And a voice shall be heard from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither! And they shall ascend up to heaven in a cloud,

lished, entitled, THE RETIRED MAN'S MEDITATIONS, or the Mystery and Power of Godliness shining forth in the Living Word to the unmasking the Mystery of Iniquity in the most refined and purest Forms, &c. In which Old Light is restored, and New Light justified; being the witness which is given to this age by HENRY VANE, Knight.-This wily old gentleman, who had studied the points of the political compass to some profitable purpose, could then inform his Calvinistic friends that they had been looking in a wrong direction when they expected the two witnesses to be caught up to heaven in that age. In chap. xiii, Sir Henry says:

"By what hath been said, we may perceive who are meant by the spiritual seed, and how they are described in the scripture as the two witnesses of God: FIRST, in a more general acceptation as in all ages they are to have their heel bruised, and to be slain for the word of God: And THEN, in a more particular and restrained sense, as some of them are to come forth in the latter days, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare for Christ's second coming, and then to have their dead bodies for three days and a half remain unburied in the great city, spiritually called Sodom und Egypt: Which city, as the mother of harlots, hath been extant in its spirit and principles, from the beginning, as well as the profane heathenish world with the powers thereof, embodied together upon differing grounds and interests by the spirit of the old Dragon, and influenced by him as suitable instruments of war and engines of battery, for the bruising of the heel of the true spiritual seed."

At the close of his 25th chapter, he says: "So that when once it shall please God to raise up a seed and generation of saints, in whom these marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus shall be eminent, to the slaying and bringing to rest all operating powers and faculties of their natural man, as standing in opposition to the Lord of life and glory, and subjecting every high imagination in them by the cross, to the laying of it and of all the glory of flesh in a very great measure under the feet of Christ, whereby that which lets [hinders] his glory from appearing unveiled, and hath all this time let, is taken away; then will it be known what the two witnesses are, and that they have not hitherto so much as begun their prophecy in the power of Elijah beforementioned: So far are they from being slain !"

The doctrine and language of this man of war, who had been a most potent enemy both to his friends and his foes, were exceedingly displeasing to his brethren the Calvinists, but more particularly to the Presbyterians. Richard Baxter, about the period when this work was published, made frequent vituperative mention of Sir Henry and his foolish disciples. But the doughty knight, who had been thoroughly initiated in the cant of that age, and had employed it both in the field and in Council, could say, in his Preface,Having an opportunity ministered through the retiredness of my condition, I judged it my duty, amongst that variety of witness in the things of God which is at this day given forth, to bear also my part, and stand up in my lot, taking this age to record that I am herein free from the blood of all men, as not having shunned to declare unto them the counsels and truths of God, that have obtained a large entrance and reception in my heart, as a seed there sown which is springing up to a perfect day.-Yet how ungrateful a thing it is to flesh and blood, in the best of us, to be bearing that witness which seems to carry contention in it with the whole earth!, sending forth a fire upon all that is earthly, to consume the false rests wherein professors themselves are apt to take up, even in that wherein we are allowed only to be as sojourners! Yea, what straits are we in, as straitened between two,either to render ourselves guilty of the blood of men, in the age wherein we live, by holding our peace, or else to endanger the making ourselves a prey, by speaking so as to become hatred in the house of our God, and be accounted fools and madmen, yea spectacles and wonders even in Israel!"

Well might this valorous Knight expect opposition; for, like a number of equally ill-qualified laymen of that age, he valued highly his own curious expositions of scripture, which were mixed up with a large portion of imaginative Mysticism.

and their enemies shall behold them. But certainly when that comes to pass, the same hour there shall be an earthquake, and the tenth part of the city shall fall. This city undoubtedly is Rome, which Mr. Mede proveth curiously to be at this day precisely the tenth part of the city of Rome as it was in St John's days when this prophecy came forth; and in the earthquake shall be slain of men (of names of men) seven thousand, which Mr. Mede interpreteth men of quality."

There was nothing culpable in the solicitude which Dr. Twisse manifested to become acquainted with Mr. Mede's interpretations of the prophetical scriptures, provided he had abstained from giving to those interpretations a leaning towards his own views and desires as a Calvinist, and had not, in opposition to his author,* applied the Apocalyptic maledictions and

"His writings bear the impress and character of his peaceable spirit and life; for, not a syllable that naturally tends to blow men up into such furious heats as threaten public disquietnesses and embroilments, is to be found therein; as neither in the writings of Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Cyprian, and others of utmost Antiquity; whose doctrine touching this point, as also their practices, were far from any show of unpeaceableness, far from provoking to any thing but to love and good works. As our author himself was a man of a cool spirit, so likewise is his notion and representation of the Millennium calm and moderate, not ministering to faction and sedition, to tumults and subversion of all degrees and orders of superiority in the public. And assuredly the happiness of the Millennial state shall take place in the world without that disorder and confusion which some men have extravagantly imagined; men of unhallowed minds and consciences, who, judging of things according to the lusts of ambition and love of the world reigning in them, have depraved and stained this primitive tenet, the ancient, sober, and innocent notion of the kingdom of Christ, as likewise every other mystery, with not a few carnal conceits and intolerable fancies of their own: And thus unto them that are defiled is nothing pure.' (Titus i.) Nor shall those times of cool refreshing' ever be brought in by hot fanatic zealots, men set on fire,' in the Psalmist's phrase, and ready also to set on fire the course of nature,' as St. James speaks, such as are skilful only to destroy and overturn. And therefore the temper and frame of their spirit being perfectly contrary to the temper and equality of those better times, they are thereby rendered uncapable either of furthering and hastening the felicities of the New Heavens and Earth, or of enjoying them when the New Jerusalem shall be come down from God out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God shall be with men. For the primary character of that Future State being universal righteousness and good-will, piety and peace, it naturally follows, that they who are men of embittered passions and of a destroying spirit, altogether devoid of civility, gentleness and moderation, kindness and benignity towards men, and altogether unacquainted with what is lovely, decorous, venerable, praise-worthy, equitable and just, can have no part or lot in this matter.

As for any other representation of our author's notion of the Millennium, which is earthly, sensual and devilish,' our author had nothing to do with it, nor with the patrons thereof: His soul came not into their secret.' And therefore if any ill-tempered persons, men of wild principles and practices, should abuse his name to the countenancing of any bad purposes and selfish designs, (as Antinomians have in like manner abused the names of some ancient Protestant worthies to the gracing of their own unwholesome opinions,)-if any unlearned and unstable souls wrest St. John's Apocalypse and the Prophetical Scriptures, (as well as some did, in St. Peter's time, the things hard to be understood' in St. Paul's Epistles, and do so still,)they shall bear their own condemnation, they do it to their own destruction.

woes to Arminians, and others, many of whom were better christians and of a more amiable spirit than himself. Divine Providence then permitted the experiment of a reputed holy republic to be made in this country, and undoubtedly intended

*

But, in the meanwhile, St. John, St. Paul, and the Prophetical Scriptures, are holy, harmless, and without fault: Nor ought our author and those Protestant writers to bear the blame of other men's misapprehensions or misdoings, but let every men bear his own burden. It is no new thing, but hath been anfusual artifice of worthless men, to derive some reputation to their opinions and practices from the pretended authority of some worthy and excellent writers: And we are the less to wonder at it, since they have not spared in the same kind to abuse the Divinely-inspired Prophets and Apostles. Yet should not this abuse of St. John's Apocalypse and other prophecies be deemed a sufficient ground to dissuade from the study of the Prophe tical scriptures, no more than the abuse of some passages in St. Paul's Epistles to Antinomianism and evacuating of the law should be of force to take men off from the study of St. Paul's writings. Nay, rather should all serious and judicious persons, out of an holy indignation against such wrongful perverting of the holy oracles of God, excite and oblige themselves unto a more studious enquiry and diligent search into the genuine meaning of those scriptures; that thereby they may be the better enabled to detect the falsehood of those glosses which men of corrupt minds have for their own ends put upon them, and, by discovering the true importance and scope of such prophecies, put to silence those men of noise and confidence rather than of reason and judgment. And certainly this would be the happy effect of such studious diligences: For they should find, that St. Paul's Epistles afford no favourable countenance to Antinomian principles, nor do in the least disparage the indispensable necessity of internal righteousness and uniform obedience to the Divine Law. It should also appear to them, that St. John's Apocalypse contains nothing that may in the least encourage to disobedience and disorder; but on the contrary represents christian kings and princes under a fair character, as friends to the holy and beloved city, the new Jerusalem, (Rev. xxi, 24,) but enemies to the whorish city, the mystical Babylon, which they shall hate and make desolate. (Rev. xvii, 16.). THEY shall do it; not the people without their princes, but kings with the help of their subjects; so hard a work requiring many hands, and the concurrence of several aids." MEDE'S Life.

*The judicious Hooker has severely animadverted upon the absurd political consequences which the Calvinists of that period deduced from the closing verses of the 149th Psalm, To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron: to execute upon them the judgment written, &c. I am much pleased with Dr. Adam Clarke's excellent Comment on that Psalm, in which he answers the following objection:

"But do not these last verses contain a promise, that all the nations of the "earth shall be brought under the dominion of the Church of Christ; that all "heathen and ungodly King's shall be put down, and pious men put in their "places?"-"I do not think so," says the doctor. I believe God never intended, that his church should have the civil government of the world. His church, like its Founder and Head, will never be a ruler and divider among men. The men who, under pretence of superior sanctity, affect this, are not of God. The truth of God is not in them; they are puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth, when the church takes the civil government of the world into its hands Were it possible that God should trust religious people with civil government, anarchy would soon ensue; for every professed believer in Christ would consider himself on a par with any other, and with every other believer-the RIGHT TO RULE, and the NECESSITY TO OBEY Would be immediately lost, and every man would do what was right in his own eyes For, where the grace of God makes all equal, who can presume to say, I have Divine Authority to govern my fellows?'-The Church of Rome has claimed this right; and the Pope, in consequence, became a secular prince. But the nations of the

that its disastrous issue should be a warning to the nations not to infringe the royalties of Heaven by assigning the precise time for the accomplishment of particular events predicted in God's Holy Word, to which perverse and designing men gave a plausible meaning, and under it concealed their own secular and corrupt designs. * But this will be still more clearly perceived in the sequel.

world have seen the vanity and iniquity of the claim, and refused allegiance. Those whom it did govern,—with force and cruelty did it rule them; and the odious yoke is now universally cast off. Certain enthusiasts and hypocrites, not of that church, have also attempted to set up a fifth Monarchy, a civil government by the SAINTS!-and diabolic saints they were. To such pretenders, God gives neither countenance nor support. The secular, and the spiritual government, God will ever keep distinct: And the church shall have no power but that of doing good; and this, only in proportion to its holiness, heavenly-mindedness, and piety to God.'

In this paragraph Dr. Clarke does not convey any intimation, that pious laymen may not appropriately engage in the executive government of a kingdom or commonwealth: Such persons are indeed the best pilots for directing the helm of state, and weathering the storm of contending human interests, both in the body politic at home and in its relations with foreign countries. The Doctor alludes to the practice of those who called themselves and all of their own party "a holy nation" and "a peculiar people," but who were far from shewing their title to this sacred character by being "zealous of good works." On the contrary, they persecuted and oppressed all those who could not pronounce their SHIBBOLETH, or who would not run with them into the same excess of riot; and thus they became "diabolic saints," enthusiastic and hypocritical "pretenders!"

* As a kind of counter-part to the sound doctrine of the preceding note, the following extract from Sir Henry VANE'S Retired Man's Meditations, will afford a specimen of the manner in which the men of war and their republican chaplains excited in the minds of their retainers fresh hopes of ultimately obtaining their romantic desires.

In his 24th Chapter, on the Primitive Constitution and Right Use of Magistracy, he propounds the subjoined doctrine: "Whereas it is said in this place, all rulers must be brought at last to serve Christ and his people, yea, to serve Christ in his people,' it doth not only mean earthly thrones amongst men, but the very heavenly thrones of angels themselves, who are made subject unto Christ and the true spiritual seed, that are the right heirs of salvation, unto whom even the angels are appointed ministering spirits; who yet, as we have shewed, are the highest lords and rulers of this world under Christ, those that execute his commands, in all parts and places of his dominion throughout the whole world; being those that are higher than the highest rulers amongst men,and that know how to bring redress of grievances and restoration of judgment in a province, when it is violently perverted by the uncontrollable force and power of man, then in authority and rule there. (Eccles. v, 8.) The angels then under Christ are the highest powers in this world, whose thrones, and dominions, and principalities, are invisible, yet are influencing to all visible powers whatsoever, steering them to the end Christ hath appointed, whatever the intentions, designs, and interests of the instruments are: And all visible powers are the next subordinate thrones and dominions unto them, &c.-These powers are said to be ordained of God. (Rom. xiii, 1,) and are likewise called the ordinance of man, (1 Peter ii, 13,14) both which ingredients are therefore requisite to the setting-up of magistracy amongst men in its right constitution and exercise. For men in their creation and birth are made of one blood, all the nations of men, (Acts xvii, 26,) and so are equal, and cannot therefore be distinguished and fixed in such different conditions and capacities of rulers and subjects, but by God's ordinance and to serve some holy and glorious end of his. Nor is the subjection which God requires irrational and merely implicit, but rational and voluntary, unto which men are to be led, not only by the awe and fear of God unto whom it is they pay a duty, but they are also to be won and persuaded by the sense

When Dr. Twisse had obtained all the knowledge that he desired concerning the Millennium, knowing that Mr. Mede had been lately appointed chaplain to his Grace the Archbishop of

of their common good and benefit thereby; which, in whatever forms the government be administered, (that in themselves, simply considered, are all lawful and inuocent,) doth difference just and righteous rule and government over men, from a tyranny and subjection unto private will and lust, which is none of God's ordinance, but the abuse of it. When lust thus creeps into magistracy, which in itself is the good creature and ordinance of God, it knows how to engender to bondage and tyranny, which God for a punishment brings upon the nations of the world, and suffers; but it is no part of the primitive institution of a right magistracy.

"Men may lawfully arrive and attain unto this office and dignity, either in an ordinary way through the endeavours and free choice of men, or extraordinarily by the immediate call of God himself to the exercise thereof, making those that are to obey willingly subject in that day of his power.-Therefore we are not to conceive, as most are apt to do, that man, in his innocent state and sinless nature, stood in no need of this office of magistracy; for it is not only useful to restrain from unrighteousness and disorder occasioned by sin and the fall, but also to conserve and maintain men in the good order and right disposition of things, wherein by their creation they were placed, in a preventing way unto the disorder and danger that lust threatens, and is ready to introduce upon man in his mutable righteous and holy state. And in this way of exercise it will be upheld by Christ during his reign on earth the thousand years, when with the whole creature it shall be restored from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and be made subservient to the right heirs of salvation, whereby kings shall become nursing fathers, and rulers nursing mothers to the church, bringing the glory and power of all nations into it; so as all nations shall walk in the light of the New Jerusalem, before which all the kings of the earth shall stoop and be made to yield homage and subjection, as not able to resist the wisdom and power of God there shining forth; but from the conviction and demonstration flowing thence, shall conform, whether they will or not, to the righteous rule of this government of Christ, who thereby binds their kings in chains and their nobles in fetters of iron, causing them to fall down and yield themselves up in submission thereunto; or else to be burnt up like thorns in the fire, as they shew themselves resisters thereof: This being the honour which all the saints shall have,—in this manner to prevail over and subdue all their enemies and opposers. (Psalm cxlix.)

"And if it be here demanded, Whether the Saints of God are to content themselves with having this in their eye only, and with the contemplation of it by faith, as the thing which Christ will bring about in his own time, in despight of all opposition?' It is answered, Though the saints should sit down in faith and patience, waiting to see this promise accomplished by the immediate power and hand of Christ, without entertaining any solicitude in reference to other means, they should not be disappointed nor fall short of their expectations at the last. But, Secondly, there is a duty of the day, a generation-work, respecting the time and circumstances of action in which the lot of our life is cast, which calls upon us to use all lawful and righteous means that are afforded by the good hand of God, through the inward light and knowledge he vouchsafes, and outward providences and helps which he casts in, whereby to make way for and to be hasting unto the coming of that day of God, &c. Our part is the same therefore in this, as in the practice of other righteous duties appertaining to us, the perfection whereof we cannot expect until the redemption of the body; and yet we are to be using all lawful means and endeavours to come as near the primitive pattern and rule as we can, in our whole practice throughout. In this lesson, the Lord Jesus hath given cause to many of these nations in these late years to be great proficients, by the experiences which he hath afforded them, step by step, for the learning of his will and mind therein: Who hath not emptied us from vessel to vessel without some teachings thereby what was bad and fit to be left behind, nor without some dawnings and intimations of what is