indeed, and much such another as that was, which some would perfuade us made the World; it must be such a Chance as never happen'd before, nor will ever happen again. But must not these |