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
concluded and expressed in our 39 Articles to which all Ministers subscribed and this uniformity of Gods worship thus purged from all abuses errors and Superstitions and so perfectly composed by all those holy men for the honor and service of God was fully authorized by the Queen and all the Parliaments that were convened and held in her time to be observed without any omission or alteration in all Churches as you may see by the Act prefixed before the Book of common Prayer And afterwards it was continued and preserved by that wise and learned King K. James and above all and more strictly than all by that ever blessed King and glorious Martyr of Jesus Christ Charles the 1. that defended the true faith and this true form of serving God against all opposers both the superstitious Papists and the apostate Puritanes and Separatists even to the loss of his life And I presume all good Protestants will yield unto me and I am perswaded That the Church of Ingland in King Charles his raign was the purest Church on earth that the Pope and his Cardinalls if they would speak according to their consciences could not deny but that the Church of Ingland as it was purged from Idolatry and Superstition and established in such purity of Doctrine and excellency of Discipline in the raign of King Edward the 6th and especially in Queen Elisabeths time and so continued in the raign of King James and King Charles was the truest and the purest Church unless they did except their own Church that way-fared and was militant here on earth where the faith of Gods elect might infallibly be found the service of God was rightly observed and was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple the House and the Church which he hath purchased and wherein he dwelleth And So E. H. truly confesseth that amongst all the reformed Churches E. H. in his Preface to the Reader the Church of Ingland hath alwayes been esteemed the purest as being most conformable to primitive purity and the word of God both in Doctrine and Discipline B. Montague in apello Caesarem c. 5. p. 47 48. And this appears even from the pens of the heads of other reformed Churches as Bucer Melancthon Calvin Camerarius Beza Zanchius Molinaeus Casaubon Sergevil Saravia and others who many of them confess in plain words and all by consequence conclude that the Church of Ingland of any particular national Church in the world cometh nearest to the apostolick rule for though all the Churches that protested against the superstitious tenents and errors of the councill of Trent and the Church of Rome have borne the name of reformed Churches yet neither all nor any of them all are indeed well and perfectly reformed when as many of them are corrupt in many points of Doctrine as I could shew you amongst the Calvinists and especially the Lutheran Churches that maintain that foul error of the ubiquity of the humanity of Christ their consubstantiation of his body in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and their many mistakes about the communication of the Properties of both his natures as Danaeus sheweth most excellently against Chemnitius and most of them are deficient in the rule of primitive Government not any one of them indeed following the Apostles Discipline And the reason of their deficiency is The reason of the deficiency of the Reformation of the other reformed Churches because that in the French and German Churches and the Churches beyond the Seas the Reformers of them by reason of the innumerable number of their potent enemies and the civil broyles and diffentions that were then in those parts and especially the want of a King in Israel that is a supream Monarch in some of those places over the people which made way for every one of the vulgar sort to do as we read in the Book of Judges what seemed right in his own eyes Judges 21.25 were constrained to do what they might and not what they would have done what could be effected and not what they desired to be performed But the Church of Ingland not by popular or any one particular mans reformation as John Knox that furious puritane did in the Church of Scotland but by a national Synod of all the Bishops and best Divines called by the King and confirmed by the King Peers and Commons of the whole Kingdome reformed her self not as other Churches did tumultuarily but with a great deal of advice diligence and deliberation that so it might be effected as the Apostles left it as the sacred rule required and as it was premonstrated it should be performed and weeded from all the dross the tares and the darnells that should spring to choak the pure wheat And therefore seeing the Church of Ingland until these late times was the truest and the purest reformed Church on earth it is conceived and I do believe it that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist should arise not out of Rome that hath corrupted many truths and superadded many errors and Superstitions upon the fundamentalls of our Religion and is as yet unreformed nor out of Constantinople which hath likewise apostatized from the true faith of Christ and doth still continue unreturned to Christ from their false Prophet nor out of Hierusalem as some men do most fondly dream but out of this Church this very Church of great Brittain For as heretofore Speed l. 6. cap. 45. Camden britan pag. 74. Euseb in vita Constant. Zechar. 10.11 this Iland of great Brittain brought forth Constantine the son of Helen the daughter of King Coylus which was the best instrument that ever the Church of Christ had to further and to honor the Christian Religion as Eusebius sheweth the same at large And as according to the Septuagint the Prophet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath passed through the narrow sea with affliction and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Aegypt shall depart away which may signifie that Christ hath first of all purged this Church that lyeth within the narrow seas and hath made the purest Reformation here that was made in any place by the afflictions and sufferings of the aforenamed Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes and hath thereby brought down the pride of the Pope and of the Roman Church that were then as powerfull as the Assyrians were when the Prophet wrote the same and hath driven away his usurpation and freed us from his tyranny as the Israelies were delivered from the bondage of the Aegyptians so the devil bearing an inveterate hate and infinite malice against this Iland more than against any other place The 2. special Reasons why the devil beareth a greater malice to this Iland more than to any other place for these two grand services that it did to God 1. The toleration of the Christians to profess their faith in peace and the Plantation of the Church of Christ to encrease
of the Antichrist or the Babylon that is meant in Rev. 17. and some other Places of the Holy Scripture from which we are commanded to go out lest we should be partakers of her Plagues For they do nimium haerere cortici too much adhere and stick to the Letter and outward bark of the Text that do so expound it Whereas the meaning of the Holy Ghost is more mystical and spiritually to be understood for the great and spacious confused City of this world that as the Church of Christ is Civitas Dei the City of God whereof S. Aug. wrote 22 Books which he styled de Civitate Dei and is typified and signified in many places of the holy Scripture by Hierusalem the City of peace that is at unity within it self and by that little City that hath but few men within it when as our Saviour saith his flock is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little flock which a little City would well contain so the Synagogue of Satan Ecclesia malignantium the congregation of the wicked is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very great City that sits like a Queen to tyrannize over Gods Servants and is no less than the whole world and can be no less to contain the whole Army of Satan when as caetus impiorum the congregation of the ungodly is a mighty multitude and therefore must have a great and a very large City to inhabit And because the Citizens of this world are as the Citizens of Hierusalem were when Titus besieged it at odds among themselves and yet agreeing to rob and slay all the good and godly men that were amongst them until Titus for their wickedness had destroyed them all And as the builders of Old Babylon were when God confounded their Language of several minds and dispositions so that when the one called for a stone the other brought him clay and when he called for Mortar he brought him Bricks until at last they brought both their work and themselves unto confusion so are the Citizens of this great Metropolis of several desires and ambitions the one hunting after wealth the other after honours another filled with malice and aimes at nothing more than revenge and yet all of them agree to persecute the poor helpless man to kick against their Governours to despise their Teachers and to rob their Brethren until they do confound all things both the Servants and Service of God and at last themselves by an utter ruine and a most fearful confusion therefore their city is termed Babylon And so I say that neither of the three forenamed Cities nor any other one material City of the world can be here in the Apostles sense understood by this great City of Babylon but rather that City whereof the Fellow of whom the Philosopher demanded what Countryman he was answered that he was Civis hujus mundi The Reasons of the foresaid Exposition a Citizen of the great City of this world And this I say for these special Reasons Reason 1 1. Because neither of the three forenamed Cities nor any other one City of the world hath made the Kings of the Earth and all Nations drunk with the wine of her Fornication as this City of Babylon is said to have done For neither old Rome corrupted all Nations with her heathenish and Idolatrous Service of her many gods nor new Rome hath spread her Mahometan Religion over all the parts of the earth nor especially the Pope defiled all the Regions of Christendom much less then all Nations with his Superstitions But the great City of this world I may freely speak it without a figure hath bewitched intoxicated and made all the Nations of earth drunk with the sweet wine of the vanities and pleasures thereof none can deny it quia totus mundus in maligno positus Reason 2 2. Because all that had ships in the Sea that is all the Merchants that traded to bring commodities from one Nation to another were not all made rich by either of the three forenamed Cities or by any other one City of the world whatsoever as the Holy Ghost saith they were all made rich by this Babylon but all the Merchants that had ships and were at any time or in any place made rich were inriched by the great City of this world Reason 3 3. Because the City of Babylon that is here in the Revelation meant is said to have killed the holy Apostles and Prophets of God and though S. Peter and S. Revelat. c. 18. 20. Paul are recorded to have been killed at Rome yet neither Rome nor Constantinople nor the Assyrian nor the Egyptian Babylon nor any other one City of the world did ever see any or if any certasnly not many of those holy Prophets that God sent unto the Israelites and were killed not by any of the foresaid Cities but by the Jews and in Jerusalem and by the Citizens of this world that have indeed killed all the holy Apostles and Prophets that were killed and do still continue Ribera in Apoc. 18.20 to kill the best servants of Jesus Christ even as our Saviour foretelleth us in the world not in Rome nor in Constantinople but in the world you shall have tribulation because the world hateth you as it hated me before you and therefore Ribera demandeth rightly quem apostolum aut quem Prophetam persecuta est Ecclesia Romana seu Roma papalis ut Sancti debeant laetare de ejus paenis which of all the Apostles or of all the Prophets did the Church of Rome since Rome became Christian persecute and kill Revel 18.24 that the Saints should rejoce at her Punishments Reason 4 4. Because it is expresly said that in that Babylon which is there meant was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the earth mark this of all that were slain upon the earth and tell me how this can be refered to any one City of the world but only to the great City of this world and so is literally true without Trope or figure and why should we run to figures when the sence is true in the letter Reason 5 5. Because of many other particulars that you may finde in the 17 and 18 Chapters of the Revelation and elsewhere in the Scriptures ascribed to this great City of Babylon which without tropes and figures and many other shifts can no wayes be referred or applyed either to old Rome or new Rome or to any other one city whatsoever but may properly without stretching or any violence offered unto the Text be applyed to the great City of this world And therefore by this Babylon that is spoken of in Revel 17. and elswhere and said to be the seat of the Antichrist I conceive that we are to understand not Rome as J.W. and all the rest that make the Pope to be the Antichrist and would rather bring the Holy Ghost to mean as they think then submit
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
because the spirit of God here in this Book setteth down the state and condition of his Church The main end and scope of the whole Book of the Revelation The fourfold enemies of the Church 1. The beast conceived to be 2. The Ecclesiasticall Whore or false Church which is the Church of Rome 3. The secular Whore or worldly Professors 4. The false Prophet or lying Preachers what piety they pretend and what great mischief they do and foresheweth her what afflictions and persecutions she should undergo through the malice of the Devill and by the meanes of those wicked Tyrants his Instruments that brought the first 10 great persecutions upon the Church and especially by those quaternion of adversaries that towards the end of the world should arise and seek to make an end of the true Church as 1. The beast the man of the sin the great Antichrist that would be an Antichrist that is an adversary unto Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most eminently and therefore is termed the beast that ascendeth out of the buttomless pit 2. The Ecclesiasticall Whore that breaks her faith with Christ and makes the Kings of the Earth and the Inhabitants of the Earth drunk with the wine of her fornication that is the fair glosses and the sweet conceits of her Idolatries and superstitions and makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and that is because they will not imbrace and follow her in her fornications 3. The secular Whore that followes after the World and will not take upon her the yoke of Christ but hateth all them that seek to withdraw her from the sweet pleasures of the flesh and the deceitfull vanities of the world 4. The false Prophet that by a pretended zeal to reclaim the Whores and to reduce the one from the world and the other from her errors unto Christ deceiveth all them that dwell on the earth and instigateth spurreth and setteth on the beast to proceed and to go on in all his villanies and wickedness against the Servants of Christ all which that should happen unto the Church from the time of the Angels revealing them before the end of the world the spirit of God would foreshew unto St. John that St. John might foreshew them unto the Church And this I take to be the main end and the chiefest scope of the whole Book of this Prophesie and therefore after he had told us of the beast that should so extremely persecute his Church in the 13th Chapter and would now further decipher him here in the 17th Chapter he addeth and there are 7 Kings that is which have and shall in like manner vex and persecute my Servants and this he saith Why the persecutions and afflictions of the Church are foreshewed and foresheweth to this end videlicet to teach the true believers in Christ by the examples of those former Martyrs that had already suffered under those five persecutors that were fallen and dead to be now in the time of this 6th and after in the 7ths time and under the Tyranny of the beast which is the 8th most patient in all their sufferings and to comfort themselves in all their miseries and afflictions when they do consider and weigh their own present state and condition with the precedent condition of those holy Martyrs that have suffered as much or more then they and are now for their constancy and patience in their persecutions crowned by Christ with eternall glory and also to put his servants in mind from what divine providence and to what end these persecutions are sent unto them when they do consider they come not by chance being thus foretold so long before they come but by the speciall appointment of Almighty God that knoweth what is best and disposeth all things for the best and for the speciall good of them that love him and then lastly to assure them of a glorious success and an undoubted Victory to become Conquerours even when they are conquered and do suffer their persecutions unto death because the same spirit that foretells us of their coming tells us also how our Brethren that went before us overcame all their sufferings and how we shall overcome them in like manner even when our enamies seem to overcome us And therefore immediately after the description of our enemies Chap. 13. and the setting down of our sufferings v. 7. the spirit of God addeth v. 9. v. 9 Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints that is their patience in suffering and their faith concerning their sufferings to believe that they come from God for their good and shall produce all good success unto them But these forenamed Emperors that are alledged to be here meant The foresaid Emperours not all so great persecutors of the Church were not all such great persecutors of the Christians but some of them were very Gentle and meek as Titus the Son of Vespasian who was therefore called deliciae generis humani the delight of mankind though indeed he was not altogether so delightfull nor so gentle to the Christians and others ruled but a very short space as Galba reigned but seven moneths and nine dayes Otho but four moneths Vitellius but eight moneths and we read of no great evills that these three men did unto the Christians though they were no good men and after these Vespasian reigned but nine years and eleven moneths and Titus but two years and twon moneths So that all these five from Nero to Domitian reigned not above fourtee years and therefore I conceive that these five could not be meant to be set in the Catalogue of the chief persecutors of Gods Church nor be ranked in the same Class with the beast and his adherents when as neither Eusebius nor any other Ecclesiasticall Historian reckoneth the first three amongst the persecutors And whereas Junins That the 8th is not said to be a King which ought to be specially observed in his Annotations annexed to our Bibles makes Trajan to be the 8th and others make Nerva and others Domitian I say that neither of them is here meant to be the eight and of the seven for I would have it observed that the eight is not said to be a King but there are seven Kings saith the Holy Ghost and but seven Kings are said to be and the Antichrist which is the beast and the eight is no where said to be a King or to have a Crowne upon his Head but upon his Hornes So that if either of these or any one of the other Roman Emperours or any other King whatsoever had been here meant to be the eight the Holy Ghost in all likelihood would have said and there are eight Kings Divers attributes of the the 8th not ascribed to any of the other seven whereas he saith and there are seven Kings Besides you may observe many other speciall marks and additionall differences that are
worthy of credit assure me they are for what Blasphemy in the world can there be greater then to make the Holy Spirit of God that flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin to be the foul Spirit of Darkness and the Author mover and promoter of such most horrid and execrable acts acts never acted by any Christians and but seldome if ever known by the worst of Pagans and never before adventured or invented as I conceive to be justifiable by the most impudent of all the Hereticks And besides all this have not their Assembly and Preachers Wisdome 1.5 as I told you before by consequent and in effect denyed the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost which is amor nexus spiritus patris filij Let the Reader judge what Blasphemous acts the Assembly of Divines and the adherents to the Parliament did and have they not obliterated and cashiered some of the chiefest heads and maine points of the long received truths of our Christian Religion and did not that Parliament Authorize that Apostate assembly and countenance the swarms of their lay-sword-Preachers to discountenance the 39 Articles of our Church to dispute about the expunging of the fift Article of the Apostles Creed to Antiquate the Lords Prayer out of the Church Service for fear that if they should use to say the same they should quench the Spirit as if the spirit of Christ would be offended with the Prayer of Christ and to turne out the long setled service of God and the book of Common-prayer out of the Church to give way as one saith well to a long-winded extemporary non-sence and Blasphemous repetitions Such Blasphemies as never were in the Church of Rome are broached in the books and Sermons of the Presbyterians and most sawcy expostulations with God in the steed thereof which is the readiest way to introduce Athiesme and to abrogate Christianity out of the world which is the desire of the Dragon and the proper work of the Antichrist And therefore the Religion of the Fauterers and adherents to that Parliament being but a meer complication and a syncretisme or rather a sink and common sewer of all errors Heresies and Blasphemies may we not well say that upon the heads thereof there is not onely the name but in the plurall number the names of Blasphemy especially if I should set down which would swell to a huge Volume all the Blasphemous tenents that some of their members many of their Preachers and more of their adherents have broached scattered and printed throughout these three Kingdomes since the unhappie birth of that most unhappy Parliament to most of the Kings most Loyall Subjects and so you see how this Appendix of the Beast may be said to cohere with that long Parliament Fiftly It is said v. 2. that this Beast was like a Leopard 5. The Beast was like a Leopard Jun. in annotat in loc As after the 2d Pun warr Maced Grec syria caeteraque omnia quasitorrente sequnta sunâ— Dan. 7.6 Vt loquitur florus l. 2. c. 7. Diodorus siculus de success Alexandr 2. and Junius following his former exposition saith this ought to be understood of the Roman Empire that was like a Leopard propter velocitatem by reason of their swiftness and speedy expeditions and their extraordinary successes to subdue their Enemies when their Generalls might say with Caesar veni vidi vici assoone as I came I overcame all the adversaries that opposed me whereby they have suddenly prevailed to inlarge their dominions over the better part of the then known world But indeed that Empire cannot be understood by this Leopard for Daniel speaking of the four great Empires of the world saith that the third Beast which betokened the Macedonian or Greek Empire was like a Leopard that is propter velocitatem by reason of the sudden increase and speedy inlargement thereof when Alexander the great did most suddenly in less then 10 years space subdue the Persian Monarchy and brought under his subjection the most part of the visible Dominions of the world and his Empire was as suddenly divided when he bequeathed the same to the Worthyest of his Captaines and almost as quickly againe translated unto the Romans and therefore I say that not the Roman Empire Eodem c. v. 7. 23. which was the fourth beast in Daniels Vision and had Iron teeth and stamped the residue of the Kingdomes with the feet of it but the beast that is the Antichrist which was typified by the little horne that came up among the hornes of the fourth beast â— v. 8. that Daniel saw is here likened to a Leopard and that not only propter velocitatem for the great speed that he maketh in all his actions but also in respect of all the other chief properties of the Leopard which is observed to be 1. The three properties of the Leopard Velox very swift 2. Crudelis very Cruel 3. Maculosus very much spotted And so was that many-headed beast that our Evangelift saw And truly I may justly demand if that these three properties of the Leopard might not be perfectly seen in the long Parliament The parallel for 1. 1. The great speed of the Parliament Were they not most swift in their expeditions and executions and subduing all that have opposed them either Domestick and homebred Enemies or any other forreigne foes and have they not conquered these three Kingdomes and prevailed more in less then ten years space then either the Warlike King of Sweden or any other King or Common-wealth if you consider all circumstances since Alexanders time 2. 2. The cruelty of the Parliamen As they were most speedy in their actions so I may demand if they were not as cruel in their executions and more cruell then all the examples that ever I found in any History to parallel them more cruel as it is conceived then John Vasilowich that was the greatest Tyrant of Russia and as they say greater then any other former Tyrant and yet he never persecuted any man as these men did onely for being loyall Subjects unto their King and faithfull Servants unto their God though we might say of Vasilowich that Saevior est tristi Busiride Saevior illo Qui falsum lento torruit igne bovem And therefore when I duly weigh the decenniall slaughters practised in these Christian parts by those that profest themselves to be the best Saints on earth especially when I consider not the bloudy killing of men but the many deaths that in a lingring death they have imposed on many good men and the piece-meale taking away of the lives of many quos oderunt gratis whom they hated without cause but only for seeking to do them the greatest good and to prevent the greatest evil that can be imagined from falling on them I cannot choose but cry out with the Poet O mites Diomedis equi Busiridis arae
Ceremonies of our Church which they spared not most loudly and lewdly to bark against and to call it the Laodicean luke-warm Church and the Governours and upholders of all the good orders uniformity and discipline of this Church of Christ they blushed not to style Popish Bishops and proud Prelates and the Book of Common Prayer as if it had been the Turkish Alcoran They perswaded the people to believe it was the English masse-Masse-Book and all the Ceremonies thereof the ragges of Rome and so belched out their poyson against out Church And to what incurable mischief this disease was like to grow that wise and reverend Arch-Bishop Bancraft did foresee and with all his might endeavoured to prevent by discovering and publishing the same unto the world so did worthy Doctor Whitgift before him and so did Doctor Dove Doctor Covell Doctor Gardiner Doctor Leon. Hutton and Mr. Thomas Hutton and many other godly and learned men labour to unvaile this beast his face to shew his hornes and the weaknesse of his reasons unto the weak and seduced people But as the harlot said unto Socrates ego tibi Socrates multum praesto I do much excell thee O Socrates because I can sooner allure the youths of Athens and intice far more of them to my house of leudnesse then thou canst with all thy rhetorick and eloquence perswade to thy School of Philosophy so these locusts and their Proselites prevailed more with those that were such as Socrates answered the harlot her customers were proclives ad malum inclinable to be misled and easily drawen to evill as we are all by nature then all the wise Governours and grave Doctors of the Church could do to hindet them so that in a short space notwithstanding the execution of Martin Mar-prelate Penry and some others in Queen Elizabeths dayes which did a little stop their gallopping course and the careful industry of King James to suppresse them yet multiplicati sunt super numerum they increased exceedingly like the frogges and rats of Egypt that do super-faetare beget young ones before they be rid of their old brood and then being so multiplyed they that formerly pulled in their horns like a snaile did begin in King Charles his time to set up their hornes on high and to speak with a stiffe neck and now to set their instruments the disconteuted Nobility and Gentry and their own seduced disciples on work to bring their long-wished purposes to an end for as the soule worketh no corporeall act but by the organs of his body so these men being spiritual men could not themselves prevaile to attain unto their ends against the power of the King but having so plentifully sowen their seed among their Proselytes and so well instructed the body that was their instrument they can with their help produce the acts that they intended and which they do suggest into the heads of the other beast which is their body And therefore as in every sinful act the soul which is actus primus corporis organici causa actuum secundorum Arist de anima l. 2. c. 1. Text. 4. Is more liable to judgement and deserves more punishment then the body so as I said before this spiritual beast is far the worst of the twain and the worst of all other beasts that ever were so bad that I am no wayes able to shew unto you the badnesse and to display the wickednesse of this second beast yet as the Arian hereticks gave forth of themselves Aug. epist 48. ad Vincent that they onely were the true Catholick Church of God and those that were the members of the true Church indeed they called Athanasians Ambrosians Joannites and as Nestorius being a pestilent heretick covered himself notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the cloak or vaile of the Catholick faith saith Theodoret so I know these men think themselves to be the onely true servants and the most faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ but indeed as David did worse then Joab in the murther of Vriah and as the teacher of a man to sin is worse then he that commits the sin as the Serpent that inticed the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit was worse then the woman so this second beast that seduced and taught the first beast to do all or most of the evills and wickednesse that he did is far worse then the first beast that was but his instrument to effect all those vile acts and mischiefs whereof this second beast was the prime Authour instructor instigator and no marvell for as corruptio-optimi est pessima The second beast farre worse then the first beast and so I deem the Prerbyterians the worst of all the men in Ingland and the Authours of all the mischiefs done in this kingdom Jerem. 24.23 Tertul. l. de prescript advers haeres c. 42. and as Jeremy his figges were either exceeding good or extream bad so are the Preachers and teachers of men either the best of men and so worthy of double honour if with the true Prophets they go the right way to work or else the worst of all men and so worthy of many stripes if with this second beast and false Prophet they go about to corrupt the truth to seduce the people and as Tertullian saith of the hereticks of his time cum hoc sit negotium illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi to labour more to overthrow us then to build others in the faith of Christ And as the Arian Prelates and Preachers were more cruell and greater persecutors of the Orthodox then either the heathen tyrants or the Ariankings that were but their instruments and were indeed lesse bloody and more consciencious then their teachers so are these Presbyterians and Independents and Lay-Preachers more proud and more cruel and of lesse conscience and lesse honesty as being the prime Authours fomenters and devisers of all villanies miseries and mischiefes that have been acted in these dominions ever since they were hatched then were the members of that long Parliament as the sequele of their description and their actions here specified will make it plaine and the Author of the Last Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter in his Epitaph that concludes too uncharitably doth briefly paint them forth saying Here lies Jacke Presbyter void of all pitty Sir John Presbyter his Epitaph That ruin'd the Country and fooled the City He turn'd Preaching to prating and telling of lies Caus'd Jarres and Dissentions in all Families He invented new Oathes Rebellions to raise Deceiving the Commons whil'st on them he preyse He made a new Creed despised the old King State and Religion by him bought and sold He foure yeares consulted and yet could not tell The Parliament the way Christ went into hell Resolved therein he never could be Therefore in great hast he goes thither to see And I would to God they had the Grace to see the mischiefes that they have done and to repent
God I would have all wise men to consider whether the Presbyterians Independants and all the brood of our new and lay-Preachers have not moved and preswaded the long Parliament to suppress the Governors of the Church and to lay aside the ancient Discipline and Government thereof and have they not themselves abandoned and cast off not only the Apostles Creed and the other 2 authentick Creeds so that you shall seldome or never hear any one of all three repeated by the Minister to any of their Congregations but also the Lords prayer the 10 Commandements and all the whole former service of God which was formerly used in the Church and is now wholly neglected and seldome or never used to be read and practiced to be done by these men unto the people which in divers Parishes have not had the holy Sacraments in many years administred unto them Et non ignota cano And the Reason hereof is What Pope did ever cast away the whole publick service of God as I conceive it because the service-book as we term it that is the Book of common Prayer that containeth these 3 Creeds and the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue and the form of the Administration of the Sacraments and all the other Prayers that are the principal and most essential parts of Gods publick service is so straitly prohibited and rejected And the Disciples of these new masters and the Adherents of that long Parliament tore the Bibles threw down the fonts The enormities that were done by the disciples of the Presbyterians cast away all crosses spoyled all pictures prophaned the Churches and did many other sacrilegious and outragious things whereby as many men conceived the whole reformation of this Church is nullified and the apostasie that is here spoken of by the the Apostle is fully come to pass and accomplished and they pray that there may never come to any national Church as they hope there shall not come a greater apostasie and falling away both from the truth of faith and the service of God than this is whereof the like as many good men and great Schollars do believe hath never been hitherto by the worst and the most dangerous Sect of Hereticks Because the Church being as the Scripture testifieth acies crdinata Bellarm. de Ecclesia milit cap. 2. like an army that is well ordered under their lawful Commanders Or as Bellarm. saith Coetus hominum ejusdem christianae fidei professione colligatus sub regimine legitimorum Pastorum ac pracipuè unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pontificis In stead of which last Sentence I say sub legitime regimine or regimine legitimorum Pastorum And they are no lawfull Pasters nor Ministers of Gods Church that have not their lawfull Ordination and go no further that is a Company of men gathered together and professing the same Christian Faith under the rule and government of their lawful Governours the true and lawful Government being dissolved and the Governours suppressed and the Symboles of our Faith rejected the true Doctrines corrupted and the right Service of God cast away and the like enormities that are used do eradicate the foundation and not only pollute but also destroy and unchurch the Church of Christ and make it not to be as it should be visible here on earth and do provoke the Lord to leave his Habitation and to remove our Candlestick to another place For you may remember what the Prophet Zechary saith I took unto me two staves Zech. 11.7 the one I called Beauty the other I called Bands and I fed the Flock this flock is the Church of God and the two staves are the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church the Doctrine is the Beauty and the Discipline is the Bands and preservation thereof and therefore when the Discipline is rejected and rebelled against the Doctrine must needs then be corrupted with Heresies and Errors and the service of God neglected and prophaned For as a Garden or Vineyard which the Church of God is Esa 5. cannot be kept undestroyed from the wilde boar and the beasts of the field without their fence so no more can the beauty of the Church the service of God nor indeed the Church herself be preserved without her bands which are the Lawes Canons and Discipline of the Church and therefore the Devil instigateth all his instruments to break these bands asunder and to cast away the cords from them Psal 2.3 And so you may remember we presently found that when the Bishops the Governors of our Church that preserved the Discipline which was the fence and the hedg of Christ his vineyard to keep out the foxes that is the Hereticks and Schismaticks out of the Church and the hoops of Gods barrel to keep in the wine Judges 9.13 that cheareth God and man that is the true Doctrines of faith and the right service of God were thrown down nay thrown away and the Government of this our Church dissolved by that long Parliament which never happened to the Church of Rome then instantly the beauty of this Church which formerly for learning Doctrine Cant. 2.1 and Discipline was the flower of all the Churches in Christendome as the rose of Sharon and the lilly of the valies became quite defaced and the Church her self became Lo-ammi her whole usual service was rejected the service-service-book Hos 1.9 that was the rule of Gods worship broken all to pieces and straightly prohibited to be used the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue seldome or never repeated the fundamental points of our faith either corrupted or omitted to be taught and all sorts of damnable long-buried Heresies were revived preached and printed in every place whereby our well-reformed and lately glorious Church became like an Army routed a barrel unhooped and a vineyard unfenced and then filled with all corruptions both of life and doctrine to make way for the man of sin as John Baptist did to Christ to enter in And to shew the enormities of these times more plainly I will out of their own mouth and from their own books quote unto you what a Presbyterian Tho. Hall in his Book intituled The pulpit guarded in Eâ—ist dedicat Domino Joâ—nr Trap pastoride Bello-vado as I conceive him to be saith Vetus est illa oratoris quarela proveniebant oratores novi stulti adolescentuli prâ—veniunt hac nostra tempestate non oratores sed aratores novi stulti fabri ferrarii aerarii lignarii rastris quam rostris aptiores pistores nunc pastores textores tonsores sutores sartores coquinarii cupedinarii milites mulieres puelluli puelluiae c. necnon quamplurimi alii ejusdem furfuris quos vulgo vocamus Gifted brethren hem lingua utendum est belluina ne belluae ist a nos dilacerent and whom I pray you doth this man mean should be the beast and these beasts that he speaks of and is afraid
to betorn in pieces by them unless he means those locusts that assisted and adhered to the long Parliament but Mr Hall to make good his charge sets down the names of their Preachers in margine as Paul Hobson a Taylor and Rice a Tinker and Lambe a Soap-boyler and Symmes a Shoemaker and Oates a Weaver and Web a Souldier and Heath a Coller-maker and Field the bodies-maker and Green a Felt-maker and Potter the Smith and Spencer a Coach-man and Durance the Wash-ball-maker and Debner the Cooper that can neither write nor read besides many women-preachers and he quoteth Edwards Edwards in his gangraena part 2. pag. 81. another Presbyterian in his Gangraena part 2. page 81 and 88. and in the 1 page of his Book he nameth Lawrence Williams a Naylor publick Preacher Tho. Hinde a Plowright publick Preacher Tho. Palmer a Baker Preacher Sergeant Oakes a Weaver Preacher and Humfrey Rogers lately a Bakers boy publick Preacher and how many more such Preachers might he have found if he had further searched into Ingland and Ireland so many as I think would fill a Volume of no small size And if these brave Preachers be not the false-Prophet and the Preachers of the Antichrist I know not who shall be the Prophets of Christ so my good Presbyterian ex tuo ere out of thine own mouth and from your own books I believe it is apparent that these men sprung from the proceedings of the long Parliament and the Adherents of it and ch 19.20 are the false Prophet spoken of in the Revelat. 16.13 and the second Beast that the Apostle saw arising out of the earth and is as the soul and the very life of the Antichrist and of which Prophet the same Tho. Hall saith All their Preachers women boyes or men From Master Calamy to Mistress Venne Are perfect Popes in their own Parish grown For to out-goe the story of Pope Joan Their women preach too and are like to be The whores of Babylon as much as she And all the preaching of these men and these women Preachers is but a tyrotarichon and hotch-potch of all errors Heresies and Blaspemies as Alexander Ross in his Animadversions upon Mr Hobbs his Leviathan and Edwards in his Hell broke loose and his Gangraena do partly shew unto you what stuffe they bring and what manner of men they are how blinde and how ignorant and yet how impudent they be for who so bold as blinde bayard A Story shewing how an impudent preaching Trooper affronted and disturbed a reverend and learned Bishop in his Sermon And here I must crave leave to tell you a story and some doings belonging to this business quorum pars magna fui and an eye-witness of the same my self Not long ago a grave and a reverend Bishop that had been a Doctor of Divinity admitted in Cambridg Oxford and Dublin of above 40 years standing and well known for his learning and abilities in many Kingdomes travelling from Ireland towards London came on the Saturday night to a Gentlemans house of good quality and his special good friend which then told the Bishop how they had for their Parson and Preacher a man that as they were informed had been a Trooper in the Parliaments Army and he only preached unto them and received their Tythes but did neither baptize their children not bury their dead nor deliver the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor let them have any other service of God but to preach or expound some Chapter and thus they had been for 7 or 8 years without any of these things but what they procured by some of their neighbour Ministers and he desired the Bishop that he would bestow a Sermon upon the Parishioners on the morrow which was the Lords day the Bishop answered that he loved not that any man should intrude himself into another mans charge but if they would send unto their Preacher and he gave way to it he would willingly preach the next day which the Gentleman did that night and the Preacher was contented the Bishop should have the place but when the Bishop had done his Prayer and read his Text in Nehem. 8.2 and 3. and divided the same and had past over the 1 part that the Preacher was Ezra the priest and thereupon shewed That none should prefume to intrude themselves to do the publick Offices of Gods service in the Church of God but they that were lawfully called as was Aaron and then had entred upon the 2. part the place were Ezra preached which was in the street before the water-gate and thereupon shewed that either in the time of plague or war or persecution or sailing at sea or demolition of Gods Temple as now the Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and was not as yet fully re-edifyed or the like just occasion the Preacher might pray and preach as Christ and his Apostles did in any place but when neither of these nor any other exigent like unto these did require it he said the Church that was appointed and consecrated as Solomon did the Temple for Gods publick service was the fittest and the enjoyned place for the Preacher to preach and pray and the people to come to hear and to do the service of God and as he was amplifying this point the more at large because on that very day the Preacher had moved the Parishioners according to a brief from the Lord Protector to a liberal contribution towards the repairing of a famous neighbour Church that was ruined by the warrs the Preacher steps out of his seat among the people and opening his book said The Bishop preached lies and false Doctrine unto them which he would prove to be so and read a place of Scripture that was nothing at all against the Bishops Doctrine and after he had for a good space stood in confuting the Bishop and the Bishop silent all that while and had made an end of his confutation the Bishop demanded if he would now give him leave quietly to go on and to make an end of his Sermon the Parson and his Disciples answered he had preached false Doctrine and lies enough already and therefore he must come down and proceed no further which the Bishop presently did and the Parson got up into the pulpit but thereupon the Gentlemen and the Parishioners on the one side and the Parsons Proselites and Disciples on the other side rose up in a tumult and very bitterly out-bearding and chiding one another so that the Bishop was mightily afraid they would have gone together by the ears and have done some great mischief and had much adoe for a very great while to perswade them and to entreat them for Gods sake on all sides to be quiet And this tumult ended the Gentlemen and the better sort of the Parishioners that were much offended and grieved for this affront that was done unto the Bishop resolved to prefer a Bill of inditement against the Parson and his
Jerem. 3.22 as the Lord saith that backsliding Israel hath justifyed her self more than treacherous Judah so have these men given way to the Roman Church to justifie her self more than the now English Church because these men did not purge our Lyturgy and weed the errors and faults that they pretended to be found in our service Book but did wholly reject it and cast it quite away and never brought any other in the room thereof And the Roman Church can never be taxed with the like proceedings when as they often mended their Missalls and Breviaries but never quite exploded any of them and the Reformers of our Church did the like which is indeed a reformation and the other a rejection of Gods worship And if these things do not make up the grand rebellion and the huge Apostacy that the Apostle here speaketh of I only wonder at it and leave it to better Judges than I am to determine it CHAP. IV. Of the Literal and Mystical Babylon That Rome is a Babylon That neither the great Babylon in Assyria nor old Rome nor Constantinople which was called new Rome is that Babylon spoken of Rev. 17. and where the Antichrist seateth himself but that is to be mystically and not literally understood for some City of confusion and what the Prophet Daniel intimateth the Antichrist should do by the doings of Antiochus that was the most lively type of the great Antichrist in his rebellion against his Superiours and his persecution of Gods People the Jews 2. THE Antichrist well perceiving the Apostasie 2. That the Antichrist will set up his throne in the City of Babylon the relapse and falling away of the true and purest Reformed National Church from her Lawful Government and from the true Faith of Christ and the right Service of God by her rebellion both against the civil Magistrates and the spiritual Pastors thereof begins to shew himself and finding the door so wide opened entreth upon the stage and will establish his Court and set up his Throne and principal Seat of his Residence as the Scripture sheweth in the City of Babylon Jer. 50.14 And therefore the Prophet Jeremy saith Put your selves in array against Babylon round about all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no arrowes cap. 51.8 for she hath sinned against the Lord And all the children of God are charged not to go to Babylon but to get out of her because she came in remembrance before God Rev. 18.4 c. 16.19 c. 18.5 c. 14.8 c. 18.3 And he determined to destroy her and to give unto her the wine of the fierceness of his wrath for that her sins have reached unto Heaven and she hath made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her Fornication But here the question is what Place or what City is to be understood by this great and glorious proud City of Babylon which is so sinful and from which we are commanded to flee away and to fight against her For the better understanding of which point what Place is specially meant by this Babylon spoken of Rev. 17. Babylon taken two manner of waies you must remember that the Scripture speaketh of a two-fold Babylon or of Babylon two manner of waies that is 1. Literally 2. Mystically And 1. For the Literal Babylon 1. We find two Great Cities specially of this Name the one in Egypt 1. Literally 1. The Assyrian Babylon not to be understood here Justin l. 1. Herodot l. 1. the other in Chalde That of Egypt was the lesser and less famous than the other which was the Greater and far the more glorious City whereof the Poet saith Atque superba foret Babylon spolianda Trophaeis Ausoniis Which was not that Babylon which is in Egypt but that ancient and famous Babylon which Nimrod founded Ninus enlarged Semiramis walled about Nebuchadnezzar amplified Nitocris beautified and enriched and Cyrus reduced to his obedience For this Old Babylon the Metropolis of Assyria That the Assyrian Babylon excelled all other Cities in four respects and the Seat of the Assyrian Emperors for many years might for Four special things That is 1. For Strength and Bigness 2. For commodious Scituation 3. For the pregnant wits of her Inhabitants 4. For the puissance and the might of her Kings compare with any one City in all the world For 1. After the death of Nimrod and his Son Ninus her chief Foundress 1. For strength Coelius Rhodigin antiquit lâ—ct l. 8. c. 12. Semiramis the Wife of Ninus that was a Woman of more than Masculine Wit and Courage whose Garb of wrapping her head in Lawn after the death of her Husband the Persians imitate to this very day did first surround this City with walls of 32 foot thick and 50 cubits high betwixt the Turrets the Towers being raised 10 cubits higher Plin. l. 8. c. 26. and in compass the walls were 355 Stadia and every Stadium being 139 Paces Or according to Plinie's description of it the breadth of the wall was 50 foot Julius Solinus c. 69. and the heighth of it 200 each foot containing 3 fingers breadth more than our ordinary measure and in circuit it was 60000 paces so bigge that Aristotle thought it might have an equal dimension with all Peloponesus because that when it was first taken by Cyrus the furthest part of the City knew not in three daies after what had happened 2. 2. For scituation For the Scituation of this City the great and famous River Euphrates that was of a stadium broad brought his Channel through the midst of it and it was so arched over and adorned with such beautiful pensil Gardens that it seemed afar off to be like a wood upon the top of a mountain and the Lands about this City were so exceeding fruitful that the ground commonly produced 200 for one and somtimes more Gen. 10.9 c. 11.2 as Caelius and Curtius write for Nimrod that was the mightiest hunter living would have the finest and the best place that could be found even the very Plain of Shennar 3 For the Wits and Ingenuity of her Breed her wisdom and her knowledge were such and so great Es 47.10 that as Esayas testifieth they caused her to fall and to say with the Poet Ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo Mine own too much wit hath undone me For this City had the honour to produce the first Teachers of Astronomy and they were so expert therein that neither the Indian Gymnosophists nor the Egyptian Priests and Magicians were any waies comparable unto them as you may observe it out of Daniel c. 2. v. 2 4 10. And this City likewise bred the first Inventers of that curious Art of working with needles those rare and specious works Josh 7.21 that were done of divers colours which enticed Achan the Israelite to hide the gay and goodly Babylonish Garment 4.
divisions corruptions and confusions that are now conceived to be in the Churches of these Dominions Donatist Cradokist Cerinthian Catharist Ebyonist Eutychian Familist Gnostick Hugonite Hussite Jesuit Libertine Lollard Marcionist Manichean Montanist Millenary Nestorian Nicholaitan Origenist Petagian Puritan Quaker Ranter Sadduce Socinian Seeker Tritheist Valentinian Winterist or if you will Atheist or Adamite or Independant From all these and from all other Seâ—â—â—â—d or new and have liberty of Conscience to profess and be of what Sect you 〈…〉 so you profess to believe in Jesus Christ as all the very worst hereticks did and 〈◊〉 and so you take the Oath of abjuration and renounce popery and 〈◊〉 which are the only men as I see that although they do believe in Jesus Christ as well if not better than any of the foresaid Hereticks are excluded from this benefit and excepted from this liberty of conscience to serve God as seemeth good in every mans eyes And though all these Sects differ one from another and are in confusion The common and joynt practise of all the Sectaries and execrating one another yet all of them do agree to dissociate themselves from the true Professors of the primitive Christianity to tear the Apocriphal Books out of our Bibles to cast away the service Book and to cashier the Articles of our Church and the Book of Homilies they are no Saints if they do not this But for the resolution of the foresaid Questions though I could say much therein Yet I will only refer the same to what you may read in a little Treatise intituled Hell broke loose that so as it seemeth the Antichrist might come forth out of the bottomless pit as S. John saith he should do and to a book of Mr. Edwards intituled Gangraena which is set out at large and three times printed where you may finde very orderly and methodically set down such a ferrago and hodg-podg of Heresies and such a multitude of most horrible blasphemies so odious and so hideous Mr. Alexander Ross in his animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan sheweth how the Leviathan blasphemeth 1. God 1 Errour that my hairs do stand and my heart doth tremble at the thought of them and my soul is very much afraid to name them least thereby the Devil should intice some wicked men that as yet know them not to embrace them and likewise to another book of Mr. Alexander Ross against Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan which Mr. Ross saith is like that beast in the Revelation cap. 13. and that is the Antichrist which opened his mouth into blasphemy against God and his Tabernacle and against them that dwell in Heaven 1. Against God himself and that many waies as specially 1. In saying that God made the world by nature and so by consequence of necessity according to the course of nature whereas indeed he did it voluntarily and freely and might have chosen whether he would have created any thing or nothing for he being liberrimum agens a most free and no waies necessitate agent whatsoever pleased the Lord that did he in heaven and in earth and in the Sea and in all deep places saith the Prophet Errour 2 2. In making the Three Persons of the Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to be rather Names than Substances which is contrary to our very Creeds and the Faith that we do profess Errour 3 3. In making Christ only to personate God the Son as if he were not so indeed but takes upon him only that Office Place and Title Whereas in very truth Christ by reason of the Hypostatical union of his Manhood to the Godhead is rightly said to be as he is the Son of God Errour 4 4. In making God with the Manichees to be the author of sin and so unjust if he punisheth us for doing that whereof himself is the author when as the Scriptures tell us plainly he hateth all those that work vanity vide Hab. 1.13 1 John 1.5 much more them that work wickedness and that he is of pure eyes neither shall any evil dwell in his sight he being that light in whom is no darkness at all and that perfect order in whom is no Ataxie or disorder at all Errour 5 5. In making God to be corporeal and a part of the Universe when as Christ tels us plainly God is a Spirit and the Scripture tels us so in many places 2. Against Gods Tabernacle that is his Church 2. The Tabernacle by labouring to overthrow her Faith her Knowledge her Miracles and her Ordinances 3. 3. The Angels and the blessed souls of the Saints Against them that dwell in Heaven that is the Angels and separated Souls of the Saints in making the one but Fancies and dreams that are indeed created substances of a pure spiritual being and the other mortal and not capable of any other happiness than what is earthly which is the greatest discouragement that can be to all Christians 1 Cor. 15.19 and would make them if this were true of all men the most miserable and would be the very poyson of all Piety and vertue And besides all this he saith that the said Hobbes in his Leviathan affirmeth that Faith is not by inspiration or infusion but 〈…〉 and industry that to believe in God is not to trust in Gods Person 〈…〉 confess the Doctrine of the Scripture that our Belief is in the Church The manifold errours heresies and blasphemies that Ross collecteth out of the Leviathan that they â—â—e not Devils but mad men that confessed Christ in the Gospel that Covetousness Ambition and Injustice with Power able to uphold them are honourable that wicked Tyrants and good Princes are all one and no such difference betwixt them that a man may sin against his Conscience that is do the things which his own Conscience tels him he should not do that men should not render a reason or an account of their Faith that Kings and Princes are not subject to their own Lawes that private men have no propriety in their own Goods that our natural reason is the Word of God that divine dreams cannot win our Belief that it was but a wind and not the holy Spirit of God that moved on the waters in the Creation Gen. 1.2 that the Dove which lighted on Christ in his Baptisme and the fiery Tongues which sate upon the Apostles in the day of Pentecost may be called Angels that Christ hath no spiritual Kingdom here upon earth that Christ did not cast out Devils Mat. 3.16 Acts 2.3 but only cured Madness that Satan did not enter into Judas that we may dissemble in matters of Religion and that we may disobey both Christ and his Apostles without sin Such Job 41.20 and much more like stuffe and smoak saith Ross doth this Leviathan send out of his Nostrils as out of a boyling Cauldron and herein contrary to all truth and without shame he raked up the
say that we must understand not only the name Jehova and Lord and God and the other usual and proper titles and names of God which S. Hierome and others have collected out of the Scriptures but also any other thing that discovereth and maketh God known unto us as his works his word his titles his attributes and the like because God hath no proper name that can make him known unto us or fully express his nature and his being as God himself saith unto Moses Exod. 13.14 when he desired to know his name that he might thereby know him So whosoever denyeth the things and rejecteth the words notions and expressions that bring us to know God or to know the Father and the Son to be the true God doth therein and thereby deny God and is as the Apostle saith the great Lyar and the Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son Leber Secundus CAP. I. The measuring of the Temple the two Witnesses that should erect and build the Christian Church who they are how long they should Prophesie how they should be killed and used after their killing how they shall be resuscicated and revived and in what time they shall be revived after they be killed and of the great mystery of God what it is and when that shall be finished OUr loving Lord and Master Jesus Christ having left us here on earth was not like Pharoahs Butler so unmindfull of us as we are of him when he was glorified in Heaven but he sends his Angel to informe his best beloved Desciple and Servant Ichn of those chiefest afflictions and persecutions that the Christian Church should find and must so undergoe here amongst the Sons of men from that time that the Angel came unto him untill he should come to judge the World and to deliver his distressed Servants out of all their troubles To what end Christ foretells the troubles of his Church and he foretells us of them that they being foreshewed unto us we might the better either study by our endeavours and prayers to God wisely to prevent and avoyd them or manfully with Gods assistance to undergoe them which might the better and the more patiently be done being expected for to come quia tela previsa minus nocent because expected troubles are alwayes less dangerous and not any wayes so grievous as those that do suddenly surprize us and rush upon us like an A med man and this sad and wofull condition of the Church the Wars and Conflicts that she must pass through and the troubles and persecutions that she must suffer the Blessed Evangelist and Apostle St. Iohn setteth down in this book of the Revelation as the Holy Ghost by his Angel hath shewed them unto him And of all the things that are foreshewed I intend only to handle What things the Author chiefly aimeth to treat of by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and to treat in this place what I conceive to be the chiefest things that are observable in the 11th 12th and 13th Chapters of this Book of the Revelation and which are as I beleive principally meant or at least most probably applicable to these very times wherein we live and in all likelihood to this particular Church of great Britany and Ireland that to many men seemeth to be the Stage whereupon all or most of the sad spectacles and Tragedies here in these three Ghapters mentioned are evidently seen acted as they were foreshewed I confess the burthen that herein I took upon me is very heavy and the charge very great and I have often Prayed to the same Holy Spirit The weight of the burthen that he undertaketh that as Daniel saith giveth Wisdome and revealeth Secrets Dan. 2.21 22. and that hath revealed these secrets unto his Servant Iohn that he would be pleased to reveale the meaning of them unto me who without his help can understand just nothing but with his assistance may find out the true meaning of these mysteries which wiser men and greater Schollers without his help cannot do and herein I presume not positively to affirme any thing as Articles of Faith for others to beleive but I only do set down what I verily do conceive to be the true meaning of the Holy-Ghost and say with the Poet Si tu quid rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Now the summe of these three Chapters The summe of the three Chapters that are explained by the Author 11 chap. in brief is this 1. In the 11th Chapter the Angell setteth down to St. Iohn the state and condition of the Governours and Pastors of Gods Church the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ and their fiery tryall their persecution and their suffering under the rule and Reigne of the great Antichrist termed here the Beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit 2. 12 chap. In the 12th Chapter he sheweth the troubles Crosses and Persecutions of the whole Church and the chiefest members of the same and how that notwithstanding all the malice of Satan and the spite of her persecutors the Church should be assisted and delivered from them all 3. 13 chap. In the 13th Chapter the Apostle describeth unto us the great Antichrist that should most of all persecute the Witnesses of Christ and the false Prophet that should instruct and instigate the Antichrist to proceed on in all his impieties and he sheweth the Combination of these two and of others the chiefest Enemies of the Witnesses and of the Church of Christ First 1. Of the measuring of the Temple and of the Worshippers therein Chap. 11.1 After that the Apostle had eaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little book which the Angell gave him and was told by the Angell that he must Prophesie againe before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings he saith there was given unto him a Reed like to a Rod or a measuring Pole and the Angel said unto him arise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that Worship therein And we find that this measuring Reed was used sometimes to pull down to ruine and to destroy the measured place and sometimes to build and to reare up the same and some Interpreters whom E. H. followeth do understand it here for the ruine and Rejection of the Jewish people the dissipation of them by the Romans What is meant by the Temple that was to be measured The building of the Church of Christians and the end of their then Temple their Sacrifices and their Religion that was now approaching on and very nigh at hand but I rather conceive that by the Temple of God that was now to be measured we should understand the Church of God that is the Christian Church that was now to be edified to be reared up and to be reduced to a new forme and to have new Ordinances and new Sacraments far better then those that were in the Jewish Temple as Beza
this Ecclesia sticall Witnesse and the Key that shutteth the Gate and the Windows of Heaven that the rain of grace and the comforts and consolations of Gods word cannot fall on such a person so long as he continueth in that excommunicate condition And as God hath given unto Moses power by his Rod to turn the Rivers and all the waters of Egypt into blood and to bring all the other Plagues that were brought upon Pharaoh and upon all the Land of Egypt The extent of the power of the witnesses for their obstinate refusall to let Israel go to serve the Lord So he hath given unto his Kings a power and a Sword that is signified by Moses his Rod to punish and to draw blood even the hearts blood of such wicked offendors as will be like Pharaoh rebellious and obstinate against the Commandements of God And herein you may observe the extent of their power which he granted unto them that is to smite the Earth but not the Heaven with all Plagues and that is to punish the earthly and worldly minded men that are wicked and do follow after the vanities impieties and iniquities of this sinful life but not the godly men whose conversation is in Heaven and which are obedient to the Lawes of God and man with fines mulcts imprisonments banishments and death it self for if they smite the Heaven that is the righteous and the innocent with any of these Plagues that power is not given them from God but from the Dragon that is the Devill gives it them Revel 13 2. as the Apostle sheweth And so you see the powers and the abilities that God hath given to these his two witnesses the King and the Bishop the Civill and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of his People the one exercising his power in the Church with the word of his mouth and the other in the Commonwealth with the Sword in his hand And for the time The time that the two Witnesses shall continue to prophesie c. 11. v. 3. Fran. Jun. in loc Ezek. 4.6 Dan. 9.24 Numb 14. v. 34. Mat. 3.2 Luc. 3.3 that these two Witnesses shall quietly and peaceably execute their Offices and Prophesie that is discharge their Duties to govern the Commonwealth and to build up the Church of Christ the Angell saith it shall be 1200 and 60 dayes cloathed in Sackcloath and that is as Junius here and divers others do rightly take a day for a year 1200 and 60 yeares as they do collect out of Ezekiel and Daniel and other places of Scripture where under the number of so many dayes as are expressed so many years are to be understood And so we find that with the favour and under the protection of Christian Emperors and Godly Kings the Orthodox Bishops and true Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel of Christ did freely without fear publish the Doctrine of faith and repentance which was the Doctrine of John Baptist and the Doctrine that Christ continued to preach and commanded his Apostles in like manner to preach the same unto the people and which I take to be signified by their Cloathing in Sackcloth in their so conforming themselves unto their Doctrine as John Baptist did Mat. 3.4 cloathing himself in a Garment of Camells hair and a girdle of Leather about his loines and not mourning for the pollution of the true Church which during the time of their Prophesie was not polluted as Mr. Mede and others do suppose but Mr. Mede part 2. p. 7 8. as I conceive much amiss that we should think the true Church was or that God would suffer his true Church to be so long polluted for the full space of 1200 and 60. years before the persecution of the Antichrist should begin or that his persecution should last so long And that is if you begin to account not as Junius would have it Junius in annotat in loc immediately after the passion of Christ because this power of free publishing the Doctrine of repentance was not yet given them while they were prohibited and persecuted from place to place for preaching the Gospel of Christ but it was given them after the end and determination of the ten former persecutions of the Church by the Heathen Tyrants and after the other storms and afflictions that were raised against them by the meanes and procurement of the Arian Hereticks and were as violently prosecuted by Constantius and other Arian Kings of the Gothes and Vandalls as the persecution of the Heathen Emperours as the life of Athanasius and the story of the Church doth sufficiently testifie when the Church was setled and established in peace and quietness and the governing Bishops freely permitted and royally protected by the Christian Kings and Emperours to preach the faith of Christ and to exhort their people to repentance from dead works yea and to injoyn the transgressors to repent in Sackcloth and to abhorre themselves and their former courses in dust and ashes And this was not The time when the two witnesses received their full power to prophesie about the year 382. till after the death of Valens which was about the year of Christ 382. When Theodosius had vanquished the Huns and the Gothes and the rest of those boysterous Northern enemies of the Empire that exceedingly troubled and brought infinite crosses and molestations not much inferiour if not some wayes worse then the Heathen persecutions upon the Church as you may easily find in those excellent Books of St. August de civitate Dei and others the Ecclesiasticall Writers of those times And from this suppression of those fierce and cruel enemies both of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Empire which was as I said about the year 382. to the beginning of the long Parliament we shall find about the summe of 1200. and 60 years When the time of their prophesying in Sackcloth was ended throughout all which time the true Orthodox Bishops the one of the two witnesses of Gods truth in all the Christian Kingdoms as Spain France Germany Ingland Scotland Ireland and the rest had full power and free liberty to preach the Doctrine of faith and to injoyn penance unto their people and they were not onely protected from the wrongs violence and malice of all their opposers About the year 1642. but they were also assisted to reduce all transgressors to repentance as above all other times in these Kingdoms that are best known unto us the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles can sufficiently justifie this truth unto you and the Christian Kings and Princes that were the other witness of Gods truth and the nursing Fathers of the Church were through the faithfull preaching of Gods word and the strict and godly Discipline of the Church most loyally obeyed and religiously observed as they ought to be in all the Christian Kingdoms and so both the witnesses by their mutuall helping and assisting one another were throughly strengthned
Worldlings and Prophane livers whatsoever and whersoever they be and upon many of Gods Servants that cannot escape a common plague while they live among the wicked And so you have the determination and extention of these three great woes The 3 great Woes upon whom they are to sall 1. Woe troubles and afflictions that have and shall fall upon the World thus more plainly expressed The first woe fell heavy upon the Eastern Churches by the comming in of the Turks and Mahometans for their Blasphemous Heresies and denying the deity both of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and likewise the deniall of all the due reverence and respect which they owed to the Martyrs and Saints of God whereof Leo Isaurus and Constantinus Capronimus and the Constantinopolitan Councill that consisted of 338. Bishops were the chief causers and the Principal Authors of that contempt and were sufficiently chastised for the same The second woe is now fallen or falling 2. Woe or most like to fall upon these Western Protestant Churches by the comming in of the Antichrist that was long expected and Prophesied that he should come amongst them to play his part for that having the true Doctrine of Christ and the right forme and manner of Gods service settled and established amongst them they would notwithstanding in a wild wantonness be seduced by the false Prophet to reject the same to suppress their Governours to slay the Witnesses of Christ and being most perfect Hypocrites to lead a most worldly life farr worse then either Papists or Pagans under the Cloak and Visard of piety and Saintship The third and last woe that we are certaine is yet to come and will come as the Angel saith very speedily after the end and determination of the second woe shall fall most Heavily as I said upon the Mahometans and the Antichrist and his adherents and the false Prophet and upon all the Enemies of God and the bringers of the former woes upon his Church and all other Lewd and wicked livers whatsoever And now I should proceed to the 13th Chapter 3. Woe but that there is an exposition of this 12th Chapter annexed to our Bibles which might if not answered cross much of what I have formerly explained for Francis Junius a very Worthy man and not meanely learned in his notes joyned to Theodore Beza's translation of the New Testament upon this 12th Chapter understandeth by this Woman Junius his interpretation of the Woman in his notes on the 12. Chapter Eusebius l. 3. c. 5. sometimes the Christian Church of the Jewes and sometimes he would have the Woman to signifie the gentile Christians and he saith that the Woman which fled into the Wilderness where she was fed for a time and times and half a time signifieth the Jewish Christians or Christian Jewes that fled out of Hierusalem when the Romans were comming to besiege it into a little Village called Pella as Eusebius writeth and remained there a postrema Judaeorum defectione ad urbis excidium usque from the last falling away or revolt of the Jewes untill the destruction of their City and Temple which was just three years and a half and by the earth that opened her mouth to swallow up the flood that the Dragon cast after her he saith it signifieth the unbelieving and Rebellious Jewes that underwent the War and sustained all the miseries that the Romans brought upon that Nation whereby those believing Jewes that were in Pella did escape that flood of afflictions that otherwise must have fallen upon them if they had not fled out of Hierusalem when they heard the voyce that cryed in the ayre migremus hinc let us depart hence And so he conceiveth this passage of the Woman into the Wilderness expressed in the 14th v. where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time which he rightly expoundeth for three years and a half to be not the same with that passage of the Woman The foresaid interpretation of Junius rejected expressed in the sixt verse where she is fed 1200 and 60 dayes which he also rightly expoundeth to signifie 1200 and 60 years but he misapplyeth this second passage of the Woman into the Wilderness to a Woman that cannot be understood in that place as appeareth Reason 1 1. In that the Woman for there is no mention made in all the Chapter but of one and the same Woman that is the Christian Church or the Christians that believed in Jesus Christ is said to be fed that is to be guided Governed and instructed by the two Witnesses that is 1. The Kings and their under Magistrates and 2. The Apostles and the Bishops that succeeded the Apostles and the rest of Gods Ministers for 1200 and 60 dayes that is as Junius himself expoundeth it 1200 and 60 years and we are sure the believing Jewes in Pella were not so long guided and instructed by these Witnesses in that place nor in any place else that we know of and therefore they cold not be signified by this Woman Reason 2 2. In that this Revelation was not of known things that were already past but of things that were hereafter to be fulfilled that is after they were revealed unto St. And c. 4.1 Dr. Hammond in apoc ex Epiphanio baeresi 51. Irenaeus adversus haereticos libro 5. Balaus l 3. saith it was in the 15th year of Domitian John as the Angel telleth plainly unto our Evangelist c. 1. 19 And this time when St. John was banished into Patmos and wrote this book was not in the reigne of Claudius Caesar that banished all the Jewes out of Rome as some men out of Epiphanius do imagine and as hereafter I shall make it more fully to appeare but it was about the latter end of Domitians reigne as both Justin Martyr and Irenaeus testifie and as Balaeus Beza Maresius and the most of our best late Writers do assent to Irenaeus testimony and that was about the year of Christ 98. and these believing Jewes fled to Pella either when vespasian began the War or when Titus his Son came to besiege Hierusalem which was about 40 years after Christ his Ascention that is in the year of our Lord 73. and in the second year of Vespasians reigne that was proclaimed Emperor in 72 and therefore those Jewes could not be here mentioned Reason 3 3. In that their being in Pella that was neer enough to Hierusalem though it was beyond Jordan during all the time of the siege could be but little better if we consider the miseries of billetting our enemies Souldiers and our plundering our commanding and other abuses that are incident unto us by and from them that follow the Wars of whom the Poet saith Nulla fides pietassque viris qui castrasequuntur then if they had been within the City of Hierusalem save only the freedome of their lives when perhaps their other troubles and abuses were no wayes Iess if not in some respect
paralel Whom I never read to have done things so unjustly as that Parliament did utterly to undoe so many men and never tell them what evill they have done there shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world no nor ever shall be math 24.21 and upon the words of the revelation where satan is said to be let loose c. 20. v. and Hypolitus Cyrillus Isidorus and others doe collect and avouch out of the scripture that the injustice and the persecution of the Antichrist will be greater and stranger and more grievous then any other of the persecutions that preceded it and therefore Bellarmine and many others both of the Roman and of the Protestant Church do make the persecution of the Antichrist to be one of the two concomitant signes whereby the saints and servauts of Christ shall know and understand that he is come into the world But the unspeakeable and unparaleled injustice cruelty and persecution of that Parliament acted against the true servants of Christ that were loyall subjects of the civill state and the faithfull Governours of the purest church that Christ had on earth intimated by the Apostle in the place before cited and lighting upon them that I specified to you before surpassed in my understanding all the persecutions that preceded it when as I shewed you in the beginning of this booke the votes ordinances and acts of that Parliament are not inferiour but as I conceive exceeding in cruelty injustice and impietie the edicts of Dioclesian or Decius or any other of the worst of the pagan persecutors Aod doth not this most plainly evince and prove that the Iuncto of united Independants and their adherents and associale Prebyterians in that long Parliament and their false Prophet that sate at Westminster to instruct them are the beasts spoken of in the Revelation c 13. and the man of sin the childe of perdition and the great antichrist that St. Paul prophesied of to come into the world 2 Thes 2 6. Another undeniable palpable signe of the antichrist is 6. Grosse Hypocrisie of the Parliament unfallible sign of the anti The partlel his more then Pharisaicall hypocrisie sitting in the Temple of God as God preaching the Gospel as an Evangelist and being in al things else as I have formerly shewed the best saint in shew and the devill in deed and so an absolute and a perfect hypocrite as the Presbyterians affirmed the Pope to be And have not that long Parliment most hypocritically besides their other doings made an act for the propagation of the Gospel and have nominated certain men of their own sect to put that act in execution throughout the thirteen shires of Wales as where they found the people most loyall to their King and more desirous to retain the true service of God amongst them then any other parts of the kingdom and therefore had more need to have their Gospel preached there amongst them but I beseech you marke how finely the darke fiend can change himselfe into an Angel of light that he might inlarge the kingdom of darkenesse for if you would rightly understand how these men have propagated the Gospel of Christ in those parts where I had an occasion to be an eye-witness of their proceeding I do assure you upon the faith of a christian they have ejected and deprived most if not all of the best preachers and grave doctors some onely for receiving their just dues others for their loyalty and some without once calling them to answer or telling them why or wherefore they were ejected and they have set their livings to Captaines and Soldiers and have shut the Churches doores and charged the right Incumbents neither to pray there nor to preach unto the people and so they have verie formally propagated the Gospel of Christ by this their good service as is conceived unto the Antichrist and yet that they might seem good gospellers to deceive the world they have got some few novices and young striplings that wanted meanes as much as they lacked learning 1 Tim 3.6 Iude v. 12. and 13. How the Parliament hath propagated the Gospel in Wales such as St. Paul speaks of and as wandring Stars and Clouds without water as St. Iude calls them or as the Pilgrime Jew that was lately talked of with one pocket Sermon or two that they got as was reported from their brethren of Wrexam and learned the same by rote which were full of the doctrines blasphemies of the times they became as they are term'd itinerant preachers to bestow a Sermon upon a congregation which they never saw before and which in all likelihood they should never see again And thus the Parliament with their wandring preachers have propagated the Gospel of Jesus Christ the clean contrarie way And who seeth not by all this and by all their other doings like this that as all divines confesse the Antichrist under the name of Christ and upon pretence to doe the best service unto Christ will be the greatest enemie of Christ so these men under the shew of propagating the Gospel have done more then all the wicked hereticks that preached or the beathen tyrants that knew not Ghrist to overthrow the true church of God and to roote out the right faith and the clear light of the Gospel from off the earth And therefore if the Parliament be not the great Antichrist but that a greater and a worse shall come into the world God O Good God I humbly beseech thee for Jesus Christ his sake take me out of this world before he commeth into the world that mine eyes may not see that evill And now being wearied in prosecuting the folly and discovering the great great iniquity and impietie of that Parliament sutable to the predictions of those things that should be acted by the Antichrist and fearing that I have too much wearied my reader in the pursute of this wild beast I should here end this point What a preacher saith in a printed Sermon but that I cannot omit what a godly preacher setteh down in a a Sermon printed at London 1647. upon St Luke c. 18 vers 31.24 where he saith It hath been a long and a great dispute whether the Antichrist be come and who he is and if I be not mistaken the scripture will easily resolve this question for they that oppose themselves against Christ they that sit in the Temple and set themselves aboue all deposing and murdering Kings are not these the first and the great Antichrist when they make themselves what Christ alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and therefore alone hath the power to depose Kings and to dispose of their kingdomes are they not the Antichrist For the Apostle saith qui Christi sunt crucifixerunt carnem they that are Christs have crucified the flesh or fleshly lusts but qui Antichristi sunt crucifixerunt Christum Regem we may justly say they are the Antichrist
Gods prople yet because they profest to know their Masters will and did it not our Saviour was offended with them and denounceth more and more beavie woes against them then against all the enormous horrible and flagitious sins of others the greatest finners that knew not so much of the will of God as they did Even so though the Idolatries and heresies and superstitions of the Pope and his Hierarchie and their other sins and the abominations and cruelties of the Turks and Mahometans may in there own nature simplie considered seem more odious and heinous then the sins of the Presbiterians and long Parliament yet consideratis considerandis all circomstances considered that may be said for the Pope and popish church No sinner so hatefull in the sight of God as the ypocritical saint and for the Turk and Mahometans and against these seeming Angels and the grand masters of injustice and impietie in all their wayes I say no Pope no Turk no Tyrant no Scismatick no Heretick nor any other the like great sinner can be so hatefull in the sight of God as are the doings of these hypocritical Saints that I have so cleerly and so amply displayed unto you in this book so far that the best of mine understanding cannot immagine how a greater Antichrist more odious to God and more destructive to the Church of God can possibly arise then that which I have described in these bookes CHAP. VII Of the continuance and destruction of the beast the time of his prevalencie his utter ruine not till the day of judgment and why and what it should teach us how the seven Vials of Gods wrath shall be poured out and what the three unclean spirits do signifie ANd now I should end this discourse but that for the comfort of all the persecuted Saints and Servants of Jesus Christ that seem in mine ears to crie to God with the soules under the Altar saying how long tarriest thou holy and true before thou comest to deliver us from the crueltie of this beast and to avenge the blood of thy servants that hath been spilt by them that dwell on the earth I think it requisite that I should say some-what of the continuance of the beast and the destruction of the Antichrist Touching which being points of things to come it is not an easie matter nor wisedome in any man rashly to determine and knowing how many great Schollers and holy men have failed in the computation of times I am verie loath to bee too peremptorie or positive therein especially considering that I could not yet satisfie my selfe with any thing that I read concerning this matter in the best either of the popish or the Protestant writers For 1. The Papists expecting the Antichrist that in all probabilities 1. What the Papists conceive concerning the Antichrist Bellar. de rom Pontif. 1. 3. c. 8. and 16. Sanders in demonstr Corn a la pi de in Apoc. c. 3. Iraeneus Hyppolitus c. should be a Jew risen of meane parentage of the tribe of Dan and by cheating tricks should first overcome the Kings of Egypt Lybia and Ethiopia and then many more and should most cruelly persecute the Church of Christ for three years and a halfe in which time Henoch and Elias should return in their own persons from the terrestriall Paradise where God reserveth them for to preach and to preserve the elect from the deceits of the Antichrist doe say that he is not yet come and when he cometh that he shall continue but as I said three years and a halfe and this shall be but a verie little time before Christ cometh to Judgment this is the generally received opinion of the Papists which is but a fancie without ground 2. The Protestants whereof some that make the succession of Popes to be the Antichrist do say he hath already continued ever since Boniface the third in Phocas his time Balaeus de vit Pontif. l. 3. Thom. Antichrist arraigned pag. 06. E. H. de Antichrist c. as Balaeus saith or since Vitalianus in 666. as Thompsom and others say above a 1000 years already and they cannot tell how many years more he may continue God knoweth it may be a 1000 yet if their exposition be true and the world continue so long others think that the Antichrist is but some one single and singular person that should arise or is risen from the true Church that is from the purest nationall Church which I am sure in King Charles his time was the Church of Ingland and though he springs from a smal roote yet by his wars his wits and cheating tricks he shall slay the two witnesses of Christ whic they conceive to be the Magistrates and the Ministers that is as I take them the King and the Bishops and that man should still prevail over Gods people and continue glorious in all good successes according to his own desires untill the Ministers of Christ that through fear shall be for a while like Plinies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless men doe receive a new courage and as it were life from the dead to preach him down and God shall second them and assist them by raising commotions against him and powerfull armies to overthrow both him and his adherents and thereby that is the zealous preaching of the Gospel and the great victories of Christ his servants over the Antichrist they shall proceed on and reduce not onley the Jewes but also the ten tribes of Israel that have been scattered like the dust of the earth to be converted to imbrace the faith of Christ and to restore them to repossess their Land of Palestina and to make a glorious reformation of the Church of Christ thus collected into one sheepfold that shall continue as some fondly dream a 1000 years more in all worddly felicitie the most of which conceits I take to be as fabulous and as fictitious as the fictions of the Talmudists And therefore I must humbly crave leave What the author conceieth to be the truth touching the Antichrist in many things to dissent and in some things to assent to the expositions both of the Papists and Protestants and out of both their assertions to set down what I conceive to he most probable and likeliest to be the truth and so I say with the Protestants that Sanders and Bellarmine and the rest of the Popish Writers that take the beast for one single person are utterly mistaken and all that they say of that person are but meer fictions because all that is here spoken of this beast and elsewhere of the Antichrist can never be applied to one singular man nor all things that are to be acted can be peformed by one person and yet I cannot assent with those Protestants that say he is the succession of Popes or popish Hierarchie or a wicked Kingdom and Politie and the seventh head of the beast that reignes after the Emperors in the Cittie of Rome as Brightman
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