as no true Churches of Christ And because his single word which is his best and only argument may the better passe without controule hee goes about tooth and naile to cry downe the sufficiencie of the Scriptures as being an imperfect rule of it selfe to measure the Church by And this his Booke he hath beene so bold as to dedicate to the King and makes it the faith of his Church of England as professing one Faith and Religion with Rome Is it not high time then for some John or other faithful Ministers of Christ to rise and take the measuring Reed in his hand Gods Word and therewith exactly measure the Temple of God Christs Church that it may be distinguished and differenced from all false pretended Churches and in especiall from the Antichristian Hierarchie the prelaticall Catholike Church as the d In his last reprinted Conference Epist Dedic p. 16. and elsewhere in his Book Prelate cals his Church in which Catholike his Church of England and of Rome are both one and the same Church No doubt of that They be the Prelats owne words So as when the Prelate was so Zealous to bring Scotland to a conformitie with England and when the Scots read in his Book Englands conformitie with Rome as to be one Church and to professe one Faith and Religion with Rome might not this trow you startle and move the Scots to expell and repell to thrust out and keepe out at the Speares point this Conformity And so might not the Prelates false Hierarchicall Catholike Church excluding all Protestant Reformed Churches from being any true Churches of Christ justly incense the Zealous hearts of Scotland seeing Christ thus to be dishonoured and thrust out of his Throne and Antichrists Prelates to be so mounted aloft to cast out such usurping Lords that so none but Christ according to his Word and the Lords Anointed according to his just Laws might rule over them Thus we see how necessary this measuring of the Temple is under this sixt Trumpet and what a cleere note it is of the time wherein this sixt Trumpet is sounded So as we may boldly say upon such cleere evidence that now is the time of the sixt Trumpet when there is such need of measuring the Temple with the Reed thereby to know and vindicate and separate Christs true Church from all counterfeit and Antichristian Churches that at this time doe so boast themselves for the only true Catholike Church of Christ As in Chrysostome the uncertaine Authour upon Matthew Chap. 24. hath observed Let them which are in Iudea flee to the Mountains that is saith hee let all true Christians flie to the Scriptures for in the time of Antichrist it will bee impossible to know the true Church from the false but only by the Scriptures So hee But the said Prelate of Canterburie rejects the Scripture from being a sufficient and perfect measuring Reed of the Temple and good reason because on the one side the Prelate makes the Hierarchie to be of the very essence of the Catholike Church and on the other side the Scripture no where approveth of Prelacie or of Diocesan Lord Bishops it knows none such yea and both e Matth. 20. 1 Pet. 5. 3 Iohn 9.10 Christ forbade it to his Apostles and they afterwards never practised it themselves but expresly condemned it in all as in the Reply to the Prelates Relation the Author hath cleerly proved Come wee now to the measuring of the Altar As the Temple and Tabernacle under the Law had their just measures and Dimensions prescribed of God so also the Leviticall Altar Now under the Law there was but one Altar one for burnt offerings and one for incense both these as one were types and figures of Christ the true and only Altar under the Gospell For as the Altar under the Law did Sanctifie every guift and offering upon it as Exod. 29.37 and Mat. 23.19 so Christ is to us that only Altar on which wee offering our selves and our Spiritual Sacrifices both are Sanctified and accepted of God This is that Altar Heb. 13.10 of which the Apostle saith We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve the Tabernacle That this Altar is Christ and only Christ is cleer because He being come who is the true Altar the typicall altar must altogether cease Otherwise those who still served the Tabernacle might have had right to eate of our Altar could the Type and the Truth have consisted together And the Apostle expresly applyes this Altar which wee Christians have to Christ as Verse 11 12 13 15. where he showes the proper use of this Altar in sanctifying our offerings concluding and saying By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name By him that is by Christ our Altar in his Name we must offer up all our Sacrifices that so they may be Sanctified and accepted of God This is so cleere that no sober Divine that understands any thing at all can deny So as the measuring of the Altar here is as the measuring of the Temple whereof wee have spoken before the vindicating of Christ to be the true and only Altar of true Christians And this is a dutie enjoyned all faithfull Ministers and especially under this Sixt Trumpet in these our very times wherein we have seen such furious Romish Zeale in hoysing up of Altars every where and boldly maintaining both in f Doct. Pock in his Altare l. Christianum Rather Damâ—scenum Books and Sermons the necessary use of such their devised Altars of wood and stone as without which God cannot be served nor their Sacrifices sanctified wheras these their Altars with al their Altar-service worship of maÌ„s devising are not only derogatory from Christ the only true Altar but also a flat deniall of Christ and a very Masse of all Heathenish impietie and atheisticall infidelitie and Antichristian apostacie For that multitude of wooden and stone altars which our Prelates do erect in all their Churches are taken rather from the Heathen as King g 2 Kings 16. Ahaz and his Priest framed their Altar according to the pattern of that at Damascus or from Rome which took them from the Heathen or from the Iews but if they say they take them from the Jewes as they doe many other of their Rites then they very much forget themselves and that in two mayne points first because the Church of the Iewes had but h 2 Chro. 32.12 one altar for Incense and Sacrifice and that was at Ierusalem they might not set up Altars in any other place so as in their seventy yeeres captivitie in Babylon they had no altar there and at this day the Temple and Altar at Ierusalem being demolished they have no Altar as no Sacrifice or Incense So as no Jerusalem and no Temple there no Altar now of wood or stone or any other matter or
be so called in respect of a civill death as dead to the whole World in a civill respect having no communion nor commerce with the World And the bodies are here named not the persons because persecuting Tyrants as we touched before have no power over the soule but only over the body this they may torment imprison ſ Matth. 10.28 kill but that 's all they can doe Well what of those dead bodies take them in any sense They shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified What great City is this Surely it can be no other but the Citie of the Beast together with the Suburbs And the Suburbs are all those Cities or States which are either subject to or confederate with the Head-Citie which is Rome We can not have a fitter exposition hereof then that which the Prelate of Canterbury gives us in his reprinted Conference with the Jesuite Fisher For there he saith That the Church of Rome and the Church of England as also all other Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Churches are all one and the same Church no doubt of that as he saith and as is noted before This is his Catholike Church And so this is that great City which stands in opposition to the Holy Citie and treads it under feet as Verse 2. For as Christs Church is called a Holy Citie though it be dispersed over the World So Antichrists Synagogue is here called a Great Citie as comprehending in it all those Cities and States which make up one body of the Beast This great City is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt Sodome for the wickednesse voluptuousnesse prophanenesse pride and other sins of Sodome raigning therein and where they make open warre against all holinesse and all good Laws of GOD and Man And secondly it is called Egypt for its tyranny in oppressing and afflicting of Gods people with their intolerable burthens And for this they have their Task-masters to wit the Prelates and their multitude of officers who force Gods people through their whole Egyptian Provinces to fill up their tale and task of bricks in the strict observation of all their Rites and Ceremonies Constitutions and Canons the Spirituall burthens of their spirituall Egypt and for default thereof in the lest degree or kind the Taskmasters beat and abuse them if they t Exod. 5.15 complaine 't is to no purpose they can have no remedy Thus not without cause is this Citie called not only Great but spiritually Sodome and Egypt So as in what Country soever in the World this Beast sets his paw that is where ever hee hath his Taskmasters the Prelates and their Officers as where almost are they not there is the Kingdome of the Beast there be the Suburbs of this Great Citie And whatever Countrey or State doth incorporate it self into an union or confederation with this Papall Hierarchie becomes thereby ipso facto a member of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt And this being so tell me ô England art thou not become a member of this great body of this Great Citie of this spirituall Sodome of this spirituall Egypt For wherein dost thou differ from Rome it selfe Doth not thy great Arch-prelate who is as thine Oracle professe in thy name and in Print with an unblushing forehead that England is of the u Conference Reprinted Epist Ded. pag. 16. And pag. 376. 338. c. same Church same faith same Religion with Rome And doth he not shrowd this his Book under the name of the highest Authoritie in England as commanded by the King to be published And hast thou not set forth Edicts dispensing with the open profanation of the Sabbath by heathenish Sports and others prohibiting Ministers to preach in the after-noons on Lords Days as preferring thy prophane Sports before the holy and divine Ordinance of Preaching and so consecrating at least the one halfe of the Lords Day to Bacchus or Belial Art thou not then a part of that great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome Again dost thou not permit if not command thy Prelates the Roman Pharoahs Taskmasters to vex afflict and grievously oppresse the people of God with the intolerable burthens of their and thine endlesse Ceremonies And not x These things were then in force when this Treatise was written content with the old thou addest new burthens as the Egyptians did in denying straw and those most abominable as thy Superstitious yea Idolatrous Heathenish Altars with all their Idolatrous Altar-Service wherein thou art utterly falne from being a member of the Holy Citie which thou treadest under thy feet and even professest thy selfe to be of that Great Citie which for its inthralling and oppressing of Gods people is spiritually called Egypt O England England Repent hereof cast out thy cursed and cruell Taskmasters like as thy Neighbour Scotland hath done so suffer thy people Gods people to serve their God as he hath commanded and to enjoy their Christian Libertie which Christ hath deerly purchased for them and no longer to be under the Antichristian Babylonian yoake and the Egyptian Taskmasters Thus we have seen as it were in a Map the large Territories and bound lesse bounds of this great City here mentioned spiritually called Sodome and Egypt in the street whereof lie the dead bodies of Christs two witnesses and where as here is added our Lord was crucified Which is to be understood not simply and personally of our Lords crucifying but mystically For our Lord in Person was crucified at Jerusalem and yet not within the Citie but without the Gate And yet Christ in his Person was crucified by the first Roman Beast the Emperour whose Successour both in his Seat and in the Image of his Power and State and in all his bloudy persecutions of the Saints the Papall Beast now is as also of the Scribes and Pharisees and High Priests who put Christ to death and so hee with them is guilty of his bloud as Matth. 23.35 36. Verse 31. But he is crucified mystically in his mysticall members even in the open Streets of this Great Citie Witnesse all those persecutions and Martyrdomes which the Beast in all Ages and Countries hath caused wherein the Lord himselfe hath been crucified to wit in his Saints and Witnesses And what thinke you of those Witnesses of whose crucifying on the Pillory in the open street or rather spacious Palace-yard in the Citie of Westminster we have been all eye-witnesses and spectators Was our Lord there then in them on those Pillories crucified or not If he were and that upon such an eminent Theatre and in the view of that Court where they were so censured the High Priests themselves with others of high note beholding and pleasing themselves with such a Tragedie of the Beasts cunning contriving and cruell execution was not this trow you a part of that Great Citie where our Lord hath been
interpreted by the voice of the seventh Angell when these thunders shall have their effect upon the Beast in his destruction For thus also that which followeth as before is touched of the Angels Swearing that time should be no more is to be fulfilled under the Seventh Trumpet when also the Mystery of God shall be finished when all Prophecies shall be accomplished and in the end of the World all time shall be swallowed up of Eternity as before Which by the way noteth unto us that the Seventh Trumpet shall continue sounding and the seventh Viall powring forth untill the end of time Shall time then have an end certainly Here then a question may bee moved what shall become of the Sun and Moone and Starrs whose motion is measured out by time and which distinguisheth the y Gen. 1.14 times and seasons days months and yeeres of this inferiour world For answere whereunto in brief because the question is full of curiositie whether those glorious creatures shall cease to be or their motion shall cease as whereof there seemes to be no more use I find not clearly revealed but this I find There shall be a new z 2 Pet. 3.10 12. heaven and a new earth when the heavens being on fire shall bee dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heate and the earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up But how this shall be or in what particular State or forme it is not revealed Only this resolution is the best which Peter gives * Verse 17. Seeing saith he all these things shal be dissolved what manner of persons ought yee to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning unto the comming of the day of God c. a Verse 13. Neverthelesse saith he we according to his promise looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse It followeth Verse 8 c. Here John is commanded to take the little Book which was open in the Angels hand who takes it and eats it up which becomes sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly and thereupon he is bid to prophecie before many people and Nations and Tongues and Kings And this is the summe of the foure last Verses of this Chapter It is cleer that this little Book signifieth or containeth those prophecies which John and in him Christs Ministers under this Trumpet called his witnesses in the eleventh Chapter were to publish to the World For upon the receiving of the Book hee is bid to prophecie This place alludes to that in Ezechiel Chap. 2.9 10. and Chap. 3.1 2 3. where the Prophet beholds an hand sent unto him and a rowle of a book therein which was spread before him within and without and there was written therein Lamentations and mourning and wo and hee was bid to eate this rowle and to go and speake unto the house of Israel which hee eating found it in his mouth sweet as honey A just parallell to this little booke here all circumstances compared together So as this little booke containeth for the matter of it those judgements of God which Iohn was to denounce in his prophesying to fall upon the Beast and his Kingdome The sweetnesse of it in his mouth argues the b Esay 39.8 goodnesse of Gods Word even when it denounceth judgements for sinne whereupon if men bee brought to repent it is sweet as honey in the mouth but if they heare and doe not repent it goes downe into the belly and the effects thereof prove bitternesse in the end The Apostle saith that Gods Word is the c 2 Cor. 2.15 sweet savour of God in them that are saved and in them that perish Againe this sweetnesse in the mouth of John and bitternesse in his belly shewes that Gods message should be sweete to his Mininisters in receiving it and delivering it with their mouth although in the issue it prove bitter unto them as being the cause and occasion of much trouble and persecution which they suffer of the World such as befell the Prophets and Apostles and Ministers of Christ in all succeding ages and as we shall see more particularly in the next Chapter to which we now come Chap. 11.1 c. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the Angel stood Saying Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy Citie shall they tread underfoot fortie and two moneths And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thowsand two hundred and threescore days clothed in Sackcloth c. Still we are to rememb r as before is noted that wee are yet within the compasse of the sixt Trumpet So as what is here laid downe untill we come to the Seventh Trumpet Verse 15. must bee interpreted as appertaining to the sixt Trumpet Within this Sixt Trumpet then all this is done John here represents as I said those faithfull Ministers or witnesses of Christ here mentioned who living under this sixt Trumpet must rise and take the reed and measure the Temple and the Altar but must not measure the Court without the Temple but leave it out First they mâ—st rise that is begin to bestir themselves in their Ministery And wherein must they exercise themselves In measuring the Temple and the Altar with the reed in the Angells hand This alludes to that measuring Reede which Ezechiell saw in a vision wherewith he measured the Temple c. as Chapter 40. and 41. c. Now by the Temple here is meant the true Church of Christ as is cleer by many places as 1 Cor. 3.16.17 2. Cor. 6.16 Eph. 2.21 And in many places of this booke of the Revelation Temple is taken for the Church of Christ as Chap. 15.5.6 and in the 19 verse of this Chapter and elsewhere And by the reede in the Angells hand to measure withall is meant the straight rule of Gods word by which alone the true Church of Christ being measured is thereby known and distinguished from all false and pretended Churches And that John Christs Minister is bid to rise and thus to measure Gods Temple his Church doth plainly argue that in the time of this Trumpet the Ministers of Antichrist shall arise and make a loud claim to the title of the Temple as pertaining properly to them and to none other Among many other take one famous instance What a notorious booke is published of late by the Prelate of Canterbury wherein he sweats and labours to prove that the only true Catholike Church of Christ over the world is made up of the many Prelaticall Churches as the proper members of the body so as he makes the Church of England and of Rome to be all one Church and finally shuts out all reformed Protestant Churches that have no Prelates
published in print and that also by Authority an Answer entitled The Bayting of the Popes Bull to a Bull of Pope Vrban the eighth which passed up and down in England inciting his Roman Catholikes to stand for the Catholike Cause and having set in the Frontispiece of the Book a Picture representing King Charles with a sword in his hand the point whereof was directed so as it put off the Popes triple Crowne in the other picture over against it representing the Pope with Verses interpreting the same and having a young daughter then of three or foure yeeres old at most to whom I my wife holding the child in her armes shewed this picture interpreting the same unto her the childe presently thereupon replyed O Father Our King shall cut off the Popes head Jt must be so Jt must be so And this so redoubled she spake with such an extraordinary vigor and vivacitie or quicknesse of spirit and utterance as both my selfe and wife were struck with great admiration Now if a man should have said then when this was uttered that such a speech proceeding so strangely from a child was sure some Prophecie inspired into her by Gods Spirit of what should after come to passe would have found but a few to give credit thereunto but rather would have beene laughed to scorn Although I presently thereupon said to my wife surely this in time may prove to be a true Prophecie God is able to bring it to passe though never so unlikely But now that wee see the Hierarchie utterly raced and rooted out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that by King Charles his Royall assent ratifying the same in Parliament tell mee what think yee Was not here a cutting off of the Popes head by the King as touching his Kingdome of Scotland For is not the Popes headship upheld in chiefe in the Prelates and Hierarchie Might not then the childes speech be a Prophecie being thus far verified in so great and unexpected a work as this And if so why may it not reach to be a like verified in cutting off the Popes head also in England as it is now in Scotland Is any thing hard to the c Pro. 21.1 Lord who hath the Kings heart in his hand as the rivers of waters turning it whithersoever hee will But for this we must patiently wait and incessantly pray that the Lord will bring to passe his owne counsell and finish his worke thus begun and that Antichrists Throne and Kingdome being throwne downe and destroyed Christ alone may reigne in the hearts and consciences of his people and the Kings Crowne may ever flourish and shine forth in the beauty of abundance of peace and prosperitie till time shall be no more Nay whither the child prophesied or no here we have a most sure word of Prophecie which tels us what Christ is now a working namely the great Reformation of his Church and Restauration of Religion which as he hath so gloriously begun to doe in Scotland so I trust hee will shew the like mercie to England though a sinfull Nation in rooting out those wicked limbes of the Beast by whom Religion and the whole Land is so of late more than ever before since Queene Elizabeths dayes defiled Yea wee may be as sure hereof as wee are sure this is Gods Word that the Lord will and that very speedily so finish this worke now begun within the compasse of this sixt Trumpet as not all the power and policie of Antichrist and his Confederates shall be able either to prevent it or ever to overthrow it For Christs Word here must needs bee fulfilled which saith These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks which stand before the GOD of the earth As if hee had said Even as the vision of the golden Candlestick and of the two Olive-trees on each side thereof standing before the Lord of the whole earth was shewed unto the Prophet Zechariah to be a word of the Lord to incourage Zerubbabel the Prince and the people of God in repayring and finishing of the Temple in Jerusalem then in hand which the enemies of Judah resisted and withstood with all their might and malice but were not able to frustrate the worke So I have here purposely named my two witnesses the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth that it may be the like vision as it were to my people living under the sixt Trumpet to encourage them not only to begin but to proceed to the finishing and perfecting of the worke of Reformation of Religion and restauration of my spirituall Temple the Church and though the adversaries be potent and labour tooth and naile to hinder the worke and my people are weake yet know that it is d Zechar 4.7 not by might or by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts For e Esay 46 10. my Counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure And as for thine enemies O my people feare them not but say unto them f Esay 8.10 Take counsell together and it shall come to naught Speake the word and it shall not stand for God is with us And I say to thee O my people Behold g Esay 54.16 17. I have created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth an Instrument for his worke and I have created the waster to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shal rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And thus much of this Verse Now follows Verse 5.6 Verse 5.6 And if any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophecie and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they wil. In these two Verses is set forth the efficacie of that power which Christ giveth to his two witnesses in their prophecying And this power is such as that of Elias and that of Moses was For first here is an allusion to the power and spirit of Elias in the fifth Verse wherein this speech is redoubled thus If any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed How is that h 2 King 1. Elias we know when the first Captain with his 50 men were sent to fetch him by force to King Ahaziah saying unto him Thou man of God the King hath said come downe answered If I be a man of God then let fire come downe from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty And there came down fire