and their deliuerance promised Their blessed estate in the meane time in the fift The day of Iudgement and the terriblenesse thereof in the sixt AFter this I looked to see when the Lambe opened the first Seale and loe I heard one of the foure beasts for they were appointed to assist me in the time of these Visions as the most excellent creatures of God and his voice was like a thunder making me awake with terrour to take heede to these great and terrible Prophesies which God was to declare vnto me and hee said Come and see 2 Then I looked and did see a white horse and he that sate on him had a bow in his hand Zach. 1.8 Zach. 6.2 3. and a Crowne giuen vnto him and hee came foorth a Victour to winne and ouercome This man comming on the white horse was the comming and incarnation of our Bright and Innocent Sauiour armed with a bow for euer since his comming till now and a space hereafter the dart and arrow of God to wit the holy Spirit by the preaching of the Gospel doeth subdue and bring the world vnder his subiection and taketh vengeance of his enemies His crowne is giuen to him by his Father in token of his victory ouer the second death and as King of the Catholike Church to crowne the faithfull Conuersion of the Gentiles and so he commeth foorth a Victour ouer Satan and to ouercome by once conuerting a great part of the world to the trew knowledge of God This mysterie is already begunne but is not yet accomplished 3 And when he opened the second Seale 4 Loe there came forth a red horse and there was power giuen to him that sate on him to take away peace from the earth that euery one might slay one another and there was giuen him for that purpose a great sword for with the spreading of the Euangel and rooting of the trueth in the hearts of the nations Persecution of the body by the Ciuill sword in the second Seale Continuation of trew pastors after the Martyres shall a bloody persecution of Tyrants by the ciuil sword be ioyned which is meant by the rider on the red horse but notwithstanding the Euangel shall spread and flourish for such is the power of God resisting the pride of man that vnder the Crosse the puritie of the trueth most flourisheth in the Church 5 And when he opened the third Seale the third Beast said vnto me Come and see and loe I did see a blacke horse and hee that sate vpon him had balances in his hand 6 And I heard a voice from among the foure Beasts saying A measure of Wheat for one peny and three measures of Barley for one peny but wine and oyle harme thou not for after that this first mysterie shall be accomplished not onely dearth and famine shall ensue the contempt of the trueth but God shall permit Satan to tempt and vexe his Church with a cloud of diuers and dangerous heresies which may be meant by the rider on the blacke horse for the blackenesse and darkenesse of them Heresies ment in the third Seale shall obscure the light of the Gospel but yet God to assure vs that hee will neuer forget his owne speakes from his Throne comforting vs thereby that although as the balances and measure signifies good men shall bescant who are the fine wheat and barley of his haruest Luke 3. yet some shall there be that shall not bow their knee to Baal no not in straighter times that shall come after and alwayes giues vs assurance that the word and trueth of God which is an eternall Oyle and comfortable Vine shall neuer be destroyed nor any wayes corrupted in spight of all the malice of Satan in his instruments 7 And when hee opened the fourth Seale the fourth Beast said vnto me Come and see 8 Then I beheld and loe I did see a pale horse and the name of him that sate vpon him was Death This is the greatest and heauiest plague for after that the persecutions and heresies shall take an ende and that infirmitie and coldnesse haue cropen into the Church The Popedom is meant by the pale horse in the fourth Seale of heresie and ciuil tyranny then shall God redouble his former plagues by permitting Satan to erect a tyrannie composed of both these former plagues for it shall be full of heresie like the one and full of ciuill and temporall tyrannie like the other and therefore because it brings with it al maner of death both of body and soule the rider is iustly called Death as the fountaine of all the sorts of the same and the palenesse of the horse is correspondent in all points to the qualitie of the rider for as the rider is called Death so the colour of palenesse represents the same and as the riders qualities are composed of heresies and tyrannie so the colour of pale is composed chiefly of blacke and red And hell followed after him to the vtter damnation of him and his followers And power was giuen him ouer the fourth part of the earth to wit the rest who are not ouercome by the other three riders for all they who were not marked by the white horse nor killed in body by the red nor killed in soule by the blacke are killed both in body and soule by this last And as he hath power of destroying thus giuen him ouer the fourth part of the earth so by foure plagues specially doeth he execute the same to wit by Sword Hunger Death and the Beasts of the earth These plagues allude to the plagues mentioned in the Canticle of Moses for this tyrannie shall begin with persecution Scarcitie of trew Pastors and worshipping The cruelty of the Popes tyranny this persecution shall cause a hunger and great scarcitie of the true worship of God this hunger shall breed a second and eternall death and this tyranny shall then end with a crueller and bloodier persecution of the bodies then euer was before which shall be so barbarous that it is compared in this Vision to the execution vsed by wilde beasts vpon offenders and shall spare no degree sexe nor aage no more then beasts doe 9 But when he opened the fift Seale I did see vnder the Altar the soules of them that were slaine for the word of God and for his Testimonie which they maintained 10 And they cryed with a lowd voice saying How long wilt thou delay O Lord since thou art holy and trew to reuenge iudge our blood vpon them that dwel on the earth for this last persecution did enter so fiercely into the world and did make so great a number of Martyrs that their soules lying vnder the Altar to wit in the safegard of IESVS CHRIST who is the only Altar Hose 14.3 whereupon and by whom it is onely lawfull to vs Hebr. 13.15 to offer the sacrifice of our hearts and lips to wit our humble prayers to God
often haue heard already and the in-dwellers of the earth shall wonder whose names are not written in the booke of life before the foundation of the world was laide of this wondering yee heard before they shall wonder I say at this beast which was to wit in great power and is not to wit in a maner as ye presently heard and yet is I meane doeth stand though farre decayed from the former greatnesse 9 Take good heede vnto this that I declare vnto thee for herein shall the trew wisedome of men be tried to wit in knowing by this my description what particular Empire and Tyrannie I speake of And the seuen heads of this beast signifie aswell seuen materiall hilles whereupon the seate of this Monarchie is situated as also seuen kings or diuers formes of Magistrates that this Empire hath had and is to haue hereafter 10 Fiue of them haue beene alreadie one is presently and makes the sixt another shall follow it and make the seuenth but it is not yet come and when it comes it shall remaine but a very short space 11 And this beast which was to wit so great and is not for now it is decaying as thou presently hast heard it is the eight and yet one of the seuen for this beast which rose out of the ruines of the fourth Monarchie as ye heard before in respect it vseth an hereticall Tyrannie ouer the consciences of men by that new forme of Empire is different from any of the rest and so is the eight and yet because this forme of gouernment shall haue the same seate which the rest had and vse as great Tyrannie and greater vpon the world and shall vse the same forme in ciuill gouernment which one of the seuen vsed therefore because it is so like them I call it one of the seuen 12 And the tenne hornes which thou sawest signifie tenne Kings to wit the great number of subalterne Magistrates in all the Prouinces vnder that Monarchy who haue not yet receiued their kingdome for vnder all the diuers sorts of gouernments that shall be in it except the last and hereticall sort these subalterne powers shall be but in the ranke of subiects but they shall take their kingly power with the beast to wit at the very time that this Apollyon shall rise out of the ashes of the fourth beast or Monarchie the kings of the earth shall become his slaues and subalterne Magistrates whereas the subiects were onely the power of that Monarchie before so as the hornes or powers of this beast were but of subiects before it was wounded but after the healing of it the worldly kings and rulers shall become the powers and hornes of it 13 These shall haue one counsell and shall giue their strength and power to the beast to wit these kings shal all willingly yeeld obedience to Babylon and shall employ their whole forces for the maintenance of that Monarchie and the persecution of the Saints 14 For they shal fight with the Lambe in his members albeit all in vaine for in the end the Lambe shall ouercome them because he is Lord of lords and King of all kings and these that are with him and followeth him are called Chosen and Faithfull 15 He also said vnto me The waters that thou saw this Whore sit vpon are the peoples multitudes nations and tongues that haue subiected themselues to her Empire 16 But as touching these ten hornes thou saw thus farre I foretell vnto thee although that for a time these kings shall be slaues and seruants to Babylon and shall be her instruments to persecute the Saints the time shall come before the consummation that they shall hate the Whore who abused them so strongly and long and shall make her to be alone for they shall withdraw from her their Subiects the nations that were her strength and shall make her naked for they shall discouer the mysterie of her abominations and shall eate her flesh and burne her with fire to wit they shall spoile her of her riches power and glory and so destroy her 17 But doe not thou wonder at this for God gaue them in their hearts to wit permitted them to be abused by her for a space that they might doe what pleased her and consent to all her vnlawfull policies and pretences and giue their kingdomes vnto this beast vntill the words of God might be accomplished to wit they shall submit their very Crownes and take the right thereof from her vnto the fulnesse of times here prophecied At what time God shall raise them vp as ye heard to destroy Babylon for the hearts of the greatest kings as well as of the smallest subiects are in the hands of the Lord to be his instruments and to turne them as it shall please him to employ them 18 And this woman or Whore which thou sawest is that great citie and seate of this Beast or Monarchie which beareth rule ouer the kings of the earth as thou hast heard alreadie But although it be one seat yet diuers and a great number of kings or heads thereof shall succeed into it one to another all vpholding an hereticall religion and false worship of God and one forme of gouernment as the fourth Monarchie did out of the which this did spring as ye haue heard CHAP. XVIII ARGVMENT The sorrow of the earth for the destruction of the Popedome The profite that worldly men had by his standing The great riches and wealth of that Church The Pope by his Pardons makes merchandise of the soules of men Heauen and the Saints reioyce at his destruction albeit the earth and the worldlings lament for the same ANd then I saw another Angel comming downe from heauen hauing great power so that the earth shined with his glory for so soone as God by one of the seauen Angels who had the phials had more plainely described vnto mee this woman sitting on the beast then he did before hee now appointeth this other Angel who is Christ to declare vnto me and proclaime to the world as is signified by his comming downe to the earth for that cause the iust condemnation of Babylon according to her sinnes 2 And hee cryed out with a loude voyce saying It is fallen It is fallen Babylon that great Citie and it is made the dwelling place of vncleane spirits and the habitation of all vncleane and hatefull fowles to wit it shall be destroyed and that great Citie the seate of that Monarchie shall be desolate for euer euen as it was prophesied of Ierusalem 3 Because all nations haue drunke of the Vine of her whoredome and the kings of the earth haue committed whoredome with her and the Merchants of the earth are become rich by the great wealth of her delights in so great a worldly glory and pompe did that Monarchie shine 4 And I heard another voyce from heauen to wit the voyce of the holy Spirit saying Goe foorth from her my people to wit all the chosen
is euer to argue our selues of ignorance then to accuse GOD of improuidence But if so much Scripture be lost as is alleadged farewell GOD his prouidence farewell the fidelitie of the Church to whose care was concredited the Oracles of GOD. Let vs come to the writings of Kings where we shall not incurre any danger of this controuersie that were so farre from being acted by GOD his Spirit that they were more like those Disciples of Iohn that had not heard whether there were an Holy-Ghost or no that knew nothing of GOD though they felt neuer so much of his Goodnesse that neuer beleeued his Omnipotencie though they had neuer so much experience of his Power To beginne with the Assyrians whose first Monarch was Nimrod and his chiefe Citie Babel from his time to Sardanapalus the last of that Monarchie there was no King amongst them that gaue himselfe to Letters for as their Kingdome was founded in Tyrannie so they laboured to keepe it in Barbaritie neither must we euer looke to see Learning flourish where Tyrannie beareth the Standerd for Learning hath no more a facultie to bring the minde to vnderstanding then it hath with it a power that workes the will to libertie neither of which can euer consist with Tyrannie And therefore it is no wonder that this aage affoorded no learned Kings for in that State which continued thirteene or foureteene hundred yeeres yee can scarce reade of a learned man Therefore let either Histories or Poets paint that out for a Golden aage as they please there was neuer any aage that hath left so little memory of the Golden tincture of their Witts After the time of Sardanapalus in the dayes of Phull Tiglath-Philasar and Salmanasar of whom mention is made in Scripture and to whom as it is thought Ionas preached and with whom some of the Prophets were conuersant when as these Kings came into the land of Israel as they did in the dayes of Menahem who gaue to Phul-Belochus a thousand Talents of Siluer for a Tribute And in the dayes of Hezechiah came Salmanasar and besieged Samaria three yeeres and caried away a great part of the people of the Kingdome of Israel From that time forward their Kings gaue themselues to Letters insomuch as in the dayes of Nabucodonolor who set vp the Monarchy of the Babylonians within one hundred yeeres of Salmanasar King of the Assyrians learning was in great estimation and the Kings Court was a Schoole for the best witts of the Kingdome to be bred in that they might bee able to stand before the King furnished with all learning and vnderstanding And if Stories do not intollerably deceiue vs Daniel and his companions instructed fiue great Monarches as in the trew knowledge of GOD so in the vnderstanding of all excellent Arts and Sciences Namely Nabuchodonosor Euilmerodack Baltazar Darius of the Medes and Cyrus of the Persians And it were no hard matter to proue the trewth of this out of Daniel himselfe Come to the Persians who conuersed more with the Prophets as with Ezra Nehemiah Zachary Malachy and the people that were in captiuitie we shall finde them giuen much to Letters Cyrus the first Monarch is recorded to haue written large Commentaries of all his diurnall Actions amongst those Books are found saith Esdras the Edicts of reducing of the Iewes to their Countrey He wrote diuers Letters for the same purpose to all the chiefe Cities of Asia some whereof we haue in the 11. of Iosephus Chap. the first Many things likewise are reported to haue bene written of Artaxerxes Darius and some others of those Monarches as wee may partly conceiue by the Canonicall Bookes of Ezra and Nehemiah and more by the Apocriphal Esdras who reports it to haue bene a custome of those Kings so much to delight in learning and in the sayings of wise men that they vsed for an exercise in their greatest Solemnities to haue solemne Orations made in the presence of the King and State of sundry purposes which whoso performed to the liking of the King was rewarded with the highest Preferments that so mighty a Monarch could aduance them vnto Come we to the Graecians and there we shall finde Learning in the Tropicke of Cancer at such a height as it neuer was before nor euer that we read of since And surely it is worth the obseruing that when that extarordinary Diuine Light went out humane Learning came in and the ende of the Prophets was the beginning of the Poets The last of the diuinity of the one the first of the Philosophy of the other for from the end of the Captiuity till the Comming of our Sauiour Christ the space of foure hundreth yeares and more in which there was no Prophet that euer J reade of there were so many Orators Poets and Philosophers of such singular giftes in all kindes as wee are onely their Schollers since and can neuer attaine to the Excellency of our Master Jn this time Alexander the Great was as famous for his Learning and writings as he was for his Victories He wrote to Antipater of all his owne Actions in Asia and in India as Plutark reports in his Life S. Ciprian in his Tractate of the vanitie of Jdoles saith that Alexander the Great wrote Insigne Volumen to his Mother wherein he signifies vnto her how it was tolde him by a certaine Egyptian-Priest that all the Gods of the Gentiles had bene but men And S. Augustine also in his twelft Booke De ciuitate Dei makes mention of other of the writings of Alexander to Olimpias his Mother about the Succession of the Monarchies Amongst the Kings of Syria Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes writ many Bookes and sent them into Iudea about changing the Rites and Ceremonies of the Iewes into the Religion of the Grecians The principall heades of his Bookes may be found in the Bookes of Machabes and in Iosephus Amongst the Romans which of their Emperours did not aduance his fame by Letters Iulius Caesar besides many other things writ his Commentaries after the example of Cyrus Octauius as Suetonius reportes writ many Volumes The historie of his owne life Exhortations to Philosophie Heroick Verses Epigrams Tragedies and diuers other things of whom I will only relate two Stories not impertinent to my purpose He is reported to haue bene a very diligent searcher out of all such Bookes as appertayned to the Roman-Ethnick-Religion All the Bookes Fatidicorum of Fortune-tellers that proceeded not from approued Authors both of Greeke and Latin he cast in the fire to the number of two thousand Onely he reserued the writings of the Sibills but with that choise as hee burnt all such of them as he thought to bee counterfeit J relate this Story the rather for that J thinke it were a good President for our Augustus to follow to make a diligent search of all good and profitable Authors As for all Hereticall Pamphlets slaunderous Libells and impertinent writings to commit them to Vulcane for one of
her needle and is now of his Maiestie esteemed as a most pretious Iewell Therefore since wee are compassed about with such a Clowd of Witnesses albeit these are but a little handfull in comparison of the infinite multitude that might be produced Since we haue the examples of all the Mightie-men of the World euen from the beginning thereof vnto this day who haue striuen as much to get a Name for their writings as fame for their doings haue affected as much to be counted Learned as Victorious and to be reputed of as much for their wise Sayings as for their worthy Deeds Why should it bee thought a thing strange in this time that his Maiestie whom GOD hath adorned with as many rare perfections of Nature and Arte as euer he did any that wee read of I except such as were Diuinely inspired should lend the world a few leaues out of the large Volumes of his Learning J commend the wisedome of our Aduersaries who hauing assayed all meanes the wit of man is able to inuent to incline his Maiestie to like of their partie and finding by all their Tricks they haue got no ground would at last put his Maiestie to silence and gaine thus much of him at least that since he will doe nothing for them yet that he would say nothing against them Therefore they cry out against his Maiesties writing and vpbrayd him more for that hee doeth write then they doe for any thing that hee hath written Jt is ynough to wonder at that Rex scribit These people are wise in their generation and haue learned by long experience that as the Kingdome of CHRIST is the Gospel of peace so it hath bene from the beginning spread more by the Pennes of the Apostles then by the power of Princes more propagated by the sweet writings of the ancient Fathers then it could bee suppressed by the seuere Edicts of Emperours and of late their Kingdome hath bene more shaken by a poore Monke then it hath bene able to recouer by the helpe of Mighty Monarches Therefore since the writings of poore Schollers haue so raised the Kingdome of CHRIST and so discouered the Mysterie of Jniquitie they do well to feare what may follow vpon the Writings of so great a King They liue securely from bleeding by his Maiesties Sword but they are not safe from being blasted by the breath of his Maiesties Bookes Jf they could bring it about therefore to calme and quiet his Maiesties Spirit from working vpon them that way as they see his Maiesties sweetnesse to bee farre from drawing of their bloods the other way they would deeme it a greater Conquest then all the conuersions of the Kings of the East and West-Indies they tell vs so many tales of For they looke vpon his Maiesties Bookes as men looke vpon Blasing-Starres with amazement fearing they portend some strange thing and bring with them a certaine Influence to worke great change and alteration in the world Neither is their expectation herein deceiued for we haue seene with our eyes the Operation of his Maiesties Workes in the Consciences of their men so farre as from their highest Conclaue to their lowest Cells there haue bene that haue bene conuerted by them and that in such number as wee want rather meanes to maintaine them then they minds to come to vs. But to conclude this point that Kings may write Giue mee leaue to offer you this Meditation How many are the wayes that men doe inuent to perpetuate their Memorie Insomuch that mortall-men haue made themselues Gods when they were dead that they might be adored as if they were aliue Wherein is the Impetus of Nature so strong as in the affection that propogates to Posteritie Wherefore serue Pictures but to continue our features Why doe men bestow so much cost in sumptuous Buildings but to leaue a Monument of their Magnificence To what end doe we erect Holy-houses and Hospitalls but to possesse mens mindes with the Deuotion of our Soules And shall wee blesse a King when wee behold him in his Posteritie Shall wee admire his features when wee contemplate them in his Pictures Shall we wonder at his Magnificence when we gaze vpon it in his stately Edifices and may wee not as well bee rauished when wee see his sharpe Wit his profound Judgement his infinite Memorie his Excellent affections in his admirable Writings Certainely it is a peruersnes to esteeme a man least for that whereby hee liues the longest to value him more for the outward worke of his hand then for the inward operation of his minde to esteeme him more for that which instructs but little then for that which shall edifie for euer What now remaines of Caesar so famous as his Commentaries What of Cicero as his Orations How comes Aristotle to be of more authoritie then Alexander Seneca then Nero The Triumphes and Victories of the one are vanished the Vertues of the other remaine in their perfect vigour And though all other Monuments by time consume and come to nothing yet these by time gaine strength and get authoritie and euer the more ancient the more Excellent Hauing now deliuered my opinion that J thinke it neither vnlawfull nor inconuenient for a King to write but that he hath the Liberty that other men haue if hee can get the leysure to shew his abilities for the present to perpetuate his Memory to Posterity to aduance his praise before his owne People and gaine Glory from others but especially to giue Glory vnto GOD. J will craue leaue to descend to an other Consideration for it may be there will not be so much fault found with a King for writing as for the matter or Subiect whereof he treates For Personages of their eminent Degree and State must not spend their paines on poore purposes nor write so much to try their witts on triuiall thinges as to winne themselues Honor by the Excellency of their subiect Jndeed if I were worthy to aduise a King hee should meddle very sparingly and but vpon important Causes with Polemicalls Hee should not often fight but in the field for put the case a King writ neuer so modestly that there be not in a whole Booke one word ad hominem nor any touch of his Aduersary in any personall infirmity yet J know not how it comes to passe that in all Controuersies a solide answere to an argument is a very sufficient occasion to make an Aduersary wonderfull angrie And so long as there are diuersity of Opinions there will neuer want matter for Confutations And in these Replications the person of a King is more exposed and lyes more open then the person of a poore Scholler can doe for as he is a farre greater marke so he may farre more easily be hit And though they misse him and can hit vpon nothing iustly to bee reprehended in him yet they doe thinke it Operaepretium to make a Scarre in the face of a King Whereas on the contrary if a King
in the head as ye heard already and legged like a beare because in the Beares legges consists his greatest strength and durablenesse this proportion signifies that this Monarchie is farre greater then all the rest and all their powers are reuiued in it as I said before 3 And I perceiued that one of the heads of the beast had bene deadly wounded but the wound thereof was healed and the whole earth followed this beast with a great wondering this was to signifie vnto me that it was not of this beast that I was ordained to forewarne you for the worst of this beast is almost past already and this Monarchie shall be within short space destroyed but this beast or Monarchie is shewen vnto me because out of the ruines thereof shall rise in that same Seate where it was that hereticall Monarchie whereof I am to forewarne you which is signified by the deadly wound it gat on the head which was healed againe for as the Phaenix reuiues of her owne ashes as prophane stories make mention so out of the ashes of this Empire shall rise and be reuiued an other which shall grow so mighty that the whole earth that is without Sanctum Sanctorum shall with amasement reuerence obey and follow it as ye heard presently declared 4 And they adored the Dragon who gaue power to the Beast for they shall giue themselues ouer to the workes of darkenes which is to serue and adore the diuel who raised vp this beast to make warre against the seed of the woman Chap. 12. as ye heard before And they also adored the diuel in his instrument by reuerencing that Beast and Monarchie erected by him and they said Who is like vnto the Beast or who may fight with him for this Monarchie shall be so strong in worldly power as the world shall thinke it so farre in strength aboue all other powers that it is impossible to ouercome it especially that the little stone which was cut without hands out of the mountaine mentioned by Daniel Daniel 2. shall euer destroy it which notwithstanding at the last shall bruise it in pieces 5 And there was a mouth giuen vnto it to speake great things and blasphemies It is said in Daniel Daniel 7.11 that his mouth shall speake in magnificencie and vtter words against the Soueraigne to wit this Monarchie and King thereof shall extoll himselfe farre aboue all liuing creatures and shal vsurpe farre higher Styles then euer were heard of before by the which and by his false doctrine together he shall so derogate from the honour of GOD and vsurpe so all power onely proper vnto him as it shall bee great wordes against him and blasphemie of his Name And there was power giuen him to doe to wit GOD shall permit his Tyrannie to encrease and persecute the Saints the space of two and fourtie moneths This space was mentioned vnto me to let me know thereby that this Monarchie risen out of the ruines of the other Chap. 11. is the same which is meant by that Citie whereof ye heard alreadie in the sixt Trumpet which persecuted the two Witnesses for the same space is assigned to her there and consequently it is that same seate and Monarchie which is meant by the angel of the bottomlesse pit Chap. 9. called Apollyon in the fift Trumpet by the Rider on the pale horse Chap. 6. called Death in the fourth Seale and also obscurely meant in the sixt Trumpet by the halfe of that great hoste of horsemen Chap. 9. of the which halfe the armed horse which I saw in the vision was a part of the power whose head and Monarchie was the plague for idolatry as ye heard which Monarchie together with the other of whom yee also heard obscurely in that place as the plague of the sinnes against the second Table to wit this great beast here mentioned and the other reuealed a vowed and open enemie of Christs Church shall both gather their forces to fight against it in that battell of the great day of the Lord Chap. 16. whereof ye shal heare in the owne place Then this beast according to the power which was giuen him opened his mouth in blasphemies against God and spake iniurious words against his Name his Tabernacle to wit his Sanctum Sanctorum which is the Church militant and them that dwell in heauen for his reigne shall be so great that hee shall not onely blaspheme the Name of God in such sort as ye heard alreadie and persecute the members of Christ that shall be on the earth in his dayes but likewise vpbraid with calumnies the soules of the Saints departed 7 And for that effect he was permitted by God to make warre against the Saints and hee gaue him power to ouercome them corporally and to rule ouer all tribes tongues and nations so great shall his Monarchie and power be 8 And so all the in-dwellers of the earth shal adore him to wit a great part of them shall reuerence him whose names are not writen in the booke of life which is the Lambes that was slaine which booke was written before the foundation of the world was laide for these are alwayes excepted from bowing their knees to Baal who were predestinate by Christ to saluation before all beginnings 9 He who hath an eare let him heare and take heede vnto this sentence that followeth to wit 10 If any man leade in captiuitie in captiuitie shall he be led againe if any man slay with the sword with the sword shall hee be slaine againe then since ye are assured that God in his good time shall iustly mete to their tyrannie the same measure that they shall mete to his Church let not your hearts in your affliction through despaire of Gods reuenge because of his long suffering swarue from the bold and plaine professing of his trueth for in this shall the patience and constant faith of the Saints or the chosen be tried 11 And then I saw another beast rise vp vpon the earth and it had two hornes like vnto the Lambe but it spake like the dragon for lest this Monarchie should be taken to be a ruler onely ouer the body and that I might vnderstand the contrary to wit that he was specially a spirituall tyrant ouer the soules and consciences of men this other beast was shewen vnto me which representeth the hereticall kingdome of the grashoppers whereof Apollyon was made King in the fift Trumpet Chap. 9. and it vseth the coloured authoritie of Christ by pretending two swords or two keyes as receiued from Christ which is signified by the two hornes like the Lambes but the end whereof it vseth that authoritie is to get obedience to that false doctrine which it teacheth signified by speaking like the dragon or deuil 12 It is this false and hypocriticall Church then which doeth exercise all the power of the former beast to wit teacheth the Kings of this Monarchy and seat by what
meanes they shall allure and compell the people to obey their commands and this Church shall also entise the earth and the inhabitants of the same to wit all nations which beleeue the false doctrine that it teacheth to adore this other beast whose deadly wound was healed for it shall perswade them that this hereticall Monarchie ought for conscience sake to be obeyed by all persons in whatsoeuer it commandeth as if it could not erre 13 And to perswade men thereof it makes great signes or wonders yea euen causeth fire to fall out of heauen vpon earth in the sight of men vpon whom because they shall swarue from the loue of the trewth to beleeue lies God shall iustly by the meanes of this false Church as his instrument of reuenge send a strong illusion and deceit with great efficacie of miracles and woonders 2. Thess 2. 2. Kings 1. yea as mightie and strong as that of Elias was calling for fire from heauen which here is repeated 14 And all these miracles it did in the presence of the beast to make the beast to be adored therefore by the inhabitants of the earth and it perswades them to make an image of the beast which was wounded by the sword and reuiued againe for not onely shall this hereticall Monarchy haue power in his owne person to command absolutely many nations but euen the nations shall consent by the perswasion of this false Church to obey the absolute command of his Lieutenants Legats and Embassadors in euery countrey so as they shall not onely be exempted from the lawes of euery countrey wherein they liue but shall euen be fellowes and companions in all honours and priuiledges to the princes or kings thereof And this willing consent of nations vnto this by the perswasion of this false Church is signified here by the making of this image at the Churches perswasion 15 And power was giuen vnto it to wit vnto this false Church to quicken this image and to make it speake and to cause that all those who will not adore this image should be slaine corporally for as the consent vnto this authoritie of the image must be giuen by the nations and so they to be the makers thereof so the authoritie which is meant by the quickening of it and making it speake must be giuen it by the working of this false Church whose rage shall be so great as it shall persecute any who will not thinke the commands whatsoeuer of this Monarches embassadours and images to be an infallible Law as well as his owne 16 And so this false Church makes that all small or great rich or poore bond or free in short all men of whatsoeuer degree shall take the Character or seale of this Monarchie into their right hand or into their forehead to wit publikely professe obedience thereto and assist the maintenance thereof and downe-throwing of all resisters 17 And that none may buy and sell except they haue the Character or the name of the beast or the number of his name for this defection shall be so vniuersall and so receiued by all degrees of men as it shall not be possible to any neither shal that hypocriticall church permit any to be partakers of their ciuill societie which is meant here by buying and selling except they be knowen to be of his fellowship in religion which is meant by the character and his name and the number thereof Then since you see that this defection shall be so generall beware of euery one that shall say Lord Lord thereby to deceiue you for you see by this that false prophets shall for a time so triumph as they shall vaunt themselues to be the trew Church because there shall be no other Church visible at that time although there shall euer besome that shall not bow their knee to Baal for the woman shall not be deuoured by the dragon 1. Kings 19. Chap. 12. but hid and nourished in the wildernesse out of sight for a space as ye heard before Retaine well in memorie these words for the time shall come in the latter dayes that this doctrine shall be thornes in the eyes of many 18 Now as to the number of the beast here is wisedome let him that is endued with knowledge number it for the number of the beast or Monarchie is the number of the man to wit of the first Monarch of this seat who shall first vsurpe all these styles of blasphemie and who in the fourth Monarchie shall reuiue a spirituall supremacie and tyrannie and his number to wit the date of yeeres that he shall begin to reigne in reckoning from the time of this Reuelation is sixe hundred sixtie and sixe Benedictus the 2. Platine CHAP. XIIII ARGVMENT The happie estate of the faithfull in the meane time of the Popes Tyrannie His destruction The faithfull onely are all saued NOw so soone as the tyrannicall gouernment of these two beasts to wit the false church and their king had bene declared by this last Vision vnto me euen as before after the denouncing of the fearefullest plagues the happy estate of Christ and his Church was declared to comfort me as ye heard before so now the plagues that are to be wrought by this spirituall Tyrannie being declared the estate of Christ and his followers in the meane time is next set forth as followeth Then I did looke and loe I saw the Lambe standing vpon Mount Sion and with him a hundred fourtie and foure thousand hauing the Name of his Father written vpon their foreheads for in the meane time that this Tyrannie was raging on the earth this Lambe Christ was standing vpon Mount Sion to wit vpon his holy place out of which he promised saluation to the faithfull as Dauid saith and is accompanied with this great number of faithfull which number was composed of twelue thousand of euery Tribe as ye heard before but this number comprehends in this place all the faithfull aswell of Gentiles as of Iewes although it seeme to be vnderstood of the Iewes onely which is done for continuing of the Metaphore because as Sanctum Sanctorum which was a part of the materiall Temple of Ierusalem did signifie before all the faithfull as ye haue heard so now this number of Iewes here signifies the faithfull both of Gentiles and Iewes as I haue said who now are described here making publike profession of Christ by bearing his marke on their forehead an eminent part euen as the wicked beare on their forehead the Character of their king the angel of the bottomlesse pit These faithfull followers of Christ did beare now his Marke to testifie thereby that they were preserued by it euen in the very time that this Tyrannie was raging all the fastest 2 And I heard a voyce from heauen like the sound of many waters in greatnesse and like the roaring of the thunder in terriblenesse And I also heard the voyce of many harpers playing on their harpes 3 And singing
and glorifie thy Name since thou art onely perfectly holy for all nations shall come at the latter day and adore before thee since thy iudgements are now made manifest and lighted vpon the earth 5 And next after this I saw these particular plagues euery one for the which the Saints did thus praise God as followeth for I did looke and I saw the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimonie in heauen opened the like of this ye heard was done in the beginning of the seuenth Trumpet and for the same cause it was also done here to wit to shew the Arke of the couenant which was therein for thereby God did witnesse that hee was now mindfull of his promise by the sending out of these seuen Angels and seuen plagues which were now to be executed 6 And out of this Temple came seuen Angels for from the remembrance of his Arke and Couenant proceeded their direction and they were clothed with pure and white linnen for innocencie and puritie and girded about their breasts with gold for honour and glory 7 And one of the foure beasts gaue these Angels seuen Phials of golde full of the wrath of God that liues eternally and for all worlds to come These Angels are thus arayed and these golden and precious Phials of the wrath of God are giuen them by one of the foure beasts the most excellent creatures of God all to teach vs that as these plagues shall be most bitter to Babylon and her followers so shall they be most sweet to all the chosen for their deliuerance for they are to light vpon the wicked and no wayes to harme any of the holy Citie 8 And the Temple in heauen was filled with the smoake comming from the Maiestie of God and from his vertue and power And there could none go in into the Temple while the seuen plagues of the seuen Angels were fulfilled to teach vs that no flesh how guiltlesse soeuer it be can compeare before God when in his wrathfull face he is clothed with iustice but onely when with a cheerefull countenance clothed with mercy he stretcheth foorth his hands vnto vs. CHAP. XVI ARGVMENT By the first Phyale the Popes followers are plagued with sundry new and vnknowen diseases By the second Phiale all kinde of plagues Juch as sword famine and pestilence light vpon the nations that acknowledge him By the third are diuers Popes raised vp at one time who striuing for the seats fight among themselues and so they are iustly recompensed for shedding the blood of the Saints By the fourth the reuerence of him begins to waxe colde in the hearts of men By the fift his abuses begin to be discouered By the fixt his forces decay which he perceiuing houndeth out the Iesuits to gather all his forces to destroy the faithfull with whom God fights to his destruction By the seuenth the latter day is described and the Popedome rent asunder THen I heard a voice out of the Temple saying to these seuen Angels Goe powre foorth in great abundance vpon the earth the seuen Phials of the wrath of God for now they were to be shewen and to be described vnto me 2 Then the first Angel went to worke and powred foorth his Phiale on the earth and there fell a great and grieuous sore vpon all them that had the character of the beast or adored his image These plagues which were shewed to me were onely ordained to light on Babylon as I said before and therefore they mete vnto her with the measure that shee shall measure others with to wit they shall plague her and her followers with the like plagues that she shall plague others with corresponding aswell in number as in qualitie they also haue allusion to the plagues of Egypt because she is called spiritually Egypt as yee heard in the sixt Trumpet and so by this first plague is signified that as shee persecuted the faithfull and killed them as is declared in the sixt Trumpet and as Moses made a scabbe to come vpon all the Egyptians for Pharaohs sake so shall there fall a pestilent and pernicious sore vpon all his followers to wit they shall be troubled with diuers new and horrible diseases 3 Then the second Angel powred foorth his Phiale vpon the sea and the sea was made by it like the blood of a dead body and euery liuing thing in thesea died for as that beast should first so trouble thesea to wit the peoples and nations with persecuting all them who wil not adore her and by her abuse cause the world to become dead to all good workes and fruitfull faith as is declared by the vision where I saw her rise out of the sea and as Moses turned the redde sea into a corrupted blood with drowning the Egyptians which is here called the blood of a carrion by the which all the fishes therein were poisoned so shal the nations and the peoples which are the followers and partakers of Babylon be troubled with warres within and without and with all kinde of plagues such as pestilence and famine and such others 4 Then the third Angel powred foorth his phiale vpon the Riuers and fountaines of water and they became blood for as this false Church and grashoppers did corporally succeed to the fountaines of waters to wit the trew Pastours as ye heard in the third Trumpet and did assist their King Apollyon to persecute bloodily the liuely fountaines of waters or trew Pastours who yet remained vncorrupted as ye heard in the sixt Trumpet and as Moyses made all the riuers and fountaines of waters in Egypt to become blood so shall the teachers and heads of this false Church be diuided among themselues yea there shall be in three or foure diuers places three or foure diuers persons and euery one of them shall claime to be king of the locusts which question shall be decided by the cruell and bloodie edge of the sword And therefore to shew me how iustly that great persecutor of the Saints is now made to be the persecutor of himselfe diuided in diuers persons 5 I heard the Angel of the waters to wit the third Angel who powred these plagues vpon the waters vse these words Iust art thou O Lord who is who was and holy for that thou hast iudged these things 6 Because euen as they to wit these corrupt filthie and false fountaines of waters haue shed the blood of thy Saints and Prophets so hast thou now giuen them of blood to drinke for they are worthy of such a reward 7 Then I heard the voice of one from the Sanctuarie for confirmation hereof saying Certainely O Lord God trew and iust are thy Iudgements for thou hast perfourmed thy promise and hast iustly recompensed them 8 Then the fourth Angel powred foorth his phiale vpon the Sunne and power was giuen vnto him to afflict men with fire for euen as the Sunne was darkened in the fourth Trumpet to wit the speciall teachers did begin to fall
from the sinceritie of the trewth enticed thereunto though not by Apollyon himselfe for hee was not yet risen yet by the qualities whereof hee is composed and therefore is he here punished for the same And as Moses troubled by the hote Easterne winde the land of Egypt by the breeding of grashoppers so shall the fierie spirit of God in the mouthes of his witnesses so trouble Babylon with the burning sunne of Gods trewth as men shall be troubled with a great heat to wit she and her followers shall be tormented and vexed therewith 9 But they blasphemed the name of God who had power ouer these plagues and repented not that they might giue him glory for such is the nature of the wicked and so hardened are their hearts that the same scourges and afflictions which make the godly turne themselues to God and so are the sauour of life vnto them to their eternall saluation they by the contrary make the wicked to runne from euill vnto worse and so are the sauour of death vnto them to their iust and eternall condemnation 10 Then the fifth Angel powred forth his phiale euen vpon the very throne of the beast and his kingdome was made darke and they to wit he and his followers gnawed their tongues for dolour for as this beast did breed and was nourished by the smoake and darkenesse that came foorth of the bottomlesse pit whereof he is the Angel and messenger as was declared in the fift Trumpet And as Moses made a great darkenesse to come vpon the land of Egypt so now after the witnesses reuealing him which yee heard signified by the heat in the fourth phiale shall follow that this kingdome shall become obscure by the light of the trewth and shall come to be despised by many whereby he and his followers shall be mooued to a great rage which I meant by gnawing their tongues for dolour 11 And they blasphemed the God of heauen for their dolours and griefes and repented them not of their workes for as I said before neither corporall punishments signified by sores nor spirituall signified by dolours can moue them to repent but to a greater obstinacie and rage as ye shall see by their actions immediatly after the powring foorth of the sixt phiale vpon the great water Euphrates 12 Then the sixt Angel powred foorth his phiale vpon the great riuer of Euphrates and the waters thereof were dried vp that the passage of the Kings comming from the East might be prepared so as that beast by the meanes of many people signified by waters did tyrannize ouer the Church of God and as Moses by Aarons rod made a dry and safe passage through the Red-sea to the people of Israel Exod. 14. so God by this plague dries vp that great water Euphrates which compasseth Babylon during his will to wit he makes now the power of this Monarchie to decay and layes it open to inuasion and destruction as ye shall heare This water was dried to make passage for the Kings comming from the Sun rising alluding to Daniel as I shewed in the sixt Trumpet for euen as the Persians and Medes came from the East Chap. 9. crossed Euphrates ouercame Babylon and slew Balthasar King thereof so immediately after that the Witnesses haue begun to reueale spirituall Babylon as is declared in the fourth phiale and that thereupon hath followed that the kingdome thereof is become darke as is declared in the fift phiale then shall follow that God shall prepare the destruction thereof by drying Euphrates ' whereupon shall ensue that such instruments as God shall appoint directed by that Sunne rising to wit Christ as ye heard in the sixt Seale shall destroy that King and sacke that great Citie to the perpetuall confusion of all her followers as ye wil heare more clearely declared hereafter 13 And then I saw from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet three vncleanespirits come foorth like to froggs for this is all the repentance that these three phials shall worke in the heart of Babylon as I said before to wit for the last remedie the diuel or dragon shall inuent him a fresh order of Ecclesiasticall factours and Agents as the diuels last brood These are the same that I called horse in the vision in the sixt Trumpet three in number to correspond to their threefold armour as ye heard in the said Trumpet because there came out of their mouthes three sorts of persecutions and destructions And themselues came out of three mouthes out of the dragons because the diuel is the inuenter of them out of the beasts because the beast or King of Locusts commands ouer them directs and employes them for the standing of his kingdome as the last refuge when now he sees the decay thereof euidently comming on out of his false prophets or false Churches because it authorises them for the aforesaid effects These vncleane spirits and teachers of false and hereticall doctrines and wicked policies resembling frogges as well for that they are bred of an old filthy and corrupted false doctrine which for a long space haue blinded the world before their comming as frogges breed of rotten and slimie corruption as also for that they goe craftily about to vndermine and condemne all Ecclesiasticall orders preceding them as vnperfect and vnprofitable because their kingdome is darkenesse But howsoeuer they thus craftily insinuate themselues in the fauours of the people surely their doctrine is nothing else but the very same filthy puddle of vncleane and wicked heresies and impieties taught by the grashoppers before euen as the yong frogges grow like the former 14 For they are spirits of diuels to wit wicked and craftie like them doing myracles of deceipt for they shall wonderfully deceiue men and they goe to all the Kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them together to the battell of that day of God Almightie for they shall haue such credit of a great part of the Princes of the earth as I also shewed you in the sixt Trumpet as they shall gather great forces together as the last brood of the diuel as I told you before to fight against his Church who notwithstanding shall ouercome them as will after more clearely be declared 15 Happy are they then that swarue not nor despaire in the meane time but awake and keepe their garments cleane and vndefiled from the generall corruption lest otherwise they walke naked not clothed with the garment of righteousnes and so their shamefull parts or naturall inclination to euill be discouered For loe I come as a thiefe for no man shall know the houre no time of my comming 16 And the place whereunto these vncleane spirits gathered the Kings to this battell against Gods Church in Hebrew is called Armageddon for by deceipt they assembled the Kings and nations to their owne destruction 17 Then the seuenth Angel powred out his phiale
lest ye be participants of her sinnes and of the plagues which are to fall vpon her for them For if but outwardly ye haunt with her and seeme to beare with her abominations yee shall bee accounted guiltie of her sinnes for if ye will haue Christ to professe you publikely at the latter day before his Father and his Angels and reward both your body and soule with eternall felicitie yee must not bee ashamed to serue him both in body and soule before men And this warning I giue you before-hand to make you inexcusable who will otherwise doe 5 For her sinnes are come to such a height as they haue touched the heauen and God is mindfull of them then not onely haunt not with her as I haue said for it is not enough not to doe euil but 6 Rayse your selues vp against her and render the like that she hath done to you yea pay her with the double of her owne workes and in the cup which she propined vnto others render her the double to wit trouble and destroy her by all meanes and in all things euen as she troubled and destroyed others before and according to her pride and wantonnesse recompence her with torment woe and wailing 7 For she sayes in her mind I fit a Queene or am a stabled Monarch neither am I a widow or shall euer bee desolate nor shall euer see dolour or taste destruction 8 And therefore because she thus builds her felicitie vpon her worldly strength by worldly instruments shall shee bee plagued with death with dolour with hunger and burnt with fire to wit after suffering all sorts of torments shee shall in the end be vtterly destroyed for strong is the Lord God who shall condemne her 9 And then shall the kings of the earth who were her hornes and had committed whoredome and riotousnesse with her before weepe and lament for pittie when they see the smoake of her burning for although some of themselues shall be the destroyers as ye heard before yet shall her destruction be so great as their hearts shall pittie the worke of their hands when they shall see the great smoake of her destruction 10 And they shall stand farre off from her torment to wit her torment shall put them in memorie of their guiltinesse of her sinnes which shall afray them wonderfully and shall say in great admiration Alas Alas for that great Citie Babylon that strong Citie whose iudgement and destruction is all come in one howre and at once 11 And the Merchants of the earth shall weepe and mourne for her because their merchandise wil no more bee bought for her pompe shall make the Merchants rich by getting readie sale of all fine wares 12 Such as gold siluer precious stones pearles fine linnen purple silke and scarlet for her garments and all kind of vessels to doe her idolatrous seruice of Iuorie costly wood brasse iron or marble stone 13 Cynamome and all kind of odours for her Church with oyntments and incense for the same purpose and the fine flower of wheat and all kind of victuals and cattell and sheepe for her sumptuous banquets and horse and Chariots and slaues for her triumphes and processions and soules of men for shee shall haue many that shall be Merchants vnto her of the soules of men by selling for mony Pardons giuen by that Monarch which shall bee thought to haue power to saue redeeme and free mens soules but ye shal heare more shortly of this hereafter 14 And the fruits of the desire of thy soule O Babylon shall goe from thee to wit thy ioyes and delights shall all turne to sorrow and all fat and faire things are gone from thee to wit thou shalt leaue all profit and pleasure neither shalt thou euer find them any more for thou shalt be destroyed for euer 15 And so the Merchants of these stuffes being made rich by the buying and selling of them they shall stand afarre off from thy torments and weepe and waile 16 saying Alas Alas for that great Citie that was clothed with fine linnen purple and scarlet and was of so glistering a pompe as was gilded with gold and decked with pretious stones and pearles 17 For loe now how in one houre all her riches and pompe is evanished and all the gouernours and owners of ships and all the multitudes of men in the ships and all the marriners in them and all these who gaine their liuing vpon the sea shal stand afarre off for feare 18 And cry seeing the smoke of her burning saying with a great admiration Who was like in power or shining glorie to this Citie 19 And for pittie of her decay and sorow for wanting by that meanes the carrying to her from all other countries all sorts of merchandise they shall cast dust and ashes vpon their heades and say Alas Alas for that great Citie wherein was made rich all these that had shippes vpon the sea by the prices and trade shee made vs haue and now she is made desolate in one houre 20 But although the earthly men bee sorrowfull for her fall as yee haue heard because they want their earthly commodities and pleasures thereby which she whose religion was earthly to wit founded vpon mens traditions and inuentions and maintained by earthly pompe and power did make them enioy yet reioyce yee heauens for her fall and ye holy Apostles and Prophets be glad thereof for God in punishing her hath reuenged your cause 21 Then for confirmation of this Prophesie of her destruction I sawe a strong Angel take a great stone like a milstone and cast it in the sea saying Euen with such a force shall Babylon that great Citie be casten downe and the very place thereof shall no more be found as Ieremy prophesied of corporall Babylon 22 And the sound of harpers and musitians and players on pipes and trumpets shall no more be heard in thee for no ioy nor mirth shall any more bee in that Monarchie or the seate thereof nor no craftes-man of any craft shall bee found in thee neither shall the grinding of the mill be heard any more in thee for that Citie or seate and Monarchie shall no more bee inhabited 23 And the light of a candle shal be no more found in thee and the voice of the husband and the wife shall no more be heard in thee for as it shall not be inhabited any more by the wicked so neither shall the godly dwell therein so accursed shall it be so as the lampes of the fiue virgins shall not burne there neither shall Christ and his spouse the true Church any more be there although that during the standing of that Monarchie some chosen though few and secret were and at all times shall be euen within that City the seate thereof whose merchants were the great men of the earth and with whose witchcrafts all nations wereseduced 24 And the blood of the Prophets and of the Saints was found in her and of all them
word of God as I did shew you in the beginning of my Euangel 14 And the hostes of Angels and Saints in heauen followed him vpon white horses clothed in white and pure linnen whereof yee heard alreadie 15 And from his mouth came foorth a sharpe sword as ye heard in the beginning of this Epistle that he might strike the Gentiles therewith for hee shall rule them with a rod of yron as Dauid sayth and he treadeth to wit giueth command and power to tread the lake or sea of the vine of the fury and wrath of God Almightie as ye heard in the seuenth Trumpet 16 And he hath vpon his garment and vpon his thigh as the strongest part of his body this name written The King of kings and Lord of lords 17 And I saw an Angel standing in the Sunne that there he might be seene publikely of all and that the Whole world might take heed to that which he was to proclaime and he cried with a loude voice to all the fowles flying through the middest of heauen Come and gather your selues to the supper of the Lord 18 To eate the flesh of Kings of Tribunes of mightie men of horses and of their riders in short come eate the flesh of all free-men and slaues great and small This was to declare that the day of Iudgement was come wherein should that destruction ensue signified by fowles eating their flesh because fowles vse to eate the flesh of dead men vnburied which should ouerwhelme all sorts of men excepting alwayes these that were marked who were sundry times excepted before as ye heard 19 Then I saw that beast to wit Babylon together with the kings of the earth who tooke her part and their armies gathered together to make warre with him that sate vpon the white horse and with his armie 20 But the Beast was taken together with the false prophet or false Church which by her false miracles seduced the nations that did beare the Character of the Beast and adored his image as ye heard before and they were both cast quicke in the lake of fire burning with brimstone 21 And the rest were slaine by the sword which came out of his mouth that sate vpon the horse and the fowles were filled with their flesh for how soone Christ shall come to Iudgement then shall all the enemies of God be destroyed and so full victory obtained of this battell whereof yee heard in the sixt Trumpet and sixt phiale and shall heare farther hereafter And chiefly Babylon and the false Church shall be cast into hell because they merit double punishment for the abusing of men although they shall not also want their damnation that followeth them as is signified by their slaughter with the sword of his mouth whereof yee heard in the beginning of this Epistle and by the fowles eating their flesh as ye presently perceiue CHAP. XX. ARGVMENT The summe and recapitulation of all the former visions to wit the first estate of the Church in all puritie after Christ The heresies and specially the Popedome that followed The destruction thereof in their greatestrage The latter day The saluation of the Elect and condemnation of all others THe Spirit of God hauing now shewen vnto me the estate of the Church militant with the speciall temptations and troubles of the same from the death of Christ to the consummation of the world and their ioyfull deliuerance and victory at that time by the first sixe Seales and next more amply by the seuenth Seale wherin were the seuen trumpets and thirdly her greatest temptations and troubles more cleerely and at large by the vision of the woman persecuted by the Dragon and lastly the cleere and ample description and damnation of Babylon that great persecuter the sorrow of the earth and ioy of heauen therefore This vision now that ye shall presently heare was next shewen vnto me to serue for a summe as it were and a short recapitulation of the whole Prophecie so often reiterated before which is here diuided in three parts First the happy estate of Christes Church though not in the eyes of the world from his first comming to a long time after as was declared by the first Seale Next the grieuous troubles and temptations vnto the which shee shall be subiect thereafter as was declared by the third and fourth Seale and by the third fourth fift and sixt blastes of the Trumpets And thirdly the destruction of all her enemies her ioyfull deliuerance and the consummation as was declared by the sixt Seale the seuenth Trumpet the seuenth phiale and the comming downe of the white horse which in my last words before these yee heard described But specially in this vision is declared the punishment at the latter day of the deuill himselfe before the destruction onely of his instruments being mentioned as ye formerly heard The vision then was this 1 I saw an Angel come downe from heauen and he had the key of the bottomlesse pit and a great chaine in his hand 2 And hee tooke the dragon to wit the ancient serpent who is the deuill and Satan to wit the Tempter and bound him for the space of a thousand yeres 3 And did cast him in the bottomlesse pit and closed him in there that it should not be opened that he might come foorth and seduce the nations till the space of a thousand yeeres were completed and past for thereafter he must be loosed for a short space 4 Then I saw seats and persons sitting vpon them and iudgment or power of iudging was giuen vnto them And I also saw the soules of them who were beheaded or otherwise put to death for the testimonie of Christ and the word of God and adored not the Beast nor tooke his image neither his character on their foreheads nor on their hands These shal liue and reigne with Christ the space of the thousand yeres ye heard 5 But the rest of the dead shal not reuiue till the space of these yeres be complete This is the first resurrectiō 6 Blessed and holy is he that is partaker of the first resurrection for ouer such the second death shal haue no power but they shal be Priests of God and Christ shal reigne with him for euer This is the first part of the diuision wherof I presently told you to wit Christ by his passion did bind the deuill who before was raging in the world and closed him in hell by the remouing of the vaile of blindnes from the whole earth which remained so the space of a thousand yeres to wit a long space all that time the deuil remained bound and casten into hell by Christ who only hath power of it so as in all that space the nations were not seduced for the efficacie of heresies was not yet cropen in and the Saints and Church visible shal so increase albeit in the midst of persecution all this time and so retaine the purity of the trewth as by the glory of
ratified in Heauen the curse that in that case here I giue vnto you For I protest before that Great GOD I had rather not bee a Father and childlesse then bee a Father of wicked children But hoping yea euen promising vnto my selfe that GOD who in his great blessing sent you vnto mee shall in the same blessing as hee hath giuen mee a Sonne so make him a good and a godly Sonne not repenting him of his Mercie shewed vnto mee I end with my earnest prayer to GOD to worke effectually into you the fruites of that blessing which here from my heart I bestow vpon you Your louing Father I. R. TO THE READER CHaritable Reader it is one of the golden Sentences which Christ our Sauiour vttered to his Apostles that there is nothing so couered Luk. 12. that shal not be reuealed neither so hidde that shall not be knowen and whatsoeuer they haue spoken in darkenesse should be heard in the light and that which they had spoken in the eare in secret place should be publikely preached on the tops of the houses And since he hath said it most trew must it be fince the authour thereof is the fountaine and very being of trewth which should mooue all godly and honest men to be very warie in all their secretest actions and whatsoeuer middesses they vse for attaining to their most wished ends lest otherwise how auowable soeuer the marke be whereat they aime the middesses being discouered to be shamefull whereby they climbe it may turne to the disgrace both of the good worke it selfe and of the authour thereof since the deepest of our secrets cannot be hidde from that all-seeing eye and penetrant light piercing through the bowels of very darkenesse it selfe But as this is generally trew in the actions of all men so is it more specially trew in the affaires of Kings for Kings being publike persons by reason of their office and authority are as it were set as it was said of old vpon a publike stage in the sight of all the people where all the beholders eyes are attentiuely bent to looke and pry in the least circumstance of their secretest drifts Which should make Kings the more carefull not to harbour the secretest thought in their minde but such as in the owne time they shall not be ashamed openly to auouch assuring themselues that Time the mother of Veritie will in the due season bring her owne daughter to perfection The trew practise hereof I haue as a King oft found in my owne person though I thanke God neuer to my shame hauing laide my count euer to walke as in the eyes of the Almightie examining euer so the secretest of my drifts before I gaue them course as how they might some day bide the touchstone of a publike triall And amongst therest of my secret actions which haue vnlooked for of me come to publike knowledge it hath so fared with my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 directed to my eldest son which I wrote for exercise of mine owne ingyne and instruction of him who is appointed by God I hope to sit on my Throne after me For the purpose and matter thereof being onely fit for a King as teaching him his office and the person whomfor it was ordained a Kings heire whose secret counsellor and faithfull admonisher it must be I thought it no wayes conuenient nor comely that either it should to all be proclaimed which to one onely appertained and specially being a messenger betwixt two so coniunct persons or yet that the mould whereupon he should frame his future behauiour when hee comes both vnto the perfection of his yeeres and possession of his inheritance should before the hand be made common to the people the subiect of his future happy gouernment And therefore for the more secret and close keeping of them I onely permitted seuen of them to be printed the Printer being first sworne for secrecie and these seuen I dispersed amongst some of my trustiest seruants to be keeped closely by them lest in case by the iniquitie or wearing of time any of them might haue beene lost yet some of them might haue remained after me as witnesses to my Sonne both of the honest integritie of my heart and of my fatherly affection and naturall care towards him But since contrary to my intention and expectation as I haue alreadie said this Booke is now vented and set foorth to the publike view of the world and consequently subiect to euery mans censure as the current of his affection leades him I am now forced as well for resisting to the malice of the children of enuie who like waspes sucke venome out of euery wholsome herbe as for the satisfaction of the godly honest sort in any thing that they may mistake therein both to publish and spread the true copies thereof for defacing of the false copies that are alreadie spread as I am enformed as likewise by this Preface to cleare such parts thereof as in respect of the concised shortnesse of my Style may be mis-interpreted therein To come then particularly to the matter of my Booke there are two speciall great points which as I am informed the malicious sort of men haue detracted therein and some of the honest sort haue seemed a little to mistake whereof the first and greatest is that some sentences therein should seeme to furnish grounds to men to doubt of my sinceritie in that Religion which I haue euer constantly professed the other is that in some parts thereof I should seeme to nourish in my minde a vindictiue resolution against England or at the least some principals there for the Queene my mothers quarrell The first calumnie most grieuous indeed is grounded vpon the sharpe and bitter wordes that therein are vsed in the description of the humors of Puritanes and rash-headie Preachers that thinke it their honour to contend with Kings and perturbe whole kingdomes The other point is onely grounded vpon the strait charge I giue my Sonne not to heare nor suffer any vnreuerent speeches or bookes against any of his parents or progenitors wherein I doe alledge my owne experience anent the Queene my mother affirming that I neuer found any that were of perfit aage the time of her reigne here so stedfastly trew to me in all my troubles as these that constantly kept their allegiance to her in her time But if the charitable Reader will aduisedly consider both the methode and matter of my Treatise he will easily iudge what wrong I haue sustained by the carping at both For my Booke suppose very small being diuided in three seuerall parts the first part thereof onely treats of a Kings duety towards God in Religion wherein I haue so clearely made profession of my Religion calling it the Religion wherein I was brought vp and euer made profession of and wishing him euer to continue in the same as the onely trew forme of Gods worship that I would haue thought my sincere plainnesse in that
righteousnesse that their persons as bright lampes of godlinesse and vertue may going in and out before their people giue light to all their steps Remember also that by the right knowledge and feare of God which is the beginning of Wisedome Prou 9.10 as Salomon saith ye shall know all the things necessarie for the discharge of your duetie both as a Christian and as a King seeing in him as in a mirrour the course of all earthly things whereof hee is the spring and onely moouer Now the onely way to bring you to this knowledge The meanes to know God is diligently to reade his word and earnestly to pray for the right vnderstanding thereof Search the Scriptures sayth Christ for they beare testimonie of me and Iohn 5.39 the whole Scripture saith Paul is giuen by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach 2. Tim. 3.16.17 to conuince to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse that the man of God may be absolute being made perfite vnto all good workes And most properly of any other belongeth the reading thereof vnto Kings Deut. 17. since in that part of Scripture where the godly Kings are first made mention of that were ordained to rule ouer the people of God there is an expresse and most notable exhortation and commandement giuen them to reade and meditate in the Law of God I ioyne to this the carefull hearing of the doctrine with attendance and reuerence for faith commeth by hearing Rom. 10.17 sayth the same Apostle But aboue all beware ye wrest not the word to your owne appetite as ouer many doe making it like a bell to sound as ye please to interprete but by the contrary frame all your affections to follow precisely the rule there set downe The whole Scripture chiefly containeth two things a command Wherein chiefely the whole Scripture consisteth and a prohibition to doe such things and to abstaine from the contrary Obey in both neither thinke it enough to abstaine from euill and do no good nor thinke not that if yee doe many good things it may serue you for a cloake to mixe euill turnes therewith And as in these two points the whole Scripture principally consisteth Two degrees of the seruice of God so in two degrees standeth the whole seruice of God by man interiour or vpward exteriour or downward the first by prayer in faith towards God the next by workes flowing therefra before the world which is nothing else but the exercise of Religion towards God and of equitie towards your neighbour As for the particular points of Religion I need not to dilate them I am no hypocrite follow my footsteps A regardable paterne and your owne present education therein I thanke God I was neuer ashamed to giue account of my profession howsoeuer the malicious lying tongues of some haue traduced me and if my conscience had not resolued me that all my Religion presently professed by me and my kingdome was grounded vpon the plaine wordes of the Scripture without the which all points of Religion are superfluous as any thing contrary to the same is abomination I had neuer outwardly auowed it for pleasure or awe of any flesh And as for the points of equitie towards your neigbour because that will fall in properly vpon the second part concerning a Kings office I leaue it to the owne roume For the first part then of mans seruice to his God Religion which is Religion that is the worship of God according to his reuealed will it is wholly grounded vpon the Scripture as I haue alreadie said quickened by faith and conserued by conscience For the Scripture I haue now spoken of it in generall but that yee may the more readily make choice of any part thereof for your instruction or comfort remember shortly this methode The whole Scripture is dyted by Gods Spirit The methode of Scripture thereby as by his liuely word to instruct and rule the whole Church militant to the end of the word It is composed of two parts the Olde and New Testament The ground of the former is the Lawe which sheweth our sinne and containeth iustice the ground of the other is Christ who pardoning sinne containeth grace The summe of the Law is the tenne Commandements more largely delated in the bookes of Moses Of the Law interpreted and applied by the Prophets and by the histories are the examples shewed of obedience or disobedience thereto and what praemium or poena was accordingly giuen by God But because no man was able to keepe the Law nor any part thereof it pleased God of his infinite wisedome and goodnesse to incarnate his only Sonne in our nature for satisfaction of his iustice in his suffering for vs that since we could not be saued by doing we might at least bee saued by beleeuing The ground therefore of the word of grace Of Grace is contained in the foure histories of the birth life death resurrection and ascention of Christ The larger interpretation and vse thereof is contained in the Epistles of the Apostles and the practise in the faithfull or vnfaithfull with the historie of the infancie and first progresse of the Church is contained in their Actes Would ye then know your sinne by the Lawe Vse of the Law reade the bookes of Moses containing it Would ye haue a commentarie thereupon Reade the Prophets and likewise the bookes of the Prouerbes and Ecclesiastes written by that great patterne of wisedome Salomon which will not only serue you for instruction how to walke in the obedience of the Lawe of God but is also so full of golden sentences and morall precepts in all things that can concerne your conuersation in the world as among all the prophane Philosophers and Poets ye shall not finde so rich a storehouse of precepts of naturall wisedome agreeing with the will and diuine wisedome of God Would ye see how good men are rewarded and wicked punished looke the historicall parts of these same bookes of Moses together with the histories of Ioshua the Iudges Ezra Nehemiah Esther and Iob but especially the bookes of the Kings and Chronicles wherewith ye ought to bee familiarly acquainted for there shall yee see your selfe as in a myrrour in the catalogue either of the good or the euill Kings Would yee know the doctrine life and death of our Sauiour Christ Vse of the Gospel reade the Euangelists Would ye bee more particularly trained vp in his Schoole meditate vpon the Epistles of the Apostles And would ye be acquainted with the practises of that doctrine in the persons of the primitiue Church Cast vp the Apostles Actes And as to the Apocryphe bookes I omit them because I am no Papist as I said before and indeed some of them are no wayes like the dytement of the Spirit of God But when ye reade the Scripture How to reade the Scripture reade it with a sanctified and chaste heart admire reuerently
such obscure places as ye vnderstand not blaming onely your owne capacitie read with delight the plaine places and studie carefully to vnderstand those that are somewhat difficile preasse to bee a good textuarie for the Scripture is euer the best interpreter of it selfe but preasse not curiously to seeke out farther then is contained therein for that were ouer vnmannerly a presumption to striue to bee further vpon Gods secrets then he hath will ye be for what hee thought needfull for vs to know that hath he reuealed there And delyte most in reading such parts of the Scripture as may best serue for your instruction in your calling reiecting foolish curiosities vpon genealogies and contentions Tit. 3.9 which are but vaine and profite not as Paul saith Now as to Faith which is the nourisher and quickner of Religion Faith the nourisher of Religion as I haue alreadie said It is a sure perswasion and apprehension of the promises of God applying them to your soule and therefore may it iustly be called the golden chaine that linketh the faithfull soule to Christ And because it groweth not in our garden but is the free gift of God Philip. 1.29 as the same Apostle saith it must be nourished by prayer Which is nothing else but a friendly talking with God As for teaching you the forme of your prayers Prayer and whence to learne the best forme thereof the Psalmes of Dauid are the meetest schoole-master that ye can be acquainted with next the prayer of our Sauiour which is the onely rule of prayer whereout of as of most rich and pure fountaines ye may learne all forme of prayer necessarie for your comfort at all occasions And so much the fitter are they for you then for the common sort in respect the composer thereof was a King and therefore best behoued to know a Kings wants and what things were meetest to be required by a King at Gods hand for remedie thereof Vse often to pray when ye are quietest Seuerall exercise of prayer especially forget it not in your bed how oft soeuer ye doe it at other times for publike prayer serueth as much for example as for any particular comfort to the supplicant In your prayer bee neither ouer strange with God What rule or regard to be vsed in prayer like the ignorant common sort that prayeth nothing but out of bookes nor yet ouer homely with him like some of the vaine Pharisaicall puritanes that thinke they rule him vpon their fingers The former way will breede an vncouth coldnesse in you towards him the other will breede in you a contempt of him But in your prayer to God speake with all reuerence for if a subiect will not speake but reuerently to a King much lesse should any flesh presume to talke with God as with his companion Craue in your prayer not onely things spirituall but also things temporall What to craue of God sometimes of greater and sometimes of lesse consequence that yee may lay vp in store his grant of these things for confirmation of your faith and to be an arles-peny vnto you of his loue Pray as yee finde your heart moueth you pro re nata but see that yee sute no vnlawfull things as reuenge Rom. 14.23 lust or such like for that prayer can not come of faith and whatsoeuer is done without faith is sinne as the Apostle saith When ye obtaine your prayer How to interpret the issue of prayer thanke him ioyfully therefore if otherwaies beare patiently preassing to winne him with importunitie as the widow did the vnrighteous Iudge and if notwithstanding thereof yee be not heard assure your selfe God foreseeth that which yee aske is not for your weale and learne in time so to interprete all the aduersities that God shall send vnto you so shall yee in the middest of them not onely be armed with patience but ioyfully lift vp your eyes from the present trouble to the happie end that God will turne it to And when ye finde it once so fall out by proofe arme your selfe with the experience thereof against the next trouble assuring your selfe though yee cannot in time of the showre see through the cloude yet in the end shall ye find God sent it for your weale as ye found in the former And as for conscience Conscience the conseruer of Religion which I called the conseruer of Religion It is nothing else but the light of knowledge that God hath planted in man which euer watching ouer all his actions as it beareth him a ioyfull testimonie when he does right so choppeth it him with a feeling that hee hath done wrong when euer he committeth any sinne And surely although this conscience be a great torture to the wicked yet is it as great a comfort to the godly if we will consider it rightly For haue wee not a great aduantage that haue within our selues while wee liue here a Count-booke and Inuentarie of all the crimes that wee shall bee accused of The inuentarie of our life either at the houre of our death or at the Great day of Iudgement which when wee please yea though we forget will chop and remember vs to looke vpon it that while we haue leasure and are here we may remember to amend and so at the day of our triall compeare with new and white garments washed in the blood of the Lambe Reu 7.14 as S. Iohn saith Aboue all then my Sonne labour to keepe sound this conscience which many prattle of but ouer few feele especially be carefull to keepe it free from two diseases wherewith it vseth oft to be infected The diseases of conscience to wit Leaprosie and Superstition the former is the mother of Atheisme the other of Heresies By a leaprouse conscience I meane a cauterized conscience 1. Tim. 4.2 as Paul calleth it being become senselesse of sinne through sleeping in a carelesse securitie as King Dauids was after his murther and adulterie euer til he was wakened by the Prophet Nathans similitude And by superstition I meane when one restraines himselfe to any other rule in the seruice of God then is warranted by the word the onely trew square of Gods serucie As for a preseruatiue against this Leaprosie Preseruatiue against leprosie of conscience remember euer once in the foure and twentie houres either in the night or when yee are at greatest quiet to call your selfe to account of all your last dayes actions either wherein ye haue committed things yee should not or omitted the things ye should doe either in your Christian or Kingly calling and in that account let not your selfe be smoothed ouer with that flattering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is ouerkindly a sicknesse to all mankind but censure your selfe as sharply as if ye were your owne enemie For if ye iudge your selfe ye shall not be iudged 1. Cor. 11.31 as the Apostle saith and then according to your censure reforme
conclusion of all his examples The Cardinals paire of Martyrs weighed he reckoneth his two English Martyrs Moore and Roffensis who died for that one most weightie head of doctrine as he alledgeth refusing the Oath of Supremacie I must tell him that he hath not been well informed in some materiall points which doe very neerely concerne his two said Martyrs For it is cleare and apparantly to be prooued by diuers Records that they were both of them committed to the Tower about a yeere before either of them was called in question vpon their liues for the Popes Supremacie And that partly for their backwardnesse in the point of the establishment of the Kings succession whereunto the whole Realme had subscribed and partly for that one of them to wit Fisher had had his hand in the matter of the holy 8 Called Elizabeth Barton See the Act of Parliament maide of Kent hee being for his concealement of that false prophets abuse found guiltie of misprision of Treason And as these were the principall causes of their imprisonment the King resting secure of his Supremacie as the Realme stood then affected but especially troubled for setling the Crowne vpon the issue of his second mariage so was it easily to be conceiued that being thereupon discontented their humors were thereby made apt to draw them by degrees to further opposition against the King and his authoritie as indeede it fell out For in the time of their being in prison the Kings lawfull authoritie in cases Ecclesiasticall being published and promulged as well by a generall decree of the Clergie in their Synode as by an Acte of Parliament made thereupon they behaued themselues so peeuishly therein as the olde coales of the Kings anger being thereby raked vp of new they were againe brought in question as well for this one most weighty head of doctrine of the Pope his supremacy as for the matter of the Kings mariage and succession as by the confession of one of themselues euen Thomas Moore is euident For being condemned he vsed these words at the barre before the Lords Non ignoro cur me morti adiudicaueritis videlicet ob id Histor aliquet Martyrum nostri seculi Anno 1550. quòd nunquam voluerim assentiri in negotio matrimonij Regis That is I am not ignorant why you haue adiudged mee to death to wit for that I would neuer consent in the businesse of the new mariage of the King By which his owne confession it is plaine that this great martyr himselfe tooke the cause of his owne death to be onely for his being refractary to the King in this said matter of Marriage and Succession which is but a very fleshly cause of Martyrdome as I conceiue And as for Roffensis his fellow Martyr who could haue bene content to haue taken the Oath of the Kings Supremacie with a certaine modification which Moore refused as his imprisonment was neither onely nor principally for the cause of Supremacie so died hee but a halting and a singular Martyr or witnesse for that most weighty head of doctrine the whole Church of England going at that time in one current and streame as it were against him in that Argument diuers of them being of farre greater reputation for learning and sound iudgement then euer he was So as in this point we may well arme our selues with the Cardinals owne reason where he giueth amongst other notes of the trew Church Vniuersalitie for one wee hauing the generall and Catholique conclusion of the whole Church of England on our side in this case as appeareth by their booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England called The Institution of a Christian man the same matter being likewise very learnedly handled by diuers particular learned men of our Church as by Steuen Gardiner in his booke De vera obedientia with a Preface of Bishop Boners adioyning to it De summo absoluto Regis Imperio published by M. Bekinsaw De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae Bishop Tonstals Sermon Bishop Longlands Sermon the letter of Tonstall to Cardinall Poole and diuers other both in English and Latine And if the bitternesse of Fishers discontentment had not bene fed with his dayly ambitious expectation of the Cardinals hat which came so neere as Calis before he lost his head to fill it with I haue great reason to doubt if he would haue constantly perseuered in induring his Martyrdome for that one most waighty head of doctrine And surely these two Captaines and ringleaders to Martyrdome were but ill followed by the rest of their countreymen for I can neuer reade of any after them being of any great accompt and that not many that euer sealed that weighty head of doctrine with their blood in England So as the trew causes of their first falling in trouble whereof I haue already made mention being rightly considered vpon the one part and vpon the other the scant number of witnesses that with their blood sealed it a point so greatly accompted of by our Cardinal there can but smal glory redound thereby to our English nation these onely two Enoch and Elias seruing for witnesses against our Antichristian doctrine And I am sure the Supremacie of Kings may The Supremacy of Kings sufficiently warranted by the Scriptures wil euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the trew rule to discerne all waighty heads of doctrine by to be the trew and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then he will be euer able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerend speaches of them wherewith both his former great Volumes and his late Bookes against Venice are filled In the old Testament Kings were directly 1 2. Chron. 19.4 Gouernours ouer the Church within their Dominions 2 2. Sam. 5.6 purged their corruptions reformed their abuses brought the 3 1. Chron. 13.12 Arke to her resting place the King 4 2. Sam. 6.16 dancing before it 5 1. Chron. 28.6 built the Temple 6 2. Chron. 6. dedicated the same assisting in their owne persons to the sanctification thereof 7 2. King 22.11 made the Booke of the Law new-found to bee read to the people 8 Nehe. 9.38 Dauid Salomon renewed the Couenant betweene God and his people 9 2. King 18.4 bruised the brasen serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed 10 1. King 15.12 2. king 13.4 all Idoles and false gods made 11 2. Chron. 17.8 a publike reformation by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed 12 1. King 2.27 the high Priest and set vp another in his place and generally ordered euery thing belonging to the Church-gouernment their Titles and Prerogatiues giuen them by God agreeing to these their actions They are called the 13 2.
giue light to the word as CHRIST saith doth contrary thereunto fall away like Lucifer Matth. 5.14 and set vp a kingdome by the sending forth of that noisome packe of craftie cruell vermine described by Locusts and so is the Seat of the Antichrist begun to be erected whose doctrine is at length declared in the second woe after the blast of the sixt Trumpet Verse 13. Verse 20. where it is said That the remnant of men which were not killed by the plagues repented not of the workes of their hands that they should not worship diuels and idols of gold and of filuer of brasse and of stone and of wood which neither can see Lib de Cultu Adoratio lib. 3 disp 1. cap 5. Vers 21. heare nor goe As for worshipping of diuels looke your great Iesuited doctour Vasques and as for all the rest it is the maine doctrine of the Roman Church And then it is subioyned in this Text that they repented not of their murther their sorcerie their fornications nor their theft By their murther their persecution is meant and bloody massacres For their Sorcery consider of their Agnus Dei that will slocken fire of the hallowed shirts and diuers sorts of Reliques and also of Prayers that will preserue men from the violence of shot of fire of sword of thunder and such like dangers And iudge if this be not very like to Sorcerie and incantation of charmes By their Fornication is meant both their spirituall fornication of Idolatry and also their corporall fornication which doth the more abound amongst them as well by reason of the restraint of their Churchmen from marriage as also because of the many Orders of idle Monastike liues amongst them as well for men as women And continuall experience prooueth that idlenesse is euer the greatest spurre to lecherie And they are guiltie of Theft in stealing from GOD the titles and greatnes of power due to him and bestowing it vpon their head the Antichrist As also by heaping vp their treasure with their iuggling wares and merchandise of the soules of men by Iubiles Pardons Reliques and such like strong delusions That he endeth this description of Antichrist in the same ninth Chapter may likewise well appeare Cap. 10. ver 6. by the Oath that that Mightie Angell sweareth in the sixt verse of the tenth Chapter And after the blast of the sixt Trumpet that time shall bee no more Verse 7. and that when the seuenth Angell shall blow his Trumpet the mysterie of GOD shal be finished as he had declared it to his seruants the Prophets Cap. 11. Onely in the eleuenth Chapter he describeth the meanes whereby the Antichrist was ouercome whose raigne he had before described in the ix Chapter and telleth vs that the two witnesses Verse 3. after that they haue beene persecuted by the Antichrist shall in the end procure his destruction And in case any should thinke that the Antichrist is onely spoken of in the xj Chapter and that the Beast spoken of in the xiij and xvij Chapters doth onely signifie Ethnicke Rome there needeth no other refutation of that conceit then to remember them that the Antichrist is neuer named in all that xj Chapter Cap. 11. but where he is called in the seuenth verse thereof the Beast that commeth foorth of the bottomeles pit Verse 7. which by the description of the place he commeth out of prooueth it to be the same Beast which hath the same originall in the xvij Chapter and in the very same words so as it is euer but the same Antichrist repeated and diuersly described in diuers visions Now in the xij and xiij Chapters and so foorth till the xvij The third description he maketh a more large and ample propheticall description of the state of the Church and reigne of the Antichrist For in the xij Chap. he figureth the Church by a Woman flying from the Dragon the Deuill to the wildernesse Chap xij Verse 6. And when the Dragon seeth hee cannot otherwise ouer-reach her Verse 15. hee speweth foorth waters like floods to carry her away which signifieth many Nations that were let loose to persecute and vexe the Church And in the xiij Chapter out of that Sea of Nations that persecuted her Chap. xiij ariseth that great Citie Queene of all the Nations and head of that persecution figured by a Beast with seuen heads and tenne hornes verse 1. Verse 2. like a Leopard as well for the colour because it was full of spots that is defiled with corruptions as also vsing a bastard forme of gouernement in shew spirituall but in deed temporall ouer the Kings of the earth like the Leopard that is a bastard beast betwixt a Lion and a Parde hauing feete like a Beare to signifie his great strength and the mouth of a Lion to shew his rauenous and cruell disposition This Beast who had his power from the Dragon Verse 3. and had gotten a deadly wound in one of his heads or formes of gouernment by the Gothes and Vandals and yet was healed againe Verse 6. Verse 7. opened his mouth to blasphemies and made warre against the Saints nay all the world must worship him which worship Ethnicke Rome neuer craued of any being contented to call their neighbour Kings Amici socij populi Romani And whether worship or adoration euen with that same title he vsed to Popes at their creation our Cardinall can best tell you But then commeth another beast vp out of the earth Verse 11. hauing indeed a more firme and setled originall for she doeth visibly and outwardly succeed to the trew Church and therefore she hath two hornes like the Lambe in outward shew representing the spouse of CHRIST and pretending CHRIST to be her defence But she speaketh like the Dragon teaching damnable and deuilish doctrine And this Apostatike I should say Apostolike Church after that she hath made her great power manifest to the world by doing all that the first Beast could doe Verse 12. In conspectu eius that is by shewing the greatnesse of her power to be nothing inferiour to the greatnesse of the former Ethnicke Empire she then is mooued with so great a desire to aduance this Beast now become Antichrist as she causeth the earth and all that dwell therein to worship this former Beast or Roman Monarch transferring so as it were her owne power in his person Yea euen Emperours and Kings shall be faine to kisse his feet And for this purpose shall shee worke great Miracles wherein she greatly prides her selfe deceiuing men with lying wonders and efficacie of lyes 2. Thes 2.9 as S. Paul saith And amongst the rest of her wonders Verse 13. she must bring Fire out of heauen Fulmen excommunications which can dethrone Princes Verse 15. So that all that will not worship the image of the Beast that is his vnlimited Supremacie must be killed and
learned Lecture Now it is no wonder that in so good an office and loyall cariage towards their King the third Estate hath outgone the Clergie For the Clergie denie themselues to haue any ranke among the Subiects of the King they stand for a Soueraigne out of the Kingdome to whom as to the Lord Paramount they owe suite and seruice they are bound to aduance that Monarchie to the bodie whereof they properly apperteine as parts or members as elsewhere I haue written more at large But for the Nobilitie the Kings right arme to prostitute and set as it were to sale the dignitie of their King as if the arme should giue a thrust vnto the head J say for the Nobilitie to hold and maintaine euen in Parliament their King is liable to deposition by any forreine power or Potentate may it not passe among the strangest miracles and rarest wonders of the world For that once granted this consequence is good and necessarie That in case the King once lawfully deposed shall stand vpon the defensiue and hold out for his right he may then lawfully be murthered Let mee then here freely professe my opinion and this it is That now the French Nobilitie may seeme to haue some reason to disrobe themselues of their titles and to transferre them by resignation vnto the third Estate For that body of that third Estate alone hath caried a right noble heart in as much as the could neither be tickled with promises nor terrified by threatnings from resolute standing to those fundamentall points and reasons of State which most concerne the honour of their King and the securitie of his person Of all the Clergie the man that hath most abandoned or set his honour to sale the man to whom France is least obliged is the Lord Cardinall of Perron a man otherwise inferiour to few in matter of learning and in the grace of a sweete style This man in two seuerall Orations whereof the one was pronounced before the Nobilitie the other had audience before the third Estate hath set his best wits on worke to draw that doctrine into all hatred and infamie which teacheth Kings to be indeposeable by the Pope To this purpose hee termes the same doctrine a breeder of Schismes a gate that openeth to make way and to giue entrance vnto all heresies in briefe a doctrine to bee held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then he and his fellow-Bishops will yeeld to the signing thereof they will bee contented like Martyrs to burne at a stake At which resolution or obstinacie rather in his opinion I am in a manner amased more then I can be mooued for the like brauado in many other forasmuch as hee was many yeeres together a follower of the late King euen when the King followed a contrary Religion and was deposed by the Pope as also because not long before in a certaine Assemblie holden at the Iacobins in Paris hee withstood the Popes Nuntio to his face when the said Nuntio laboured to make this doctrine touching the Popes temporall Soueraigntie passe for an Article of Faith But in both Orations hee singeth a contrary song and from his owne mouth passeth sentence of condemnation against his former course and profession J fuppose not without sollide iudgemen as one that heerein hath well accommodated himselfe to the times For as in the reigne of the late King hee durst not offer to broach this doctrine such was his fore-fore-wit so now he is bold to proclaime and publish it in Parliament vnder the reigne of the said Kings sonne whose tender yeeres and late succession to the Crowne doe make him lie the more open to iniuries and the more facill to be circumuented Such is now his afterwisedome Of these two Orations that made in presence of the Nobilitie he hath for feare of incurring the Popes displeasure cautelously suppressed For therein he hath beene somewhat prodigall in affirming this doctrine maintained by the Clergie to bee but problematicall and in taking vpon him to auouch that Catholikes of my Kingdome are bound to yeeld me the honour of obedience Whereas on the other side he is not ignorant how this doctrine of deposing Princes and Kings the Pope holdeth for meerely necessarie and approoueth not by any meanes Alleagiance to bee performed vnto mee by the Catholikes of my Kingdome Yea if credit may be giuen vnto the abridgement of his other Oration published wherein he paralells the Popes power in receiuing honours in the name of the Church with the power of the Venetian Duke in receiuing honours in the name of that most renowned Rebublike no marueile that when this Oration was dispatched to the presse he commanded the same to be gelded of this clause and other like for feare of giuing his Holinesse any offensiue distaste His pleasure therefore was and content withall that his Oration imparted to the third Estate should be put in Print and of his courtesie he vouchsafed to addresse vnto me a copie of the same Which after J had perused J foorthwith well perceiued what and how great discrepance there is betweene one man that perorateth from the ingenuous and sincere disposition of a sound heart and an other that flaunteth in flourishing speech with inward checkes of his owne conscience For euery where he contradicts himselfe and seemes to be afraid lest men should picke out his right meaning First In 12. seuerall passages the L. Card. seemeth to speake against his owne conscience Pag. 85. he grants this Question is not hither to decided by the holy Scriptures or by the Decrees of the ancient Church or by the analogie of other Ecclesiasticall proceedings and neuerthelesse hee confidently doeth affirme that whosoeuer maintaine this doctrine to be wicked and abhominable that Popes haue no power to put Kings by their supreame Thrones they teach men to beleeue there hath not bene any Church for many aages past and that indeed the Church is the very Synagogue of Antichrist Secondly he exhorts his hearers to hold this doctrine at least for problematicall and not necessary and yet herein he calls them to all humble submission vnto the iudgement of the Pope and Clergie by whom the cause hath bene already put out of all question as out of all hunger and cold Thirdly he doeth auerre in case this Article be authorized it makes the Pope in good consequence to bee the Antichrist Pag. 99. and yet he grants that many of the French are tolerated by the Pope to dissent in this point from his Holinesse prouided their doctrine be not proposed as necessary and materiall to faith As if the Pope in any sort gaue toleration to hold any doctrine contrary to his owne and most of all that doctrine which by consequence inferres himselfe to be the Antichrist Fourthly he protesteth forwardnesse to vndergoe the flames of Martyrdome rather then to signe this doctrine which teacheth Kings Crownes to sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any
sacred Name of God nor should hee haue marshalled the passage of a Royall Poet after the example of an heathen Oratour Neither will J giue any touch to his conceit of the Romane conquests 2 Pag. 4. which the L. Cardinall bestoweth in the list of Gods graces and temporall blessings as a recompence of their zeale to the seruice and worship of Idols As if God were a recompencer of wickednes or as if the forcible eiecting of Tenants out of their farmes and other possessions might be reckoned among the blessings of God Nor to that of the MilesianVirgins Pag. 7. 8. dragged stark-naked after they were dead which the L. Cardinall drawes into his discourse for an example of the eternall torments denounced by the Lawes Ecclesiasticall to be inflicted after this life Nor to his exposition of the word Problematicall Pag. 13. where he giueth to vnderstand that by Problematicall hee meaneth such things as are of no necessitie to matter of faith and in case men shall beleeue the contradictory of the said points they are not bound for such beleefe to vndergoe the solemne curse of the Church and the losse of communion Whereas Aristotle Aristet 1. top cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound both one thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prouided the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vtrùm do stand before as Vtrum homo sit animal of whom all Schooles haue borrowed their tearmes hath taught vs that euery proposition is called a Probleme when it is propounded in a formall doubt though in it proper nature it containes a necessary trewth concerning the matter therof As for example to say in forme of question Whether is there but one God or Whether is man a creature indued with reason By which examples it is plaine that propositions in problematicall forme doe not forgoe the necessitie of their nature and that many times the contradictory binds the beleeuers thereof to Anathema and losse of communion There is a confused heape or bundle of other like toyes which my purpose is to passe ouer in silence that J may now come to cast anchor as it were in the very bottome and substance of the cause A REMONSTRANCE FOR THE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE INDEPENDANCE OF THEIR CROVVNES Against an Oration of the most Illustrious Cardinall of PERRON pronounced in the Chamber of the third Estate The 15. of Ianuar. 1615. THE L. Cardinall euen in the first passage of his Oration hath laid a firme foundation That Ecclesiastics in France are more deepely obliged to the King then the Nobilitie and third Estate His reason Because the Clergie doe sweetly enioy their dignities and promotions with all their infinite wealth of the Kings meere grace without all danger and with faire immunities whereas the other two Orders hold their offices by a chargeable and burdensome title or tenure euen to the great expence of their blood and of their substance But see now how loose and weake a frame he hath erected and pinned together vpon his firme and solide foundation Ergo the third Estate is to lay all care to prouide remedies against apposted cut-throats vpon the Clergy and the said remedies as he boldly affirms must be deriued from the laws of conscience which may carry an effectuall acting or operatiue efficacie vpon the soule and not from ciuil or temporall punishments Now this consequence limpeth like a lame creple after the premises For it is no vsuall and common matter to see men that are deepest in obligation performe their duties and couenants with most fidelity Againe were it graunted the Clergie had well hitherto demonstrated their carefull watching ouer the life and honour of their Prince yet is it not for spirituall punishments thundred by Ecclesiastics to bind the hands of the ciuill Magistrate nor to stop the current of temporall punishments which ordinarily doe carrie a greater force and vertue to the bridling of the wicked then the apprehension of Gods iudgement The third Estate therefore by whom all the officers of France are properly represented as to whom the administration of iustice and protection of the Kings rights and Honour doth appertaine can deserue no blame in carrying so watchfull an eye by their wholesome remedie to prouide for the safetie of the King and for the dignitie of his Crowne For if the Clergie shall not stand to their tackle but shrinke when it commeth to the push of their duetie who shall charge themselues with carefull foresight and preuention of mischiefes Shall not the people Now haue not all the calamities which the third Estate haue sought prouidently to preuent haue they not all sprung from the Clergie as from their proper and naturall fountaine From whence did the last ciuill warres wherein a world of blood was not more profusely then prodigiously and vnnaturally spilt and wherein the parricide of King Henrie III. was impiously and abominably committed from whence did those bloodie warres proceed but from the deposing of the said King by the Head of the Church Were they not Prelats Curats and Confessours were they not Ecclesiastics who partly by seditious preachments and partly by secret confessions powred many a iarre of oyle vpon this flame Was not he that killed the forenamed King was not he one of the Clergie Was not Guignard a Iesuite Was not Iohn Chastel brought vp in the same schoole Did not Rauaillac that monster of men vpon interrogatories made at his examination among the rest by whom he had beene so diabolically tempted and stirred vp to his most execrable attempt and act of extreme horror did not he referre his examiners to the Sermons made the Lent next before where they might be satisfied concerning the causes of his abominable vndertaking and execution Are not Bellarmine Eudaemonoiohannes Suarez Becanus Mariana with such other monsters who teach the doctrine of parricides vphold the craft of Ianus-like Equiuocations in Courts of Iustice and in secret confessions are they not all Clerics are not all their bookes approoued and allowed as it were by a corporation or grosse companie of Doctors with their signes manuel to the said bookes What were the heads the chiefe promoters the complices of the powder-conspiracie in my Kingdome were they not Ecclesiastics Hath not Faux by name a confederate of the same damned crew hath not he stoutly stood to the gunners part which then he was to act in that most dolefull Tragedie with asseueration of a conscience well assured and setled touching the lawfulnesse of his enterprise Did he not yeild this reason to wit because he had bin armed with instruction of musket proofe in the case before he made passage ouer from the Low Countries Is it not also the generall beleefe of that Order that Clerics are exempted from the condition of Subiects to the King Nay Pag. 7. is it not confessed by the L. Cardinall himselfe that King-killers haue ingaged themselues to vndertake the detestable act of parricide vnder a false credence of
the spirituall Pastor of soules forsooth pulles the cloake of a poore sinner from his backe by violence or cuts his purse and thereby appropriates an other mans goods to his priuate vse It is to be obserued withall that when the Emperours were not of sufficient strength and Popes had power to beard and to braue Emperours then these Papall practises were first set on foot This Emperour notwithstanding turned head and peckt againe his Lieutenant entred Rome and Gregorie 3. successor to this Gregorie 2. was glad to honour the same Emperour with style and title of his Lord witnesse two seuerall Epistles of the said Gregorie 3. written to Boniface and subscribed in this forme Dat. 10. Cal. Decem Imperante Dom. pijssimo Augusto Leone à Deo coronato magno Imp. anno decimo Imperij eius Examp. 7. Dated the tenth alends of December In the raigne of our most pious and religious Lord Augustus Leo crowned of God the great Emperour in the tenth yeere of his raigne The L. Cardinall with no lesse abuse alleadgeth Pope Zacharie by whom the French as he affirmeth were absolued of the oath of all egiance wherein they stood bound to Childeric their King And for this instance he standeth vpon the testimonie of Paulus Aemilius and du Tillet a paire of late writers But by authors more neere that aage wherein Childeric raigned it is more trewly testified that it was a free and voluntarie act of the French onely asking the aduise of Pope Zacharie but requiring neither leaue nor absolution Ado Bishop of Vienna in his Chronicles hath it after this manner The French following the Counsell of Embassadors and of Pope Zachary elected Pepin their King and established him in the Kingdome Trithemius in his abridgement of Annals thus Childeric as one vnfit for gouernement was turned out of his Kingdome with common consent of the Estates and Peeres of the Realme so aduised by Zacharie Pope of Rome Godfridus of Viterbe in the 17. part of his Chronicle and Guauguin in the life of Pepin affirme the same And was it not an easie matter to worke Pepin by counsell to lay hold on the Kingdome when he could not be hindered from fastening on the Crowne and had already seizd it in effect howsoeuer he had not yet attained to the name of King Moreouer the rudenesse of that Nation then wanting knowledge and Schooles either of diuinitie or of Academicall sciences was a kind of spurre to make them runne for counsell ouer the mountaines which neuerthelesse in a cause of such nature they required not as necessary but onely as decent and for fashion sake The Popealso for his part was well appaied by this meanes to draw Pepin vnto his part as one that stood in some neede of his aide against the Lombards and the more because his Lord the Emperour of Constantinople was then brought so low that hee was not able to send him sufficient aide for the defence of his territories against his enemies But had Zacharie to deale plainely not stood vpon the respect of his owne commodity more then vpon the regard of Gods feare he would neuer haue giuen counsell vnto the seruant vnder the pretended colour of his Masters dull spirit so to turne rebell against his Master The Lawes prouide Gardians or ouerseers for such as are not well in their wits they neuer depriue and spoile them of their estate they punish crimes but not diseases and infirmities by nature Yea in France it is a very auncient custome when the King is troubled in his wits to establish a Regent who for the time of the Kings disability may beare the burden of the Kingdomes affaires So was the practise of that State in the case of Charles 6. when hee fell into a phrensie whom the Pope notwithstanding his most grieuous and sharpe fits neuer offered to degrade And to be short what reason what equity will beare the children to be punished for the fathers debilitie Yet such punishment was laid vpon Childerics whole race and house who by this practise were all disinherited of the Kingdome But shall wee now take some view of the L. Pag. 25. Cardinals excuse for this exemplarie fact The cause of Childerics deposing as the L. Cardinall saith did neerely concerne and touch Religion For Childerics imbecillity brought all France into danger to suffer a most wofull shipwracke of Christian religion vpon the barbarous and hostile inuasion of the Saracens Admit now this reason had beene of iust weight and value yet consideration should haue beene taken whether some one or other of that Royall stemme and of the Kings owne successors neerest of blood was not of better capacity to rule and mannage that mighty State The feare of vncertaine and accidentall mischiefe should not haue driuen them to flie vnto the certaine mischiefe of actuall and effectuall deposition They should rather haue set before their eies the example of Charles Martel this Pepins father who in a farre more eminent danger when the Saracens had already mastered and subdued a great part of France valiantly encountred and withall defeated the Saracens ruled the Kingdome vnder the title of Steward of the Kings house the principall Officer of the Crowne without affecting or aspiring to the Throne for all that great step of aduantage especially when the Saracens were quite broken and no longer dreadfull to the French Nation In our owne Scotland the sway of the Kingdome was in the hand of Walles during the time of Bruse his imprisonment in England who then was lawfull heire to the Crowne This Walles or Vallas had the whole power of the Kingdome at his becke and command His Edicts and ordinances to this day stand in full force By the deadly hatred of Bruse his mortall enemie it may be coniectured that he might haue bene prouoked and inflamed with desiré to trusse the Kingdome in his tallants And notwithstanding all these incitements he neuer assumed or vsurped other title to himselfe then of Gouernour or Administratour of the Kingdome The reason Hee had not beene brought vp in this new doctrine and late discipline whereby the Church is endowed with power to giue and to take away Crownes But now as the L. Cardinall would beare the world in hand the state of Kings is brought to a very dead lift The Pope forsooth must send his Physicians to know by way of inspection or some other course of Art whether the Kings braine be cract or sound and in case there be found any debilitie of wit and reason in the King then the Pope must remooue and translate the Crowne from the weaker braine to a stronger and for the acting of the stratageme the name of Religion must be pretended Ho these Heretikes begin to crawle in the Kingdome order must bee taken they bee not suffered by their multitudes and swarmes like locusts or caterpillers to pester and poison the whole Realme Or in a case of Matrimony thus Ho marriage is a Sacrament touch
to display the colours and ensignes of their censures against Princes who violating their publike and solemne oath doe raise and make open warre against Iesus Christ I grant yet againe that in this case they need not admit Laics to be of their counsell nor allow them any scope or libertie of iudgement Yet all this makes no barre to Clerics for extending the power of their keyes many times a whole degree further then they ought and when they are pleased to make vse of their said power to depriue the people of their goods or the Prince of his Crowne all this doeth not hinder Prince or people from taking care for the preseruation of their owne rights and estates nor from requiring Clerics to shew their cards and produce their Charts and to make demonstration by Scripture that such power as they assume and challenge is giuen them from God For to leaue the Pope absolute Iudge in the same cause wherein hee is a partie and which is the strongest rampier and bulwarke yea the most glorious and eminent point of his domination to arme him with power to vnhorse Kings out of their seates what is it else but euen to draw them into a state of despaire for euer winning the day or preuailing in their honourable and rightful cause It is moreouer granted if a King shall command any thing directly contrary to Gods word and tending to the subuerting of the Church that Clerics in this case ought not onely to dispense with subiects for their obedience but also expresly to forbid their obedience For it is alwayes better to obey God then man Howbeit in all other matters whereby the glory and maiestie of God is not impeached or impaired it is the duety of Clerics to plie the people with wholesome exhortation to constant obedience and to auert by earnest disswasions the said people from tumultuous reuolt and seditious insurrection This practise vnder the Pagan Emperours was held and followed by the ancient Christians by whose godly zeale and patience in bearing the yoke the Church in times past grew and flourished in her happy and plentifull increase farre greater then Poperie shall euer purchase and attaine vnto by all her cunning deuices and sleights as namely by degrading of Kings by interdicting of Kingdoms by apposted murders and by Diabolicall traines of Gunne-powder-mines The places of Scripture alleadged in order by the Cardinal Pag 66. in fauour of those that stand for the Popes claime of power and authoritie to depose Kings are cited with no more sincerity then the former They alledge these are his words that Samuel deposed King Saul or declared him to bee deposed because hee had violated the Lawes of the Iewes Religion His Lordship auoucheth elsewere that Saul was deposed because he had sought prophanely to vsurpe the holy Priesthood Both false and contrary to the tenour of trewth in the sacred history For Saul was neuer deposed according to the sense of the word I meane depose in the present question to wit as deposing is taken for despoiling the King of his royall dignitie and reducing the King to the condition of a priuate person But Saul held the title of King and continued in possession of his Kingdome euen to his dying day 1. Sam. 23.20 24.15 2. Sam. 2.5 Yea the Scripture styles him King euen to the periodicall and last day of his life by the testimony of Dauid himselfe who both by Gods promise and by precedent vnction was then heire apparant as it were to the Crown in a maner then ready to gird and adorne the temples of his head For if Samuel by Gods commandement had then actually remooued Saul from his Throne doubtlesse the whole Church of Israel had committed a grosse errour in taking and honouring Saul for their King after such deposition doubtlesse the Prophet Samuel himselfe making knowen the Lords Ordinance vnto the people would haue enioyned them by strict prohibition to call him no longer the King of Israel Doubtlesse Dauid would neuer haue held his hand from the throat of Saul 1. Sam. 26.11 for this respect and consideration because he was the Lords Anointed For if Saul had lost his Kingly authority from that instant when Samuel gaue him knowledge of his reiection then Dauid lest otherwise the Body of the Kingdome should want a Royall Head was to beginne his Reigne and to beare the Royall scepter in the very same instant which were to charge the holy Scriptures with vntrewth in as much as the sacred historie begins the computation of the yeeres of Dauids Reigne from the day of Sauls death Trew it is that in the 1. Sam. cap. 15. Saul was denounced by Gods owne sentence a man reiected and as it were excommunicated out of the Kingdome that hee should not rule and reigne any longer as King ouer Israel neuerthelesse the said sentence was not put in execution before the day when God executing vpon Saul an exemplarie iudgement did strike him with death From whence it is manifest and cleare 1. Sam. 16.23 that when Dauid was annointed King by Samuel that action was onely a promise and a testimony of the choice which God had made of Dauid for succession immediately after Saul and not a present establishment inuestment or installment of Dauid in the Kingdome Wee reade the like in 1. King cap. 19. where God commandeth Elias the Prophet to annoint Hasael King of Syria For can any man bee so blinde and ignorant in the sacred historie to beleeue the Prophets of Israel established or sacred the Kings of Syria For this cause 2. Sam. 2.4 when Dauid was actually established in the Kingdome hee was annointed the second time In the next place he brings in the Popes champions vsing these words Rehoboam was deposed by Ahiah the Prophet 1 King 12. from his Royall right ouer the tenne Tribes of Israel because his father Salomon had played the Apostata in falling from the Law of God This I say also is more then the trewth of the sacred history doeth afoard For Ahiah neuer spake to Rehoboam for ought we reade nor brought vnto him any message from the Lord As for the passage quoted by the L. Cardinal out of 3. Reg. chap. 11. it hath not reference to the time of Rehoboams raigne but rather indeed to Salomons time nor doeth it carry the face of a iudicatorie sentence for the Kings deposing but rather of a Propheticall prediction For how could Rehoboam before hee was made King be depriued of the Kingdome Last of all but worst of all to alleadge this passage for an example of a iust sentence in matter of deposing a King is to approoue the disloyall treacherie of a seruant against his master and the rebellion of Ieroboam branded in Scripture with a marke of perpetuall infamie for his wickednesse and impietie He goes on with an other example of no more trewth 1. King 19. King Achab was deposed by Elias the Prophet
become a Romane Catholike so soone as the Pope shall giue me the lift out of my Throne shall bind him forthwith to make effusion of his owne fathers blood Such is the religion of these reuerend Fathers the pillars of the Pontificiall Monarchie In comparison of whose religion and holinesse all the impietie that euer was among the Infidels and all the barbarous crueltie that euer was among the Canibals may passe hencefoorth in the Christian world for pure clemencie and humanitie These things ought his Lordship to haue pondered rather then to babble of habitudes and politike characters which to the common people are like the Bergamasque or the wilde-Irish forme of speach and passe their vnderstanding All these things are nothing in a maner if we compare them with the last clause which is the closer and as it were the vpshot of his Lordships discourse For therein he laboureth to perswade concerning this Article framed to bridle the Popes tyrannicall power ouer Kings if it should receiue gracious entertainement and generall approbation That it would breed great danger and worke effects of pernicious consequence vnto Kings The reason because it would prooue an introduction to schisme and schisme would stirre vp ciuil warres contempt of Kings distempered inclinations and motions to intrap their life and which is worst of all the fierce wrath of God inflicting all sorts of calamities An admirable paradoxe and able to strike men stone-blind that his Holinesse must haue power to depose Kings for the better security and safegard of their life that when their Crownes are made subiect vnto anothers will and pleasure then they are come to the highest altitude and eleuation of honour that for the onely warrant of their life their supreme and absolute greatnesse must be depressed that for the longer keeping of their Crownes another must plucke the Crowne from their heads As if it should be said Would they not be stript naked by another the best way is for themselues to vntrusse for themselues to put off all and to goe naked of their owne accord Wil they keepe their Souereigntie in safetie for euer The best way is to let another haue their Soueraigne authoritie and supreme Estate in his power But I haue bene euer of this mind that when my goods are at no mans command or disposing but mine own then they are trewly and certainly mine owne It may be this error is growen vpon me and other Princes for lacke of braines whereupon it may be feared or at least coniectured the Pope meanes to shaue our crownes and thrust vs into some cloister there to hold ranke in the brotherhood of good King Childerie Forasmuch then as my dull capacitie doeth not serue mee to reach or comprehend the pith of this admirable reason I haue thought good to seeke and to vse the instruction of old and learned experience which teacheth no such matter by name that ciuill warres and fearefull perturbations of State in any nation of the world haue at any time growen from this faithful credulity of subiects that Popes in right haue no power to wrest and lift Kings out of their dignities and possessions On the other side by establishing the contrary maximes to yoke and hamper the people with Pontificiall tyrannie what rebellious troubles and stirres what extreme desolations hath England bene forced to feare and feele in the Reigne of my Predecessours Henrie II. Iohn and Henrie III These be the maximes and principles which vnder the Emperour Henrie IV. and Frederic the I. made all Europe flowe with channels and streames of blood like a riuer with water while the Saracens by their incursions and victories ouerflowed and in a manner drowned the honour of the Christian name in the East These be the maximes and principles which made way for the warres of the last League into France by which the very bowels of that most famous and flourishing Kingdome were set on such a combustion that France her selfe was brought within two fingers breadth of bondage to another Nation and the death of her two last Kings most villenously and traiterously accomplished The L. Cardinall then giuing these diabolicall maximes for meanes to secure the life and Estate of Kings speaketh as if he would giue men counsell to dry themselues in the riuer when they come as wet as a water spaniell out of a pond or to warme themselues by the light of the Moone when they are stark-naked and well neere frozen to death THE CONCLVSION OF THE LORD OF PERRON EXAMINED AFter the L. Cardinal hath stoutly shewed the strength of his arme and the deepe skill of his head in fortification at last he leaues his loftie scaffolds and falls to worke neerer the ground with more easie tooles of humble praiers and gentle exhortations The summe of the whole is this He adiures his auditors neuer to forge remedies neuer so to prouide for the temporall safetie of Kings as thereby to worke their finall falling from eternall saluation neuer to make any rent or rupture in the vnitie of the Church in this corrupt aage infected with pestilent Heresies which already hauing made so great a breach in the walles of France will no doubt double their strength by the dissentions diuisions and schismes of Catholikes If this infectious plague shall still increase and grow to a carbuncle it can by no meanes poyson Religion without bringing Kings to their winding sheetes and wofull hearses The first rowlers of that stone of offence aimed at no other marke then to make an ignominious and lamentable rent in the Church Hee thinks the Deputies of the third Estate had neither head nor first hand in contriuing this Article but holds it rather a new deuice and subtile inuention suggested by persons which beeing already cut off by their owne practises from the body of the Romane Church haue likewise inueigled and insnared some that beare the name of Catholiks with some other Ecclesiastics and vnder a faire pretence and goodly cloake by name the seruice of the King haue surprised and played vpon their simplicitie These men as the Cardinall saith doe imitate Iulian the Apostata who to bring the Christians to idolatrous worship of false gods commaunded the idols of Iupiter and Venus to be intermingled with Imperiall statues and other Images of Christian Emperours c. Then after certaine Rhetoricall flourishes his Lordship fals to prosecute his former course and cries out of this Article A monster hauing the tayle of a fish as if it came cutting the narrow Seas out of England For in full effect it is downright the English oath sauing that indeed the oath of England runneth in a more mild forme and a more moderate straine And here he suddenly takes occasion to make some digression For out of the way and cleane from the matter he entreth into some purpose of my praise and commendation He courteously for sooth is pleased to grace mee with knowledge of learning and with ciuill vertues He seemeth chiefly
of his life in the city of Tours Certaine it is they neuer abandoned that Henry 3. nor his next successor Henry 4. in all the heat of reuolts and rebellions raised in the greatest part of the Kingdome by the Pope and the more part of the Clergie but stood to the said Kings in all their battels to beare vp the Crowne then tottering and ready to fall Certaine it is that euen the heads and principalls of those by whom the late King deceased was pursued with all extremities at this day doe enioy the fruit of all the good seruices done to the King by the said Protestants And they are now disgraced kept vnder exposed to publike hatred What for kindling coales of questions and controuersies about Religion Forsooth not so but because if they might haue equall and indifferent dealing if credit might be giuen to their faithfull aduertisements the Crowne of their Kings should bee no longer pinned to the Popes flie-flap in France there should bee no French exempted from subiection to the French King causes of benefices or of matrimonie should bee no longer citable and summonable to the Romish Court and the Kingdome should bee no longer tributarie vnder the colour of annats the first fruits of Benefices after the remooue or death of the Incumbent and other like impositions But why doe I speake so much in the behalfe of the French Protestants The Lord Cardinall himselfe quittes them of this blame when he telleth vs this doctrine for the deposing of Kings by the Popes mace or verge had credit and authoritie through all France vntill Caluins time Doth not his Lordship vnder-hand confesse by these words that Kings had beene alwaies before Caluins time the more dishonoured and the worse serued Item that Protestants whom his Lordship calls heretikes by the light of holy Scripture made the world then and euer since to see the right of Kings oppressed so long before As for those of the Low Countries and the subiects of Swethland I haue little to say of their case because it is not within ordinary compasse and indeed serueth nothing to the purpose These Nations besides the cause of Religion doe stand vpon certaine reasons of State which I will not here take vpon me like a Iudge to determine or to sift Iunius Brutus Whom the Lord Cardinall obiecteth is an author vnknowne and perhaps of purpose patcht vp by some Romanist with a wyly deceit to draw the reformed Religion into hatred with Christian Princes Buchanan I reckon and ranke among Poets not among Diuines classicall or common If the man hath burst out here and there into some tearmes of excesse or speach of bad temper that must be imputed to the violence of his humour and heate of his spirit not in any wise to the rules and conclusions of trew Religion rightly by him conceiued before Barclaius alledged by the Cardinall meddles not with deposing of Kings but deals with disavowing them for Kings when they shal renounce the right of Royalty and of their owne accord giue ouer the Kingdome Now he that leaues it in the Kings choice either to hold or to giue ouer his Crowne leaues it not in the Popes power to take away the Kingdome Of Gerson obtruded by the Cardinal we haue spoken sufficiently before Where it hath beene shewed how Gerson is disguised masked and peruerted by his Lordship In briefe I take not vpon me to iustifie and make good all the sayings of particular authors We glory and well we may that our religion affordeth no rules of rebellion nor any dispensation to subiects for the oath of their allegiance and that none of our Churches giue entertainement vnto such monstrous and abhominable principles of disloyaltie If any of the French otherwise perswaded in former times Richcrius now hauing altered and changed his iudgement doth contend for the Soueraignty of Kings against Papall vsurpation He doubtles for winding himselfe out of the Laborinth of an error so intricate pernicious deserueth great honour and speciall praise He is worthy to hold a place of dignity aboue the L. Cardinall who hath quitted and betrayed his former iudgement which was holy and iust Their motions are contrary their markes are opposite The one reclineth from euill to good the other declineth from good to euill At last his Lordship commeth to the close of his Oration and bindes vp his whole harangue with a feate wreath of praises proper to his King He styles the King the eldest Sonne of the Church a young shoot of the lilly which King Salomon in all his Royaltie was not able to match He leades vs by the hand into the pleasant meadowes of Histories there to learne vpon the very first sight and view That so long so oft as the Kings of France embraced vnion and kept good tearmes of concord with Popes and the Apostolike See so long as the spouse of the Church was pastured and fed among the lillies all sorts of spirituall and temporall graces abundantly showred vpon their Crownes and vpon their people On the contrary when they made any rent or separation from the most holy See then the lillies were pricked and almost choaked with sharpe thornes they beganne to droope to stoope and to beare their beautifull heads downe to the very ground vnder the strong flawes and gusts of boystrous windes and tempests My answere to this flourishing close and vpshot shall be no lesse apert then apt It sauours not of good and faithfull seruice to smooth and stroake the Kings head with a soft hand of oyled speech and in the meane time to take away the Crowne from his head and to defile it with dirt But let vs try the cause by euidence of Historie yea by the voice and verdict of experience to see whether the glorious beauty of the French lillies hath beene at any time blasted and thereupon hath faded by starting aside and making separation from the holy See Vnder the raigne of King Philip the Faire France was blessed with peace and prosperity notwithstanding some outragious acts done against the Papall See and contumelious crying quittance by King Philip with the Pope Lewis 12. in ranged battell defeated the armies of Pope Iulius 2. and his Confederates proclaimed the said Pope to be fallen from the Popedome stamped certaine coynes and pieces of gold with a dishonourable mot euen to Rome it selfe Rome is Babylon yet so much was Lewis loued and honoured of his people that by a peculiar title he was called the Father of the Country Greater blessings of God greater outward peace and plenty greater inward peace with spirituall and celestiall treasures were neuer heaped vpon my Great Brittaine then haue beene since my Great Brittaine became Great in the greatest and chiefest respect of all to wit since my Great Brittaine hath shaken off the Popes yoke since she hath refused to receiue and to entertaine the Popes Legats employed to collect S. Peters tribute or Peter-pence since the Kings of England
Progenitors and all my Subiects must be alike deare vnto me which either hee will neuer grant and so all will fall to the ground or else it will turne to the benefite of the whole Island and so the Scottish Priuiledges cannot hold longer then my League with France lasteth And for another Argument to prooue that this league is only betweene the Kings and not betweene the people They which haue Pensions or are priuie Intelligence giuers in France without my leaue are in no better case by the Law of Scotland then if they were Pensioners to Spaine As for the Scottish Guard in France the beginning thereof was when an Earle of Boghan was sent in aide of the French with tenne thousand men and there being made Constable and hauing obtained a victorie was murthered with the most of the Scottish Armie In recompense whereof and for a future securitie to the Scottish Nation the Scottish Guard was ordeined to haue the priuiledge and prerogatiue before all other Guards in guarding the Kings person And as for the last point of this subdiuision concerning the gaine that England may make by this Vnion I thinke no wise nor honest man will aske any such question For who is so ignorant that doeth not know the gaine will bee great Doe you not gaine by the Vnion of Wales And is not Scotland greater then Wales Shall not your Dominions bee encreased of Landes Seas and persons added to your greatnesse And are not your Landes and Seas adioyning For who can set downe the limits of the Borders but as a Mathematicall line or Idaea Then will that backe doore bee shut and those portes of Ianus be for euer closed you shall haue them that were your enemies to molest you a sure backe to defend you their bodies shall bee your aides and they must bee partners in all your quarrels Two snow-balls put together make one the greater Two houses ioyned make one the larger two Castle walles made in one makes one as thicke and strong as both And doe you not see in the Low countreys how auaileable the English and the Scottish are being ioyned together This is a point so plaine as no man that hath wit or honestie but must acknowledge it feelingly And where it is obiected that the Scottishmen are not tyed to the seruice of the King in the warres aboue forty dayes It is an ignorant mistaking For the trewth is That in respect the Kings of Scotland did not so abound in Treasure and money to take vp an Armie vnder pay as the Kings of England did Therefore was the Scottish Army wont to be raysed onely by Proclamation vpon the penaltie of their breach of alleageance So as they were all forced to come to the Warre like Snailes who carry their house about with them Euery Nobleman and Gentleman bringing with him their Tents money prouision for their house victuals of all sorts and all other necessaries the King supplying them of nothing Necessitie thereupon enforcing a warning to be giuen by the Proclamation of the space of their attendance without which they could not make their prouision accordingly especially as long as they were within the bounds of Scotland where it was not lawfull for them to helpe themselues by the spoile or wasting of the Countrey But neither is there any Law Prescribing precisely such a certaine number of dayes nor yet is it without the limits of the Kings power to keepe them together as many more dayes as hee list to renew his Proclamations from time to time some reasonable number of dayes before the expiring of the former they being euer bound to serue and waite vpon him though it were an hundreth yeere if need were Now to conclude I am glad of this occasion that I might Liberare animam meam You are now to recede when you meete againe remember I pray you the trewth and sincerity of my meaning which in seeking Vnion is onely to aduance the greatnesse of your Empire seated here in England And yet with such caution I wish it as may stand with the weale of both States What is now desired hath oft before bene sought when it could not bee obteined To refuse it now then were double iniquitie Strengthen your owne felicitie London must bee the Seate of your King and Scotland ioyned to this kingdome by a Golden conquest but cymented with loue as I said before which within will make you strong against all Ciuill and intestine Rebellion as without wee will bee compassed and guarded with our walles of brasse Iudge mee charitably since in this I seeke your equall good that so both of you might bee made fearefull to your Enemies powerfull in your selues and auaileable to your friendes Studie therefore hereafter to make a good Conclusion auoyd all delayes cut off all vaine questions that your King may haue his lawfull desire and be not disgraced in his iust endes And for your securitie in such reasonable points of restrictions whereunto I am to agree yee need neuer doubt of my inclination For I will not say any thing which I will not promise nor promise any thing which I will notsweare What I sweare I will signe and what I signe I shall with GODS grace euer performe A SPEACH TO THE LORDS AND COMMONS OF THE PARLIAMENT AT WHITE-HALL ON WEDNESDAY THE XXI OF MARCH ANNO 1609. WE being now in the middest of this season appointed for penitence and prayer it hath so fallen out that these two last dayes haue bene spent in a farre other sort of exercise I meane in Eucharisticke Sacrifice and gratulation of thankes presented vnto mee by both the parts of this body of Parliament and therefore to make vp the number of three which is the number of Trinitie and perfection I haue thought good to make this the third Day to be spent in this exercise As ye made mee a faire Present indeed in presenting your thankes and louing dueties vnto mee So haue I now called you here to recompence you againe with a great and a rare Present which is a faire and a Christall Mirror Not such a Mirror wherein you may see your owne faces or shadowes but such a Mirror or Christall as through the transparantnesse thereof you may see the heart of your King The Philosophers wish That euery mans breast were a Christall where-through his heart might be seene is vulgarly knowne and I touched it in one of my former Speaches vnto you But though that were impossible in the generall yet will I now performe this for my part That as it is a trew Axiome in Diuinitie That Cor Regis is in manu Domini So wil I now set Cor Regis in oculis populi I know that I can say nothing at this time whereof some of you that are here haue not at one time or other heard me say the like already Yet as corporall food nourisheth and mainteineth the body so doeth Reminiscentia nourish and mainteine memory I Will reduce to three