speeches to gain love and favour 3. Wit and Eloquence to perswade men to aide and to assist him 4. Large promises and great gifts to win them unto him 5. Signes and wonders all pretended to be done from God to draw men to a good belief of all his actions And if all these cannot serve the turn to make men to become his adherents and assistants then 6. Terrors and torments must do the deed and it is demanded If this sixfold Art was not most exquisite in the Presbyterians and the prevalent faction of the long Parliament But to go on to shew you the sins of the Antichrist Aretius as E. H. quoteth him doth thus paint him out saying Invadet imperium Antichristus ac dominabitur titulo justae possessionis ac verae pietatis sed ubi revelari caeperit publicè his notis or nabitur quas Apostolus hic ei tribuit videlicet homo peccati filius perditionis Upon which words of Aretius E. H. doth thus paraphrase E.H. De Antichristo pagina 78. that the Antichrist is called the man of sin because he is the Protector and Patron of many gross sins he rollerates Idolatry and Rebellion he invadeth Kingdoms and under pretence of setting up Piety and promoting Saintship he takes possession of the Throne as if he were the right heir thereof and none is so great a Saint as he if you will believe his words or the flaettering Titles of his Followers that adorn him with most goodly Eulogies but when he shall begin to appear publikely that is to be revealed as the Apostle saith and to be made known by his marks and sins unto the Saints he shall have none other ornaments to put on that is from those Servants of God to whom only he shall be revealed but what the Scripture gives him that is the man of sin and the Son of perdition which is the Title of Judas that betrayed his Master his King and his Saviour and what we read in the Revelation Rev. 11. the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit which will make war with Gods Witnesses that is the Magistrates and the Governours of Gods Church the faithful Pastors and Preachers of his Word and will overcome them and kill them and of whom the Holy Ghost principally saith Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still and never go about to strive to make him clean because it is but lost labour Aethiopum lavare to wash a Blackmoore to make him white And so it is to seek to amend that man of sin and all his wicked followers that think themselves better and more righteous than all others and therefore as our Saviour saith that the Publicans and harlots shall go into the Kingdom of heaven that is be sooner converted before the High Priests and the Pharisees that think themselves to be the only Saints and the bringers of others into heaven so the Drunkards Swearers Whore-mongers Sabbath-breakers Robbers and the like lewd livers and prophane persons may be sooner converted and brought to repentance than this hypocritical Saint and those Saint-like sinners that think themselves most wise and more holy than all others and from this confidence do act all the Villanies Cruelties and abominable Impieties against the Service of God and do such intollerable injuries to the Servants of Christ as that greater cannot be devised Thus you see how this man of sin is described unto you by these Learned men for a most notorious transcendent sinner but all this while it is not agreed upon of all sides whom the Apostle meaneth in this place by this man of sin that should be such an extraordinary sinner for Dr. Hammond and some others would have us hereby to understand Simon Magus because that Justinus Irenaeus and some other Authors do avouch there was a Statue erected unto him and an Altar with this Inscription Simoni sancto deo to Simon the holy God But the truth is that Justinus being a Grecian and not so well vers'd in the Roman Antiquities mistook the Inscription Varro lib. 4. which was Semoni Sanco Deo to Semo Sancus the God for so Varro that was most skilful in the Roman Histories saith Inter Deos Romanorum non obscurus fuit Deus Semo qui Sancus appellabatur Among the Gods of the Romans the God Semo which was also called Sancus was none of the obscurest or meanest God and accordingly Ovid saith Ovid. fast lib. 6. Quaerebam nonas Maresius p. 79. Caracotta p. 25. Sanco fidione dicarem or referrem An tibi Semo pater tu mihi Sancus ait Or as some Copies have it Tu mihi Sancus eris And therefore others as the Commentator upon this place conceived to be Hugo Grotius perceiving this mistake of the Greek Interpreters doth understand Caius Caligula to be this man of sin Sueton. c. 10. of whom Suetonius saith Nec Servum meliorem ullum nec deteriorem Dominum fuisse There could not be a better Servant or Subject than he was and a worser Lord or Master could not be found So that he was brought forth as it seemeth Ut ostenderet quid summa vitia in summa fortuna possent that in him might be seen what the greatest vice or the most vicious men might do in the highest fortune as Seneca writes of him unto Albinus And it is true that Caligula was insigniter scalestus Hyppolitus in Orat de sins seculi Caracotta pag. 6. deinceps a most notorious wicked Emperour yet not meant here by the Apostle under the Title of the man of sin as Maresius and Caracotta prove at large and do shew that the best of all Interpreters both Old and New do assent that the Apostle meaneth the Antichrist that should come into the World a little before the End of the World and not any of these Antichrists that came so soon as the Apostles time But though we cannot digito demonstr are dicier hic est name the man and say This is he Yet from Daniels explication of the acts of Antiochus and from these Comments and Paraphrase of the aforesaid Divines upon the words of S. Paul you may as Moses did from Mount Nebo view the Land of the Canaanites behold some of the sins of the Antichrist and thereby have a shrewd guess who he is For that collected multitude and pack of wicked men which as I shewed to you must be understood by the Antichrist The doings of the great Antichrist shall as you have heard oppose the Kingly Government protect Rebels Hereticks and Blasphemers tyrannize most lawlesly over Gods Servants usurpe the supream Authority change the Laws the Times and the good Customes of the Saints and People of God subdue three Kings or Kingdoms suppress the Governours of Gods Church and the Preachers of his Word and do all this and the like feats upon pretence of Zeal to
neither of these can be said to have been and not to be and yet to be at the same time as the Holy Ghost affirmeth of this Beast for though Domitian was chosen by the Souldiers whilst his Father Vespasian was in Judaea Vide Caracott◠pag. 52. and then gave up his right and title to the Empire when Vespasian returned to Rome yet this doth not cohere with he is not and yet is which is affirmed of this Beast and though it might have been said that he was and is not and yet shall be if this Vision of the Beast had been shewed to St. John in Vespasians time but it could not possibly be said that he was if according to Epiphanius his Testimony St John was banished to Patmos and had these visions revealed unto him in the Emperor Claudius his time because that after Claudius Nero reigned 13 years Galba seven moneths Otho four moneths and Vitellius eight moneths before Vespasian was made Emperor nor could it be well said that he was whilst Vespasian was in Judaea when he was but an Vsurper and an Intruder while his Father lived or though it might be truly said in some sence that he was and in some other sence that he was not yet can it not be said in any way or in any sence that he was and is not and yet is as the Holy Ghost saith of this Beast How then shall we unfold this Riddle and untie this Gordian knot I answer That the Words in c. 17.8 do seem most coherent to the long Parliament That 1. Was a true Parliament that I have often thought of it and assayd it divers wayes and yet could never see how this Testimony of the Holy Ghost touching this beast that he was and is not and yet is can be applied either to Domitian or to any other of all the Emperours or Kings or Society of men so fitly and so probably agreeing with the meaning of Gods spirit as it is or may be applycable to the long and lately dissolved Parliament for that was a true Parliament when the King called them together and they sate to consult with their King de arduis rebus regni about the great affaires of the Kingdom and took their Oaths and made their solemn Protestation to protect the Kings Person and to maintain the true Protestant Religion 2. Is believed to be no Parliament But I heard many wise men judge it no Parliament when they did expell and cast out their guides and their leaders the Messengers of Christ from among them and endeavoured as the Giants did of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make Warre against God and raised an Army against their head and with all their might did fight against their King and at last like did most disloyally cut off his Head that was the head of them and of us all and as the Prophet speaketh of the like godly King 3. And yet still is a Parliament the breath of our nostrills and yet still it is a Parliament in their own esteem and with their adherents and by their peremptory Acts and Ordinances that are still accounted most excellent and binding and are so urged and observed by their adherents and compelled to be observed by all others and by the greatness of that power and authority which they assumed unto themselves and do by their Acts and Lawes execute over all people to this very day more then any other ordinary Parliament ever used whereby you see how this may be understood that is said of the beast that he was and is not and yet is though I leave it to the judicious Reader to judge whether he conceives this to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost or not or whether all this may be so as may thus be coherent and applicable to that long Parliament or not And as this which I have now expressed doth seem very shrewdly to prove Some conceive it thus to be fulfilled I will not determine it the long Parliament is or may be here signified by this beast so that which is set down by the Angel in the 17th Chapter and the 10th verse which is the explication of this vision that is here shewed c. 13. doth more fully seem to illustrate and confirm the same thing for there he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there are seven Kings that is which have been and will be great and grievous extraordinary persecutors of my people The 5 Kings that were fallen before this Revelation was shewed whereof five are fallen that is dead and gone which we understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen and these five saith Junius are 1. Servius Sulpitius Galba the seventh Emperour of the people of Rome 2. Marcus Salvius Otho 3. Aulus Vitellius 4. Flavius Vespafianus 5. Titus the Sonne of Vespasian and one is saith the Holy Ghost that is saith he Flavius Domitian another Sonne of the foresaid Vespasian in whose latter Reign saith he St. John wrote this Revelation and another is not yet come saith the Text that is saith he Cocceius Nerva and the beast that was and is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators render Junius in annotat in c. 17. joyned to Beza's Translation even he is the eighth even he especially to be observed above any of the other seven saith the Angel and this even he saith Junius is Nerva Trajan that is as I conceive him Cocceius Nerva the last that was aforenamed or rather as the stories shew Vlpius Trajanus qui hic vario respectu Septimus octavus appellatur who himself in divers respects is called here the seventh and the eighth for that although in number and order of succession he be the eighth yet saith he because this man obtained his power and authority with Nerva and did execute his consular office with him when Nerva died he is also said to be the seventh c. 17.11 and is reckoned together with Nerva as if Nerva and Trajan were but one head according to which sence our former Translation though very corruptly reads the beast that was and is not is even the eighth and is one of the seven or as the Geneva notes do understand those Kings The 1. is Nero. 2. Galba 3. Dr. Hammond in permonit pag. 907. Ex Hugone Grotio qui conjutatur Maresio pag. 169. Otho 4. Vitellius 5. Vespasian 6. Titus 7. Domitian 8. Nerva or as Doctor Hammond saith which is more likely to be right if St. John was banished to Patmos in Claudius his time and far more unlikely if his banishment was in Domitians time the 1. is Claudins 2. Nero. 3. Galba 4. Otho 5. Vitellius 6. Vespasian 7. Titus 8. Domitian But indeed all these Expositions and the like annumeration of these Kings that were fallen and extant and to come which would be too tedious for me to rehearse do seem to me to be far wide from the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place
I refer it to any mans judgement I know the Pope challengeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as great authority as can be imagined but whether he hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a militarie Force of gold and filver men and munition so plentifull and so powerfull as the Parliament had it I leave it to the world for to judge But Then it is said that the Dragon gave his Throne or Seat unto the Beast The Throne of the beast what manner of Throne it is Isa 14.13.14 Luke 46. Matth. 4.9 and what Throne hath the Dragon but an usurped Throne when with the King of Babylon that said in his heart I will ascend into heaven and I will exalt my Throne above the stars of God and above the heigth of the clouds and I will be like unto the most high so he will assume to himself what is none of his own and as he said to Christ all these things will I give thee when as they were none of his to give so he gives unto the Beast no other Throne but an usurped Throne such as himself had no right unto nor any power to give but as the thief can give away my purse which by force he hath taken from me The parallel And so the Author of the Historie of Independency sheweth how the long Parliament entred and possessed this usurped Throne of the Dragon when in answer to the Kings offered Act of Oblivion they intended as they did afterward to pass an Act of general pardon for which they expected a general obedience and submission to their Government for the future because pardon and protection implies obedience to the Protectors without which they may be handled as publick enemies and outlaws that ought to be destroyed as Traitors and Rebels against the State as Politicus the States interpreter sets it down numb 16. from Sept. 19. to Sept. 26. But how came they saith that Author to that Majesty How the long Parliament came to the Throne of their claimed authority to whom for birth and the highest of their education that they should have the power and authority of granting pardons imposing Laws and requiring obedience from the people and without that to plunder them and to punish the refusers as they please You see what the Holy Ghost saith from whence the Beast had it from whence soever they have it But our new Statists saith he will answer you that the Supreme power is originally in the people and so the Parliament voted the same to be and the people have delegated and committed the same to them as the Representative of the people and so having this derivative authority from the people which had this authority but from them and their vote they use this authority to yoke their Soveraign Lord the people whose delegates they profess themselves to be and to make them yield Allegeance and obedience unto them that are but their own delegates and servants of the Common wealth under the penalty of depriving them of their goods Lands and lives Such a piece of circular Logick for them to give a power unto the people who had no power to give it A strange piece of Logick and then to take it to themselves from the people to master and to destroy the people as I think neither Aristotle nor Ramus nor all the School of Athens did ever know the like yet hereby we see how they have got to the Throne of Supreme Majesty and though it be but an usurped Throne saith that Author and their authority a self-created authority meerly to cheat fools and to domineer over the weak and helpless people yet as Vespasian said dulcis odor lucri ex re qualibet so they thought it a brave thing to rule by what Logick Art or means soever they can attain unto the Throne be it right or wrong So cruelly hatefull and beastly is the nature of Ambition and the desire of bearing Rule and Plutarch saith Plutarch in vita Pyrhi And now the Parliament having gotten possession of this usurped throne as we may call it and cloathed himself with this new created Majesty it is said that he exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Authority with such and so great severity and in so large and transcendent a manner over the people as neither King nor Keisar neither Pope Turk nor Tyrant Walter Raleigh in his Prerace to the History of the world nor any other Pagan Infidell did ever the like for omitting others further from us though Henry 8. that was Praecursor Antichristi the Gentleman Usher to bring in the Antichrist and of whom Sir Walter Raleigh saith If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless Prince were lost in the world they might all be painted to the life out of the story of this King that neither spared Woman in his Lust nor man in his Fury hath mightily magnified his Authority over his Subjects to make his Lustfull will stand for law yet he came far short multis parasangis by many degrees of the power and Authority that this Parliament hath used over his Brethren and over his own Soveraign Lord and Master the people for though neither Henry the 8th nor any other King of this Land did ever attempt to do any publick Act of moment as to levy monyes press Souldiers Vieount verulam in the life of Hen. 7. commit Prisoners and put men to death but according to the Lawes of our Land howsoever they caused these Lawes to be sometimes wrested by their judges to satisfie their own wills as Sir Francis Bacon saith Henry the 7th sometimes did yet that Parliament without Law and ex diametro contrary to our Lawes saith the Author of the History of Independency have made themselves Masters of our Estates of our liberties and of our lives that as the Centurion said he was a man under Authority and needed but say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he commeth and to his Servant do this and he doth it so this Parliament is above all Authority and needs but set down what sum soever he would have he must have it and what men soever he would have dead they must dye for whatsoever this Parliament voteth that is a Law and they can vote what they will And what Authority in the world can be greater then this the Pope can do nothing without his Cardinalls nor the Cardinalls without the Pope and King Ahassuerus could do nothing without his seven Counssellors nor the seven Counsellors without the King Hester 1.13 Ezra 7.14 yet this Parliament will do any thing without the King and against the King and therefore mine Author saith that when this Parliament voted that whatsoever the Commons in Parliament Voted and shall Enact The strange Vote of the long Parliament Hist of Independ pag. 11. part 3. shall have the power and force of an Act of Parliament or Law without the consent of
the House of Lords or the Kings royal assent any Statute Law custome or usage to the contrary notwithstanding he never read yet any Vote that hath in it more of dissolution and more of Vsurpation and innovation then this one Vote which makes their Authority Vniversally arbitrary and layes the Axe to the root of all our Lawes Liberties lives and propertyes all at once and is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great Authority or did ever Pope or Turk exact more or so much as this And thus that Author saith of the Power Throne and Authority that the long Parliament assumed to themselves and exercised over all the people of these Dominions how far these things are true I leave it as I do all their Acts and Actions to be censured and beleived by them that are most judicious and do best understand and know all their doings But to proceed 9. 9. Of the head that was mortally wounded and healed Junius in an not in H. loc and so Severus sulpitius and the Author of the Sybel verses supposed to be Montanus do take it The former exposition rejected It is said v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I saw one of the heads of the beast as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed whereupon Junius that makes this beast to be the Roman Empire saith that this head was Nero qui in domitiano ejus successore post vespasianum Titum suscitus est who in his successor Domitian was raised up because that in Nero the Caesarean line and stock did wholly faile gubernacula reipublica ad alios fuerunt translata and the Government of the Common wealth was transserred unto others by whose meanes especially in Domitian his successor after Vespasian and Titus the deadly wound of the Empire that it received in Nero was so cured that it remained firmer then ever it was before But this cannot be the meaning of the Holy Ghost because as I told you before this Revelation especially in the latter parts thereof was of things that were hereafter to be fulfilled and Nero was dead and five Emperors more Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian and Titus long before St. John saw these things therefore Luther Illiricus Chytraeus and others by the Head that was mortally wounded do understand the civil Empyre of Rome that was wounded in the Emperors sed resuscitatum erat per papam but was healed revived and raised by the Pope and this exposition is likewise approved and followed by Mr. Mede Mr. Meder pag. 5.3 and by all that take the Beast to signifie the Roman Empire and the Pope to be the Antichrist Mr. Mede pag. 53. but I shewed to you before that this Beast cannot be taken for the Roman Empire and therefore by this Head cannot be meant the Empire that was restored by the Pope especially considering that not the Beast Dr. Hammond in loc and Grotius in apoc but one of the Heads of the Beast was as it were wounded therefore others by this one of his Heads that was wounded do understand the Capitoll of Rome that was twice burnt about this time but was after the burning of it far more sumptuously re-edified by Domitian and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of his Heads that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one is by an Hebraisme Mat. 28.1 put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first as in St. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Sabbaths is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of the Sabbaths or the first day of the week And this conceit of Grouns seconded by Dr. Hammond is more fully confuted by Maresius dissertat de antich so is this one of his heads put for the first or the chief of his heads because that here was Jupiter Capitolinus which was the chiefest Temple of the Heathen and Idolatrous Worship of the Romans but seeing this Beast doth not signifie the heathen Idoll Worship of the Romans as I have sufficiently shewed unto you before this head cannot be taken to signifie the Capitoll and besides the wounds of the Capitoll were made by fire whereas the head of this Beast received his wounds by the Sword as the Holy Ghost sets it down c. 13. v. 14. But taking the long Parliament for the Beast it may well be said What may be meant by the Head that was mortally wounded that either the hypocrisie or subtlety of that Parliament that is their crafty plot to overthrowe both the Monarchy of the Common-wealth and the hierarchy of the Church which I told you might be one of the heads of this Beast was as it were mortally wounded when the Earl of Essex was beaten at Edgehill and at Cornwall driven to flie for his life by the Sword of the King so that if his Majesty had followed those good successes aright like Julius Caesar and not like Hanriball that knew quo modo vincere sed non victoria uti how to overcome but not how to follow his victory that wound in all likelihood had not the King been too mercifull a Prince when he gave it and too lesse politique then a prudent Souldier should be had been so mortall that it could never have been healed Or rather as I conceive by this head that was as it were mortally wounded we may understand the lies and erroneous Doctrines of the false Prophet and the cunning tricks and deceits of the Beast that were reproved and confuted by the true Servants of Christ And so accordingly The Parallel the falshood of that Parliament in the misconstring of our Lawes and former Statutes What the Authour conceives the Head that is wounded to be lies wounded by the truth and the scandalous traducing of the good King and his loyall Party which as I shewed unto you might be conceived to be another of the heads of this Beast and was confuted and made apparently false to all that would believe the truth and shewed to be most unjust and false by the clear writings and answers of the King and his adherents for the truth of things on the Kings side and the falshood of the Parliament and of their proceedings were so fully and so clearly shewed and their misconstructions detected that I heard many of themselves confess that the King went far beyond them in his papers and was farre happier in his answers then they were in their objections the King alwayes carrying away the Victory and having still the better of them while the matter was disputed with the Pen either about the Militia or Episcopacy or any point in controversie quia magna veritas because truth is able to prevail and doth Revel 19.15 while we do peaceably seek the truth and so this false and lying head of the Beast was wounded with the Sword of truth which is the Sword of Gods mouth from whence saith the Holy Ghost there proceedeth a sharp Sword But yet all this while the Kings
themselves to his meaning Genes 11.9 do interpret it but the great city of this world that is in all things agreeable to every particular thing that is spoken of this great Babylon for as that place and city was chiefly called Babylon that is confusion because as Moses sheweth God confounded the Languages of those grand rebells that endeavoured in that City 1 John 2.15 1 John 17.9 to scale the walls of Heavens and as it were to desie God himself so this world is just like unto the same the receptacle of all confusion and disorders and it is one of the three capital enemies of mankinde that we profess in our Baptisme to renounce and that we are charged not to love but still to fly from the baits and the deceipts thereof and John 5.19 for which our Saviour that prayed for his enemies which crucified him denieth his prayer saying I pray not for the world because God hateth all those that work wickedness and S. John saith the whole world all of it lieth in wickedness and will not be raised from it and besides God is the God of order and the whole world is out of order the very babel of all confusion The great Antichrist shall rise in such a place as shall be like Babylon when first it was called Babel Genes 11.79 and confusion is the mother that bringeth forth the Antichrist into the Church and it is the nurse that fostereth cherisheth upholdeth and protecteth him against Christ and against his Church But though the world in General is that great citie whith is meant Revel 17. and elsewhere in that book and wherein the great Antichrist will settle himself yet must he rise and spring in some place City or Kingdome of the world that is not as Rome or Constantinople a Babylon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and transcendently like as the Chaldean Babylon was and in all things resembling her when first she was called Babel the City of Confusion and that was when all the Inhabitants thereof were without any settled just and lawfull Governors or Government among them but were as the children of Israel were in the later time of the Judges Judg. ult and Ver. ult when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and so they did now in Babel they understood not one another they obeyed not one another but when the Master or Governor required one thing they did another and when they called for bricks they brought them straw and so forth And what Kingdome Rome not like Babylon when first it was called Babel City or Church is or hath been thus like Babel without any setled just and lawfull Government or Governors I will not determine but I am sure Rome hath her Governors and the Church of Rome her settled strict and well observed Orders and Lawes which none dares disobey nor do what is right in his own eyes nor preach what Doctrines he please unto the people But in what Kingdome City or Common-wealth soever we see no settled just and lawfull Government but the Governors like pegs driving out one another and settling first one kinde of Government then another of greater power cometh and changeth that Government then a third then a fourth and so forth and the Commonwealth standeth like a windmill upon the top of a hill that must turn with every winde and submit it self to every Government that is most prevalent and where you see the Church without Rulers without order and without Law but every Presbyter doth what he pleaseth and serveth God with what service his own fancy liketh best I believe that City Kingdom and Church doth in all things parallel the first Chaldean Babel and must be if any place be the very seat of the Antichrist and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply most eminently and transcendently a Babylon and the fittest place for the Antichrist to reside And so the Antichrist having learnt his lesson divide impera i.e. by confusion and division and setting the Father against the Son and the Daughter against the Mother the subject against his King and the King against the subject the people against their Pastors and their Pastors against the people and so of all the rest he will settle and inthrone himself in that imperial seat of his rule and authority where there is most confusion and where there is no settled just and lawfull Government and this is that Babylon thus mystically expressed by the Holy Ghost and thus clearly explained unto you where the Antichrist shall rule and reign and rage over Gods people even in that place of the world and in that street of this Great City where there is most division and confusion both in the Church and Commonwealth this confusion being his chiefest consolation and the furtherance of his progression and which as the Poet saith Turbabit faedera mundi will soon bring the world out of order and to be ruled as he listeth And now the question is demanded Whether in any other place of all the world you can finde more divisions and confusions and a more unstable unjust and unsettled Government both in Church and Commonwealth then you may finde in these Churches and Common wealths and formerly the Kingdomes of Ingland Scotland and Ireland for though that in this Babylon this place that is so full of disorders and confusion Where discord reigns in realm or town The wicked win the chief renown Plutarchus in vita Niceas pag. 547. you may finde many zealous and religious men that do fear God and mourn for the sin of the Antichrist and abhor all his wicked wayes yet it is demanded if ever there were more faction in Hierusalem in the time of their last siege more Sects in Amsterdam more malice in Rome in the time of the proscription or more corruption in the time of the Pope and more division among the Reubenites and confusion in great Babylon in the land of Shinar than may be found now in this relapsed Church and among the people of these Dominions And for the diversity of Sects multiplicity of opinions and the manifold confusions in the Church it is demanded if the errors and heresies of the Sectaries Presbyters Independents and lay-Preachers are not only published printed and permitted but also cathedrally and autoritatively if not maintained yet countenanced or connived at at the least And if here in the field of Gods Church and out of this Babylonish chair you may not finde any error or heresie that hath been formerly invented and broached by the grand Hereticks and confuted by the Fathers of the Church now again in some place or other and by some Sect or other resuscitated and refined unto the people and whether you may not uncontroulably choose any Religion and be of any Sect either Antinomian Anabaptist Arian Aerian Brownist Barrowist Dipper The manifold
Christ which was the true substance and to be understood in and by those shadows and so for the Antichrist I sind no Prophesie concerning him in all the Book of Daniel but as he is typified in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes and you know that as Theologia Symbolica non est argumentativa symbolick divinity will not hold argument so types and figures non currunt quatuor pedibus do not hold correspondency in all things but only in such particulars whereunto they are applied and therein you shall find how the Antichrist is typified and declared unto us in the person and by the doings of Antiochus For The Prophet Daniel describing the four Beasts Dan. 7. that typified and signified the four great Monarchies of the world the Assyrian the Persian the Graecian and the Roman and the little horn that sprang up among the other ten horns saith the 10 horns are interpreted by the Holy Ghost to be ten Kings that is saith Tremellius 1. The 10 horns in Dan. 7. who they are Seleucus Nicanor 2. Antiochus Soter 3. Antiochus Theos 4. Seleucus Callinichus 5. Callinicus being expelled Ptolomeus Evergetes 6. Ptolomeus expelled Seleucus Ceraunus 7. Antiochus magnus that was surnamed Hyerax the Hawk for his speedy expedition of the greatest affairs and was the Father of Seleucus Philopater and of Antiochus Epiphanes 8. This Antiochus magnus being ejected Ptolomaeus Philopater 9. This Ptolomaeus Philopater being ejected by Antiochus magnus and his Sons Seleucus Philopater 10. This Seleucus being killed Antiochus Epiphanes that was the little horn that sprang up among the ten horns and was not another horn besides the ten horns but cornu ultimum the last of the ten horns and was at his first beginning but a very little horn indeed that had no right at all unto the Kingdom and is the most lively type of the Antichrist that is to be found in all the Scriptures both in respect of his entrance into his Dominion and of his dealings with the Jewish Church just as the Antichrist should enter into his rule and deal with the Church of the Christians And the Prophet tels us of this Antiochus and under his person of the Antichrist That 1. 1. The things that Daniel saith Antiochus should do As you see how he comes to his power and dominion by the suppression and destruction of others the lawful Kings so should the Antichrist do and we know many of the Popes came to that dignity and authority by the ejection and destruction of other Popes as the Histories do sufficiently declare unto us but whether the Long Parliament came to their rule and dominion by the expulsion and destruction of their lawful King I leave it for my Reader to judge And 2. 2. An opposer of Monarchy and very successful Dan. 7.24 The Prophet tels us that Antiochus shall be diverse from the first Kings that is as some Interpreters do expound it he shall be a grand enemy of regal Government and Kingly Majesty so will the Antichrist ex diametro contradict and oppose the Monarchical Government which the Pope never did but upholdeth the same to the uttermost and you know who turned the Regal Government of these Kingdoms to a Commonwealth or as Montanus reads that place ipse erit major prioribus he shall be greater than the former Kings that is in his successes in his victories in his reveâ—ues in his taxes in his absolute authoritie and in his esteem among his Neighbour-Kings and Princes so was Antiochus so the Antichrist will be So is not the Pope when as many former Popes were greater than this is in all the foresaid respects but whether the Long Parliament laid greater taxes upon the people and had more victories and better successes in their proceedings than many other former Kings 3. An overthrower of three Kings or Kingdoms let them be their own Judges 3. The Prophet saith this little horn that is this Antiochus Epiphanes tres reges humiliabit shall bring to the ground or humble three Kings as Montanus reads it Or tres reges deprimet he shall depress and overthrow or subdue three Kings as Tremellius translates it For he drave out of Syria 1. Ptolomaeus Philopater 2. His own eldest Brother Seleucus And 3. Demetrius the Son of Seleucus to whom the right of the Kingdom did appertain So the Antichrist shall overthrow three Kings saith Cornelius a Lapide And I did not read that any of the Popes have done so yet but I know who is said to have suppressed tres reges in uno rege and to have subdued three Kingdoms as some do expound these words and may well be the mystical meaning of this Prophesie 4. A great blasphemer 4. The Prophet goeth on and saith he shall speak great words against the most High that is saith Tremellius blasphemus erit in Deum he shall utter such blasphemies against the most high God as the Jews could not endure to hear them So the Antichrist should do saith the Evangelist Rev. 13.6 And so no doubt but many Popes have done Rev. 13.6 I will excuse none of them and I have shewed to you before and shall yet shew to you hereafter what intollerable blasphemies have been broached and are published in many places by the Sectaries adherents and off-spring of that Long Parliament which may therefore very well go hand in hand with Antiochus and with the Antichrist whosoever he be 5. 5. A destroyer of the Saints and Servants of God 2 Maâ—h 7. The Prophet saith that this Antiochus Sanctos excelsorum deteret as Tremellius reads it i.e. saith he contumeliosissimus atrocissimus Tyrannus erit in populum Dei he shall be the bitterest and the cruellest Tyrant that ever was far worse than Pharaoh against the people of God And so the Books of the Maccabees and especially the cruel butchering and torturing of the Mother and her seven Children only because they would not eat swines flesh which the Law of God forbad them to do do sufficiently declare that neither the Aegyptian Pharaoh Dan. 7.25 nor the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar nor any other forreign or domestick enemy was ever so bloody and so cruel unto the Jews as this Assyrian Antiochus was and our Bibles read it he shall wear out the Saints of the most High and so the Antichrist shall do And our Histories tell us the Popes have worn out and been the death and destruction of many of the Servants of God this cannot be denied and it grieves me much to think and it would grieve me much more to set down a Catalogue of what and how many worthy noble and faithful Servants of Christ have been worn out of these three Kingdoms within these few years 6. A changer of the Lawes and of the times by whom and by what meanes you know And I fear that when God maketh inquisition for bloud the Long Parliament will not be found guiltless 6. The Holy Ghost
among the people and the Antichrist began to appear in Gods Church but if it be so that it is to denote the time of his rising it agreeth far better with the long Parliament for omitting one thousand which is a full and a perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in Scripture to omit one part and to set down the other especially to make the matter mysterious and not to be understood by all but as our Saviour saith by them onely Matth. 13.11 In page 109. to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven Et exploratum est atque compertum habraes alios numerum mille narium in calculis ratiocinisque suis omittere solitos ut Munsterus Calendario suo haebraico p. 6. optimè indicat Basil edit 20. Au. 1527. And as a late Divine saith very well a thousand years being the number of perfection and eternity it is seldome used to be expressed in our ordinary computes but it is usually left out for brevities sake as we say the Spanish Armado was in 588. for 1588. and the Gun-powder plot was in 605. for 1605. and so forth of the like and then confider that in Anno 1646. the great Sunedrion the Parliament A thing which I believe never any subject in any other kingdom durst presume to ask Balaeus makes it to begin in the time of Boniface the third about 607. l. 3 fol. 39. and expounds the 666. to be expired after Hierusalem was taken by Pompey l. 3. fol. 37. Feuard in notis in Iraen l. 5. c 30. Sixt. Senensis Bibl. l 2. pag. 9 and others have collected 12. names that contain 666. Vide Thomson de Antich pag. 44. c. Chytr in Apoc. c. 13. Bibl. ad Chronolog tabula 11. Bellarm de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 10. Names that do contain the number of 666. demanded of the King to have the Militia that is the strength and Soveraign power and rule over the King and kingdom whereby they might unmake and make what Lawes what Warres what Peace and whatsoever else pleased themselves for the full space of 20. years which 20. years being added to 1646. and we shall find that they do make the just number of 666. And therefore this their demand cohereth with the fulfilling of this mystery if it be to be referred to the time of the birth and coming of this beast as all the Divines of Magdesborough and many other learned men think it is though they do not all agree about the beginning of that time But you will say the Holy Ghost telleth us it is the number of a man therefore Luther and Calvin do think that Boniface the third who first took the name of Vniversal Bishop from the Emperour Phocas the murderer of his own Master Mauritius about the year 600. to be the first originall of this beast and the great Antichrist but Cornel à lapide answereth that the taking the name of Vniversall Bishop doth neither shew the number of the beast nor prove the Pope to be the Antichrist because we find that Leo the first in the Councill of Chalcedon and other Bishops before Boniface were called Papae aecumenici Universal Bishops therefore Alcazar saith the name that in the Greek letters conteineth the number of 666. and sheweth the natural properties of the beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pride of life and truly I know not how the Parliament and Presbyterians can quit themselves from this mark when it was their pride and haughty spirits that spurned them on to do all the mischief that they did but that excellent Cronologer Chytraeus and Bibliander and others do collect out of Irenaeus l. 5. c. 30. that first found out this number in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Pope which is now the Latine Prince and rules in Italy must needs be this beast and the Antichrist to which charge Bellarmine answereth and confutes this conceit because the word Latinus as it signifieth Romanus a Roman is not and ought not to be written with et but with a single iotu and then it wanteth five of the number and besides Latinus noteth rather the name of the countrey then of the person and I have shewed you many reasous to Prove that the Pope cannot be meant by this beast and therefore the beast cannot be signified by Latinus unlesse you mean that he is the greatest enemy to Latinus that is to the Pope and to the Latine service as the Parliament profest himself to be Rupertus and Haymo say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like to be the name of the beast because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Seductor Gentium a deceiver of the Nations as the Holy Ghost saith the beast should do and it containeth the just number of 666. and this likewise agreeth very well with the late long Parliament who as I believe hath many wayes deceived the people and the nations round about him more and worse then any beast living Hyppel in orat de Consum Mundi Hypolitus and Primasius say the beast taketh his denomiuation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nego which containeth 666. and signifieth to deny because that as Trajan and Decius requireth the Christians to deny Christ so the beast the Antichrist would have them that were Christians to deny their Baptisme which is the badge and them mark of Christ and of our incorporation into Christ and now we see all the Parliament Anabaptists and most of their Independants which both together I think were the most prevalent party of that Parliament deny their former Baptisme very stiffely and therefore must needs be the beast according to Primasins and Hyppolitus Anselmus Richardus and Tyconius say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth agree with the number of the beast and signifieth honori contrarius because the Beast should trample all Honour and even the honour and reverence that we owe to God under-foot and doth not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree passing well with that Parliament that hath put down King Dukes Lords Bishops And all of them may fitly be applyed to the Long Parliament and the House of Peeres and all other Titles of Honour and hath placed all Titles of Dignity Rule and Authority in the Plebeyans the common and the vulgar sort of people and have they not also throwen away and hindered any Reverent gesture and decency of behaviour to be used in the Service of God and therefore in this respect I suppose that Parliament might justly be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the beast according to these mens judgement because that like a beast they have shewed themselves contrary to all Honour which the Apostles do require to be observed of all Christians Arethas and some others say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containeth 666. Rom. 12.10 1 Pet 2 17. Hefiod in Theog Natalis Com. Mytholog l. 6. c. 20. and fignifieth a Giant to shew
desirous did he shew himself to build God a Temple and notwithstanding all his great affaires and his many and mighty wars and abundance of troubles how he composed his Psalmes and directed them to the chief Musicians Asaph Altaschith Jeduthun and the rest and ordered the Priests and Levites to discharge the service of God and of the Tabernacle according as the Lord had commanded the same to be observed by his servant Moses So careful was he at all times and before all things to have the service of God rightly and duly performed And therefore herein he is said to be a man according to Gods own heart and God blessed him and established him and his seed in his throne for ever But Jeroboam though perhaps he was freer and more abstemious from many other sins then either David himself or many other men were and it may be a very just morall man yet when he came into his kingdom he wholly neglected to see the Lords service truly executed and out of a politick conceit as he conceived to secure himself and his posterity in his newly gotten power and authority he cast out the Priests of the Lord the sons of Aaron that were the lawfull Governours and the true servers of God and gathered together a company of novices and young fellowes the lowest and basest of the people that were not of the sonnes of Aaron and that for some small preferment would both say and do whatsoever he pleased and serve what god soever he commanded and with what service soever he liked he made them Priests of his high places to offer sacrifices to his golden gods And therefore is he said to make Israel to sin and God soon rooted him and his posterity out of that kingdom that God had given unto him And so he can do with all those Kings and Monarchs whatsoever they be that by their timorous conniving with Sects or a popular favouring either the greater part or the stronger side do think it the most politick course to be securely established and so suffer the service of God to be either neglected or perverted and the faithfull Governours of his Church to be suppressed through the impetuous importunity of aspiring emulators or the clamorous desire of ignorant vulgars whereas the best policy in the world to preserve them is to be men of courage to uphold the true service of God this fortitude being a vertue most necessary both for the Prince and the Preacher quia timiditas eorum est calamitas multorum because their fear will become the fall of many when the one dares not say the truth and the other will not do what is just or will do what is unjust for very fear whereas the upholding of Gods right service is able to uphold them against all opponents And therefore that the true service of God might be preserved uncorrupted and unchanged by all Kings and Monarchs which is the chiefest thing that God requireth at their hands and is the principal thing that can preserve them in their Majesty and perpetuate the same unto their posterity it is most requisite they should be very carefull in the choice of their spiritual teachers and guides to direct them for the preservation of the true worship of God for we know the Arian Bishops made Constantius an Arian Emperour and the Priests of Baal made Ahab and Jezabell so zealously affected to the service of Baal and so the Popish Priests make Papists and the Run-a-gadoes out of the Church do when they return make Sects and Factions in the Church and therefore as it had been good for Ahab if he would have hearkened to Elias and Micaiah as he did to the Priests of Baal and good for Constantius if he had as well favoured the Orthodox as he did the Heterodox and Arian Bishops so it will be good and the best course to guide all Kings Monarchs and Governours of the people for the setling of the true service of God to give ear unto and to countenance those who are appointed by God to direct them in Gods service rather then to any others for the grave and reverend Governours of the Church are like the discreet Counsellours of King Solomon and will advise them not to listen nor to relie so much upon the directions of any novices which may prove like the counsel of those young favourites of Rehoboam Thus I have freely exprest my mind to your Majesty so plain that he which runs may read it and reading it may easily understand it and I humbly beseech you to bear with my plain dealing for though it behoves not us to polupragmatize in things that are beyond our line and without the compasse of our calling and to intermeddle with the civil Government yet as John the Baptist told Herod of his duty to God so it behoveth us with the spirit of Elias to inform our Kings our Governours how they should uphold Gods service or if we neglect the same for fear of their displeasure we shall make our selves liable to the displeasure of God Almighty and so as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shunning the smoak of mans anger we shall fall into the fire of Gods fury or as Job saith timentes pruinam opprimemur à nive that is as Saint Gregory moralizeth it by fearing the frost of mans hatred which we might tread under our feet we shall be oppressed and swallowed up with the snow of Gods vengeance that falleth down from heaven upon our heads and we cannot avoid it And therefore as Saint Clemens saith quae vobis expedire novimus tacere non possumus we must needs tell you what we conceive makes for your hapinesse so I humbly beseech your Majesty to raise the slain witnesses which the cruel beast hath kill'd and to redresse in Gods service what the long Parliament did amisse and so God will bless you and yours which is the daily prayer of Your Majesties most Humble Faithful and most dutiful Subject Gr. Ossory To the High and most Honourable COURT OF PARLIAMENT The humble addresse of Gruffith Williams L. Bishop of Ossory May it please your Honours THe Spirit of God long agoe hath foretold it out of his grrat love unto his Church what sad accidents and heavie disasters should fall upon her for the times to come even to the end of the world and amongst all the rest of her crosses that she must unavoydably undergoe this is none of the leaft if it be not of greatest importance that the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit which is interpreted to be the man of sin and the child of perdition as Saint Paul calleth him that is the Great Antichrist should kill the two witnesses of Jesus Christ that is 1. The Monarchie or supreme Monarch that hath the soveraign Majesty and the supremest power to rule the people and to place other subordinate Magistrates and officers under him for the execution of justice in all the parts of his
Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and thereby 2 Tim. 3.5 saith the Apostle they shall turn the Grace of God into wantonness that is turne the true Service of God into vain jangling and a foolish senceless prating and so probably prove themselves to be just like Jannes and Jambres that resisted Moses who was their chief Governour and King in Jeshuron and like Corah Dathan and Abiram that as the Prophet saith angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Psal 106.16 and so despised rebelled and would have destroyed both the Civil Magistrate and the Ecclesiastical Governours of Gods Church which Offices themselves desired and aimed at and would have obtained if God by his fearful Judgment had not prevented them And according to these Prophesies and Predictions That all the aforesaid things came to pass according as they were foreshewed and the like 1. Of Deceivers and Corrupters of Gods Truth 2. Of a Faithful Reformation of all in-crept Errours and Abuses And 3. Of a Faithless Apostasie and Rebellion against the Reformers of the same and the Defenders of Gods Service by a company of Hypocritical Zealots we find by the successes saith one and I think very right that all these things happened just as they were fore-shewed by the Apostle as in other places so likewise in this our Church of Ingland For after that the Pope and the Church of Rome had fallen away from some Points of the true Faith Arise Evans in his voice from Heaven p. 18 19. and had privily as I shewed before brought in divers Errours Abuses and Superstitions which defiled the Purity and blemished the Beauty of our Church as of many other particular Churches besides Martyn Luther steps up and falls out with the Pope for and about the Sale of his Indulgences by his Factor Tercelius whom the Pope then employed for that business and then he bitterly inveigheth against his Holiness for this and the other Corruptions of the German Church that were no less as they said than centum gravamina a hundred grievances Fasciculus rerum extendarum King Hen. the 8. writes against Luther which were presented to Pope Adrian the 6th with an earnest desire of a speedy redress as you may find it in fasciculo rerum expetendarum Hereupon King Henry the 8. it may be in Requital of the Popes favour that granted him a dispensation to marry his Brothers Wife writes a Book against Luther and therein blames him very much for apostatizing and starting aside from his Mother the Church of Rome and contrary to his Faith and Oath and all good manners so eagerly to oppose and so bitterly to rail against his holy Father the Pope and so to the uttermost of his Learning that was both an understanding wise and Learned King he defends the Faith together with the Corruptions of the Roman Church or rather maintaines the Errours and Superstitions of that Church together with so much of the true Faith as the Pope and the Church of Rome did then profess King Hen. 8. his double recompence for his book against Luther 1. Recompence and for this Royal Engagement of the King against Luther the King receives a double Recompense 1. The one from Luther his great Antagonist 2. The other from the Pope his dear Client For 1. Luther in the heat of his Fury and the heighth of his German spirit railes as much against the King and calls him as I read it in his own Book and not out of any other Transcriber asinissimus Rex an unseemly term as I conceive for a poor Monk to give to so great a King and as I said none of the meanest Clerks as he had formerly done against the Pope which bitter Invectives against a Father in the Church and the Patriarch of all the Western Churches Tilenus exeges pag. 29. Aphor. 104. p. 20. as the Primitive Counsels term him qui in ordine primus fuit inter Patriarchas primum ordine in Apostolorum collegio eum esse non inviti concedimus saith Tilenus and such uncivil behaviour towards Kings Luther blamed for his too much bitternesse and unseemly terms Matth. 11.29 that are the Lords Anointed be they what they will when I read not upon the credit of others but in his own Tractates as I thought very well of many things that he wrote so I should have thought much better of all the rest but that I conceived so much bitterness mingled with such a measure of Gall and Vinegar as dropped from his Pen not against the sins but against the Persons of men could not be distilled from the spirit of God which is a Spirit of Meekness and Lowliness as our Saviour testifieth But 2. 2. Recompence The Pope for this Scholastick Defence of the Faith of the Roman Church by the King which the Pope himself should have done by his Pen and desired the King to have assisted him by his Sword gives to him and to his Successors the Kings of Ingland the just good and honourable Title of Defender of the Faith that is the True and Christian Faith or the Faith of Gods Elect which was pretended to be then in Rome and is now defended by the King And though King Henry obtained this Eulogy this Title and this Authority upon a wrong ground because he defended a wrong Faith yet as Jacob got the blessing upon an untrue suggestion that he was his father Isaac's eldest son even his first-born Esau but being once gotten he still retained it So did the King Genes 27.19 when he fell out with the Pope and fell from the Pope about his divorce from Queen Katherine which the Pope upon good grounds would not admit still retain that Title How the Faith was defended in Ingland and especially the truth and substance of that Title and maintained the same as a King with his sword which he had gained as a Priest with his pen and so did his son and his Successor after him Edward the 6th continue a royal defender of the true faith and when Queen Mary would have remitted the Title and permitted the faith to be undefended and the truth to be corrupted in this Kingdome the witnesses of Christ his Gospel the holy Martyrs of our Church Cranmer Latymer Ridley 3 reverend Bishops and the rest of those holy Champions stood up and defended the same unto death with the sheding of their blood and the loss of their dearest lives And after Queen Maries time Q. Elizabeth like another Deborah with the advice and assistance of all the godly Bishops and the best of all the Divines in her Kingdom concluded and set forth the Articles of our Church and that perfect form of Godliness the Liturgy and book of common prayer and service of God which they composed with a free liberty from her majesty at home and without any fear either of Pope or any other forraign Authority abroad And this faith
and destroy the Image of God when as God himself is invisible and inaccessible and in nothing of all the things that he made so plainly and so exemplanly to be seen of us as in the face of man and therefore of all the creatures and of all the things that are man alone is said to be principally the image of God and in that respect chiefly to be respected and cherished and not to be murdered or killed because that in the Image of God God made man And therefore he that killeth man doth to the uttermost of his best endeavour his very best to kill God because he destroyeth his Image when he can do nothing else nor come at any thing else of God but his Image And if as our adversaries do say the service done to a dead Image which is no where commanded by God to be done doth presently redound ad prototypon to the Person represented by the Image Then certainly we may be much surer that the defacing of Gods lively Image that is man whom God doth so earnestly command us to love and so straightly prohibit us to hate must needs be a disgracing of God himself and all the injuries and contempts that are done to this Image do presently redound to the very Person of God And the City of Thessalonica besides many others can well testifie how severely the Emperors punished the abuse that was done to their Statua's or Images when they deemed all the dishonour that was offered unto their Images to be as Treasons committed against themselves 8. And lastly This sin of murder and killing of a man 8. This sin robbeth God of his temple not only defaceth the Image of God but also robbeth God of his Temple which is sacriledge and thrusteth God out of his House and maketh none account of but trampleth under his feet that creature which God did so highly esteem of and purchased at so high a rate as with his own bloud and with no less than his own death And in a word this unjust and malicious shedding of mans bloud to death is so odious so hainous and every way so horrible a sin in the sight of God as that it is impossible for me had I the tongue of men and Angels to express the vileness and the exceeding heinousness of the same The only commandment that God gave immediatly after the flood Gen. 9.5 And therefore God to shew unto us how hateful this sin is in his sight doth immediatly after the Flood give this great and straight Commandment and the only Commandment that he giveth to all the Sons of Noah to abstain from shedding of mans blood and he doth so pathetically and with such terrible threatnings express the punishment of the Transgressors as I know not the like of any other sin in all the Scriptures saying surely that you need not doubt of it at the hand of every beast will I require it and though the beasts be void of reason or understand not what they do yet will I not hold them guiltless if they shed mans blood See Exod. 21.28 Gen. 9.5 See Num 35. Lev. 24. Mat. 26. and therefore much rather and far sooner at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man And for the due observance of this strict account to be made for the taking away of mans life he appointed Kings and gave them authority to appoint Magistrates under them to take care and to see that whosoever sheddeth mans bloud by man should his bloud be shed that this sin might never escape unpunished The reason why God doth so highly hate man killing And the reason why God is so severe in the punishment of this sin of man-killing is here rendred and ought to be well considered videlicet for that in the Image of God made he man and so whosoever killeth a man except it be whom the Law of God and the Law of the Land requireth to be killed is guilty of destroying the Image of God and God cannot endure to have his own lively Image which himself hath made and no Painter nor Angel could make the like to be defaced And therefore also when God gave his Lawes to us on Mount Sinai the first Commandment of all that do concern our duty towards man after the duty that we owe to our Parents that bring us into the world and do bring us up and feed us when we could not feed our selves is Thou shalt not kill And truly in these respects and for the foresaid Reasons I for mine own part The Authors mind about killing men do so far hate and detest to kill any man except it be for such a necessity as compelleth me to save mine own life rather to kill him that maliciously seeks my life than suffer my self to be killed that I had rather do any servile work for my food for a penny a day to buy bread than to receive the greatest Salary honour and preferment that the world could confer upon me for killing men Greg. habetur 23. q. 8. S. in mortem And Ibelieve St. Gregory was not of any other mind than I am or not far from this mind when he said Si in mortem Longobardorum me miscere voluissem hodie Longobardorum gens nec regem nec ducem haberet sed quia Deum timeo in mortem cujuslibet hominis me miscere formido that is If I might have my will to be the death of the Longobards or if I would have them dead the whole Nation of the Longobards should have neither King nor Captain at this day but because I fear God I will not wish the death of any man but I tremble for fear of being the death of any man And he that feareth God will certainly with St. Gregory be very much afraid to joyn himself to any mans death but will study by all means vacuas caedis habere manus to keep his hands clean from all blood especially the blood of Innocents And so you see how unnatural how unreasonable how devillish now beastly how hainous how inexplicable and how hateful and detestable in the sight of God is the murdering and killing of a man That every kind of murder or mankilling is not the sin of the Antichrist which is the Image of God And Yet you must know that not the simple and single murdering or killing of a man is the sin of the Antichrist for if that were his sin we should have 10000 Antichrists and therefore it could not be his proper and peculiar sin when that sin is committed by so many but his sin is such a murder and such a killing and slaughtering of a man or men as comes to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very height and highest top of this mischief so high as none other man committed the like murder For this sin of murder and man-slaughter is like a huge and mighty
Priest and to command him to discharge the same as he ought to do and to reprove and correct him when he doth neglect it which are the principal things duties and Prerogatives of any King or prime Magistrate of any Kingdom or Commonwealth And thus all the best Orthodox Interpreters both Papists and Protestants do agree that the Apostle meaneth here Vide Tremellium in Joh. 10.34 that the Antichrist should exalt himself above his King because the Scripture doth most properly and plainly speak it of Kings when God saith Dixi Diiestis I have said you are Gods and our Saviour doth primarily and principally mean Kings when he citeth the same saying against the Pharisees as Beza witnesseth saying Testimonium quod citat Christus in Psal 82. v. 6. Habetur That in Psal 82.6 Kings are understood by Gods ubi expostulat Deus cum regibus terrae qui imperio potentia quam â Deo acceperant abuterentur hoc Christus ad presentem causam accommodat quod deorum nomine ornemur qui ad regendum mundum sunt ministri that is the testimony which Christ citeth against the Pharisees is found in Psal 82. v. 6. where God exâ—ostulateth with the Kings of the Earth which abused that rule and power which they received from God Beza in Annotat in Joh. 10.37 and this Christ applieth to the present occasion that they which are Gods Ministers and Deputies to govern the World are honoured with the name of Gods And so the first words of that Psalm do sufficiently shew that Kings are to be understood there by Gods for God standeth in the Congregation of Princes saith the Prophet he is a Judge among Gods and therefore by God in this place the Apostle meaneth the King that God hath set over this man of sin to rule him as well as others because the Kings are appointed by God to governe and to judge the people of God and therefore he tells his people plainly By me Kings do reign that is Prov. 8.15 not only by my permission and suffering of them to reign as I suffer many disorders and many evills to be done but they reign and rule by my authority and by my appointment that have ordained and set your Kings to reign and rule over you for they do sit in the thrones of judgement as Gods Deputies and Vicegerents in Gods stead to exercise a part of Gods power here on earth which is as the Poet can tell you Parcere subjectis debellare superbos The lawful power of Kings To defend and to reward the good and obedient Subjects and to punish the rebellious the wicked and the wrong doers and to that end as God hath the Keys of heaven and of hell to let the Godly enter into glory and to shut up the wicked within the Chambers of death so Kings have potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death that is to preserve the life of the innocent and to put the transgressors unto death or to pardon them if they see cause and to spare their life which is the greatest power on earth but not to put to death whom they please and for what cause soever they list which is the property and practice of an unjust Tyrant and not the liberty of a good and a righteous King So you see the honour power and prerogative that God hath conferred upon Kings and is warranted and confirmed by our Saviour Christ and therefore ought to be ascribed and yielded unto them by their Subjects especially if they be Christians and such as profess to know the will of God Let the Reader Judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament And yet the Apostle tells us that this man of sin which is the Antichrist will exalt himself above his King and I will not judge but refer it to the World to judge whether the long Parliament and their adherents have not denied this honour worship and obedience and indeed every part and parcel of that honour which God hath granted and commanded to be yielded unto their King Or whether they have not actually exalted themselves above their King And whether their words in their Petition to the King The words of the Parliament in their Petition to the King wherein they say The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and therein further say That his Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects have represented their most dutiful affections in advising and desiring those things which were most necessary for his Majesties safety and honour and in the Conclusion thereof do say That his Majesties personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own Lives and Fortunes being put in one end of the ballance and the warring against him and especially the cutting off of the Kings head in the other end of the ballance where both their love and their hatred might be seen at once do not prove just like the Souldiers dealing with Christ to bow their knees unto him Mat. 27.29 to put a Crown on his head and a Scepter in his hand and to say Hail King of the Jews as if his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own lives and fortunes and yet immediately to spit in his face and to hang him up upon a tree Which is the most paelpable the greatest and the grossest hypocrisie and mockery in the World or I may justly say with the words of Agur Prov. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man For Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta Will any wise man believe mens words when their deeds tell them to their faces that they lie And how shall I believe that his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their lives and fortunes when I see them taking away his Life And after they had finished the Tragedy of his life and had taken off his Head to do as the Athenians did with Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana that is to extinguish with his Person his Name his Memorial and his Office When they would not suffer his Friends and his Servants to keep their King and their Masters Picture in their private Chambers but searched their houses as they did my house to see if they could find the Kings Picture And when as the Prophet tells us the lawless Jews said Hos 10.3 We will have no King because we fear not the Lord and what then should a King do to us For we that fear not the Lord will never reverence any King no more than they that will have no King will never fear the Lord because God hath coupled the fear of the Lord and of the King together with such an indissoluble knot that whosoever feareth God cannot choose but fear and reverence his King and he
boasting and bragging or prae se ferens as Beza translates it pretending that he is God or as Tremellius saith ostentet seipsum ac si Deus esset he will carry himself as if he were a God that is in Gods stead the true King to rule the people and the right Bishop to govern the Church of Christ or That the Antichrist will wholly direct the Clergy and dispose of all things in the Church and about the service of God as some do read it he would be esteemed and taken tanquam sit Deus for such a supream Monarch and chief Governor over Gods Church as God said unto Moses he should be to Aaron his God to direct him in all the service of the Tabernacle and the whole worship of God so will the Antichrist be such a God to order direct and dispose of all the worship of God and how all the Clergie in order and without order should behave and carry themselves in the whole service of the Church which I take to be the true meaning of the Apostle in this place For this shewing himself or bragging that he is God is not to be understood that he would have himself believed to be the true and everliving God and worshiped with divine worship as the Historians tell us Alexander Antigonus Augustus Caligula Domician and divers others of the Caesars and Emperors were transported to that height of pride and ambition as believing themselves to be more than men to require the people their subjects to take them for Jupiter Apollo or some other of those anciently esteemed Gods and to ascribe the honor and worship that was usually given to those Gods unto themselves as Altars Sacrifices and the like whereof Virgil speaking of Augustus saith Virgilius eglog 1. Illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus And Horace also saith Horatius epist. l. 2. Jurandásque tuum per nomen ponimus aras But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin the Antichrist will bragge and boast unto the people that he is all for God and for the honor and service of God and therefore sits in the temple of God to set out the right directory of serving God that so God through him and by his only means and endeavors might be rightly served and worshipped according to his directory as the Mahometans worship Mahomet according to his Alcoran and we formerly worshipped God according to the form prescribed unto us by our Governors in the book of Common-prayer and so he sheweth that he is God that is most godly and so a God by the participation of the godliness and holiness of God which exposition doth most fitly agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he sheweth himself to be which is the rediest way to deceive the people And whether the long Parliament hath not usurped this ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction over all the holy things Let the Reader judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament and to set forth the sole Directory of Gods service tanquam sit Deus as if they alone had Aarons Office to order all the other Priests and Levites or had the spirit of S. Paul infallibly to direct the Church of Christ as well as Moses his Authority and the power of a King to rule the people Let the Parishes and people of God that have none other form of Gods service but what the Parliament Preachers and the observers of their Directory do use be the Judges both of what service and of what Doctrine is brought unto them I make small account though I will not pass it unsaluted of that Observation which some men have made that the Parliament House where the members of the long Parliament sate Arise Evans in his Voice from heaven was a Chappel consecrated by King Edward the 3. to be the Temple of God as appeareth by many Records because many other Parliaments have sate in that Chappel and yet not any of them all have usurped this power to be the supream disposers and directors of all the holy service of God the Commanders of all the Bishops and Priests of the most high God how to do his service and what service should be done unto him and to make themselves the sole Possessors the right owners to dispose sell or give all the Revenues lands states Tythes and offerings of the Church as it is said the Antichrist would do and which he may no better nor so well do as Scyrus and Procrustes the two vilest robbers that we read of could take thy purse and all thy mony by the High-way side And here also I cannot omit to observe Note the word fit in the temple that the Apostle saith that the man of sin shall not stand but sit in the Temple of God where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth to fit as where it is said that Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4.6 and 20.12 sate by the well and so the two Angells were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting in white raiments is to be distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokeneth and signifieth collocare to place or to set a thing in some place as it is where the Apostle saith if you have judgments of things pertaining to this life 1 Cor. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set such or place them to judg who are least esteemed in the Church and so where it is said that the Disciples brought the Asse and the Colt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they set him Matth 21.7 or placed him thereon And therefore it is rightly concluded by Maresius that this sitting in the Temple of God is ill applyed by Grotius to Caius Caligula his causing of his Statue to be placed in the Temple at Hierusalem but it may most properly signifie the sitting of the Parliament Let the Reader judge of this or the like society of men in that place where they intend to acquiesce and rest themselves whether the place be physical or Metaphysical And whether the Parliament resolved not only to stand in that their dignity and Authority for a while or intended to sit and acquiesce and continue themselves and their Successors for ever in the Parliament-House and in the Temple of God to govern the Church of God as God themselves know best I will not judge of their Intention CHAP. VI. That the Antichrist is a great Professor of Religion and a seeming Saint That he belyeth his Profession and is indeed the greatest Hypocrite in the world What the great Lye of the Antichrist is What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ And how the Father and the Son may be denied two manner of waies 2. THough I might go on
bour Kings and States being made afraid of that power that could so suddenly subdue these three Kingdoms should very gladly yield themselves to become friends and Associates and to make a league of friendship with this Beast which Exposition may possibly be very near unto the truth when we see little lesse then this already come to passe The Commentator supposed to be Grotius makes these 10 Kings to be the Kings of Armenia Thracia Galatia Judaea Arabia c. which were under the Roman Empire and the Ministers of their Idolatry Et sic alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt And truly I do not wonder that these learned men transported with a desire to make the World believe that the Pope is the great Antichrist and so misunderstanding whom the Holy Ghost meaneth by this Beast should in like manner mistake what or whom they should conceive to be the heads and horns and all other parts of this Beast quia uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur one absurdity draweth on another But how far those Expositions of Junius and Alcazar and that likewise of Mr. Mede and of all others that would have these 10 horns to signifie 10 Kings pertaining to the Roman Empire are from the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this Text will most evidently appear if you consider that the particulars of the description of these 10 horns do no wayes square and cohere with these 10 Kings that they speak of for these 10 Kings The former expositions rejected and the reasons shewed in the Text have interest but in one kingdom as you may see in the 17th Chapt. v. 12. and 17. where the spirit of God speaks in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had received no Kingdom as yet v. 12. and in the 17. v. it is said that God hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree which those Kings never did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to give their Kingdom unto the beast and not their Kingdoms whereas the Kings that were under the Emperour and are become under the Pope were and are properly Kings and have every one of them his own proper and peculiar Kingdom neither can it be said of them as it is said here of these Kings that they have received power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one houre with the beast that is a very very small time when as they came to their power and dominion by descent or by Conquest and did not receive it as these did from any Master that gave it them and they continued therein during their life some of them very long and some of them at one time and some at another time yielded themselvee unto the Pope and all of them were of so different a time one from another that it can never agree The unlikelihood of Mr. Medes Exposition with this one houre or a short space wherein these 10 horns do agree to give their strength and power and Kingdom which they have received unto the Beast Neither is there any likelihood that those 10 Kings which Mr. Mede nameth should be the 10 Kings here meant because they were but transient by the success of Warre and of small Provinces half or quarter of a Kingdom as Vortimer and Hengist here in Ingland Childerick and Gunderick and Theodorick in Gallia and Sumanus but in a little Continent between the Rhene so that they might be better termed Reguli then Reges and because also they were as I said before of a different time one from another which might be the reason as I conceive that made Junius to passe them over un-named because he saw the unlikeliness of these men to be the 10 Kings that are here meant neither could they be said to be the horns of the Roman Empire because they revolted from it and became horns against it and pushed very hard to overcome it but as I said dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur so these learned men mistaking the beast did easily mistake both his heads and his horns But if that by this Beast you understand the long Parliament The 10 horns paralelled with the Parliament you shall finde that as all the other particulars which are here set down in this Prophesie do in every point seem to accord and agree with that Parliament so doth all the description of these 10 horns that is these 10 Kings that had no Kingdom The 10 Horns may be taken to signifie one of these three things 1.10 Of their prime Commanders but the power Authority and strength of Kings which is potestas vitae necis the power of life and death and is the greatest power that any King can have and which they give unto the Beast v. 13. that is use for the service of the Beast doth agree with the Parliament if we understand by these 10 horns either 1. Ten of the prime Generalls and Commanders of that long Parliament which you will confess had no Kingdom and yet had the honour and power of Kings Or 2. If by these 10. horns we understand all their Chieftains 2. All their Chietrains and Commanders whereof not one of them had any Kingdom and yet each one of them had the power and authority of Kings for one hower that is for a small time and you may well remember the best and greatest of them had it not very long and you know likewise they all devoted this their power and strength for the service of them from whom they had received it and they were all of them as the Holy Ghost saith of one mind Gen. 31.7 41. 1 Sam. 1.8 Job 19.3 Eccles 17.19 Revel 2.10 and did all run the same way to fight against the Lamb to overthrowe the true Church and to slay the witnesses of Christ and yet they did all of them as they said hate the Whore the Whore of Babylon that is as they expound it the Church of Rome and all the Romish superstition for 10. being a perfect number the Holy Ghost doth in many places put down this number as he doth many other perfect numbers for an uncertain number as when Jacob said unto Laban Thou hast changed my wages ten times that is many times and the Holy Ghost saith unto the Church of Smyrna thou shalt have tribulation ten dayes that is sever all times so by these 10 horns or 10 Kings we may understand many Chieftains that had the power of Kings which they all imployed for the service of that long Parliament or else 3. If by these 10 horns we understand the greatness and perfection of that power strength and authority which was given and was shewed in those Generalls The horn an Emblem of Strength Psal 18.2 Psal 22.21 Psal 75.10 and they used for the advancement of the Parliament for the Scripture useth to express our strength and power by the Epithite of a horn as you may most frequently finde it in
I need not stand any longer to unkennell this Beast seeing that the same things that are incident to the Presbyterians may be truely applyed to the Independants but that in my judgement the Independant is less rigid more tolerable and quiet and of far better faith and principles then the Presbyterians 3. 3. The Presbyterians the first fountain and the chiefe Head of this false Prophet The Presbyterians not as they are Presbyters but as they now shew themselves to be under this notion and name of Presbyterians are the primum mobile and the maine stock from whence do spring all the branches of this false Prophet and though I might collect many more yet I will infist and that briefly but upon these foure points besides their correspondency with what the Spirit of God setteth down here that do sufficiently shew them to be this false Prophet and they are 1. Their Apostasie 1. Their Apostasie For 2. Their Perjury For 3. Their Hypocrisie For 4. The obliquity of all their actions For 1. 1 John 3.19 They were with us and as St. John saith they went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but in the height of their pride they left their station forsook their coulors and started aside like a broken bowe And so 2. 2. Their Perjury The Oath of the Presbyters when they are made Ministers In Apostatizing from that Profession which they made at their Ordination and denying their Bishops and Diocessans to be their Guides and their Governors they became perjured to break their faith and to falfifie their Oath which they made in the presence of God and his Congregation when they were ordained for when any one is to enter into the Holy Order of Priesthood the Bishop demands of him will you reverently obey your Ordinary and other chiefe Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge is committed over you following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your selfe to their godly judgements and he that is to be admitted Priest answereth I will so do the Lord being my helper which is a promissory Oath that requireth performance and may no way be dispensed with and violated at our pleasure as that Learned Regius Professor of Oxford Doctor Sanderson Vide Dr. Sanderson de Juramento Promissorio in that excellent Book De Juramento Promissorio hath most amply declared unto us and shall we think that they can be true Prophets to us that have been false and perjured to themselves or shall we commit our soules to their custody that have forfeited their own soules unto the Devill or shall we not believe that these rather then the Roman Clergy are this false Prophet For 1. They have not refused to be subject and obedient to their Governors nor stepped aside from their station and therefore cannot be taxed with this Apostasie that the Apostle ascribeth to the many Antichrists that were in his time 2. They have not falsified their faith and perjured themselves in not performing their Oath and observing their promise which they made when they entered into Sacred Orders but to proceed 3. For their hypocrisie I leave it to the world to judge of it And 4. For the obliquity of their actions it is well observed by one that in all their doings they and their Proselites do imitate King Saul to a haire for first King Saul without any respect or regard to the Office and Authority of the Priest would presume to offer sacrifice 1 Sam. 13.9 10. as afterwards Vzziah would have done so the new Presbyters though they cannot show that they have any authority descentive from hand to hand from the Apostles as all 2 Chron. 26.16 17. and every true Presbyter ought to have yet will they intrude themselves to do the offices of the Ministers of Christ 2. Saule had an evill spirit that could not abide any musick but would have killed David when he played before him 1 Sam. 18.10 11. so the Presbyterians cannot endure any Organs or Musick in the Worship of God 3. Saul made no conscience of his Oathes but through the vehemency of his Zeal forsooth to Gods Honour he despised the wisdom of his fore-fathers and therefore he breaks the Oath that they made unto the Gibeonites and would needs slay those harmeless Gibeonites and the whole Nation of the Jewes must smart for his foolish rashness and his bloody act so the Presbyterian or Rumpe Parliament and their Teachers the Presbyters were such Zelots and so Holy that they despised the wisdom of our former Parliaments and so brake their Oathes of their Alleageance and Supremacy to the King and as I said before of their obedience and subjection to the Bishops and the Church of Christ and slew the two Witnesses of God and the whole Kingdom hath ever since smarted for the same 4. Saul was a most malicious man and as cruell as any one of those times as you may read how he persecuted and hunted after the life of David 1 Sam. 18.11 Chap. 19.1.10 Chap. 21.1 c. without any cause and against all Reason would have put his own son Jonathan to death and did not the Presbyterian Parliament as maliciously hunt after the Kings life and the Bishops and abundance more of the Kings Party let my Reader judge 5. This goodly King for Davids sake caused fourscore and five persons of the Lords Priests that did weare a linnen Ephod saith the Text to be slain and all that they had to be destroyed and did not the Proselites of these Presbyters for King Charles his sake because they were honest and faithfull unto their King as he was loving and like a Father unto them run and ruinate well-near as many Bishops besides the Deanes Prebends and many more godly Ministers that were Canonicall and wore the linnen surplice though they that hated the surplice escaped their brethrens fate and were protected and advanced by these Presbyters as those that rejected the linnen Ephod were preserved by Saul for it is most evident that the Spirit of God would not have set down the garments of those Priests that were destroyed but to intimate unto us that some other false Priests that could no more abide the linnen Ephod then our Presbyters can now endure the white surplice were joyned with Saul and whispered in his ears against those that did wear the Ephod as the Presbyterians did alwayes ring in the ears of the Parliament men against the wearers of these holy garments otherwise it had been enough to say that Saul had caused to be slain so many Priests of the Lord without any further mention of wearing the linnen Ephod but the holy Ghost setteth not down the least title to no purpose And I could wish his Majesty would well consider how that very very many of the prime Presbyterians in London and the country made
such affectionate addresses and passionate prayers for the continuance of Richard Cromwell in his Protectorship as may be seen in their Diurnalls and inquire if any one of the Bishops or of all the Episcopall party did the same and then to consider whether such men that are so unjust to their King to their Civil Governors be fit men to be made Governors of the Church of Christ as they imitate this malicious King in their actions so they are the disciples of railing Rabsheca in their Sermons for letting passe those doctrines that derogate from the goodnesse truth and justice of God they stuffe their Sermons with most unsavory expressions and ridiculous things in the eares of men as a Presbyter Preacher in Christs Church said that hell was paved with Kings Crowns and Bishops sculls another said that God might as rightly be said to be the Authour of sin as of Monarchy and a third said that Monarchy was such a beast as he would venture his life to fight against it these and the like were the doctrines of this beast and yet now who pretends to be more zealous to reduce our David to his throne then these Presbyters when as other men knowing their doings think it strange they should have the impudencie to look any King in the face And to justify what I say of these Presbyters the chiefest branch of this false Prophet as I will not refuse a pearle from a dung-hil so I will not disdain to alledge the testimony of George Fox the younger in the eleventh page of his book whose copy was delivered into the hands of his Majesty the fourth day of the fourth moneth 1660. where he saith unto the King if thou shouldst come in upon the account of the Prethyterians or shouldst refuse to bow to what they should set up or not Jatisfy the covetousnesse of their Priests there be several of them would be ready to serve thee as they did thy Father and a little after he saith how abominably have these durty deceitful covetous Priests acted in all these changes i.e. which he had formerly spoken of Oh! it is hard to utter their deceit who one while have prayed for a King and Parliament and when they saw the King was like to fall and no ways likely to maintain them they turned against him and prayed onely for the Parliament and asserted their authority and cursed them that would not go out to help against the mighty and shortly after when Oliver Cromwell had turned out the Parliament and set up himself they cryed him up and prayed for him and many of them began to assert his authority to he just and when he died many of these Preachers began to addresse themselves to his Son and fawned upon him that he might provide for their God which is their belly and they appeared to be sorrowful for his Fathers death and blasphemously termed him the Light of their eyes and the breath of their nostrills and they told Richard that God had left him to carry on that glorious work which his Father had begun and some of these Preachers compared Ol. Cr. to be like unto Moses and Rich like unto Joshua who should carry them into the promised land and how soon did some of them turn to cry for a Parliament again when the Army turned out Richard and when George Booth made a rising then they cried out against the Parliament and began to curse such as would not go out against them and when George Booth was taken they petitioned to the Parliament to excuse themselves and that they had no hand in the rising and now they are for thee O King and if thou wilt believe them thou art worthy to be deceived by them But I should be overtedious if I should relate unto you the abundant blasphemies of their vile Doctrine Which you may find at large in Arise Evans his Euroclydon per totum and obliquity of all the actious of these new Presbyters and their Proselites and therefore I will pass to those things that are here mentioned and shew the description of this second beast as the H.G. doth here set it down and leave my Reader to judg whether they be not all fulfilled and every way appliable to our Presbyterians to prove them and none else to be this false Prophet here mentioned in this Book of the Revelation Where notwithstanding I would have you to observe that there are two sorts of the now and new Presbyterians that is 1. Rigidi superhi ambitiosi 2. Moderati molles timidi 1. The proud ambitious and rigid Presbyters that sate at Westminster like the Synedrion under Cayphas an Assembly of Divines that chalked out the way for the rest to follow them in their extravagant and exorbitant courses and these are the partes constitutivae the chiefest and the principall parts of this false Prophet 2. The moderate remisse and fearful Presbyters are such as to preserve their livings do unwillingly observe the Directory of the rigid Presbyters that are here so amply described by the holy Ghost and do in all things correspond and are conformable to every point of the description of this two-horned beast as hereafter I shall shew unto you The seed of this beast though begun to be sowen When the seed of the beast was first sown in the Church as the Apostle saith of the my tery of iniquity by Simon Magus Ebion Cerinthus Nicholas and the like in the first age of the Church yet did not this beast shew his hornes nor this mystery so visibly with any strength appear in our Church of Great Britain till now of late Indeed when the godly professors of the Gospel in King Edward the sixth his time and in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign began to fow good corn in the field of this our Church and to make a reformation and a rooting out of those weeds of superstition that the Ministers of the said mystery had spread and now began to be discerned among the wheat then presently the envious man super-seminavit Zizania that is When Puritanisme began amongst us in these dominions which you may see more fully shewed in Mr. Fullers History of our Chuch Brightman in Revelat. c. 2. Detrahunt noâ—is perimus detrahunt Canoni veritati non detrahant Aug de verbis Aposteli Sermone 14. And so may we say of these men the devill stirred up his seeds-men John Knox in Scotland and Thomas Cartwright in Ingland to mingle our wine with wormwood and to scatter darnells and tares among our good wheat whereby they infected very many with an epidemical and most deadly disease then termed Puritanisme the offspring of the old Catharists that is a dissembling pharisaical purity and pretended holinesse far excelling the rest of their brethren both in life and doctrine especially in the conscientious refusall to subscribe and to submit themselves to the established Liturgy and the orderly observation of the discipline and
Lords Table though Christ admitted Judas whom he knew far better then these men do know those whom they reject and cast away and we can and ought to do no more to the lewdest offenders but to shew them the danger of the unworthy receivers and exhort them to repent and to believe in Christ and upon the confession of their faults and profession of their Faith and repentance we ought to believe them to be Gods children and receive them among the Faithfull and leave them all for Christ to judge which of the guest doth want his wedding garment Yet we confess That the Apostles had two manner of gifts 1. Extraordinary it is true that the Apostles had a double qualification 1. The one extraordinary which was requisite for the planting of a new Church and that consisted chiefly in these two things 1. Infallibility of the Doctrine which they taught 2. A powerful working of miracles to confirm that doctrine and to win the hearers to give credit and to believe the same And when the Churches were converted these graces determined and ceased with the Apostles 2. Ordinary which were either 2. The other was ordinary which was requisite for the instructing guideing and ruling of the Church so long as the Church should continue till Christ should come to judgement And these graces that were thus requisite for the continuance of the Church in the service of God were likewise of two sorts 1. Common 1. Common to the Apostles and Presbyters and Deacons as reading the Scriptures preaching or expounding the word administring the Sacraments provision for the poor and other like christian duties 2 Proper which the Apostles reserved unto themselves 2. Proper which consisted in two things and to the Bishops that were to be their successors to guide and to govern the Church after them And this proper qualification of the Apostles which they left as peculiar to the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles was and is likewise two-fold 1. Ordination 1. Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons to read the word and to preach and to administer the Sacraments and to do all the other common duties of the Church 2. Jurisdiction which was twofold 1. The lesser censure 2. The greater censure 2. Jurisdiction in censuring those that were refractory and walked disorderly in the Church and this Ecclesiasticall censure is either 1. The lesser which is a debarring of the offendor from the Lords Supper 2. The greater censure which was by such an excommunication as excluded the offender quite from the Churh and was not received into it untill he had satisfied the Church by his confession of his fault and repentance shewed for the scandall he had given Now such is the pride and ambition of every Presbyterian that he would have nothing left proper unto the Bishop but that all must be common as well to him as to the Bishop How the Presbyterians do usurp the authority of the Bishop he cannot indure to be excluded or debarrd from any thing but cryeth out as Corah Dathan and Abiram did against Moses and Aaron that the Bishops take too much upon them And therefore 1. They usurp and assume unto themselves the office of ordination and do make Priests themselves the which boldnesse of theirs I intend not to stand now to confute but do assure the people Lay-preachers and tradesmen to execute the Ecclesiastical function have as good authority and calling as the new Presbyterian Priests that the Priests of their making have no better calling nor authority to enter upon that sacred function then he that is made a Judge or a Justice of Peace to rule the countrey by a company of high-way thieves and robbers and the Lay-preachers be they what they will husband-men or trades-men Taylors Shoemakers or Weavers or the like may as lawfully and perhaps more blamelesly do all the service of the Church as any of them that have their ordination from these Presbyters 2. They usurp the jurisdiction over the Church as well as the ordination of the Priests unto themselves and they are more rigid in their censures that are also more illegally done then either Bishop or Pope See the translation of Grallae pag 69. to pag. 90. and you shall find how these Presbyterian censures do exceed the tyranny of the Pope who exercised their discipline and censures in open Court in forma juris and secundum allegata probata when the Presbyterians do it secundum beneplacitum as it seemeth good in their own eyes because they have the discerning spirit to know who are worthy to be received and who ought to be excluded both from Christ and from the Church of Christ And yet I do not wonder so much that the Presbyters should be so ambitious to lay hold of this authority as I do admire that the people should be so foolish as to hate us for telling the truth unto them for their own benefit and shewing the other mens iniquity But I remember a story that Sir Thomas Moore tells us of two famous Philosophers that by their great skill in astronomy foresaw that at such a constellation A pretty story of Sir Thomas Moor. there would fall such a shower of pestiferous rain upon the earth that all the men which scaped not the drops of that rain should presently prove frantick and be distracted of their sences whereupon those Philosophers concluded that they would hide themselves in a Cave untill that shower was passed over and so they did and all things succeeded as they expected for when they came out of their hole where they were hidden they found all the people like mad-men playing the Anticks and therefore they being sober thought to do them good by advising them to leave their fooleries and to follow after sobriety but the mad people told the Philosophers that they themselves were mad and they would take a course with them for saying that they were out of their wits and knew not what they did and so they laid hold on the Philosophers and beat them and they had much adoe to escape from these mad people with their lives this was the reward they had for their well-wishes and desire to do those mad people good to guide them and to direct them in the right courses I wish it may not be so with us that the people prove not themselves like those upon whom that fatal shower descended and that they would not deal with us It is easier to find few wise men then to find many wise men for telliug the truth of these mens doings for their good as those mad men did with those Philosophers And I would the people that are so affected to the Presbyterian government would consider whether it be as easie to find ten thousand wise and sober moderate men as to finde out ten The Kings and Emperours heretofore were very careful to make choice of the best and wisest men that
on the earth that is as I sayd the earthly and worldly minded men for the true Saints he deceiveth not but he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth and they worship the beast and assist him and adhere unto him as being seduced and beguiled through the faigned and dissembled zeal of the false Prophet and the Sight of persecution from them that profess themselves Divines could no more deceive the Beholders and cause them to worship the beast then the persecutions of the Heathens deceived the people How the dissembling zeal of hypocrisie deceives many men that saw the Primitive Martyrs suffering for the faith of Christ when as that sight converted many of the Pagans to become Christians as Sozomen writeth and could do no more then terrifie the fearful from christianity but never deceive any to think well of the Persecutors or ill of the pe secuted but the dissembling zeal of hypocrits hath deceived many good men and therefore much sooner could the fiery zeal of this false Prophet deceive the carnal and earthly men and make them believe such zealous Professors to be none other then heavenly Saints Nor the fire of false prestigies But Janius in Annotat in loc And as this fire cannot be taken for the fiery persecution of the Saints so no more can it signifie those falsa praestigia the lying wonders and the jugling tricks of the Romish Priests and Friars which Junius sayth they used to justifie their Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences Transubstantiation and other like Popish Trumperies whereof you may finde store in their Legends in Vin ceutius his Speculum historiale and some in Stapleton's moral Promptuary and in divers others because these fiery Meteors or rather sulphurious fire and faigned wonders from the Souls in Purgatory and those lying fables of their Images sweating blood and their wonderful Narratives of their Saints Reliques and the Revelations of S. Bridget and the like holy Matrons do bear no Analogy or correspondency with fire from heaven when as all such Prestigia's or prodigies either of the Magiciaus or of the idolatrous Priests of the Gentiles and so the faigned miracles of the Roman Clergy are well known not only by the learned but even by all rational men to be all framed and forged upon the Devils Anvil and do spring from Hell and not from Heaven as all the honest Papists do confess Teneda in his miracles unmesked pa. 13. but the fiery zeal which the Presbyterian beast pretends to have to Christ to his Religion to the propagation of his Gospel and to the pure worshiping of God above all other Saints of God may without any absurdity and without incongruity be sayd A fiery zeal to Christ and his sarvice and may be thought to be fire from Heaven because such a zeal if they truly had it as they pretend could spring from no place else and from no other Fountain then from the Spirit of God and this fire of such a zeal the false Prophet pretendeth to make it to come down from Heaven on the earth that is on the earthly carual and worldly men to make them their Prosâ—lites and so to come to eternal happiness and by their perswasion and the opinion that the people have of thiis fire and this their zeal they are the sooner and the more easily deceived to become followers of their pernitious wayes and to be the Assistants of the first beast Out of all which that I have shewed of their blasphemy against God and their tyranny over the Consciences of men which is every way far worse then tyrannizing over their bodies it is apparent 1. That although the Tenets of the Church of Rome touching Purgatory 1. The doctrine of the Presbyterians more derogatory to the truth justice goodness of God then the doctrine of the Romish Church praying to Saints and adoration of Images and the like stuff be very frivolous and fantastical yet none of all the Doctrines of the Romish Church is so scandalous and so derogatory from the justice truth goodness and mercy of God as are the Doctrines which these Presbyterians Independants and Lay-preachers do preach and publish in Print concerning Original sin the cause of evil Free-will and the absolute irrespective Decree of God touching Election and Reprobation and other the like points depending hereupon without any just distinction or expression of the fore-sight and knowledge of God which is so fully and so excellently set down by Doctor Stern in his learned Discourse De medela animi and by divers others 2. 2. The discipline and government of the Presbyterians moro tyrannical over the consciences of men then the discipline and government of the Court of Rome Matth. 11.28 nor yet the Court of Rome hath ever exercised such an absolute power and domineering Authority over the consciences of Christians as this false Prophet useth to do for neither of the foresaid Courts did ever Excommunicate any member of the Church but either for apparent contumacy and a wilfull contempt of the Power and Authority of the Church or upon the proofe of two or three witnesses at the least of such crimes as were most scandalous unto the people of God and yet every petty Priest of our Presbyterians either upon his own malicious discontent or some other private dislike to his neighbor will debar him from the Blessed Sacrament and exclude him from the Body and Blood of Christ and so cut him off as a rotten member from his Saviour that doth so lovingly invite him to come unto him and deliver him unto Satan as a lively limbe to be tormented for ever And what is this discriminating of the sheep from the goates this admitting of whom we like to be of our Church and refusing whom we hate or do distast to any society or fellowship with the faithfull is it any other thing then to fit in the Temple of God as God oftentantes se esse deos and every one of them shewing himselfe that he is God when he takes upon him to do the proper work of God to distinguish the reprobate from the Elect the vile from the precious and those that have not on their wedding garments from them that had them on which the true inviters of Christ his guests durst not presume to do untill the Master of the Feast came himselfe to see his guests and to turne him out that had not on his wedding garment how then dares every Presbyter do the same Is not this to have a Pope in every Parish and whether is it better to have one Pope or a thousand Popes and every one of them more tyrannizing over their Flock then the Pope of Rome And therefore if these Presbyterians Independants and Lay-Preachers that gather Churches unto themselves out of the Church of Christ and exclude many true members of Christ from the Communion of Christ be not the false Prophet that hath two bornes like the Lambe but do
but not right beause his Highness the Lord Protector gave life and being to that pettyte Parliament but the false prophet the assemblie at Westminster and their disciples gave life and breath to the other the long Parliament and to their impieties which were but the very image of this false prophet which was the primum mobile the first author and the first wheel that moved all the rest to act and doe all the evill that hath been done in these Kingdomes and therefore as the teachers of all wickednesse are by our Saviours testimonie to be accounted the least that is none at all in the kingdome of heaven but the greatest and well deserving the greatest punishment in the place that is provided for them so are they if they pray not for grace to repent And yet notwithstanding all these transcendent impieties of these Presbyterians it is a wonder to me that the people should be so affected and so wedded to the new Presbyterian government that never yet attained to the age of some men The inconstancie of the people But as the people in the begining of the long Parliament were mad to have Monarchy rooted out of the world and to erect a Common-wealth and to have a state government yet when they had it they were soon wearie of it and were as mad and more mad to have it cashiered so though they be now mad after that Presbyterian government yet I doubt not but after they have it a while and felt the smart of it they will he soon weary of it and be as mad to have it changed for that at the last they shall perceive their own error and finde that those were the leaders and the Teachers of them that murdered our King destroyed the Bishops and did all the mischiefe that hath been perpetrated And will the People or Parliament as they have done most justly condemn the Actors that were but the schollers Remember whose auditors were the murderers of the King and not onely suffer the Teachers to go free but also magnifie them to be their Masters still or will they punish the poore hares for their trespass and gratifie the crafty Foxes for their wickedness for I beseech you tell me whose Schollars and whose Auditors were those King murderers the Bishops or the Presbyterians the whole Kingdom knoweth and the setting up of these Teachers may prove to be the setting forward of the like tragedy Verbum sapienti sat est But to proceed it is said in the same ver 15. that the image of the beast The first ten horned beast animated by the false prophet acteth two things 1. thing that is the first seven headed and ten horned beast having received life and breath by the meanes of the false Prophet the two horned beast whose image the the first beast was as I shewed unto you did presently act and work these two observable things 1. To speake and to make orders and ordinances that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as many as would not worship that is himselfe which was nothing else hut the very representation of the false prophet should be killed 2. To cause all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both small and great 2. Thing rich and poor free and bond to receive a marke or as the originall hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some copies read it that he should give them a marke or marks in their right hand or wrist or arme Rhodiginus l. 5. c. 53. saith servants were branded in their foreheads soldiers in their hands Vege◠l. 2. c. 5. which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fignifieth all from the hand to the sholder and which aludeth to the custome of Syria and the neighbour countreys that used even as our own Countrey formerly did and yet sometimes doe to weare badges on their armes to demonstrate whose servants they were or in their foreheads as the Roman servants did and the Soldiers used to doe to signifie to what Master or Captaine they did belong and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the marke or the name of the beast or the number of his name for so Lipsius saith that they were branded in the hands and marked with the name of their their general or the Emperor Lipsius de milit rom l. dialog Revel f 14 1. that they served and so the followers of the Lambe as contrary to the followers of the beast are said to have his fathers name written in their foreheads which was likewise done to shew to whom they belonged that so by the sight of these marks and tokens they might buy and sell and have all the other priviledges and benefits that belonged to such servants De Sheld pag 15. Yet you must not thinke this marke of the beast to be a corporeall marke to be ingraven by incision or to be burnt by inustion as the fashion of men is to do with their cattell in the heads or upon the foreheads of the followers of the beast for to dream of such a marke were to contemn all learned antiquity and to fall into a laborinth of contrarieties absurdities and impossibilities but as the marks of Christ his flock and his fathers name written in their foreheads are not any reall marks by incision or inustion but the profession of his faith and obedience to his law with the acceptance of some godly Sacraments King James in his premotion haeg 111. and religious Ceremonies for the testifing of the same so the marke of the beast must be conceived to be metaphoricall as King James sheweth by some rite of profession and misticall by some rite of obedience and subjection unto the beast as that in the forehead must be some plain and publique act or thing whereby the authority and government of the beast is professed that in the hand must be likewise some mpious act or Ceremonie The paralel I onely demand if that the Parliament after it received life from the false Prophet acted not the foresaid things that the beast is said to doe 1. The first thing either accepted of in our hands or subscribed to under our hands whre by subjection and obedience to that beast is professed to be performed And here I would faine know if the long parliamtnt did not act and doe those two forenamed things that this image of the beast is said to have done and thereby to have imitated the Romans and Syrians in the main point and to have fulfilled this prediction of the doings of the beast to a hair For 1. Did they not speake and speake loud enough by their votes orders and ordinances that as many as would not worship them the image of the beast and the actors of all things according as the Presbyterian assembly out of Gods Word doe prescribe and approve of their doings i. e. contribute to their war submit unto their power and assist them against the King their goods should
Rome for as the Prophet saith that the Lord would search Ierusalem with candles so have our men searched everie corner of Rome that there is not a stone of it unfound out but everie point of the Popes faith Zephan 1.12 and everie act of his Court and of his Councill are all discovered to the world and if I did the like to Constantinople or Paris or Antwerp or London or any other such great Cittie as Rome is Perphaps I should finde as many 25 Particular things therein as he findes in Rome and as many 25 things in other Churches as he found in the Church of Rome But let it be granted that Rome is answerable to Ierusalem and the Pope and his Cardinalls to Christ and his Apostles which is the sum of of his 14. c. yet take it not in his sence but as Aleazar saith utque successit antiquae Hierosolimae in co quod fidelium omnium eaput et metropolis sit effecta and so take the Pope and his Cardinals not as enemies but as successors unto the Apostles and Vicegerent unto Christ then all that he saith is rather an argument to approve and commend them for their desire to imitate Christ and his Apostles then any wayes to condemn them for the Antichrist and for the 25 number of their Cardinals which at first in the time of Clemens were but 15 and then were augmented by Anacletus the 3 Pope or the 2 as some count him and a most holy Martyr within the 1 centurie in anno 94 to 25 and the 25 number of the articles of the Roman faith into which Pope Pius the fourth reduced the sum of the Tridentine Councill as Mr. Potter reckoneth them even as the articles of our Church which we beleeve are augmented to 39 and the 25 gates of Rome which notwitstanding are not agreed by the best authors to be just so many when plinie saith there be but 24 and Liuius saith there be 27. and the 25 figures and characters that he saith are ingraven upon their chiefest Altar and all the other 25 particulars that he collecteth from his authors to belong to any thing either in their Cittie Church or religion as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrarie positions to all the 12 things that are found in the new Ierusalem as the 12 gates 12 angels 12 Tribes 12 foundations 12 thousand furlongs 12 fruites of the tree of life doe no way convince and prove the Pope and his Heirarchie to the beast and the antichrist no more then the Mayor and the four and twenty Aldermen and if I should finde 25 gates and 25 Presbyters and some other 25 particulars either in London or Lisbon or Paris to be the verie seat of the Antichrist But I have been too long in the pursuance of these things that he saith are to be found in Rome and we are better to beleeve him then to goe there to see but I beleeve few wise men upon such an implicite faith of things not apparant nor approved by any of the ancient authors nor understood by verie good scholers except perfect arithmeticians as I take Mr Potter to be will make this inference to conclude the Pope and his Hierarchy to be the beast and the antichrist that is more perspicuously and plainely deciphered and shewed unto us in the holy scriptures which I have applied to nothing but to what wee have seen with our eyes and all men know to be true except the actors of these impieties and those that will be wilfully blinde And so to proceed upon plainer evidences then these arithmeticall ridles to discover the beast unto you 4. The name of Independents is most proper to the antichrist I demand if the verie name of Independants that is usaully and generally given them and by which the prevalent faction of that Parliament was best known and distinguished from the rest of the House and of all other true Christians apostate hereticks and wherein both themselves and their adherents doe so much glorie doth not sufficiently mamanifest the same thing and evidently prove them to be this beast and the antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was prophesied by the Apostles and expected by the Church to come into the world for though in the dayes of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage that lived in the fift centurie there were some that as the Cannon saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest their absurdities and novelties should be discovered refused to submit themselves unto the Councill and so became Independants from the Church of Christ for which cause Aurelius caused them to be removed by the Councill as obstinate and rebellious from all rule and authoritie over the people yet these men never assumed the name of Independants neither was it given them for ought I read by any others because they persisted not in their obstinafie to draw more proselites after them but our Independants of these times as flat and fully oppsite to the Church of Christ are and are so generally termed and taken Independants from the Catholique Church and from every particular nationall Church and therefore they doe gather Churches and congregations unto themselves and in that respect are most properly stiled Independants as fit a name as any is in the world for the followers of the antichrist when as all other creatures men and Angels good and bad and not any of all the former hereticks excepted but that they acknowledged themselves to be entia dependentia not only depending upon him Heb. 1.3 that beareth up all things by his mighty word or the word of his power that is Jesus Christ but also desired to be received into that unitie and to depend upon the communion and society of the Church as Arius that arch heretick made great friends to be admitted into the communion of the Church of Alexandria as Theodoret writeth Theodor. haret fabul l. 4. The paralel But these men as A per se A or as the arctick pole is from the antarchtick so are they fully opposite ex diametro to their head and have assumed and let them have it this antichristian name of Independants they say not from Christ but I say certainly from Christ because it is from the Church of Christ for whosoever hath not the church for his mother 1 pet 3.20 shall never have God for his Father but as all perished by the deluge that were not in Noahs Arke that was the type of the church as St. Peter sheweth so shall they perish everlastingly that are not the members of Christ and of his church and within the communion of Saints which is a speciall article of the christian faith Then 5. The ancient Fathers as St. Aug. upon the words of Christ 5. The great persecution of the Parliament a concomitant signe of the antichrist Aug. de civit Dei l. 20. c. 8. and 9 Hypol. in erat de consumwat mundi Cyrillus cateches 15. Bellarum de rom Pot. l. 3. c. 7. The