' Ο ΑÎΤΙΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ The Great ANTICHRIST REVEALED Before this time never discovered AND Proved to be neither Pope nor Turk nor any Single Person nor the Succession of any one Monarch or Tyrant in any Policie BUT A collected pack or multitude of Hypocritical Heretical Blasphemous and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the Prophesies of the Scriptures which have forespoken of the coming of the great Antichrist and especially have united and combined themselves together by a solemn League and Covenant to slay the two witnesses of God Moses and Aaron as Christ interpreteth them They have Moses and the Prophets Luke 16.29 that is The supreme Magistrate of the Common-wealth and the chief Pastors and Governours of the Church of Christ And the Christian world is requested to judge Whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster Together with the Independents Anabaptists and Lay-Preachers be not the false Prophet and the mystical soul of that great Antichrist And Whether the prevalent Faction of the long Parliament termed of late the Rump Parl. and their Adherents that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ 1. Charles the first King of Great Britain and in him civilly all his Magistrates 2. William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and civilly all the suppressed Bishops and silenced Preachers of these 3 kingdoms be not the grosse and visible body of the same Antichrist By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory Impii homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali August Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum Virg. Jehovae Liberatori London Printed at the charge of the Authour 1660. A strong faith fenced with a golden helmet Need not fear the beast his hatchet But his wicked deeds will ring And shew the prayses of the King Whom the cruell beast hath kill'd And all the Prophesies fulfill'd Of our blessed Saviour Christ Touching the accursed Antichrist The Authours Protestation I Call God to be my witnesse and heaven and earth to testifie against me if I aym at any thing or desire any thing by the publishing of these books but the glory of God the true service of Jesus Christ and the good the peace and the happinesse of the Church of Christ and the people of these Kingdomes without envie to any mans good or hatred to any mans person or the ambition and desire of any place profit or preferment for that I thank God I have learned in any state to be contented Et contemnere contemni The Authours Prayers which Morning and Evening he useth to say to Almighty God and to his Saviour Jesus Christ The Authours first addresse to Almighty God Our Father which art in Heaven c. O Eternal Almighty Lord God our good God sweet Saviour Jesus Christ Holy and blessed Spirit glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon us most miserable sinners have mercy upon us most miserable sinners O Lord God pardon and forgive us all our sins those great and many sins that we have most hainously committed against thy divine Majesty Lord enter not into judgement with us thy servants for no flesh is righteous in thy sight and deal not not with us according to the multitude of our transgressions but according to the multitude of thy mercies and compassion do away our offences and give us thy grace that ever hereafter we may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life make us truly thankfull unto thee for all those mercies and favours and loving kindnesses that thou hast continually so graciously and so mercifully bestowed upon us for thou hast created us after thine own image thou hast redeemed us with the precious blood of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and thou hast called us and sanctified us in some measure with the graces of thy most blessed Spirit thou hast delivered us out of all our troubles from all dangers and from the hands of all that hate us from the snare whereunto we were fallen and from those dangerous Sea-voyages wherein we had utterly perished if thou hadst not most mercifully preserved us thou hast given us meanes and maintenance whereby we were inabled to serve thee and thou hast restored the same to us again when we had utterly lost it thou hast given us faith to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ hope to attain to eternal life love and charity both towards thee and our neighbours for thy sake repentance for our former sins and a resolution ever hereafter to lead a holy and a godly life thou hast blest us in all our wayes prospered all our journeys delivered us from all evill helped us in all our necessities preserved us in health and restored thy servants to life when they were at the point of death for all which and for all other thy mercies and loving kindnesses both spiritual and temporal we heartily praise thy glorious name and magnify thee with all our souls we honour thee we blesse thee we praise thee we thank thee and we will magnify thee for the same for ever and ever And we do most humbly beseech thee of thy goodnesse O Lord to continue still thy loving kindnesse towards us and to preserve us still from all evill and mischief from all sin from the crafts and assaults of the devil from thy wrath and from everlasting damnaation save and defend us from shame reproach and discredit in this world from violent and sudden death and from the malice and hatred of all our enemies O let them never prevail against us let them never have the upper hand over us and let them not say There there so would we have it neither let them say We have devoured them but be thou with us be our helper and defender be our shield and our buckler be our strong Tower whereunto we may alwayes resort and we will not fear what man can do unto us We pray thee also good God give me wisdom and understanding O Lord I beseech thee give me wisdom and understanding memory boldnesse and utterance help and assist me at all times and in all places to preach thy holy word for the glory of thy name and the benefit of thy people And as thou hast helped and assisted me the last time and all other times heretofore for which I do heartily praise and thank thy glorious name so I do most humbly beseech thee to help and assist me the next time and at all other times hereafter that I may set forth thy praise and glory blesse O Lord the holy Catholick Church blesse and preserve thy servant Charles that is our lawful King and all the servants of Jesus Christ that are with him comfort them now after the time thou hast chastised them and for the years wherein they have suffered adversity give them patience to endure whatsoever thou layest upon them and in thy good time deliver them out of all their troubles and restore them to their
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
come A speciall observation of the time of this rejoycing and not before because that till now the Church was exercised either with bloody persecutions from without or with intestine broyles and heresies from within but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser and false traducer of our Brethren the Holy Prophets and the Apostles of Christ by misapplying their sayings misconstring their words and perverting their meaning and making them to say that which they never thought as all Hereticks do being cast out of the Church and quite vanquished consuted and silenced 1. By the blood of the Lamb that is by the faith which the true Christians had in the death of Christ and by the patient sufferings of the Martyrs for the defence of that faith in the former persecutions both of the Pagans and Arians when they loved not their lives unto death but valued them as nothing and yielded them most freely for the maintenance of that Faith which they had in the blood of the Lamb. and 2. by the word of their Testimony that is the breif Articles of their faith and the uniforme rule of Serving God and by the constant firme and faithfull justifying and maintaining the truth of that Doctrine and Service which they professed and published unto the people against all Hereticks whatsoever Therefore now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 12. rejoyce you Heavens Use 12 1. The rejoycing of the Angels and Saints the Church tryumphant and militant for the suppression of the Hereticks and ye that dwell in them that is the highest Heavens and all you Blessed Spirits and Holy Angells that do rejoyce at the Conversion of one Sinner rejoyce now much more for these great Victories and especially for this last victory that Michael and his Angels hath obtained against the Dragon and his Angels and you the Metaphoricall Heavens the Churches of God wherein God resideth rejoyce you as you have most cause to rejoyce that the accuser of your brethren and the false traducer of the Apostles and Holy Fathers of the Church is cast out from amongst you and your Churches are purely reformed the doctrine of faith truely taught and the service of God righty administred and all errors heresies and superstitions swept out of the Church But woe to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea v. 12. that is Who are meant by the inhabitants of the earth and of the Sea to the Worldlings Hypocrites bloody men and loose livers for the earth signifyeth earthly men and the Sea is a loose roaring and raging element cold and moyst and therefore signifieth the loose and dissolute livers roarers and furious men that have not any heat of Love and Charity in them and those also that for the love of gaine and profit only and not out of love to benefit their Countrey and their Neighbours and to shew the bountifull goodness of God to all places but onely out of a covetous desire to inrich themselves do passe all Seas into all forreign Lands woe woe unto all those because that he which could not and can not prevail against the true Christians that do so firmly stand and so stoutly oppose him will be sure to catch these soon enough within his net and hold them fast enough to make them pay for all because as the Holy Ghost saith he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wrath and is exceedingly troubled and vexed not onely for his former foyl and his casting out of Heaven but also most especially for that now after these victories he knoweth or as the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seeth that he hath but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short space to recruit and to see if he can revenge his former foyls and therefore 2. 2. The bloody and the most malicious persecution of the Dragon after the suppression of the Hereticks He goeth presently among the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea and perswades them to throw all the stones of the Earth and to stir up all the waves of the Sea and to use all possible arts to vex and oppress the woman and to overwhelm the Ship of Christ which is the Church in the Seas of all miseries and afflictions And so now the Dragon begins a fresh to rage and to persecute the woman saith the Holy Ghost v. 13. which brought forth the man-child and to vex and molest all her Children all the true and faithfull members of the Church whereof most of them especially her lay children were left prety quiet while the spirituall and dogmaticall warre lasted that raged most of all amongst the Clergy but now that warre being ended the Church reformed superstitions expunged and all the Heresies confuted the Dragon vanquished his Angels suppressed and the service of God purely and rightly discharged the true Church and all her members the corrupted unreformed Churches he hath them in his hands already so that he need not trouble himself to meddle with them are newly molested and exceedingly persecuted with great wrath saith the Angel and that is with a bloody warre and a greater warre and a far more unnaturall and unchristian warre and a more violent and more malicious prosecution of the warre and persecution of them that were quiet in the Land then ever was done by this Dragon at any time before this time And the reason of the exceeding greatness and sharpness of this persecution of the true Church The reason of the sharpness of this persecution shewed signified by this woman is not omitted to be set down by the Holy Ghost for the comfort and consolation of all the persecuted Saints and distressed members of Christ and for to incourage them with the more constancy to persist and to withstand the assaults of the Dragon unto the end and that is because the Dragon that in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had many hundred years to prosecute that heriticall and dogmaticall war yet now knoweth and seeth that he hath but a short time to rage and to wage this newly revived bloody war and therefore he must bestir himself or he shall lose his Harvest that hath but a short time to gather in his fruit and that time that he is permitted thus to rage against the woman as the spirit of God sets it down Cap. 12.14 c. 11 8 v. 11. c. 13 5. c. 11.2 is but a time and times and half a time which signifieth the three dayes and a half that the two witnesses of Christ shall lie unburied in the streets of the great City and the 42 moneths wherein the beast should prevail against Gods Servants and should tread the holy City that is the purest Church under feet for all these times thus exprest by severall termes and expressions The suppression of the witnesses and persecution of the Church the same time as of time times and half a time and three dayes and a half and 42 moneths and do synechronize and cohere for the
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
is no sin in them which retain their Sanctity in the very acts of sinning for what is sinfull in other men is not so in them who may commit any crime against the Law of God and yet it cannot be imputed to them for sin because they know in their consciences what they do and a righteous man such as they all are in their own judgement is a law unto himself as the apostles testifieth and therefore their consciences excusing them as being the rule and the Law whereby they square all their actions they are capable of doing any thing and of committing any offence against their neighbours especially the Malignants without the breach of the Law either of Justice or of Charity the which priviledge is onely proper unto them and to none else because they onely and none else do hate the Assembly of the Malignants and they onely will not sit with vain persons but their field alone hath no tares their floor no chaff and their net incloseth no trash when as nothing but pure gold is built upon their foundation therefore Dr. Featley doth merrily bid them go to New Ingland Dr. Featlies merry speech of these hypocritical Saints or the Isle of providence or to Sir Thomas Moor's Vtopia where Plato's commoner Osorius his noble man Castilio's Courtier Vegetius his Souldier Tullies Orator Aristocles his Faelix the Jews Benchochab the Manachees paraclet the Gnossicks illuminat ones the Pelagians perfect ones the Montanists spiritual ones the Catharists pure ones and their own precise holy ones may all meet at Prince Arthurs round Table and every guest be like the Table totus teres atque rotundus 4. But for them thus to call light darknesse and darknesse light to justifie the wicked and to condemn the godly to make the Members of the Antichrist the servants of God and the true Saints of Christ ungodly Reprobates and so to thrust the deserved heirs of hell into heaven and the redeemed heirs of heaven into hell what is it else but as Solomon saith an abomination to the Lord and as the Holy Ghost saith here to blaspheme them that dwell in heaven and therefore shall receive without a speedy Repentance the woe that the Prophet denounceth and the Scripture every where threatneth against such wicked doings Prov. 17.15 Isa 5.20 Then it is said v. 7. that it was given to the Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who are the Saints with whom the Beast warreth to make war with the Saints and to overcome them and this war is to be understood of a bloody war as it appeareth by the recompence that shall be rendred unto the Beast v. 10. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword and Mr. Mede interpreteth the same of the war that the Church of Rome caused to be followed against the Albigenses and Waldenses Not the Waldenses which as I conceive is far from the meaning of the Holy Ghost Reason 1 1. Because the time of this Beast continuing in his prevalency being but three years and a half or some short space much about that time and not so many hundred years as Mr. Mede would have the Beasts 42 moneths to signifie unto us it can no wayes agree with the Wars of the Waldenses that as the Histories record extended it self to a far greater time then three years and a half Reason 2 Alexand 3. died 1181. These were for the most part French Rebels in Languedoc Province and other parts of France and the Earl of Tholous was a prime Leader of many of them against Lewis King of France in the time of our Henry the third 2. Because this war of the Beast is said to be with the Saints and those Waldenses and Albigenses being ever accounted for most obstinate hereticks and so condemned in the Council of Lateran under Alexander the third by 280 Bishops and very stiff-necked Rebels against their Kings it cannot be thought that such men are here meant under the Notion and Title of Saints And therefore I say that although Thuanus writeth that in the wars waged against them and the Lollards about ten hundred thousand men were slain yet I cannot yield these mad hereticks to be the Saints here meant nor the prosecutors nor procurers of this war to be the Beast that is here spoken of and as yet had not lifted up his head out of the sea nor can I allow that the Duke de Alva though a most cruel man that slaughtered in Belgia onely as Junius and Tilenus say 36000 men was a Champion of this Beast though I confesse him to be like Cosroe King of Persia a very great instrument of the Dragon to scourge these poor Christians for their sins because this Beast was scarce hatch'd when that Vice-roy acted his bloody part Who then are the Saints with whom the Beast warreth and whom God himself termeth Saints and therefore can be neither Hereticks nor Rebels because the true Saints will ever choose rather patiently to suffer then Rebelliously to resist their lawfull Governors The true and Loyal Protestants are the Saints that are here meant as King Lewis was to those Albigenses and I demand whom can they be if they be not the true Protestants that neither can be charged with any heresie against the faith nor taxed for any Disloyalty against the King as the Waldenses were both wayes adjudged guilty And therefore I believe this is plain enough for any blind man to understand who are meant by the Saints that should be warred against and overcome if he doth but confider who overcame and who were overcome in the last war that hath been made against the truest Protestants on earth for you see the Spirit of God tells you the Beast shall be the Conqueror and the Saints shall be conquered and so Daniel that typically prophesied of the Antichrist which is understood by this Beast saith that he should wear out the Saints of the most High and they should be given unto his hands And you see who are worn out And then having conquered the Saints it is further added in the said 7. v. that there was given unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan 7.25 Nations and tongues submit and honour the conquerors The Parallel Power or Authority over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations and truly I think none so blind but seeth all this most sutable every way to the long Parliament for after they had subdued the King have they not assumed to themselves and so attained greater power then any of all the Kings of England ever had when as not one of them could have so much as a small Subsidy nor power to press any Soldiers to Warre against forreign Enemies without the approbation of their Peers and People and King Charls could not have so much as one penny of money to build his Ships to protect his Merchants and to secure his Ports without murmuring without Suits
on the earth that is as I sayd the earthly and worldly minded men for the true Saints he deceiveth not but he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth and they worship the beast and assist him and adhere unto him as being seduced and beguiled through the faigned and dissembled zeal of the false Prophet and the Sight of persecution from them that profess themselves Divines could no more deceive the Beholders and cause them to worship the beast then the persecutions of the Heathens deceived the people How the dissembling zeal of hypocrisie deceives many men that saw the Primitive Martyrs suffering for the faith of Christ when as that sight converted many of the Pagans to become Christians as Sozomen writeth and could do no more then terrifie the fearful from christianity but never deceive any to think well of the Persecutors or ill of the pe secuted but the dissembling zeal of hypocrits hath deceived many good men and therefore much sooner could the fiery zeal of this false Prophet deceive the carnal and earthly men and make them believe such zealous Professors to be none other then heavenly Saints Nor the fire of false prestigies But Janius in Annotat in loc And as this fire cannot be taken for the fiery persecution of the Saints so no more can it signifie those falsa praestigia the lying wonders and the jugling tricks of the Romish Priests and Friars which Junius sayth they used to justifie their Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences Transubstantiation and other like Popish Trumperies whereof you may finde store in their Legends in Vin ceutius his Speculum historiale and some in Stapleton's moral Promptuary and in divers others because these fiery Meteors or rather sulphurious fire and faigned wonders from the Souls in Purgatory and those lying fables of their Images sweating blood and their wonderful Narratives of their Saints Reliques and the Revelations of S. Bridget and the like holy Matrons do bear no Analogy or correspondency with fire from heaven when as all such Prestigia's or prodigies either of the Magiciaus or of the idolatrous Priests of the Gentiles and so the faigned miracles of the Roman Clergy are well known not only by the learned but even by all rational men to be all framed and forged upon the Devils Anvil and do spring from Hell and not from Heaven as all the honest Papists do confess Teneda in his miracles unmesked pa. 13. but the fiery zeal which the Presbyterian beast pretends to have to Christ to his Religion to the propagation of his Gospel and to the pure worshiping of God above all other Saints of God may without any absurdity and without incongruity be sayd A fiery zeal to Christ and his sarvice and may be thought to be fire from Heaven because such a zeal if they truly had it as they pretend could spring from no place else and from no other Fountain then from the Spirit of God and this fire of such a zeal the false Prophet pretendeth to make it to come down from Heaven on the earth that is on the earthly carual and worldly men to make them their Prosâ—lites and so to come to eternal happiness and by their perswasion and the opinion that the people have of thiis fire and this their zeal they are the sooner and the more easily deceived to become followers of their pernitious wayes and to be the Assistants of the first beast Out of all which that I have shewed of their blasphemy against God and their tyranny over the Consciences of men which is every way far worse then tyrannizing over their bodies it is apparent 1. That although the Tenets of the Church of Rome touching Purgatory 1. The doctrine of the Presbyterians more derogatory to the truth justice goodness of God then the doctrine of the Romish Church praying to Saints and adoration of Images and the like stuff be very frivolous and fantastical yet none of all the Doctrines of the Romish Church is so scandalous and so derogatory from the justice truth goodness and mercy of God as are the Doctrines which these Presbyterians Independants and Lay-preachers do preach and publish in Print concerning Original sin the cause of evil Free-will and the absolute irrespective Decree of God touching Election and Reprobation and other the like points depending hereupon without any just distinction or expression of the fore-sight and knowledge of God which is so fully and so excellently set down by Doctor Stern in his learned Discourse De medela animi and by divers others 2. 2. The discipline and government of the Presbyterians moro tyrannical over the consciences of men then the discipline and government of the Court of Rome Matth. 11.28 nor yet the Court of Rome hath ever exercised such an absolute power and domineering Authority over the consciences of Christians as this false Prophet useth to do for neither of the foresaid Courts did ever Excommunicate any member of the Church but either for apparent contumacy and a wilfull contempt of the Power and Authority of the Church or upon the proofe of two or three witnesses at the least of such crimes as were most scandalous unto the people of God and yet every petty Priest of our Presbyterians either upon his own malicious discontent or some other private dislike to his neighbor will debar him from the Blessed Sacrament and exclude him from the Body and Blood of Christ and so cut him off as a rotten member from his Saviour that doth so lovingly invite him to come unto him and deliver him unto Satan as a lively limbe to be tormented for ever And what is this discriminating of the sheep from the goates this admitting of whom we like to be of our Church and refusing whom we hate or do distast to any society or fellowship with the faithfull is it any other thing then to fit in the Temple of God as God oftentantes se esse deos and every one of them shewing himselfe that he is God when he takes upon him to do the proper work of God to distinguish the reprobate from the Elect the vile from the precious and those that have not on their wedding garments from them that had them on which the true inviters of Christ his guests durst not presume to do untill the Master of the Feast came himselfe to see his guests and to turne him out that had not on his wedding garment how then dares every Presbyter do the same Is not this to have a Pope in every Parish and whether is it better to have one Pope or a thousand Popes and every one of them more tyrannizing over their Flock then the Pope of Rome And therefore if these Presbyterians Independants and Lay-Preachers that gather Churches unto themselves out of the Church of Christ and exclude many true members of Christ from the Communion of Christ be not the false Prophet that hath two bornes like the Lambe but do
informed Daniel that the little Horn which at the first was but little indeed and then did succrescere grow so great by the suppression of the three Kings and the accession of three Kingdomes should think to change the times and the Lawes and so we finde that Antiochus did use all possible endeavours to abolish the times of the Jewish Sabbaths and feasts and their circumcision legem ipsam Dei juâ—áque omnia nefariè convellere and to overthrow the very law of God and tear in pieces all humane rights most wickedly saith Tremelius Tremel in loc and so the Antichrist would indeavour to do the like to put down all the festival times and the holy dayes of the Christians and to change all the Lawes and Customes that they had learned and observed even from the Apostles time And I am sure the Pope is not guilty of this sin of the Antichrist for he is so far from putting down their feasts and holy dayes See the History of Independency and there you shall finde how the Author of that Book sheweâ—â— how that long Parliament proceeded contrary to all Lawes part 3. A Book fit for the understanding of this point that he multiplied the same added unto their primitive feasts a great many more holidaies than were needfull or indeed fitting to be observed But I pray you tell me what horn did ever change so many Laws and Customs both of the Church and of the Kingdome as the long Parliament hath done for hath it not troden under foot not one nor two but all the ecclesiastical Laws and Canons of the Church and hath it not very often transgressed and in many things nullified our Magna Charta the great Charter and the fundamental Laws of this Kingdome that for so many hundred years were confirmed to our forefathers and Predecessors by I know not how many Parliaments I am sure above 30 at least And for the times I would fain know if any good Christian heart can look upon these times without bleeding or hold his eyes without weeping for the greatest love and favour that ever God shewed to mankinde was the giving of his own natural coessential and coeternal Son to be made of a woman and made under the Law to redeem us from the curse of the Law and from sin death hell and Satan when a greater good than this the omnipotent God himself could not do for us for what could God give better than God himself but as the Apostle saith because God could swear by no greater he sware by himself so when he could give no better he gave himself Heb. 6.13 and therefore S. Ambrose saith plus Domine Jesu debeo tuis incuriis quod sum redemptus quam tuis operibus quod sum creatus O sweet Jesus Christ I ow thee more love and thanks and service for thy care and pains and sufferings by which I am redeemed than for thy work whereby I was created because that in my creation dedit me mihi deus God gave me unto my self but in my Redemption dedit se mihi deus The greatest good that ever God did for mankinde God gave himself unto me and because in the creation of me and all things else dixit facta sunt he did but speak the word and they were made he commanded and they stood fast but in the accomplishment of our Redemption multa dixit magna fecit dira tulit he spake many gracious words he did many wonderfull works and he suffered many execrable and intolerable things Therefore as God commanded the Israelites Why the Jews were commanded by God to keep their Feasts in remembrance of their deliverance out of Epypt That was but the type of this our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan to keep the feast of Passeover and in remembrance of the reception of the Law on Mount Sinai which was an inferiour favour and lesse than our receiving of the Gospel to observe the feast of Pentecost and in remembrance of their wandering 40 years in the wilderness and their feeding there all that while with the Manna that came down from heaven which notwithstanding is no waies comparable to our feeding with the Word of God and the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ which is God himself to keep the feast of tabernacles and whosoever neglected to keep these feasts and to observe these times that soul should be cut off from Israel that is from among the people of God as an ungratefull person unworthy of the favour of God And as Mardocheus and Queen Hester commandeth all the Jews to keep the feast of Purim that was to be kept upon the 14 and 15 dayes of the Month Adar which is answerable to our February Hest 9.23 24. throughout all their generations for ever for dayes of rejoycing and Thanks-giving for their deliverance from the malicious plot and wicked designe of proud Haman the which feast was observed by Christ himself John 10.22 The Geneva notes on John 10. 22. and as in like manner Judas Machabaeus injoyned the feast of dedication to be observed upon the 25th day of the Moneth Casteu which is our November for a thankfull remembrance of the like benefit which was the casting out of Antiochus his Garrison from Hierusalem so that the Apostles and their immediate Successors the Bishops and Fathers of the Church and all the other succeeding Governors of Gods people considering that the Jews temporal favours aforenamed were but types of our favours and shadowes of those substances that we have and so no wayes neer so comparable to the benefits that we receive by the birth circumcision resurrection and ascention of Christ and the gifts that is the Apostles the Teachers and Governors of Gods Church furnished with the gifts of the Holy Ghost that Christ sent unto them on the day of Pentecost 50 dayes after his ascention into heaven by which favours and great blessings we obtain a deliverance not from a small temporal bondage as that of the Israelites was under Pharaoh far less then the bondage of many good Christians in these dayes under the Turk or from such an enemy as was Haman or Antiochus but from sin death hell Satan and eternal damnation have in their own persons observed and injoyned all other Christians to observe That is Christmas New years day Easter day Holy thursday Whitsunday and the rest the feast of Christs Nativity and of his circumcision resurrection and ascention and the other dayes prescribed by them as dayes of rejoycing and meeting together in the Church to praise God and to thank him for those great and inestimable favours and benefits that he hath conferred upon us and we received as upon those dayes and I may demand What Pope was ever so wicked and committed such and so horrible a sin as to prophane these holy times in so high a measure as Antiochus-like to command them to be prophaned
of 1200 and 60 dayes that make three years and a half just so long as Christ Preached after he was Baptized among the Jewes and at the end of those 1200 and 60 dayes they should be slaine by the Antichrist about one moneth before the Antichrist should be destroyed and it is a wonderfull thing to consider how many Papists are led away with the belief of these fictions of which I will not stand to confute and to shew their Vanity for that Bibliander and Chytraeus have sufficiently answered to these places Chytraeus in c. 11. Apoc. Math. 11.14 and have fully shewed howthese were the mistakes of those Fathers and but meere fancies of the Papists when our Saviour tels us plainly that Iohn Baptist was the Elias which was for to come and which the Jewes dreamed as the Papists do should be Elias the Tisbite that was taken up to Heaven in a Fiery Charet Exposition 2 Dr. Hammond in Apoc c. 11. Eusebius l. 4. c. 6. Others by these two Witnesses do understand two Bishops of Hierusalem wherof the one was Bishop over the Converted Jewes and the other of the Gentile Christians and these Berchochabas a Seditious and Rebellious Jew whereof Eusebius writeth did kill in the civil dissention of the Jewes as some Authors testifie but as unlikely as the former fiction of the Papists Reason 1 And the acts of the Apostles seem not to intimate any such thing but rather the clean contrary 1. Because we cannot yield that there were two Bishops of Hierusalem one of the Converted Jewes and another of the Gentile Christians as if they meant to make two distinct and severall Churches which might produce a great division and bring many Inconveniences betwixt the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles whereas now the partition Wall betwixt Jews and Gentiles was broken down and as both people were to have but one chief Shepheard that is Jesus Christ so they were to have but one fold and one Deputy Shepheard that is one Bishop under Christ in one City though I deny not but there might be subordinate Presbyters and Deacons under that Bishop to assist him to instruct the people and to Govern the Church Reason 2 2. Because the Revelation is not of known things that were already past for that is not properly a Revelation but a Narration of things especially things publickly done and not concealed but it is of things that were to come to pass and though Berchochabas was supprest by Rufus in the time of the Emperor Adrian about the 130 year of Christ yet it is thought that these men which are supposed to be two Bishops were slain long before this Revelation was shewed unto St. Iohn and not unlikely because Eusebius nameth 15 Bishops of Hierusalem that succeeded one another before Xistus that was but the sixth Bishop of Rome after the Apostles and lived about the beginning of Adrians time Reason 3 3. Because it is manifest that Berchochabas cannot be understood by the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit and the great Antichrist which is here said to kill the two witnesses because none of the notes and marks of that Beast under which notes the antichrist is described in the Scriptures do any wayes agree with Berchochabas for he never apostatized and fell away from Christ whom he never professed neither did he ever sit in the Temple of God as God nor wrought any signes or wonders nor went about his work slily mysteriously as the Antichrist doth but he went about his design openly and plainly aperto marte with armed Troops and therefore he cannot be understood to be the killer of these two witnesses nor these witnesses to be those two supposed Bishops of Hierusalem Exposition 3 Francisc Junius in loc Others by these two witnesses do understand it generally of the Ministers and Preachers of Gods word that are expressed by the number of two because of their weakness contemptibleness and fewness according to our Saviours words The harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few and yet they are two that they might the better assist one another and especially Deut. 19.13 2 Cor. 13.1 Mat. 18. v. 16. to confirm the Testimony of one another unto all other men according as the Law requireth that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word might be made good unto men as the Apostle sheweth But I can see no reason that all the Ministers and Preachers of Gods word should be expressed by the number of two when as though in the beginning when Christ spake it the number of the Apostles and Disciples were but very few yet the Psalmist prophesying of the succeeding time of the Gospel after the day of Pentecost saith that God gave the word and great was the Company of the Preachers and they could not be weak and contemptible during the time of their prophesying and before the coming of the Antichrist because they were the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth and if any man hurt them that is during the time of their Prophesie Apoc. c. 11.4.5 fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and therefore our last translation addeth for the explanation of the point the word power unto the Text saying and I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie that is Apoc. c. 11.3 during the time alotted them 1200 and 60 dayes so that none shall be able to hinder them Exposition 4 Others do conceive that by these two witnesses we may better understand the two Testaments that is the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament whereof our Saviour saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me John 5.39 and thus do they expound them that make the Pope to be the Antichrist because he hath supprest the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament and hath offered violence and so killed the true sence and meaning of these two Testaments For the violence that the Pope and his Cardinalls and the whole Church of Rome have offered unto the holy Scriptures I cannot and I will not go about to excuse them neither do I think that they can excuse themselves but though the two Testaments are witnesses of Christ and do bear witness of him yet because they are but a dead letter and so dead witnesses as are the Heavens and all the works of God the witnesses of God though the Scriptures truly expounded are by far the clearer and the surer witnesses of him but being turned like a nose of wax by the Hereticks as they are very often I assure my self they are not here meant by these witnesses because they cannot properly nor indeed any wayes be said to be killed when the truth may onely be wounded and for a time suppressed but never killed and quite extinguished quia magna veritas prevalet as Zorchabel proveth and it is but an idle shift
dasht in pieces the Altars or Communion-tables shall be trampled upon the Bibles torn and burnt the Chancels made stables and the whole service of the holy Church neglected contemned and prohibited the which things I suppose may very well be said to be a treading of the holy city underfoot for so the Angel saith the holy city shall be troden under foot fourty and two months Rev. 11 2. c. 11. v. 2. And here verse 9. he saith the witnesses shall lie unburied three days and a half which if you take a day for a year as Junius Bellarmine and most Interpreters do they do sunchronize and agree just with the fourty two months which do make up the three years and a half that the holy city shall be troden underfoot to shew unto us that while the witnesses lie without their honour and are suppressed the King disobeyed and rejected and the Bishops dethroned and despised the whole Church and people of God that would truly serve him and respect his Vice-roes and reverence his Messengers shall likewise be neglected despised and abused as we have most apparently seen it here amongst us how many good men have been despised and abused ever since the King and the Bishops have bin suppressed But though nocte pluit tota yet redeunt spectacula mane albeit heaviness may last for a night yet joy cometh in the morning for God is so good and so gracious that he will not alwayes be chiding nor shut up his loving kindness in displeasure Psal 30.5 especially towards those that serve him and to the uttermost of their power discharge their duties and therefore the Angel informeth our Apostle that after 3. dayes and a half which I conceive is not precisely to signifie 3. years and a half no more then I do take the 42 moneths for that just period and set terme of 3 years and a half without either more or lesse but indefinitely for some short space expressed here by 3 dayes and a half Why the time of the witnesses rising is expressed by the notion of after 3 dayes and a half as the time of the treading of the holy City is expressed by the space of 42 moneths not lesse then 3 dayes and a half because they should not have the honour equally with Christ to rise as soon as he that rose again the third day and was most justly to have a greater priviledge and preheminence in rising sooner then any other nor yet any more then three dayes and a half because then they should stink as Martha said of her Brother Lazarus that had been dead four dayes and therefore seeing that on the third day the dead Corps remaineth sweet and the flesh as yet seeth no corruption John 11.39 but doth begin to stink and to putrifie on the fourth day as the Physitians do relate God would not suffer these two Witnesses to lie in the streets to stink and to be corrupted but after 3 dayes and a half while they were yet sweet and their memories precious with all that feared God the spirit of life from God or the breath of life for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall enter into them and they shall stand upon their feet not that the good King and the Bishops or any others of the Martyrs witnesses of Christs that are killed shall rise again in their own persons that thought is too gross because they are now in glory The witnesses shall rise in their successors and great gainers by the malice of the beast that killed them and they should be much the worse and great loosers to be reduced and brought back again hither into this valley of misery but the meaning is that as our Saviour saith John Baptist was the Elias that was to come because he was endued with the spirit of Elias and was sent to do the work and to supply the place and to execute the office of Elias Mar. 9.13 so they that shall be invested with the abilities re-established in the places and confirmed with the power and authority of those witnesses that the beast hath killed and shall be enthroned and take possession of the seats offices and priviledges of the slain witnesses are said to be the witnesses revived and restored by the spirit of God to stand up again upon their feet and So Mr. Mede saith Mr. Mede p. 21. the witnesses shall be restored and revived in their successors when they shall enjoy the offices and the former estate of the slaughtered witnesses And so we may be sure when God seeth his time which is but a very short time expressed here under the notion of three dayes and a half these two witnesses that are slain by this beast that is as I shewed before the monarchicall and Episcopall Government by King and Bishops shall and will rise again and stand upon their feet And whether this be not now fulfilled let my Reader judge maugre all the opposition of their adversaries and then as the Holy Ghost saith v. 11. great fear shall come upon them that see them that is upon their enemies that had killed them either by themselves or by their predecessors and upon those also that consented and furthered to put them to death and I believe they may very well and ought very much to fear to see that God is so mindfull of his witnesses and therefore will without question be revenged on them and their Posterity for the slaughtering of his anointed Servants Then the Holy Ghost setteth down Verse 12. v. 12. the means and the manner of the rising and restauration of the slain witnesses saying that they shall hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great voice from Heaven that is a powerfull call from the Church and from the People of God How or by what meanes the two witnesses shall be revived which is here meant by Heaven for they onely shall restore them and shall say unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come up hither that is ascend and take your former places your offices and your dignities that the beast and his adherents have taken away from you and from your Predecessors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud that is by the help and assistance of a multitude of unperceived And let my Reader judge whether the King be not thus restored And we hope the Bishops shall be so likewise and as it were Invisible friends that shall be as a Cloud of Witnesses of their integrity and a Cloud of Intercessors to speak for them and to plead their causes to God and all good men against all their malicious Adversaries and a Cloud of powerfull Patrons to regaine unto them and to restore them if not to their Estates and possessions which in all likelihood the Beast had sold or bestowed or otherwise disposed of it and the takers of them perhaps had
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
the same method as the 7th did And I heard it demanded very often if any Beast any like them with whom St. Paul fought at Ephesus or any other Beast in the world did or could possibly more evenly immitate passibus aequis even to a haire and over immitate that wicked Apostata in all points of subtlety and cruelty and specially in this preposterous and most odious course now specified against the Messengers of Christ for the quite rooting out of them and their Message the Gospel of Christ as the Rump Parliament hath done for as Julian did before them The Parallel so did not they by the same course of plundering and ejecting the Clergy and taking away all livelihood from the Bishops and other grave Doctors and Preachers cause many learned men even all whose names are not written in the Book of life as the Holy Ghost speaketh and some that seemed Starres and not of the least lustre in the firmament of the Church to fall from Heaven and to start aside like a broken Bowe and rather to follow the indirect Directory of the Parliament then for the observance of the direct form of serving God to forgoe their rich Rectories yea and did they not cause them to take the mark and Livery of that Beast and against their Consciences to take the Covenant of the Beast and so to forswear themselves that they might preserve their Lands and their Livings which otherwise they must have forgone as they saw others do in every place Quam sunt laudandi qui te florente juventa sprevere luxus deliciasque tuas So bewitching a thing is the love of this World as Demas can well testifie and all that have not learned St. Peters lesson to forsake all and to follow Christ and so you see how the 8th that is the Beast is of the 7th and practiceth the same acts and the same wayes as the 7th did Or else we may understand these words the 8th is of the 7 to signifie that this Beast is of the same subtlety cruelty and condition and hath as much gall and bitterness in him against the true Church and the true servers of God as all or any one of all the other 7. had So that you can finde no villany or mischief in any or in all the other 7. but you shall finde the same fully in this Beast that hath as many heads and more heads himself then all the other 7. Kings had and indeed this Exposition is most agreeable to the Originall Text that doth not say the 8th is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 7th but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the seven And whosoever readeth the first and second part What the Authour of the History of Independency saith of the long Parliament and especially the third part of the History of Independency I should wonder if he finde it not there shewed that all the devices conspiracies hypocrifies and cruelties of those Kings or Emperours here mentioned yea and Parallel 7 times 7 more unto them are not reaching and answerable to the plots and devices iniquity and impiety of the long Parliament conceived by some men as I said before to be this beast to possess the estates destroy the liberties take away the lives of Gods Servants and to overthrow the true service and Religion of Jesus Christ for the Authour of that History proveth evidently as he saith by the very Acts and Votes the Ordinances and writings of that long Parliament that they are more bloody and cruel then the proscriptions of Sylla more unreasonable then the Articles of High Treason that were made by the Duke de Alva then which the Devill could not devise much worse and that their High Court of Justice is a new Slaughterhouse for the murthering of the free Subjects of Ingland without any just proceeding but in all things contrary to all the Lawes and Statutes of this Land which are there abundantly produced by that Authour to make good his assertion and to condemn that Court and their proceedings therein for usurpation treason tyranny The History of Independency part 3. p. 42. theft and murther for which illegall arbitrary and most barbarous bloody proceedings every mans hands would be about their eares if they did not keep an Army of Janizaries to suppress them saith that Authour And what viler baser and more abominable things then these could any beast any Antichrist or any Devill devise to do I cannot tell but I leave it to my Reader to judge whether these things be true or not CAP. II. The 10 Horus of the Beast who they are and what they may signifie their Crowns what they signifie their blasphemy the three chief properties of the Leopard how agreeable to the long Parliament of the feet and mouth of the Beast what they betoken of the power and authority of the Beast and the head that was mortally wounded who or what is meant thereby and how the Beast shall continue to make Warre 2. 2. Of the 10. Horns of the Beast IT is said that the beast had ten horns and the Holy Ghost expoundeth the meaning of this expression in the 17th Chapt v. 12. saying that these 10 horns are 10 Kings which have received no Kingdom but receive power as Kings with the Beast whereupon Junius to make good his former Interpretation of the Beast saith hos decem Reges jam olim numeraverunt circumscripserunt multi these Kings long agoe many have numbred and described to be 10 which did arise and spring out of the Roman Empire Junius in annotat in c. 13. in c. 17. quum politicum illud imperium arte pontificum maxime capit labascere when that civill Empire began by the craft and subtlety of the Popes to fall unto decay and Mr. Mede names these Kings to be 1. Vortimer 2. Hengist 3. Childeric 4. Gunderic 5. Theodoric 6. Viciarins 7. Gensericus 8. Sumanus 9. Theodomir 10. Marcianus Alcazar saith that these 10 Horns do signifie Polyarchiam Romanorum Mr. Mede in his Apostat of the latter times p. 82. Anno 456. the multitude of the Roman Senators which gave their strength and power by which they formerly ruled unto the Emperour and Cornâ—a Lapide saith these 10 Horns are 10 Kings equibus tres profligabit antichristus caeteri septem territi ei sponte se subdent whereof three shall be vanquished by the Antichrist as Daniel saith of the little horn tres Reges deprimet he shall suppress three Kings and the other seven being terrified that is by the humbling of those three shall willingly submit themselves unto him and it may be the three Kings that A Lapide speaketh of might be 1. The King of Ingland The Parallel A Lapide his Exposition how fulsilled M. Mede names the other three which the Pope suppressed p. 83. 2. The King of Scotland 3. The King of Ireland and the other seven that is most of the Neigh
they are heavy as were the persecutions of the Jewes under Antiochus very grievous then are they as theirs were very short and therefore the troubles and persecutions of the Church under the Beast being most heavy and more grievous then ever the Church felt before as I have formerly shewed and the reason of it it is not likely it should be as Mr. Mede and some other learned men do think very long but as we conceive very short about three years and a half and not so many hundred years as they set down that would have the Pope to be the Antichrst about twelve hundred years at least since the time that some men would make the Pope to be the Antichrist The Parallel And we all know the Parliaments Warre with the King continued not very long but much about the time here alotted unto the Beast and that is 42. moneths which make three years and a half CAP. II. The blasphemy of the Beast 1. Against God by the Doctrines of the Presbyterians and as it is alledged the manifold injuries of the long Parliament 2. Against his Tabernacle that is the Churches and places where God is worshipped and served and which the prime Christians had to serve God in them Of the twofold service of God at what times God might be served in any place the two things that Jeroboam did to uphold his Idolatry how God will be served in the time by the persons after the manner and in the places where he appointeth and in what sence all things are alike holy and in what sence some things are more holy then other things BUt how long soever these 42. moneths is whether they signifie three years and a half or three years and half three years as some do think which make four years and a half for I dare not presume so precisely to determine what length of time is here meant to a hair by these 42. moneths or whether as I rather conceive some other unlimited space that should not be very long when it is expressed sometimes by dayes and here by moneths and not by years for where the Scripture sets down the time that any thing should be done as that Antiochus should rage a time and times and the dividing of times which all Interpreters expound to signifie three years and a half Dan. 7.25 and that Christ should be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the Earth it is not meant that it must be so exactly to a jot or a minute for we find that Antiochus continued three years seven moneths and thirteen dayes and Christ was buried by Joseph and Nicodemus about three houres before Sun-set on Good-Fryday and rose again about four or five a Clock on Sunday morning which maketh not in all above 36. or 38. houres or not above 40. houres casting it to the highest account and that reacheth not fully to three dayes and three nights properly and literally taken but the meaning is that it shall be so and so much about that very time And so the Beast shall contiue such a time as the Holy Ghost intendeth by these 42 moneths and in all that time having received this power and great Authority from the Dragon he opened his mouth in Blasphemy against God to Blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven v. 6. I desire my Reader to be an unpertiall judge in whom he seeth this Prophesie fulfilled And I do earnestly beseech all men to observe and seriously to consider whether ever any Tayler fitted any Garment to any mans body or Shooe-maker a shooe to any mans foot fitter then this prediction doth agree with the long and lately dissolved Parliament and their Teachers the Presbyterians and lay Preachers and with none else either Jew Pagan Turke Pope or any other Infidell or Heretick whatsoever so as it doth with them of that Parliament and their adherents for here you may observe a three fold Blasphemy of the beast 1. Against Gods Name 2. Against his Tabernacle 3. The Blasphemy of the Beast 3 fold 1. Against Gods name Mr. Mede pag. 75. Against his Servants that dwell in Heaven but 1. Mr. Mede saith that by Blasphemy here the Idolatry of the beast is to be understood and I confess that the Idolatry of the Israelites is termed and translated Blasphemy as in Ezekiel 20.27 where the Lord saith that by offering their Sacrifices in Bama and polluting themselves with their Idols they Blasphemed him v. 28. c. 31. Yet I say 1. That every Blasphemy is not Idolatry neither doth it signifie the Idolatry of the beast in this place nor do Mr. Medes reasons confirme it for Though I do yield the beast to be an Idolater and guilty of very much Idolatry That Blasphemy doth not alwayes nor here signifie Idolatry and that the beast seateth himself in Babylon and Babylon is the Mother of Harlots that committeth Spirituall Fornication which is the following after other Gods as the Whore followeth other men with or beside her own Husband Yet this proveth not that the Blasphemy of the beast which is here spoken of must signifie the Idolatry of the beast when as the beast like unto a shameless Whore is guilty of more faults then one 2. I deny the other heads of the beast as I shewed to you before to signifie those Kings of the Roman Empire which Mr. Mede affirmeth to be and so 3. I deny this beast to have descended from those Idolatrous heads that he conceiveth and therefore that the Idolatry of those Romane Emperors or Kings doth not prove the Blasphemy of this beast to signifie his Idolatry in this place 4. Neither do I conceive it likely that the Evangelist writing in Greek and to the Gentiles should use the Greek words in the signification of those Hebrew words that do in some places signifie the same thing therefore I expound the word The paralel How the Parliament Preachers and Assembly of their Divines have Blasphemed God Unde factum Est ut tot gentes una cum liberis suis infantibus aeternae morti involveret lap sus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Decretum quidem horribile fateor Calv. instit l. 3 c. 23. not for Idolatry but according to the Gramnaticall and native signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noceo laedo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dico which signifieth to speak or write impiously wickedly and unjustly both of God and of his Tabernacle and of his Servants the Angels and Saints that dwell in Heaven And thus consider 1. How the Chaplens of the long Parliament and their selected assembly with those that they admit for the Preachers and Ministers of Gods words which are the false Prophet here spoken of in this Apocalyps as I shall anon shew unto you have and do Blaspheme the most Holy Name of God when as I told you
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
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