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
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
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
that despise mee shall be lightly esteemed Now blessed bee our God for evermore for this his great and glorious worke and hee ever blesse his King that as hee hath made him a mighty instrument thereof so hee would strengthen him to the finishing of that work which yet remaynes to be done in the purgation and reformation of his other Kingdomes that so hee may prove the most glorious Prince that ever raigned in the Christian World And it is said here And great feare fell upon them which saw them That is when they on the Beasts side saw those witnesses whom the Beast had cruelly slaine and whose dead bodies they had barbarously used not suffering them to have common buriall but insulted and triumphed over them now to be as it were revived and raised from the dead againe when they behold such a wonderfull increase to come of their bloud so cruelly shed such a spirit of life from God so to possesse many other witnesses as those slain seem 1 1 Here let the Reader still remember that this Treatise was written before his returne from banishment and so towards London on that Saturday the solemnitie whereof was so conspicuous and glorious as it doth without any other application even naturally apply it self as if it were the most proper fulfilling of this Prophecie if either wee consider the manner of that return or the effect it wrought in the adversaries thereof which caused in them extreame indignation and rage even unto gnawing of their tongues and gnashing of their teeth And yet feare so possessed them that all â—heir power and policie could not help now to live againe in them they are struck with terrour they are surprized with feare For whereas they fondly imagined that the slaying or cruell handling of two or three prime witnesses making them sure as dead men would so have queld all the rest that not one durst ever after peepe contrary to their expectation they see a generation of witnesses to rise up after them and so to affright their enemies as if they saw an apparition of the Ghosts of the former witnesses returned from the dead And if a man did now but feele the pulse of those Prelates in England who have seene their brethren Prelates late of Scotland to bâ— cast out of Church and Countrey and utterly cashiered without all hope of restitution should he not trow you find the spirit of trepidation leaping and panting as it were for life as if their owne turne should be next But it followeth Verse 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them They that is the two witnesses thus raised and restored to life as before heard a great voice from heaven Here Christ either by an extraordinary voice inwardly calling or by the ordinary voice of his word outwardly cals his servants to take Sanctuary as in heaven Now heaven here may bee taken for the Church of God hereupon earth So it 〈◊〉 often taken in this Booke As in this Chapter Verse 19. So Chap. 12.1 the woman there in heaven is the Church Militant here on earth as appeareth plainly in the whole Chapter as Verse 3. 7. 8. Chap. 13.6 and in other places Now the Church of God here on earth is compared unto and called Heaven as in many other respects so specially in this because it is holy and pure being purged both for Doctrine and Discipline from all damnable Heresies and errours in faith and from the vain Inventions and Traditions of men in the worship of God m Revel 14.4 following the Lambe whithersoever he goeth that is in all things obeying Christ and observing his Ordinances and subjecting their souls and consciences to none other King but only Christ They from this Heaven heare a great voice this is Christs voice in his word calling his witnesses from having any more to doe with the Beast and his brood having sealed this their testimony with their bloud which the Beast hath sucked and drunk up So as hee now being found to be incorrigible and incurable so as hee grows worse and worse is to be utterly abandoned As the Lord saith in Jeremy n Ier. 51.6.45 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule be not cut off in her iniquitie for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompence And the reason of Gods peoples thus abandoning of Babylon is rendred Verse 9. Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon but shee is not healed forsake her and let us goe every one into his owne Countrey for her judgement reacheth up to heaven and is lifted up even to the skies And the like warning God gives to his people Revel 18.4 concerning the spirituall Babylon where Iohn saith I heard another voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities So here the witnesses heare a great voice from heaven saying Come up hither as much to say as Have no more to doe with Babylon nor with the Beast and his members who will heare no reason but have now filled up the measure of their cruelty not only to you but to all my witnesses that went before you so as now there is no more hope of them o 2 Kings 17. See also 2 Chron 36.16 no remedie for them being like those incorrigible and obstinate revolted Tribes of Israel or like the Jews that persecuted my Apostles and p Acts 13.46 drove them away to the Gentiles therefore come out from among them admonish them no more but come up hither keepe you close to my Church which I have altogether purged and purified from the dregs of Babylon and there only hold your communion Come up hither And as it followeth they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them Wee read that Elias was carried up to heaven in a fiery Chariot And Christ ascended up to Heaven in a cloud Here these witnesses ascend up to heaven in a cloud But to Heaven as before is shewed namely from their enemies to take Sanctuary as in the Church of God here on earth it being compared to a high and holy Mountain to which we must ascend So as this ascending in a cloud and that in the enemies view sets forth the admirable providence of God who will miraculously make his Church a sure and safe Sanctuary as Heaven to his persecuted ones under this Trumpet from the power and fury of their enemies who may behold them afarre off but are not able any more to touch them for they are now out of their reach as being in Heaven For in this Trumpet God is preparing a way to the seventh and last Trumpet wherein hee will