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
of Jesus Christ as St. Bernard saith Yet such is the Pride of these men that some of them do say a just mans work is of value worthy of Heaven and that absque ullo respectu meriti Christi without any respect to the merits of Christ as I read it alleadged Suarez was not ashamed to write Nay more they teach that men are able not only for to merit but also to supererrogate that is to merit for themselves and for others likewise when they do more service unto God than God commandeth them to do and do more good works than God requireth at their hands Mat. 25.9 I remember the five wise Virgins would not impart with one jot of their Oyle unto their Fellowes lest they should want the same themselves but these men think they have enough both for themselves and others And therefore because they would have nothing lost they have invented that gainful Doctrine of Indulgences and pardons whereby they transfer the surplusage and remainder of the merits of those Saints which have supererrogated and have done more good works than will serve their own turn or that God requireth at their hands unto those The Doctrine of Merits and Supererrogation very beneficial to the Church of Rome that want them and can pay them for them the which point of their Doctrine I dare say is no Gospel but a very profitable Kitchin-Divinity And so you see how they derogate all from Christ and ascribe all this unto themselves And as Constantine saith of Acetius do erigere sibi scalas set up Ladders of their own framing to climb alone to Heaven without the help of their Saviour or but with a very little of his help And what is this but as the Poet saith turgescere fastu to swell with pride and to become insolent against the Lord against the Holy One of Israel as the Prophet speaketh of Babylon For our Saviour saith if any man will be his Disciple he must forsake all and deny himself and follow him but these men will neither deny their own errors nor forsake their own Pride to rely on their Saviour Christ 3. As the Chaldean Babylon was full of Idolatry the Land of Graven Images The Idola 〈◊〉 the Roman Church Jer 50. thâ—â— was mad upon their Idols as the Prophet peaketh so is the City and Church of Rome Of whom we may justly say with Baptista Mant. Fama est AEgyptum coluisse animalia quaedam Et pro numinibus mult as habuisse ferarum Ista superstitio minor est quam nostra ferarum Hic aras habet omne genus contraria certe Natuae res atque Deo And this Idolatry of the Roman Church we affirm to be committed two waies In two Respects 1. Respect two waies and and in two special respects 1. In giving the true honour and worship of God to faise Gods 2. In worshipping the true God with false worship _____ For 1. They give the Divine Worship 1. Giving the true Worship of God to false gods which they themselves confess to be only due to the true God unto the Creatures _____ As 1. To the consecrated Bread of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper here on earth _____ And 2. To the Saints and Angels that are in Heaven 1. When the Priest hath consecrated the Bread he lifts it up above his head 1. To the consecrated bread and saith three times that one of the most comfortable Sentences in all the whole Book of God and ever proper and peculiar to Christ alone O the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world have mercy upon us and then immediatly all the people fall down and prostrate themselves unto that Wafer Cake as unto the everliving God And what greater and more palpable Idolatry can there be than to worship Bread in stead of God Indeed the Heathens adored Ceres that they say first invented the sowing of Corn for a Goddess but they counted her the lowest of all their Goddesses and her Daughter Proserpina they feigned to be married to Pluto the King of Hell the fittest place for such Goddesses But these men adore not the makers and authors of bread but the bread it self and count that bread to be the true and living God and therefore seeing their Idolatry is the greater let them take heed lest their judgment shall be the severer and that they shall not with Proserpina be either Kings or Queenes or have any Dignity in Hell but with the rest of the wicked Idolaters shall be slaves of Hell if they repent not for evermore But these men to salve this sore and to quit themselves from this high charge of Idolatry do say they worship not any bread either hallowed or unhallowed but the Body of Christ which is the blessed God for ever and ever For after the Priest hath consecrated the bread and said this is my Body it is no more bread but it is changed and transubstan iated into the very true and natural body of Christ according to the words of Christ himself this is my Body So as the water was no more water Mat. 26. â—6 John 2.9 after Christ had changed the same into wine the bread is no more bread after the Priest transubstantiates the same into the Body of Christ and therefore they commit no Idolatry nor offence by this their adoration of the Host Why the Body of Christ is to be worshipped which is now become the true Body of Christ because the Body of Christ though not as it is a Creature and the Son of Mary yet as it is hypostatically united to the Son of God and is a nature of that Person which is the true God by nature is to be worshipped and adored I answer that if they could well prove the former point that the consecrated bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ we would willingly as we do readily yield unto the latter as I shewed unto you how the body of Christ is to be worshipped But for the truth of their Transubstantiation of the Sacramental bread into the body of Christ it resteth to be discussed We read in St. John that the Word was made flesh John 1.14 Gal. 4.4 and so flesh was united unto the Word And St. Paul saith the Son of God was made of a woman and so the seed of the Woman was made the Son of God but we never read it in all the Scripture ture The first Inventers of transubstantâ—ation that the Son of God was made of bread nor that bread was made the Son of God For it was those Antichristian Popes Leo Nicholas Innocentius and Honorius that were the first Fathers which begat this new Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Council of Lateran not much above 400 years ago was the first Council that confirmed and gave life unto the same But how far this new devised Doctrine of theirs The falshood of the Doctrine of
transubstantiation shewed three waies is from the old received Faith of the Church and from the Divine Truth of God I shall briefly shew unto you 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Ancient Fathers 3. From pure and sound reason And a threefold cord is not easily broken For 1. Christ told his Disciples 1. From the Scriptures John 14.3 v. 28. Mark 16.19 Acts 7.56 Acts 9.4 Acts 3.21 before his passion that he must leave the world and go to his Father as he was man And St. Mark saith that after his resurrection he was taken up into Heaven and sitteth on the right had of God And so Saint Stephen saw him in heaven standing on the right hand of God and Saint Paul heard him from Heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And St. Peter saith that the Heavens must receive or contain or hold him until the times of restitution of all things that is until the last day the day of Judgment How then can he be corporally present here on earth and be still residing in Heaven But to make the Point more clear John 6.53 our Saviour saith except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you that is none can attain unto eternal life but only those that do eat the flesh of the Son of man and do drink his bloud but all the Patriarchs Fathers and Prophets of the Old Testament and all those Christians that are baptized and die before they receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper The Fathers of the old Testament could not eat the natural flesh of Christ could not nor cannot eat the very natural flesh of the Son of man For as yet in the time of the Fathers of the Old Testament he had not assumed his Body and therefore either all those Fathers can have no life or else our Saviour meaneth it of a spiritual eating of his flesh by the mouth of Faith and not of any carnal eating of him by the mouth of our Bodies But to deny eternal life to these Fathers is most absurd and injurious unto them therefore our Saviours meaning must needs be granted to be of a spiritual eating of his flesh and no thanks to grant it For the Apostle proves it saying that they did ali eat the same spiritual meat 1 Cor. 10.3 4. and they did all drink the same spiritual drink that is as we do now for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ whose flesh they did thus spiritually eat that so they might have eternal life And St. Aug. in Johan tract 26. Aug. expounds it in the same manner saying visibilem cibum hoc est Manna spiritualiter intellexerunt spiritualiter esurierunt spiritualiter gustaverunt they understood that visible meat that is the Manna spiritually they hungred after it spiritually and they did eat the same spiritually And of all Christian Children and others that are baptized and die before they receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the same Father saith nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum tunc unumquemque fidelium corporis sanguinis Domini participem fieri quando in baptismate efficitur membrum Christi Aug de Symbol fidei ad catech to 9. no man ought any way to doubt but that every one is then made partaker of the body and blood of our Lord when by Baptism he is made a member of Christ Therefore the words of Christ are not to be understood of any oral eating of his flesh or drinking of his blood 2. 2. From the Fathers The whole stream of the first Fathers of the Christian Church are against this new-found Doctrine of Transubstantiation of the bread into the flesh of Christ and of the wine into his blood and for the spiritual eating of the flesh of Christ and the spiritual drinking of his blood For Origen saith si secundum literam sequaris id quod dictum est Origen in Levit hem 7. nisi manducaveritis carnem filii hominis non habebitis vitam in vobis litera illa occidit if you follow the letter of that which is said except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life in you that letter killeth for it is the Spirit that giveth life the flesh profiteth nothing Theoder Dialog 7. And Theodoret saith Christus naturam panis non mutat Christ changeth not the nature of the bread So Tertullian contra Marcionem l. 4. August contra Adamant Manich. to 6. c. 12. in epist 221. Cyprian de coena Domini Hesichius in Levit. l. 3. c. 2 Amb. de Sacrament l. 1. c. 5. Chrys in Johan Tract 25 26. And all the rest that write of this Point are of the samâ— minde and do expound it in the same manner And so many of the Popish Writers themselves do either ingenuously confess or else tacitely yield unto this very truth for Pope Gelasius saith non desinit esse substantia vel natura panis vini the substance or nature of the bread and wine doth not cease to be and Roffensis yieldeth that the very presence of Christs body in the Masie Fisher Bishop of Roches cont Capt. Babylon Tonst de Euch. l. 1. Pag 65. Ar. Mont. in Luc. 22. cannot be proved by any place of Scripture and therefore sure we need not believe it for any truth and Tonstall confesseth it was no heresie to deny the Doctrire of Transubstantiation before the Council of Lateran And Arias Montanus upon the words of our Saviour this is my body saith it is no more but my body is sacramentally contained in this Sacrament and this we do all affirm and accursed be he that denieth it for we say with Clemens Alexandrinus that duplex est sanguis Domini alter carnalis quo redempti sumus alter spiritualis quo scilicet unctisumus and so the fiesh or body of Christ is understood to be 1. Carnally or corporally in heaven 2. Mystically and spiritually in the Sacrament and in the first sence none did or can eat him but in the second sence all the godly men have and do and will eat him and drink him nam hoc est bibere Jesu sanguinem incorruptionis domini participem esse for this is to eat the flesr of Christ and to drink the blood of Jesus to be partakets of the incorruption of our Lord as S. Clemens saith and as S. August August in Johan saith credere in Christum est manducarc panem vivum to believe in Christ is to eat the bread of life which is the flesh of Christ 3. Reason it self disproveth 3. From reason 1. Reason John 3.9 and is fully against this their doctrine of Transubstantiation For 1. If the bread upon the pronouncing of those words this is my body be turned into the flesh of Christ then the Apostles did eat his body and yet saw it whole and intire before their
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
so cryeth and is pained in bringing forth Children unto God and she is likened to Children in respect of particulars that are all the Children of the Church begotten and brought forth by her unto God through their regeneration and new birth by Baptisme and the Preaching of the Gospel and grace of Christ And these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pangs of the woman and what they signifie pangs and paines of this woman to bring forth her Child may most especially signifie the troubles and afflictions that the Primitive Church endured for the Preaching of the Gospel and converting the Infidels unto the Faith of Christ under the first ten grievous persecutions and so likewise for the troubles that the Church should suffer at any other time and chiefly those great troubles that she must undergoe for doing the same service and work of regenerating children unto God in the persecution of the Antichrist for these troubles and afflictions of the Church are compared by the Prophets to the pain of a woman in travell Esay 66. and Jer. 30.6.7 because the Church will endure as much and as readily hazard her life to beget a Child to God as any woman endureth and hazardeth her life to bring forth her Child into the world and sooner too And our Saviour to shew the greatness of these pangs and pains of a woman that is in travell with Child saith that the troubles of the Jewes which should happen unto them and were as great as any we read of Mark 13.9 as Josephus ben gorion witnesseth are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginnings of their pangs or sorrowes which shall be no lesse then the pangs of a woman in travel so shall the pangs and pains of the Church be under the persecution of the Tyrants and the Antichrist for bringing forth Children unto God very great pains and troubles as that which here followeth will make it more manifest for The Evangelist saith v. 3. 2. The Vision of the Dragon and his malice to the woman v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there appeared another wonder in Heaven and that seems to be a greater wonder then the former and a wonder indeed every way if we should consider all particulars in very many respects and therefore the Holy Ghost prefixeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and behold it or consider it well for a great red Dragon or as the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great fiery Dragon Job 1.6 or a Dragon as red as fire appeared in Heaven so he that durst go into Paradise before dares now to go into Heaven and to appear among the Sonnes of God as he is more often and more diligent in the Church of God to hinder our devotion then we are to perform the duties of our Religion and he that was but a Serpent before crawling upon the Earth is now become a great Dragon flying in the Air The Dragon had 7 heads and 10 horns and therefore this sign or wonder well deserveth an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold him and take heed of him for he hath 7. Heads harder to be discovered then the heads of Nilus and harder indeed to unhead him then it was for Hercules to cut off the heads of hydra and he had 10 horns and therefore he was of a mighty strength The horn an Emblem of strength 1 Reg. 22.11 because the horn is an emblem of power and strength as Zedechia made horns of Iron and said thus saith the Lord with these shalt thou push the Syrians untill thou hast consumed them and he had 7 Crowns upon his heads that is upon every head a Crown to shew unto us how glorious and majesticall wickedness and the instruments of wickedness would fain seem to be and his tail drew the third part of the Starres of Heaven and did cast them to the Earth What the tail of the Dragon signifieth Who are the Starres by his tayl I understand the fear of him the terror of his sting and the lashing of them far and neere that will not submit themselves to him and by the Starres of Heaven I understand those that seemed to be holy Professors good Christians and to shine like Starres in the Church of God or else those that were appointed to shine and to give light as Starres to them that are in darkness and do walk in the night of ignorance as are the Bishops Preachers and Ministers of Gods word for so the Angel saith unto our Evangelist Revel 1.16 v. 20. that the seven Stars in the right hand of Christ were the Angels that is the Bishops and Pastors of the seven Churches and by the third part of the Stars I understand not the subduing of the third part of the rulers of the world to the empire of Rome as Mr. Mede thinketh for why should the rulers of the world Mr. Mede pag. 35. be termed the Stars of Heaven and to be cast to the Earth when as they were earthly and worldly enough already and had small correspondency with Heaven but a great many as I told you the number of 3.7 and 110 doth often import What is to be understood by the third part of the Starts Let my Reader Judge whether this was not fulfilled in our time both of the Clergy and laytie that seemed to be as Stars in the firmament of the Church for feare of the Dragons tayle to be stung and lasht with the loss of their preferment their wealth their lands their liberties and their lives are pull'd down from Heaven and drawn away from their station and from the performance of their due respects unto the Witnesses and of their duties of the right service of God in his Church and are cast down to the earth that is to follow after the world and for the love of the world and the preferments of the earth to observe and follow any new forme of Gods service and so to become Apostates Meteors and falling Stars and meere Hypocrites in the Church of God which is very much that the Dragons tayle should do such great mischief And yet this is not enough for this Dragon to do to corrupt the third part of the Stars and to draw a multitude of professors from the right service of God to follow after the world and his wicked wayes but he would faine have more grist to his Mill Hell being like the Daughters of the Horse-leech that still cry give Proverb 30.15 16. give and being one of the four things that are never satisfied and that never faith it is enough and therefore he stands before the Woman which was ready to be delivered to devoure her Child saith our Translation when she had brought it forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to eat up her Son saith the originall but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pario to bring forth it may be translated her Child as well or as I
suddenly bring Atheisme and all Prophaneness among the people which I beseech All-mighty God of his mercy to keep from his Servants and to turn away this Blasphemy of the Beast against Gods Tabernacle And I may demand if the false Prophet the Preachers and the adherents of the long Parliament have not brought this contempt of Gods Tabernacle in too great measure among the simple people and which very sin I am confident cannot be fastened either upon Jewes Turks or Papists CAP. IV. The Blasphemy of the Beast against the Saints in Heaven the first despisers of them the Blasphemy against the Godly Saints on earth who are the Saints with whom the Beast warreth the successes of the Beast that we ought not to wonder at his Victories what the successes of the Beast should teach us and of the end and downfall of the Beast 3. IT is said that the Beast opened his mouth to Blaspheme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. The Blasphemie of the Beast against Gods servants 1 Perfectos them that dwell in Heaven and this may be understood for two sorts of Gods Servants 1. For the blessed Angels and the Saints that are departed and do now rest and reside with the Holy Angels in Heaven 2. For those holy men that do wayfare here as yet and are the lively members of the Militant Church of Christ 2. Inchoatos Maledicta in Sanctos dicuntur blasphemiae quia Deus in Sanctis maledicitur Cajetan in Thom 22. q. 88. Artic. 5. which warreth against the Beast and which is often to be understood by the name of heaven in this book And the Beast hath not spared to blaspheme both these kinds of Saints whose abuses are called blasphemies because God is blasphemed in them saith Cajetane for 1. Touching these blessed souls that are with Christ I speak not for the invocation and praying to the best of those Saints nor the adoration of their relicks and images for that might well be thought to be flat Poperie and a sin to be punished by the Judges or at least not well to be justified neither do I argue for the worshipping of them no not the blessed Virgin with any kind of Divine worship either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but onely for a reverent opinion and a charitable estimation of them free from contempt and shewed by good words and the addition of some reverent title and honourable Epithite added unto their names as we use to do to the Heroes and noble persons The Parallel Calvinus instruct contra libe tinos c. 9. or our honourable benefactors that are on earth which as I conceive is but the minutest honour that can be given them and yet this is a great deal more then this Beast can afford to bestow upon the most deserving of them for as Mr. Calvin relates of Quintinus the father of the Libertines in France and a near kinsman of this Beast here spoken of adeo petulanter in sanctos debacchabatur he did so insolently rail against all the Saints that he termed Saint Paul no otherwise then a broken vessel Saint John a foolish youth Saint Matthew an usurer Saint Peter a denier of his Master and I heard say that some one of the spawn of this Beast hearing a worthy Preacher citing Saint Augustine replied Saint Augustine Saint Devil and I am sure the adherents of the long Parliament as limbs of this Beast do for the most part hold it blasphemie to call the holy men departed Saints and therefore you shall never hear any of them to say in their Sermons or Writings And Mr. Love gives to Mr. Greenham the Epithite of holy Greenham Saint Peter or Saint Paul but the bare naked nameof Peter Paul John and so of the rest is good enough for the best of them though they can be pleased to give far more honourable titles to their own impure proselites and some of them to become so impudent as to compare their own sinfull mothers with the unspotted mother of God the blessed mother of Jesus Christ whom the Holy Ghost saith all generations shall call blessed as they all do that love Christ except it be this cursed generation of vipers that gnaw out the bowels of their own mother But this contempt of the heavenly Saints The first despi sers of the blessed Saints these new Scholars have learn'd of their old Masters the first despisers of the Saints and Martyrs Leo Isaurus and Constantinus Capronimus that said the blessed Virgin after she was delivered of Christ was like a purse that had been full of gold and that made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Law that none of Gods servants should be called Saint saith Cedrenus Apud Surium to 6.28 and so Steven the Martyr of that time sheweth that the Constantinopolitan-Council of 338. Bishops assembled by Leo Isaurus had proscribed against holy things and had cast away in contempt this epithite Saint from all the righteous men of God and would give no other title to the Apostles and Martyrs of Jesus Christ but as their Disciples do now the bare name of Matthew Mark and the like and thought it an hainous crime to say Saint Peter whereby you see this new practice of the Beast and of his followers that have unsainted all the holy inhabitants of heaven and Sainted all the hypocrites on earth is but raked up out of the old dunghill of these Hagiomastices the Saint-scourgers that I named unto you Yet you hear what the Spirit of God saith that to speak evil of the Saints whom we ought to honour as those that sit with Christ on his Throne Rev. 21. as Christ himself doth testifie is no less then hainous blasphemie and therefore if we will not yield them that due respect and honour that we ow them as the friends of God and as the brethren of Christ and the sons of God and for the manifold good that they have done unto us yet I hope this will bridle all those that fear God from uttering any contumelious speeches against them 2. For the other sort of Gods servants that remain still in the world The Parallel 2. The blasphemie of the Beast against the inchoative Saints that are on earth and reside in the earthly heaven that is the Church militant the Beast termeth them not onely sinners which they confess themselves to be and confess it with grief of heart that they are so bad and can not be better but calleth them also Reprobates Malignants Members of the Beast Sons of the Whore of Babylon Limbs of the great Antichrist and faggots destined for hell-fire And for themselves that are indeed the Members of the Beast they pretend to be the right Saints and the onely true servants of God The strange Divinity of the Beast In the Historie of Independency part 3. p. 29. and therefore they may commit any Act that is a sin in us whom they deem Reprobates and yet
in the eares of the Lord from off the Earth And so all their Narratives of their extraordinary Victories and most fortunate successes in Ingland Ireland and Scotland do not prove them to be the Saints of God nor their doings acceptable in his sight but they do sufficiently prove that they have made Warre with the Saints and have overcome them and as the Prophet Daniel hath typically prophesied of the Beast The Parallel Dan. 7.25 2 Thes 2.3 have worn out the Saints of the most high and they may confirm the faith of those that believe them to be the Beast here spoken of and the great Antichrist that is prophefied of by the Apostle Yet to shew the weakness of flesh and blood and the blindness of frail man to understand and to judge of things the Holy Ghost saith v. 8. that the Victories and successes of the Beast do so far prevail with all that dwell upon the Earth that is all earthly and worldly minded men And as H. Grotius rightly saith morem ejus imitari that they are moved thereby to worship the Beast that is to admire him to adhere unto him and to assist him in all his projects and persecution of the Saints which is done as the spirit of God saith by all those whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World that is by all carnall and worldly men that are not inlightned with the truth of Gods spirit But I would advise both them and all men else seriously to consider how fearfull is the condition of those Worshipers and assistants of the Beast when as God himself doth testifie they are not in the Catalogue of Gods Children but are bletted out of his Book as Reprobates to be tormented with the Beast in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone for evermore And therefore our good God gives a Caveat to all the Servants of Christ in the next verse saying if any man have an ear to hear that is a will and desire to hear let him hear that is so attentively and considerately that he might rightly understand what he heareth for that is not a matter of small moment and slightly to be passed over but they that have any regard of their eternall salvation or desire to avoid everlasting destruction ought carefully to examine who are meant by the Beast and then seriously to weigh in what sad and lamentable condition the Worshippers and adherents of this Beast do remain in Then for the comfort of the persecuted distressed and subjugated banished Captives and for a just reward and retaliation to the oppressing Conquerours Of the end and downfall of the Beast that is the body of the Antichrist the spirit of God addeth v. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity and he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth and you know the Proverb must is for the King truth it self hath spoken it that it must be so and he hath spoken it often therefore it shall undoubtedly be performed and the Beast shall not rule for ever Let my Reader judge if this Prophesie of the downfall of the Beast be not now fulfilled blessed be our good God for it nor the persecuted Saints be oppressed for ever but the Saints shall be delivered out of the hands of the Beast and the Beast shall be excluded out of his Dominion and shall receive his pay when God the just avenger of all wrongs and specially of all blood unjustly spilt shall render their due deserts unto all the members assistants and adherents of this outragious monstrous Beast in the time that they look not for it onely let the Saints with patience constantly expect it and with faith assuredly believe it even as the Holy Ghost hath said Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints i. e. patience quietly to suffer while they are under the rule and the rod of the Beast and faith undoubtedly to believe the dethroning and the downfall of the Beast which will be but the beginning of his sorrowes when as his greater punishment and destruction is still behind and I shall more fully declare it unto you hereafter Liber Tertius CHAP. I. Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth not Mahomet nor the Idolatrous Priests of the heathen Temple when S. John was banished into Patmos That the Preachers of the antichrist and not the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy but the assembly of Presbiters Independants and Lay Preachers are the Prophets of the first beast when the seed of this beast of the earth was first sown and when it became first apparant in these parts and that this beast of the earth is far worse then the first beast that arose out of the sea THen after that the Evangelist had exprest the forsaid particulars of the seven headed and ten horned beast 4. The vision of the second beast which is as the soul of the Antichrist he proceedeth verse 11. to tell us of another vision how he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast coming out of the earth where the holy Ghost followeth the same method as he did with the Prophet Ezechiel Ezech. 8.6.13 15. to shew him greater abomination then he had formerly seen in as much as the most opposite place to heaven is the earth and is farthest from it and a far baser Element then the Sea so is this beast that rose out of the earth far more wicked more odious and more abominable in the fight of God and all good men then the other that arose out of Sea as the Sequel of what we read in this thirteenth Chapter will make it plain unto you But first we are to inquire who is to be understood by this beast Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth that can be worst then that beast that ascended from the bottomlesse pit and is the same with the great Antichrist And I find some Divines as Rupertus and others that think this beast of the earth and the other beast of the sea to be the same beast that first rose out of the sea Not the same with the beast that rose out of the sea and then was seen again to spring out of the earth But the description of this beast and his actions likewise do so far differ from the first beast that it cannot be the same especially considering the Evangelist saith plainly it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast therefore not the same with the former And yet as the soul and body that are not the same do notwithstanding constitute and make up one and the same man so doth this beast and the other former beast make up the same man of sin and the same great Antichrist this being as the form that as the matter this as the soul that as the body
Bellarmine well observeth out of Arâ—thas this beast is said to do his wonders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sight of menj that is so appearing to men whose sight and judgement are thereby deceived for that they do nothing of what they pretend and seemed to do but the things that they do are no such things indeed in the sight of God 4. 4. Difference Whereas true miracles do exceed all naturall causes tam occultas quam manifestas as well the hidden secrets of nature as those causes that are knowen to us and are done onely by the hand and Power of God and therefore they are wonders and not onely in the fight of men but also in the sight of Angells and Devills the wonders of the Antichrist and his adherents the Presbyterians and Lay-Preachers have all of them their naturall causes though they be hidden from the sight and understanding of the people as the victories of the beast and his successes are obtained meerely by his subtle tricks his cunning carriage of the war and the desperate valour of his soldiers God giveth them leave so to prevaile over the pufillanimity and security of his children that offendeth him and they are not obtained by the immediate hand of Gods active Power The Presbyterians gaining so many Proselites to what it is ascribed and a miraclous effecting Providence from heaven as the beast pretendeth and so desperately blasphemeth God in making him the author of all his bloody cruelties and the shedding of all the innocent blood that was spilt which can no wayes stand either with the goodness or justice of God and the Presbyterians winning of so many simple men to follow after them and to become their disciples to believe their erronius heresies and damnable positions it is to be ascribed to their sedulity vehemency and good oratory wherewith Aeschines Demosthenes and Cicero perswaded their Auditors to follow them and not to the powerfull working of Gods Holy Spirit who though for their sins he permitteth the simple people to believe strong delusions and to be misled into most damnable conclusions by this beast yet he never worketh and leadeth them into the same And therefore what Vulteius Remensis saith of some Franciscan Monkes that played many jugling tricks in Orleance Anno 1534. the same may be rightly applyed to these Presbyterians Cum clamat larvas furiosa caterua leonum Infestare suam nocte dieque domum Res vera est falsi larvati denique fratres Quos vestis sanctos prodigiosa facit Sunt lemures larvae furiae vulpesque lupique Qui infestant vitiis seque suamque domum Which I may very well thus translate When Presbyters do cry that scisme and heresie Do spoile the Church of Christ The thing is true for so these Saints in shew Are furious Fiends the limbs of Antichrist That with their Lies and Heresies given in a golden Cup Have poysoned all the whole Flock of Christ And so themselves are the Mischief that have spoyled all things both in the Church and Common-wealth But though all the wonders and workings of this false Prophet be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lying wonders and no truth in them yet hereby he deceiveth the people and especially when as the Holy Ghost sayth He maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth Touching which fire What is here meant by the fire that the beast maketh to come down from heaven 1 Reg. 18.38 we must not understand it to be such a fire as Elias brought down to consume the two fifty men that the King sent to fetch him nor such a fire as by his prayers came down to consume the Sacrifice upon Mount Carmel because those fires were true fires and truly miraculously brought down by the Prophet when as the sire that this false Prophet pretendeth to bring down is no such thing neither must we take it for such a fire as Philostratus sayth Apollonius Tyanaeus fetched down from Heaven in the fight of many people because this was some elfe-fire that he procured to appear as the flash of a Meteor by the help and procurement of the Devil when as this false Prophet pretendeth not to bring down any such a fire neither yet can I yeild it should be taken as Mr. Mr. Medes Expofition rejected Mede and others of our late Writers do expound it for the lightnings and thunders of the Popes Buls and Excommunication against those that submit not themselves to him and to his Decrees because as I shewed to you before the Pope and his Cardinals cannot be understood by this false Prophet But I take it as a proverbial Hyperbole for the application of that which was sayd before That this Beast doth great wonders so that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven The parallel The fire that Christ came to send on earth the Beast pretendeth to bring from heaven because the Jews do commonly attribute so much to the miraculous fire of Elias that they use for all wonderful works proverbially to say He bringeth down fire from heaven sayth Graserus Or else it must be taken as I rather conceive in that sense as our Saviour takes it when he sayth I came to send fire upon the earth because this Prophet would fain seem to imitate Christ and to do all the things that he should do and can do as Christ did and therefore he pretendeth to bring the same fire that Christ brought down and that is the fire of zeal and a most ardent affection to Christ and to the truth of his Religion and this fire the Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay-preachers pretend to bring down from heaven to the earth above all other men whatsoever but in very deed this fire of their is but an ignis fatuus a deceitful fire and their seeming zeal as well as all the rest of their doings is but as the Apostle saith a lying-wonder for the true fire that these men do bring is of another kinde from another place and to another end and that is the fire of hatred and persecution which they bring from Hell Not the fire of persecution and not from Heaven and they bring it into the Church and upon the true Members of Christ and not on the earth but this their fire is not to be understood in this place Reason 1 1. Because the Holy Ghost sayth The Beast bringeth the fire upon the earth that is the earthly minded men whom only he perswadeth to worship the Beast and to adhere unto him as being deceived by his false wonders and this he doth by the fiery zeal of Gods worship which he pretends to bring unto them and the persecution of the Beast is against the Saints and not against these earthly men that by the sight of this fire are perswaded to serve and assist the beast and to afflict the Saints Reason 2 2. Because it is immediatly sayd that hereby he deceiveth them that dwell
they are men be they of what religion soever they please their different sense should not make us to destroy them so long as they live peaceably amongst us as you know the Sodomites permitted Lot that professed not their religion and the severe Pharisees suffered both the Sadduces and Essaei to enjoy both their lands and their estates without troubling them for their religion and would you make the Christian religion more unjust and worse then these Sure none would do that but the great Antichrist that would hinder all to think well of the religion of Christ Therefore I hope your wisdomes and justice will be so far from confirming any injustice done by that long Parliament or their under-agents either to these displanted Irish or ejected Clergy or any others that you will christianly redresse what they have so unjustly done amisse lest the continuance of these crying wrongs here on earth do pull down upon us all the flying vengeance of God Vivat Rex currat lex fiat justitia ruat mundus from heaven Because the good God is just and loveth justice hating all oppressions and wrongs and therefore as I would not belie the Father of lies so I would not do any injustice to the very devils and let no sinister aspect bend you from the straight rule of justice and if you will not redresse the too much wrong that we have suffered already I beseech you confirm them not by any new lawes to make your selves partakers of their sins and to make us still to crye with the soules under the Altar how long Lord holy and true but let us have the benefit of our old lawes that were justly made and if you will not nullify all the acts that are without our late Kings assent or perhaps cannot do it because so many of that long Parliament are members of this present Parliament contrary to the desires of many yet let the justice of our old lawes still continue and we shall still continue our prayers to God that he may still continue his blessings both to you and yours which is and shall be the daily prayers of Your most humble and faithfull Oratour to serve you Gr. Ossory Gentle and Christian READER THis book as very many can bear witnesse was fully finished above two years agone in the time of Oliver the usurper and I was very ready then to undergoe the danger that should ensue the publishing thereof and was as earnest to have it printed but either because some of the things prophesied of as the reviving of the witnesses were not as then fulfilled or because of some fears which my friends conceived from the Governours that then ruled I could not by any means get it to passe through the presse but now all the prophesies that are any where in the holy Scripture mentioned concerning the coming and the proceedings of the Antichrist being fully and cleerlie fulfilled and come to passe as I have shewed in this book save onely one part of the last prophesie touching the resuscitation of the last witnesse which some suppose to be unfulfilled and the Presbyterians hope will never be as we explain it and we conceive it done or as good as done already when as Christ said to Saint Peter tu conversus confirma fratres so Gods prime and principal witnesse being so gloriously risen to the joy of all hearts he will do as Christ willeth him stretch forth his royall hand as Christ did to Saint Peter to pull the other witnesse out of those waves that were so ready to swallow them up and set them to the sterne of the ship again and then as Solomon saith spes impiorum peribit Therefore as I have been at all the paines in composing it so I resolved by Gods assistance and only for the service of Gods Church to undergoe any cost to the uttermost of my ability to publish it unto the world and to bear all the blame aspersions or punishment that either friend or foe publick or private can lay upon me for the same for I call heaven and earth to witnesse that I have long studied and seriously meditated upon the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those places of the Scriptures that foretold us of the coming of the great and egregious Antichrist and I have often prayed and most earnestly and heartily desired of my God to grant me the true and right understanding thereof as who he should be where he should rise what feats and Tragedies he should effect how long he should continue by what means he might be discovered and how he should be subdued and at last utterly destroyed and I believe God hath now granted my request and that I have rightly and most truly explained those holy Scriptures that speak of him And if the presbyterians can give me satisfaction that I am mistaken herein I shall very willingly recant and be most heartily sorry for mine errour but if they be not able to demonstrate my mistakings as I assure my self the beast with all his power and the false Prophet with all his skill and putting all their heads together shall never be able to do then I intreat them not to be like the Galathians to become mine enemies for speaking the truth but to consider well what they do because God will not be mocked and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God for my witnesse is in heaven that I bear not any malice or any the least ill will to any one of all the Presbyterians or to any other of the members of the long Parliament or their adherents neither wrote I these things out of any excessive sense that I ever conceived of any injury that was done unto my selfe nor especially for any hope of profit or preferment when a Presbyterian told me The publishing of this treatise would be my ruine but Paupertas orbitas senectus the no losse of Lordships the no infants to cry after me and the years of mans life which are threescore yeares and ten being already past in me long agoe and I being very ready and willing for causes heretofore shewed to under goe what death soever it shall please God to impose upon me In the Epistle to the Reader before the seven golden candlesticks either on a block or a gibbet or a pillow so it be for the discharging of my duty it is not a pin matter for a good conscience which of these he must abide Quia nec nobis ignominiosum est pati quod passus est Christus nec illis gloriosum est facere quod fecit Judas vel Pilatus For seeing my Saviour and my King were so served why should I think much to be so likewise used and therefore his threatnings could not frighten me from divulging the same unto the world and that for these four special ends 1. To do my best endeavour to bring the members of the beast and the false Prophet
others are of the same judgment and do take the Antichrist to signifie the Papal State and Kingdom and so Bishop Downam Thomson Shelden and many more do say he can be no single and one singular Person but a multitude of men which many of the best Authors do conceive to be made up of single Persons succeeding one another as Hyperius saith and they can be none other as they suppose than Series Paparum the whole Classie of the Popes On the other side E. H. de Antichristo p. 82. E. H. doth constantly and confidently affirm that not only the restrictive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prefixed to each one of his Names and Titles as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like but also the things attributed to him and likewise the time of his continuance and many other particular Circumstances and reasons do evince Bellarm. de Romano Pontifice l. 3. c. 2. Montagu appello Caesarem P. 148. that the Great Antichrist can be but one single singular and individual Person and so Cardinal Bellarm. though he confesseth that somtimes this name of Antichrist is taken communiter for any wicked Opposer of Christ and his Kingdom as Bishop Montagu likewise saith and as it is most true yet he averreth that where the Apostle prefixeth the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifieth none or no more than one only single and singular Person because as Epiphanius saith Articuli Graeci contr ahunt significationem ad unam rem certam the Greek Articles do contract and tie the signification to one certain thing Epiphan Haeresi 9. quae est Samaritanorum John 5.43 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any man in common but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth this or that singular man And the Cardinal would needs prove him to be but a singular and single Person because our Saviour saith I came in my Fathers name and you receive me not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if another shall come in his own name him you will receive but indeed here is a Fallacy saith Thomson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the Singular number yet the Grammarians tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth another as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth the second of any two but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimateth any one of many and so our Saviour meaneth not here to single out any one only opponent to him Acts 5.35 36. Eusch l. 4. c 6. Dr Abbats de Antichristo but he speaketh of any one indefinitely whether Theudas or Judas of Galilee whom Gamaliel mentioneth or Barchochebas of whom Euseb speaketh or any other false Impostor whatsoever And therefore it is well observed by Dr. Abbats that what our Saviour speaketh here in the singular number indefinitely of any one he delivereth the same thing expresly in the Plural number when he saith Many shall come in my Name Matth. 24.5 saying I am Christ and shall deceive many though our Saviour doth not in this Chapter speak of the Great Antichrist but of those false Prophets that should come and deceive the Jews and so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not determinate any one single Person nor mean here the Great Antichrist but indefinitely signifieth that the Jews which refused to receive Christ would receive as they did any other false Christ that came in his own Name which is the very Exposition of Maldonat Maldonat in Johan c. 5.43 and yet the truth is that as Ecclesia Credentium corpus cum Capite the whole Church of the Faithful the Body with the Head is said to be and is but one Christ as where our Saviour saith no man ascendeth up to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he that came down from Heaven the Son of man which is in Heaven John 3.13 where I hope the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice prefixed doth not so sinifie the Person of Christ as to exclude the rest of his Faithful Servants his Members from ascending thither but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of man signifieth Christ mystically understood that is That Christ the head and the Church his members are termed Christ whole Christ the Head and all his Members and so taken none ascendeth but he that descended though as St. Bernard saith aliter ascendit quam descendit he ascendeth otherwise than he desended for he descended naked only in his Divinity but he ascendeth cloathed with our Humanity and he descended only as the Head of his Church but he ascendeth with all his Members and his whole Body that is his Church which together with the Head do make but one Son of man and one Christ for so Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me because in good propriety of speech Acts 9 4. that may often be well spoken of the whole and so understood which is truly proper to any one part as I am ill when my Head only aketh or they have put me into the stocks when my feet alone were set therein And so in Gal. 3.16 Gal. 3.16 By Christ is understood the whole Church of Christ united unto Christ as to her Head And so likewise when the Dragon is said to stand before the Woman that when she was delivered he might devour her Child the Child saith Junius Junius in Annot in Apoc. 12. signifieth Christum quem vocant mysticum id est totum ex Persona Christi velut capite ex corpore cum capite per spiritum adunato constantem that is whole Christ which they call mystical Christ consisting of the Person of Christ as the Head and of the Body as is the Church united unto the Head by the spirit and so saith he the appellation of Christ is taken in 1 Cor. 12.12 Where the Apostle saith as the Body is one 1 Cor. 12.12 and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are but one Body so also is Christ And I say That the great Antichrist is a collected multitude of most wicked men and an Armageddon which being compounded of cherem and gedud fignifieth exercitus maledictus an accursed Army that as thus Christ our Saviour and the whole Company of the Godly and Faithful Christians are termed Christ so likewise Ecclesia Malignantium the Congregation of the wicked and as Primasius calls them the whole Body of the Devil which are all the Company of wicked Reprobates and ungodly men are in the singular number somtimes termed the City of Babylon somtimes the Beast somtimes the great whore and Jezabel the painted Harlot as if they were all but one woman and one spouse of their Head and Husband the Devil somtimes the Synagogue of Satan where they meet and combine themselves to serve and to worship him and somtimes the Antichrist that is the adversary and opposer of Christ and the man of sin
faces and if so it is a wonder that they did not with Nicodemus ask him how can these things be for I am sure they asked him many questions of less moment and easier to be understood than this great and high point of the transubstantiating of the bread to become his flesh Reason 2 2. If the bread be changed to flesh and the wine into the blood of Christ and we eat and drink the same then it is carryed through our mawes and passeth through the draught or it is turned to our nutriment which notwithstanding must at last together with us see corruption but that is contrary to the saying of David that God will not suffer his holy one no not his mortified much less his glorified body to see corruption Psal 16.10 Reason 3 3. If the bread be turned to flesh and the wine into blood then the dogs and mice may eat with reverence be it spoken the most glorious body of the Son of God and poyson may be mingled with the most precious blood of Christ as we read one of the Emperors was poysoned in receiving the Sacrament but it is most absurd to say that the blood of Christ should poyson any man Reason 4 4. If the body of Christ doth sit in heaven and doth lie under the accidents of the bread then either he took no true body of the blessed virgine or now after his afcention he hath put away all truth of a natural body for a true natural body cannot subsist without its quantity and quality Casman in his Chiolog part 2. pag. 13. Scalliger in Cardan Every true body must be in a place Aug. ad Dard. Epist 57. and every quantity must be measured and bounded by place alone quia numerica unitas corporis finiti non potest subsistere sine continuitate as Julius Scaliger saith and therefore if you take away locallity from a body you must take away quantity trinarum dimensionum terminos and the bounds of the threefold dimensions longitude latitude and profundity and so you make a body to be no body and take away the finiteness and definition of a body saith the same Scaliger and so S. Augustine saith tolle spatia locorum corporibus nusquam erunt quia nusquam erunt non erunt If you take away the spaces of places from bodies they can be no where and what is no where is not at all and therefore by this rule which is most certain the opinion of Aquinas and Lombard who do affirm that the very body of Christ is there in the bread sed non ut in loco non qualitativè aut quantitativè but not as in a place not with quality or quantity is utterly false and overthrown for that as I said before every true body must have quantity and every quantity must have place But to this Bellarmine answereth Bellar. de cuchar l. 3. c. 4. pag. 297. that it followeth not that a true natural quantative body cannot be in two places at once quia ad esse circumscriptivè in loce nihil requiritur nisi ut locatum sit commensur atum suo loco non ut non sit alibi in alio loco because to the being circumscriptive in a place there is no more required but that the thing placed should be fitted and measured according to his place and not that it should not be else-where in another place and therefore the acute Cardinal Bellarmine and all the whole School of Jesuits say that the body of Christ though it be commeasured bounded and fitted to the place wherein it is placed yet may the same body be elsewhere in another place And to confirm this that may be alledged which Tursellian saith Credat Judaeus appella non ego that one Xavier was seen at the self same time in two several places both in a ship and in a boat far distant from that ship and Bellarmine relateth the like story of S. Anthony of Padua as that he was seen preaching in a Town of Italy and at the same time he was seen in another place For Tursellian's instance Plautus Amph. Thom. in ma. l. 1. d. 32. q. 1. r. 1. of the locallâ—y of Angels I say not only with Plautus tune id dicere audes verbere quod nemo unquam hemo vidit nec potest fieri tempore uno homo idem duobus ut locis simul sit But I will also say with Aquinas that by the same reason that he might be in 2 places he might be in a thousand places at once and therefore if Xavier was in one place it must needs be the Devil that was in the other place by such impossible things and improbable fictions to delude the credulous people and to Bellarmines reasoning I answer The absurdities of Bellarmine's reason that the absurdities of his reasons do quite overthrow the possibility of his Doctrine because that for the same body to be circumscribed in one place and yet to be at the same time in a 1000 places and for one place to fit bounden and commensurate a body the which very body notwithstanding is in 10 thousand several and far distant places at the same time it overthroweth and nullifyeth not only the humanity of our saviour Christ but also the order of things and the very principles of nature and it exceedeth the bounds of all sense and reason Object But I know they will reply against this and say that we must not conceive of divine things by the rule of humane reason when as so we should never believe the world to be made of nothing or that a virgin should bear a son for subtle Philosophy doth many times pervert pure divinity and Aristotle seduced many a Doctor and caused Aetius to become Arius Socrat. l. 2. c. 28. saith Socrates and that may be true according to the rules and Principles of Phylosophy which cannot be true in Divinity which made Paul bid us beware least any man spoil us through phylosophy Colos 2.8 and therefore we must seek to attain to the knowledg of those things not by the reach of reason but by the rule of faith which Philo calleth fidem oculatam so well sighted that as the eagles eye being aloft in the clouds can notwithstanding espie sub frutice leporem sub fluctibus piscem under the shrubs a hare and under the waves a fish so quick-sighted faith here on earth can notwithstanding sore up into the deep things of God in heaven and can most perfectly see those things and believe those mysteries which humane sence and reason can no wayes perceive nor possibly reach unto them Solut. We believe not these things not because we know not how they can be done but because we do know they cannot be done I answer with S. August that we easily yield and do undoubtedly believe Deum posse multa qua nos intelligere non possumus that God can do many things which we can
a King and a Priest and so in denying him to be Christ he denieth him to be Jesus and a Saviour which he saith he beleeveth him to be and therefore he must needs be a great Lyar in saying that now which he presently denieth Question But here the question may be demanded How is it or how can it be that the Antichrist which professeth himself to be not a Jesuit from the name of Jesus but a Christian as they were first termed in Antioch from the name of Christ and saith he doth acknowledge and beleeve and will not and doth not deny Jesus to be both a King and a Priest yea his King and his Priest whom he doth above all others both honour reverence and obey as his King and as his Priest should notwithstanding be said and said truly without any unjust impuration laid upon him to deny Jesus to be the Christ that is the King to rule and the Priest to govern and to instruct his Church I answer that the Apostle meaneth not Respons That the Antichrist should in plain words positively and peremptorily deny Jesus to be a King and a Priest He that sayeth thou art my King and I am thy Subject but thou shalt not rule me neither will I obey thee is not he a Lyar as the Jews Turks and other Infidels do when as he confesseth publikely and in plain terms and never denieth with any manner of words that Jesus is not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that he is not a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedech but professeth the same as much and more than any man living and yet herein he is the great Lyar because that what he saith in words Factis negat he apparently denieth by his deeds which are the chiefest affirmation or negation of any truth and the best witnesses to confirm both what we say and what we deny as both our Saviour and his Apostle St. Paul do sufficiently testifie And so What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ the meaning of denying Jesus to be King and Priest is not to be understood of any verbal denial but that the Antichrist though he doth in words confess him to be his King and his Priest and denieth him not to be anointed by God with the true Oyle of grace He that denieth Jesus to execute the Office of King and Priest denieth him to be King and Priest the oyntment of Gods Spirit above and beyond all others that ever were anointed to be the King and the Priest of the whole Church yet by his deeds and his actions he would most treacherously and maliciously deny and hinder Iesus to exercise and execute those Offices that is his Kingly Offices and his Priestly Office by those his deputies and Vicegerents whom he appointeth and placeth under him and in his stead to rule govern and to instruct his people here on earth for he being ascended into heaven executes these Offices of King and Priest none otherwise now in his personal absence than by his Substitutes and Deputies that he placeth to be Kings and Priests under him and whosoever denieth and hindereth them to discharge their duties and to execute those Functions and Offices of King and Priest denieth Jesus to execute the same and to discharge the duties of his Kingly and Priestly Office And we must not understand the Apostles words that the Antichrist denieth Jesus to be the Christ or his denial of him to be the true Messias and Saviour of the World and for that end to be anointed both for a King and a Priest which he never denieth or otherwise if this were his denial of him to be a King and a Priest to this end That thousand thousands deny Christ to be Jesus but the Antichrist only denieth him whom he confesseth his Jesus to be the Christ we should have ten thousand thousands of such Antichrists as Iews Turks and all the Infidels over all the World that deny Iesus the Son of Mary to be anointed for a King and a Priest to become the true Messias and to save his people from their sins for we know that all those do thus peremptorily deny Iesus to be the Christ or to be thus and to this end anointed to be King and Priest and yet they are not said to be the Antichrist nor the great Lyar which the Antichrist is said to be because their lye doth not contra mentem ire nor deny that which they affirm deny by their doings what they affirm by their sayings but their hearts and their tongues do conceive and confess the same thing that Iesus is not the Christ neither their King nor their Priest and the Antichrist doth the clean contrary saying in words that he is his Jesus and yet by his deeds utterly deny him And therefore by this ample Explanation of this mystical Sentence that the Antichrist is a great Lyar because he denieth Iesus to be the Christ I hope it is made plain enough that the meaning of the Apostle is that the Antichrist which mendaciously and falsely like a great Lyar professeth himself a Christian and acknowledgeth in his words that the Lord Iesus is the Christ that is his King and his Priest and himself his loyal Subject and the most faithful Servant of Christ will notwithstanding all this great profession maliciously deny and most rebelliously hinder and oppose the lawful Deputies Lieutenants and Servants of Christ our King and Priest to execute and to discharge their Kingly and Priestly Offices under Christ and in Christ his stead and will as I shewed you from the force and true meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so deny them to execute their functions that nothing will satisfie or serve his turn untill he hath utterly destroyed both King and Priest and so denied them both to serve their Offices and to live in their places that is to be King and Priest Thus the Antichrist denieth Iesus to be the Christ by denying his Deputy-Kings and Priests He that resisleth Christ his Deputies resisteth Christ himself to execute their Kingly and Priestly Offices under him for as he that resisteth the lawful Magistrate resisteth the Ordinance of God saith the Apostle and so far as he resisteth Gods Ordinance he resisteth God himself because Man can make no other visible resistance of God than by the resistance of his Ordinance So he that revolteth from or rebelleth against the execution of these Offices of Christ by those deputies that he sets under him here on earth is rightly said to revolt from and rebel against Christ and so he that denieth them to execute their Offices of Kings and Priests under Christ may justly be said to deny Iesus to execute his Office of King and Priest even as you see he that resisteth against the Kings Sheriffe or Lieutenant is justly said to rebell against the King For though Christ be now in heaven yet he hath his Kingdom here
the Son and by rejecting and denying Christ that is the Son they reject and deny him that sent him that is the Father and so by denying hindering and suppressing these substitute officers of Christ that they shall not live to execute their office they reject and deny both the Father and the Son because these master and servant Christ and his Deputies as Kings and their Embassadours are Relatives and so indissolubly knit together that you can neither oppose suppress nor deny the one without the other and therefore quia per latera nostra Christus petitur because Christ is thrust at and wounded through our sides that are his servants Act. 9.4 he saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he neither did nor meant any hurt to the person of Christ that was in heaven but abused and persecuted his servants that were on earth which is the true meaning of the Apostle in this place or otherwise if you expound these words literally of him that by denying the Son to be essentially one God with the Father denyeth the Father to be a God because the Father and the Son are so essentially one that no man can deny the one but he must deny the other then cannot this speech of the Apostle be properly applyed to the Antichrist because that if such a denyer of the Son to be one with the Father be the Antichrist you may finde many thousands of the Antichrists in the world But of such as profess to honor the person of Christ Let the Reader judge whether this be fulfilled in the long Parliament that is in heaven and yet quite deny suppress and extinguish his Deputies and Officers that should execute the Offices of Christ here on earth we shall finde none but the great Lyar that is the Antichrist will do the same And whether the long Parliament did thus deny the Father and the Son by denying them that the Son hath sent as the denyal of him whom the Father hath sent is a denyal of the Father as well as of the Son let the judicious Reader judge 2. 2. Way The great Lyar may be said to deny the Father and the Son when he professeth to believe in the Father and the Son and yet denyeth with the Arians Nestorians Eutychians and other old Hereticks the termes and rejecteth the notions and expressions whereby we come to understand and make the people likewise to have some competent measure of knowledg in the great Mystery of the holy Trinity how the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost are the only true God as our Saviour saith John 17.3 John 17.3 the which thing the Pope never did I am sure of it But whether the long Parliament Divines and their Proselites the false prophet 1 John 2.19 and the Independant Apostata's that are such Antichrists as the Apostlespeaks of that went out from us and were not of us and such sons of the Church Whether the Assembly of Presbyterians and Parliament Preachers may not be said to deny the Father and the Son let the Reader judge as S. Bernard speaks of Filii nequam filii scelerati qui scaeviunt in matrem do not thus deny the Father and the Son when they reject and refuse the words Essence person unity Trinity and the like words that totidem syllabis cannot be found in the Scriptures and do likewise cashier and exclude from Gods service the Gloria Patri Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and cast away from all use that most excellent Hymn Te Deum laudamus te Dominum confitemur and others the like holy Hymnes and expressions of our Faith which S. Ambrose S. Augustine and other godly men and after them the whole Church of God Penes quam norma loquendi that hath the power to coin words to explain the truth have ever used to bring her children to some understanding and a competent measure of knowledge in that great and ineffable mystery of Godliness which is the unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of persons and è contra the Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the unity of Essence or Godhead and to make the weaker Christians and the weaker Divines the better able to answer and to confute those wicked Hereticks that are alwaies ready to arise as now they do to deny the truth of these holy Mysteries let the wise and experienced Divines judge hereof For the Apostle meaneth not as I said before that he which in plain termes and with spen mouth denyeth the being or the God-head of the Father and of the Son is the Lyar and the Antichrist but as the crafty fool that durst not say it openly yet cunningly and secretly saith in his heart There is no God Psal 53.1 and 14.1 is a meer Atheist though he never uttereth that atheistical wickedness with his mouth so are they meer Antichrists and great Lyars that say they do believe these Mysteries and yet secretly and maliciously deny the Father and the Son though not directly yet by infallible consequences when they deny those notions and expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son though they profess the contrary in their words which makes them to be the Lyar because they say one thing and do another that is still the propertie of the Antichrist to do just so as they do And therefore Let the Presbyterians think of this and repent seeing he is the Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son as the Apostle saith and that he which denyeth and rejecteth them that are sent denieth and rejecteth him that sent them as our Saviour testifieth and that they also which deny the notions and expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son do by consequence and in very deed whatsoever they say to the contrary deny the Father and the Son it must needs follow that the deniers and suppressors of them that are sent by Christ and the diniers of those notions and the rejectors of those expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son must be the great Lyar and the Antichrist from which charge though I accuse them not yet I know not how the Assembly of the long Parliaments presbyterian Divines will excuse themselves and be quitted cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus when the Son of God shall call them to an account for it let them think of it in the interim For What is to be understood by the name of the Lord our God as he that denieth my name whereby I am made known denieth me and he that denieth his own name denieth himself because his name is the chiefest note that makes him known and as when the Lord saith Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain because his name is that which chiefly makes him known to us and by his name there all Divines
of Expositors to make good their own conceits Esdras 14.41 to run unto tropes and figures when we may literally without tropes expound the same more agreeable unto the truth and without violence unto the Text therefore I conceive that the two Testaments cannot with any probability be understood by these two witnesses that are said to be killed by the beast and especially because they cannot be said to be the two Olive Trees or the anointed ones nor the two Candlesticks that hold up the light when as they are the light that these Candlesticks do hold nor to be confined to such a time as 1200 and 60 dayes when these two Testaments maugre all the malice of the Antichrist shall continue to the last day And therefore I do rather expound these two witnesses to be the preservers and the interpreters or preachers of these two Testaments that being living creatures Who are these two Witnesies that is 1. The King 2. The Bishop may be killed by this Beast and these are rightly termed the two Olive Trees or the two Sonnes of Oyl that is the anointed of God and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth that is to hold up the light of the two Testaments to inlighten the Church of God with the truth of his holy word in despight of the Devill which is termed the God of the Earth And these preservers and Interpreters of these two Testaments are as E. H. truly observeth 1 Pet. 2.13 the civill Magistrates and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church that is Moses and Aaron or the King as the supreme Magistrate and the Bishop as the chief Pastor that hath the oversight of the rest of the subordinate Ministers as St. Paul sheweth 1 Tim. 3. c. 4.1 for the King is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and obliged to take care as well of the Church and service of God as of the Commonwealth All good Kings took speciall care to have God truly served so Moses testifieth and so David Solomon Jehosophat Ezechias Josias and all the godly and good Kings of Israel and Judah had and so Constantine Theodosius and our own pious Princes Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and all other good Christian Kings shewed that they took speciall care to see the truth purely preached and the service of God duly and rightly executed and therefore may most truly and literally without any trope or figure be said to be one of these two witnesses of Jesus Christ and the Bishop is to take upon him curam animarum the speciall care and charge of souls and the charge of them that are under him Act. 20.18 and undertook the charge of souls to see that they do carefully feed the flock of Christ whereof the Holy ghost hath made them overseers and therefore also the Bishops and the Ministers of Gods word may be rightly said and none can deny it to be the other witnesses of Jesus Christ and so Christ saith unto his Apostles and in them to all the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles that they were his Witnesses Act. 1.8 and they should testifie and bear witness of him in Hierusalem and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth which they themselves could not do but in and by those Bishops that succeeded them in all the ordinary duties of the Apostles and therefore no forehead were it of Brasse can deny these to be the witnesses of Christ without blushing when Christ himself doth affirm it And so you see plainly Zechary 4.14 that these two which are indeed the Sonnes of the Olive Tree the two onely Offices and Callings that are the annointed of God and the two Candlesticks that hold up the light of the two Testaments the King by the strength of his Sword and the Bishops by the faithfull preaching of Gods word are the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and therefore well may the King and the inferiour Magistrates under him and the Bishop with his subordinate Clergy like Moses and Aaron the supreme Magistrate and the High Priest be rightly termed the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ in every Kingdom and Commonwealth Then after that the Angell had intimated unto the Apostle c. 11. v. 4. who are to be understood by these two Witnesses by terming them the two Olive Trees that is the two annoynted Officers of Gods Church and the two Candlesticks that do beare and uphold the true light of the Gospel unto the people he proceeds to shew the Power and Abilities c. 11. v. 5. 6. the gifts and Endowments that God would bestow upon them both for to inable them to build up the Temple that was measured that is to edifie and to enlarge the Christian Church and also to protect themselves against their Enemies and to punish those that should be refractory and to shew for how long a time they should freely and fairely enjoy this power and liberty to build this Church for saith the Angel these two Witnesses shall have power to poewr out fire out of their mouth Numbers 16. 2 Reg. 1. Jerem. 5.14 Their power was the same as Christ gave to his Apostles and God to Moses to destroy their Enemies that go about to hurt them and they shall have power to shut the Heavens that it raine not in the dayes of their Prophesie and they shall have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all Plagues as often as they will And these powers and Abilities are the very same that Christ had formerly given unto his Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Governors of his Church and the very same powers and abilities that God long before had given and granted unto Moses and to all his successors that supply his place and office the Kings and cheif Magistrates that are as he was to rule over and to govern Gods people for our Saviour tells St. Peter that he will give to him the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is of the Church which is the way that brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he shall leose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven and this power he gave not only to St. Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles and their Successors for ever as you may see in Math. 18. v. 18. and John the 20. v. 23. Math. 16.19 so Mr. Mede part 2. pag 11. And so according to this power granted unto the Apostles and Bishops that are the Governours of the Church and have the Keyes thereof the sentence of Excommunication or the shutting out of the Church and the delivery of the lewd and wicked refractory person unto Satan as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 5.5 The sentence of excommunication is the fire and the key is the fire that proceedeth out of the mouth of
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
it and prosper which you may see more at large in the History of the Machabees lib. 2. from the beginning of the third Chapter to the fifth Chapter thus far Mr. Mede Wherein habemus confitentem virum we have this learned man Hucusque ingenuously confessing enough to make good what I assume that the Witnesses should be slaine in the reformed Church and the cause that moveth God to suffer them to be killed and the Church to be deprived of them to be our sins our Sacriledge in robbing them of their revenues and our neglect and contempt of their persons which doth alwayes follow the pillaging of their Estates And if Mr. Mede had seen the unparalleled sacriledge and the incredible contempt of the best men in holy Orders and the trampling of the highest form in Christ his school underfoot that we see now what would he have said then to these things I think as much as I if not more But if the witnesses be taken away and killed as he feareth Therefore he is not the Pope nor Turk in the reformed Churches and their killing must be there because there is the place where they do bear witness and it is the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit that killeth them and that Beast is the great Antichrist as hereafter I shall make plain unto you therefore it must needs follow that the Antichrist must needs rise in like manner out of the reformed Church and so neither Pope nor Turk can be the Antichrist Then after the witnesses be killed ejected and deprived of all respect it is said How the worldly and carnall men rejoyce for the killing of the two Witnesses For the manner of sending gists See Hest 9.19 and 22. Isai 9.3 Earthly men accounted those that restrained them from their wickedness their tormentors vers 9. that they which dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the earth that is the carnall earthly and worldly minded men shall rejoyce over them and make merry and send gifts one to another that is for very joy that those witnesses are vanquished and suppressed they shall be the more Joviall and much more exercise the jollity of their mirth and Jubilee now and send gratulatory presents and make feasts for Colonels and Captains that had followed the war and suppressed these two witnesses and so rejoyce according to the joy in harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil Gaudebunt gaudio maximo they will rejoyce with the greatest joy that can be more then ever they did rejoyce before And the Reason of this their Jubilee and great joy is not omitted to be here rendred by the Holy Ghost and therefore not to be passed over in silence and that is saith he because these two Witnesses that is the King by his just Lawes his powerfull sword that formerly turned the waters of their unlawfull lusts and pleasures as Moses did the waters of Egypt into blood and the Bishops by their spirituall Courts and sentence of excommunication that like fire proceed out of their mouth to root out the refractory carnall and lewd livers out of the Church or to reduce them to repentance tormented them that dwell on the earth that is by rebuking them in their Sermons punishing them in their Conrts and so the witnesses vexed them by their reproofs and by their lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civil which inflicted penance and imposed fines imprisonment and death it self upon the scandalous transgressors of the Lawes of God and the King by which means of the said civil Rule and Government there was some restraint to bridle those earthly and carnall men to curb them that they should not gallop so fast as they desired and as otherwise they would have done in their lewd and ungodly courses for which bridling and hindering of them to run on in their evil and wicked wayes these two witnesses were deemed by all those that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the earth and had their conversation and delight in the things of the earth to be their very enemies and their greatest tormentors And now I demand How the carnall worldly men do rejoyce to see the King and the Bishops supprest If the earthly and carnall men the lewd livers adulterers Sabbath breakers Drunkards and the like transgressors of the Law of God and the Church did not rejoyce and leap for joy to see the King killed and all the Bishops suppressed and their Courts that restrained their outrages and impieties quite abolished for though all godly men and all honest men do mourn and are grieved at the heart for those things that were done to these witnesses of Christ yet they that dwell upon the earth and are onely cives hujus mundi the free citizens of this world and have none of their conversation in heaven are exceeding glad that there is no king in Israel and no Bishop in the Church of God that is no Monarch or supreme Governour to punish their unjust doings and no Bishops Court to question them for any of their prophaneness or to prohibite any lewdness and exorbitances but that they might as now they do in many places live after their own lusts And do now what they list in all lasciviousness and wantonness and do what they list run and preach without a calling and so fill the Church with sects heresies and errours and as it was said of some lascivous Friers Mane filium virginis praedicant in choro Nocte filium veneris agitant in thoro So may we far more justly say it of these unlawfull uncalled and unlearned earthly Preachers that prate and preach and say and say and all to none other end but to hide their wantonness and worldliness and to deceive the world Thus you see how the two witnesses of Christ are killed That the Church that is the true and farthfull Christians shall be troden underfoot so long as the witnesses shall remain dead and shall for three days and a half lie unburied without their last honour without favour and without any respect in the world but the worldly men rejoycing for their dejection And all this while that the witness-bearers of Gods truth shall be as dead men in the world and as stincking carkasses in the nostrils of them that dwell on the earth the holy city that is the true Church of Christ which is as St. Augustine calleth it the City of God shall be as the Angel saith c. 11.2 troden under foot by the Gentiles that is the uncircumcised that served not God and were none of Gods people but such as followed after their Idols and their own ungodly wayes so shall the wicked hypocrites worldlings and carnall men that are here understood by these Gentiles prophane the Houses of God the Temples the Oratories and all other places consecrated for Gods service when the fonts wherein they were baptized shall be thrown out of the Churches the windows shall be
the Divines into their Cloysters which was the Churches Heaven upon Earth and he will not so part with her Mr. Mede pag. 40. What is meant by the War of Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his Angels as there to let her escape free from his assault but be will now prosecute another kind of Combate with her which he had only begun before when he saw himself like to be worsted in the former conflicts and that Combate shall be not as E. H. and Mr. Mede do imagine the bloody Warrs of the persecuting Tyrants which was already past and the Dragon failed of his purpose therein but bellum dogmaticum a verball Warr that is a spirituall Scholastick and Ecclesiasticall War like the Pharsalian civil War of the Romans when a Kingdome is divided amongst it self which is the Worst and most dangerous of all Wars and so is this Ecclesiasticall War that the Hereticks and their grand Captaines the Proselites of Arius Nestorius Eutyches Pelagius Manichaeus Aerius the Trinitarians Millenaries and the rest of that litter did still prosecute to molest the Church of Christ And my reasons to prove this War to be no Bloody War The hereticall War but rather a spirituall and Ecclesiasticall War are these Reason 1 1. Because this War is said to be in Heaven which cannot signifie the seat and place of the Blessed Angels and of the Saints departed out of this life because that neither War nor sorrow nor any other trouble can come there and therefore the seat of this War must be not the World simply considered which is never called Heaven but the Church of God which is the Christians Heaven here upon Earth and the Arke that carrieth us through the Seas of this World into the Eternall Heaven and therefore this War being said to be rather in the Church then in the World when as our Saviour speaking of our bloody Wars saith in the World you shall have Tribulations must needs be an Ecclesiasticall Hereticall and no bloody War no worldly War Reason 2 2. Because it is said that Michael and his Angels that is Christ and the true Bishops and Pastors of his Church that are called the Angels of the Churches and not Michael and his Princes Revelat. 1.20 fought against the Dragon and his Angels and not as it is said in Daniel that he affisted his Angel against the King of Persia but with the Dragon and his Angels Dan. 10.13 that is the Devil and his false Prophets the Hereticks that molested the Church and corrupted the true faith and the right Service of God and yet as their Master the Devil transformeth himself into an Angel of light as the Apostle speaketh so will the false Prophets be deemed and esteemed Angels but this Heavenly Angel tells us they are the Angels of the Dragon that make this War with the Angels of Christ Reason 3 3. And lastly because that in this War we find none slaine nor any blood spilt as they were under the persecuting Tyrants as well the Arian Kings as the Pagan Emperors and therefore this War must needs be understood of no Forreigne bloody War but of a Verball spirituall Warr waged within the bosome of the Church that happened after the death of Theodosius who had freed the Church from all externall Wars and bloody persecutions but could not stop the mouth of the false Prophet nor hinder the Dragon and his Angels to raise and prosecute this Hereticall War And yet now How the Church prevailed against the Hereticks as the Woman formerly prevailed in the first War against the bloody Instruments of the Dragon that were vanquished in patientia Martyrum through the patience of the Martyrs and the sufferings of the Saints so here in this second War she gets the Victory over her Enemies and the Dragon is overcome c. 12. v. 11. by the blood of the Lamb and his Angels vanquished by the word of their Testimony v. 11. that is the Hereticks and Scismaticks were confuted and silenced in prudentia Doctorum by the Wisdome of the Bishops that were the Governours of the Church and by their learned writings and faithfull Preaching of Gods truth and not with the Sword or Cannon shot or any other such outward force which the Angels of Jesus Christ the Ministers of the Gospel never use as the Angels of the Dragon do and now did in many places because they are commanded with St. Peter to put up their Sword into the sheath and it is for none but the satellites of the high Priests Math. 26.52 and the Jannizaries of the Antichrist to come out against Christ and to fight against his Witnesses with Swords and Staves Then Mr. Mede pag. 40. Michael significat quis sicut deus certe nullus nifi Jesus Christus the Dragon being by Michael that is by the power and Wisdome of God that is Jesus Christ which Michael fignifieth and not by any one of the chief Princes or of the seven Arch Angels as Mr. Mede thinketh cast out of Heaven that is driven from the Church as he did the buyers and sellers out of the Temple when all the errors heresies and superstitions which the Devil by his prime Angells the Heresiarches had invented and sowed amongst Gods people were confuted and rooted out of these our reformed Churches and these Churches restored to their Pristine purity and setled in the right forme of serving God by the painefull diligence of the learned Bishops the Pastors and the Protestant Preachers of Gods word which was fairly begun in Queen Elizabeths time The Victory in this War when obtained continued and bettered in King James his Reign but not clearly done and perfectly finished untill King Charles his dayes nor any where so purely done as in these our dominions as I have fully proved unto you before there ensued a two-fold act or a double consequence of this great Victory of Michael and his Angels over the Dragon and his Angels 1. The Tryumph rejoycing and Jo-paean of the Conquerors The twofold Consequence of the Church his Victory over the Hereticks cap. 12.11 the Inhabitants of Heaven 2. The fretfull wrath and continued malice of the Conquered Dragon 1. In Heaven that is in the Church of God as I said before St. John heard a loud voyce saying now is come Salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Church c. 12. v. 10. where you must first observe the Emphasis in the word now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now is Salvation come and it was come long before when Christ had fully purchased our Redemption before his Ascention into Heaven but I conceive this Salvation to be meant not of our spirituall and eternall Salvation from Sin Hell and Satan which was come by Christ long before but for our Temporall Salvation and deliverance from the power and malice of our Enemies and that was now come that is fully and perfectly
persecution of the woman v. 16. he moved the earth to help this distressed woman and to open her mouth and to swallow up the flood which the Dragon had cast out of his mouth v. 16 Where you may see and should consider it How the senceless creatures do their service unto God how the senceless creatures are obedient Instruments to do their service unto God both to punish the wicked and to help the godly as the raging Sea was a wall of defence unto the Israelites on every side and a grievous gulf to devoure Pharaoh and all his Host so here the dead earth that opened her mouth to swallow up Dathan and to cover the Congregation of Abiram for their wickednesse doth now likewise according to the letter open her mouth to swallow up the flood that the Dragon had caest after the Woman to preserve her from being ruined by that flood But here we are to inquire what is meant by this earth that hath a mouth to be opened for the defence and preservation of the woman and it is strange unto me that so learned a man Mr. Mede pag. 47. as Mr. Mede should by the earth understand the Bishops and Doctors that were gathered together in the generall Counsells because I cannot remember any place of Scripture where the Godly Religious and spirituall men are expressed and are to be understood by the earth because that although all flesh is Grass and every man is but dust and ashes and therefore the Prophet saith O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord yet being regenerated and filled with the graces of Gods spirit and having their thoughts and their desires mounted up from the earth and their Conversation in Heaven they are never termed Earth but as the Church here and in many other places is called Heaven so are they stiled spiritual men though their bodyes be nothing but earth And therefore I conceive the meaning of the words to be that God in the time of this persecution of the Woman â— 12.10 v. 7. and affliction of his Church inspired some men and moved them that otherwise were as earthly and as worldly minded as any others What is meant by the earth that helped the the Woman though not altogether so malicious and so bloody as the rest to open their mouthes and to out vote the worser and most spitefull sort of the instruments of the Dragon that they should not utterly destroy all the Children of the Woman and Servants of God but should suffer them to live which the more virulent party would have quite extinguished and to let them compound for their Estates that they might have some small livelihood to support them Whether this also was not fulfilled in and by the long Parliament let the Reader judge Prov. 16.7 after all their plundering and persecution and so God dealeth with them that serve him and continue constant to discharge their duties that as the Prophet speaketh he maketh their enemies to become their friends and to be their helpers as here the very worldlings do open their mouthes and make speeches to preserve many of Gods Children And whether such a thing as this happened not in the last long Parliament I leave it to my judicious Reader to consider it Therefore the Dragon not satisfied with all the former miseries of the Woman and all the persecutions of her Children which hitherto they had suffered but his wrath being still inraged to see any help or comfort afforded to the Woman he spurs and instigates his instruments the beast and his associats to make war with the remnant of the Womans seed which keep the Commandements of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ v. 17. v. 17. that is the Dragon moveth the beast to be incensed and inraged against those that after the death of the Witnesses and the small relief and breathing time Who are meant by the remnant of the Womans seed that some members of the Church have had will not submit themselves to do the service which the Dragon by the beast prescribeth and yeeld themselves to be seduced by the false Prophet which are the Angels of the Dragon but will constantly adhere to Gods right service and the established forme of Gods Worship and continue faithfull observers of the Lawes discipline and doctrine of the slaine Witnesses And is not this also fulfilled let the ejected Ministers judge of it these now must beare the brunt and malice of the beast the poore and small remainder of the true and faithfull Servants of God which notwithstanding all their persecution and deprivation and all other sufferings whatsoever will keep the Commandements of God and have therefore the Testimony of Jesus Christ that they are Gods faithfull Servants and not such as will turne with every blast of wind and be carryed away with a little worldly preferment And thus I have run over this 12th Chapter of the Revelation and have in a plaine stile set downe what I conceive to be the true meaning of the same how the Holy Ghost therein sheweth the state and condition of the Church of Christ from the time of that Godly Emperour Theodosius about the year 382. for the space of 1200. and 60 years which ended about the year 1642. about which time after the first Woe is past by the invasion of the Turkish and Mahometan Tyrants into Christendome and the defacing of the Christian Churches and defiling the true Faith in the East Empire the Dragon as the Holy Ghost here saith should more maliciously begin by the Ministery of his chiefest instrument the great Antichrist his greatest and sorest persecution against the Church of Christ expressed here under the person of this Woman that hath these floods of waters sorrowes and afflictions thrown after her the which persecution according to the old adage si longa sit afflictio levis est si gravis brevis est if thy trouble be long it is but light if great it is short quiae nullum violentum est perpetuum because no violent thing is able to continue very long because it should be so great and so grievous the spirit of God tells us it should continue but for a short space and a few years and when the same shall be ended and fully expired the second woe shall be past and then after the end of this bloody persecution and the expiration of this second woe the third and last woe saith the Angel is quickly to be expected and shall not long be deferred before it commeth and this last woe shall be poured out in a full measure upon the Turks and Mahometans the supplanters of the Easterne Churches and upon the Antichrist and his adherents the great persecutors of the true reformed protestant Church and upon the Popish superstitious and Idolatrous Corrupters of the rest of the Westerne Churches and upon the false Prophet the Chapleins of the Antichrist and upon all other Hypocriticall
find them here in the 13th Chapter and in the 17th Chapter wherein most of the things that are shewed in this 13th Chapter are more clearly explained by the Angel unto our Evangelist St. John to be distributed into three ranks or three principall Instruments or generalls of three great Regiments or rather Armies of the Devill The three principall enemies and persecutors of Gods Church 1. The beast that rose out of the Sea and is the same that is said to have risen out of the bottomless pit c. 11.7 and is as the body of the Antichrist 2. The beast that rose out of the earth and was subservient to the infernall beast that rose out of the Sea and is the false Prophet and as it were the soul of the Antichrist 3. The Whores that sat upon the scarlet coloured beast and that sate upon many waters 1. The Antichrist The first of these as being the body which is most perspicuous is most generally termed the Antichrist that was prophesied and expected that he should come into the Church of Christ before Christ should come to judge the world 2. The salse Prophet The second of these as being the soul that animates and gives life unto the body is termed the false Prophet that instructeth instigateth and so furthereth and spurreth forward the Antichrist in all his proceedings 3. The Whores c. 17.1 c. 17.3 The third of these that is the Whores which are two the one sitting upon many waters c. 17.1 the other sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast c. 17.3 are apostate Churches and back-sliding Protessors that have falsified their faith and departed from their first love to Christ to follow after the world and then as Hagar dispised Sarah and set her at naught that was the true wife of Abraham so these strumpets and false Churches persecute the faithfull spouse of Christ as all Whores use to do to the true and honest wives And although all these the beast the false Prophet and the Whores be the instruments of the Dragon to vex and persecute the Servants of God and true Church of Christ and do all unanimously fight under the same banner in the grand Army of Satan the prime adversary of Christ yet because these three before cited are three different and distinct Agents and different Instruments of the Devill to effect different evills and mischiefs and are severally to play their severall parts in their severall stations The different evills that the three enemies of the Church do effect 1. What the Antichrist doth 2. What the false Prophet doth 3 What the Whores do in the Tragedy of Gods true Church therefore they are accordingly described by severall names and have their severall actions and doings severally set down and so likewise their severall judgements and punishments for 1. The beast that ariseth out of the Sea and is commonly termed the Antichrist that slayeth the two witnesses of Christ and intrudes himself into their offices and then destroyeth the people of God that will not submit themselves to him and to his Ordinances 2. The false Prophet by preaching his new Doctrines deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth that is the worldly minded men and instructeth the Antichrist what to do and so instigateth and assisteth and justifieth him in all his wicked and unjust proceedings 3. The Whores which are two Non me latet Tertnll l. contra Judaeos in contra marcionem hieron ep 17. ad marcellam quaest 11. ad Algasiam per meretricem intelligere romam sed aethnicam idola colentem christianos persequentem and do comprehend 1. All schismaticall and hereticall Churches that are corrupted with errors and superstitions 2. All hypocriticall Professors carnall livers and worldly minded men Where of each one is termed Ecclesia fornicaria the whore because all these have broken their word and falsified their faith which they had made to Christ and vowed to observe in their Baptisme and became drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and have made drunk the Kings of the Earth that is all earthly and worldly minded Kings and all the Inhabiters of the Earth that have not their conversation in Heaven with the wine of their fornications when they had intoxicated and bewitched them with their fair and false glosses that corrupted the Text and with their lewd examples to follow after the sweet pleasures of the flesh and the vanities of the world And as the behaviours the actions The judgments and punnishments of these three Enemies not alike Vunde Fornicatio dicitur and the sins and wickedness of these three enemies and Persecutors of Christ his Church are different and thus severally expressed by the Spirit of God so their judgments and punishments are divers and their state and condition is not alike nor in like manner to be considered for as the woman that is Married to an Husband and then commits fornication that is secretly in fornicibus in some vaults as they used in Rome and other great Cityes coupleth her self and is joyned to another man is said to play the Whore And yet while she is undivorced and not cast away nor departed from her Husband she is still his Wife and upon her Repentance and submission A Married Woman undivorsed though she playeth the Whore is still the Wise of her Husband there may be a Reconciliation and a Remission of all her former faults and she may become a very good Woman so that Church which is betrothed to Christ by Faith and by the Incorporation of her Members into him in their Baptisme and then afterwards corrupteth the true Faith and breaketh the Promise that she hath made to Christ either by following after the Lusts of the flesh and the Vanities of this World as the Hypocrits Carnall livers and formall Professors do or else by joyning her self as the Israelites did with Baal-peor with humane inventions idle Ceremonies and fruitless superstitions or imbraceth the Errors and Heresies of learned Hereticks may rightly be said to commit secret Fornication and to play the part and tricks of a spiritual Whore And yet whilst either of these Whores professeth her self to be the Spouse of Christ and is not departed from Christ that is not wholly Apostatized from the faith of Christ but still holdeth the maine heads the Fundamentall points and the Preservatives of the Christian Religion which are the Witnesses of Christ undestroyed we cannot deny that Church to be the Spouse and a true Church though not a pure Church of Christ as a sickly diseased man is a perfest man though not a sound man nor can we say but that upon their Repentance and amendment there may be a pardon of all faults and a reception of these Delinquents into favour by him that is so gracious and so mercifull and abundant in goodness and truth And so it may be hoped that both the Civill Whore
done against the house of God and such if not worse then what the Prophet sheweth and exceedingly complaineth No Turk or Pope did ever abuse the Churches so much and exclaimeth against it in Ps 74.7 8. and Psal 79.2 3. and you may be sure such as cannot be affixed on the Pope or Popish Church and yet this was not onely done by the rude and unruly Souldiers but it was also egged on by their preachers to be practised by the people whom they perswaded to believe that God is dishonoured if we think that he takes any delight in these steeple-houses as with all scorn and contempt they use to term these Tabernacles of God And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The objection of the false Prophet the Beast that ariseth out of the earth that is the false Prophet doth object that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tabernacle of God doth not signifie the steeple-house which we call the Church of God because God dwelleth not in houses made with hands but in the hearts and souls of the righteous people and the faithfull servants of Jesus Christ which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost as the Apostle sheweth These are the Tabernacles of God wherein he dwelleth 1 Cor. 3.16 even as he himself promiseth unto his people and for the place of his service it is wheresoever we lift up pure hands and hearts unto God to call for his affistance and to praise him for his blessings for as God is every where and as the old verse saith Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter Which is according to the Schooles supracaelos non elatus subter terram non depressus above the Heavens and below the Earth and as the Prophet David saith a spirit that filleth all places and is wholly present in every place for if I climbe up to heaven thou art there Psal 139.6 John 4.23 1 Reg 18.4 Acts 20.7 8. and c 21.5 1 Tim. 2.8 and if I go down to hell thou art there also even so he may be served in any place as our Saviour himself tells the woman of Samaria and as Moses did serve him upon the Mountain Elias under a Juniper tree St Paul in an upper Chamber and the Disciples on the Sea-shore and the Apostle saith I will that men pray every where lifting up pure or holy hands without wrath And as we may pray unto God any where so we may preach unto Gods people in any place for so Christ hath promised that whensoever or wheresoever two or three are gathered together in his name Matth. 18.28 c. 5.1 or to do him service he would be there in the midst of them and so we find that he himself preached in the Mountain and in the Ship and in any place where a fit opportunity and a just occasion was offered and he bade his Disciples to go and to preach from house to house which they did accordingly as you may see Philip preached to the Eunuch by the high way side Act 18 35. Neh. 8.3 Acts 17.22 St. Paul unto the Athenians as Ezra did unto the Jewes in the street in the mids of Mars-hill and therefore what need we to have a steeple house to serve God when God may be rightly served in any place I answer that the service of God is to be considered two wayes and is two fold 1. Private Solut. The service of God is twofold 2. Publique And 1. For the private service of God as for a man to pray unto God to catechise his Children and to instruct his Family as Abraham and Joshua are said to have done we deny not but men may and ought to do the same at all times and in every place and they are the best that do it most oft 2. For the Publique service of God we are to consider it either 1. In ecclesia constituenda in the establishing of a Church or 2. In ecclesia constituta in a Church setled and established 2. The publick service considered two wayes and in the first sence many things may lawfully be done which may not be done in a well settled and established Church And in the second sence there is a time when the publique service of God may be likewise done in any place but that is not alwayes save onely when we cannot come or not come without great danger and detriment What times God may be served in any place 1. In sickness time Esay 38 2. 2 Reg. 20.2 2. In Plague time 1 Chron. 21.29 3. In Warre time 1 Chron. 13 3. to serve God in the place where he requireth to be served and that is 1. In the time of sickness so Ezechias being in his bed and not able to go to the Temple turned his face to the wall and so prayed unto the Lord. 2. In the time of a Plague or any other contagious Disease raging among the people so David could not go to the Tabernacle of the Lord for fear of the Sword of the destroying Angel and I could never finde that God requireth our service with the losse of our lives but when he is more glorified by our death then he is by our life as he is by the death of those glorious Martyrs that lay down their lives for the defence of his truth 3. In the time of Warre which is the worst of all Plagues so David inquired not at the Ark of God in the dayes of Saul that thirsted after the life of David and so we may absent our selves from the Church for fear of the distroying Souldiers that do seek our lives 4. In the time of persecution 4. In persecution time 1 Reg 19.4.4 when our lives are sought after by Tyrants either for Religion or the transgression of any duty that is required against our Conscience so our Consciences be rightly informed so Elias served God under a Juniper-Tree when he was feign to flie for his life from the face of Jezabel 5. In Captivity or restraint when we are held in durance 5. In the time of Captivity and cannot go where we would go so Daniel prayed in his Chamber when he was held Captive in Babilon and Joseph in Egypt and the Apostles in the Prison and in the Stocks sung Psalms and served God when they were detained so fast that they could not go to the Temple 6. In our Travel upon unavoided necessities as Marriners by Sea 6. In the time of Iravel and others by Land upon urgent and extraordinary necessary occasions as for Phisitians to ride to preserve the life of man and the like they may serve God and both pray and preach in their Ships or in a private house as if they were in the Church of God 7. When we are plagued by Souldiers or any other enemies 7. In the time of great dangers so that we can neither tarry in our own Houses nor go to Gods House without eminent danger either of life or imprisonment or the
concernment to the whole Church it should be very well plainly and sufficiently proved and manifested and not darkly and improbably demonstrated or else it ought hardly to be received and not at all to be beleeved 4. Whereas pag. 2. of this interpretation he saith that because oppositorum eadem estratio and that the mysterie of 144. to which this number of 666 is opposed is contained in the roote thereof which is 12 therefore the mysterie of this 666. must be contained in the roote thereof which is 25. I say that the misterie of 144. is indeed interpreted to consist in the roote thereof which is 12. which being 12 times multiplied doe make up just 144. and yet the Holy Ghost maketh no such interpretation of it but that those spirits which beleeve nothing but the expresse text of scripture may as easily reject it as receive it but being granted that this is rightly interpreted because the twelve Apostles St. Paul left out that laboured in the building more then any if not then most of them all were the foundations of the wall of the new and spirituall Jerusalem yet it followeth not that because this mysterie must be explained by the extraction of the roote of 144. therefore the other mystery that denoteth the beast must consist in the roote of 666 no more then the mysteries of many other numbers expressed in scripture can be said to consist in their extracted rootes and though the beast be opposite to Christ and the Synagogue of Satan opposite to the Church of Christ or Babylon to Jerusalem yet this doth not in any understanding prove that 666 is more opposite to 144. as it is a set number then it is to 444 or to any other definite number 333 being as I conceive a more oppofite number in respect of division to 666. Onely this 666 is said to be the number of the beast in direct and plain termes and the other number of 144 is interpreted by some authors to be understood of the Church militant here on earth and by others of as good repute to be the typicall expression of the Kingdome of Heaven Besides the twelve Apostles were but the foundations of this wall as having their names in them v. 14. the wall being made up of other stones that is of all the beleeving christians and so it comprehendeth the whole Church and then the opposition must be not betwixt the Hierarchie of the Pope and his Cardinals and the Hierarchie of the Christian Church but betwixt the whole Church of Christ whose wall and not whose foundation v. 17. was 144 cubits and the whole Synagogue of Satan that is made up of theeves infidels and all other wicked reprobates therefore the Pope and his Cardinals cannot be the the beast that by this exposition of opposites must fignifie all the whole companie of reprobates which is far contrarie to the meaning of the Holy Ghost that plainly differenceth the beast and the worshipers and followers of the beast as the Lambe and the followers of the Lambe are not the same But indeed contrarie to the opinion of Mr. Forbes and some other that make this vision of the new Ierusalem to be typus presentis ecclesiae a type of the militant Church I shall with many of the most ancient interpreters denie this discription of the new Ierusalem to be the type of the Christian militant Church and say that ad captum nostrum that can reach no higher then demonstration this admirable explication of this citty is thus set down to shew unto us those ineffable excellencies and most glorious estate which the servants of Christ shall enjoy in the kingdome of Heaven for if you observe the coherence of this 21 c. with the former you shall finde there c. 20. that the beast and the false prophet and the devill are cast into the lake of fire to be tormented for ever and ever v. 10. and the dead both smale and great were all judged according to their works v. 12 and death and bell and all that were not written in the booke of life were cast into the lake of fire which can be no other then the last judgement against all the reprobates this is the end of them And then after St. Iohn had shewed the end of them and their sad condition for ever he proceeds in the 21 c. to shew unto us according to the best of our apprehension the most happie state and condition of the children of God in heaven which he expresseth under this type that he saw a new heaven and a new earth even as St Peter and before him the prophet Esay long agone had prophysied and foretold the servants of God how happie they should be and because that which is no where is not at all as St. Aug. Tolle spatia locorum corporibus nusquam erunt et quia nusquam erunt non erunt saith therefore he describeth the place where they shall remain in bliss under this type of the new Ierusalem whose excellent frame and figure he doth here so amply describe unto us wherein you may observe that the things attributed to the Cittizens of this new Ierusalem are incompatible with the members of the church militant for it is said that God shallwipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine v. 4. which cannot be referred and applied to the members of the purest church on earth and so many other things are set down c. 22. to be in this heavenly Cittie which cannot without apparant violence unto the text properly be thought to be in the militunt church but are most elegant expressions by way of allusion of those incomprehensible excellencies that the saints shall finde in the kingdome of heaven 5. Whereas he saith pag. 3. that it is not said as it is observed by many let him that hath understanding count the name of the beast but count the number of the beast I answer that in c. 13. v. 17. it is said that no man might buy or sell but he that had the marke or the name of the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the number of his name therefore the number of the beast and the number of his name are all one and so both the one and the other both signifying the same thing are said to contain therein the just number of 666 when as the number of the beast is put down for the number of the name of the beast 6. Whereas he saith c. 2. pag. 5. that the mysterie of 144. consisteth in the square roote of it which is 12. I answer as before that I doe not gain-say it but for the oppositio of 666 to this 144 that the mysterie of the 666. must consist in the square roote of it which is 25. as the mysterie of a 144 confisteth in the square roote of it which is 12 I utterly denie untill he can bring me
his Father with his Angels And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which fignifieth to appear to be made manifest or to be brought to light because the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in lucem proferre to bring into the light that which was not seen doth here signifie that coming of Christ which in the most proper sense is called his glorious coming The glorious Majestie of of Christ his coming to judgment 1. In respect of the person coming Rev. 13 14. or his coming in great Majestie and that is onely his coming to judgment when as his coming in the flesh was manifested but to few and his coming by his spirit is invisible to all imperceptible and unperceviable to most men but his coming to judgment shall be made manifest to all the men in the world and therefore is and may most rightly be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most glorious appearance and that both in respect of the person that cometh clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle his hairs as white as Snow his eyes as a flame of fire his feet like unto fine brass his voice as the sound of many waters his mouth sending out a sharp two edged sword and his countenanc as the Sun shineth in his strength and everie way glorious as he appeared to this our Evangelist and secondly in respect of the glorious train and companie that shall attend and wait upon him 2. In respect of the companie that attend him which are thousand thousands of Angels and all the heavenly saints of Almighty God And though this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glorious manifestation of him doth sufficiently shew the time of the quite rooting out and totall destruction of the Antichrist not to be till the last judgment yet here is another word that the Apostle useth which putteth the matter out of all doubt for he saith that the man of the sin shall be destroyed by the glorious appearance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth the coming of the Person of Christ of his Personal presence for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 co vel ad sum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentia doth import and must needs expresse the coming of the Person of Christ to destroy the Antichrist which made some expositors to suppose as I shewed before that his coming will be to begin the 1000 years felicitie here on earth whereas St. Peter tels us plainly that Christ never cometh in his own Person but the heavens must containe him untill the times of the restitution of all things which is the day of judgment and therefore the whole body of the beast Act. 3.21 Ob Et sic Hugo Grotius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi interpretatur de ilius adventum suum ad particulare judicium iâ— Judaeos v. 1. and all the adherents of the Antichrist shall not be quite rooted out till Christ shall come to the last judgement But against this E. H. and others do object that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth doth not alwayes signifie the Personall presence or the essential appearance of Christ and to prove this besides the judgment of Mr. Leigh whom he rightly termeth our noble English Greek Critick that saith fateor quidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saepe illum juditii adventum significari sed id perpetuum non est this word I confesse doth often fignifie his personal coming to judgement but not alwaies he quoteth certain places of Scripture where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth the powerful coming of Christ by his Spirit and not the personal appearance of Christ as where St. Peter saith we have made known unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.16 which saieth he signifieth his powerful coming by his Spirit to convert the Souls of his people But Sol. I say that both the precedent and subsequent words and the very scope of the Apostle in that place doth most plainly prove that he meaneth not his spiritual coming to worke his graces in us but rather the first coming of Christ in the flesh which he saith was no devised fable because they were eye witnesses of his Majestie which they could not be of his powerfull coming by his spirit and therefore this place is wrested to make good their sence but clear enough to prove the word to signifie his personal presence whereof they were eye witnesses 1 Jo. 1.3 when the word was made flesh as St. John likewise testifieth 1 John 1.3 Obj. 2 2. He saith our Saviour vseth the like phrase in S. Mat. c. 16 28. There be some standing here Mat. 16.28 which shall not tast of death until they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdome and that is his powerful coming by his Spirit to work faith in his elect to increase his kingdome of Grace which is his Church and not his personal coming to receive his Saints to the Kingdome of glory before which time all and every one of them did tast of death Sol. but I say these words are no thing and of no force to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth this his coming in his Kingdome or any other his powerful coming by his Spirit either to propogate his Gospel as some do understand that place of S. Mat. or to execute Judgement upon the Jewes as some others do understand it or upon any other enemies of Christ as some of our late interpreters think because the words which our Saviour useth are they shall not tast of death until they see the Son of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming in his Kingdome where you see our Saviour doth not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie this his Spiritual and powerful coming by his Spirit but the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we deny not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie his gracious and powerful coming by his Spirits but we say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never found to signifie such a coming or any other besides his personal coming yet Obj. 3. He produceth the 24 of St. Mat. v. 3. and 30. Maâ— â—4 v. 3. and 30. where in the 3. v. indeed we have the Disciples asking the question of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what shall be the signe of thy coming and and here you see they use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the coming of Christ but I demand what or which of his comings do they mean his gracious and powerful coming by his Spirit to build his Church and to destroy his enemies or his glorious personal coming in all Majesty to the last judgement I hope the next immediate words that are subsequent will shew you plainly
that place The fixth upon the river Euphrates which is to be understood not literally no more then the other places aforenamed but in the similitude for which the Holy Ghost applyeth it and that is as the great river Euphrates was like a wall of brass to the City of Babylon to preserve it from all invasion so will the Army of the beast the wealth and great riches of the Antichrist that he hath heaped together and the wit and subtlety of the false Prophet be as an impregnable fortress to protect them in all their impiety tyranny and oppression but as Cyrus divided the mighty river Gyndes that fed Euphrates into 360. brookes Hgrodotus l. 1. Clio. and then turned aside Euphrates out of her own channel into that huge poole which was formerly made by Queen Nitocris and so took away the strength and considence of the City and having thus made way for his souldiers he entered and took that great and famous City of Babylon through the Channell of this mighty river so will Christ by the ministrie of the first Angel divide all the strength and take away all the confidence of the remnant of the beast and will dry up or wast all the wealth of his adherents and befoole the wit and devices of the false Prophet and so remove all the impediments that were like the river Euphrates the hinderers of his servants to overthrew the kingome of the Antichrist and to take away his Rule and Dominion and to suppresse his tyranny over Gods servants And when all this will not avail to cause this shaked beast and disjointed routed armie of the Antichrist to return from his unjust wayes and most wicked courses but that three unclean spirits like frogs shall come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the spirits of devills working â—â—â—â—cles and going forth to the Kings of the earth and of the whole world 〈…〉 them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty that is a great many lying and deceitful spirits What is meant by the warre and battle that the beast maketh with God and false prophets because the number of three as of seven hath verie often none other importance then a great many shall be still sent forth to everie place to oppose the true service of God to lay his honour in the dust and to suppresse and trample his servants under feet which is all the war that the beast and all his hornes and all other beasts in the world can make against God Almighty then saith Christ Behold I come as a thief that is suddenly and unexpected and he will send the seventh Angell with the last viall of Gods wrath and the seventh Angel will pour out his Vial into the River and a great voice shall come out of the Temple of heaven Revel 5.14 2 Pet. 3.10 Esay 14.4 and from the Throne saying it is done that is the Preachers of Christ shall by the light of the truth tell the people that will not repent the time is at hand that Christ shall come to judgement and that the heavens shall depart as a scroule and the Elements shall melt with servent heat and there shall be an end of all things Then the Son of a man Jesus Christ ere it be long though how long or how soon no mortall man can tell shall come in the glorie of his Father with his Angels to take the heast that shall be then alive and the false Prophet and all his adherents and all those that past away before to make a finall and a total end of them and to throw them into the Lake of sire and brimstone and to render unto everie man according to his deeds to them that by patient conthâ—uance in well doing seeke for glorie and honour and immortalitie eternall life but unto them that are contentions rebellious murderers oppressors idolaters lyars and all such transgressors of Gods Lawes that obey not the truth but take pleasure in unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and eternall destruction to everie man that doth evill And this is the end of the Antichrist Amen Jamque opus est exegi Et plena jam Margine libri Scriptus in tergo nec dum finitus Orestes But I look that some Alter ater Ecebolius Some bold blind and ignorant Presbyterian Zoilus like an Orlando furioso will run at me as Don Quixot ran against the Wind-mill and like an angry Wasp sting both me and my book animamque in vulnere ponet yet as gold is gold though the Chimick say it is copper and copper is but copper though the deceitful Mountebank say it is gold so the truth of my writings will be found true when their lies and raylings like another Rabsheka will appear of what stuffe they are unto the world si tantus amor if they have such love and longing desire of a rayling digladiation as one of them did against my Book The Grand Rebellion Mr. John Goodwin they may chance to find their mate that may fitter undertake them then it is for a man of my place and calling as leni fluit agmine tibris so will I gently and charitably pray that God would give them more grace to have lesse malice Trini vni deo sit omnis laus honor et gloria in secula seculorum Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS