Servant Drabricius some ten years since therfore will your Majesty also vouchsafe a peculiar Audience to his Messengers sent not with naked words but with testimonies gaining credit and with most ample instructions unto you Read O King or deliver these things to be read by your wise men You Great Lewis King of France does the great Lord by name invite yea call hither to his Glorious work of renewing the World Take counsel with your Collegues the Christian Kings of Europe to Convocate a Council of the Christian World to settle Truth and Peace and Righteousness therein That Angels may again sing Glory to God on High on Earth Peace Good will towards men If you will follow most Christian King with other Christian Kings the conduct of the Counsel of this Book undoubtedly all the World will shortly become Christian and the Times Peaceful Religious Inlightened and Happier than Solomons according as God did of old promise and does now remind us of that they are approaching Prepare for Christ a quiet Kingdom in the Earth removing his proud Rival Rejoyce that the like things are commanded and promised to you as once to Cyrus To be the Shepherd of the Lord that is a keeper of his Flock the Church the whole Church not any part only thereof as the Greek or the Latin or the French or the English or German-Churches c. For whoever calls on the Name of Christ are the People of Christ and the Sheep of his Flock fulfilling all his will saying to Jerusalem Thou shalt be built c. Isa 44. 28. and 45. 1 2 3 4. Cyrus the King when after the Conquest of Babylon he read the Prophecy of Isaiah presented to him by the Jews as Josephus witnesses and saw his name expressed believed God and presently freed the People of God from captivity O second Cyrus revived will not you imitate c. It is the work of the Devil and of Antichrist to destroy and take away the Liberty of Humane Nature which is the top of the Image of God in Man Whoever therefore shall be the Instrument of this Glorious Restitution of things shall be more than Cyrus more than Alexander more than Augustus more than Constantine or Charles the Great Arise therefore against all Antichrists i. e. Oppressors of Liberties thou King of France King of Liberties for so the word signifies And succour the Christian Nations where-ever groaning under any Corporal or Spiritual yoke Make to cease unchristian Wars and destroyings of one another by Rapines Fires Slaughters c. But especially free the Christian People from the Slaughterhouse of Consciences which they call the Inquisition and execute by Swords Halters Burnings alive Prisons Banishments and other kind of Tortures Let this most abominable Abomination be cast out of the Christian World as the manifest work of Satan by his Antichrists which he began by the impious Kill-Brother Cain and continued by Pharao's Saul's Ahab's Jezebel's Antiochus's Caiphas's Nero's Julians c. but has brought to the height only among us these one or two Ages last past Christ practised or commanded no force but only to teach the Nations and shake off the dust of their feet c. There 's no necessity for Force and Violence because Religion cannot be forced nor compelled They are plainly unteachable who do not observe that those former Persecutors gain'd nothing so but at length to ruine themselves Christ lives conquers reigns with his but Tyrants perish one after another with theirs Therefore take away that foolishness as Lactantius calls it from the Christian People most Christian King Take away that violent Tyranny of Consciences and Bodies from the Catholick People King of Liberties Most Serene of Kings God and the Christian People expect nothing but to answer your Name and what the Names and Titles given you by the Providence of God sound forth Lewis Deodat XIV most Christian King of France Lewis Refuge of the People Deodat Given of God XIV Most Christian King Christ's Vicegerent not Antichrists Of France i. e. Of Liberty The Devil and malicious and evil-minded men O King will stand in your way which two things you and all that love you for God's sake ought to fear For the Devil loth to have his Babylonish Kingdoms disturb'd will undoubtedly withstand you And malignant men seek your ruine as they did of your Heroick Ancestors c. But wise men fear more lest you your own self raise Impediments to your self and to your Victories O King by harkning to evil Counsellours and Instruments rather than to God But and if you refuse God will find out another to plead his Cause We do not stir you up against the Church greatest King but for it Nor against the Roman Church but for it also to restore it to its primitive Apostolick state from which it is deeply fallen God threatens here to send the barbarous Nations to reform us if none else will lend an helping hand Be intreated therefore by your own Salvation and of your most ample Kingdom and the whole Worlds not to let pass into the empty Air these Voices both Humane and Divine The Holy Spirit write in your Heart if not in Golden yet in flaming Letters that twice-made Protestation to negligent Eli High-Priest and disobedient Saul Those that honour me I will honour But those that contemn me shall be contemned of me In the Information to the Readers But are these things certain or are they not fables contriv'd and composed by the Art of some ingenious and witty to deceive T is answered It might be doubted at the first and was every-where doubted as the History of these things will shew But now there is no time for doubting seeing these things are confirmed both by abundant witnesses and confirm'd by divine signs and miracles as the same History will shew and now publickly appears And lastly where the truth of the Predictions are in apparent view and the very event does seal their divine authority Machiavillian Politicians Atheists imagining the World to be ruled by Humane Counsels have laughed at these as Phanatick things But behold God shews himself to be the Rector of the World These things being powerfully fulfilled which he hath commanded to be fore-denounced in his Name If any shall say therefore This Book is the Trumpet to Wars It must be answered 'T is so indeed but the Book of the Wars of the Lord as the Revelation of St. John and the Book of all the Prophets yea and the Book of the Gospel it self perhaps according to that of Christ Do you think that I came to send Peace on Earth c. For this Book describes 1. The Wars of God Jehovah against Idols As Ezek. 30. 13. 2. The Wars of the Lamb against the Beast already heretofore sounded Rev. 1714. 3. The Wars of the holy Spirit of God against all erroneous and unclean spirits in the Earth Zach. 13. 2. I say That here is the Revelation of the Revelation of
Emperor unless they would have one chose for them Meeting therefore at Franck-fort they chose out of one of the weakest Families every Faction grown jealous and fearing the other Rodolphus Earl of Hapsburg in the year 1270. to be Emperor the Raiser of the present House of Austria upon this occasion and grand Revolution for by War and by his Imperatorian Power gaining Austria and other Territories adjoyning he confers them upon his Son And so the Earls of Hapsburgh become first Dukes then Arch-Dukes of Austria about the year 1280. and so propagated their power far and near unto our times By this time the seven Electors had rooted themselves in their usurp'd Electorship which began first by bare permission and under pretext of avoiding confusion and for better order in the Election to take the Votes of all the other Princes of Germany what should be best for the Common Interest afterwards used and usurped as their priviledge and so continued it till they got to be established therein by the Golden Bull. II. The Golden Bull or Seal is constituted as the perpetual and fundamental Law of the Empire not to be altered by the Emperor no not with the Electors consent themselves by Charles the Fourth in the year 1356. Yet to which since has been added Capitulations of the Emperor with the Electors and Princes of Germany In the Golden Bull was contained the Priviledges Liberties Order and mutual respect between the Emperor and Princes In it the seven Electors were established by publick Sanction and Law of the Empire before sometimes more sometimes less usurped the Power to themselves which bred dissentions and confusions alwayes in choice Also to hinder Haereditary Succession that three Emperors of one and the same Family should never be chosen together as had been by Power Interest and Factions formerly accustomed to keep it in one House which how well observed the Story will shew it having continued in that Line ever since and become in a manner quite haereditary and scarcely to be altered In it also was decided between the House of Bavaria and the Palatine the Controversie about Electorship which was by perpetual right then annexed to the Palatinate and ever since continued so till the late German Wars before each claiming the Electorship which therefore often disturbed their number to be more or less than seven III. About the year 1500. the State of Burgundy which contained the Low Countries was by Marriage with the Heiress thereof added to the House of Austria which further strengthened it About the same time under Maximilian the first the publick Courts of Judicature which followed the Emperors Court alwayes before were fixed to a certain place and this is called the Imperial Chamber the Supream Tribunal and Appeal of Justice in which in Civil Matters the Emperor and all the Princes should be subject and the greatest Controversies be submitted to its Judgment It was after two removes fixed at last to Spires hence the Chamber of Spires fam'd over all and the Empire also divided into ten Circles by the same Emperor at the same time IV. The Heir of Burgundy i. e. the Emperors Son by his Wife Heiress thereof marrying with the Heir of Spain unite the Kingdom of Spain and Burgundy and the House of Austria together and so the King of Spain becomes Arch-Duke of Austria Duke of Burgundy and Lord of the Low Countries and after his Grand-fathers decease Emperor also viz. Charles the Fifth Son of Philip King of Spain Son of Maximilian the Emperor succeeds his Father in his Estates of Inheritance of Spain Burgundy and the Low Countries Austria c. and by Election his Grand-father Maximilian in the Empire in the year 1519. under whom the German Empire rose to its greatest height and inlargement ever since the dismembring of it And indeed with this addition of Spain Burgundy and the Low Countries Naples and Sicily it might equal it under Charles the Great when it had France and Italy Members thereof or subject thereunto besides the Dukedom of Milan fell to this Charles also the Kingdom of Tunis and other parts in Africa became Tributary and moreover married the Daughter of Portugal and so laid a Foundation for that Kingdom also But if you add the West Indy Kingdoms the Kingdom of Mexico overcome Anno 1521. the Kingdom of Peru 1535. It had more extent though not greatness and power than all the Roman Empire ever had And had not the French opposed him he had over-ran all Europe and been Universal Monarch He had Prisoners at the same time the French King and the Pope of Rome He ruin'd the League made by the Protestants at Smalcalde in Germany Took Prisoners the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Hassia drove the great Turk from Vienna as well as won Tunis But the Turk soon broke his Power in Africa and being hunted out of Germany he resigned all his Estates and Kingdoms the Empire to his Brother who had been before elected King of Hungary and Bohemia Anno 1526. and by the procurement of this Charles elected King of the Romaus 1531. and now by his Resignation Emperor 1558. The rest of his Estates to his Son Philip the Second King of Spain and so went off the Stage and died private in a Monastery after he had been glutted as it were with the pomp and vanity of the World As Emperor of the Germans King of Castile Aragon Naples Sicily c. Arch-Duke of Austria Duke of Burgundy Prince of Belgium or Low Countries c. King of India and the Ocean c. Lord of Africa c. But in the end only Monk V. From this time the Austrian House took such rooting in Germany that the Empire is in name rather Elective but in reality Haereditary and become the Inheritance as it were of a Family Specially after he brought in the custom of creating King of the Romans during the Emperors life as he did to his Brother Anno. 1531. which is a Title proper to the Emperor notwithstanding the Elector of Saxony who by many Arguments shewed how it tended to inervate the free election of the Emperor VI. Under this Charles all Germany both Empire and Church is rent into two grand Factions or Parts Roman Catholicks and Protestants the Protestants again into Lutherans and Calvinists and from this division arose the two grand Wars the Smalcaldick and Bohemian The chief cause was the general hate of the Roman Court and Tyranny and base abuses and corruptions thereof both by the Princes and People ready to take any occasion against them But the occasion was the common selling of Indulgences by an impudent Monk whom another Monk but honester opposes Thus the two Instruments were two Monks one a very Knave or at best corrupt ignorant Friar the other an honest sincere and well-meaning Soul as well as zealous Martin Luther by name such as were many in those dayes as Thauler whom Luther much esteemed and praises or if you
a long time before and make him Emperor again A Novelty never heard of before in this Kingdom it being the Grand Segniors common policy to strangle all the yonger Brothers However Mustapha younger Brother of Achmet was preserv'd either because Achmet being a younger Brother himself took pity on him or because he having no children of his own was not permitted to kill him But no sooner had they set Mustapha up again but they pluckt him down the next year and make him lay down his Empire 1623. and set young Amurath 4th or Morat in his place since which things Turkish Majesty and Authority has grown vile amongst them Morat the 4th a younger Brother also of Osman's spends his stomach against the Persians and with incredible preparations and an eight years Siege and War recovers Bagdad or Babylon as they call it Ibrahim Brother also of Morat preserv'd by his Mother in his Brothers life time and by her depos'd again for interdicting her the Court spends several years in the Wars of Candy against the Venetians without success for which and his being too much under the power of his Wives whom he follow'd more then his Wars was strangled by his Subjects in the year 1648. whom Mahomet the 4 th ten years old succeeded and continues War against Candy now reigning Lord of all this vast Empire containing all Dacia and Greece the greatest part of Sclavonia and Hungary the Isles of the Aegean Sea and a great part of the Taurick Chersonese in Europe and in Asia innumerable Provinces and Regions and in Africk all Egypt the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers with the ports of Snachem and Erocco And whose stile is as swelling as their Empire Solyman stiling himself in his Letters to alerius Grand-Master of the Rhodes SOLYMAN King of Kings Lord of Lords most high Emperor of Constantinople and Trabezond the most mighty King of Persia Syria Arabia and the Holy Land Lord of Europe Asia and Africa Prince of Mecca and Aleppo Ruler of Jerusalem and Soveraign Lord of all the Seas and Isles therein The Turks first invaded Candy Anno 1645 and have ever since with all their might year after year attempted it and drove them out of all but Candy to which they have laid close Siege this two years last past without intermission and made several Mines Batteries and Assaults against it this present year but repulsed with incredible Courage and Warlike behaviour So that there has not been the like Siege known in this our Age. 'T is thought the Turks have lost near fourscore thousand men against The issue whereof the Pope has more cause to fear than any other Prince next to the Venetians themselves The Foundation and Revolutions of the present Empire of Russia The Prince hereof in his Ambassies with the Turk Emperor and Pope King of Swede and Danes c. stiles himself Tzar or Emperor though with the Poles only Great Duke Therefore we shall add this to the Empires also The last Emperor but one of the old Royal line was John Basilid that most famous Tyrant who extended his Empire even unto Persia and the Caspian-Sea made War upon Livonia or Liefland where receiving great defeats and losses acted with rage and fury commits horrible slaughters every-where both of his own as well as of his enemies and kill'd his hopeful Son John with his own hands With this king the English first began to confederate To him succeeds An. 1583 his Son Theodore of a good disposition the last of the former race who dying without issue Russia becomes distracted with unheard of Confusions and Miseries For through fault in Government and the Line failing there sprang horrible Factions and Commotions in the kingdom for ten years scarce to be parallel'd in History For John Basilid having two Sons left Demetrius and Theodore the former was secretly made away and kill'd before his Father's death and Theodore leaving no issue leaves the kingdom to his Brother-in-law who proving an unmerciful Tyrant The Jesuites take occasion to suborn a certain Scholar of theirs in their Colledge in Poland a Russe by Nation for the true Demetrius made away so cunningly that none of the Russians especially the fickle-minded multitude doubted but that it was the true and lawful Heir indeed and therefore generally flock to him which the other Tyrant seeing either with Grief or Poyson ended his dayes An. 1605. and the false Demetrius made absolute Monarch of Russia The king of Poland and the Pope favouring the design But the Russes soon smelling him out by his forreign manners and customs The Nobles conspire against him and behead him the next year The Impostor slain the stronger Faction thus prevailing make Zusky the Chief their Conspiracy An. 1606 Emperor But then presently another Demetrius as escaping by Miracle and by and by in opposition to him a third begin to peep up one in the Western the other in the Nothern parts by several Factions so that stil Demetrius as often as slain rises again But this last soon vanished Hereupon the Poles the Swedes and the Tartars take their advantage break-in on every side under pretext of help and the Russians become a prey to them all The Swedes help Zuskie and the Poles Demetrius Anno 1611 the Swedes take Novograd and the Poles Smolensko The Russes weary of these Impostures and Confusions seek out for a forreign Prince An. 1612 some for the Pole others for the Swede The Pole takes Mosco it self and with Fire and Sword lay it in the dust 200000 Russes perishing therein The Swedes eject the Poles out of Mosco again But the Southern Russes take Zusky send him into Poland and by recommendation and the power of the Polanders chuse the King of Polands Son create him Great Duke and the Northern chuse Charles the Brother of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden But the Russes loth to fall under the power of the Poles and desirous of settlement after such tiresome confusions and seeing themselves a scorn and prey to strangers do by the advice and counsel first of a Butcher only seek out a fit person of their own Nation and make choice at last of their Patriarch of Mosco's Son An. 1615 who presently makes this Butcher Treasurer and General and at length settles this vast Empire and manages it in a more constant way of Peace with the Turks Tartars Poles and Swedes than any of his predecessors before and founds the present Family and Empire Yet the second Demetrius's Widow hires the Cossacks to set up her young Son not of age who takes many Eastern Provinces of Russia with the Title of Kingdom for her Son the fourth false Demetrius But this Kingdom lasted but two years for both Mother and Son were taken and slain by the Russes So the Emperor first makes peace with Swede who restor'd to him the Great Dukedom of Novograd but keeps Livonia and other Northern Provinces with the City Novograd and add it to their Crown
beseeching you all by the adorable name of God to suffer your selves to be perswaded that nothing under Heaven greater can at this time be undertaken and performed by you then this very question to be determined Is it the Voice of God that sounds here or no c. Seeing O Kings Princes Common-wealths your duties are here set before your eyes with wholesome Counsels for the publick safty be you intreated in the name of God and by your own and the Worlds salvation this thing in the first place to take these very Books into your protection and command them to be exposed openly through all the Book-sellers Shops of your Kingdoms and Provinces as freely as any other Books whatever of good note Instilling into the Christian People the fear of God reverence of Kings and amendment of life As freely I say as other Books of this nature as the Book of the three men and three spritual Virgins Hermis Pastoris Ugutine the Monk Fryar Robert and Hildegard Elizabeth and Mathilda published by Jacob Faber at Paris 1513. who all had Revelations and Visions like these c. Hear O Kings Princes Common-wealths and every Power among Christian People this Book which is offered to you stirs you up against no man but exhorts you all in the name of God to do your duty in stopping the confusions brought in by Satan and restoring the order instituted from God As yet promising Benediction if you yet admit counsel or denouncing the last Wrath Plagues and Destruction if you yet harden your selves Let the fear of the Lord therefore be with you and deligently put in execution all things It is your glory O Kings to be nursing Fathers c. and also it is your Duty to restrain any Church that degenerating into Babylon exercises fierceness cruelty and if the Spouse of Christ putting on a whorish dress waxes wanton to hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked and to eat her flesh and burn her with Fire God putting it into your hearts to do his pleasure And no longer to give your Kingdoms to the Beast till the Word of God be finished Rev. 17. But behold in our times the words of all the Prophesies old and new are consummated which the universal commotion of Nations which you see and the universal change of things which you shall shorrly see do witness Ho! therefore take again unto you your power and leave not your Scepters any longer in a strange and wrong hand I have commanded you O Kings and Princes that you your selves Govern For you have even your name from me Gods on the Earth not from an Angel or any creature saies the Word of God to Drabricius c. But what must you do when you take unto you your power O Kings That very thing which the King of Kings whose Ministers you are at this time requires of you TO REFORM THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS IN IT THROUGH ALL NATIONS For he who has long since by the mouths of his most holy Prophets said that he would make all things new on you O Kings as his Vicegerents he confers this Honor that this glorious Renovation be begun by your happy undertaking and be done by your Co-working and Authority through the whole world And then shall be the peaceable state of the World and of the Church in the Kingdom of the Messiah promised in Paradise in the destroying of the Devils Kingdom And which all the Patriarcks looked for and the Prophets prefigured in types and the Apostles prophesied of and the Prophets and Prophesies of God ever since have declared And which is so often reiterated in these Books that Peace shall return to the Earth before the end of the World with the divine benediction poured forth upon all Drabricius Rev. 107. Peace such as never was the like from the beginning of things Rev. 149. when all Wayes all Paths all the Trumphets all Books all Voices and Languages of all People and Nations shall agree in one angle of PEACE and in one common CHARITY Rev. 384. when the spiritual Jerusalem shall be built anew so beautifully that the very times of Solomon may not be compared to these Cotterus 18. When the Messias shall plant new Hevens and new Earth viz. new Churches and a new State wherein dwells Righteousness Which manner of things seeing they cannot but be an exultation to true Christians and that this Book declares them suffer it as well ye O Roman Chatholicks Princes as others whosoever love the coming of our Lord Jesus suffer it to live and to be taken for a publick Testimony of Gods being yet God doing nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the Prophets And for a publick looking or perspective-glass rationally to view all things which are here doing in the Ages of the world And for the last protestation and bearing witness of God that it will not be his fault if a new deluge come upon the impenitent world And then lastly for a Publick Alarum or Sermon-Bell to Universal repontance and for the last Trumphet after whose sound great Voices shall be made in the Heaven of the Church The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ who now shall Raign throughout all Ages forever Rather do this O Kings and Powers for the Honour of Christ now taking unto him the Kingdoms of the World under the whole Heavens Learn who is the King of Kings against whom the Heathen rage in vain and the People imagin a vain thing c. To whom the Nations are given for an inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his possession who shall rule them with a Rod of Iron and shall break them as a Potters vessel Understand now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling learn discipline lest his wrath at length be kindled ye perish in the way understand the mystery of these times why the Nations are troubled and distrubed and the Kingdoms declining why the whole Earth is moved at the Voice of God Namely that these are the works of the Lord and set as Prodigies and Signs upon the Earth to take away War even unto the end of the Earth To snap the bow in sunder to break the Weapons in peieces and burn the sheilds with Fire Therefore cease O ye Kings from War see that the Lord is God that God will be exalted in the Nations that he will be exalted in the Earth c. O therefore Christian Kings take heed any longer to stand against the Prince of Peace Christ with your furious Arms disturbing and laying wast his Kingdom w ch Kingdom you your selves are as also the Universal Christian People committed to you Or it shall come to pass that he will find some one to send upon you even from the utmost East to devour your Armies if you will not know the thoughts of the Lord
nor understand his counsel Therefore Kings begin to know from his Oracles old and new founding in this very Book also that the Lord be not inraged against you and you perish in the way But how First By puting an end among your selves and all Christian People to WARS because now is the time for the King of Peace to Raign c. O Christian Kings Princes Common-wealths be Ministers of this Peacemaking King and cease to be a reproach to Christ For God will scatter the Nations that delight in War 2dly All mutual PERSECUTIONS for Religion are presently to be laid aside also which God never commanded but Satan began by Cain and by Ahab and Jezabel and the Babylonians and Antiochus and Caiphas with their bloudy Hypocrites and continued by Nero and other Pagans But among Christians only the impious Arrians dispairing to defend the depravity of their Opinion by Scripture first attempted to usurp against the most manifest Doctrine and practice of Christ and the Apostles and the holy Doctors and Martyrs of the Church who had rather be killed and devoured like Sheep then kill and devour like Wolves Thirdly Not to permit him neither who usurping primacy in the Church and supposing it to be defended by him with Sword and Fire hath now for some Ages raged do not suffer him to continue his rage and cruelty but that he also laying aside his Savageness may become a Lamb of Christs flock or an innocent Lyon Be mindful of that wise saying of Steven King of Poland that God hath reserved three things to himself 1. Creation out of nothing 2. Foreknowledge of things future 3. Domination or Lordship over Consciences Which the Roman Pope hath attempted to usurp and without either any Divine command or humane leave hath dared to build himself a Kingdom over all Kingdoms of the World and to maintain it by Sword and Flame And to lord it over the Consciences of all men even of his Brethren the Bishops and that which is more of Kings themselves who represent the divine Majesty on Earth Which what is it else but to climb into Gods Throne which if ye O Kings the Vicegerents of Divine Majesty on Earth continually tolerate God protests that he will no longer tole ate And to that end begins his Judgements against him and you and the world 4thly That what the season of the present Broils and Troubles of the world require of you O Kings that every one of you most solemnly proclaim to all your People universally publick Prayers Fastings and amendment of life and thereby true and general repentance after the example of the King of Nineveh Because this is the time of which Christ sayes that there shall be great Tribulation such as hath not been from the begining of the World nor ever shall be O ye Sons in high places now God arises to judge the Earth and to take his inheritance in all Nations 5thly If upon universal repentance God spare you a most solemn reformation and amendment of things is to be thought of Inquire into the Books of the Lord old and new hear your St. Bridgets most excellent counsel when St. Bernard inquired the counsel of God from her He that sat upon the Throne opening his mouth said Hear all my enemies living in the World because I speak not to my Friends who follow my will hear all Clergy men Arch Bishops Bishops and all inferior orders of the Church hear all Religious and Regulars of what soever order hear Kings and Princes and Judges of the Earth and all Ministirs and Subjects Hear Women Queens and Princesses and all Ladies Mistresses and Servants and all of what soever order and degree great and small that inhabit the world these words which I even I who have created you now speak unto you c. After complaining of all their sins impieties and vices Therefore I swear by my Deity that if you dye in the state wherein you are you shall never see my face nor escape my punishments c. Therefore return ye unto me with humiliations and I will receive you graciously as Sons c. And therefore for such an universal and serious return because serious and solemn thoughts once at length are to be entred upon counsel is given you even in these Books O Kings of convocating an UNIVERSAL COUNCIL out of all Christian People Holily to conspire together in a common universal repentance and universal serious deprecating and amendment of so great exorbitances now among us c. and to return all from curiosities and niceties about Articles and Questions of Faith which hath distracted us and from the many by-paths of error which we are run into and from earthly desires and lusts which have led us away into mutual strifes and Wars unto the simplicity and puriry of the Christian Faith and Life That all Christian Dissensions Strifes Hatreds Wars Devourings and Destroyings may be changed into Concord Peace Love Safety and Felicity and to this the only way is a COUNCIL truly universal truly free truly congregated in the Holy Ghost Arise O Christian Kings help things every where grown desperate the Patronage of this Book belongs to Kings because it comes in the name of the King of Kings and is printed with priviledge of the King of Kings and committed to the favor of all the Kings of the Earth every where to spread and divulge it and contains nothing hurtful to any but profitable and most useful to all If you hear not these divine counsels O Christians the Lord will send more Plagues Intestine Wars Famine Plague Savage Beasts i. e. Men worse then Beasts so that Christians shall be more savage and rage one against another more inhumanly then Turks and Barbarians because the condemnation of the great Whore is at hand Not for our selves O Kings and Princes do we the Publishers of this Book require your protection thereof but for your selves and the Christian People lest you perish from the fury of all the divine premointions It is comfort and protection enough to us from God who can boldly say with Hildegardis I have both spoke and writ these things not according to the invention of my own heart or of any man but as I have seen heard and perceived them in the Heavenly places or visions through the secret mysteries of God Therefore hear ye who preside in the place of God on Earth undertake so to manage this cause of God against Satan or of Satan against God for so different persons interpret differently that it may be ended and none may err concerning these things This lyes upon you upon a double right 1st because you are Kings 2dly Because you are the Churches nursing Fathers c. Therefore constitute forthwith a Judgement O ye who judge the Earth wherein may be decided whether our God that hath pity towards us all in common speakes here things profitable to his Reaple or some Devil instil things hurtful If the latter that the
Fr. Sam. J. three days after he said he saw the Angels present with him When he was come to the last words about his Adversary there he wept having pronounced all things concerning himself with great boldness and courage 10. Having ended the Oath he sat down and laying his face upon the Table he put that Paper out of which he had recited the Oath after thrice kissing it under his face And then All of us being astonished and silent suddenly with drew himself away and sung the hundred twenty third Psalm To thee have I lift up mine eyes who dwellest in the Heavens As the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters so our eyes look up unto the Lord our God till he have mercy on us Lord be merciful to us Lord be merciful to us for we are exceedingly filled with shame Our soul is exceedingly laden with scoffings and reproaches and with the contempt of the proud which when we all sung together and it was ended He falling upon his knees and we with him poured forth most fervent Prayers unto God that God would deliver his Name from Reproach c. All which things to be performed after this manner all we under-written do testifie both on our Consciences and with our hands At Puchow July 16 th 1663. Paul Laurine P. T. Pastor of the Church of Puchow of the Helvet Confession Ezechiel Alfeus Paul Vetterin his advarsary Nicholas Pilsin Paul Horatschek Luke Cales of the Church of Lednick Pastor Tobias Jeffon Preacher of Gods Word Wenceslaus Godfry Bielsky de Karissow A Noble man Samuel Junius Hence therefore all should acquiesce without further a-do and leave all both him and his adversary to the divine judgement and determination Yet Vetterin his Adversary though present himself and amazed thereat seemed to give glory to God and by his hand given promised silence and subscribed the Testimony given together with the others yet not satisfied and relapsing into new thoughts has writ his dissatisfaction not only to his Adjunct Comenius but has been also more bitter and violent against Drabricius then ever for several reasons here omited And caused the new Pastor Laurin also to waver and suspect evil of him and to invocate God for judgement against Drabricius c. who at last answered in a writing called his Confession which he was commanded by God should be put as a close to the new edition of his Revelations where you have it also After these things so transacted Paul Laurine the new Pastor of the Exiles and now become a new Adversary of Drabricius a young healthful and lusty man was taken ill the Physicians said of an Hectick which in vain they laboured to cure and dyed soon after Veterinus still living c. There is added also the Judgement of two Godly English Divines with divers forcible Arguments for the divine Authority of these Revelations too long for this preface To the Objection of things not coming to pass accordingly c. Comenius amongst many other things at large replyes thus 1. That what ever is denounced of God and is not done to day may be done to morrow as with Nineveh c. 2. That which is not fulfilled acording to the Letter in our sence is fulfilled according to the Spirit in Gods sense and meaning as of the eternal Kingdom fothwith of the Messiah the Son of David 3. What is not done the condition being altered was yet to be done the condition not altered As Nineveh if it had persisted without Repentance c. see Jer. 18. 6 0. Add hereto that 't is certain the divine Prophecies were neither heretofore fulfilled in the letter nor are at this day Whence so many wild ravings of phrenzy as it were of the Jews about the letter c. That Prophetick predictions are conditional That there is possibility of fulfilling most still That where there is not such a possibility it may be then thought that the Prophet has ventured to add something of his own according to his own sense and apprehensions For Prophets are subject to Error Passions Affections c. which the spirit of Prophecy does not always take away And that in such a case the precious is to be separated from the vile as God commands Jer. 15. 19. That all Prophecy is a Riddle and obscure And therein God is a God that hideth himself Isaiah 45. 15. c. with many other things more at large From all things therefore thus objected we are to leave the Judgement and Execution to God who in due time will manifest the truth or the falsehood hereof c. Besides Comenius some years before namely in 1658. finding all things go contrary rather to his Prophecyes wrote severely to him and with great rebukes c. who thus replyed lamenting I received yours full of Zeal full of Lamentations full of Interrogations to which you require me a worm contemn'd of men condemned half put to death to answer Which after I had read over and weighed I had resolved to answer with silence to commend the matter to God the searcher of hearts yet crying aloud Come expostulate with me But the Lord suffer'd me not to hold my peace c. But as for me I must say with Jeremy Wo unto me my Mother that thou borest me whom all do curse I besprinkle these with tears with Jeremy saying In truth the Lord hath commanded me to write these things Yet behold the word of the Lord is made unto me for a reproach c. Is it not the voice of God which saith The Lord doth not any thing unless he revealeth his secret to his Servants And by Joel he promises that it should come to pass in the last times That their young men should see Visions and their old men dream dreams And why as yet ye illuminated men I beseech you do you expect the last times But because the Lord hath said unto me also Jan. 14. 1651. a man of polluted lips That I should be his last Trumphet Behold I behold with full confidence and assurance in the sight of God Angels and men do boldly speak that they are the words of God which I have wrote And except it were so I know that though I deceived men yet I could not deceive God nor my own conscience but should undoubtedly procure confusion and destruction to my self But behold as I live or dye that I have written what I have heard from the Mouth of God let men take it as they please To God be praise that now the world shall no longer be ignorant of those things which the Lord would have denounced and declared by me unto it Let who so will dispute against those things but not against me For the Lord hath said unto me his worm Thou art not of thus much to defend thy self much less me my words I will defend my self when I shall fulfil my words The Sons of men understand not the hight of my Councels as
Islands and breaking in peeces the Peoples one by another Behold It is the Lord who both speaks and does Let not the Protestants and the Evangelicks say they are reformed and comeout of Babylon and forsaken Antichrist Alas Alas We lack not Popes but Rome the spirit of Antichrist has notforsaken us in all things but only dispersed it self into more things How many Universities Doctors Masters Bishops Pastors we have so many Popes And every common man of the people would be a Pope and Dictatour above all Law and Discipline The Thunderbolts of God comprehended in these Books do reach all corrupt Christendom Let no party of Christians think that this Book is for them alone to destroy all others The world is full of Babylonish works therefore the whole World is Babylon And every Kingdom State City House Church and School hath its Babylon Every Faction would build a Tower to climb into the Heaven of Glory nor will cease from their own wayes and thoughts to bring them to pass Have we no Nimrods hunters of Dominion and Lordship over others and destroyers of the Christian Evangelick liberty Antichrist is not hard to be found even among the Evangelicks who for liberty in Christ began to shake off and would be now thought to have shook off the Antichristian yoak Either the Evangil is not Evangil or we are not Evangelicks But there are reformed Evangelicks Would there were not in name but in deed For the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power That Christians as they now are are of all which the Earth bears most perverse as who do all things against their profession believe against their Creed live against their decalogue and Law pray against their Lords prayer hope against their hope and before all other Nations to be reformed from the very foundation or to be rooted up from the very foundation may be here read Alas Alas Moses and Mahomet have theirs more dutiful then Christ For the Jews strictly observe through all sufferings their Ceremonies Christ has commanded to worship God in spirit and truth only and to love one another and no ceremonies and yet these Christians are mad for and quite regardless of the other Charity alone was commended to us not Ceremonies yet these only urged Among us perpetual fallings out all sorts of oppressions bloody Wars and mutual horrid butcherings of one another testifie that we have no charity Mahomet forbad his Wine and they abstain Christ forbad no good thing and taught only Temperance yet Christians live most intemperatly He forbad his to dispute of Faith they dispute not content with their blind faith Christ taught to do and not to say like the Pharisees yet we do nothing but scold about Faith but lead for the most part prophane lives Mahomet commanded to tolerate both Jews and Christians and they do molesting none for difference of Religion But Christ hath in vain forbid us to pluck up the Tares before the Harvest most deadlily raging against one another for Religion And so all things otherwise then he has commanded by whose name we are called O good Jesus the whole universe of Christians seems to have conspired against thee and they are first or prime in persecuting thee who have the primacy in thy Church c. But they are not fulfilled say some of the wise and learned in the particulars T is answered In Prophesies old and new the scope of God is not to satisfie humane curiosity about this or that particular thing or person But to ingenerate in mens minds Terror in the Evil Hope in the Good and Repentance and Patience in all And we are not primarily to seek what may be future as what is our duty what God requires or forbids promises or threatens and how to escape the Wrath and to obtain Grace which when men do not God blinds them so that to them Every Vision becoms a sealed Book not able to be read and the prophane find there nothing but stumbling stones of offence and darkness to blind them and to grope in That God fulfils things in his own time and way though we mistake That Instruments miscarry and God defers till the last till the very hour of desperation c. He that believes will not make hast That in promises and threatnings God intends them conditionally though spoken as it were many times absolutely Of which enough already c. O Protestants Christians Reform'd Evangelicks Because most of you are contemners of extraordinary works of God Visions and Revelations Charity compels to warn you that you do not proceed to sin against God and your own souls by a pertenacious Judgement condemning those things which you neither understand nor that you might understand ever made it your work or took any leisure for Run through all your Bibles you shall never find God complaining of mens too much credulity towards him and his words and other signs of his Anger or Grace but the contrary Shall we therefore now amongst so many Prodiges of Heaven and of Earth and the cryes of God Angels Men and almost of the very stones and whilst the Signs of Gods Wrath dart forth every where into our very faces fear to sin by too much credulity Specially when by new Revelations no new opinion is suggested only new incitements to weigh throughly the ancient words and works of God and to return into the ancient wayes of Faith and Obedience with perpetual revoking us from our negligence to the Scriptures And shall we yet go on to ascribe these things rather to Satan than give glory to God The conversion of the Jews and the Nations unto God with terrible foregoing Judgments and Plagues is the Theme of this Book And therefore no cause why any one should like to condemn this Book or prohibit it to any to be read For certainly Christians ought to rejoyce that what all have pray'd in the name of Christ this sixteen hundred years is now declar'd to be at hand Dissenters in opinion ought to rejoyce Because an end of Dissentions is declar'd and Universal Peace and Concord establishing Protestants ought to rejoyce Because God himself protests for them Catholicks ought to rejoyce Because the Pale of the Catholick Church is promised to be extended even to the ends of the Earth Zealots ought to rejoyce who have hitherto laboriously might and main persecuted those that erred in Faith and dangerously though with never so much pious Zeal endeavoured to root out the Tares out of the Lords Feild whilst Behold God himself now takes this his own work upon himself to purge his own Floor They that suffer or have suffered Persecution ought to rejoyce Because the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord are declared Neither ought this day of the Lord coming as Fire terrifie any man Because this Fire is the Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap wherewith the Sons of Levi namely the Clergy of all parties are throughly purged that they may be
Authority committed to them of God out of the hands of the Antichristian usurper c. To call a General Council in order to a Universal Peace and Unanimity in Christendom and to agree for God and Religion for the publick good both of Church and State For that God will put it into their hearts to fulfil his Will and agree or make one Mind and Will and no longer give their Kingdoms to the Beast But that the Words of God shall be fulfilled To destroy Babylon and all her Abominations and Idols c. and to rule the World peacefully under the Banner of Christ and universally reform it out of all its horrible confusions and disorders according to the Will that is the Word of God c. And all Ecclesiasticks Angels of the Churches Pastors Bishops and Priests to perform the Ministry of their high Calling and the Service of God and the Church to restore the Primitive Reformation and do their first Works and repent and no longer neglect the Catholick Church of God through the whole World for worldly Dominion Honours Riches and Interests Nor to hinder Universal Reformation by wrangling and contesting for Opinions Ceremonies Revenues Prerogatives and Priviledges and such like vanities but rather to promote Catholick Charity and Indulgence and practise Christian Humility Self-Denyal and all the excellent virtues of the best Religion in the World which they are Chieftains of and to Sacrifice all their dearest concerns for the Salvation of Men And not mind their own things but the things of Jesus Christ c. And all Christians to endeavour and begin Reformation generally in their several places For that now is the time of Gods reforming the World more then ever That towards the end thereof it may be as from the beginning viz. one God and one Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth without Idols and false Godds and false Worships That all may inhabit peaceably the Earth without Wars Fightings Hatreds Contentions Envyings Strifes and without Sects and Parties lest his Wrath break forth upon them to the utmost and there be no Remedy for the Present Generation All which things to be sure are no other then was the drist of all the Prophets and extraordinary Messengers of God to Men of old when that all ordinary Persons Kings Princes Priests or People were become so corrupt and exorbitant that there were none that did his duty rightly but all desperately transgressed the Law of their God and provoked his Wrath without measure For what else was their Burthens but sad Lamentations for the Peoples sins and wickedness Exhortations to Repentance and amendment And denunciations of Grace upon Repentance and of Wrath upon Impenitence c. And what else are these likewise as to their main Scope and Intent The Sum and Substance of them in General now follows The Sum of all these Prophesies in the General is the same with all the Antient Prophets and indeed an Explication of them concerning the State of the Church in the last dayes And that our present Age is the last time of the World wherein shall be fully and finally accomplished all Scripture Prophesies I. Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth typified by the old to fall and its Builders to be dispersed Gen. 11. Jerem. 50. and 55. Revel 18. II. The Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands to destroy the great Image of Iron and Clay and increase into a great Mountain filling the whole Earth Dan. 2. III. The very Relicks of all Nimrodian Tyranies and Oppressions to be abolished quite and the Kingdoms given to the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. IV. Both the Beasts in the Revelations The greater with seven Heads blaspheming God and making War against the Saints and the lesser with two Horns counterfeiting a Lamb yet speaking like a Dragon now to be slain Rev. 13. V. The great Harvest and Vintage of the whole Earth at hand Rev. 14. VI. All the Vials of Gods Wrath a pouring forth upon the Earth Rev. 16. VII Till the great Beast that carries the Whore with seven Heads and ten Horns be destroyed and the Whore her self forsaken by her ten Horns viz. Kings her once defenders and lovers be burnt with fire Rev. 17. VIII The Lamb to be Victor over all Enemies Satan bound in the bottomless Pit for a thousand years The Church to be quiet Rev. 20. IX And then the Marriage of the Lamb to be solemnized under the whole Heavens Rev. 19. X. And the Church to appear in its Splendour and Glory such as the Prophets have heretofore described of old Isa 60. Rev. 21. And indeed these Books of the three Prophets are a very Revelation of the Revelation of St. John to end and decide all further contentious Comments thereabouts They being a new Comment upon that old Revelation not Humane but Divine explaining what is that Babylonish Beast making War with the Saints and the great Whore the Mother of Harlots c. riding upon the Beast and who are those Kings commanded from God to execute the Judgement upon Both. And that those destroyers of Babylon are now Born now Chosen and Called And that this whole affair is now in doing And now shortly to be Sealed and concluded by a full and compleat effect in the sight of Heaven and Earth And that we are now under the sixth Seal sixth Trumpet sixth Vial. That is That upon our times happens the great Earthquake shaking the whole frame of Heaven both of Church and State c. and the day of his great Wrath come And the day of the sixth Trumpet when the Angels bound at the great River Euphrates shall be loosed and come and kill the third part of men with Fire and Smoak and Brimstome although the rest that escape repent not And the sixth Vial poured forth upon the great River Euphrates to prepare a way for the Kings of the East to root out Babylon the unclean Spirits of Frogs mustering up heaps of Armies against them in vain to the Battel of the great Day of the Lord God Omnipotent Which Day shall come as a Thief on a sudden and unlook'd for That so the seventh Seal being opened Silence may be in the Heaven of the Church And that the seventh Trumpet sounding the Mystery of God foretold by his Servants the Prophets may be finished Namely That all the Kingdoms of the World may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christs c. And that the seventh Vial being poured forth there may be Voices and Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes such as have not been since men have been upon the Earth whereby the Cities of the Nations may fall and great Babylon it self c. More expresly and particularly I. That the World is become as corrupt now as it was in the dayes of Noah before the Flood and in Egypt Babylon and Jerusalem when she rebelled against God especially the Christian Nations By name Germany
and Italy II. That the Roman Pope is the chief cause of all the confusions in the World as who having by force and fraud seized on the Government of the whole Church hath transformed the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into an earthly Kingdom and with earthly Arms and Counsels seeking to propagate it fills all things with frauds and violence as the true Antichrist the Great and Babylonish Whore drunk with the Blood of the Saints III. That the Beast that carries the Whore is the Roman Empire and particularly in some latter Ages the House of Austria the spoyer or layer waste of the purer Church IV. That God will no longer endure these confusions and persecutions of the Church and tyranny of Consciences but will again destroy the World of the ungodly with a deluge of Blood And therefore that these things draw nigh V. And to that end That he will shake Heaven and Earth that is stir up all the Nations of the whole World against one another to bring on unheard of confusions of things by most furious Wars through all parts of the Earth VI. The issue of which Wars to be the destruction of the Pope with his Kingdom and the overturning of his principal Supporter the House of Austria VII And that by the Nations provoked by their Tyranny flocking as it were thereto from the four Quarters of the World VIII Yet the principal People to be the Northern and the Eastern IX By name the Swedes with their King the Prince Palatine of the Rhine and the House of Ragotzi were commanded to be called forth X. But if these would not That then the Turks the Tartars and the Moscovites were about to be called by God Also the French with others from the West to execute the Judgements of God in Germany Italy Spain XI And to come with unheard-of swiftness in one Year Month Day Hour to the astonishment of the whole World XII And the Turks and Tartars after execution done to return with the Light of the Gospel for a Reward XIII And Universal Reformation to follow and change of Things for the better through all Nations of the World XIV The Laws and form of which Reformation are here also prescribed Namely Idols totally to perish and the most pure Spiritual Worship of God who is a Spirit every where to reflourish with unity of Faith and Order XV. And then indeed to be the peaceful illuminate Religious State of the World and of the Church under the whole Heavens Universal illumination of the Gentiles the Earth to be filled with the Knowledge and Righteousness of the Lord And the Kingdoms of the World to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ Universal Liberty without tyranny and slavery of Body and Soul Universal Unanimity without Wars Quarrels Dissentions Divisions Schisms Sects and Factions In one word Universal Righteousness Peace and Love even 'till the time when Satan shall again break loose and trouble things But Christ by the last and final Fire shall destroy the wicked and ungodly with the World it self And the Universal Judgment of Quick and Dead being finished shall begin Eternity it self These are the main Things and Matters which even all the three Kotter Christina and Drabricius especially do prophesie and treat of And withal we are taught here I. That Christ the Saviour of the World is in no wise partial But that in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him II. And for that reason in vain do men cry Here is Christ or there he is For that he is every where and would be sought found acknowledged lov'd and worshipped every where envying none the participation of Salvation III. That our violent Disputes about the Articles of Faith how wise soever they seem to us are but foolishness with God IV. But that hatreds for differences in Faith and seekings to Lord it over one another are a meer abomination V. That to sit in the Chair of Moses or of Christ or of Peter without the verity of the Doctrine and Life of Moses Christ and Peter is a vain thing As also to boast of the Reformed Religion in Doctrine and Ceremonies without a Reformed Life VI. That now Christ will tolerate no more none for Pauls for Apollo's for Cephas's But only his Disciples Friends and Brethren of what Party soever saluting one another mutually as fellow-Disciples fellow-Brethren fellow-Servants VII And that all Nations are about to be called to this Fraternity of Christ and Communion of Saints And that God will have all things reformed after his own Mind and good Pleasure VIII And that till this be nothing but concitations and commotions of all the Nations one against another and breaking one another to pieces c. And so now we come at length to the Prophesies themselves in particular having given you first this general sum and comprehension of them by Comenius that so you may have some kind of view and apprehension of their peculiar Nature Manner and particular Circumstances The chief whereof and their chief Passages we shall onely cull out as abundantly sufficient for the design of this Table And here Kotter's first offer themselves to us Kotter Citizen and Tanner of Sprottavia Born in the Year 1585. Prophesied from the Year 1616 to 1624. Dyed in the Year 1647. Of his Age 62. The sum of whose Prophesies in general was to denounce War Famine and Pestilence which he was commanded to prophesie of in the year 1616. when all things were in profound peace yet throughout Europe Then the Wars in Bohemia beginning and he stirred up by a new apparition of Angels with new commands to depose these things before the Magistrates after three years former silence to prophesie ruine to the Empire and Popedom And the last Universal Plagues to be executed by the Oriental Monarch with a deluge of Nations c. Commotions of Kingdoms one against another c. And lastly happy and glorious times after the fall of Babylon c. till the last Judgment c. But to the Visions themselves But here we were unhappily prevented by the severe Inspection over the Press In so much that waiting almost a Year for an opportunity after all this had been printed we could by no means find any And therefore are forced to break off here abruptly and imperfectly and so to let it come abroad unfinished into the World Which we hope the Courteous Reader will pardon and accept candidly of this as it is till some better opportunity be found to publish the Prophesies by themselves apart And for the mean while you have already here the sum and substance of them in the general which may suffice in part upon such an occasion especially for this General Table without a further taste of them in particular We can but therefore onely add the general Sum of the other Two's Prophesies likewise in particular viz. as follows Christina Poniatovia of
the Bowe 's of the Mercy of God That they take heed to themselves thereof as being guileful false drawing their Rise from Satan the Father of Lyes of which Father of Lyes Christ saith That he came and took the words of God out of the hearts of men lest they should believe and be saved Luke 8. 12. But let all know that the Lord is my God who vouchsafeth to speak to me unworthy and that I and my Adjunct who in my stead declares the Words of God in the Latin Tongue to the Nations of the Earth and lastly the Promoters of the Work added unto us from Heaven seek no other things God lives and our Soul lives in God than the Honour and Glory of God first The Honour I say of the Omniscience and Veracity of God who as he hath promised the Beast being cast down and the Babylonish VVhore burnt and Satan bound to renew to himself his Church on the face of the whole Earth So he is about to do it now in our days That all the Kingdoms of the VVorld may become our Lords and his Christs Rev. 11. 15. and Chap. 17 18 19 20. Next we sought also by the Command and Charge of the Lord our God our Neighbours good both of Christians especially before others and also of the yet Infidels Turks and whatsoever Pagans that they may be converted from Idols and other Abominations to the Living God and his holy and pure Worship Of which things what the Wisdom of God in the year 1653. Nov. 8. spake to me may be read in these Revelations For all these are destitute of the true and saving Faith of God given to the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and other Saints Instead of the Law of God the Turks having their Alcoran the Jews their Talmud but many Christians the Pope and other Leaders of Errors Thirdly We sought also with a dutiful faithful and simple and sincere mind to execute the Commands of God without all respect to men by testifying to all whether it please all or displease some and whether they will hear or forbear believe or not believe That God never will'd nor yet wills the Death of a Sinner but that all converted from Impiety Errors and Iniquities do Judgement and Justice Giving to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Therefore the Wisdom of God Commanded me to speak unto the House of Austria with her Supporters the Spaniard and Pope Him as a broken Reed This as a Fire-brand burnt and to others That the Lord of Heaven and Earth was about to do unto the House of Austria as he did unto the House of Ahab and to his Counsellors and Prophets as Elias did unto the Baalites whom in the sight of all the People he slew with the Sword As it was said unto me in the year 1644. April 12. Therefore I Nicholas Drabricius a Witness of the Veracity of God a Witness I say unto my Self and unto others the Godly that the Lord does not any thing but he reveals his Secret to his Servants the Prophets Amos 3. 8. The Lion therefore roaring who is not affraid And the Lord commanding who prophesies not v. 9. Our Predecessor John Hus about to glorifie God and his Truth by his Death said to his Persecutors An hundred years being rowled about ye shall answer to God and to me I his Follower say the same thing to my Persecutors and cite you Gods and mine Accusers to the Tribunal of Jesus Christ that you there answer for your Blasphemies who in me unworthy blaspheme God and his Spirit As if now he had not promised in the lâ—st days To pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh that your Sons and Daughters may prophesie and your old men dream dreams and your young men see Visions Joel 2. 28. Like as is done even to me an old man now almost fourscore years old by the undeserved grace of God And before me to Christopher Ketter and to Christina Poniatovia whom also I as many other godly persons account for a Servant and an Handmaid of the Lord and acknowledge the like things to have been declared unto them as unto me of the Plagues of God a coming upon Christendom from the East as they now begin to come from the same merciful God always fore-warning the World I Drabricius was not that I may speak with Amos contending with his Detractors a Prophet or a Prophets Son Amos 7. 14. But the Lord commanded me to write the Word heard out of his Mouth And I wrot for the most part by night in the dark on a Stone Table or even with Chalk lying by my Bed side in a Chest Performing my duty laboriously 26 years to my Lord neither changing any thing but just as the Lord and my God vouchsafed to speak concerning Christians and no Christians Kings and Kingdoms Lords and Subjects Priests and People Especially concerning Idolatry and Images even of our Saviour crucified hanging stretch'd through the Temples Streets and High-ways expos'd to Winds Rains and the making of Nests for Birds for a scandal and laughing-stock to Infidels Jews Turks Tartars who in the year 1663. making an Irruption into Moravia stood amazed at this amazement of Christians And because Gods will is according to the words made known unto me poor miserable man that they be converted to that Faith given to the Saints he will therefore certainly take away those scandals and the Authors of scandals men gone into the way of Cain feeding themselves fat Clouds without Water carried about by the Wind Trees wither'd unfruitful twice dead Waves of the Sea foaming forth Confusion and wandring Stars to whom is reserved the Tempest of Darkness for ever Jud. 11 12 13. complaining Murmurers walking after their own lusts whose mouth speaketh Pride and Arrogancy vers 16. Mockers 18. Sensual not having the Spirit 19. Of whose number is Paul Veterine wholly burning with hatred against me without all fear of God and shame of men tearing and bespattering me with malicious Writings not seeking after the glory of God or the saving Good of his Neighbours but that he may bring the Speeches of God into suspicion and reproach wholly after the Example of the worst amongst the Pharisees who said of Christ He hath a Devil and is mad why do you hear him Joh. 10. 19. Although the more Moderate said These are not the words of one that hath a Devil v. 2. As even now many moderate men even in remote Countreys say concerning the Words of the Lord pronounced by me But I with the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 1. 23. call God for a Record upon my Soul believing with my whole heart and confessing with my mouth that I also am a little Sheep of Christ for whom he the good Shepherd laid down his life Joh. 10. 11. That I have neither spoken nor written any thing but what the Lord and my God commanded me to write with mine hand all the time of so
many years and to this very day seeking to please not men but God For I can with Paul a chosen Vessel to bear the Name of Christ before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Act. 9. 15 confidently say that I have the same Spirit of Faith So that I dare say I believed and therefore have I spoken what I have spoken and written what I have written 2 Cor. 4. 13. And first indeed to my beloved Adjunct John Comenius then residing in Hungary afterwards departing by command of the Lord into Holland that he would make all these things known to Christian Peoples in the Tongue known to the Europaeans the Latin But for the Turkish Nation that he would take care to have the Sacred Books of both Testaments adorn'd in their Tongue at the Cost and Charges which the Princess the Mother of the Ragotzi 's ought to furnish him with But She esteeming more the Dirt of the Earth Gold than the Words of God although often admonished did none of those things and which is more was the cause why her Sons also did nothing about those things And therefore God took away Mother with Father and Sons and the Vncle Ladislaus one onely Granchild Francis being left To what end He himself onely knows But that they object That the Crown of Hungary was promis'd to them It is true But the Condition often iterated That they would purge this Land from Idolatry deliberating and consulting upon this matter with the Eastern and Northern But what did it profit to be admonish'd When neither They nor the King of Swede would do any of those things they drew themselves by their disobedience headlong into destruction as the World now sees Therefore I Drabricius publickly profess That I believe with my whole heart that Divine Promise made by Haggai I am with you faith the Lord Chap. 1. 13. and iterated by our Lord Christ himself Behold I am with you always even unto the end of the World Mat. 28 27. And again pronounced by Haggai Chap. 2. v. 22 23. I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and I will overthrow the Thrones of Kingdoms and I will break in pieces the strength of the Nations c. And to Christ declaring the distress and pressure of Nations Luk. 21. 25. And that I expect yea now see with mine Eyes how the Lord overthrows the Chariots and the Riders that every one may fall by the Sword of his Brother Hag. 2. 23. And that by it the glory of God may be revealed That all Flesh in like manner may see that the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken Isa 40. 5. by us Two also to you O Nations That the will of God is That the Beast counterfeiting a Lamb but speaking like a Dragon together with the false Prophet that wrought Miracles before him seducing those who had received the Mark of the Beast be both apprehended and cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Rev. 19. 20. But the Beast being destroyed and the Whore drunk with the bloud of the Saints and the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus burnt with fire Chap. 17. 16. That the Kings of the Earth who have committed Fornication and lived deliciously with her bewail her and lament for her standing afar off for fear of her Torments and saying Alas alas That great City Babylon that mighty City For in one hour is thy Judgment come Rev. 18. 9 10. But at the length Babylon being overturn'd that all Nations of the Earth run together into the Unity of the Faith and Acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. I Drabricius dare I dare with the Apostle Paul say That I in my Writings have not sought my own things as appears others do Phil. 2. 21. but the things which are Jesus Christs doing nothing through strife or vain glory but in humility v. 3. For I have learnt out of the VVord of my God That God resists the Proud but gives grace to the Humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. and puts down the Mighty from their Seats and scatters the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts and exalts the Humble Luk 1. 51. And because with the Apostle I believe with my Heart and confess with my Mouth That Prophecy never comes by the will of Man but holy men of God to be inspir'd by the holy Spirit and to speak 2 Pet. 1. 21. Therefore I hope also that it will be given unto me from the Lord and my God to overcome the malicious Enemies of God and mine 1 Joh. 2. 3. Because the VVorld passes away and the Lusts thereof but he who doth the will of God abideth for ever v. 17. Therefore into whose-soever Hands or Eyes of those known or unknown to me in any Nation mine and my beloved Adjuncts Labour shall come I beg and pray and in the Name of God with Adjuration intreat Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are seal'd up unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4. 30. Being solicitous to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace v. 3. That we all may be one Body and one Spirit as we are call'd into one hope of our Calling v. 4. For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all v. 5 6. who believe that we are Called and Chosen Rom. 8. 33. And that our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life who was slain from the beginning of the World Rev. 13. 8. If any have Ears to hear let him hear v. 9. Let him hear I say and weigh well who is that Lord of the holy Prophets who is wont to send his Angel to shew unto has Servants the things which must shortly be done Chap. 22. 6. He himself namely who is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End who Is and who Was and who is To Come Chap. 1. 8. That Omnipotent Prince of the Kings of the Earth who hath lov'd us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to whom be Glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen! v. 5 6. Take heed also All I beseech you of that Pharisaical haughtiness to disdain others and say I thank God I am not as other men or as this Publican Luk. 18. 11. For God resists the Proud but gives grace unto the Humble Jam. 4 6. Detract not from one another Brethren For he that detracts from his Brother detracts from the Law v. 11. As that light Soul Veterine does to me his Brother and which is more the Servant of Christ and Minister of the Gospel and Pastor of Souls whom the Apostle reckons worthy of Double Honour 1 Tim. 5. by by word of Mouth and Pen lyingly spreading concerning me whatsoever he can unto my contempt even also