The Christians of every city were at first governed by a board Council of Elders with or Presbyters with a President of this Council sat where the people met to worship as in the Iewish synagogues & this was the original of Cathedral Churches. And when the CitizensChristians of any City grew too numerous to meet in one place, & the Christian religion spread into the villages , they divided the city into parishes & appointed curates or ministers inevery Parish & in every village to pray & read the scriptures & preach to yethe people. aAs in the Proseuchæ of the Iews. And these Parishes & Curates were under the government of the Councils. The name of Bishop was at first given to all the Prebyters but in a little time became restrained to the President.

In the reign of the Greek Emperor Iustinian & again in the reign of the Greek Emperor Phocas, the Bishop of Rome obteined some dominion over the Greek Churches, but of no long continuance. His standing jurisdiction was only over the Churches nations of his own faith in the western Empire represented by the Bea fourth Beast. And this jurisdiction was set up by the following Edict of the Emperors Gratian & Valentinian --------- Volumus ut quicun judicio Damasi ––––––––––––– & submitted to the Popes authority. And at length by this authority the Pope excommunicated the Greek Emperor for opposing the worship of Images & made his subjects revolt from him in Italy & absolved the people [ of Italy France from their allegiance oath of allegiance to their king Childeric who in order to set the crown of France on the head of Pipin his Friend & by means of Pipin & shis son Charles the great subdued threthree kings wchwhich opposed him was set & rose up in all the way above all humane judicature & was established universal Bishop over the west & his laws conteined in the genuine Decretal Epistles & Canon law have been received in all the western nations of his Communion, & many Decretal Epistles have been feigned to make those laws look more ancient thenthan they really were. ] of France from their oath of Allegiance to their king Childeric in order to set the Crown of France on the head of his Friend Pipin, & by means of Pipin & his son Charles the great, subdued three of the ten kings, & by their fall grew up above all h acquired a temporal dominion & grew up above all humane judicature within the western Empire as above ; & his Laws conteined in the genuine Decretal Epistles & Canon Law have been received in all the western nations of his communion, & many Decretal Epistles have been fourged to make those Laws look more ancient then they really were.

The Franks in Gaul became Roman Catholicks in the end of the 5t Century, the Goths in Spaine in the end of the sixt, & the Lombards in Italy were conquered by Charles yethe great A.C. 774, & between the years 775 & 794 the same Charles extended the Popes authority over all Germany northward to the Baltick & eastward to the river Teis , & then set him above all humane judicature.

est, et habitavit in nobis.

Irenæus who wrote his book against Heresies in the days of Elentherus Bish the successor of Soter bishops of Rome ( as he himself tells us lib. 3 cap. 3 ) tells us that the Apostel one & the same faith was propagated down in all the from the Apostles in all the Churches to thoses days & that Polycarp who was made bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles & whom he had seen in his younger days, taught in the Churches what he had learnt from the Apostles, & that all the churches of Asia were witnesses of this, & that in the days of Anicetus the predecessor of Soter, he came to Rome, & converted many hereticks to the Church, testifying that he had received from the Apostles what he taught in the Church. And that among many barbarous nations those who beleivedbelieved in Christ, assented to this institution having salvation written in their hearts by the spirit without ink & paper & ink, & keeping diligently the ancient tradition & believing in one God the creator maker of heaven & earth & of all things in them by Iesus Christ: who took flesh of the Virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate rose again, ascended into heaven & shall come ag in glory to judge those who are to be judged. They that without Letters have beleivedbelieved this faith, as to our langagelanguage are barbarians, but as to faith opinion custome & conversation because of their faith are most wise & please God, conversing in all justice chastity & wisdome To whome, if any one should tell the inventions of the hereticks they would presently shut their ears & flee away not b enduring the blasphemous discourse. Hac Irenæus l 3. c. 3, 4. And again Ecclesia vero per universum arbem mundum ab Apostolis firmum habens initium in una et eadem de Deo & de Filio ejus perseverat sententia. ib. c. 1. 2.

Hitherto therefore, that is till Irenæus wrote against Hereticks or till about the middle of the reign of Comm the Emperor Commodus, the Apostolick tradition was preserved in all the Churches & they all continued of one & the same faith & communion, notwithstanding the heresies of the Gnosticks. For By stopping their ea avoiding stopping their ears at the discourses of the Gnosticks they kept themselves undefiled with their opinions. But soon after these days, erreoneous opinions & practices began to creep silently into yethe Churches.

And first Tatian a disciple of Iustin Martyr, about yetheyear 171 lapsing into Gnosticism joyned several errors of Saturninus Marcion & Valentinus with his own making invisible Æons with Valentinus & condemning marriage &with Saturnius & Marcion as unlawfull, & introducing abstinence from flesh divers sorts of meats & from wine, pretending to lead a sober & austere life. And from thence this new sect had the name of Encratiestes or Continents. And tho this sort of abstinence from things lawfull was soon condemned as the Heresy of the Encratites yet being specious & plausible it gained many followers & at length ended in the the abstemious sects of unmarried Moncks & Nunns & in abstinence from flesh on fasting days & in forbidding the marriages of Monks & Nunns & Priests Presbyters to whom marriage is forbidden & in abstinence from me flesh on fasting days.

Tatian was presented followed by Montanus who refining upon the errors of the Gnosticks rejected their fabulous Æons, received all the books of the old & new Testament, made and forbadforbade second marriages as fornication, allowed of divorces, appointed annual fasting days, & made a singular shew of some unusual rigours & severities in religion. His followers were accus Some of his followers made the father son & Holy Ghost to have one common substance, & these were called κατὰ Æschynem, & hence came the Praxeans, Noetians Patripassians & Sabellians. Others made the Son & Holy Ghost to be Æons emitted from the father & these were called κατα Proclum or Proculum. Of this sort was Tertullian . He made made sthe son was to be a part of the father, & the Holy Ghost a part of that part, that is by emission as a branch is emitted from the root or as light is emitted from the Sun or a river from the fountain . ; He acknowledged that those of his party were accused of making & the Holy Ghost an emission from them both. 3v making the Son & Holy Ghost to be Æons, & affirmed that they were so & justified the opinion.

He tells us that he had learnt from the Paraclete ( so he calls Montanus ) that there was one only God; yet under this dispensation that God this one God had a Son wchwhich proce his Word wchwhich proceeded from him & by whom all things were made. He saith that God was always rational & that his reason was older then his Words . That by his reason he first disposed all things in his own tho mind by thinking, & but this was wanting to them, & when he was minded to produce them in their proper substances . & species he firstly emitted his Word having in it its individuals, rReason & Wisdom. For this was wanting to the things in his mind that they should exist & before him in their proper species & substances & that his reason then received its proper species & ornament, namely sound & voice, when God said, Let there be light. And this was the perfect nativity of his Word while it proceeded from God. And this Word has its proper substance. For tho the word of a man is void of substance yet nothing void of substance can proceed from so great a substance & the author of so many substances as God is. And this substance he calls a person & the son of God, & προβολὴν an emission projection or prolation of one thing from another , . And Valentinus if it be objected thisat this is to introduce the Prolations of Valentinus who produced Æons from one another: he answers, that it is no good reason against using this language because a heresy used it; that the heresy had it from the truth, the Son being Probola veritatis ; & that Valentinus separated his Probolas from their author & puts them so far asunder that Æon knows not the father; but with the disciples of Montanus the son alone knows the father, & is always in his bosom, & never separated from him. They say that the son was emitted from him but not seperated. For And that Montanus taught that teaching ytthat God produced the Word , as Montanus taught, according as a root produces a plant, & a fountain a river, & the soun a ray, & the plant is not separate from the root nor the river from the fountain nor the ray from the sun. The son is the second from God but not separated, & the Holy Ghost is the third from the father & the son as the fruit from the plant is the third from the root & the River flood from the brook River is the third from yethe fountain & the focus from the ray is the third from the Soun, but without being separated from them . The father is the whole substance & the Son a derivation & portion of the whole, as he himself professeth saying that the Father is greater then me. And yet as the Father is every where so also the son is every where wthwith yethe father. And this by this economy they are the Trinity is but but one God in substance undivided, tho three in person distinguished into three persons For he calls the Son the second person in the Trinity & the Holy Ghost the third. . This was the philosophy of Montanus according to Tertullian. But it was not received in those days by the generality of Christians either Latines or Greeks. They looked upon it as Polytheism & shut their ears against it, comparing it these emissions or Æons of the Son & Holy Ghost to the philosophy of the heathens who derived themir Gods from the substance of the supreme God by emission. For Tertullian tells us: Simplices enim qui, ne dixerim imprudentes & idiotæ, quæ major semper credentium pars est, quoniam et ipsa Regula fidei a pluribus Dijs sæculi ad unicum et verum Deum transfert, non intelligentes unicum quidem sed cum suæ œcumnia , esse credendum, expavescunt ad œconomiam. Numerum et dispositionem Trinitatis, divisionem presumunt unitatis ; quando unitas ex semetipsa derivans trinitatem, non destruatur ab illa, sed administretur. Ita duos & tres jam jactitant a nobis prædicari, se vero unius Dei cultores præsumunt: quasi non et unitas irrationaliter collecta hæresin faciat; & trinitas rationiter expensa veritatem constituat. Monarchiam, inquiunt, tenemus. Et ita sonum ipsum vocaliter exprimunt etiam Latini, etiam Opici [ gens Italiaæ , ] ut putes ipsa illos tam bene intelligere Monarchiam, quam enunciant. Sed monarchiam sonare student Latini, œconomiam etiam intelligere nolunt etiam Græci.

Tertullian tells us further that the Word was made flesh not by transfiguration but by putting on flesh. For that wchwhich is transfigured ceases to be what it was & begins to be something els, & therefore if the Word was transfigured, Iesus would be a substance composed of two, a certain mixture of flesh & spirit, as electrum wchwhich is a mixture of gold & silver & yet is neither of them but a third thing made of both4r both. But Christ is both God & Man, both substances being distant each in its own property: because the wWord is nothing else then God & the flesh is nothing else then man. They are not confused but joyned in one person God & Man. The property of each substance is preserved & the spirit [ or Word ] did the signes & miracles & the flesh underwent the passions rof hungringhungering thirsting weeping being sorrowfull & weeping dying on the cross. Of these two Iesus was composed being man of the flesh & God of the Spirit, the son of man of the flesh & the son of God of the spirit. And this was the doctrine of Montanists according to Tertullian. They made the son of God an Æon emitted from the father in the beginning of the creation & then generated when God said Let there be light, & generated by that emission, & that he was incarnate without only by putting on flesh or dwelling in Iesus without any change in himself, so as to see with the eyes of the body as a man sees or hear with the ears of the body as a man hears, or remember by the help of the brain: but Then made him to continue the same person as before, the second person in the Trinity, the person who did the miracles, the perosonperson called the son of God. And the Man alone was the son of man the person who suffered & died . & And yet bothe were at the same time united so as to become one & the same person And much after the same manner some former Hereticks as Gnosticks as Tertellian Irenæus tells us, becam made the son of man & the son of who suffered & the son of God who did the miracles to be one united & called them one . Mendaces ostensæ , saith he, sunt, saith he, universæ doctrinæ corum qui octonationes eorum & quaternationes putativas adinvenerunt, et subdivisiones excogitor verunt: qui spiritum quidem interriimunt, alium autem Christum et alium Iesum intelligunt, & non unum Chirstum sed plures fuisse docent: et si unitos eos dixerint, iterum ostendunt eum quidem participasse passionem, hunc autem impassibilem perseverasse. Iren. l. 3. c. 19. And again: Quoniam autem sunt [ sc. Corinthus, & Nicolaitæ ] & Ceorinthiani ] qui dicunt Iesum quidem receptaculum Christi fuisse, in quem Iesum desuper quasi columbam descendisse Christū & cum indicasset innominabilem Patrem incomprehensibiliter & invisibiliter intrasse in Pleroma — et esse quidem filium Iesum, patrem vero Christum & Christi patrem Deum: alij vero [ sc. Basilidas sectatores ] putative eum passum naturaliter impassibilem existentem: qui autem a Valentino sunt, Iesum quidem qui sit ex dispositione, ipsum esse qui per Mariam transierit, in quem illum desuperioride superiori Salvatorem descendisse, quem et Christum dici quoniam omnium qui emisissent eum haberet vocabula: participasse vero cutem cum eo [ Iesu filio hominis ] qui esset ex dispositione, de sua virtute et suo nomine ut mors per hunc evacuaretur, cognosceretur vero autem pater per eum Salvatorem quidem qui descendisset desuper descendisses quem et ipsum receptaculum Christi et omnis universe plenitudinis esse dicunt, lingua quidem unum Christum Iesum confitentes, divisi vero sententia. Iren. l. 3. c. 17. And a little after. Quia autem omnes qui prædicti sunt, etsi lingua quidem confitentur unum Iesum Christum, semetipsos derident, aliud quidem sentientes, aliud vero dicentes; — alterum quidem passum et natum, hunc esse dicant Christum annunciciantant — alterum vero eorum ab invisibilibus & inenarrabilibus descendisse, & quem et invisibilem et incomprehensibilem & impassibilem esse confirmant, errantes a veritate . , Iren. l. 3. c. 18 eo quod absistat sententia eorum ab eo qui est vere Deus, nescientes quoniam husius Verbum unigenitus qui semper humano generi adest, unitus et consparsus suo plasmati secundum placitum Patris, & caro factus, ipse est Iesus Christus Dominus noster qui et passus est pro nobis in gloria Patris & surrexit propter nos, & rursus venturus est in gloria Patris ad resuscitandam universam carnem. Iren. l. 3. c. 18. And a little after Igitur omnes extra dispositionem sunt [ Dei ] sunt qui sub obtentu agnitionis alterum4v alterum quidem Iesum intelligunt, alterum autem Christum, et alternī unigenitum ( ab hoc autem rursum est Verbum ) & alterum salvatorem, quem etiam eorum qui in deminoratione facti sunt Æones, emissionem la sua fugere præcepit, dicens: Multi seductores exierunt in hunc mundum, qui non confitentur Iesum Christum in carne venisse. Hic est seductor & Antichristus. Videte eos ne perdatis quod operati estis. Et rursus in Epistola ait: Multi Pseudoprophetæ exierunt de sæculo. In hoc cognoscite Spiritum Dei. Omnis spiritus qui confitetur Iesum Christum in carne venisse, ex Deo est. Et omnes spiritus qui solvit Iesum Christum [ in duos, Iesum & Christum ] non est ex Deo, sed ex Antichirsto est. Hæc autem similia sunt illi quod in Evangelio dictum est, quoniam Verbum caro factum est, & habitavit in nobis. Propter quod rursus in Epistola clamat: Omnis qui credit quia Iesus est Christus, ex Deo est natus est; unum ex eundem sciens Iesum Christum. Iren. l. 3, c. 18.

And theise were was the spirit of the great Antichrist wchwhich was to come & wchwhich

The Nicolaitans are those the Continents above described pwho placed religion in abstinence from marriage & abandoned their wives if they had any, & had their name They are here called Nicolaitans from Nicolas one of the first seven deacons of the Church of Ierusalem, who being taxed wthwith uxioriousness permitted his wch abandoned his wife & permitted her his wife to marry whom she pleased saying that must we must disuse the flesh as renounce the use of the flesh. [ In this Prophesy they are put figuratively for the disciples of Tatian & Montanus, & such others as bec were then called Continentes but and were dissallowed not yet approved of by the Churches, but began soon after to be admired. Irenæus gives this account of them. in his days From Saturninus & Marcion, saith he, came those who are called Continents. They taught that marriage was not to be contracted, rejecting the primitive work & institution of God, & silently accusing God who created man male & female for the propagation of mankind They introduced also abstinence from eating of flesh the flesh of animals, being ungratefull to God who created all things. They deny also the salvation of the first man And this was lately invented amongst them, Tatian being the first author of this impiety blasphemy. Who being the auditor of Iustin so long as he conversed with him broached nothing of this kind but after his martyrdom, separating himself from the Church, & being puffed up with the arrogance of a DeTeacher & as excelling other men, framed a new certain new form of doctrine feigning certain invisible Æons like Valentinus, affirming also with Saturninus & Marcion that matrimony was nothing else then corruption & fornication, & inventing also new arguments to subvert the salvation of Adam. Thus far Irenæus concerning the heresy of the Continents which flourished in his days & at length got into the Church & ended in Monkery. And this is what the Apostle Paul foretold in his second Epistle to TimiotyTimothy . Now the spirit speaketh expresly, saith he, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits & doctrines of Ghosts, speaking lies in hypocrasy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron: forbidding to marry , & commanding to abstain from meats wchwhich God hath created to be received wthwith thanksgiving of them which beleivebelieve & know the truth. ] The deeds of these Continents the Church hated till till the reign of Dioclesian. But soon after his reign [ they crept first into the Church, [ & soon after then into the Clergy. For such were they of whom Ierome speaks in against Vigilantius. ] embraced them

The affairs of the Church are not considered during the opening of first four seales they begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seale as was said above & are further considered at the opening of the sixt seal, & the times of seventh seal conteins the times of the great Apostasy. The And therefore I referr the Epistles to the seven Churches unto the times of the fift & sixt seales For they relate to the Church when she began to decline & contein admonitions against the great Apostasy, the apostasy of the Nicolaitans then approaching.

He Ermaneric reigned long & died very 110 years old. Abbtout yethe time he A little before About the time of his death eighty thousand Burgandians fled from yethe Goths to yethe side of the Rhene & seated themselves in the lower Palatinate. ‡And the Huns a fierce & brtishbrutish nation seated on the eastern side of the Lake Mœotis rose from their seats & invaded the nations wchwhich lay between them & the Goths & soon after his death entered Dacia & conquered his son Hunnimund A little after his death the Huns conquered his son Hunnimund wthwith yethe eastern part of the Goths. henceforward & the Gepides called Ostrogoths For the kingdom of the Goths was now become divided, & Winithar or Vithimar or Vandalair the son of Valeravan & grandson of reigned over another a tribe or body of the Goths called Theravingi Gruthungi by A. Marcellin & Gothunni by Claudian & Athanaric & fridigern over another body called Thervingi & Frigedigern over another called Visigoths or western Goths from their situation Winithar made some resistance, but the Huns at length being assisted by an army of the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths commanded by Sigismund the son of Hunnimund, routed & his army & slew him in battel & gave his kingdom to Hunnimund. & pursued Athanaric whereuponswhereupon the greatest part of the people of Athanaric with some other Goths under the conduct of Alavivus & T fled to yethe side of the Danube & so did Fridigern with his people the Visigoths . And these nations sent an embassy to the Emperor Valens desiring seats in the Roman Empire, This rout was in yethe year 376. And soon after, a great wchwhich wer & obteined seats in Mœsia in the borders of Thrace.

The head of the Embassy was A great part of the people of Winithar came also the Gothungi with their new king Videric under the conduct of his the young son of Winithar under the conduct of his fled also to the side of the Danube under the conduct of Alatheus & Safrax Saphrax the guardians of Videric the young son of Winithar fled also to the side of the Danube wthwith their young king & made the same petition & but were rejected but not long after passed the Danube without leave . This great rout was in the year 376. [ And the Goths wchwhich who staid in Dacia in subjection to yethe Huns were henceforward called Ostrogoths & those who fled over the Rhene Visigoths, as being seated more westward. ] And these Goths were no sooner seated in the Empire but being prest with famin & grosly abused by the Roman governours, they took up arms, invaded the Roman Provinces Thrace called to their assistance some Huns & Alans from beyond the Danube routed the Roman army & slew the Emperor Valens, & calling to their And at the same time some other barbarous nations flying in ( amongst which were the A Vandals & Alans ) fled westward from the Huns, some of them into Pannonia where a body of Vandals had been seated from the days of Constantine the great & some of them towarstowards the Rhene. & spread themselves into Greece & Pannonia as far as the ApsAlps , Alatheric & SapraxSaphrax going westward. assistance some Huns & Alans from beyond the Danube spread themselves into Gree spread themselves into Pannonia as far as the Alps, Alatheus & Saphrax going westward ; , but in the years 379 & 380 they were checkt by the arms of Gratian & Theodosius, & then Ostrogoths the Visigoths submitted & returned to their seats in Mœsia as subjects of the R. Roman Empire , The Huns retired over the Danube, & the Alans obteined seats in Pannonia . where [ tThe Vandals had been seated in Pannonia from yethe days of Constantine the great as subjects of the Roman Empire, & T wchwhich wthereby the Christian religion had been much promoted amongst them. Before they came into the Emp Pannonia they were seated in Dacia upon the river Mares or Mariscus on the eastern side of the Teys wchwhich runs westward into the river Teys. For the Vandals were a branch of the Gepides were Gothic nations & agreed wthwith yethe Goths in language & manners. And Procopius The text continues at the bottom of f.6v.

Vpon his death the kingdom became divided amongst his posterity, W Vithimir or Winithar the Chief successor of Ermaneric made resisted the Huns but was slain in battel & his kingdom given by the Hunns to Sigismund another son of Ermaneric. Yet part of Yet part of his people fled to yethe Danutb fled to yethe Danube under the conduct of Alatheus & Saphrax the tutors of Viderich the young son of WVithimir. Athanearic king of the Thervingi another branch of the Goths called Thervingi was deserted by the greater part of hhis people who under the conduct of Alavivus fled also to the Danube . . . And Fritigernus another king of the Goths fled thither also wthwith his people. This And these nations sent an Embassy to

To He reigned long & died while the Hunns were conquering the nations wchwhich lay between them & him & left his kingdom divided between many successors SigisHunnimund, Vithimir or Winithar, Athanaric & Hritigern. SigisHunnimund was his son & so probably were the rest. A b little before A little before his death eighty thousand Burgundians fled from the Goths & seated themselves upon the Rhene in the lower Palatinate. SigisHunnimund was the son of Ermaneric & submitted to the Huns & sent his son Sigismund to the assis wthwith an army of Goths to their assistance of the Huns against Vithimir. Balamir slew Vithimar in battle & gave his kingdom to Sigismund & a great part of his people Alatheus & Saphrax the guardians of his yo Videric the young son of Vithimear fled to the Rhene with a great part of his people & so did Fridegern with his people &

Winithar was king of the Goths called Genthingi & Anatheric of those called Thervingi.

The Vandals came into Dacia in the reign came seated also in Pannonia were a branch of the Kingdom of the Gepides & both of them were Gothic nations & spake the same language with the Goths & agreed with them in manners but came later into Dacia . Dio tells us that they Vandals came into Dacia in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Antonininus &under the conduct of Rhaus & Rhaptus & were then called Astingi & Iornandes saith that their Royal family was of the stock of the Astingi. They were seated upon the river Mares such runs westward into the Teys After they had staid in Dacia about 150 years they their the Gepides under the conduct of Geberic conquered them, & thereupon they left their seats in Dacia to the Gepides & went into Pannonia where they had seats granted them inby the Emperor Constantine the great. This war is by Procopius called a civil war, & therefo wchwhich implies that they had been one kingdom wthwith the Gepides not long before. They stayed in Pannonia lived quietly in Pannonia as subjects of the Roman Empire & stay there about 40 years till the war between the Hunns & Goths brake out & 30 years more before they conspired with yethe Alans & other nations against the Romans. to invade the western Empire. And their stay in Dacia & Pannonia contributed much to the propagation of the Christian religion amongst them. But the Christian church of Dacia continued united to the Church of the Roman Empire as much as if the kingdom had not revolted. For the bishop or Patriarch of Dacia was as ( Theophilus by name ) was at the Council of Nice A.C. 321 & his successor Vlphilas was at the council of Constantinople A.C. 300.